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Board approves 5-foot side-setback for barn at 4190 East Gregory Road
Summary
The Delaware-Muncie Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals voted 4-0 to approve a variance allowing a barn to be built 5 feet from a property line at 4190 East Gregory Road after the applicant amended a written request for a 0-foot setback to a 5-foot setback.
Delaware-Muncie Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals members approved a variance allowing a barn to be built 5 feet from a property line at 4190 East Gregory Road after the applicants amended their request during the July regular meeting.
The action matters because the approval reduces the required 25-foot side setback under the Delaware County Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance by 20 feet, clearing the way for the applicants to apply for building permits. Board members voted 4–0.
During the public hearing, Richard L. Moore, the applicant, said he owns the parcels affected and that one parcel is enrolled in the Indiana Department of Natural Resources classified forest program. Moore said the new barn would be “too close to my own property, the classified forest.” Linda M. Moore, who also spoke from 4190 East Gregory Road, described the lot as wooded and in a floodplain: “It is a floodplain. It's a 500 floodplain. I have checked on that years ago, and nothing can be grown out there beneficial to anyone other than animals.”
Board members asked whether the structure could be moved farther from the property line. Miss Fritsch suggested a survey or a condition requiring a survey so the applicants would know they were not encroaching on an adjacent parcel. The applicants said the property containing the classified forest is held in an irrevocable trust and the home parcel is in a revocable trust, and that dividing or moving the parcels could affect those trust arrangements.
The applicants amended their written request for a 0-foot setback and confirmed they would accept a 5-foot side setback instead of the full 25-foot requirement. A board member made a motion “to approve BZA 30 dash 25 with the amended request to allow for a 5 foot side setback for a variance of 20 feet.” The motion was seconded; the roll call was Miss Knapp, Mister Billington, Miss Fritsch and Miss Mathewson — all voting yes.
The chair said the office will provide certification of approval, which will allow the applicants to proceed to apply for building permits. The chair also reminded the applicants that building permits are applied for on the second floor, Room 206.
Discussion (not formal action) included the DNR classified forest designation and the applicants' trust arrangements; board members raised the option of requiring a survey to verify the final location of the building relative to the property line. No public opposition was recorded at the hearing.
