Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

7 o'clock and everyone who's going to be here is here. We'll call the meeting to order and we will start with the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So, welcome everyone to the February meeting of the Union Township Planning Commission. Um, we've had pledge of allegiance. Roll call, please. Squat here. Bradshaw here. Haze, here. Lap here. Over. Present.

Okay, we're missing some folks, but we have a quorum, so we will proceed. Um, next item is approval of the agenda. So, you have your agenda in front of you. We have uh two new business items and one other business item. Is there anything anyone else is aware of that needs to be on tonight's agenda or any corrections, any issues with the agenda? Okay. If not, we can have a motion to approve the agenda. So move second. So motion by Brad Shaw, second by lap to approve the agenda as prepared. Any discussion? If not, all in favor, please say I.

I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Agenda is approved. Next item is the minutes. We last met on January 20th. So you have the January 20th minutes. Uh starting on page four of the packet. Are there any corrections to the January minutes? Motion to approve. Second. Okay. So, there was a motion by Hayes with a second by Bradshaw to approve the minutes as submitted. Any further discussion?

Not. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay. So, minutes are approved. So um next item is correspondence board reports and presentations. So it says here the updates from board of trustees. However uh commissioner the uh has gone on to greener pastures. He's no longer going to be the board of trustees representative to the planning commission. that uh August responsibility falls on uh Commissioner uh Olver who is back from his uh brief absence from our our commission. You're now a planning or a a trustee

board of trustee a trustee and you're also the trustees representative on the uh to the planning commission. Any updates?

Sure. Yeah. Uh good to be back for starters. Um thanks to no meeting in December, I only missed one. So that worked out pretty well. Uh would mention uh that on the 28th of January at the board meeting uh Chairman Squatrredo and Commissioner Lap were reappointed to the planning commission and glad to have their continued service and wisdom and knowledge. Um they as you mentioned uh put me into James' spot. James is going to be the city's uh the liaison to the city council going forward. Uh and uh I will also serve then as the board's representative on the um township election commission. So other than that, I think everyone's pretty much staying in their their spots as it were. Um we did approve on the 28th a redevelopment project area uh in the east EDA uh east DDA. I'll get there right uh to allow for state liquor control commission issuance of additional on premises liquor licenses. So that uh that went through the board on the 28th and then on the 11th of February, we learned that Rick Bars is rolling off the zoning board of appeals. So that creates uh created a new vacancy and Franklin McKenzie, who had been an alternate has been appointed to that spot through uh 1231 of 2028. So couple of updates there. Uh Dave Coin was appointed uh to the EDA and uh the board discussed some potential projects for the uh next round of 2% grants uh through the trial. So some good things happening and I'm working like crazy to get caught up and up to speed and appreciate the staff and all of the information provided so far to help do that.

Great. Any questions for Commissioner Olver on board of trustees related matters? Any updates on uh applicants for this board?

Yes. Yes. So uh there are three applicants uh that I'm aware of that have submitted for what would be two seats. Uh so Commissioner McDonald's uh term is technically expired and she has applied for reappointment. Uh and then we have two individuals that have applied for what would be the remainder of my vacated seat as a planning commissioner. So uh was thinking that might have happened at the last meeting last Wednesday, but uh we didn't have a full complement of trustees and so uh supervisor Milky has decided to pause until the next meeting which is next week. So

any other questions? Okay. Thank you for that report. Um, Commissioner McDonald's not here. I don't think ZBA has met in the last month. So, according to the notes, our meeting was canceled last month, was it?

Okay. So, um, we'll assume no report there. Next item is community and economic development monthly report. So, you have in your packets the the monthly report, which is uh, you know, everything that's going on virtually in the township. Uh and uh we always give commissioners an opportunity to ask questions on anything you might have seen in the monthly report. Any questions from commissioners? Okay. All right. Well, if you do have questions, you can uh forward them on to to Rodney, but uh we'll go ahead and move on. Are there any other reports or correspondence that anyone is aware of that need to be brought up? Okay. Hearing none, uh we'll move on to public comment. Now, we have a public hearing tonight. This is not that. This is public comment uh towards the front of the meeting which is for um people who want to address the planning commission on items which are which are not on tonight's agenda. So uh the public comment on the reasonzoning will be its own thing. So if there's anyone who would like to address the planning commission either in person or online on any item that is not on tonight's agenda, you're welcome to do so at this time. If you're in the room, come to the podium, give us your name and address for the minutes. If you're online, make your presence known and we will uh

recognize you to speak. But uh general public com non-aggenda public comment is open at 7:08 and we will assume folks are here for other purposes. So we'll go ahead and close that back up. There'll be a general public comment towards the end of the meeting. uh and then of course we'll have uh the public hearing. So we are ready to move on to new business. The first new business item is a reszone application p26-01 application to reszone the southerntherly 1.21 21 acres of a 2.3 acre lot at 4080 South Whitefield Road from agricultural to R2A lowdensity one and two family residential. So we'll have introduction from township staff then we will hear from the applicant then we will hold the public hearing and then commission commissioners will deliberate and take action.

Right. Well well thank you. Uh you should have a copy of our report. uh starts on page 30 32 of the packet uh dates February 3rd. Uh as we said, this isn't resoning. It's it's uh for property at at right at Whiteill Road and at Broomfield Road that is partially it's it's split zone right now. uh back as noted in the report back in 2018, the northern part of this property was reszoned to R2A from the from the agricultural district uh by uh include a copy of the planning commission motion from that that 2018 uh process in in the report. Uh the applicant, the same owner is now asking to resone the remainder of the property. what was resoneed initially was the actually the vacant area uh that's directly adjacent to existing neighborhood that's owned R2A uh is now proposing to to uh resone the rest from agitar 2A this would include the existing home buildings around the property uh you have a copy of our report uh certainly happy to answer questions as we go along with it uh the the key uh thing I'll note our report structured around section 14.5 subsection section G of the ZO ordinance section just entitled findings of fact required findings of fact it uh the section is intended to guide your your your review of of any reserving request it lays out uh essentially some questions to think about some some topics to think about u and it's it's divided into a number of different topic areas essentially five topic areas There's some subsections for those u to to look at uh from what what what about what what's going on with existing proposed

zoning districts parent demand that might warrant a change uh availability of public services and infrastructure. This is going to be I think a key one here. uh consistency with the master plan and whether or not there are other factors involved such as has there been an error uh in the past that may warrant this change or maybe an error in the ordinance or an error on the zoning map uh or the master plan that may warrant a change for example. So we we have some comments. Uh we've included the the text of section 14.5G in our report. U that's the italicized text and the and the bold headers. And then we've added some comments underneath uh where appropriate. U I just want to highlight one item that's in the report and then highlight an item that's actually not in the report. Uh under that item item three is on page 36 of of the packet page five of our report entitled uh availability of public services and infrastructure. Um one of the questions is are there are there services available that will support what the the uses are allowed in the proposed zoning district. The R2A district is primarily for single and two family housing. Uh right now there's an existing very large single family home on the property. Uh the change would allow that home potentially become a two family home. Uh and that I I believe is the interest of the of the owner here. But uh nonetheless, it would allow that that that shift from single family to two family potentially at least through the zoning. One question is are there utilities for example and public services available to support it? uh the uh the applicant uh has noted in the in the their response that you have in your packet uh that that the existing utilities will support the use. They didn't provide any basis for that. Uh

the R2A district actually is intended for land that has water and sewer uh municipal water and munable sewer. Now, if you look at our zoning map, including that neighborhood to the north, uh you'll find some R2A zoning that doesn't have municipal utilities. So, the land directly north of that, although AR R2A and developed that way, uh it that those those homes are served by well and septic our utility system does not extend up to that part of the township. Um but uh at the very least uh what what we've recommended is that the applicant be uh directed to provide the documentation in this case from the central Michigan District Health Department. Uh they they will go they have an evaluation process. I included some information from them in in the packet uh where they will evaluate uh the existing infrastructure for well as septic and and provide a report back as to whether or not it could be suitable for the more intensive use as a two family dwelling. So we simply ask before you take any final action on this item to make a recommendation to the board that that we have that information and you have a chance to take a look at it. Um so that that's a key item. uh you and you'll see that in our recommendation that we're recommending that postpone action on it and make that request. Um and I think in in the recommendation we we've given 90 days uh because you should whenever we postpone action you should do it to a a date certain in the future. Uh so we we written it for 90 days. If they get it earlier than that they absolutely can come in earlier than that. But it matter what we would put it back on that that May agenda item. Either way, uh that's the item that's in the report. I just wanted to mention an item that's not and this is an item that uh u uh as we were putting the the

notice together for this we didn't catch. Uh and that is that we're looking at the resoning being the the southern part of the property where the house is which is about 1.21 21 acres. But as I took a look, unfortunately, not just a week or so ago, he was taking a look at the the uh the drawing for this uh resoning that was submitted by Mr. BB. Uh he showed what what was old road rideway on the on the east side of the property. If you look at that map, you'll see a uh kind of two vertical strips uh line right down the middle. And that's an old section of Whiteville Road, right? White River Road and Bernfield used to meet at a at a 90 degree uh intersection and of course later on the road commission uh change the route curve the road uh and uh they were showing that road right away as being part of the zoning request. They did additional 2 something acres uh that was not listed in our notice. Uh, I'm actually wondering if it's if it's actually even necessary because typically when when when road rightway is abandoned, what happens is the zoning essentially the zoning usually goes to the center of the road if they're two different districts. Um, and so in this case, the R2A and the and the egg district to the east would gone to the center of what was the old white builder right away. U there may be no need to change that area up there. Um, but uh when as as I as we looked into the the property history, we we didn't find anything that showed that that rightway had been incorporated into this lot. So, we'll be asking uh the the applicant to to provide that information. Well, it didn't get into your report. This is something we can simply ask the the applicant to uh to clarify. Uh and we just need the documentation that

shows what happened to that old ride. If it was abandoned, where did it go? Uh we just there's nothing in in the property record that shows that that was added to this. Are you talking about this triangular piece here? Next to that actually the triangular piece is is separate. It's the the two vertical strips just to the west of that. Yeah.

