Crown Point’s Board of Zoning Appeals voted to approve a variance for a commercial site at 651 West 109th Place that reduces both side-yard setbacks to allow a shared drive aisle and shared parking, the board said at its July meeting. Petition 25‑28, filed by I‑65 Properties LLC and I‑65 Beacon Hill Properties LLC, was approved subject to incorporation and recordation of a reciprocal access agreement.

The approval lets the developer reduce the side-yard setback from 10 feet to 0 feet on both sides of the B‑3 (business) lot so a single drive aisle and shared parking can serve adjacent parcels. "We're requesting these for shared cross access and parking between 3B‑1 and 3B‑2," said Russ Poseen of DBG Teammate, who represented the I‑65 property owners.

Planning staff recommended approval. "Planning department recommends approval of the petition," said Mister Watson of the city planning staff during the staff report, adding that the item will also require a secondary plat approval and that notices had been sent and published.

Why it matters: the variance permits a tighter commercial layout that developers say matches the rest of the Beacon Hill South subdivision and enables joint circulation across lots; neighbors and board members pressed the applicant on parking capacity and traffic stacking because the site is adjacent to established restaurants.

Board members and the applicant debated parking counts and future demands. Mister Solomon said he counted 25 spaces for the coffee use on the site plan and noted a larger restaurant could require far more parking. Poseen told the board the Dutch Bros coffee stand would require 15 spaces and that the lot would include substantially more: "The actual required for Dutch Brothers is 15, and we're providing 29 on that lot," he said, adding that the total required if a larger restaurant were built on the adjacent lot could be about 73 spaces.

Poseen and other project representatives also said the proposed layout was developed using national prototype footprints and that a subdivision traffic study done at the time the area was platted accounted for higher‑intensity commercial uses. "We actually did a traffic study in all of these lots... we considered the high intense, high uses to do the traffic study," Poseen said when board members asked about traffic backing onto 109th Place.

The board conditionally approved the petition on a motion by Mister O'Haley, seconded by Mister Sowerman. The secretary recorded unanimous votes in favor from the members present. The approval is conditioned on incorporation (and eventual recording) of the reciprocal access agreement (REA) between lots and on the later secondary plat approval noted by planning staff.

Discussion vs. decision: board discussion focused on parking calculations, stacking for drive‑through lanes, and whether access to Texas Roadhouse would be shared (the applicant said no shared parking is requested with Lot 4, Texas Roadhouse). The formal action was limited to the variance and the condition that the REA be incorporated and recorded; no additional traffic mitigation was adopted by the board.

Next steps: the REA must be finalized and recorded as part of the platting process and any future tenant changes that alter parking demand would remain subject to city review.