Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

hello and welcome to the June 9 2026 Planning Commission meeting I need approval of the minutes so moved support all those in favor say aye opposed Communications from the audience, if anyone would like to come forward, you can do so now on items that are not listed as a public hearing on the agenda. And everything under new business that has an asterisk next to it means that anyone from the public can speak on that item. All right, moving on to new business. 636 East 24th Street site plan and special land use request for the development of new Casey's gas station.

steve do you have an intro on this item do you want me to go first tonight i guess i'll let you okay yeah just real quick that 636 east 24th street so they are applying for a special land use and site plan approval for a new gas station this is a casey's gas station If this looks and feels a little familiar, it's because we have approved a gas station here before. We've actually approved it a couple times, but those approvals have expired. If you remember, it was Come and Go, and then it was Maverick, and now it's Casey's. So this is the same location, south side of 24th Street, just east of 31. zoned corridor mixed use, which is basically our main commercial zoning where gas stations are permitted, as I mentioned, with that special land use. You've got those special land use requirements in your packet. I'm not gonna run through all of them, but I guess it's just an important reminder that we base our decisions on the criteria that we have in our unified development ordinance and specifically those requirements for the special use and the site plan which you have listed in your packet. Staff is recommending approval with the conditions that are noted in the staff report. You've got all of the comments from all of the different city departments. I would suggest that there really isn't anything unusual in those comments. So again, with this site being the location that we have seen a couple times, it is very, familiar to you in terms of what's happening here. So access out to 24th Street hasn't changed. It is designed in such a way to accommodate a future expansion of 24th Street, which is in the city's plan in the next few years so some of the landscaping for instance that you see along 24th Street where we might normally have some landscaping in the right of way that has been pulled back a little bit really to accommodate future expansion of 24th Street. You can see some center turn lane movements there in 24th Street. So I guess we're describing those as interim improvements to accommodate the turning movements, the left turn movements into the site and to make sure there's no left turn movement into the site on that western drive. You can see that is designed to only be a right-in turn. so you won't be able to turn out from there. Again, that's what the previous plans have been that we have approved before. So yeah, I guess unless you have any questions for me, I guess I would just repeat that the staff's recommendation to approve with the conditions noted in the report.

Steve, can you go into a little bit more detail about the 24th Street expansion? So it's four lanes and it's going to go to five lanes with a center turn lane?

So I think that's the eventual plan. I think that's still a few years out. But again, we want to make sure that how these guys build their site would be able to accommodate that. So we don't have to, or they don't have to move things around at a later date.

Okay. Is it four now or is it three?

It's four.

four right there okay it's four with no turn lane so it can get kind of there yeah is that in the city's plan to eventually do that yep with all the new building that's going on in that area right yeah great Thank You Steve all right if the applicant would like to come forward at this time please state your name for the record

I'm Tyler Smith with Kimley Horn. I'm here on behalf of Casey's, and Richard McMahon is also here with Casey's. If you have specific questions about Casey's culture, anything specific to them. Is this just left, right, I assume? Okay. So, yeah, I can talk about the project a little bit, but also, like, some Casey's culture, if you're not familiar with Casey's. There's a few stores around here. I can't really see the slide that we're looking at. So KC's was founded in Boone, Iowa, and that is their starting location. It was out of Des Moines. They have headquarters in a couple of different areas, Ankeny, Iowa, Terre Haute, Indiana, and the third one is in Joplin, Missouri. And they're already operating in 19 Midwestern states, Iowa, Missouri, and there's some active sites in Michigan, too, on the west side of the state, Bridgman, and there's another one, too. I think the other ones, but there's multiple that are operating right now. Yeah, and they own and operate all their own locations. So if you're not familiar with Casey's, this is kind of a surprise to some people that they are the fifth largest pizza chain and also top 10 in bakeries. So their breakfast pizza is apparently very a hot commodity. Everywhere I've gone, I came here for a pre-app meeting, and the first thing they asked me about was breakfast pizza. So Steve and others had mentioned that, and I was surprised to hear that they were very excited about it, which is awesome to hear. So, yeah, made-to-order food, scratch-sub sandwiches and salads, and everything is prepared daily. And if you haven't seen it, there is an app for Casey's Rewards, which is kind of neat to do that. I know that we do it at other places too. Everything is on apps now. Oh, sorry. I pressed the button. Sorry, this is what I was looking at. You see it? They have sustainability initiatives also. And they can, for greenhouse gases, they've converted all the stores to LED lighting. This is an annual goal that they reevaluate. And they contribute to local communities and charitable organizations in all the states that they're in. They partnership with Feeding America and donate to food banks, as well as national organizations like Special Olympics, Hope for Warriors and Children's Miracle Network, and they're investing in the areas where they're trying to put the stores. And not to mention 25 to 35 full-time positions and part-time positions at the store. I've got to aim it at the right spot here. So specific to the site, if you're familiar with this or you've seen this before, as mentioned, this was a previously come-and-go Maverick. Same location, the story is similar to Sen Sen. You can see there's a building at the southwest corner here and just pavement all around with two full-access driveways. If you have any specifics, we can come back to this slide if needed. There's some site photos from a site visit we did previously. Too far down the road, pavement's starting to fall apart a little bit, but not to focus on it too much. This is kind of a prototype look of Casey's, but this would just be for reference. We'd meet any city standards if needed for this. So looking at the color render of the site plan, it's a little small. So this is similar in approach, as Steve had mentioned, in layout for the building, the canopies up by the road, and then there's the dive-in lane with the full access drive to the east. We're proposing a detention system in the southeast corner, and then landscape frontage all the way along the double frontage. of US 31 and then also sidewalk access along the north side there with pedestrian main income to the site from that public right of way directly into the site. It doesn't conflict with turning movements on the internal side. There's a loading zone and a dumpster enclosure on the southwest side of the building as well. And you can kind of see the interior here of a case. This is a sample, but it's pretty similar across most stores. Put that up just for a second. Here's a rendering of what these look like on a few faces of the building. Let me catch up on my slides here so I can look through. But it's a pretty clean look between the ACM panels and the brick veneer and also the cultured stone sprinkled in there. And this is the gas canopy as well, a few signs. And all of this is intended to meet the code for the city. This is the pylon sign, which is in the northwest corner of the property. It should have good visibility for people to see and come in to figure out what their main access point is to the property.

