Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

as good as ours. is not as good as ours. Hello and welcome to the November 13, 2025 planning commission meeting. I need approval of minutes for the October 14, 2025 regular meeting. So moved. Support. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? None. You have a draft for me, Steve. A draft for you. Or is it Never mind. Those are the minutes.

Yep. Communications from the audience for items not listed as a public hearing on the agenda. You can come forward at this time. New business. Hope College 124 East 8th Street North Campus Gateway Amendments. There are four documents listed underneath that one. Steve, is this supposed to have a public hearing or no? This is going to have a public hearing. Okay. Yeah, that you're right. That should have a little asterisk by it. So, this is a public hearing. Okay. Applicant is here. Yes. You can come forward at this time.

Thank you, planning commissioners. My name is Brent Dystra. I am an architect with AMDG Architects. This is a um joint design project with LMN uh architects and AMDG. We also have here Drezinga Associates as the site engineer of record and Cara Slater is here to represent Hope College. Uh this project should be familiar. Originally um approved in October of 23 um site plan renewal in March of this year and we were in front of you uh last month to present some revisions which we really feel like are an improvement of the already approved design. I can walk you through those and then would be happy to take any questions. So the improvements uh and the refinements to the design fundamentally focus on 8th Street. Uh we're suggesting that anything that was standing as part of the original site plan approval would remain standing relative to the requirements and the conditions and we're already um very much uh down the path of satisfying those with regard to BPW and um pre-construction meetings and that process. So, to overview the um updates along 8th Street, um on the left is the design as previously uh presented and approved. And so what we've done is we've introduced a gable form, an entry form along the 8th street plaza that uh that is a main entry to the building particularly to bring uh pedestrians and visitors to the building to a second floor space, a pre-assembly space with an event space on one side and an auditorium on the other. Uh so we're getting I think a much more significant engagement with the plaza on 8th Street. Uh the plaza itself is been

reorganized um to show some seating, some raised seed walls and planters. Um I think we've got a nice mix of hardscape and kind of areas to um engage. One of the the kind of subtexts, design subtexts of this is come and stay. And so really it's intended to be a very inviting um a welcoming space both inside and outside. Uh, one refinement to the roof would be to replace what was previously a hip roof, particularly as you see it, um, on eighth street coming west to to now this kind of intersection of gable forms. So, in addition to the gable form on 8th Street, the intersecting gable forms, I think, are really um speaking to the precedent um of of the surrounding area and the architecture. [clears throat] Uh just by way of context um this is really to kind of frame um the way that that plaza [clears throat] is working within the the streetscape and the urban spaces. Um so again you see these kind of uh irregularly shaped planters which I think offer really nice soft um kind of foil to the more um traditional architecture of the building. We are suggesting that the snow melt be expanded to really cover the entirety of that plaza. So that that expansion from what was previously shown is in blue. Um the north south uh thoroughfare is intact. So that would be snowmelted entirely from 8th Street to 9th Street on that thoroughfare. Uh and then a small amount of snow melt in the west parking lot. Uh again, um just basically a summary of of kind of what's changed. Um some of the the um the refinements include some plan reorganization again related to an elevator off of 8th Street. So once you come in, there's a lobby off of 8. There's an elevator and an

architecturally open stair to bring up to those event spaces. So, fair amount of transparency and and I think welcoming even once you come in. Uh, the spaces on 8th Street, the the retail spaces, the tenant spaces have been um we're thinking a little differently about that. Previously, it was going to be a singular space for the bookstore. Now it will be um a series of book of um tenant spaces of which the bookstore slspirit shop would be one of those and and then each of those tenant spaces would have an entry off the eighth street plaza. Uh the plan is really this is just demonstrating kind of those those in blue those revisions particularly facing 8th street. Little bit of reorganization. We flipped the boardroom um to the south gable. Um but that really has no impact on the architecture uh relative to the exterior expression as previously presented and approved. Third floor plan unchanged. Um 9inth Street elevation unchanged. the east elevation. Um here you see that addition of the gable the intersecting gable form near the plaza on the north end of the building. Again as approved previously and as proposed

street sweeper. Who was that? My son. Yeah. [laughter] [clears throat]

And then this is um this is demonstrating the way that the main floor the glass and the doors will open. uh quite directly onto that east green that that north south thofair going from 8th to 9th. The gateway arch will be um in brick to match the brick of the building. So as also previously approved the north portion of the building is brick. The academic portion to the south is the stone and the um the new gable form that we're introducing on eighth street would also be stone. And this is just demonstrating our conformance with um the the transparency requirements of the ordinance. Uh and then we have um as I mentioned, Drezing is here if we care to address any of the engineering or um public works um items of the application. So again, thank you for the opportunity to present this. Um happy to address any questions related to the updated design. I have two questions. One, is that Hope College arch the same as the other one that I've seen too?

