Zoning Board of Appeals - Regular Meeting

e steps. There we go. Okay. So call to order the regular meeting of the Kalamazoo city planning commission at seven o'clock on Thursday, February 5th. Can we get a roll call? Yes, ed Balman here. Present Curtis. Yep. DeCenzo here. Riva here. Patelco here. Swan here. Tober Wilson here. Excellent. We have a quorum. And so we've got an agenda in front of us. Are there any adjustments or. Changes his agenda. All right. No changes. Changes. And can we get a motion to. Adopt the agenda motion to adopt second. Motion adopt and second and all in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay. And then we've got the minutes from December.

Fourth, our last meeting. Any changes or any adjustments to. Said minutes. All right with that then I guess, can we get into a motion to approve set minutes? Motion to approve. Second motion to approve and second it all in favor. Aye. All right. Minutes are approved. All right. So that any communications or announcements. Only communication is that commissioner PDE will not be able to attend tonight. He's helping participate in the point in time. Houseless count, which runs for many hours this evening. Right? Excellent. Excellent. All right. And then while it's on the agenda, the public hearings, we don't have any items for the public hearing. So we will move right on then to. The discussion or the action item, the zoning ordinance amendment. Introductions chapter is eight and 10 of appendix a. And article two chapter 50. Thank you. Chair Patelco and good evening commissioners. This is gonna be a quick update on some ordinance. Amendments that will be coming forward to the planning commission in, in some. Some months here. I don't have an exact month. But with not much on the agenda and a lot of process talked about with the recent rezoning. It was coming forward anyways, but the time he works really well. So just really quick high level, you know, the incremental amendments to the ordinance that the city's done. Pretty consistently since imagine Kalamazoo 20, 25. We made a commitment.

I, I learned that we would always, we would follow a three step proposal with this incremental style. And I'll get into the details of what these chapters are and some of the other ones. So today is that first introduction. It's something the draft. Is we're formatting it to the chapter 50 style right now. So it's in the real early parts hasn't been put out to the public or on any agenda yet. Where next it would be on an agenda. Probably with just the draft for review. While also posted online. I'll gonna do a P P P exercise to. Explore a way to get this message out as part of the ordinance work. And then where eventually it would be an amendment to the planning commission. And it's the same standards of rezoning. Though, then that would go on to city commission for a final decision. So to, you know, remind everybody, we have some newer planning commissioner members here that LA on the last page, there was the table of master plan goals from the imagine Kalamazoo 20, 25. And it talks about developing a form-based code, natural feature protection inventory. And then looking at ways to reduce the number of variance requests. Requests or even exploring the administrative layout of the ordinance itself. And then I like the analogy of. With these chapters there, isn't a lot of changes to them because they're very procedural and tied to state law. And they work well in a lot of ways, but there will be some changes. And when we publish the document, you'd see the before and the, after. And then from a high level, this is taking chapter eight and 10. From the appendix a zoning ordinance and then moving it to chapter 50. And to kind of highlight. What isn't moved or

what has been moved a little bit to help highlight to the, to the planning commissioners that may be newer. The live work and nodes, the parking standards. Standards, the NFP has been, it was put in chapter 50 and then expanded upon when we did the NFP expansion. All the downtown zoning was changed some years ago. The commercial zoning was the last. Large ordinance amendment. Some of you would've been on here that was commercial. Across the city zoning focused. And so essentially appendix a becomes this, like the lights are being turned out to eventually all be put into 50. And, you know, that still leaves the residential and the manufacturing districts. Districts where we're moving over these procedural sections. Sections now and leaving those near the end there. And this here is a, a broader zoom out, just trying to put the context of. I think if you start to review these chapters, you you'll start to see the organization and how the board meets and. You know how staff is laid out, how permits are reviewed, how site plan is determined. So it's pretty dry, complicated stuff, but it is very important or, you know, impacts a lot of things like. Development or even residents and developers understanding how to. Navigate the code in the city of Kalamazoo. So that's all of the chapters currently in appendix a. Some are reserved. I didn't make the change there, but. Chapter six due to a typo. There's one section there. Due to a typo. It carried over after the last amendment. So we would strike that as well. And then instead of two chapters, chapters. I forget what the title I put for two is might just be administration. Instead of two chapters, they're just put into one. So what are the functions of chapter eight and 10? It outlines. Outlines all of the board authorities, the meeting process. And then there's a lot of references to the zoning enabling act and. Some to other city