Are those the gas prices you're going to put on there, too?

I was waiting for that question. No comment. Gas prices. And then this is a black and white of the site lighting photometric plan. And you can kind of see that I forgot to mention it, but there are currently two properties here, but they're intended to be combined as part of this project. So there's a corner triangle lot that's intended to be combined with this. Yeah, any questions, I'm happy to answer. Site plan-related questions, design questions, and then anything cases-related, Richard's here as well. So, thank you.

Anyone? Any questions?

Just a comment. The photometric plan is really helpful. Thank you. Thank you for that. The graphic is great. We oftentimes get the technical numbers, which are not nearly as helpful. You don't want to see foot candles all over the place? No, thank you. This is great. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Have you considered using the drive behind the building as an entrance and exit? I get the right turn only. That makes sense to me. But your exit point, the drive behind the building, is that... The hotels?

Yeah, so there's a drive to the south, which is to the hotel. I will say that there is about a 10-foot grade change between the properties. The drive to the east? No, to the east is a little lower. So thank you for pointing that out. There is an opportunity to expand to the east, the drive approach, if needed. There's an opportunity to make that connection. That's something that can be discussed, but we did not include that with the current project. We're self-contained right now. If that makes sense. We'd rather not go that direction because it requires shared access drive and all that, whatever's going on to the east also.

I'm just thinking less curb cuts, considering we're going to have a lot more people walking in that area with all the apartments that have gone in there.

Understood.

If it's helpful, Brooke, we did have them lay it out and design it so that that connection could happen if those two property owners wanted to coordinate. So the site design doesn't prohibit that. It's just not happening right now.

Okay. He said it better than I did. Thank you. Okay.

I appreciate the sidewalk access that comes off of 24th Street as well.

And direct to the building. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Any plug-in areas? Did you have any plug-ins?

Oh, sorry. That's okay. No. For EV, you mean? No, not with Casey's, no.

None of your stations do that? Okay.

Are there, I may have missed this in the staff report, are there any bike racks or anything like that for people coming to, there's two? Okay.

Yeah, I think there's two. Yeah, I was gonna check the number. But I believe there's two right on the northeast corner of the building over by the, there's a dumpster enclosure up there. Okay. Yeah. Right off the sidewalk that comes in from the building.

I have a question regarding the traffic study. When that was done, as you saw on the agenda, there's also a gas station directly across the street. Was that also taken into account in a potential traffic study? Because two new businesses going in right there.

So when we did the traffic study, we were not aware of the proposal across the street. It wasn't formally filed yet either. So we can take that into consideration. with the design, but it was not there yet, per se. So yeah, we're in coordination with the staff about that as well. So we understand there's going to be some improvements occurring on that main road, but also potential for conflicts there between the properties. So yeah, we'll work with them, certainly.

I can't see it on this rendering. The entrance and exit of the proposed Casey's is that across the street from a proposed entrance to the other one.

Yes it is.

Okay and then we also have the drive for Gateway and the hotel on top of that?

No, the Gateway I think is the same drive.

Yeah, without getting too far ahead, this eastern driveway lines up with the, I guess what I'll describe as eastern driveway of the proposed gas station on the north side as well. That does happen to be on the Gateway Mission property, so they're sharing that access to line up with this drive.

I would encourage trying to come off of that if you can be a good neighbor with the business to the east of you I would really like to see less curb cuts there then we're gonna have a lot less traffic turning right and left out of different entrances and exits there even with the proposed improvements to 24th Street just a point to look into that's a hotel right mm-hmm so there's a convenience to stay in somewhere you gotta gas up it's not unheard of instead of driving out to 24th and then going into the gas station yeah and if you have fresh pizza in a hotel I mean anyone else any questions The building itself looks great. And you're just catering to vehicles, right? Not semi-trucks or anything like that?

Right. This is passenger vehicle fueling.

Any other questions from commission members? No? All right. Thank you very much on your presentation. I do need to open this up to the public at this time. If you would like to speak on this item, you may come forward. Your concerns will be noted, and if you'd like to speak to staff, you can do so after the meeting. You have five minutes. Please state your name and address for the record.

Good evening. Ted Ozimek, O-Z-I-M-E-K. My address is 408 West 35th Street. As a resident of the City of Holland, I take no issue with the Casey's brand in particular. I'd like the Planning Commission to consider the use of this space, understanding that it's previously been approved for a come-and-go and a Maverick. But I'd like the Commission to think about what has changed since then, as other gas stations have been approved or are in the process of being built along US 31. From Washington Avenue to 8th Street is the distance of approximately 3.6 miles. We currently have gas stations, the Family Fair at Washington, the Speedway at Lincoln, the Value Mart at 32nd, the proposed or currently recently approved Meyer Express at 24th, a Speedway at 16th, and a Shell at 8th. So that is one gas station for every 0.6 miles of travel down US 31 without this proposed property. If we go further north from 8th Street to Riley, understanding that that is moving into Holland Township, we have the BP at Chicago Drive. a Sam's Club and the Marathon at James Street, and a mobile station at Riley. Again, we're still at one gas station for every 0.6 miles. And these numbers don't account for the locations that aren't immediately adjacent to the highway. There's currently a mobile at Lincoln. A Meijer at 32nd and Waverly. There's a Quality and Speedway at Chicago Drive in Waverly. marathon at Lakewood in North Park and finally a Meyer at Riley and West Shore Drive so I don't think there's any shortages places to refill your vehicle along that stretch and I'd like to see the city consider using that space for something else than something that we already have a lot of and also contributes to greenhouse emissions so Please take that under consideration. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Linda Carlson, 521. 520 Applewood Lane. And I'm concerned about the traffic there. Drive through there every day, and it goes for the other gas station as well. Left turn lanes in that short stretch of 24th Street. It's already a nightmare driving out there. and we you need to seriously consider traffic plans or doing widening the street first because if you're merging it in it already backs up down to 31 when people are turning left into the gateway facility it's just going to enhance our issues out there Anyone else to speak on this item?

