Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Right, the mics are on. It is 4:00. Let's begin. I will call to order the Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025 city of uh Battle Creek Planning Commission meeting. Can we get a roll call for attendance, please? Commissioner Hughes here. Commissioner O'Donnell. Commissioner Godfrey here. Commissioner Gray here. Commissioner Morris here. Commissioner Dennison here. Commissioner Motton. Commissioner White here. And Mayor Binky here. Thank you for that. On to approval of the minutes. This being the February 26, 2025 meeting. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that the minutes be accepted as presented. A second. All right, we got a motion and a second. Um, moved in and supported. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed? Same sign. Approval of the minutes. Can I just point out the minutes on the agenda say the 23rd and then the minutes on the actual minutes say the 26th. So, just noting the correct date on the agenda. Um, yeah. On the agenda it says minutes for February 23rd and it's it is the 26th, right? Correct. Is the correct date. It was. Yes, it was. Okay. And it later in the um the the minutes provided it's it's stated it's the 26th. It's just on the agenda itself that it's marked the for the record. Yep. Thank you for that. All right. Good afternoon. That's my tire. Not a problem. Got a new guy here. All right. Next on the agenda, any correspondence? No correspondence. Any additions or deletions? No additions. No

deletions. All right. We'll now proceed to the public hearing. As a reminder, all with public hearings, we'll hear from the staff, then hear from the applicant, which today it won't be, but we'll open the floor for public comment. Uh we'll ask that when coming forward you state your name and address. Once comments are completed we'll close the public hearing. All right with that we'll open uh for consideration of the Lake View District sub plan of the master plan. Staff report please. Yeah thank you. Uh this plan has been in the works since October of 2023. Um through this process there was a uh robust outreach for public. Uh there was a lot of public participation. Um there was just recently from the last meeting that the planning commission had an opportunity to look at this plan. There was a notice sent out to all of the neighboring communities, all the utility uh railroad um giving them 42 days to provide any comments on the plan. We did not receive any comments from the public or from these uh neighboring uh jurisdictions or from the utility companies. Um today will be the final public uh outreach for this particular process before the planning commission will be asked to take action on the plan. This uh sub plan will become uh part of the overall master plan. We will be as the planning commission as a team and the steering committee that's been placed together will continue working on the update to the master plan through the housing um component and um this will be uh summarized in that document. Perfect. Thank you. Does the commission have any technical or clarifying questions for staff? I have one uh regarding the

public comment through the public engagement processes. Is that um is that published anywhere for people to go see and reference? Is there like anything included in the report on that? Um all of the comments have been incorporated into the document. We do have a list of the um actual comments and I'm not sure to be honest with you. I will check to see if they've been added to the website. If not, I will add them. Okay. Thank you for that. All right. Yeah, I have a couple I have a couple comments. So, they are they technical or clarifying? We'll get to deliberation. We can wait. Thank you. Thank you. Technical. You're fine. Okay. Um, since there are no more technical or clarifying questions, we'll open it for public comment on the proposed Lake View District subplan. It appears we have one. We have one. All right. I'm Annie Stutler, 69 East Langley. So, this is kind of my hood. I've looked things over. I'm all in favor of what you guys are thinking about. So, you have my blessings on most of it. Not quite all of it, but most of it. Um, these are very sparky comments coming out of my brain today as I was observing my town, which I do live and breathe in Battle Creek. It has given me everything. It's got I've got I support. I I can't say enough about this town. But when I tell people where I live, we've got this redheaded sister stepsister attitude about ourselves. And I don't know how you're going to change that culture, but that's got to change. That's sparky comments. Drove down Jackson Street today. Looked at the homes that um was it neighborhoods that built right there in Jackson? Habitat. Habitat. Okay. The outside just sparky comments. The outsides looked really clean. The insides did not look great. People do not understand home ownership. Um Horox sparky comments. You guys leave them alone. They're great. They're a diamond in our city. They're a