So that that's a that's you might call it a housekeeping item. is one that that that they can easily I'm sure provide that information. Uh if there's a need to uh to address that as part of uh an updated hearing uh we we will take care of that and provide a second set of notices that it's something the township will simply take care of. But as I said there may not even be need because zoning may already go to the center of that right away anyway. Uh so with that in mind uh as I said happy to uh answer questions as we go along. Uh I certainly would encourage you to use that uh section 14.5g to to guide your discussion and uh that's for us I would ultimately recommend for tonight anyway to recommend the post money action with that request for additional information.

Okay. Any immediate questions for Rodney? Ron, I got a question. You were just talking about that in the cycos to you that included that two track going back. Um would them reszoning that information, say they wanted to get that additional like two acres parcel, would that open up to them further development on that land, you know, versus if what they were originally showing proposal.

Uh you mean as it's currently zoned, the split right now? Yeah, the split right well the split right now is a so we couldn't do any like you know renting or anything like that I'm assuming on it I was wondering you just brought up that the site that they the plan they submitted to you didn't support what they showed on it and I was wondering like why that would be you think it would be just an error or could that lead to like zoning that would allow them to do further development on it because they'd increased their lot of

re Oh Well, I if uh let's say for example the whole lot is is zone R2A u if there's a land division available they potentially could create a separate lot to build something on the other part the land acreage wise it would it would be sufficient. The question would really be is whether the land division act if there was any divi if there was any divisions available to that property under the land division act and that's that's bit of a complicated question we'd have to do the history property history on that find out okay I was looking for thank you appreciate

anything else I am a little concerned with the key financing and conclusions the first one where you say uh the proposed reszoning to R2A is inconsistent with the master plan's future land use designation Can you can you expand on that a bit? Yeah. Uh the uh as you see on the on the uh the page uh 33 and page two of our report, we have just a a blown up part of the future land use map. And you'll see there that that uh the site is part of what what the ordinance calls rural preservation, right?

Uh and that area is not intended to uh uh to be reszoned R2A. That is not intended to be residential. essentially tend to be agricultural. That's a that's a a classification uh that essentially it's an area of the township that that you as a planning commission uh in 2018 when this was adopted determined that that area should remain uh rural agricultural. Okay. Uh and and not become something more. Okay.

That doesn't that doesn't mean you can't resone the property. I mean this not a zero sum game. It just means that you need to carefully consider the factors involved and that's part of what that subsection G is talking about there. There may be reasons uh why reszoning is appropriate even if the master project says otherwise but uh it should be carefully considered. Understood. Thank you. I realize this is probably before your time right 2018. Were you here yet? No, I was not here. Peter Peter was

what was the rationale initially? I I mean I see that zoning requests were made and approved, but I don't see any rationale for why that zoning request was originally made anyway because now basically you're asking to change it. I guess I'm I'm confused by the series of events that have has led us to this and why these decisions were made the way they were. I mean, I understand that the property couldn't fully be I guess I don't understand why they split split the zoning to begin with because they didn't do anything with the property. So, what was the point of reszoning? Well, I guess for that one, my my suggestion actually be to talk to the owner or the owner's representative. I I understand that that uh the owner's attorney, Mark McCuller, is going to be on Okay. Zoom. I assume it's on Zoom

right now. So, I'm going to ask that question of him uh because it is the same owner that went through this process in 2018. I I did include I I hope you saw the highlight there uh talking about the 2018 minutes. I include the motion, but actually that highlight was directly to the minutes of the meeting. There wasn't wasn't a lot in the minutes. Okay. But uh you you can kind of see uh uh in the in the motion itself they the reason they gave was that that uh because of the adjacent adjacency of this site to the neighborhood to the north. The the reasons are yours no matter what we do. The reasons are are yours to take any action. U I I don't know all the reasons why the request was made but Mr. Keller, maybe he'll help you with that.

All right. Any other question? I mean, Rodney's not going anywhere, so any other pressing questions for Rodney? Um, one more question related to the changing of um the the zoning and any future obligation from the township to then I mean can people living in two R two what is it? Does Res is R2? R2A. Yeah. R2A then petition to have services extended to them. I mean, is that a potential problem for the township?

You know, it's an that that's an interesting question. I um I will say first of all, the short answer is really no because we do have a service area. We do we we have services that are going to a certain distance if they don't go other places.

Okay. Um but you know in terms of zoning uh as was noted in the report the purpose statement for the R2A district says this is a district uh that should only be for sites that that have municipal water and munable sewer. So uh on the zoning side it certainly suggests that this area including that adjacent neighborhood ought to have those services. There are no plans neither in the 2018 master plan nor in our utility plans to extend water or sewer in that that direction. Okay. Thank you. Is it common, Rodney, for one parcel to have two different zoning designations?

Uh no, it's not common. We try we try to avoid it. Uh sometimes you can have large acreage where you might have the frontage zone one way and the rest zone otherwise. the property just down the street here uh on the other side of Lincoln Road is that way where the frontage is zoned for business or office, the back is residential. U so it does happen. Um but we prefer to avoid it. This was done uh I said 2018 it was requested for whatever reason. The the boundary line is an interesting one. Yeah. But that was how it was requested and ultimately how it was approved.

Okay. Ronnie on the recommendation you had uh in regard to their services. Currently, there's only one set of um I don't know why I can't think of it now. The big tank that goes in the ground that holds your waist.

Septic, right? And you would recommend it that unit be split. So, so uh the uh as I said as I we understand it the interest is in converting this building which is a very large single family home into two two uh yeah basement to duplex a two a two-unit building. Uh the uh the rules for well and septic are not set by the township. They're set by the central Michigan District Health Department. Uh I've worked with health departments around the state. Some health departments require a separate well and septic for each unit in a two-unit building. Uh our uh health department does not have that rule. They they will it the rules are silent on the well, but on on septic it is possible for a two-unit building to use the same septic system, but it has to meet certain criterias or requirements. And that's where that evaluation comes in. Um the uh it is certainly better to have two separate systems. These are two units. They may have very different usage uh and very different maintenance needs as a result of that usage. Uh but uh that's ultimately it's the health department's rules that would apply. The key for us is simply to have confirmations whether those those systems are are functional and will be functional for the more intensive use.

And you haven't received that yet from them? No, you you have what I have. I I sent them an email. I just asked and uh you you actually don't have they sent me the whole history of this property which I did not include about 25 pages of of well records and and various things. Uh but you have the core which which essentially that that they would want to do an evaluation. Excuse me if I missed this but with the recommendation uh it's saying postpone until May. So that's three months. Is that the projection of how long it would take the health department in that process to unfold or

No, no. They the health I did not ask anything about the time on that and 90 days was simply a number to put out there. U as as I said if if if they get it done sooner we'll actually put it on an earlier agenda. Okay. It's just that no matter what it will appear on your May agenda. I see. Okay. Anything else? All right. Thank you. So now uh I was told we have the applicant's representative online. So we want to give the applicant an opportunity to address the planning commission before we have the public hearing. He just raised his hand.

Okay. So we want to I don't know if he's if he unmutes himself or how that works. Okay. I've asked him to unmute. Uh, slightly. Can we turn up the volume? I'll do what I can.

Okay. Try Could you speak again, sir? Yes. A little better. Yeah, slightly. Uh, one more time.

It's like it's coming from behind the air wall. Uh, could you please uh keep talking just so that I can see if my settings are having an effect? Not a problem. You guys, is it any better? As long as the room is perfectly quiet, we can hear you. But if a car goes by or something like that, it's going to wash out. If you want to start kind of start your introduction and then Okay.

Um, you know, we'll stop you if we can't hear. Okay, I'll I'll try to go slow and speak as loud as I can. Just interrupt me if you guys didn't catch anything. Um Keller attorney um the of res and I kind of want to get into some of the questions that were raised. I've had a chance to review and the first thing I can tell you is I'm not exactly sure the purpose of the 2018 requesting other than to make it consistent with the north future opportunities there to dolex. You know at the time this agultural zone parcel was not going to be anticipated this would be no longer needed. This would be a longterm development investment for coaches football team customizing the facilities garage which have to be connected because you can't have more than one structure there, additional space. This was the meeting area for the football team. The coaches, so coaches would stay overnight for long planning sessions. So, it's really kind of um wasn't really it was very specifically built for that anticipated use. And then transition to the next football coach. Unfortunately, that's not going to be playing out anymore. So, now you have this this home

that's not terribly marketable for the community and doesn't really fit the needs of the community. And that's not to say that doesn't fit the needs of of somebody. Um, and it certainly isn't a great opportunity for my client to have a property like that. Um, granted, that's not necessarily the township's, you know, major concern, but the the main purpose of the resoning request here is to allow this this kind of unusual parcel of I should say building itself the um issue related to the public health unfortunately I want to address that Um typically in rescent to an existing R2A it has R2A Um and the intent is to split the north portion north parals in that subdivision are all private sept into this area and the request by Rodney