Okay, I will close the public hearing. Discussion from commission members? Any other questions or comments?

I do wonder if we as a city have created the environment for success for two gas stations to actually function there without traffic issues. I mean, on the way over here, I drove over there to just experience it again, and I had to do stupid things with my car to turn left twice, both into the gateway and then when I went across to where the restaurant used to be to try to get out of there. It's just not safe yet, and so I take no issue with the site plan. It feels like it's a good plan, and having a gas station over there seems like maybe an appropriate place to develop one. So it's not really about that, but it's just like, can that road actually do it? It's a question that's been on my mind.

I also wonder too about the, I'm assuming when both companies looked to do this spot, regarding the traffic study that they didn't know each other were there. So when they did a feasibility study of how profitable it would be, did they both account for each other? Will one potentially go out of business or be less than what they're hoping for so they don't maintain it as well? Or just, did they both know each other?

as well well speedway and meyer what half a block apart so pretty common to have gas stations next to each other like you see a mcdonald's and a burger king next to each other because you have choices i guess my question would be maybe more prestige with the traffic study or if any of the traffic studies been updated with both of those gas stations operating and seeing what that looks like

Yeah, so to the sequence of those events, it's correct that this traffic study was done before the Meyer one was being proposed, but certainly we did let those folks know when they applied that there was another gas station proposed across the street. the Meyer traffic study then accounted for this proposal and then I know our transportation department you know circled back with the Casey's folks to make sure you know that their traffic study would still accommodate or at least account for the Meyer gas station so while maybe the traffic study itself doesn't mention it, that certain coordination has occurred for both of these proposals at this spot. So I guess I would say the traffic improvements or the traffic comments that are included in the packets include that analysis.

All right.

from us steve you need a vote as approval or disapproval of the site plan yeah i guess you have the option to approve you approve with conditions which is what staff is suggesting you can deny or you can table correct can one of our conditions be the completion of the left-hand turn lane that

i do kind of have an issue with that lane not being there and driving there quite a bit it is really challenging to get in and out with the one small left-hand turn lane that we have to get into gateway i love the idea of expanding that to have

So what you see on this plan is the I guess what I would call the expansion of the center turn lane so that's not the fifth lane I guess I described that as this interim solution between now and when 24th Street is expanded this is what our Transportation Department came up with to satisfy these turning movements here They did the traffic study with the soon-to-be-done 24th Street

They did the traffic study with the improved 24th Street or the current? The current. Okay.

This improvement that you see is just sort of what I'm describing as the interim that would be done now before a fifth lane was added, a full center turn lane for all of 24th Street. So this improvement is the recommendation from the Transportation Department based on the traffic studies that were done.

I could see this improvement getting this part way there. The issue I ran into even today at 3.30, it's just gridlock. People, they hit the light at 24th, and then it backs all the way up, and you can't get out. You're waiting on the niceties of other people to wave you through, and that's dangerous, especially if you're trying to take a left out of this particular parking lot, out of the Casey's lot. That was the trickiest one.

Did you drive in the hotel driveway? No. No, you drove in the old Bill Knapp's?

I went out that east entrance out of the Bill Knapp's. This used to be a Bill Knapp's, yes, back in the day. Coastal careers or whatever it was. So that was my experience. It just feels dangerous. I feel like this would help, I don't know, like so to Jennifer Owen's question about can that be one of our conditions is that we at least make this change to the site. Just so that there's a safe way to turn.

The turning lane on 24th Street?

Yeah, just so there's the safe way to get in.

I don't think.

This is the recommended improvement. That is the recommended then? Yeah. This would be happening as a result, yeah.

Okay.

I guess in my mind, I would like to see the exit be that road, as opposed to having a road and then two more curb cuts onto this site. I would like access out of that, the hotel road, if possible.

Are you thinking you want a table until that conversation comes back?

that would be something I would want to do yes I don't think I can make motions though These two curb cuts currently exist however and so somebody wanted to develop this site without a special land use permit and keep those two curb cuts they could That's possible and the western curb cut right now is a full movement and that is being restricted to just the right end motion from Planning Commission yeah I will to to move things forward so we've got something to talk about actually rather than ask questions and for those members of the public who are listening and are here our unified development ordinance provides specific review criteria that we have to follow we can't make decisions based on whatever it is we would like to make those decisions on, but only specifically based on the criteria that are here. And if you're interested in those, those are all in as part of the staff report. And when I look at those review criteria, This application complies with just about every single thing, every one of those criteria that are there. The one that we've been discussing is impact on traffic. A traffic impact study may be required for all special land uses. There's been a traffic study here and the response from staff is a traffic study has been done and reviewed by the Transportation Department. Traffic flow has been evaluated by the Transportation Department and the proposed site plan incorporates those comments as we've been discussing here. getting access to the hotel driveway would be desirable and the site plan has been designed to allow this if possible in the future which is the the staff notation that's there but the motion that I would make just so that we can move move forward with this is that I would move that we approve the site plan and special land use for the Casey's gas station with the comments and conditions as noted in the staff report support any discussion

I would say that the only thing that I'm just addressing, the comments and things, I think, and as the mayor alluded to it, I don't think it's our position to regulate what goes in a space. I think that's kind of what the market dictates, and what we're here to do is to ensure that it follows the letter of the code. So, yeah, I think those would be my comments.