Very similar to the one near Graves. Um the only difference between this um and the previous is is we're now the brick is matching the building here, right? Yeah. Okay. And then um are the planter seating area would that be heated? Just curious. No, the the not the seating themselves, just the surface around them. Okay. Yeah. Just curious. Anyone else have any questions? I do. The tenant spaces that you were referring to. So, before the plan was just to have the bookstore, correct, be the only, you know, store that would be on 8th Street. But it looked like if you could go back, there's now three or four different tenant spaces. We're showing three tenant spaces. Correct.

Three. Okay. Yes. So those would be possibly outside businesses that would lease from the college. So it hasn't been confirmed yet, but but likely the the one the eastmost one would be we're setting it up to work very well as a cafe. Okay. Right. So coffee kind of spill out for outdoor seating. I think that it would be really compatible and a great enhancement and sort of this part of this come and stay ethos. Um I think the other whether it's a com whether the other two are combined as a spirit shop or one of the other two is the spirit shop then I would say that third one is sort of remains to be seen. Okay thank you.

Any other questions? I don't have questions but I've got a couple of comments. Um I think I think the addition of the snow melt is a is a great idea. Um well done with that. the the arch, even though it was here before, I do want to I want to reiterate. I think that's a that's also a great addition. Um I love the idea that this is a gateway between campus and downtown.

Um I think uh I applaud you guys for for really taking to heart the comments that we made a year or two ago about the connection between campus and downtown. um and making it a welcoming space not only for residents of the city of Holland uh to come onto the Hope College campus, but also to invite Hope College students uh into the downtown area. I think that you've hit the nail on the head. Um and as I said in the October meeting, I really liked the previous plan. Um now that I see the new plan, I don't like the previous plan. I love the new plan. Um, I think that this looks absolutely fantastic and I think it's going to be a great addition to the downtown area and the changes that you've made. Um, while some of them I I don't think really have anything to do with us at the planning commission level, but the things like the snow melt and the arch and the exterior pieces um I think are only going to add to what you had before. So, thank you for that. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Steve, did you have anything to add? [clears throat] A couple things. Thank you. Yeah.

Um, yeah. So, maybe just to maybe just to repeat. So, for you guys, right, you're being asked to approve this new plan. So, uh, the changes that we've really identified are the facade um along 8th Street um area, the setbacks. So there's just a small little change in the setbacks because of that gable um coming out towards 8th Street were a little bit closer to 8th Street which is actually you know what the intent was anyways if you remember we gave them a waiver so they didn't have to be but that's a slight change. The landscaping that uh Brent has mentioned about um in that plaza area is a change and then the archway wasn't a part of the original site plan that we approved. So collectively all these things together staff felt that these reached a level of a major amendment that had to come back to you for approval. So really that's what they're being you're being asked to approve is um you know not the building itself that's been approved but these changes um to the site plan. And then just to throw one wrinkle at you, um if you remember that original approval, one of the things that we asked for was uh an update um annual update about their parking plans

and uh they gave that to us last year and since we were coming tonight, I put that um in your packet. So you have that report again. Again, there's no action on that. That's just sort of a receive and file. Although I don't know if they want to talk about it at all. I would mention it. Uh I would say making progress on several different areas. Uh they were reporting some increase in bus ridership. Um and um they're uh installing right now the parking lot on 11th Street. So overall, I thought uh they're making some good progress on the things that they told us they were going to work on as part of that original approval. So wanted to make sure you guys uh saw that in the report as well.

Great. Thank you. Any other questions from Drezinga or the applicant? All right, you can have a seat. I'm going to open the public hearing at this time. So, thank you. Um, and I will open the public hearing for anyone wants to come forward. No, I will close the public hearing. All right. I move we approve. Support. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. None. All right. Great. Thank you all for coming in. Hope that was painless. [laughter]

Communications and petitions. Scheduling of public hearings. There are none communications from commission members. No communications from staff. Just a reminder about our joint meeting in February coming up. So that'll be in addition to our normal planning commission meeting February 24. Wonderful. And administrative site plan reviews. So we did get a couple and we'll do our our typical uh semianual update of all of them at the January meeting. Perfect. All right. Motion for adjournment. Support. All those in favor say goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.