is um is relatively reasonable we object to that idea. Um that would be normally in the entitlement part of site plan review or plot plan review for approval and you know done by submitt to the health department providing that to the township at that time. Given the circumstances in this uh matter we don't object to the proposed condition. It's a little unusual, but I don't think I have any reason to object to it. It makes sense to me that the real purpose is to utilize that use. If the health department is going to approve it, they can. Um the date May 18th is fine. I think as long as the condition for say along lines if the application um request uh applicants requested documentation part comes in sooner that we can set it for you know the next meeting that's available should be or something like that we would appreciate that but the health department issue I don't think one um but that's between the applicant and the health department understanding they have a chance to digest it. Um their recommendation I guess recommendation is to approve it a condition upon the favorable department be achieved on that property for the duplex. Uh that's that's perfectly fine. Um the road right away I want to address that by by saying this. I'm not exactly sure where the road right away um entitlement process ended. Typically, as Rody indicated, when you have abandonment lease of a road, half of that goes to the municipality

in this case or not, but half would go to the adjacent land owner and half of the land go to my client. I think that that uh right away um used to center on that east property line. So I think that that portion had ultimately gone to um you know my existing right away is what was so I don't think there's any um issue there but we can have our surveyors confirm that it certainly isn't you know cloaker approach to garner additional land after the fact to achieve some type of split uh with additional lands that we weren't you know acknowledging were part of the property. So I just want to address that. Um with regard to the concept of why it's you know appropriate approval really is this there's a lot of statements made by Rockb that are true uh regarding available land to to utilize this type of use. The distinction here is those are vacant lands. Um, this has already got a building on it. It's a building that for various reasons is internally difficult to market if not nearly impossible to market. And this land, unlike a a different piece of vacant land that's not zoned R2A, this land is already half zone R2A. And I think what also is important to recognize is this isn't 10 acres, 20 acres. that is a large scale or scalable development that is trying to attach

itself to this development. This is a you know a very small parcel. If it had a division I don't know if it does if you had one you're talking one um but the point being this isn't a big overreach. This is this is already partially zoned. It is already has a building on it that is you know for reason stated difficult to split and again we're not asking for 10 or 20 acres to build another neighborhood here um that would be a different kind you know concept all together so I do agree that you know these statements by Rodney and these conditions on 145G are true I don't I don't don't question them I would just say that uh the circumstances on the property that are unique are fact is existing that it is half zone um and that um the relationship to the um neighboring parcel and the community understand that it's not a large scale development if it didn't have the zoning on the north side of it was a much larger vacant parcel I would tend to agree with with concerns that You know, we're really going out of our way here to push the boundaries of the map to go out of our way to, you know, accommodate the use that's really not intended to be expanded. Um, I think that it's important for properties like this to have some definition. And we have an opportunity to allow utilized.

It's you know unique and several attributes that that would justify the result. So with that, I I would just say if you guys have any questions about the application or the conditions, I believe there's sufficient condition approval um based on the 14G provisions and that um we would not object to the request uh to condition the approval final approval. Um I I guess it would just have to be recommendation to approve it. subject to report that the BFL style private wall and sewer septic system can be and will be permitted um and then to set it for um final uh recommendation then uh to the council board at that point. So, with that, I will I will stop. If you guys have questions, please let me know. I'm happy to try to address them.

Okay. Thank you very much. And we were able to hear you pretty well. They got the volume up while you were talking. Um, I know we had questions with Rodney. I'm looking at my agenda. The agenda says introductions and then public hearing and then commission questions and discussion. So, I guess I want to the the ghost of Commissioner Buckley is whispering in my ear, telling me to follow the agenda and run the meeting properly. So, I'm going to try to do that. So, let's move to the public hearing and then we'll cycle back because I believe there probably will be questions that we'll want to ask uh not just the applicants representative, but possibly also um township staff. So, this is a reasonzoning request. Those are always accompanied by a public hearing. The uh the uh announcement was published in the morning sun. Property owners within 300 feet were notified by mail. Uh and so uh if there's anyone either in person or online, any member of the public who wishes to address the planning commission on the resoning application, uh you should do so at this public hearing. If you're in the room, just come to the podium, give us your name and address for the minutes, and uh it'll limit your at least your initial comments to three minutes. If you're online, make your presence known. Uh you can hit the raise hand button, and we'll make arrangements for you to speak. So, the public hearing on reszone request uh 26-01 is open at 7:41. Did we receive any writing? Any written communications? Okay, so no written communications. No one in the room is making a mad dash for the microphone. I don't see any

indication and there are some people in the room but I uh don't see any indication that anyone else is seeking to speak at this point. So, second call for public comments on reszone request 26-01 and third and final call. Any public comments? Okay, let the record show that no public comments were offered and the public hearing is closed at 7:42. So now we're ready to proceed with commission questions and discussion. So are there questions for uh Mr. McKeler from commissioners? Mr. McCeller, if I could ask a question quick, just a little bit of clarity. Was it that you guys built a clubhouse for the football team that's no longer being used? Was this this was utilized by the high school football team for different organization and events, but now that's no longer the case and that's why you're submitting for reasonzoning here. Is that what it was used for?

No, it's the head coach of CMU. Head coach of CMU. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was it was the coach's house and I don't know my video popped out or not. You guys hear me? Yeah. Yep. Okay. Thank you. I wasn't sure if it was a local one or that. I didn't see that in the book. Thank you.

Um, let me ask you one other question. Can you talk a little bit more about what efforts have been made to market and sell the property as is? I mean, the adjacent neighborhood is what I would describe as kind of an upscale neighborhood. there's some goodsized homes in there. I realize that this particular property is unique uh in this community, but on the other hand, there's, you know, there is demand for larger homes. Just talk a little bit about how how far have you gone down that road to the point where you're convinced that this is your only option?

Well, to be completely honest, I don't know that there's been a effort just given conversations with, you know, the real in the area about housing. You know, to be completely honest, I don't think housing is trending north in Isabel County and you know, out pleasant. It's just it's just not. So, um not that it's a exclusive consideration or even one necessarily required. U I don't think that it's even been approached just simply because it's just not a vital option given it's unique very unique design. Um so I think it kind of got nipped in the bud in initial conversations with real estate folks that you know this is pretty much a very difficult process to do it. So it's one of those things that I think warranted Let's list it and see what happens for the next year, you know, or what I think is let's just do the right thing. Let's change this parcel, this property. It's going to require significant I mean, it's just going to require significant changes likely for anyone would want that. So, it's not just an expensive house. an expensive house with a lot of changes that would have to be made to make it a home. Uh that isn't for a football coach where he can have his staff and his team there prepping, reviewing, analyzing. So that's that's about all I can say on that matter.

Okay. Thank you. Other questions for the applicants representative from commissioners? Mr. Mckeler, is there any agriculture happening on that part of the parcel at this point? No, not that I'm aware of. Thank you. I don't think there has been since it's been uh developed.

Um Mr. Keller, when the initial uh development was done, I mean, I'd assume that the property owners were well and aware that at some point if there came to reselling, this would be a hard parcel to move and be a hard place to move based on its very unique development and structure. I mean, I think personally I think there's an understanding right going in that if any type of redevelopment was going to tank, it would come to a zoning change. And I guess I was wondering like is that something that you believe you, you know, we should be looking at changing our zoning laws based off of a decision you guys made building a property that was going to be known to be very hard to then turn over once that agreement ended.

Well, I would say this uh that two things. One is it's marketability isn't this positive factor if you take that off of the table. Um, I still think there's viable conditional approval available here. There's reasons to do it anyway. Um, what I would also note is let's be realistic about the circumstances. The family that built this for the coaches did it for the benefit of the college. I don't know that very many people would have spent the time and energy to do this to accommodate the football team's desire and the school's desire to do this. It was for more or less the community. This wasn't for the greater good of you know this was for put significant resources effort into this to provide a place that was attractive who could attract coaches and I think they expected the the size and modern build of it was actually going to continue for a much longer period of time than it did. Um, but they, you know, this isn't your traditional marketable project where you're trying to get a specific ROI. It just was being done primarily for the school. The additional portion of it is um it is a difficult wasn't intended certainly it was not intended to be as soon of a problem from its uh very specific use. it was expected to be much longer process you know I I could see you know

the initial you know concern I think that's why we're we're here today is it's uniquely different than a traditional you know ROI analysis sure I mean it's very unique I mean there's not a lot of businesses or people that would have the financial wherewithal to be able to build something like this. Um, that's it for me.

Okay. Any other questions? I mean, they're not, again, they're not going anywhere, but any other questions right now for either the applicant or uh township staff? Okay, then I'm going to suggest we move on to commission deliberation and action. We've been asking questions, we've been having some discussion, but uh it's on it's in front of us. The action, the necessary action is either some sort of recommendation to the board of trustees or uh postponement. And uh so we need to discuss, deliberate, and take some action. It's on the floor for discussion. Seems a reasonable request to me and I appreciate Director Nanny's approach here with the septic concern. Uh I'm still a little fuzzy on the May 18th versus taking action or recommending action today. Uh but generally I'm in support of this.

Okay. I think the concern is that why would you approve something that's intended with if its intended use couldn't be realized and that would be why you would need that the health department to confirm that the septic would be sufficient. Yeah. For the intended plan. So

yeah, just to me it makes sense confuses me about well to me it would make sense to see the septic before you making that decision because if the septic if they say no it couldn't possibly do this then then we're like why would we approve a reszoning based on someone's decision to build this way and then well plans change but I'd like you to reszone rather than me have to renovate this property right so

I mean I would say from Rodney's recommendation this is not a reszoning something that I would support. It's not looking at something that where we need to go back and clean up someone else's decision years ago because I don't I don't know what relationship happened between them and the CMU coach, but you know, they were full well knowing what they were building going in, full well knowing what the zoning was for that near and probably how hard it would be to now then unload this property as it was zoned. Well, on the other hand, the planning commission did in 2018 agree to the for single family though, but but they agreed to divide the property. And that to me suggests that the commission should then look at it again and say, was that the correct decision?