Anyone else? All right.

I would just say so long as we're confident that our traffic studies do account for both gas stations operating in and out and that we feel good about the results, then yeah. I wanna make sure that we feel like the site plan and the addition of that left turn lane or extension of it will solve what we think would be the problem.

And I think the staff has said they've taken that into consideration and that's why they're showing that left turn lane in on the site plan.

Miranda, can you do roll call, please? Roll call vote. Putting you on the spot. I did not warn you about this, so we'll give you a minute here. Just make sure your mic is on so we can hear you. Okay, so the motion is to approve. Box? Yes. DeBlock?

Yes.

Miller?

Yes.

Worm? Yes. Owens? Yes. Rowan? Yes. Bosch? Yes. And Boyle?

Yes.

And the motion passes. And me. Sorry, Anderson. I do get to vote. Yes, Anderson. Yes. The motion passes. Thank you. All right. Thank you for coming in. Next item on the agenda is 633 East 24th Street site plan and special land use request for the development of a new Meyer gas station. applicant can come forward at this time changing it on you sorry Steve I don't know if we have any other slides for you no that's it If you could state your name for the record, that'd be great.

I sure can. Joe Wright with Fishbeck. Also with me is Jim Perry from Meyer. Thank you for having us here. Thank you for looking at our project. Not sure how the other slides didn't get here because we sent a whole bunch of plan sheets to look at, but we'll look at the site plan here. So this site is at 633 East 24th Street, right across from 636, which I actually designed that for come and go about four years ago. So if my face looks familiar... I was here lobbying for that site about four years ago. Great job on that. I now work for Fishbeck and I'm here on behalf of Meijer. So anyway, so we've got a 3,651 square foot gas station proposed with six pump islands, 12 individual pumps. The parking meets the ordinance. We've got landscape screening. We have a proposed drive access off of East 24th in the same location as what was approved for Gateway. And then we've got the secondary egress, ingress off of the Gateway Drive on the east side. Dumpster location around back, tank farm in the northeast corner. Just a history of Meijer. I mean, they've longstanding business on the west side of Michigan. They've had an outstanding response to their MPIRCS program. which is why they're now looking at standalone sites. I've grown up in Michigan my whole life. I remember the first mire I went to, I was probably six years old, which is crazy that that's almost 51 years ago. And now, or, you know, over time, they always built their gas stations out in front of their stores. With the MPERCS program and the popularity of that, I know I love it when I can get those 10,000 points and get a dollar off. I don't have a price here to tease anyone with, but I wish it was $2.29 a gallon. That would have been amazing. Since that program is so popular, they've started looking at standalone spots. They do have the store not too far from here off of Waverly Road. That's what I have about our site. I'm ready to field questions. If you just want to say ditto to the first one. But no, all jokes aside, I'm here to answer your questions on the site.

I have a, so you have the sustainability principles page that was included in the packet, and it says, will your project include any sustainable stormwater infrastructure? And you checked yes. And then for the sustainable practice ones, it's kind of just copy and pasted. Meyer prefers to exceed energy code requirements. They often design more toward LEED standards and bare minimum energy code requirements. Can you expand on that? Any bit more things that would be happening?

I can expand on the storm water, and I don't know if Jim could talk about interior, whether it's LED lights or different things like that to save energy, but what we're proposing on the west side of the site is an underground storm water detention basin. that will discharge to the northeast into the ditch, which is where the current storm water exits the site. So instead of having above ground or taking more space above ground, we're maintaining as much green space as we can and putting that storm water underneath. And it does have a water quality chamber before it exits that underground detention basin.

Perfect, thanks.

Any other questions? So I just want to make sure I understand so that the first entrance closest to 31 so you can go in and out of that entrance? Yes. Okay so it's not just a right turn only?

Right and what we talked about with staff we actually had a meeting with with city engineering staff last week is putting signs up there to limit left turns at 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. And that was based on the city's review of our traffic study. So we met with staff and talked about adding that signage.

So there is some limits just depending on the time of day.

And based on people's compliance with it.

Right.

with a sign, Steve. Brooke, if you don't mind, sorry.

I guess.

So just on that point, it is included in the Transportation Department's comments in your staff report, which would of course be included in the staff's recommendation to approve with those conditions that that western driveway is limited to right in, right out. So our Transportation Department has suggested that that drive be limited to right in, right out.

So you'd have to have an island in there to direct people?

You've got to have some sort of splitter or something, so it needs to be designed so you can't do that.

Just like the other Meyer gas station entryways on Waverly.

When we met with Ryan last week and actually going back to the the staff review meeting the prior week it was brought up Ryan suggested potentially moving that driveway to the east so that's what we met with him about and it would move approximately 30 feet to the east still maintaining the full access The last Thursday when we met, he said he's going to talk to Brian. They're going to get back with WSP and get back with us. I had followed up and asked him to please try to get back with me before this meeting so that we could have a final answer on that. So I still haven't heard back. And again, that was staff's suggestion to move that driveway east. to potentially leave it as a full access. So right now, I still haven't heard back from Ryan or Brian on that. Still waiting to hear. So they were gonna get back with their traffic consultant, WSP, and see if that would be viable to shift it. away from 31, still with the signage to limit access during peak hours.

