Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] Heat.

Heat. We don't really see that on our Yeah, we haven't. It depends on what they have. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Welcome to the August 14th, 2025 meeting of the city of Moskegan Planning Commission. May I have a roll call, please? Commissioners will la here. Johnson is from last Montgomery Keith here. Garan here. Kenir here. Mazade here. Blake here. And Simmons here. All right, seeing we have a quorum, we will review the minutes and have a motion to approve the minutes as presented. There have been some amendments. I move to approve the minutes of the July 10th uh 2025 meeting as pres as as amended or as presented. Second. Uh motion to approve and second. All those in favor? I opposed say no. Seeing none, minutes are approved. Um I would like to make one statement regarding the minutes. One of the items changed was the vote that I had on the agenda item last um meeting regarding the Century Club. Um it was a motion to deny in which I said no. I did not hear the motion properly. So I just wanted to share that with my fellow commissioners, but my uh vote stands obviously. So, moving on to public hearings, we have case 2025-32, request for an amendment to the planned

unit development to install coolers, build a compactor enclosure, relocate and expand the outside bar, and add a fencedin smoking area at 3505 Marina Viewpoint known as Dockers. So, this restaurant is located within the Harbortown PUB, and any changes uh to the footprint of the building require an amendment. Um, so we're here today to discuss the changes uh to the restaurant, which I believe will also be getting a new name. Uh, the changes include an additional cooler and freezer area, which will be added near the northeast corner of the property. The outdoor tiki bar will be slightly increased in size to 480 ft and will also be slightly realigned to fit within the existing property line. It should appear as it's currently over that. Uh, fence will be installed and be used for an outdoor smoking area for the patrons. The existing dumper uh dumpster enclosure will be removed and replaced with the slightly larger trash compactor and enclosure. Um we did send notice to everybody within 300 ft of the property. We did receive an email this morning. I believe it came in. It was a pretty good comment and I'll send a picture around that goes with it if you can pass that down. Uh they made a note that the current dumpster enclosure isn't that appealing to the eye. is a chain link fence that has screening over it. We actually don't allow those. So, uh they had requested that something more formal could be put in and uh staff agrees. I think uh if we could just put an amendment uh or a clause on the motion for approval to uh a condition would be that the new trash enclosure would be a stockade fence or masonary wall. Okay, thank you for that. Um, as this is a public hearing, if we have um anybody in Well, okay. First of all, do we have the applicant here?

Anybody representing the applicant? Yeah, if you wanted to come forward and give your name, let folks get an opportunity to hear from you. Red Sharm. So, um, essentially what we're trying to do is just gain some more space on the interior of Docker. So, it's pretty tight. Um, that's installing a freezer and cooler that are inside now. So, we're going to be removing them from the inside and placing them outside. And then, as far as the compactor goes, we're really just trying to make the place more efficient. Right now, it has traditional um dumpsters. And we reached out to the neighbors before purchasing the property just to see if there were any issues or things they would, you know, recommend we change. And probably the number one item was the dumpsters and the grounds. They just felt like they get overloaded on the weekends and it's eyes sore. So going the route of a compactor will will fix most of that. And then we're completely fine with doing a wood fence, painting it to match the condos, what whatever is necessary to hide the compactor to make it look appealing. All right. Does um and we should have questions for the applicant. Mr. Shmer, is the trash compactor going to be similar to the one that's uh by the deck? It would be similar. I can't give you exactly um size. It's going to be smaller though. Okay. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, we'll go ahead and let the folks from the public see if they have any comments. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Thank you so much. Anyone here to speak on item A in regard to what's known as dockers? If that's what you're here for, sir, come to the podium and let us know your name. I'm David Caukins. I I'm a resident, David O. Caukins. I'm a resident of Harbortown. I came there in 93, so I've seen a lot. And I moved away and moved

down the street and uh because of the loud dockers. I lived right across from dockers. And we couldn't get it quieted down. And finally, I said to hell with it. And I got out of there for about 10 years. moved down next to Steve Garin. How then I was too loud and then Steve was too loud so I had to move back. But anyway, the um part of the issue I think was initially when Dockers was put in uh Darien uh agreed that it was supposed to be a quiet fish restaurant. Well, it turned out to be something much other than a quiet fish restaurant. And now it's going to be something again different than it was. And so it's out of the nature in my opinion. The thing is out of the nature uh with the Harbortown quiet area that it's supposed to be and that was the reason that I moved because it was so damn loud. Now I'm living at the other end of the lake now. So other end of the lake in Harbortown. So I don't have the issue anymore. But anything you do that changes the uh aura of the harbor town uh complex I think uh can be easily done wrong. Uh such as putting it that garbage thing outside for so long and u they still have a light that shines all night long down there and lights up the entire basin boat basin. uh and just it's it's out of concert in my opinion. The whole thing is out of concert with with Harbortown. And so whatever you do to enhance the uh the ability of the people there to make money, I understand they're there to make money and and uh I I think that the um the quiet nature of Harbortown is

