Lebanon BZA allows interim commercial-vehicle storage at multiple sites with paving and fence conditions

The City of Lebanon Board of Zoning Appeals on Aug. 4 approved variance-of-use requests to allow limited commercial vehicle storage and maintenance on properties along South Indianapolis Road and County Road 200 East, imposing conditions that all drive and parking areas be paved and that owners install 6-foot wood privacy fences with utility access clearances.

City planning staff told the board the properties sit in the R-1 residential zone but are adjacent to interstate and industrial uses and are designated for industrial uses in the city’s comprehensive plan; staff said a targeted variance lets the properties be used in a limited way now without rezoning the whole corridor. City planning staff Ben Bontrager said the approvals are intended to be interim and narrowly limited to the uses the applicants proposed.

Ben Bontrager, city planning staff, summarized the recommended conditions: approval limited to the commercial-vehicle-storage uses proposed, paved driveway and parking/storage areas with an approved hard surface, and installation of a 6-foot wood privacy fence for screening. Bontrager said the city would require right-of-way permits for any new drive…