I think what's unique about this site is that it has a driveway already into a large parking lot area, as opposed to our speedway that's on 16th and 31. There is no road access that's farther from 31. So seeing this, to be honest with you, I don't think you need a curb cut at all for an entrance off of 24th. I think you could have full entrance and exit out of that driveway that goes into the Gateway Complex. I don't think that's the official name of that complex, but... So I think the right in right out is pretty generous to be honest especially with the potential of Hundreds of more cars going up and down 24th Street and accessing that with our new apartments and rest haven coming in down the street So I think 30 feet to the east would be great but if we're gonna do that we might as well just eliminate that entrance and exit all together and just do it from the parking lot, but That would be my two cents

I would agree right in right out might might be helpful with that because especially one because we don't see it reflected on here but we're extending that left-hand turn lane now from from the changes that we just saw on the other site plan and that's gonna create a situation where people back up on 24th and then you're stuck there can I turn can I not turn and then someone waves you through, but you can't see the way through because you're gridlocked in left lane only and the right lane's open. So it creates that situation. I just don't think we'd need people turning left there.

I don't know how many people remember people trying to turn into Speedway with no middle turn lane at all. And they would back up into 31 and it would just be a nightmare. So... having that extra and when we think about the backups that happen on 16th from the meyer traffic or the highway traffic or whatever coming down to 31 that are traveling west they back up and then people can't even get into the gas station because the traffic is so backed up so i think the right in right out would be the only viable option in that space and then the others can use the entrance into the gateway complex Any other information you have for us?

That's what I've got for you. I just wanted to mention that conversation with staff, and we're still waiting.

Yeah. Good. I need to open this up for a public hearing, so thank you for your presentation. Steve, is there anything else you need to add to this?

No, it's a repeat of the last one. It's zoned the same, it's planned the same, and again, recommendation from staff is to approve with the conditions that are included in the report.

okay at this time I will open a public hearing on this item you can come forward state your name and address for the record and you have up to five minutes to talk okay I will close the public hearing any discussion question or motion from the Commission members

I would make a motion that we approve the site plan with a special land use for the Meyer gas station with the comments and conditions noted in the staff report with the additional requirement that the westernmost entrance off of 24th Street be a right in and right out only entrance support all those in favor say aye aye opposed none all right motion passes thank you

Next item is the 325 Fairbanks Avenue site plan and special land use request for a new 83,000 square foot recreation center for the city of Holland. Would the applicant like to come forward?

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Matt Van Dyken. I'm representing the city. And we have the team from Integrated Architecture here as well. For any technical questions, hopefully I can answer most of the questions that you may have. So we brought this to you a month ago in your study session, talked with some great detail. But the project before you is a roughly 83,000 square foot recreation center that contains four full-size basketball courts. Those courts can then be converted into eight volleyball courts. I don't even know how many pickleball courts, but really a multi-use facility. The facility is not just for sports programming. It actually would be able to support all of the recreation pieces. We have breakout rooms for ballet and art and ukulele classes, which is something that we actually offer, believe it or not. So this site is immediately adjacent to Bows pool Bows pool is slated for a relatively extensive renovation in 2028 Bows pool likely won't look exactly like Bows pool does right now But we are not exactly sure what that is going to be. We've got enough on our plates right now, but we do know that Bows pool Has some issues that we need to resolve so we're looking forward to resolving those and keeping those really At this site, this site is very important because it is centrally located in the city. So kids can either take a bus or potentially walk with protected lights from Holland Heights, from our central neighborhoods, and can get to Bouse Pool. But now they also will be able to get to our recreation center. I think that's very important. With the variety of recreation programming that we provide, kids really relying on mom and dad to get to recreation programming all the time is something that doesn't always happen. A couple of things of note. One, you'll notice a different in the site plan from what we bought to you last month, and that is the location of the stormwater detention. Andy and I met with Spohn Ranch, S-P-O-H-N, not Spohn Ranch, which is the folks that actually did the ice park, not the ice park, the skate park, whatever it was 10 or 15 years ago. We think it is probably just as cost effective to leave that skate park right where it is and put that stormwater detention underground. One thing of note, kind of in the corner of the parking lot you'll see there, is a fairly extensive rain garden, pretty substantial. Commissioner Miller asked about some of the best practices. That will be front and center. If I know our parks department very well, there'll be signage that will go along with that to explain what that is. Yeah, really, I don't know how many more slides Steve has. It's a little more prominent. You can see there the rain garden, the skate park sitting in that location. I should note that there are some pedestrian improvements that will happen at 13th and 14th Street as people cross those roads. And we do have a dedicated bus drop off on Fairbanks Avenue. So really looking forward to people coming out, using the space. safely you know we want people to be able to walk and bike here to be able to enjoy all that kind of recreation programming we have had extensive conversations with Hope College for several months we actually think that our parking and their parking will be mutually beneficial we will not have extensive programming on Hope College game days and we will make sure that any of our larger tournaments actually don't happen when they've got something going on so we can utilize their parking so really actually It's kind of counterintuitive, but we think by building this 83,000 square foot building, recreation building, it will actually have less of an impact on the neighborhoods from a parking standpoint. Yeah, with that, I've got Daryl and Scott from Integrated here that can answer any detailed questions. But really, that's kind of the gist of what we're looking to build.