part of the allure. So, anything you can do to keep the thing from being so out of concert with the nature of Harbortown uh as a place to live would be appreciated. So, thank you very much. And I don't know what that means relative to what you're voting on. Thank you for your comment. All right. Anybody else? give us your name. Let us know where you're joining us from. And you have three minutes. Yeah. Uh this is Jim Gaudy. Um I actually live in Harbortown and it's 1414. I live in Dave's old unit. Um we've really missed Dockers this last summer and we're really looking forward to uh it being open next year. We're hoping it'll be something similar and even better than uh what it was. So, uh I don't see anything in the current plan that you know concerns me and uh just want to say I hope you guys uh take that into consideration. Thank you for your comment. Right. Going once. That's it. Just once. All right. We'll go to the phones. Oh, you coming? Okay, you snuck in. Hi, my name is Pat Reeves and um I'm on here on behalf of Pigeon Key Marina who is the most immediate neighbor along with Harbortown Marina and part of Harbortown condos to um Dockers and I want to um affirm some of the other positive statements that have made about having that restaurant in our community. um the people in Pigeon Key Marina, we miss being able to um go to Dockers and have a nice meal. So, we're looking

forward to to reopening with its new name and its fresh look. Um we and would love the new owners to know that we intend to be the best neighbors possible and we hope we can work with them especially on managing boat traffic control. It is a very narrow channel um with very tight quarters and um we've gotten um lots of experience working on how we work together to make sure all Boers are safe um and everyone has a positive experience. So, we're just looking forward to working with our new owners to continue that and um we hope that they have a very successful next year. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. All right. Going once, going twice, going to the phones. 2317246721. If anyone would like to call into this public hearing, Madam Chair. Yes, sir. Can I say something while you're waiting for the phone calls? I just want to um make sure that everybody understands that I live in Hovertown. I want to disclose that I don't have a conflict of interest with respect to this, but I wanted everybody to know that. Thank you. If anybody feels otherwise, let me know. No calls coming in. All right. Could I have a motion to close the public hearing? So move. Second. Seconded to close the public hearing. At this point, do we have any further discussion on this item from the commission? Um, just from looking at the the plans that have been submitted, uh, and what they're looking to do, I think the new owners are looking to make enhancements to it, which I think will be, um, welcomed by the neighbors, uh, for the the wood fencing that they're talking about around the trash compactor. Um,

trash compactor is also something that the city's looking at putting in or not looking at, will be putting in at the arena. Uh, they really help with the management of garbage, so I think that'll be a good addition there. it's been successful at the deck. Um, so I'm supportive of these changes and looking forward to welcoming them back next year. Um, has anyone seen a similar um, compactor in town relative to noise? I mean, there there is one at the deck um, out at the beach. Um, I don't know that I've actually ever heard it operate, so it's not um, but it's not very loud. Yeah. So, have we voted on the motion to close the public hearing? Oh, no. We didn't. We should probably do that. Uh, do we need to do that by roll call or can we? All those in favor? I. Any oppose? No. Okay. Motion to close the public hearing. And nobody has called in. So, given that, any final comments? Fred, do you want to spill your trade secrets and tell us what the name is going to be for Dockers next year? It's going to be Bodox. Bodox. Bodox. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. Uh, I will then take a motion if anybody's so interested. Before the motion, Mike, you wanted uh you suggested an amendment on the motion. Yes. I would uh just include that you put a condition on there that the screening for the compactor area is with the privacy fencing, which would either be wood or a masonary wall. Either should be fine. You said it again. The screening for the trash compactor should be made of either a masonary wall or a stockade fence. [Applause] Go for it. I would move the request to amend the plan unit development to install coolers, build a compactor and enclosure, relocate and expand the

outside bar, and add a fenced and smoking area at 3505 Marina Blue Point be recommended to the city commission for approval with the uh addition of the requirement that the screen around the compactor, did you have a height requirement on that? Uh should be at least 5T. um would have a screen of at least five feet um of a fencing made of either wood or masonry. Support moved and supported. May I have a roll call, please? Commissioner Simmons, yes. Blake, yes. Mazade, yes. Kenir, yes. Garan, yes. Cypher. Yes. And yes. All right. Motion approved. Moving on to hearing case B. Case 2025-33. Staff initiated request to reszone the following properties. And while the list is long, I'm simply going to mention the street names. Ransom, Peek, Southern, Strong, Morell, Iona from RM1, Lowdensity, Multiple Family Residential to Form Base Code, Neighborhood Edge. And then we have uh these ones I can read out. 1765 Pex Street, 1781 Pex Street, parcel number 6124205465006-10 and 1778 Sanford Street from B4 general business to form based code neighborhood core 180 East Lake Avenue and 1752 PE street from B4 general business and MC Medical Care to Formbbase Code Neighborhood Edge and 36 Katherine