code, but also a lot within. The appendix a zoning ordinance itself. So part of this is updating those references, simplifying those references. And you know, if there was like a dead end over there, getting it to where it needs to go. If it referenced appendix a, if it needs to reference chapter 50. It outlined staff role, the, the city planners listed in there, the zoning inspector. Sign permits it's gets into the nitty gritty of, you know, what is an application, what you're reviewing and why. And then it codifies. Elements of the, the boards and the ordinance implementation. For example, the planning commission has bylaws. Bylaws. So, you know, you'll reference your bylaws for things. But then there's things not in the bylaws that are in the ordinance. So it's this. Tier of order where the ordinance is, the real codified. It's what you're gonna press up up against. And looking at our ordinance around oh 4 0 5. There was a massive. Similar to now, but it was all at once. Move over. Recodification and at that time at 2006, the state did an overhaul to what's called the zoning enabling act, which is the state law that. Allows our ordinances like this. So a lot of that was done to update to the current enabling standards. And there's not too many major changes to it, but it's a good chance to make sure that, Hey, are we still in line with the enabling act, good chance to look at it closely? So I did mention, you know, it's pretty much a shift over, but there, there are things that have been evaluated and that we're. Gonna propose in there. So one of 'em is the threshold for site plan review. Currently when you expand a commercial or multi-family building, there's a 250 square foot. Size limit.

Once you go beyond that. Site planner review is required. We're looking at increasing that size. You know, there's some small projects, maybe the, the whole thing isn't. Necessary. As well, you know, the language for change of use site plans, buttoning that up to make it. A little more. Definitive in the ordinance, cuz the current ordinances change to a more intensive use. For example. Simplify the language and cross-references, as I said, you'll see a lot of specific cross-references the planning commission shall make decisions on this application. And there's very specific ordinance sections. Sections we have that referring to like the chapter title or just the broad section. Instead, because as ordinances change. These things get lost in the fray. There's some graphics in there, nothing fancy there, probably just revising in them. They've got some arrows with pre-application application. So in the style of chapter 50, but. Also with the dry language. There's an opportunity with those visuals to help communicate a complicated process. And I think there's there's improvement we can do on the current graphics N 50. And then of course there's numbering to match the format. My understanding is the reason it's an appendix say. Is because it was codified in a different numbering scheme than the city ordinance. So as these come over, everything gets renumbered into chapter two. Instead of chapter eight of the appendix, a zoning ordinance, really procedural and dry. But what looks like a whole new chapter is a lot of just staying the same. And then lastly, some of our there's references to our non-motorized network. Complete not complete streets. Forget what the ordinance calls. It it's like pathways or,

or Greenways, but updating references to include the street design manual, the public participation plan. Some of the newer and utilized reference and support documents. Documents. and those are, you know, kind of just working that into where we already referenced match the street design. Make sure we reference our street design manual. So getting to, to the next steps. This is, I believe this is the last slide. And I can answer any questions. If you guys want to go into details on these chapters. Chapters I'm working on that P P P exercise. So I'm gonna really be honing out in the next week or two. My timeline. So I'll keep you guys informed at the planning commission meetings. I would probably wait till after a meeting till we post it online. Give you guys an idea of it. Then we would have it. Not as an action item at a planning commission meeting after it was posted. And then finally a future meeting with the ordinance proposed. So that gives opportunities for. The community to look at the ordinance language. You guys to look at the ordinance language. Then a meeting to review it, ask questions. Questions so that when it's decision day, there's been a few opportunities for input and feedback. So, yep. That's, that's the all that's coming forward on chapter. Eight and 10 and they'd become article two. And as we get closer to the presentation, I real I'd really highlight the changes specifically. And if there's any questions on these ordinance amendments or, or next steps. Bobby. If we go into the threshold of triggering site plan reviews, it's been a big part of my life through this whole building life of mine. But. So what is the exact discussion that goes in terms of, because I heard you say increase mm-hmm so what's the discussion internally when we go, like how much of an increase and I don't mean to take this too deep into the weeds, but oh yeah. Yeah. Like

when is when there? Right. Let's say that that is the million dollar question. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Right, but what, yeah, usually it's increase in intensity, like the real simple example. I would use a retail to a retail. Right. Okay. There, there is, I think. Anyone could look at Hmm. A shoe store, let's say to a. Sunglass door. Let's just say, I assume that's gonna draw so many more people. That's a change of use. But the zoning order, that's retail to retail. Yeah. And so retail think of from a broad level. You know, is it a building situated that was retail. Is it a new construction? But if that same space was a restaurant mm-hmm and they need to add a hood system, which is gonna vent out mm-hmm , we're going to need extra parking. Because the parking standard changed, or we want to add a drive-through or even think of the waste impacts, you know, a retail store is gonna be a lot different than a, a restaurant. But the real, like when the determination really does it's, it's evaluating the location. The use before and the scope of work and. Really honing it down. So I'm. We're working on the language to have that be a more definitive. And, or, or maybe even just a direct. The, I think even a simple reference to the zoning board of appeals when there's a disagreement with staff. So yeah. Well, if you could do that now, but it's, I think making it a little more expressed, so there's a finality. I, I find that lack of a finality creates. An anxiety. It always, probably with that, there's gonna be a whole lot of nuance. Yes. And arguments points of view to be made in there. Probably always. Ian, I would say, as, as staff implementing it, the ordinance is. The real. Yeah. Wait. Sure. Because it's often tied to the development standards of the use.