You know, does that support the current proposal? I mean, I think it's worth I think sometimes there are, you know, people make decisions and then you go tw how many years later, eight years later or seven years later and say, hm, was that the correct decision to make or not? So, I think it's worth looking at. It's just I would have questions about the septic before I'd want to look at supporting a proposal just because if they couldn't move forward with the duplex anyway, what would be the point of them reszoning? Yeah, I agree. Like you said, there's a bit more information, a bit more work we need to get done before any type of decision, right, will be made. I'm also have some concerns about the conflict with the master plan, but it's already a conflict. I guess I'm on the fence on this one. That's part of the reason why I'd want to see the septic report because yeah,

I agree. I agree. There's issues with the master plan, but that's already a done deal, right? We already have a split. So, right, do you then increase that split just because it would make sense for that that particular parcel or do you say no because it doesn't comply to the master plan? And I think this kind of hinges on this on the septic report because as you said earlier, if we make the decision now and the septic report comes back and they say, "Well, sorry, we can't do that, right?"

Then then where are we? Is there a scenario where the entire parcel would be uh made a instead of the R2A? I mean, I don't think they're going to promote that. I'm just curious if if one of the things we're trying to resolve is a split parcel with two different zoning designations, which creates confusion and lack of clarity. Is that something that the township would pursue to align with the master plan?

So, the the township can resone the property. Uh we it would be a separate public hearing. This was not part of uh prezoning the northern part back to a was not part of what was notified to the neighbors in the hearing notice. So we would we would have to start that separately as a as a process just as you did if you recall the property and the road where we had similar issue with property that was not zoned for what was and ultimately you decided to resone it um

uh going from industrial to to the R1. But uh so it is possible you certainly can do that. Uh it would typically be initiated by the planning commission just as you did in that other case. uh and then we would send the notices out. We notify the owners and the neighbors um and and proceed. Um but that would be that's separate from this. Uh what I will say is one thing u Mr. McCeller I I appreciate his his suggestion for conditional action on your part. But uh and I know you you're used to often having conditional actions where approve something something too, but those are site plan or special use permit actions where where conditions can be included. Uh the the only option for a conditional resoning uh is is a separate application. There is a there's a provision in the state zoning act uh just called conditional reszoning and that's where the developer uh proposes to reszone something but freely offers a condition essentially limiting themselves. So they might say well we want you to resone this property multiple family residential but we're only going to build duplexes. Um and and so they propose the condition and you decide whether to accept it. Ultimately the board decides whether to accept it. Uh but you can't change it. Uh that's a very specific process in the state act. Reszoning normally uh there's not any conditions. You you certainly can recommend however you wish, but but uh the recommendations should be clear either yes or no. You ask we recommend to approve the resoning or or no, we recommend against it and here's why. So it's really not conditions. It's here are the reasons why this action is the appropriate one that we recommend. And that's that's why we for today u rather than pushing this forward to the board uh recommended simply postpone action. Uh I Mr. McCuller asked essentially if this could come back earlier than 90 days and as I said earlier absolutely

when if they provide information earlier it will be on your next agenda. uh we're at what the only reason for the 90 days is so that even if they don't provide anything at the 90 days it'll be on your agenda so you can get an update where are things um and maybe you get an update that says we we need another 30 days um and that's fine but but it will no matter what it would be coming back in May you you can set it wherever you wish if you'd like to have it shorter than that um it's that's completely fine we just want to make sure they had time to respond uh but but if it's sooner they will absolutely would be on that that agenda. Um the U I think those were the key items that that that I want to make sure we're covered.

Mr. Mer Oh yeah, Mr. McKeler.

You can I just wanted to make clarification. I might have been in artful saying I wasn't recommending a conditional um conditional uh reszoning. I was uh recommending that the um that the motion you made tonight we concurred with it being conditioned upon the health department reviewing and bringing it back after that. So my if I was in art in saying that I I recognize the distinction between the two concepts. I was merely suggesting that the uh action taken tonight be conditioned upon the um health department would be fine with us.

Okay. Thank you. Um All right. I guess I haven't spoken yet, but um so well, first of all, when this when in every township survey that has been administered since I've been around, I've always said that I think that the township should preserve its rural character. So, I definitely favor that and we're going to be looking at a piece of that later on in this meeting. in this case because there's the the the the property is already developed and there's already a structure there. I don't see this as being an encroachment on the agricultural heritage of the township because there's not they're not farming on that piece of property. And the fact that it does adjoin the the existing R2A um I think it's it's reasonably um reasonably justified. I understand the logic about well the guy built what he built and you know he should live with it. But on the other hand I mean the township has a certain responsibility to try to make sure that that the the facilities and the the uh you know housing stock and other things that we have are able to be used effectively and and you know be on the market and be paying taxes etc etc. So, I guess I would say I'm I'm more or less leaning in favor of of uh of this request, but I agree that uh it's sensible to defer action until the uh that report is in so we can make sure that it can be used the way that they want to use it. So, any further discussion? If not, we can have a motion at any time. Um, I would move then to postpone action

on any recommendation to the board of trustees until the May 18th, 2026 regular meeting or earlier if materials are available earlier with the request of the applicant to provide written documentation from the central Michigan District Health Department of the results of detailed evaluations of the existing well and the existing septic system including primary and reserve drain fields showing full suitability for the proposed two family residential use. Second. Okay. So, the motion was by Lab, second by Hayes. Any further discussion? Okay. I will ask for a roll call vote because it's an official action. Bradshaw, yes. Yes. Lap, yes. Over. Yes. Hayes,

yes.

Okay, motion carries. Thank you. So, we will we will see you again uh in May, if not sooner. All right. So, we're ready to move on to our second new business item. This is a preliminary site plan application PR ESPR26-01 for a 106 room fourstory hometoome hotel and 8,000qt retail building on a 4 acre lot on the northwest corner of East Bluegrass and South Collegiate Way. So once again, we'll hear from Rodney, then we'll hear from the applicant.

Thank you. Uh you should have a copy of our report dated February the 9th. Uh starts on page 57 of the packet. Uh this was said this is for a hotel project east bluegrass road at collegiate way. U very very uh nice nice project more or less in two parts. They're showing two phases. The hotel is phase one. They're noting the retail building as a separate phase. We'll talk about that a little bit more in just a minute. Um this is a preliminary site plan. Uh so they have not dealt with all the engineering details yet, but they actually the plans are very solid, very very well put together. Uh and certainly they provided for areas for storm water management and and other engineering elements that will be detailed out on the final site plan. In our report, you'll see a number of of bullet points. U sometimes happens on preliminary site plans. There are are things that need to be tweaked and uh there there are a number of uh one of the concerns we had was actually with the somewhat with the format the layout. There's the the site plan is very busy. Uh there's I think what we recommended was take some of this information spread it out as second sheets. Uh make it a little easier to to uh navigate the the plan. uh also recommend is making some changes to recognize that for the most part especially you as planning commissioner reviewed this on 11 by7 uh printed sheets. So uh want to make sure that things are leg fully legible that that uh sheet size u but those details are all things that they can address. Uh the plans even if what you have they're legible they're just kind of some case kind of small. Um so we were comfortable with moving the project forward. did ask for that those tweaks. U a few tweaks related to parking and the loading area. Probably the most significant one is

actually for the hotel. Uh the hotel does not have a a loading area labeled. Our ordinance does require loading area for the hotel. Uh they of course going to need a loading area for for supplies and such like that coming in. Uh the there's an area the area labeled up front. The entrance is labeled essentially as a a guest loading area that of course when you're coming in to stay at the hotel, you would pull up up front under the under the canopy and unload your luggage. And that that's not a loading area as far as the ordinance is concerned. Uh what we're talking about there is is the the back end loading area, the back office over here where you're bringing in supplies, toilet paper, whatever, towels, those kinds of things, whatever the hotel needs. So, we're just asking to show that, show how that's going to be handled on this site. Uh, frankly, they may handle it through the that same canopy. They may have that happened in off hours and it could in fact use that same space as long as it meets our ordinance requirements. So, that we just need that detail in the final plan and we're very comfortable that they will be able to accomplish that without major adjustments to the site. uh some details related to sidewalks. They are are are proposing to to put in the sidewalks along both Bluegrass Road and and the frontage of Collegiate Way. Uh that's required. Some of those sidewalks are outside of the road right away. So, we will need easements for that. Uh that's the final site plan item. U we just made the make the note about it. Uh the uh they did provide some landscaping details or kind of almost partial plans. Uh the plans they provided don't meet our ordinance requirements. Um and they they were clearly labeled conceptual. I suspect be for part of the sort of general conceptual set uh that this type of projects proposed broadly. Uh the

landscaping plan is not required till the final site plan stage. Uh, one reason we recommend that people provide it early is if they have any desire to make modifications or propose modifications for what our ordinance requires. That's something the planning commission has to address. So, u in this case, they'll be needing to provide as part of the final site plan and if they do propose any modifications, then that plan will be coming back back to you for for action on it. Um, if they if they meet all of our ordinance requirements, then then conceivably could be administratively approved. Um the uh phasing uh page three of our report u we just want to talk about phasing uh the plan notes phase one phase two uh notes hotels buildings phase one retail buildings phase two we don't have any concern about that other than uh as noted in our uh section subsection R 14.2 2R of the zoning ordinance. Uh fa anytime there's phasing on a site plan, uh the the key for us for the township is to confirm that if only phase one is built that it will stand on its own without needing anything from phase two. Uh so essentially if they never build the retail building that the site works and uh so in this case because of how the site's laid out because it's fairly small site uh but how the site's laid out where the bicycle parking is loading uh driveways parking all that uh is intermixed between the between the two elements uh and around the two buildings that are proposed. Uh what we've recommended is simply that phase one includes everything but the retail building itself. Uh all the other improvements uh would need to be built and essentially the where the footprint of that retail building would would be one area u and because basically the the the site improvements uh are designed to

cover both the retail building and the hotel. Bicycle parking is near the retail building but it covers both. Uh, for example, the storm water management is up to the north end of the site, it covers both. So, uh, as long as the the applicant's comfortable with limiting phase two to only the retail building, which is essentially be a separate building permit. Uh, we're very comfortable with with the proposal to have that phased in that way. So, with that in mind, we're very happy to to recommend the project to you. Um, subject to a few conditions. Uh, the report noted two items. What we did uh in the motions that you have uh is we kind of detailed that out a little bit more. So you'll see in the in the proposed motions you'll see a motion there with conditions that has four items on it. And the reason why we kind of detailed it out is we set this up for potentially being if administrative approval of the final site plan. U we always try to help the applicant be able to do that if they if they're able to. Um and so by drafting the conditions the way we did, these are things that the zoning ministry can simply verify happened. Uh and uh and if if they meet these four conditions and all the requirements of the ordinance apply uh then like other site plans come to us as final site plans. It could be administratively approved. If not, it would simply come back to the plan commission for your action.

