Facts of the Case
* In 1996, the church agreed not to park on this land which is zoned residential and is in a historic residential neighborhood in downtown Indianapolis.
* In 1996, the church signed commitments agreeing to not park on this land.
* In exchange for the church’s commitment to not park on this land and others, the neighborhood supported the erection of the church and, without that commitment, the Old Northside Neighborhood would not have supported the building of the church. The church’s attorney in the zoning process at the time, in fact, even represented to the Old Northside Neighborhood, “The church is more than willing to go with on-street parking, which the Historic Preservation Commission would approve if that is the neighborhoods desire.”
* The applicant had agreed to have no additional off-street parking in the initial Certificate of Appropriateness #96-293 (ONS), and it was recorded as a commitment of petition #96-SE-1H.”
* In 1996, and with this commitment and others, IHPC allowed the church to be built at 1501 College Avenue.
* In 1999, IHPC denied the request to remove the commitment and construct a parking lot on this land, despite the fact that petitioner represented that NO neighbors opposed the construction of a parking lot, stating, among other things that:
A. “The applicant had agreed to have no additional off-street parking in the initial Certificate of Appropriateness #96-293 (ONS), and it was recorded as a commitment of petition #96-SE 1H.”
B. “The church is located on the site of a historic church that had no parking.
C. “The Old Northside Historic Plan recommends that the subject property be residentially developed.
D. “The area near the subject property has seen little development and developing the parking lot at the proposed noncontiguous location would have a negative effect on the future development of the area.
E. “The granting of the subject Certificate of Appropriateness is not appropriate to the preservation of the Old Northside Historic Preservation Area and will not further develop historic preservation; all of which is required
under IC 36-7-1 1.1-9.”
* In the early 2000’s the church repeatedly filed various petitions to remove the commitment and recently in 2009 to remove the commitment and allow the construction of a parking lot. These petitions and the idea of a parking lot in the residential neighborhood were regularly, repeatedly and vehemently opposed by the Old Northside and by the immediate neighbors.
The Alarming Stats
* The proposed parking lot with 68 Spaces is nearly the same size as the 16th Street Kroger’s Parking.
* At 68 spaces the GMBC would be 3x as large as average Church parking lots in the ONS.
* With the proposed parking, over 22% of the block would be dedicated to a parking lot.
* Parking Lot is actually used less than 1/2 the time or 5%, which is based on the hours that it is actually used divided by the number of hours in a week.
* All of the church’s average parking needs could be met by on street parking with 100 yards of the Church Building.
* Existing lots and on street parking all within 300 yards could accommodate a peak parking load of nearly 400 cars.