Avenue, 1366 Pex Street, 1378 88 PC Street, 1386 PE Street, 1394, 1469 PEC from B1 Limited Business to Form Base Code Neighborhood Edge. Many addresses are listed on your screen as well. Okay, as a public hearing, do we have any comment from staff? Yes. So, uh, just to be clear, this is, uh, not related to any project that's going on or anything. This is something staff has just noticed over the years with the zoning along Peg Street and it doesn't seem to be a very effective zoning designation for the area because most of the properties are actually considered uh legally non-conforming or grandfathered because they don't meet a number of the requirements of the RM1 district. most notably uh the requirements in the area and bulk sections where it talks about the minimum lot size uh the minimum lot width and the setbacks uh for many of the buildings almost all of them fall short of meeting either one or all three of those. So it makes it very difficult if there ever wanted to be an expansion of any of these buildings. Uh we also run into problems when things are miszoneed with uh property owners complaining about not being able to refinance or issues with selling the property. Uh and for a while this was just the best zoning designation that we had. But now that we have our formbbased code designations, we took a look at this and we found that the formbbased code neighborhood edge designation would be a great fit because it allows basically the same type of uses and the same type of building density and types of buildings and the building height that you would see in the RM1 district. So you'd see uh going forward a lot of the same uses uh and types of buildings. Uh also with the cluster of B1 zoning

businesses there. Um you know uh I think we can all picture those red group of buildings that are on the east side of the street. Uh those are built uh in a very urban walkable way which we appreciate uh and we'd like to see continue but they're technically not in conformance. They're grandfathered. So if there was an issue with one of them or them all having to come down, we would not be able to rebuild them like they are. So we would like to encourage the going forward to be built in that same manner. So we would like to reszone it to uh the formbbased code neighborhood edge as well. Um and then there are a few parcels uh to the south of this area closer to Lake which we are proposing to zone our neighborhood core designation. Uh this would not be a majority of them. It should just be the few that are close to Lake and neighborhood core and neighborhood edge are very similar except neighborhood core allows you to go a little bit taller. you can go up to five stories. And um with the need for housing and uh and the ability not to meet all of our housing goals with our current density a lotments throughout the neighborhoods, we think this would be a good area to try to focus some apartment buildings near where there's already different transit options uh like the bus stop. So um for the most part, everything would be zoned to neighborhood edge except for these last few parcels closer to Lake. And we did hold a focus group um with the property owners uh in June. We emailed all of the property owners. We had about 15 participants. Uh everybody was on board at the meeting. I think about five or so wanted more information. So we worked with them over the next month to assure them that, you know, their future plans wouldn't be hampered by this. Uh and everyone we

talked to were agreed that they wanted to move forward with the request. Thank you for that. I'll go to members of the public who are here to speak on this public hearing. If anybody is interested to do so, please come forward now. Just give us your name, let us know where you're from, and we got three minutes. Autumn Bloom. I own the property at 1322 PC Street. I would like someone to explain to me what your what it means that the thing you want to change it to. What's the breakdown of what it means? Sure. Um, so I know I said a lot of technical things. Um, if you're not familiar with zoning, it it may have, you know, not resonated, but uh to to put it more simpler terms is the way the properties are developed now, they are considered non-conforming, which would be not technically legal. That doesn't mean you have to do anything. They can stay there. You you are considered grandfathered in. But you may have issues if the building was ever demolished, if there was a natural disaster or something. most of these properties would not be able to be rebuilt because the lots are not big enough. They're not even considered buildable. And many of the ones that are uh they don't meet the setbacks. So, everybody right now would face almost everybody right now would face a problem with rebuilding their property in the manner that it is if there was a disaster. Uh there would also be severe difficulties with anybody wanting to put an addition on their building. So the new designation you want, what's the name of that? Forbased code neighborhood edge. So what does that mean? What what are the parameters of that? Sure. So if you can look on the screen up