Okay. Are there any questions for Rodney? while he's up there. Okay. If not, we'll go ahead and hear from the applicant. Please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the minutes, and tell us everything you'd like to tell us. Everybody uh everyone, my name is Ray. I'm with Sapphire Group. Uh we're looking to build a beautiful upper midscale um home to suites hotel by Hilton in the corner of East Bluegrass and Collegiate Way. It'll be great for the economy in the area since it is an extended stay hotel for the guests that want to stay for a longer period of term. Um it offers a beautiful kitchenet, uh a pool and free breakfast. Um it is one of the newer prototypes and uh we're really excited to bring it to the area. A little background about us. Um we are the top developers for Hilton and IHG. We own the most Holiday Expresses in North America. Um, we received multiple awards such as developer of the year from IG and Hilton. Um, we know what we're doing. We're really good at what we do and uh, very excited to contribute to your guys' economy out in Mount Pleasant. I have Rich Deber who is our civil engineer who's going to go into the details of the civil you guys.

Okay. Thank you.

I'm the engineer surveyor in the project and really intended questions. I'll answer them if you need need me if maybe the only thing I guess I'll touch on is the phasing. Let me talk with the owners and see what we want to do. It it was set up so I I could almost draw a line on here where these parking bays here and here go with the building and so you could almost make a square and say okay that whole square it's not dependent other than the bike rack which we could obviously do over here. Sewer and water independent everything independent. So we can talk about that later. It's not not anything we can't do. I think there was a couple other couple requests more so for during construction also. I don't know how your building plan reviews work along with the construction as far as when I'm getting permits for sewer and water. Um can that building plan submitt be parallel with the civil plans during the site plan administrative review? Is that something that's possible?

Yeah. So, uh just give the background both for you and for the planning commission. Uh the the way the way we handle uh the the linkage between site plan approval and building permits is we do require that the final site plan be approved before building permit application is turned in. I will tell you that that in some cases uh we will will especially for a complicated project we might have the have the building fish go ahead and kind of informally take a look at at plans uh ahead of time. this is a project that's really not in that space. For example, the jail we did that u where where he was looking at those plans early u but uh typically we we want to have the final site plan approved and the reason for that is because the fin the approved final site plan actually gets turned in as part of the building plans. It's it's in part of the set uh with the building plans u and so if it's not if we don't have it approved then there's not a way to do that. So that that that's the step. So the key is really to get the final set plan done.

Okay. Yeah. Because a lot of times what happens is they ask for a foundation permit at risk. So that again as soon as it's day after meeting approved not before that we can restart the foundation. That's just to get the ball rolling. That's something that they usually talk about. Yeah. We we've not done that. We've done the rating permits occasionally. Okay. But we've not done well I I actually I'll take that back and come on the jail. I think the jail, the county jail was the only site where we we granted a foundation permit ahead of time. I suspect it will be the only one we will ever do that. That's fine. I mean, as long if we have the soil erosion permit and then they were approved, we can start moving some dirt, putting so erosion plants up, that's fine, too.

Yeah. So, the key is really get us through final site. No problem. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So it's kind of in front of us. We have uh opportunity for questions and discussion and followed by deliberation and action. I had a question if I could ask a question of uh Ray there. Ray Ray, can you tell me a little bit more about just what like the the primary user of home two's suites are? Are these temporary people that are

in town, you know, and stay for a month at a time, two months at a time? I'm asking this because we have a huge housing crunch in central Michigan and and throughout the area. So, I'm I'm encouraged to see more development come in that people can use and afford and can help the people here that are needing like long-term residency as well as what it seems like expect yours is which is more like a long extended hotel stay. Can you give me a little more clarity?

Yeah, so with home too it's an extended stay hotel. Some travelers stay few days, few weeks or even months at a time. um for those who have work in the area or you know since CMU is right around the area um it could be geared towards like families who come to stay with their children or um visitors coming to stay. So honestly it's geared toward anyone um for I would say around a month or so month or two maybe um but that's something I can follow up with my ownership group and uh valid answer on that. Do you know what the average like cost is to build? Oh no no for for um occupancy you know to stay in uh that's something I would discuss for sales team. Yep. Thanks. Appreciate it.

I can speak to one example because my son just did this. He had a internship for 10 weeks in near Chicago and they put them up in a home two suites for 10 weeks. Something like that. That's one example. Yeah. My wife does similar stuff whenever she has out to Chicago. They have a whole giant home two suites out there in the in the suburbs. So, yeah. Thank you. Okay. But even though you work for the company, you have no idea what a week or a month or even a night in one of these places would ballpark cost. Um, well, I have the ownership group online right now. Maybe they can uh shed some light on that.

I I will note this is kind of early in the process for them to have made those determinations. I was going to say they be looking at the market depends on the area. Yeah, I suspect that answer is we're working on that. Yeah, it just varies on the area. You know, rates in Chicago would differ from a regalis football weekend. Exactly. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know.

But again, pricing is structured by flexible rates for people that are going to be in temporary housing, you know. Because I can imagine if someone was staying there for a month, it would be detrimental to them to like learn that then, oh geez, I'm out here for, you know, four weeks, but two of them are football games. So now my rate goes up by 600 bucks a week or night. You know, that's something I can find after chair, you have two raised hands. Okay, I guess unmute and try to speak up. Yeah,

let's hear it. Sorry gentlemen. Uh ladies and gentlemen, this is Shaz Malik. I think Assad Malik the owners also raised his hands that wanted to get unmuted. Uh we we can't unmute oursel until the uh host allows us to unmute ourselves. Okay. Well, we can hear you just fine. So, thank you.

Perfect. So, until gets unmuted, I'll just take it. Um just wanted to give you a little bit of an update on on the home too. You guys already had the discussion. pretty much answers the majority of the questions. But yeah, the uh the the overheads the the you know the single night stays depends on a lot of factors. It's an upper midscale um extended stay brand. It is a Hilton brand so it's uh not going to be the cheapest option in the market but it does attract a lot of groups corporate and tourism. So what we've been seeing now is a lot of traffic for these extended stay hotels and yeah being where it is um with you know um the amount of traffic coming in football games you know conferences whatever that actually factors in a lot to what we're uh pricing it I think unmuted so you can pitch in too.

Um yeah thank you for having us as said um we're it's it's a midscale um uh extended state product was built and we would be um actually kind of replacing the Hampton in um the Hampton in would be losing its flag um and uh the home too would uh be kind of taking over at that level. Um so it it would take not only extended stay but take some um regular uh guests that stay just for a few days also. Um but the rates tend to be about the same uh as your your holiday in expresses or holiday in and you have to um hotels and fairfield in um so that's probably that's pretty much the same rate category. So um you'll see that rate as it relates to football games and the price goes up or down. Normally extended stay they'll get fixed rate for uh you know for two weeks of whatever that coin rate is the market it would be that they would jump up too high for a game.

Okay. And then um for this facility based on its size uh approximately how many employees once it's up fully up and running just the hotel piece not the other not the retail. Yeah. So you get we estimate about 30 employees for this facility. Did you say about 30? Yeah about 30. Okay. Other questions?

I mean, it looks really nice. in the United States.

Is the photograph in the room a good representation of what our building would look like? Yep, that's exactly how

Okay. Rodney, how does the township from an economic development standpoint typically address um you know this is a a large hotel coming in in terms of capacity in terms of interactions with CBB local chamber of commerce. What's the what happens within that circle? Certainly, we've we've been having conversations for some time with folks about developing another hotel in the community. Uh the Convention and Visitors Bureau uh has a uh is active in in promoting events and and seeking to attract tournaments uh to the area. Uh and they've been very successful at it. Uh Mount Pleasant area is an excellent site for for uh major sports tournaments and other esports and other tournaments. We have the facilities uh especially with assistance of CMU. Um but and we also have the location where we're convenient for for folks from all over Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, but it it's not that far of a drive. Uh just just far enough really to make it, you know, a fun drive to come up. Uh so they've been very successful and and uh there are some uh cases during the year uh where events that come in to the community uh folks have to some folks end up the later ones that register later uh end up in Midland or uh down in St. John's or Al other other communities because we simply uh book up all the hotel space. Um but even on on other events, this kind of a facility, this is this is a niche that that uh is we don't have a lot in this area of extended stay. Uh and it's one that that uh know is very popular as was said. So this is a great addition. We've we have been

talking to people talking to to these folks and others about additional hotel space in the community for quite some time. So we're glad to see this one coming in. Thank you. Our new development over at Mid Michigan comes to mind too. A new football court and convention center there that I could see a caught cross utilization coming in as we expand and get more people coming in for that as well once it's complete. And the you are aware of the new uh restaurants coming in across the street. We got a new Valvalene. There's a lot of development happening right in there. A lot of activity.

