Carmel OKs variances for Third Avenue residences after neighbor privacy, tree concerns

Leah York, president of the Board of Zoning Appeals serving as hearing officer, and Mike Hollebaugh, director of community services and hearing officer, approved the Third Avenue Residences development plan and three related variances Wednesday, placing conditions that require final engineering sign‑off and a neighbor‑agreed fencing and landscaping plan.

The project, presented by Dan Moriarty of Studio M Architecture, proposes an eight‑unit condominium building on a roughly half‑acre C2 parcel adjacent to Merchants Bank and the Buckingham apartment building. The building would contain 18 below‑grade parking spaces and about 79% lot coverage. Moriarty said site constraints — including a Duke energy easement, a drainage/storm sewer easement, and AT&T infrastructure — forced the design to include below‑grade parking and limited the ability to shift the building footprint.

"We can look at, I was just thinking about ... replacing this with a fence is an option," Moriarty said when asked about buffering for neighbors, adding that the team would coordinate with the city arborist and utility owners about tree…