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Future plans to put a Biggby Coffee along Parker Street near Dubois Drive drew a lot of concern about traffic from the Warsaw Plan Commission Monday.
In introducing the petition for preliminary and final plats to subdivide what is currently a single parcel of 2.76 acres on Parker Street into three new lots, City Planner Justin Taylor said, “These lots were previously subdivided, however, they were subsequently merged. The proposed re-subdivision requires that the lots be platted and approved by the Plan Commission per appendix A, article 1 of the city’s municipal code.”
He said the proposed subdivision will create three lots with an average lot size of approximately 1.5 acres. There are an existing sanitary sewer easement and county ditch easement that traverse the property.
“The proposed lot lines follow an existing split in the zoning ... the zoning districts that it splits are (Commercial-3) and (Residential-2),” Taylor said. “The boundary between the proposed lots 2 and 3 - which are the lower two lots of the subdivision - run along the centerline of the Beyer Brady Ditch. To avoid future ambiguities related to shifts of the watercourse caused by accretion and avulsion, we have requested that the final plat have a legal description of the ditch, which the engineer has provided.”
The Warsaw Planning Department recommended the Plan Commission grant preliminary and final approval for the proposed subdivision as presented. Taylor noted they did not receive any feedback on the petition, and there were no remonstrators at Monday’s meeting.
The petition indicates the owner is Dustin Sturdevant, and the applicant is John Kidd, of RW Kidd Construction.
Lot 1 is 1.61 acres in the commercial district zone and is along Parker Street, across from the Lassus gas station, with lot 2 being 1.32 acres and lot 3 being 1.50 acres. Lots 2 and 3 are in residential zone districts.
City Councilman Juergen Voss asked, “I know this isn’t an issue now, but isn’t that where the turnoff is slated for the overpass of (U.S.) 30?”
Taylor answered, “That’s quite a ways out and we don’t know exactly what INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) is going to do, so, obviously, that’s a road that we’ll have to cross when we get to it.”
Commission member Jeff Owens confirmed with Taylor that access to lots 2 and 3 would be along Walter Way and Oak Glen Drive. He then asked if access to lot 1 would be along Parker Street. Taylor confirmed that, saying the access to lot 1 would be in alignment with the existing access point where a curb cut already is. The curb cut does encroach the county drainage ditch, but Taylor said he spoke with the county surveyor, who is on board with it but it has to be ran through the county drainage board.
With the drainage and flood plain concerns, especially for lot 2, Owens asked why have lots 2 and 3 be separated. Taylor said they’re really just splitting off the commercial “chunk.”
“Those weren’t actually officially merged, formally, so they were merged for tax purposes. This isn’t affecting those other two lots, other than defining the center line for that ditch,” Taylor said.
“So we’re really not creating new parcels, we’re unsplitting what had been merged?” Owens said.
“In a way,” Taylor said. “So we are creating a new parcel because the north parcel was officially merged with lot 2, but lots 3 and lot 2 were never officially separated.”
Owens’ next question was, “So, the curb cut, the traffic plan needs to be approved separately, more lot 1? Trying to cross 30 there already, and I’ve seen people from the gas station trying to turn left onto Parker to get out and it’s already a nightmare. Do we have a plan for that?”
Taylor said it will be presented to the tech review committee to review “the traffic, how it circulates through the site, the stacking potential. The way they position the building, it does appear that they would have a decent number of cars that would be able to stack. ... It doesn’t appear to be a stacking risk with how they oriented the building.”
He said they have a preliminary site plan for the coffee shop, but that will be formally reviewed by the tech review committee as all commercial developments are.
Owens said they don’t need another situation like Dunkin’ Donuts on Center Street where “we had it all planned out and then we’ve got a jam out, out to Parker.” Taylor said it was fair to ask the questions, but the Plan Commission wasn’t approving the petitioner’s site plan.
“I get it, but we’re approving whether or not we allow this to be a commercial lot,” Owens said.
Taylor said they weren’t changing the zoning, but subdividing between the residential and commercial lots.
Voss agreed with Owens. He said he travels that route almost daily and sees cars backed up quite a ways, and it’s difficult to get out of the gas station. He said he understood that wasn’t the issue before the Plan Commission Monday.
Kidd said it’s “going to be a Biggby Coffee drive-thru portal. Very simple to put together. And to start off, to answer Jeff’s question, the main reason we’re splitting this up is because - my understanding from the bank, through SBA (Small Business Administration) - there’s only a certain amount of real estate that you can have with a commercial entity and this exceeds that. So that’s the only primary purpose to split it up, is to comply with SBA.”
He said he didn’t know what could be done with lots 2 and 3, the residential lots, because you can’t really build anything on them.
“In regards to the traffic and such, we haven’t had the dialogue with the preliminary stuff at the city,” Kidd said.
He said Biggby does about 70-80% of their business before noon, and he didn’t think traffic was as great in the mornings.
“They don’t do that much volume. They are open, I think, until nine, and that depends on the time, the summer and seasons,” Kidd said, though he wasn’t an expert on the coffee business.
There will be a two-lane road that will go around the coffee shop, one for thru-traffic and one to stage up to the order kiosk, he said. “So I think we have nearly 200 feet,” and there’s some parking spaces.
Commission member Michelle Boxell brought up her concern with drivers turning left into the lot from going south on Parker Street and how that could back traffic up back to U.S. 30. Kidd said they’ll have two lanes coming out, one to go north and one to go south. “My concern is ... you’re going to have to stop to get into the lot and that’s going to back up across U.S. 30,” Boxell reiterated. Kidd said there’s quite a bit of space between there and U.S. 30.
Owens stated it already happens with the gas station and the turn left into the coffee shop could increase the problem and cars could be left out on U.S. 30 when the light changes.
Commission President Rick Keeven said, “I’m not sure this board has - we can express our thoughts, but I’m not sure we have the ability to stop this from going through based on that.”
Taylor said it’s definitely helpful to take the commission’s thoughts on it, but it is something that will run through a different board. “But we could explore different options there. I think you guys are on to something,” he stated, in part.
After some further discussion on the traffic and drainage, the Commission passed the preliminary plat 7-0. The final plat was approved 6-0, with Owens abstaining.
