Corydon plan commission OKs some signs

Monday, May 2, was ‘Sign Night’ at the Corydon Plan Commission meeting at Town Hall. The commission approved three requests for free-standing signs and asked its attorney to send warning letters to businesses in violation of the town sign ordinance.
The board also held a public hearing for the Marshall Park Subdivision in north Corydon being proposed by developer Mike Sphire through engineer/surveyor Jason Copperwaite, the new owner of Paul Primavera and Associates in Corydon.
David Limeberry’s request for a new 25-foot-high free-standing sign at Limeberry Lumber and Tool Rental was approved.
Jason Wolfe, representing the Corydon Church of Christ on Mulberry Street, was given permission to install a six-foot-high, double-faced sign in front of the church, much like the one at Corydon Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
David Fields was given permission to install a sign for two businesses, Field’s Personal Computer Services and Schmidt Signs and Graphics, at 1665 Old S.R. 135 in north Corydon. That sign will be 96 inches long and 72 inches high. The businesses are located between Doug Shroyer’s Insurance and Dave’s Pest Control.
That request was linked to a request for a zoning change for four lots on Old 135 where Field’s PC Service is located. Carl F. Barrow and others requested the change from R1 to B2. The board readily agreed, saying those lots were designated as business anyway in the town’s comprehensive plan.
Plan commission chair Dr. Len Waite reminded Barrow that the plan commission cannot officially approve the zoning change. That decision is left up to the Corydon Town Council, which usually agrees with plan commission recommendations.
Multiple sign violations have been reported at Los Indios Mexican restaurant off Landmark Way. One sign is located on the Goodwill store sign, there’s one on a row fence, another one on the ground, and the restaurant has two free-standing signs next to it. Technically, four signs needs to be removed. The owner of the property on which the restaurant stands, Bob Metz, will be notifed by the plan commission attorney Ronald W. Simpson.
A business can only have one free-standing sign, located on the property.
Under the terms of the new ordinance, the ‘electric palm trees’ proposed at Los Indios would be in violation because anything that attracts attention to the business is considered a sign.
Several other businesses in the Landmark Avenue/Landmark Way area are in violation because of signs on row fences, so Simpson will write letters to all of them.
A letter will be sent to Fred Burnett, advising him that his sign advertising his Marathon service station in the Harrison County Industrial Park is illegal because it’s on a pole near the Best Western hotel, not at his service station on Quarry Road. The pole once had a sign for a service station at that site off S.R. 135.
Copperwaite presented preliminary plans for Sphire’s Marshall Park subdivision on S.R. 135 in north Corydon, just north of Orwick Monument and the Charles Conrad farm. It’s 32.8 acres and would be divided into two lots, one consisting of eight acres on which Blue River Services wants to put in 24 apartments in three buidlings.
The other lot has been reserved for ‘future development,’ Copperwaite said.
Interim county engineer Kevin Russel has reviewed the plans and recommended a 50-foot right-of-way into the property with curbs and gutters. Sphire would agree to that throughout the subdivision, Copperwaite said. The soil and water conservation district said erosion control plans are adequate.
Because Sphire’s suggestions on protective convenants arrived at the plan commission office only that day, the subcommittee that reviews them hadn’t seen them yet. So the proposal was tabled until the June meeting.
Discussion continued when Charles Conrad said he has horses next to the lot where the multi-family dwellings would go, and he’s concerned about kids bothering his horses. He would prefer to see a fence there. Who would be responsible for it? he asked.
Waite said, ‘We can’t force them to build a fence, but we can strongly advise them to.’
The board suggested that Conrad meet with Sphire and a Blue River Services representative.
Conrad, who has given an easement to Sphire for sanitary sewers, said if a sewer line is installed there, he might want to tap onto it someday. There will be a force main in the easement, but Conrad would not be able to access that, said board member Fred Cammack.
Copperwaite said Conrad could tap on to a gravity line that the developer would put in but it would mean Conrad would have to put in a fairly long line to get to it at his own expense.