This is across from the Los Amigos, right? That's Collegiate Way right there. Right. Right. Exactly. Yep. Right. Uh is basically across collegiate way from Hunter's A House from that that shopping center. Okay. Is the second phase um retail space are you thinking restaurants or what are you think do you have you not thought that far ahead yet on what kind of business? on that but I would assume so. Okay.

Keeping his secrets. Well, they may not know that. I don't think heard that's the face. Is he muted? No, he's not muted. Oh, we can hear you. I'm sorry. Are you talking about the retail space? Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We we haven't actually narrowed down what we want in there, but we want to make it nice enough. So, you have a nice enough find out coming in. Yeah, that's about the goal we have right now. Cool. Awesome. Thank you.

Do you have a do you have a like hotel gets built during such and such a time frame? How far out would be phase two from that? Um our intention is to try to do it simultaneously. Um if we have if we start the hotel, maybe even have the retail maybe start within 3 to four months afterwards and then uh hopefully we would have that little building done while the hotel is completed as well. That's our intention. Okay. Okay. Cool.

Rody, no concerns with traffic flow or anything off of bluegrass? I thought they've done an excellent job in terms of how they laid the site out. Yes. Okay. And and with the with Collegiate Way, this is corner lot and so with Collegiate Way there that that provides for multiple ways in and out of that area. So it actually is a very very good location for this type of development. Isn't there a there's a building on that corner right across the street from Hunterale House? Isn't there like a doctor's office? No, not in the school. No, there's no there's properties currently vacant because there's a hunter's thousand strip center. There's Los Amigos, that one restaurant that's across the street sort of caddy corner.

Loss amigos is across the street and then the proposed area for the Mount Pleasant or the Mount Pleasant Tiny Homes would be adjacent. That's to the north of Yeah, I thought that was north of the There is an office build up there. Got it. But that's off off of Isabel Route. Okay. I'm thinking Okay. All right. Commission has seen the concept also. They are aware of this building issues with that. So obviously details to them as well. Okay. Any other questions or comments?

Okay. If not, we could have a motion. Um, I would move that the uh PR to approve the PRP 26-01 preliminary site plan for a 106 room four-story hotel and 8,000T retail building on the northwest corner of East Bluegrass Road, South Collegiate Way, uh, P14-026-20-005-15 in the southwest quarter of section 26 and in the B5 highway business zoning District finance site plan dated January 6, 2026 can comply with applicable zoning ordinance requirements for preliminary site plan approval including sections 14.2P required site plan information and 14.2 standards for site plan approval subject to the following conditions. One, revise the final site plan layout and details for clarity and full legibility at the reduced 11 inch by 17inch sheet size and add cardinal directions to the building elevations. Two, resolve the bicycle parking and loading area details on the final site plan for zoning ordinance standards. Three, confirm on the final plan that all site improvements for the overall site will be developed in phase one with phase two limited to the retail building construction. And number four, submit copies of the as recorded East Bluegrass Road and Collegiate Way sidewalk easements and storm water management maintenance plan to the zoning administrator prior to issuance of a building permit.

I'll support. Okay. So the motion was made by Bradshaw was seconded by Lap to recommend uh to approve the the uh preliminary site plan with the stated conditions. Any further discussion? Not roll call, please. Hayes, hi. Lat, yes. Olver, yes. Bradshaw, yes. Quito, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck with the project.

Yes. Okay. So, we will move on to uh nine other business. We have

We have another update on the master plan. We have the plan for agriculture and preservation of rural character. that is starting on page 63 of your packet. It's about a 10page, ninepage um document that Rodney put together and so hopefully you all had a chance to read it. And so I thought we would do tip well first of all we'll let Rodney introduce it but then I thought we would do what we did with the previous one which is to go through and give people an opportunity to make comments and and you know give their reactions and so on. Well, thank you. As it turned out, this was a a good document to have on agenda. U so as I said, this is a proposed update. It follows this the same format when we talked about the housing plan. There was some discussion about formatting and and more color and obviously that that will come. Uh but this for this one is following the same format as the housing plan. the last page and this was the last page was included for your reference. We put the framework together for what did we want to what did you want? What what were your priorities for the master plan? Uh these were the pieces that applied really to this section. And so I just want to make sure you had those um as you take a look at it. Uh it follows a similar format to the housing plan. um uh setting a purpose and a goal purpose and goals at at the beginning and then uh just going through various policy elements priority the policy priorities in this case I think the the the center point of of of the agricultural section of the master plan both the current one and this is this growth proposed growth boundary map uh that's on page three of the of the section page 65 of the packet uh that uh this This it does a couple things. First of

all, you see the city of Mount Pleasant and then you see around the city of Mount Pleasant uh in the gray shaded areas. Uh the areas that are intended to be uh urban in character. These are areas that would intend to be served by by municipal well water municipal sewer sanitary sewer. They're intended to be uh more uh intensive development, more intensive land use, multiple family, small lot, single family, residential, commercial, industrial, all those things. Uh and then you see out uh as you outside uh you you see the blue there. The blue is not labeled in this this map. The blue is uh in the 2018 plan was identified as recreation plan. uh uh sort of incorporate them in the in the areas intended to stay rural but different uh category. Uh you have the two classifications there. Uh the the dark green which is the the rural buffer and then the the lighter green which is the rural preservation. Talked about a little bit rural preservation. That's the area that that is intended to remain rural essentially uh not expected to ever be uh developed. uh the rural buffer area are areas that that may at some point in the future beyond the scope of of the current master plan uh may uh be evolve into something more. Uh but that doesn't mean it will but but these are areas that if development pressure is happening if there's a need for additional land to support certain kinds of development that that the rural buffer area would be the first area to be looked at for that. That's essentially what the buffer uh se uh designation is is saying. But even even that it's beyond the scope of the current plan. It's not something that happen now, but it may happen in the future. U on this map you'll see on the right hand side uh two areas that we propose to add uh to to the area of

develop development area and these are consistent with with things we've already talked about. The first one is the airport area. On the current plan, it's noted as as rural buffer, I believe. Uh it the airport is development. I know if you go by, you see a whole lot of open space. Uh but but it's not a it's not a preservation, right? Use it's intended to remain and to grow as an airport. Airport not just this past year uh received a a new designation. state of Michigan is now designated as a the Mount Pleasant regional airport kind of moved up a category uh and that's related to activity types of frequency of of of transit of flights transit there and the types of planes that are that are have maintained on the site. U so going to include that really an area that's intended to be uh more intensive activities. Um the other the other it it doesn't mean we want to get rid of the airport. We just want to acknowledge that it exists and it it's going to remain what's called a more urban activity area. Uh the other one is the area along 127 uh that large area there intended for future industrial. Uh we talked about this uh earlier on as an area that that uh that that really should be uh if we're going to have expanded industrial, this would be a place to do it along the 127 expressway. Uh and so we just acknowledge that uh that most of that area right now is labeled as as rural preservation. So long term that that proposal for that u with that in mind I'm I'm happy to answer any questions or uh obviously discuss any of the elements of CC here. We tried as we're putting this together

to uh reflect what was in that framework that that we assembled. Uh it also reflects uh a good bit of what's in the current plan. Uh that was carried over. Were things very appropriate policies we want to continue and so happy to answer any questions you have and obviously if you have any changes or adjustments we want to make sure that this is ultimately your document.

Okay. Very good. Thank you. Um, I thought in general it worked well last time to kind of take it page by page and section by section. Um, so let's start that way and then we'll see how that goes. Uh, in the gray area on the very first page, the um the second line, you have an extra two after the semicolon.

Yep. Good. Thank you. So any any comments on that gray kind of introductory area? Um and also uh a growth management boundary policies. So basically page one and page two of the of the the document. That was the only correction I found on either page. Is it your intention that I mean I know you've added the two sections in on the east side. Is it your intention that that we would take a a fairly detailed look at the entire growth boundary at some point and decide whether to make any changes or not? I I believe that's something that we should take a look at. But my thought was uh for for this purpose, I simply use the 2018 map and made my my quick edit to it. Uh what uh my intent is to is to have our GIS uh person up up create an updated map that frankly is a little easier to work with.

This one, for example, a lot of the roads are are covered up by the colors. So would have something that gives a little better orientation and then yes, absolutely have you take a look at it. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. because I know that over the years we've gotten some feedback from the community as to whether the boundary is in how that boundary is exactly laid out. So anything in section A we can always come back if you have something. Section B is agricultural land preservation policies. So, it talks about the rural buffer, the rural preservation, what they're about, how they um, you know, how they're thought of and so on. Um, I guess I have a question on page five. So, the top paragraph, uh, you're talking about resoning requests. So, again, very, very apppropo and so on. The use of the word prohibited. So the town the township could make a law which basically says you can't do that. Is that true?

Um or or is or is prohibited more of a um aspirational word. Uh this is actually something that taken right out of the 2018 plan. Um we could use the word discouraged or strongly discouraged might be more appropriate for the master plan because this is not an ordinance. Just because we say it's prohibited doesn't mean it is. No, it's not. So it might if you're comfortable with it might be worth changing that perhaps strongly discouraged. Yeah.