destination. We are so lucky to have them as a friend and just let them have their space. And I'm all about Horox. Leave them alone. Uh, another spark comment. 20th Street. I drove from 20th Street to Capitol today. Just on the north side of of that two-mile stretch, I counted 11 vacant properties as far as commercial and places that could go. Now, I was going 45 miles an hour, so but it was close. Um, we need jobs in this town. We need corporate jobs. We need salary jobs. Um, I've lost my dentist. I now have to go to Jackson. And you know, none of us can get any colon care in this town anymore. Boom. I have three units built in Huntington Hills. One is finished. Two are not. They can be finished to your choice. I've had nobody look. They're listed. They've been listed for four months. Um, we used to build, my company used to build 26 houses a year and now we're down to about three. Uh, the other thing I've got to say is Huntington Hills is for sale. I've got about 40 acres and it's a fire sale. So, if anybody's interested in developing that area, also I don't know how to do this, you guys. I'm I'm concerned. I think what you've got is great. I don't know where the money's going to come from. I don't know where the people are going to come from. I'd love to see it happen. I'm just Yeah. I mean, if you ask me to go out and develop it, I'm not going to go throw my money at it type of thing. So, you're going to have to find the monies and the people and you're going to have to teach them how to keep their houses up to standards because people do not understand how to care for a home. It's amazing. I'm building a home on Gwak Lake and the guy just doesn't have a clue. So, I don't know how I could maintain it. But point being, I a lot of concerns. I am in housing. It's all my world. So, okay, that's it. I'm done. Thank you. All right. Seeing no one else, uh, are there any questions from commissioners for the public comment? All right. I have a question. Yeah. I' I'd be curious to hear what you'd like the planning commission to do differently because some of what you shared is I would say a a bigger city

set of issues and it is and so I'd be really curious to hear like what role do you think we might be able to play to access your or uh you know respond to your concerns and and they are it is it was sparky. I told you that it's just out of my head today after looking at the stuff and driving down the streets. I'm just making notes like crazy. I just want to make sure that this new if you're going to do this new project on this area that you're getting people that can how you gonna get people to afford it. Um building costs. My god, you guys. I I put a house up in Leyrop,74 square ft and it was $312,000. That's 89 Lyrop. Thank you. Um and that house is a gem. If you haven't driven down Lyrop, that brightens that whole neighborhood. is so cool. But what what did that what did that up to? 312 325 or something a square foot. It was just building costs are out of control and I don't know how you're going to get people in to do this and how you going to get people to spend the money. Are you guys going to afford it? Are you going to bring So point being I'm all for this concept or at least most of it. Um I just don't know where it's all going to come from. And then the people that live there are they because I'm I remember I'm a home builder. I know how to take care of my home. I've been pulling weeds. I got 14 bags at the curb today. But people don't do that. So, how are we going to make that happen so that it's beautiful? Got it. That's I So, I don't have an answer for you. I just happened to look at the stuff. Thought it was very, very cool. I'm in support of most of it. But then I'm driving around the town looking at all these little things that we've done and I'm thinking didn't go well, did it? So, it does sound very nice to say. Thank you. Thank you. All right. All right. Yeah. Mayor, I just want to make one comment. um Redwood Neighborhood Apartment Complex out on Lacrosse Glen Forest Lo Road. Ted has probably worked very hard. They're looking to build one other apartment complex in our community. He's given

them three locations out there in this area. Um and they haven't bought into it yet. Um it's tough. I mean, we've got to be in the right place at the right time in order to succeed. And driving through that Redwood neighborhood, it's beautiful. I mean, everyone wants to live there and they're paying big bucks. I think the least amount of rent is 1,800 and it goes all the way up to 2400. Um, but people like to park in a attached garage. Um, they don't want a basement, so they don't no one's going to have to climb the stairs. Yep. Um, we hope that we can get that other development. Um, I know that they're looking at Emma Township right now. So, Huntington Hills is for sale. This will help this development there, this plan if we can get that. Oh, absolutely. I'm all over what you guys are doing. I think it's great. I just am very concerned. We'd like to get the uh development. We really would. Oh, man. Amen. Yeah. Thank you. All right. I appreciate everyone's comments. Seeing that there are no more, I will close the public hear. Yeah, I have Oh, a bunch. Yeah, I have a whole bunch. We're when we get to the item, we'll have discuss. They keep telling me to go. Yeah, I go. Okay. It's It's just on the agenda a little different today. We'll hear your comment. Believe me, I'll Okay. Thank you, Annie, for everything. Um, all right. Any old business? No old business. Okay. So, on to new business. Here we go. So now formal recommendation to adopt Lake View District sub plan as part of our master plan. Are there any additional staff comments before we get to commissioners? There are none. Okay. Thank you for that. Uh commissioners, any any any discussion, any comments, questions? Commissioner Dennis, is it my turn? It's your turn. Thank you. Clear the clear

