Residents on South Petrie Road opposed to the prospect of a multifamily residential project in their neighborhood finally got what they wished for Monday night.
The Robinson Township Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to deny a request to rezone two parcels at 94 S. Petrie Road from single-family residential to multifamily residential after tabling the item each of the two previous meetings.
Neighborhood residents had turned out at previous meetings to voice their concerns about the rezoning request, saying that it would create traffic and noise issues and essentially upend their quiet neighborhood. They turned out again Monday night to help pack the new Municipal Building board chambers.
The applicant, Dale Vietmeier, had “nothing to say” about the commissioners’ decision Monday night other than that he was disappointed.
It’s not clear if Vietmeier plans to appeal the board’s decision. Prior to the vote, he told the board that the facts had “not been laid out properly” regarding his rezone request. He said multifamily residential is permitted in that area and that changing the zoning “is not going to hurt anybody.”
“You folks have been elected to uphold the laws of the township,” Vietmeier said. “I didn’t make the laws. We’re following the laws.”
But the board didn’t see it that way. Board Chairman Ron Shiwarski said after the meeting that several factors played into his decision not to support Vietmeier’s request. The first, he said, was the township’s Zoning Hearing Board’s decision to withhold a variance that would have allowed Vietmeier to operate one of the structures on his property as a multifamily dwelling under the existing single-family residential zoning.
“The (Zoning Hearing Board) turned him down, and I try to stand by the direction they give us,” Shiwarski said.
The Zoning Hearing Board’s reasoning for denying the variance rested upon several “prongs,” the first of which was that Vietmeier “failed to sustain the requisite burden to establish the right to a variance.” The board also ruled that the property could be developed within the guidelines of the existing zoning designation, so no variance was required.
“The fact that zoning precludes a potential best and most profitable use of a property cannot be grounds to grant a variance when other uses are possible,” the Zoning Hearing Board determined.
Shiwarski also said the neighborhood sentiment factored into his decision.
“We heard over the course of time the citizens’ concerns,” he said. “And the Vietmeiers’ concerns. I just try to weigh that out and see what’s the best possible way to go.”
Vietmeier could appeal the Board of Commissioners’ decision to the courts, but he would not say if he planned to do so.
Santo Bonadio, one of the neighbors leading the charge against the rezoning, said he wasn’t surprised at the board’s decision Monday night, given how closely many of the neighbors have been following – and commenting on – the issue over the past several months.
“I think the amount of people who showed up and spoke had something to do with it,” he said.
Dave Williams, who also lives nearby, agreed. “The fact that the community came together and voiced their opinion on this meant something,” he said.
Williams had told the board that rezoning the property would constitute spot zoning, “where a particular parcel of property is rezoned that does not align with surrounding zoning. This is generally considered illegal and poor planning practice of a municipality’s comprehensive plan.
“If you grant this rezoning, it would only benefit one person, but would impact and be detrimental to our whole community.”
Is this the same Dale Vietmeier that was the township’s police chief for 38 years, retiring in 2019 or thereabouts?