Greensburg — At its regular meeting Tuesday night, the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously elected board member Roy Middendorf as 2013 president.

Member Steve Moore was unanimously selected as vice chair.

Also on Tuesday night, the board heard a variance request from Bret Lee, owner and operator of Cardinal Pest Control.

Lee had initially intended to approach the board about a variance to “update” his building and to do some “add ons.”

However, he came to discover that the property had never received a formal zoning variance to operate a business.

Lee, who’s owned and operated his pest control business from its current location at 613 West Fourth Street since 2002, was thus forced to request a “variance to operate a business within the R-2 zoning district.”

Board members expressed surprise that the business has never been properly zoned, especially since Cardinal has operated out of the West Fourth location since before Lee took ownership.

The board readily agreed to grant Lee’s requested variance, but cautioned it would be only temporary, with a review for permanent status at the end of one year.

The board, Middendorf told Lee, was also willing to allow upgrades to Cardinal’s building, but, depending on the outcome of the one-year review, Lee could possibly lose any money used for such upgrades.

“You’ve been there in business all this time with no complaints,” Middendorf said, “But I want you to understand: If you put a bunch of money into upgrading and adding onto this building, you could, potentially, lose all that money at the end of a year. If there are sufficient neighbor complaints regarding Cardinal, we could be forced to revoke the temporary variance.”

Middendorf was quick to add, however, “I’m not saying it WILL happen or that, considering your history at this location, it’s even likely, but it IS possible.”

Also on Tuesday night, the board granted a variance to Greensburg resident Mark Ertel to “construct a 768 square-foot accessory structure on his property at 632 East North Street.”

Ertel made the request to build a garage. If the variance was granted, however, the structure’s driveway could potentially conflict with any future public sidewalk built along the driveway’s path.

The board ultimately agreed they couldn’t structure a variance to include a public sidewalk that might or might not ever be built. They ultimately granted the request after a promise from Ertel that he was willing to accept the consequences of any future conflicting public sidewalk built.

The next regular meeting of the Greensburg Board of Zoning Appeals will be held at 7 p.m., April 16, at City Hall.



Contact: Rob Cox at 812-663-3111 x7011