But some of our ordinance has changed. We have a parking maximum instead of a parking minimum. Mm-hmm so it's working with that language from oh six, but our parking changed and that's where I think. Obviously parking can't be a change of intensity as easily. Thanks. Yep. I hope that answered your question. That was a bit in the weed, but yeah, it no good to get into. Absolutely. I have a question about the map changes that you referenced. Is are, are you outlining like the procedures by which changes would be made to like the future land use map or, or what are you referencing in the map changes? Changes. Oh, I, I may have. Misspoke or not explained it clearly. When you read chapter eight. The procedure to amend the ordinance is the exact same procedure as a zoning map. This is this proposal doesn't isn't requesting to change any map. It's changing the ordinance. Okay. And the, the, how the master plan is there's no. The, the master plan and how we implement it, doesn't really come from the ordinance. That's more of an enabling act. Okay. Obviously we can get into this further after public participation and everything, but with the codifying and modifications of like the bylaws and the enabling acts for like this body and others, would there be any anticipated modifications to the criteria by which this body or other body make decisions? Decisions or is it likely to stay the same language just in a different location? B same language, different location. And, and I suppose that's where, you know, staff's still in the early part of it. I think a little bit of an exciting part for me with this is. I think it's going to be more in. Common peop more in the. Everyday citizens. Citizens understanding of how

ordinances work to go. Oh, that criteria matters. And they're talking about it. So. I ha I expect a little more probably feedback than normal based off of the popularity of that recent rezoning. And I think you started to address this, but I didn't fully catch it. This is a bit pedantic, but is the goal to move all of appendix a into chapter 50. When this is all done. Yep. That, that is correct in. I, I would hope is. I, I would expect this 20 as we move into the new master plan. It's. Yeah, it's not something we would wanna drag out for years and years more. So there's this one. And I, I imagine probably later on this year, we would talk about other amendments. But I think with the master plan, strategic vision, I, I don't wanna make any strong predictions right now. Okay. Yeah. I was realized, this is, this is the moving of the, this stuff has been going on for you. Yeah. But, and it would be a complete removal of appendix a and. What's in appendix a is just staying there in, in administration. It works out really well enough of in 50 is. And maybe, you know, some of our planning commissioners that work in plan reviewer for local firms. If you are in a chapter 50 zone district, you're largely. Contained within chapter 50. There's not much going back or if you're working out of the R zones or the M zones. Zones, you might have to go to your landscaping and lighting standards over here. But the all the residential requirements are still in appendix a, so it's. While it is, I've seen other communities do it this way. The administration they've worked out to be very separate. So. As this goes away, appendix a is still operating. And I would anticipate probably

one more amendment after this one would be a great bow to close out a picnic, say, PXA. Thank you. All right. Any other que I have another question. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So I know some of the changes sound like they're not substantive. It's just moving content from one place to another. Are the, but also there will be some substantive changes as part of this. Yes. And the, like the substantive changes. I. You know, broadly, I want, you know, these are the. The substance of where those, those changes are. There's there's more than this, but I think these are where most of the, the language was changed. So, you know, there's also a. I'm thinking of the, the tables. Tables in the, in the graphics. So where they're there and, and initial thought was to remove them. But I think improving them is the route, cuz even chapter 50, it has, it has colors in the document. So matching that theme in the graphics, I think would make a lot of sense. And so then will you guys provide like a, will staff put together like a red line version that then goes out to the public? So it's very easy for people to see exact what's changing and moving and stuff. Yep. That's what we did similarly with the commercial. Although that one had more. Public versions. So that's exactly what I would envision you would have. The current copy Redlin. Redlined and then the copy of where it's going. And each public. Iteration or staff report. Would be that cuz I think it's important to. You know, as changes go from one to three. That method really worked good with the commercial zoning. So it helps. Make it transparent as well on what is a. Very regulatory process. Yeah. And then my other questions, sorry, guys. So you mentioned just like the connection between the rezoning