I have a question related to just for a city resident is there gonna be like a fee to use it each time or a monthly membership or how will that work no so the internals we're not gonna have a gym right so it's not gonna be any kind of a workout facility that's covered

all over the city very reasonably. So it will be similar to what the recreation program is now. So if you've got a kid that's in Little Tex basketball, you're going to pay a fee. And that's based on residency. That will not be an increased fee to use the facility. That'll just be part of whatever that programming is. This is just a place to do it. now the difference is currently we don't have any facilities where we can really hold i'll call significant tournaments so we do have the ability the way the building is designed the spectator seating is above that looks down at the courts we will have the ability to charge an admission fee so you'll sign up for the the tournament but just like the aquatic center i've paid

tens of thousands of dollars in admission fees for some events so we will have the ability to do that as a revenue generator When the parks and rec department do classes and basketball camps and everything you're trying to find places to do those so you're trying to use school gyms but when they're all under construction

then you find yourself in a pickle so this would alleviate some of that stress so i had until we started this project i had no idea that our parks and recreation recreation department uses 13 different gyms across this community for their programming i can only imagine as a parent what a nightmare that is to try to figure out what event is where and then like you said oh we had up The AC went out in the gym and it's July in one of the schools. Now it's 104 degrees in there. Hey, so this gives them dedicated space. They know it's available to them and they can have that programming. So it's really, it solves a major problem for them. COVID did not help us get access to schools. So really, when we look at this project, I look at things like the Ice Park, and that's really a cool project that's awesome, that's amazing that we have here, but this is a need project. This really is. It's a need project for this community so that they can have that space, and we're guaranteed that we can provide the programming at all ages, but especially to the youth in this community.

Yeah, I would add that as someone who coaches in youth basketball, yes, there is a very big need for one centralized location for all of this.

Matt, as I was leaving the Bouse Pool yesterday with my kids, some kids were leaving out of the 16th Street exit on foot. Is there a proposed, I can't remember from last time you were here, is there a proposed sidewalk to come from 16th down the entrance?

so not yet from that six that we look at that 16th street access is more of a service drive for the cemetery than anything else and we're for cars for cars yeah yeah kids are welcome to walk they're welcome to walk down that way we don't have any improvement to that from a sidewalk stand standpoint included in this project okay maybe something to think about for the bow's pool Yeah, absolutely. There's going to be lots going to happen with bows. And, yeah, right now the kids just walked on that surface to get right to the pool. Oh, I know.

They took up half of it. So, yes, just thinking about their safety truly, like coming in and out for the pool there.

Matt, first of all, thanks for being here. I think a lot of people don't realize that the city of Holland subjects itself to the same rules, same procedures, same processes that it does for any applicant that's here, which may seem unusual to some folks, but that's the way we do things here. So thank you. I appreciate that. we get beat up just like everybody else absolutely that's that's part of why i'm here is that i get to sit and beat you up uh here um no so so appreciate that appreciate the work that's gone through appreciate the clarification on the skate park because i know that there's been questions in the public about that as well and i was very happy to see the letter of shared parking support from hope college in here because i think that that's a really key piece to make this site successful for both parties both for the city and for Hope College that there's extensive parking that's going to be available right next to one another I think it's great as Hope and the city have worked together a lot in the past to be able to see that continuing on in this project I think is a good thing

I just wanted to ask I think I already know but The idea is that the parks and rec office is going to move to this location as well, right the recreation office So the recreation the parks office is different parks are gonna stay in the parks building Recreation actually currently is in the old dialeride building Which is immediately north of the parks building if you can think on 24th Street but the recreation staff will all move here they'll have their own private offices here and So we think parks and rec, but there actually is a parks and a rec, although it gets pretty blurry sometimes.

Thank you. I have a question and it might be for the staff will there be more open gym opportunities once this facility is built That's definitely a need and we're a large enough community that it's it's nice that we can have that I know we've offered it at the Civic Center previously but there's definitely a need for that and I think you'll have a lot of happy kids that can

go and just shoot hoops and practice and maybe more of a comment to beg into that so holland township has their new center and the number of kids there doing open gym and just kind of coming together even in the summertime amazes me and it costs five dollars to go which is also really cost effective too

and so going into that facility really made me kind of jealous because I want to have more open gym opportunities for our kids to to blow off steam especially in the winter months yeah and as they're preparing for tournaments you know just have coaches to have that space where they can gather their their team it's gonna be huge because to get you know any space you have to know somebody at the school and arrange it and it's just it's a pain so this is just gonna be really well received by the community and by the youth I'm excited

any other questions or comments this is a this is a selfish question as I said earlier with me being a coach at Holland middle school is there I know Holland rec is separate from the school like that but do you think there will be any for overlap for things like that because we have, when the season starts, we have four teams essentially in one and a half gym because our auxiliary gym doesn't even have the correct lines painted on it. So that's pretty difficult to put an offensive place on that. And so is there anything that you think potentially could happen like that or is this only going to be rec?

No, absolutely. So right now, kind of because of that, 13 different gyms. There's actually, I'll call it a horse trading process that goes on throughout the year where Holland Rec talks to Holland Christian and Holland Public and they kind of trade spaces. So I think that those relationships are going to, they're strong, they're very, very strong. And I think those opportunities for collaboration. We want kids and adults in this space, right, all the time. We want this having people in it and using it the entire time that it's open. And those collaborations already happened. They just kind of happened really far behind the scenes. So I see those all as continuing and strengthening even more into the future. Perfect. Thanks.

Matt, you do work really closely with the other parks and rec departments, like at Holland Township or Park Township. There's a lot of coordination that goes on there as well, correct?

Yep. Yeah, a lot of the softball tournaments, soccer tournaments, they're coordinated with them. We toured the Holland Township Center before we kind of got towards the final edges of ours. So, yeah, parks and rec people are pretty cool people. I mean, they are. And I say that because I've had the opportunity to get to know Parks and Rec folks from all over the place. You know, when we've done these projects, we go to other facilities, we talk to people. What did you do right? What did you do wrong? What were your lessons learned? Ice rink is another great example of that. We learned a lot before we even engaged an architect, right? So Parks and Rec people, they just like to see people out having fun and getting exercise. So those strengths are going to continue within the region.

Thanks for keeping the skate park there as well.

It's all a process, right? Exactly. All a process.

Yep. Any other questions or comments? No? All right, I will open this as a public hearing. Thank you, Matt. Anyone who would like to speak on this item can come forward at this time. Can you state your name and address for the record, please?