the deck. Yes. So, I've got a couple questions. First of all, after, you know, really digging into this, can I get a better understanding of what TIF funding is and who pays that? Marcel, would you like to answer that question or I can give a short answer? I'm I would not like I would tot Yeah, I probably can help with that. Thank you uh for the question. And the um the the the plan area here as laid out is a part of uh essentially the boundaries of what we call the LDDA, the Lake View Downtown Development Authority, which as you referenced is a tiff district in the city of Battle Creek. and tax uh tiff stands for tax incremental financing and tax incremental financing districts are typically used to develop underdeveloped areas. We have three of them here in the city of Battle Creek. One is this LDDA area, one is around the Fort Kuster Industrial Park and one is in our downtown area. And tiff districts uh uh normally form um when there's a a relatively small amount of development, you establish a tax base based on the development that's there at the time and then any incremental tax that's collected as a result of growth over time is captured by the district and reinvested back in the district. And if you want to see an example of an extremely successful tiff district, it would be the Battle Creek TIFA, which is what surrounds the industrial park. So as if you can imagine before any of those 90 businesses that are there now existed there was a relatively small tax base there and a tiff district was formed. The base was set and then as businesses developed there and incremental tax revenue was created. It was captured by the district and

reinvested in the district for future growth. And that would be the same thing happening in the LDDA. Currently, the LDDA uh is a tiff district that captures on an annual basis, but it doesn't use its capture for projects. It redistributes all that capture back to the various taxing jurisdictions. What would happen going forward with this plan is the LDDA would start to retain some of its capture and then use that capture to help implement this plan. Okay. Okay. Um then just some other just from reading this some other things that came up for me is the cost as Annie suggested um the cost of building and it's not just building it's um fixing the infrastructure all around it. Um where are we going to get funding for that? Um and then what what about the time frame for this? I mean if you want to inter I just going to just throw all this out. Time frame time frame for this. Are we going to go into this obviously in phases but what are we thinking of the time frame for this? I I could probably help with those questions as well. Let me speak to the time frame first. So we don't really have a set designated time frame for this implementation. You know at this point in the process this is obviously a planning document. It's a vision for what it could be. you know, we'd like to be aggressive about implementation, but the realistic, you know, the reality of this probably is that I mean, it's it's going to take years, right, to build out this type of ani of a vision for the Beckley Road corridor. Um, that being said, you know, there are three primary development um I'm going to say um objectives as a part of this plan, three areas where they've focused uh their thinking about how we could reimagine the corridor. Um, you know, I think if you look at, for example, the greening of the north or the south end of Lake View Square Mall, right? That's a public

works project that could be implemented in theory over the next few years. Um, and that's where, you know, LDDA funding could be supportive and could help make that happen. Uh, you know, the city as an entity or the TIFF district as an entity has some control over moving that timeline. And so I think that's the kind of thing that could be developed over the next few years. Harder to say about some of the residential development or particularly the property, you know, the the development that's geared towards privately held property. You know, we're going to have to motivate developers to make something happen. And and and if I could, if you could indulge me for just a second, I'll circle back to what the mayor was saying a moment ago. You know, the Redwood development, which um you know, is a clear indication that this type of housing can develop in this area. uh they've been looking for a second spot. Um and we have shown them this vision of the Target Plaza area as a mixeduse residential area. And I, you know, right now, unfortunately, that spot isn't quite big enough for them. They're looking for something larger. But just having this vision and being able to show it to developers for what could be rather than the sea of parking lot that is there right now, I think will spur development. I just don't know that we're in a position yet at this time to put a solid time frame around that and I I think I missed an earlier part of your question before the time. Did I miss something before the timeline part of it? I was just I I my notes here just I was talking about the cost of building. Yeah. And and the cost and the infrastructure where we're going to come up with funding for that and you know and the LDDA can fund the public infrastructure pieces. a tiff district like that isn't typically designed to fund private sector development, but it can it can certainly fund the public infrastructure pieces of this. And another example would be um Whitmark Drive, which is currently a private