here, these are the building types that are allowed in the formbbased code. um neighborhood edge, mixeduse buildings, retail buildings which we already have in the area, flex buildings which are similar to mixeduse buildings but may may not have a retail component. Cottage retail buildings similar to a retail building. Live work building the same but smaller. Small multipplex buildings are usually smaller apartment buildings up to uh eight apartments and row houses and duplexes and detach buildings. So it's really similar a lotment of buildings that would be allowed. The greater flexibility here is you can have them on smaller lots to make them conforming and legal and you can have reduced setbacks to only 5t on the side which many of them are are only about 5 foot setbacks on the side now. Mine's not um director comments. Mine's a I have a I have a a twounit building and I used to have a business in it and I have my office in it now. So, it can remain that. That's what I care about. Yes. And with this new zoning, you would definitely be able to continue that. Thank you for your comment. Have anybody else who'd like to go ahead? Cindy Jones, 1533 Clinton Street. I've actually been uh in my home for uh 36 years. So, I'm right on the side of it. So, just behind the edge. My understanding, thank you for clarifying that. I could not find that. The um formbbased code neighborhood core allows for mixed residential, which is what you were talking about. It also said commercial and light industrial uses. So, that's I guess what I was going to ask about what that meant. Um, it said focusing on creating uh walkable

mixeduse neighborhoods, which I think is great. I was concerned if we were looking at expanding the marijuana areas, if we're putting in party stores, if there's going to be um in the code or what we're what you're going to um look at tonight, if it includes all of that and we have people come in that want light industrial or commercial, do you have a out? I did I didn't know if that code is actually strong in here that if somebody wanted to come in with I don't know automotive or something like that a light industrial does the zoning commission have the ability to say it doesn't fit or is there something like a special land use that you could make an exception for that? I I just want I just I guess with how you have it described in other documentation, it includes commercial and light industrial. So I just didn't know if that was a issue or concern of this commission. We'll take that into comments. So we mostly want to hear comments at this time. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. I'm Mike Bastenber. I live at 1649 PC Street. My concern is you talk about fivestory buildings and the additional parking that would that would cause. Right now they've narrowed the street so narrow it's hard to get two cars going each way and there's very limited parking there and to add more people in that area seems crazy.

Also, I don't understand why you would reszone it. Right now, I understand that about 90% of the homes in the new resoning area don't currently meet the zoning. They're called they're grandfathered in. Why aren't we considering reszoning it? So those houses are all conforming instead of doing something other that makes less sense to me in parking. It bothers me that the part the school right there and the children that are coming in and out of there and the speeds which people go down that road. It's it's nuts. The school buses do 45 miles an hour. I've asked several times for the police to come down during school hours and patrol the area. Now, we're considering adding more people in that area. That does not sound like a good idea. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else who would like to speak on this item? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and go to the phones. 231-724-6721. Nothing coming in. Okay. And again, seeing no one else in the audience, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Second. Moved and supported to close the public hearing. All those in favor?

I. Anybody opposed say no? Hearing none. Um public hearing is closed. Do we have any discussion from staff at this point or sorry from the commission at this point? We're taking comments now. Are we going to make it have a motion and then we should do that? you know, there's an order of operations here. So, I I have a question. Um Mike, I'm interested like Miss Jones about the um the additional ability for commercial industrial. Can you kind of talk about that? Um with the I understand the um non-conforming uses and how we're going to by way of this new zone um bring those into conformance, but can you talk about those other potential uses? Sure. Um, well, retail uses would be allowed. Retail uses are pretty much allowed in the RM1 district now. So, retail options really are not going to change the the light manufacturing. Um, the code requires that as a special use permit for a mixeduse building and permitted by right by a flex building. So for those parcels, you could pro possibly see something very light like assembly or parts assembly, something like that, but nothing major. But I think the key to that is that those kinds of uses would um require review by the planning commission, correct? And and approval. So I think that's I think that's a key issue. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I will take a motion for any further items we'd like to discuss specifically. And do we have the recommended? Uh I can I've got it. Do you? Yeah. Okay. Um I move the request to reszone the properties as listed be

