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Crooked Creek Community Council Lawsuit The Crooked Creek Community Council, Inc. (C4) needs your financial assistance in the form of a tax-deductible donation to overturn Celebration Fireworks Variance of Use in a court challenge that will benefit C4’s effort to revitalize the old retail node on Michigan Road between Kessler Blvd and 60th Street. C4 needs to raise as much as $40,000 to pay legal fees to correct an illegal and inappropriate Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) decision. C4 has been advocating the redevelopment of the retail node on Michigan Road between Kessler Blvd and 60th Street for nearly ten years. C4 has partnered with the City of Indianapolis to create a market study analysis (available through C4’s web site: www.crookedcreek.org ) of the area’s demographics and of comparison retail sites in order to bring in private developers to redevelop this sub-standard retail area, which presently does not meet the community’s needs. A major problem in courting private development is that high-end retail developers do not want to locate near the existing Celebration Fireworks business, which has operated illegally since 1988. In 2001, at C4’s urging, the City required Celebration to seek a Variance of Use to become legal or the City would shut their business down. C4 fought Celebration’s Variance request, but lost the case before the BZA. This decision was appealed by C4 to the courts in 2002, which eventually overturned Celebration’s Variance of Use by the Indiana Court of Appeals on New Year’s Eve, 2003. The court found that Celebration did not prove the “five findings of fact” required for a valid Variance. The court evaluated the first “finding of fact” and overturned the Variance since all five “findings” must be proved. None of the “findings” were adequately proved. After the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the decision in June of 2004, the City took Celebration to court in an enforcement case to close this illegal business. Initially, Judge Keele sided with Celebration, ruling that the case should be sent back to the BZA for correction. The City filed a motion for “correction” of his ruling since Judge Keele’s ruling did exactly what the Indiana Court of Appeals and the Indiana Supreme Court refused to do, send the case back to the BZA for “correction” – City Legal lawyers also called to Judge Keele’s attention that he had worked in the past for Celebration as a private lawyer and had removed himself from hearing (as a Judge) this consolidated Celebration case in 2001. Judge Keele corrected his ruling and ordered Celebration to cease selling fireworks in January 2005. Celebration then sued the City, requesting Judge Keele to send the case back to the BZA for “correction.” Judge Keele ordered the case back before the BZA for “consideration,” despite the fact that he had a conflict of interest since he previously represented Celebration prior to becoming a Judge and had disqualified himself on July 20, 2001 from a related Celebration case. The City attorney did not know these facts and didn’t appeal the Judge’s decision. The case went back to the BZA, which again approved their Variance request, despite the fact that Celebration had not proven the “five findings of fact” required by Indiana State Law to legally obtain a Variance. Since the Variance was flawed and since Celebration’s presence in this once vital retail node deters redevelopment of this portion of the Michigan Road Corridor, C4 appealed the Variance back to the courts. C4 needs your financial assistance in order to pay legal fees to overturn this flawed decision. Please make your tax-deductible contribution to C4 (at the above address) as soon as possible. Your financial support is critical to redeveloping this portion of Michigan Road to include a grocery store, Public Library and other important improvements that will reflect the needs and values of the surrounding community. If you desire more information, please contact us by phone (290-5541), at the above address or by e-mail through our web site. Please be generous in your donation. Winning this case will, in great measure, open the door to redevelopment, increasing property values and creating a more stabile community. Thank you in advance for your support, Barbara Burcham -- President send comments to webmaster@mcanaindy.org |
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