drive, and it's the drive that you enter when you drive along the target plaza there. Um, in this plan, it's envisioned as being uh taken over as a public road, rerouted to provide for housing a little bit closer to the river to Brickyard Creek back in that area. And that's the kind of project that could be funded with the TIFF dollars as part of this development. Uh, and so for most of the public infrastructure, I believe the funding will likely come from tax incremental financing revenue. Um, and the rest of it, you know, would likely be a variety of sources, including, you know, there there could be certainly if you think about reging and exposing Brickyard Creek back to its rig path, I mean, there could certainly be state resources that would support that. There could be federal resources potentially that could support that type of a development. So, private sector dollars, uh, grants at the state and federal level, uh, level, and then tiff funding, probably a combination of all of those sources. Yeah. Wouldn't each one of these issues come back to the planning commission before it was undertaken? Well, there's a couple things that need to happen with this plan, too. Uh, first of all, we have to rethink zoning out in that area. Um, and so, you know, primarily the the areas uh along Beckley Road are are one of our B districts, one of our commercially oriented districts that don't necessarily currently allow for the type of mixeduse housing that's envisioned here. So one of the first steps for implementation is to to do some zoning work out there. That certainly would come before the planning commission. Um and then in the future whatever development that occurred that occurred by right obviously would simply go forward. Anything that required a variance or any other type of regulatory approval from the planning commission obviously would be before this body. Yeah. And then like you were just talking about the green space and

Brickard Creek out there. um who's going to maintain that the be you know making it making sure it stays beautiful and I'm just going to give you my example is that we have a um a bike path that goes around linear path the linear path that goes around Battle Creek that um I've tried to ride a bike on and it's it's it didn't disarray. So, I just want to make sure that we have that we we're thinking through that and we've got funds that can um take care of it to maintain the green space. Yeah. And that and that's obviously a very good point. And if the uh if the LDDA was interested in say the reggreening of the uh south end of the mall, I mean that's the kind of investment where it would be important that the LDDA had adequate capture on an annual basis to be able to maintain something like that because you're right, if you if you undertake it, then you better make sure there's enough tax incremental financing available to maintain it. Yeah. And then probably I have one more comment. I think that um you know there's all kinds of space and I know like in phase two in the back here or I guess it wasn't phase two it was a another potential we were talking about daycare and maybe um some sort of I don't know if it was called a club or something but maybe we should think about pickleball courts lots of times people you know there's lots of communities that are putting those in we've got the mall we've got space in there but then I guess my last piece to This was are these going to be firsttime home buyers or most of these going to well or low to moderate income families buying buying or tenants? Yeah, I think you know if you look at the typologies that are included in the plan and I let's say I'm I'm looking at you know the vision for the um target plaza area

for example you know there's a town homes uh there's a mix of town homes uh looks like forplexes some cottage court style housing a wide variety of housing um so I think it probably would be a combination of both uh rentals and probably some mix of condos for ownership there there's there's not a lot because of the density envisioned here there's not a lot of you know single family detached for example traditional home ownership but I I suspect it would be a combination u but given the density the density that we're trying to achieve here I I suspect a lot of it would be rentals okay and so but potentially we could have some homeownership and one of the things I think that we should really think about is um is educating you there are the firsttime home buyers or people low to moderate income families out there. I know I worked at neighborhoods and that was a really big thing that we had discussed if we had had funding to really fund first-time home buyers. It would be really import imperative that we also educate him to kind of go back with what Annie said. people don't know how to own a home and maintain a home. And I was there, too. I just happened to have, you know, parents that would come over and criticize me um and correct my my problems. But, um, you know, we don't all have that. And I think it's just, you know, we don't know. Every so often you have to buy a new roof, you have to save for that. So, I think there could potentially be a component in this for home ownership education. So, that's what I have to say. Yep. I have a question on the greenway and