Yeah, I'm Daryl with Integrated Architecture. Good to see everybody again this evening. Matt kind of, so I'm the architect, Matt kind of gave you a good overview. Just wanted to highlight another couple of items that we addressed from the last work session and also in coordination with Traffic Engineering. We did, we were able to keep the skate park. That's great news. We went underground with all the stormwater. As Matt mentioned, the rain garden is a means of capturing initial rainwater. It has some volume capability. It also has some pretreatment capability. So we're pretty excited about that as a possible educational opportunity. with the city. Parking was a big topic of conversation. The folks at Parks and Rec did a really nice job in supplementing the parking narrative that we provided earlier with a little bit more background into how their programming works, how a volleyball tournament might work, a basketball tournament might work, weekday programming might work. We feel very confident along with Hope College's support and Kind of mutual benefit with parking that we're gonna be well covered. We did lose around nine parking spaces I just wanted to point out with keeping the skate park uh... that's around three-and-a-half percent of the overall parking that we provided so it wasn't a big impact the comparative data that we provided we're still in line with other ordinances and with other locales in terms of parking requirements let's see another item of note uh... we've included bike parking for both short and long term that's up front under the canopy that's per the UDO Another item that came up, these are all positives. These are all just developments since the last time we met. The north trash enclosure along the building, I'm not sure if there's a slide with the additional detail. You'll see the little nub about in the middle of the building on the north facade. That is the new trash enclosure location. That came at the recommendation of Traffic Engineering. It was previously in the northwest corner of the building. There was some concern, and we agree that for screening, for visibility, for trash pickup, it was maybe located a little too close to the residential neighborhood to the west. And in terms of a trash truck parked there to pick things up, it's kind of right at the entrance. So we moved that over around 100 feet to the east. That was a good improvement. Just wanted to note that. And then Matt pointed out the high emphasis pedestrian crossings to the west at both 13th and 14th. So those will be incorporated as part of the project. Yeah, that's it. Just, again, some additional technical color to the developments. And any other questions? Matt covered it well. Stole all my thunder. So I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments from the public at this time?

I'm John Sterenberg from the Langland Sterenberg Funeral Home, which is 315 East 16th Street, kind of right across the kitty corner there. I want to thank the parks and cemeteries and the city for addressing the parking situation because there's a lot of times where there's events going on at the stadium or at the park that our parking lot gets used for overflow. That's typically on Saturdays when there's a lot of funerals and evenings when there's visitation. So anything that can be added on your side to keep them on my side would be very much appreciated. Respectfully so, yes. What's that? Respectfully so, yes, exactly. And then I verified with Andy Kenyon that the crosswalk on 16th Street is being moved from the or from the west side of Fairbanks Avenue to the east side of Fairbanks Avenue. And we see everyday kids trying to cross there and they don't because they have to cross that turn, all that turning going on there. and so then they cut through our parking lots and our sidewalks and our landscaping and everything else so they don't have to do that to get to bow's pool they're cutting around our building all the time and not using the sidewalks So anything that would help that would be that would be good, too So those are two positive the only negative I would would ask you probably can't address it but if you can is The people the number of vehicles that cut through our parking lot to avoid that corner on 16th and Fairbanks where they don't want to come up and turn right so they shoot through where they don't want to go and turn left because it's a if you've ever tried to get out of our parking lot at four o'clock five o'clock um i always go the other way because also i'll sit for 15 minutes trying to get out of our parking lot so there's a traffic problem there and it's that was obvious it's the traffic problem all over the place but that corner is is not good for kids walking and for additional traffic there and i'm a little concerned about how this development is going to affect that corner traffic so thank you for your time thank you thank you very much anyone else from the public to speak on this item

No, okay, I will close the public hearing. I'd like to make a motion. Whoa.

Yes, as a rec mom, basketball mom, I would like to approve the site plan and special land use request for a new 83,000 square foot recreation center for the city of Holland at 325 Fairbanks Avenue.

Do you want to include the conditions of the staff within the report?

With the conditions from the staff report, of course.

I'll support it. Any discussion on that motion? No? I will just say that maybe, you know, just put a bug in everybody's ear that maybe that needs to be a three-way stop at that corner. Anyway.

We subjected ourselves to the same traffic study requirements as everybody else. Yes, exactly.

So maybe that would be a good spot for that as we up the pedestrian traffic in that area. All right. Everyone in favor of this motion presented, say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. All right. Thank you so much. Next item, text amendments to several sections of the Unified Development Ordinance to consider regulations for battery energy storage system, which everyone in this room wants to hear about, so. Oh. All right, Steve, this is all you, right? This is all me. And Tricia, maybe?

Probably. Little Juan mixed in there.

Little Juan mixed in there.

Thank you for your patience. I know we have done this twice already, so I guess I'll just briefly say we just made some... Maybe just one minor change since you last saw it. It was based on a comment that you guys made, so we've incorporated that. But really what you're going to see is what you've seen already. So real quick, we are trying to put some regulations on our books for battery storage. So there's a few things going on there one of them being some state legislation that allows you know people to bypass local approval And so we thought it was important to put some regulations on the books I think I described it last time that we're trying to sort of thread the needle several different ways of having something compliant with that public act, have something that is very user friendly and fits into the format of UDO already, kind of using some of the existing regulations that we have as that format Already, I think we described the wind and solar regulations are kind of the ones that provided that guide for how to do these regulations. We also didn't want to have something that was too cumbersome. So hopefully we're able to hit all of those buttons, but try to walk you through what's happening here. So again, we would add a battery energy storage system as a use in our use chart. and it would be a use that's permitted in all zoning districts for a small scale accessory. Talk about what small scale means in a minute. And then a special land use for large scale accessory and as a standalone principal use. The only zoning district where a standalone large scale principal use would be allowed is the industrial zoning district. So we would allow for, as I mentioned, in small scale projects in all the zoning districts. So we were trying to use sort of the model of your home generator, your home AC unit. So if there was a small size battery storage that you might want to use, that would be permitted as an accessory use, just like we have other similar uses. Doing a little bit of research, we came up with that 60 kilowatt as sort of a size that might be small enough to fit that small scale. There's still some limitations on location and size like we have for those other units. then large scale would be over that. So we were thinking that those sorts of large scale, something over the 60 kilowatt would be allowed in our commercial zoning districts and even our high density residential as accessory uses. So again, maybe thinking of an apartment project or a large commercial store might want, which you look around and we have some of those, right? With large generators for some of these businesses that they would be able to do that that was really the one item that we changed based on your comments that the setbacks that we would take from let's say the apartment complex complexes would be from adjacent properties and not from internal building so we heard you we put that we put that comment in there Steve just so people have some reference of what that