The township though could adopt an ordinance that would do this uh or because it seems I mean I don't know about other places but it seems like you know you never know ahead of time what development you're going to get. So yes, you should plan and you should have ideas and you should attempt to to kind of I mean everybody we should think about the type of community we want and so on, but at the end of the day, we're also sort of at the mercy of what do people bring to us, right? And so to me prohibited is kind of not the right word there just from the standpoint that you would want to leave yourself the the freedom to to make those types of decisions based on what happens at the time. Yeah. So the uh talk first of all let's talk about it as a master plan policy because policy you're saying that it should be prohibited and it could be it does say should be prohibited.

So that when you take an action to reject a resoning you are prohibiting it. You are saying nope that's not right. Policy says that should be prohibited. So it is an accurate policy statement uh in that sense because it because of the should that's really the the operative element. Uh the you're not saying shall, you're saying should. Uh the uh you ask about could we put this in an ordinance? Could we update section 14.5 those factors for consideration? Have one of them be hey don't ever do this. It is no matter what you can't res this way. Uh and the answer is

no not really. Uh it even if you put it in there, frankly the legislative authority of the board of trustees, they could simply approve it, adopt it presoping anyway, uh because they have that ability. Uh you have the ability to make recommendations that go against your own master plan and really against your own ordinance. U in this case, they're asking you to in a way because the ordinance has a provision in that in that purpose statement for the R2-D district. That's a purpose statement, but it's in the ordinance. It's it's regulatory. It says that R2A is it should only be for areas that have municipal water and municipal sewer. Uh so if you what happened in 2018 because that same statement was in the ordinance in 2018 the 1991 ordinance in 2018 you as master as by commission uh the collective you uh re uh made a recommendation against that and ultimately was adopted. So it it at at best these are going to be should statements even if they went in the ordinance. Yeah,

I will tell you actually I apologize for this, but it's worth mentioning the conditional reasoning thing. I I I personally I detest the conditional resing provision in the state act. It was put in the state act to fix illegal activity was going on in Meridian Township down near Lansy. Uh that's the whole reason it's there. one community behaving badly uh and doing a bunch of stuff that was blatantly illegal and so they passed a law to make it legal essentially.

Uh in in our ordinance and in many ordinances uh there's a provision it says basically conditional reszoning is not allowed in our community. Uh we don't want period and it's there because conditional resoning is it's not a it's not a it's not a twoway process. It's they propose you either approve or or reject their conditions. It's it's it it's unpleasant. It there's not a go back and forth. It's not a let's discuss this, can we adjust that? It it's they propose it and you you accept it or not. Um and uh so that's why we put this provision there that they're prohibited in our community. In reality, even with that provision in there, if somebody came in and submit an application for condition resoning, we would have to review it. We'd have to follow the process. We'd have a hearing. You would you say, "Oh, this is what our ordinance says." You would make your recommendations. Hopefully, you make it. Say, "No, we don't want it because this is what our ordinance says." But even we still have to have to allow their due process to have it reviewed. So,

communities behaving badly sounds like something I would find on Netflix. Um, I think Radian Township is actually responsible for a couple of different sections of the state. doing that. But that's the worst way. Okay. So for me, I if I would replace should be prohibited with are strongly discouraged, but that's just me. The policy says they're prohibited, right? Like to get clarity on that again, like again, yeah, it's like ultimately it's going to come before us and stuff like that, right? But

and it's a should. It's a should you know I I I appreciate more clarity and direction when it comes to this stuff because again we have people coming before us that are going to be advocating for themselves. I want to make a change. I want to make a change. I want to make a change. And I think it's maybe as human beings it comes to us maybe want to see other person's side and relate with them and go along what they're asking. But that comes again in a lot of cases and kind of what we saw tonight against what our own ordinances are. So yeah, I just don't like I don't I don't actually like the lack of flexibility

just in the sense of again, you know, who knows what the next one is going to look like. So we kind of do get that flexibility because again, even in this if it's prohibited in ordinance, it's still going to come before us and we're still going to have to review it and correct it.

The key with the policy Yes. answer your question. The key with the the policy language is you do want to have this is really a foundation under your zoning ordinance and ultimately it's a foundation under your decisions as you've seen with this resoning request. U you you have the flexibility to recommend against your own master plan if you feel that there reasons that warranted. You absolutely can and you can uh and uh uh but by having strong policy language it also gives you ability in those cases where you agree you don't want to have the reasons on that. You can go right to that and say hey this should be prohibited here's the reason why. Yeah. And we we were clear in the master plan. Why are you here?

You know uh strongly discouraged is still clear but it is a little softer. Yeah. So it's really up to you. Well, don't we don't we put ourselves at at risk every time we make a decision that doesn't abide by this? I mean, anybody can point to that and say, "You did this and you did that." So, and you Yeah, it it you do uh you do you do create some risk. The key with that is always to have the reasons. Here are the reasons why this is actually warranted. And that's why in those findings, in fact, that that that fifth section really talking about things like errors or changes in conditions. Something's happened. something's happened since 2018 where the master plan's adopted that now warrants this different action.

Now ultimately if you do that especially if you do it in sort of a pattern we need to go back and update the master plan. We need to go back and change that. Uh it's just like when we get multiple variances requests we might need to go back and change the ordinance. There might be a flaw there that needs to be fixed. Okay. Well, anyway, I'm not going to I I'm okay with what you've got, but I just I had highlighted it because it struck me as well, you know, but I think the discussion we've had is good.

Anything else on section B? Um section C is purchase of development rights PDR policies. I guess I had another question on page six. I know you've talked about this before, but uh special emphasis on meat processing facilities. How much water would a meat processing facility use and how much environmental impact would it have? To me, that sounds like a an operation that you wouldn't necessarily want next door. So I I I'm certainly aware of many uh meat processing facilities that are in rural areas that aren't well in settling. Uh typically they they have very strict rules they have to follow for that that the waste the the runoff. Uh it also needs to be collected. It has to be pumped and stored and and trucked off site. Uh there's often a uh the pre uh proc I'm sorry to say processing pre- cleaning or whatever there's there's there are step certain steps that are taken with that material uh even on site before it's moved but it has to be hauled away by waste haulers um and uh in terms of amount of water that all depends on really on the type of operation but again I've seen many cases where these are on wells and and are not not excessive users of water.

Yeah. The main issue with actually with the meat processing is there are very very few USDA certified uh meat processors in the state of Michigan. I think the closest one is like two hours from here. Yeah. It's actually um a custom cut place that's up in Rosebush between us and Rose Bush which is one of the only organic certified Yeah. which is in the state. Yeah. There was a uh I mean for example if you want to do sheep I think if I recall you're going down to Monroe. Yep. Yeah. And chicken Fowlerville I think is where the the closest one for chicken. Fowlerville.

Yep. Uh that there's we need more. This is sort of like the hotel. If we can get more uh we'd really like to have more because uh there is real need if farmers have to have to truck their animals two hours or more. That's a huge cost. It is. And that's why you see you don't you see a lot of the farmers around here go with like veg because it's really expensive to try to if they want to sell to people out you know outside their family they have to go to the they have to go to one of the USDA places to get their meat processed or they can't sell it. I'm sure that pinch of transport and getting back leads to more and more local a just

you know banning it. Yes. So this is something and we unfortunately forgive me this is a chicken and egg issue because because of the decisions people make to not have do animal husbandry these facilities don't locate. I mean, we we need a market. We need people. Uh and so, you know, anything we can do both to attract those processes, but also to to make sure there's a healthy market for them, healthy supply, uh is important. So,

all right. Just wanted to ask so that actually took us into section D policies to support and grow a healthy rural economy. So, any questions on any of that or comments? Do we have any leads on a meat processing facility or identified potential locations within the township that might work? Well, it's a lot it's allowable use in the ad area district. It's also allowable use in in commercial industrial. So, there's lots of places they could do it.

Um or allowable. Actually, I was working in my consulting life. Uh I was working with two different people downstate uh that were were trying to do this. one for chickens in particular uh and the other for more broadly u and uh both of those I think have found their locations down in in in Washington on Livingston County but but u I I talked to some folks in that neighborhood occasionally as said the hardest thing is is having the market having a supplier the suppliers

speaking from personal experience uh we we want to do sheep and we like to do meat sheep but we're trying to figure figure out how to make that work cuz right now the way we have to do it is I can't sell you the meat but I can sell you the sheep and then you can have it processed at the place between here and rose bush. So and and especially you know sheep are an interesting one because sheep are uh animal that can graze relatively well underneath solar panels. Yep.

And they they they won't eat the wiring and all that kind of thing. And so uh and that's actually one of the challenges with the solar market is because because sheep are the main activity they can they can work agricultural activity work under the panels uh but there's nobody to to process them uh at the scale that the these larger operations will need except down in the row. Uh there's there's that limiting factor on having more solar panels that have active egg under them. So, if somebody wants to become a USDA certified uh processor for sheep, that might be a a very good thing. Not not that I'm looking at you. Yeah, I know. I know what you're mean. Yeah.

I mean, I I love it. I make that make uh we want to do it, but it'll make things a lot easier if we had somebody here that could, you know, cut them up for us. Okay. also had another one can borrow the sheep to come over and replace some of the lawn mowing that I have to do. Uh actually, yeah, that's that that is something else that we're I mean, you're just like right down the road from us. Yeah, we could put some we could do yoga with sheep. You haven't thought about just having a few sheep to fence off some areas to avoid if you don't have if you don't have any fencing. Oh, yeah. No, I mean you'd have to put in fencing. You have to Sorry, I bumped your No, you're fine. You're fine. Go ahead. No.

Okay. One of the things I was going to say, I was looking at this uh support uh number two support local growth of local food systems policy priority. A I'm not sure how how what the relationship would be between the township and insurance companies because this is something else that we looked at doing too. But the um the to ensure your your land for people that come on and and to pick things, it gets it's steep because you know they're they're having if you withix they have to have like something to to cut the the veg with and carrying around a sharp implement on a farm introduces a lot of liability.

