Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Perfect. Thank you. It's just an updated Everybody Good night everybody. Yeah,

nice. Yeah. Right. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. I know.

I know. It's tight. Yeah. I know. Yeah, they're not they're not big. Yeah, I know. Yeah.

Clear the room. Hello and welcome to the May 12, 2026 planning commission meeting. I need approval of the minutes for the April 14, 2026 regular meeting. So moved. All those in favor say I. I opposed. None. Communications from the audience for items not listed as a public hearing on the agenda can come forward at this time. There are none. New business. ODC Mitigation Bank Reszoning. All right, Steve, you got something for us here? 720 721 East 64th Street.

I will be happy to kick us off here. So, this is just a resoning. So, there's no there's no building being proposed. This property is zoned industrial. Um the only district that we really allow for these man-made wetlands to be the principal use is the open space zoning district. So that is their request to reszone this from industrial to open space. I know it's a separate application. I guess I will point out that uh the the next application on your agenda is sort of the sister project if you will, but the existing mitigation bank. Um, so we thought since we're coming here to do this new one, the existing mitigation bank that's also zoned industrial, that they would ask to reszone that to open space as well. So, you've got um both of those applications to act on tonight. We did divide these up separately. I suppose you could have different decisions for these. They are separate pieces of property. Um, and so we did divide those up and so they're they're separate actions or separate recommendations um to city council. If you want me to just quickly kind of walk you through

I was going to say, do you have the zoning map to show the surrounding area? There you go.

So this is the zoning map on the left hand side. Um, you can see all of the gray is the industrial zone district. Um, those uh black lines that you see there are the airport overlay zones. Um on the right hand side you have the city master plan. So the um green is sort of the what we call cemeterian preserves. Um that's what we called it in the master plan. Um again those were intended to be permanently protected kind of open space areas. Um and you can see this expanded mitigation bank property is in both the industrial and the commercial uh master plan designation. Um I look at the master plan again as that guide for us to base our decisions on. The fact that it's um adjacent to this cemeterian preserves um at least in my mind that is consistent with our plan um master plan really isn't intended to you know quite follow uh property lines like we do with zoning. So, um unlike um how we did the ODC's bike park on the south side of town, if you remember, that wasn't adjacent to any kind of future land use open space category. So, we did do a master plan update uh before that resoning occurred. I don't think it's necessary here. I think this is consistent with the master plan that we do have uh on the books. This is the piece of property that parcel A um is what you um is their expansion of the property. It's I think about 38 acres. I wanted to highlight this map because parcel B would stay industrial. If you remember when we originally talked about this, I think it was over a year ago when they sort of brought this idea to us, we were concerned, staff was concerned about sort of eliminating or reducing industrial space, industrial zoning in

the city. And we really asked them to, you know, go back and see if they can make the industrial piece the usable piece out there so that we're not losing the industrial. Um, I guess the way that staff has viewed that is we want our cake and eat it too. I we want the mitigation bank. We think that's helpful and will accommodate some development in the city and elsewhere. But we also wanted to maintain as much of the industrial area as we could. And I think they've done that. This is actually an expansion of that original idea that you saw. So, um, the area from 64th Street North, I think, is about another 100 125 ft to the north. Um, and then that area as it wraps around that curve is a little bit bigger, we think, a little more usable, at least from the original uh concept drawing that you guys saw. But the majority of this land is wet lands or probably highly unusable anyways, right? The the land that we're reszoning, it's

Yep. So that's kind of the exercise that we asked them to kind of investigate. Um and so you're right, that area to the north is the less usable um area. So and again adjacent to the existing wetland mitigation bank. Um, so it does seem to make a lot of sense to um if you're going to have this wetland mitigation bank, that's a great spot to um expand it uh because it's a little bit less usable property. And admittedly, even the stuff that is going to stay industrial, I mean, that's it's not going to be prime. It's that that area is a little tough, too. Uh admittedly, but um yeah, certainly that area isn't your prime developable um property. plus being in the airport overlay district.

Yeah. So, it it kind of um certainly when you look at that existing mitigation bank that's a little further north of this one is almost in direct alignment with the east west runway. Um and so yeah, that's that's certainly something that we always pay attention to. I would point out uh we didn't have it in your packet, but we do have uh the airport board approved this action of this resoning and this expansion. Um and so they're aware of it and and have uh at least consented to uh the approval. Okay. The recommendation from staff is to approve the resoning uh or at least for you to make that recommendation to city council.

Okay. Did you want to speak on the 1440 M40 as well? We can we can talk about that too. That's these are two different motions, correct?

We did divide them as two separate applications. Yes. So it' be helpful to have two different motions. This is the existing mitigation bank that has been in place since 2015. Um and it is zoned industrial, but again with the changes through UDO, uh we think it's appropriate to just reszone that to open space so it really complies with zoning. um really only having them do that because they're doing the expansion. Um so that could continue otherwise, but um they agreed to do the reszoning. We also think it's it's helpful so when people are looking at the city and maybe trying to find industrial property that it won't confuse anybody that there's 80 acres out there of industrial property by the airport and so it this is permanently protected open space area. So, let's just reszone it. Kind of remove that um confusion or conflict.

That makes sense. Yeah. As well. So, and we have ODC here. We do. Same same zoning, same master plan that you just saw. Okay. Uh yeah, really since the the last time I Can you state your name for the record, please?

