Residents in the area of Sage Road in Polk Township who were in attendance made their point of view clear to the Marshall County Board of Zoning Appeals on Tuesday night.
Dennis and Becky Stutzman appeared before the board in their regular meeting to request a variance of use for their property on Sage Road to allow for a home-based roofing business, a normally routine procedure.
The Stutzmans stated that they bought the property in 2016 and up to that point the business had operated out of another location. With the purchase, they moved the base of operations to the property on Sage.
He told the board that the majority of business operations and deliveries of material were conducted off-site and that truck traffic for the roofing business was minimal.
Dennis Stutzman told the board that he was unaware that he needed the variance of use and that was the reason for having not applied at the time of moving the business.
A number of Stutzman’s neighbors attended the meeting to voice their opposition to the granting of the variance.
During the voicing of their opposition, the topic of other businesses that the Stutzmans were operating on the property came up, including a deer breeding operation in addition to a building that had just been constructed on the property to house an “egg production” facility.
Stutzman had obtained the proper permits to build the two structures for the deer and egg businesses.
The main objection of the neighboring property owners centered on the damage to the roads in the neighborhood caused by the increased vehicle traffic from the various businesses.
The egg production business had already been a source of contention with the neighbors but since the number of chickens involved was below the number considered a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) by the state of Indiana the business was allowed on the property that is zoned A1 or agricultural.
BZA President Jeff Gustafson, who is also a resident of the area, commented that many such variances are granted for small home businesses in the county such as the subject at hand, the Stutzman’s roofing business but also stated, “What’s caused this (neighbor objections to the roofing business variance) is the chicken business.”
It was noted by Marshall County Plan Director Ty Adley during his presentation that the Technical Review Committee and the Plan Department staff recommended passing the variance but also noted that the recommendation was made before public input began to be received.
In addition to the residents objecting at the meeting, several more objection letters were received by the Plan office, as well as a petition with numerous resident signatures.
While none to speak in favor were in attendance at the meeting, Stutzman contended that he knew of many who were in favor of the variance, but did not know he would need them to make their voice heard.
While enough members of the BZA were present to hold the meeting, two members of the BZA were absent for the public hearing and Gustafson said that he didn’t feel comfortable taking action on the matter until all members of the board were able to hear the arguments for and against and make their opinion known.
The BZA voted to table action on the matter until the July 9 meeting.
