The Fishers Board of Zoning Appeals denied a request by Hieu Van Le to convert his residential single-family home to a short-term rental property.  The vote was 5-0.

According to the Fishers Planning Department staff, the State of Indiana does not allow municipalities to limit short-term rentals when it relates to home-occupation, meaning the property owner must live at the residence. This does not meet the City of Fishers’ home-occupation standards, and therefore requires this special zoning exception to allow short-term rentals.  Assistant Planning & Zoning Director Ross Hilleary told the board this is the first such situation he has seen in his 6 years with Fishers.

Mr. Le did not attend the meeting, but had his property manager make the case that his experience with a long-term  renter with a one-year lease was not positive, and believes changing to short-term rentals would allow cleaning staff to check the property between short-term tenantes. His neighbors on Dawson Drive, near Holland Park, strongly disagreed and all spoke against the proposal.

In other BZA actions Wednesday:

–Bryan Harris was denied his request for a large accessory structure next to his home on 97th Street.

–Burn Boot Camp received unanimous approval from the board to occupy space at The Link at Fishers District Building (fomerly known as Navient).

— Chris Schulhof will be able to expand his Geist-area home with a unanimous yes vote from the board.