Just so people have some reference about what that 60 kilowatt limit is I just did a did a quick thing my Ford f-150 lightning pickup truck electric pickup truck is a 131 kilowatt usable batteries within the within the truck itself. So we're looking at about half of that Yeah, and that would be closer to what typical that 60 would be closer to a typical electric vehicle automobile Yeah

So again very intentional that those would be really small that yeah they might be in the industrial zone but trying to use some of those other similar types of structures that we have in a residential lot. So this table you see us adding the battery storage in there as a use permitted. You do see us correcting in the solar alternative energy Row that we're taking out all of that Special use we simply don't allow that so that's just a correction. So I know that looks like a lot of changes It's really just a correction since we don't allow that as a special use outside of the industrial zone changing the definition of essential service so this again was something that we heard from BPW provided a lot of help as you can imagine for a project like this sort of tweaking this definition to describe essential service as public or municipal and then providing the public act that helps regulate the public providers. This was an attempt to really make sure we didn't have somebody who would try to say, well, I'm a battery energy storage and so I'm essential service. So this was really trying to hone in what essential service is so that somebody couldn't just claim that they're an essential service because they're doing battery storage. Thanks to the DPW guys for help on that.

Steve by public do you mean personal or is it business and personal?

So the public would be for somebody who was regulated by that Public Utility Act. Okay. Consumers. Okay. Somebody like that. Not just the public. Thanks. I think I just put this on here. We talked about this before, but this is just how Udo looks for that wind and solar of how we format the regulations there. So we would mimic that. So this is really the meat of those changes. So we would introduce these two sections, 4.02 BB, which would be the small scale battery storage. You can see the 60 kilowatt level in there. And then having some standards in there for setbacks and height limitations. Again, similar to how we treat other of those similar types of utility structures that we might have. And then 4.04 is the large scale battery storage standards that we have. And just kind of quickly skipping down there to 4C that they'll maintain a setback of 300 feet from any residentially occupied building. On an adjacent property. So I think that's what we talked about before so we think yeah, you know, you're right Let's let's try to clarify that Those regulations really come from the Public Act and so we also have to be careful that we can't do something that doesn't Work with what's in that act too. So We think this hits that And then sorry maybe just to skip back at the top of 4.040 you see those zoning districts again sort of the commercial zoning districts where we would allow the large-scale accessory battery storage in those GMU CMU RMU etc You got them all right I think we got them all. But only the industrial zoning district would allow a standalone, large-scale battery storage facility. Adding the definition of battery energy storage system. Again, kind of with the help of BPW and some language that has been floating around for some model regulations. That's where we got that. Again, adding it in our permitted uses, so those would be the small scale in all zone districts. In 4.04, again, alternative energy, really making a format change that we think is just more consistent with how we do the rusted wood. So that's not a change, we're just sort of reformatting that to fit like the rust. Trisha maybe describes it matchy-matchy we like matchy-matchy It's called consistency Steve And then adding battery storage of course and the industrial zoning district on that chart as well So we thought this was important in our actual essential service sections in the code. We want to add that sentence there that includes battery storage that are installed or operated in conjunction with the utility substation. for the primary purposes of offsite use through the electrical grid, that that would be an essential service. So again, important to remember, essential services are permitted in all zoning districts. We certainly have substations in residential zone districts. If the BPW needed to put in a battery storage facility, as part of their substation, that would be allowed as part of an essential service. So we thought that was important to also clarify and make sure that that's clear that that is the case. Industrial use table, we're adding that. I know there was a lot of attachments in your packet because we touched every zone district, and so then we had to update each and every zone district, so I'm not gonna walk through all of those, but I know it was a lot. Couldn't really do anything about that. Thank you, Miranda. So it's just, since we touch every zone district, we have to update all of those, even though it's something as simple as just adding a row in there that says battery storage, right? But all of that is happening in the rest of Udo. Guess I have been pointing this property out from the beginning here because this is a substation property in the city in the end up in the residential zone district And so if they wanted to do battery storage there that would be allowed as a central service. So Those are all of the battery storage regulations that we're asking that you forward to City Council for Okay, thank you any questions from Commission members

No, looks good. This does require a public hearing, which I will open at this time. And I will close. Any discussion, motions from commission members?

I would move to forward as described to city council for approval. Support. Support.

all those in favor say aye aye opposed none all right thanks for all your hard work guys on that one communications and petitions scheduling of public hearings there are none communications from Commission members no communications from staff things are getting busy okay that's a good problem to have administrative site plan reviews Looks like we have one coming up.

Yeah, so we just received one. It's a facade change, so we'll put that in our sort of semi-annual update, facade change on 8th Street.

Great. Motion for adjournment? So moved. Support?

Support.

Okay. All those in favor, say goodbye.

Goodbye.

And opposed?

No.