that we had recently with lots and lots of community participation and that. This change. Would be relevant. Perhaps to community members who came out. As part of that rezoning. So what are the. Elements of the changes that, that are connecting back to the rezone. I got like, that's why I was asking about the maps. It's like, you know, so many people were like this, the future land use map is not accurate. So like, what are the elements that if I'm talking to my neighbors about what's happening, the they're gonna care about and that I can help them be like, look, this is your chance to have your voice heard. And et cetera, et cetera. Us a, a great question because it is two parts. The current imagine Kalamazoo work and the eventual master plan. Creates the future land use map. Which is the process for future land use decisions. So there, yeah, there was a lot of comments of, Hey, how do we have input on this? And my thought was there is, there are not any changes proposed to the review criteria. On the planning commission decision. Is currently written. So that criteria is the same where. The the criteria's strong. So, but, and the reason I referenced it. I suppose what I meant was it's it is related as well. To the public understanding it because that's the language they might want to know. Well, that's the deeper thing at decision day. This is what they're making their decision on. So, I don't, I, I don't get many comments on that. The criteria don't seem to work from applicants or the public. Yeah. But I guess maybe I'm. I'm a little too, you know, to have that like, nerd element of zoning out there. No one will probably care, but it's that nuance. Hey, this is where it comes from. Here's why. And. But if there were neighbors who were like, oh, I actually disagree with the criteria by which the decision was made.

That this would be an opportunity for them to say, Hey, even though I know you're not proposing to change this, my public comment is that I think you should, or something like that. Absolutely. And I, I think with the. Posting of the drafts online, just, you know, between meetings, I'm having a spot to get feedback. That's a like that people can virtually that's an excellent idea. Yep. Yep. And, and I think there'll be certain elements or, you know, you know, I could see like the, I, I, I expect a lot of interest in the site plan, review requirements. Yes. All right. If there's no other. Questions. I think we can move on. To city planner's report unless. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you everyone. For those, those questions. Questions first for the city planners report, actually right now in Stewart and Douglas, there is outreach meeting. Imagine Kalamazoo meetings are about halfway through meeting all the different neighborhoods on the ground to get that lab bid of feedback before the. Draft will eventually come out. So I just wanted to, you know, encourage anyone that hasn't gone yet go to your own or feel free to attend extra. And real quickly, we will have Tuesday, February 10th at five 30. Would be the bill wood open house. That's at Millwood school, Millwood middle school. Off of cork by Conco there. And the Arcadia in Westwood. One is Wednesday, February 11th. Next week. That's from seven to 8:30 PM. And then Thursday next week is the Oakwood one. The Oakwood one is at the Oakwood community church of Christ from five 30 to seven 30. And the Arcadia Westwood one is at the Arcadia elementary school. So, yeah, those are going along well, we're getting a lot of great feedback. I managed the housing table and we got a lot of dots and exciting housing feedback

on there. And the other item I would like to bring up is. We will have a co couple members turning off. We'll have a total of three open planning commission seats. Seats right now. I believe there's been four people that have applied. So I would be interested in any three planning commissioners that would be interested to volunteer. I would reach out to those people, see schedule to see who wants to meet. And then we would host interviews to provide recommendations to the commission at our next meeting. That allows us then to have the commission appoint them. In time for the April meeting because the current terms end on March 31st. So if there's three people that would be interested in helping me assist with that, we can host them virtually or in person or hybrid. I would be interested. All right. Curtis ADA bombing and Bissonet. Bissonnet go back to YouTube. And when I forget later, all right. Well, thank you guys very much, much for that. And. Thank you for volunteering on a cold night like this. And I have some flyers here. If you guys want to take these or, or leave them anywhere as well, we still have a. Another week after next week of meetings. Meetings and that's it for the city planner's report. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. And then obviously we have the site plan list. But unless there's any questions about that? Yes, no. No, no. No. Okay. All right. Unless we have any questions we can move on to public comments though. There's no one here. But are we still taking Collins?

Or let's I, I have to log in, but. Yeah. Okay. If you can. Or is that the, you can gimme one moment. I can. Oh, that's fine. I gotta read out the number. Can you turn it? Nope. That's not that who has the number memorized? . Oh, I have that. Yeah. 8 88. 3 82 9 5 56, 8 8 8 3 8 2. 9 5, 5, 6. That's correct. And I know we talked about 15 second delay. Let's

get a little bit of time too. Sure. Okay. Yeah, pretty sure. Okay, it's open right now. I'll give it about 10 more seconds. 10 more seconds. Okay. Just a non-controversial night. controversial now, which one you would never go to a country where you didn't speak? I did not say that. you said that's why you're not gonna go to Cambodia with Dr. Taylor next week. Yeah. Cambodia. Vote in that was there's no phone calls. Okay. All right. All right. So with that, and we have no city commissioner liaison comments. Comments, so we'll move right along. Oh, well actually with the. The planning commissioner Cummins. Before you, are we still taking applications? For yes, applications are they're still accepted. So yes. Anyone

watching, who would like to. Join this esteemed body. We are still taking applications. For, for replacements writer, this would be the commission that would the new, yeah. Yeah. Fun stuff. It'd be nice to see that number. All right. The, sorry, just had to get that out of the way. The, any other planning, commissioner comments going. This way. Going this way, heads shaking. Join us join Columbia esteemed. Yes. Okay. I guess with that. We are adjourned at 7 29. Wow.