Yeah. And the uh insurance companies want to charge an arm and a leg for that. So I don't know if there's anything that we can do to maybe get a I don't know lessen the burden on on that on that behalf or Yeah. I I don't know if there's anything the township could do. Certainly it's an interesting question. I mean some some you pick you know strawberries for example. It's often a common pick operation. U some of them have sort of gone to a modified pick. We'll pick it and you you take the box. Here you go. Here's your here's your sort sort of get a little bit of the viewpick but not you don't have to stand out there in the sunshine actually do you you you pick up the box and exactly

is there something to think of when it comes to like having that type of strengthening local food production like what's the majority crop that we see around here right now it's not food it's feed you know most of what we have out is corn goes off site goes off was there something we could and just thinking of that of how like you know this is not just a local change and just to like you know oh how can we market it better but like giant aggro shifts and like just what's being put out in order to get like this type of sustainability of local agriculture going. Is there something in that where we could look towards tax incentives or different grants or something like that as a township that would encourage people to diversify their crops offer

corn which they know is going to come back and pay every I think that's a larger issue than the township. It's really more at the county regional level because the township has fairly limited amount of I mean in general a fairly limited amount of farmland whereas the county as a whole that might be a larger discussion for that. We have you know interesting one. We we need more young farmers in this in this community. I'm sorry. No, Brad, but we need more younger farmer. We have we have some an older generation of farmers.

Uh used to say they're in their they're in their 50s. Well, now frankly, a lot of them in their 70s uh certainly 60s and 70s u that this is the way we do things. You know, I grow corn, I grow wheat, I grow soybeans, I grow beans. those those are really the four staple crops in in in this area. Um uh and and so to to look beyond that. Did you Okay, I sound like you had a comment on my first u but uh anyway there there I agree that it's more of a regional approach. Certainly the U u 4 and and and that aspect I think brings a lot of this in. Uh the the uh MSU extension uh is a great resource for education. Uh people have to use it. Uh but I think I think it'd be great to have that people are active in Isbell County. Uh you know I'm I'm not in the in the agricultural world here. Uh I I talk to farmers. I have far farming friends all around the state. Uh but u I'm less connected to Isabel County just because I tend to be up more on working with developers than farming. Um but u I think that's that's the side of it, the education side of it where MSU Extension in particular could be helpful. Go to the farmers market, talk to a lot of the people there that they they're around they're in the general area. Talk to them, they'll tell you they'll give you they'll give you a beerful. They they are very passionate about this.

One of the interesting things about farming, you people often when they think of farming, they think of that 100 acres or 400 acres or 800 acres of land. U some of the successful farmers, especially some that end up at the farmers market are farming 2 acres or 5 acres and they're doing it in hoop houses and green houses uh and fairly intensively in that space. Usually because they're younger, they don't have a lot of money. is all I could get was I I managed to managed to push it and have my 5acre parcel and I put up the hoop houses and and making it work working two other jobs. Uh but often those are the most creative u and uh and they are they do farmers market is great for that kind of stuff but also they they often can as they have success they then start to create trends in a better direction. I think you brought up a good point too, Jessica, when it comes to looking at the Union Union Township versus an Isabella County area. One of our Isabella County uh commissioners is also a Union Township Back uh resident and is also a um dairy farmer, Frank Engler. I was talking with him

and he was saying like he doesn't see developmental farms that can be sustainable under 40 acres, you know, and I was talking to him about how do we encourage these smaller growth, these two to three plots trying to, you know, when we're cutting down these larger farmlands, how do they go not to just being residential but smaller farms that continue on growth there is a disconnect I think in a lot of how that I will I will I will actually argue with Angler that that the the smaller more intensive farming is probably where a lot of we're going. So, I think there something for us as a township looking to to foster that growth. We also need to make sure we're encouraging that on to the higher level up above us,

especially if we want to do with item number three kind of goes hand in hand with aggra tourism that's going to get more people here. I mean, you you're you're a prime example of the aggra tourism with the your your saler down the road is that's that's what they're that's that's what we're looking at. Good. Good luck being a, you know, small familyrun farm in this area and get 40, 50, 80, 100 acres to do anything. Yeah. Because most of it's all commercialized. Yep. Or owned. Yeah. It's been handed down for a long, long time. It's all corn and soybeans. Yeah. I'm a fan of what you're proposing here.

So am I. Okay. Um, and it's appreciated. I I want to go on record of that. Not only do I like it, but it's appreciated for those of us that are making this our home. Y working two and three other jobs. Two, three years. Hanging out with the planning commission and the board of trustees. That's right. Yeah.

Okay. So, the final uh two sections in here, you've got uh utility scale solar energy and battery storage development. I just note that uh these things shall be discouraged. So we have the other language in that section. That's fine. Um and then uh a other agriculture and rural character preservation policies which is sort of what we were just talking about. Um I do have a suggestion on under F number one uh at the the end almost at the last end of the last sentence I would replace young men and women with young people

or persons. Okay. And then in two uh the second line there seems to be a semicolon in there that doesn't belong. It

certainly is. Thank you. top of the top of the following page item three. This is we have section section 513 of the state zoning act is the Michigan Corn Growers Association provision of state grow state act. Um I was there when they proposed it. Uh I I was the only person to speak against it. Uh there were 30 people mostly corn growers uh that spoke in favor of this and we have to have this. Uh we have to we have to demand that every community allow uh ethanol production facilities and agricultural areas because our farmers must have it. They're demanding it. Uh and uh took five tries. I can't remember the name of the he was a state rep and he became a state senator. He was actually Senate majority leader and for some reason the name is escaping me. uh when he finally got this thing adopted fifth try uh and uh so it's in our ordinance it's there anybody a farmer if they if you want to produce ethanol on your farm you can do it and if you do it at a small scale which is up to I think it's 100,000 gallons which think that is small you can you can do it by right essentially you have to get site plan approval

and I think we only have one guy to really worry about around here that would do that right he's the only one that's got all the land and makes has enough corn to do it. Yeah. So anyway, I I just put I put this in here because this this was my provision in your master plan. You can keep it or not, but I I it's it's the craziest thing that But so but so if if you from what you just said, there's some there's some uh right to produce ethanol provision in the state zoning act. It is. Y if that's the case, how do you discourage it?

Um well, I talking to farmers and they might be interested in that and say look this is not really the best area for that you would do that that should really be done over there industrial area that that's all you can really do it's not something that we as in township can do other than to put it here and and anybody that's interested in point this is our how we feel about it if you want to do that do it someplace else ultimately as as the case with a number of things in the state zoning act A carveout has been made to allow these things or require us to allow these things. Yeah. So, all we can do is discourage.

I mean, we're getting a little past 9:00 here, so I don't want to prolong it too much, but

Oh, I guess at the end you say noise, odor, and other adverse impacts. What is the I mean the main the main issues would be what? It's corn. We have enough corn. The intensity of it. What else? Well, primarily it's an industrial activity that that that the state act allows in agricultural areas, areas that were not they're not intended to be industrial. Uh what will happen because these these on small scale they take a couple acres uh to to set this up. Uh at a larger scale they take about 10 to 10 to 12 acres or so. Uh that that's the units up to 500,000 gallons a year. Uh but it does look like an industrial facility and so you have all of a sudden you have changing the character of your community and you do have all these potential impacts u and of course it is ethanol production you have fire and explosive impacts potentially as well u all things that were not never intended to be in the egg area and are not it's the egg area is an area in many communities not us but many communities not well supported by fire and emergency response you know, a volunteer fire department, how do they deal with this kind of thing?

No, we're not in that suit situation, but others are. Okay. But really, these just should not be in an angry. They're industrial activity. They ought to be in the industrial district. Any other comments on his draft? I thought it was very good.

You know, I quick just quick note quick note on um utility scale solar energy and battery development. This is towards any um development that coming in from like a like a private utility. We would discourage that in anything in the industeration use. It's not coming back. Uh and for us, we don't have a lot of land elsewhere in the county. Absolutely. Isabelle Township music want it go for it. But for us, we the idea of this plan, the 2018 plan was really we want to actually preserve the the agricultural land for agricultural use that we have. So, as this was drafted, that's that's going that direction. Uh the it talks about the plan for energy. Obviously, we haven't seen it, but the idea would be is we'd flesh that out even more there because frankly have no issue with private solar, individual homes, individual farmers that that want to have a solar array to help help us support their operations. That's a different creature than this utility scale thing, which actually changes the land use because simply because of its size. Used to be the utility scale solar was 20 acres or 40 acres. Now it's 1,200 or 2,000 acres and they and it just changes the language. It's no longer rural. It's no longer agricultural. It's something else. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Well, thank you very much everybody. Um so we'll quickly complete the agenda here. We have extended public comment. If there's anybody who would like to address the planning commission on any item, whether it's on tonight's agenda or not, you are invited to do so at this time. If you're in the room, come to the microphone. Give us your name and address for the minutes. If you're online, make your presence known, and we'll allow you to speak. Extended public comment is open at 9:08. And seeing none, we'll go ahead and close that back up for another month.

And final board comment. Any comments from board members? I want to appreciate the planning committee applicant we see in the audience over there today that I know Tom do with but uh that shows a lot will wanting to sit through a what a heavy slog of a meeting this was today to come out. Appreciate that. Say that again. Uh an applicant for the planning commission is currently with Yeah, he's an applicant. I was wondering who that guy was that was between Rodney and Peter this whole time that Okay. His name is Robert. Yes. Okay. Cool. Cool. Um, anything else?

All right. So, we've completed our agenda and hopefully we haven't totally alienated our applicant and we'll go ahead and adjourn until March.