losing the western end of Lake View Square Mall, the former Sears building. Have you shown this plan to the mall ownership? And if so, what's their reaction? Yeah. And I think that was one of the benefits of this process, too, is it gave us an opportunity to engage with the mall ownership. And as I, as I know, you know, Commissioner, there are actually multiple owners out at that site. Um, you know, the former big box stores are all independently owned. Um, the, um, dispensary that's out there is independently owned and then GK owns a portion of the mall and a portion of the parking lot. And yes, we did engage GK pretty early on this. We actually originally had a much different vision for what the mall site might look like in this plan, but after having conversations with GK and how and what they might be invested in, we re-imagined that. So, do I think that this is a guarantee that GK will invest? I I I can't say I know that for certain, but I will say that this plan and what we've incorporated in here is much more inigned with what they would see as a type of plan that they would potentially be interested in investing in. So, I think it aligns very well with their vision for what the future of the mall could look like. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Couple comments. Um I'm glad we're looking forward to doing this. Um, we have a big employer over there in Marshall. It's going to need some housing and a lot of space that's going to need to be taken up. So, hopefully we're we are still ahead of that surge that's coming. I see it as a big wave uh coming down that area. Definitely needing housing and other restaurants, uh, doctor's offices. Um, I'm excited about the zoning changes to fit these in to make these businesses happen. um not just looking at you know housing and doctor or housing and um food but doctor's offices and other professional buildings that'll need to

be developed down the stretch of road and then um the traffic down there is going to get such a big change u looking at other towns and as I drive through all of a sudden you see housing coming up but then you see the traffic changing because of the way the road was there and I brought that up the last time we talked about this how uh it will u make a big significant impact of our of having uh young people in the area be safe um traveling that area of that town. U the question what one question that I have is is back in the corner there where the parking lot is and of course we're looking at putting apartments and housing back there. What about the existing businesses that that are back there? Are they um we purchasing the property or or how's that going to happen to make that work over in the target area I guess we're we're calling it. Sure. Yeah. And and there are actually a couple of different uh renderings that are included in the plan. One that envisions those businesses continuing to be back there, but as you indicated, also one that indicate or that shows those businesses no longer back there. So I I don't know exactly which one of those futures is the future for this particular area. Um, but if if you know if the if the business is thriving and can be and needs to be accommodated, it can be. Um, and if it doesn't make sense to have um, you know, retail that far off the main corridor, uh, and that makes more sense as housing is highest and best use, I think there's a there's a plan for that as well. Thank you. All right, any other questions? Uh going back to the TIFF comment, I was going to call on Commissioner White being the uh chair of the BC TIFA and the BCBR. Is there anything in addition you'd like to add and comment on that or? No, I think Ted covered the majority. I mean maybe the only thing I might add is that um I mean the purpose of having a tiff district and you know residents and business owners that are part of it around decision making is ensure that

the public's t tax dollars are going to be put into productive use. Um, and that's been the big uh been the chair the last few years of our TIFFA uh in the Ford Industrial Park and that's been I would say the the pleasure of doing that role is knowing that um we're really making decisions with our businesses and residents in mind um when we think about economic development and the future of Battle Creek. So yeah, great. Thank you. All right, hearing no more comments, we can vote. Uh I think I'll call all those in fa Oh, wait. We need a motion. There's not been a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Support. Been a motion. Um, and it's been supported. Okay. What was the motion? Can you state the motion? State the motion. Can you restate your uh comment with making the motion by stating a motion? I did make a motion to approve um request part one. Read that off. There you go. Lake View District plan for the master plan. All right. There has been a motion to approve uh the Lake View District subplan adoption. Is there support? Support. It's been supported by Commissioner O'Donnell. Um any additional comment before we get into the vote? Seeing none, all those in favor? Uh I I oppose. same sign. Motion carries unanimously. This will now move forward to the city commission for uh formal adoption. All right. Any additional comments by the public? Good luck. Thank you for that. Uh any any comments by staff or

commissioners? Seeing none, meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.