Uh yeah, Dan Callum, greenway manager at the ODC. Um really the since the last time I gave an update to you all, the only real change is uh shrinking the um mitigation bank area a little bit. We had been in talks with the um seller of the property to get more acreage um kind of on the east side of the property um on the curve on uh 64th, but then we kind of adjusted the boundary. Um I think the depth on the remaining parcel is 450 ft or or thereabouts. Um based on a uh uh land consultant that they were working with, they felt that that was the kind of nice breaking point for somebody to be able to come in and potentially use the site for future development

because the rest would remain industrial. Rest will remain industrial. Yep. Yeah. Dan, I went out and toured a bunch of these sites. Was this one of the ones? I don't know if you know or not. I went out with a bunch of other Yep. leaders from the area. Is this one of the sites that we went out and visited last? Yeah. So, so we would have been kind of just on the north edge of the the little panhandle on the the map that's up right now.

And and could you explain for the rest of the planning commission what a wetlands mitigation site is for and the benefit of it to the community? Yeah. So, uh, wetland mitigation is administered through, uh, the Michigan Department of Environmental Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Basically allows developers to impact wetlands with a net positive benefit for the area, the specifically the watershed and the eco region. So the bank that we currently have uh was about 42 acres of credit that we opened back in 2015 and we have about 2 acres remaining in our existing bank. So they've certainly been used by um name a big significant development around the area. They probably have gotten some credits from us at some point cuz at this point uh with development pressures the way they are, there are probably not very many remaining parcels certainly in our watershed that are going to be free of wetland impact. So this will hopefully help our community to continue to grow a little bit in the next

This is a preservation project. Yeah. So, so what you're saying is if there's a development and that somebody has that has wetlands on it, they're able to take advantage of a portion of this property to kind of exchange one for the other. Correct. So, this is allowing uh Eagle will determine the rate at the development. Usually, um one and a half to three acres of mitigation credits would need to be purchased per acre of impact. So you see less of the um small little ponds behind the gas station that have a lot of invasive species in it. Instead, we have this larger habitat that's going to be higher quality and better for the wershed. Okay, good. Yeah.

Is the I had a question. Is the area is it is it currently a wetland over there or is it just kind of fields? So the existing bank is so that the second property that's up for motion, our existing bank is wetland already. Um the new bank itself um most of it is farm field has been farmed uh up until last year. Um so there was a little bit of wetland in the field that was determined but most of it is uh just vacant farm field. I think we have about 28 acres roughly. It'll be a little dependent on our final survey of how much we get at the end

and and for the benefits of the rest of the commission. We went to three or four different sites that afternoon and I kept asking, are we still in the city? Because there were I was it was hard for me to believe that we were still within the city limits on a lot of the places that we went because they seemed so remote and and completely undeveloped. Um it was really great to see a lot of those sites that you guys have been working on. Is this going to be like truly truly undeveloped with no do you have any plans for like trails on it or anything like that in the future or is it just going to be

potentially trails? That would be the the one use that we may potentially look for uh adding. We may have a small trail head or maybe a little parking area at some point in the future. Um Hworth has had some interest in potentially allowing their members to access the site. So, um, that is kind of the the one thing that we're allowed to do under the the conservation easement that'll be placed on the site. Good question. Thank you. I had a second question. Is is the current the current wetlands doesn't detract enough birds to be a problem for the airport? No. So, we have It's an interesting question. Yes. And an important question. Planes.

Yeah. the uh the first time uh that we built the the first bank in 2015, we had a team from Hope College actually study the site. There was some concern from um state department of transportation about uh bird impact and wildlife impact. Um the research that hope showed basically that it had a no significant increase in birds around the area. Um, you can see on this map here some of the ponds that are on the the other side off Cable Drive. There's stuff on the the west side of the runway near the uh Johnson Controls building. So, there are other areas around the area that have probably higher risk for wildlife. Um, and really for our site, the first year will be the only time that there will be some sort of elevated risk just because we're waiting for the vegetation to grow in. So,

we'll have we've got a a plan in place to have people kind of keep an eye on the site to to make sure we aren't getting big groups of water foul landing temporarily this fall. And then once the the vegetation starts coming in, predators are able to come onto the site and any birds aren't going to stick around there for very long. Interesting. Okay. Any other questions? Great. Okay. Thank you.

Anything you thought of to add, Steve? Maybe it's just repetitive, but I I guess I would uh reiterate Dan's comment about the one of the biggest benefits in my mind is the quality of the wetland that ends up being created versus these little pockets maybe in the middle of a development. So, I think this truly is a a really nice asset. And admittedly, this isn't just for the city of Holland, but um I think it's probably fair to say this our immediate area is probably who would benefit the most. Um and so I I think again it's sort of that um comment about you know we want our cake and eat it too because I think the mitigation bank is is wonderful and a huge benefit. Um so totally supportive of the

reszone and the long-term effects positive effects that it would have. All right. This does require a public hearing. Um, I will open a public hearing on both of these items at this time and I will close the public hearing as no one is coming forward. Uh, I would like to make a motion to recommend the reasonzoning of 721 East 64th Street uh to open space uh based on the recommendation of staff. Support. All those in favor say I. I oppose. All right. and 1440 M40.

Uh I would make a recommendation to for the reszoning of 1440 M40 to open space uh based on the recommendation of staff. Support. All those in favor say I. I opposed. None. All right. Great. Thank you for coming and for all the valuable information on that. Communications and petitions. Scheduling of public hearings. There are none communications from commission members. Nope. Communications from staff just to stick around for another 10 minutes afterwards. Finish study session. Stay tuned. Motion for adjournment. So moved.

Support. All those in favor say goodbye. Goodbye. By the way, she did. All right. She playing