recommended to the city commission for approval. Second. Moved and supported. and I will any other further discussion. Go ahead. So, um, one of the questions that came up during the public comment was the reasonzoning into something that would make sense for these properties. And I think that's what what we're doing here is we're taking a zoning designation that we do have within our existing ordinance and applying it to an area so that the homes do come into compliance. Uh the parking requirements that we have are more citywide. Uh this is there's different ones in the downtown, but this would be the same parking requirements that we have currently. Correct, Mike? Or uh no, the formbbased code is different. Is different. Okay. But the but how does it relate to what the current parking requirement is to the There's there's no uh parking minimum requirements in the form base code. Okay. Again, we have a motion to approve as presented the parking there. There is no parking requirement as is stated. Basically, it's up to the folks in the area to determine if they have adequate parking in their doicile or otherwise. Okay. But I do have a motion in support on the floor. So, I'll take a roll call, please. Commissioners will out laoy. Yes. Cipher. Yes. Galan. Yes. Kenir. Yes. Yes. Blake. Yes. And Simmons. Yes. Okay. Motion passes. We now have case 2025-34. Staff initiated request to reszone 3172 Edgewater Street, 3182 Edgewater Street,

2976 Lakeshore Drive, 2984 Lakeshore Drive, 2986 Lakeshore Drive, 3002 Lakeshore Drive, 3084 and 3088 Lakeshore Drive, 3092 Lakeshore Drive from Waterfront Marine to form base code Lakeside mixed residential FBC LMR. Staff comments. So this uh request is related to the request from last month when we requested to make amendments to the Lakeside mixed residential formbbased code designation where uh we amended it so that those designations the Lakeside Mixed Residential could have marinas as a use as long as they have frontage on Moskegan Uh that was ultimately a passed by the city commission and the next step would be to reszone these subject parcels to the Lakeside Mix residential uh to bring them into conformance and give them more options moving forward. Uh, as we stated in the past, you know, we looked at staff looked at the zoning designation and we noticed that it's causing some problems for the single family homes. This area is made up of either marinas or single family homes or in some cases three or four apartment houses. Uh what we found out over the past year is that the waterfront marine designation does not allow for houses even though these subject parcels have houses. So we ran into an issue where one gentleman had to get a variance in order to take down his house and rebuild it. We have another parcel uh where a property has been demolished and they would like to put up

um a multifamily house. uh that is not allowed and we weren't really sure how this zoning came to be. So we had a focus group in June to see what the goals were for the property owners. Were they waiting to sell to a marina or were they hoping to just keep it residential? Were they hoping to do residential and marinas themselves? And when we had the focus group, we kind of found a mixture of all of that. Some people just wanted a house. Some people wanted uh a house and their own marina uh and some were maybe considering um you know selling to a marina. So um we thought the best path forward would to be to create a designation uh such as our foreignbased code that would allow for um housing up to six units, which this one does. and it allows for businesses and it allows now for marinas. So it meets our future land use map which considers this area called lakeshore which is defined by a mixture of uses along the waterfront. So residential, commercial, marina and we believe that zoning this these parcels to lakes shore mixed residential will give everybody in that area the option that they want moving forward. whether that's um residential, single family up to six units, marinas or commercial uses. Okay, a quick comment before we go to Can I ask a question? So, Mike, I I you mentioned six units. For some reason, I had in my mind that we're talking eight units. Is that something different or uh one of cuz we talked about this at the last meeting and

one of the uh property owners that kind of helped bring this forward wanted to build an aplex. This zoning designation would not allow for an 8plex. It would allow for up to a sixplex, but their parcel is big enough to split and build two separate ones. So, um this wouldn't get them exactly where they needed to be, but it's close and I believe it's probably the proper density for this area. And and when you mentioned earlier this would give more options to the property owners, those are the kinds of things you're talking about the housing. Yes. Housing um marinas and then it also allows for small smallcale commercial options as well. Thank you. Okay. And as this is a public hearing, if anybody in the audience would like to speak on this item, please come forward now. Steve Schiller representing 3172 Edgewater Street. Uh we are uh all for this. We would like the planning commission to approve this. Uh we plan on keeping the pro uh the property residential and we'd like to bring the property into conformance. So urging you to approve it. Thank you for your comment. Believe there was another gentleman back there who would like to speak. Hi, I'm Dick Ezi, 2017 Lakes Shore Drive. Um, I know Mike and I have talked about this and I did want to build it eight units and I don't know when when it even got changed to six or whatever how that worked out, but um, we wanted two units on the main floor, three on the next two floors up. Um,

like Mike said, we could split the property and build two smaller buildings. And we don't really like that look. We're going for a totally different look that would, you know, would work good under one roof. And I just wondered if there was a chance for that that could be changed to eight units or if there's a reason it can't be changed. So, just bringing it up. Thank you. We'll take it under discussion as we move forward. Thank you. What's that? We'll take it under discussion during comments. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Anybody else in the audience? Uh Stephen Vanderstelt. Um I live at 3040 Fairfield in Norton Shores. I just have been working with Dick Gzi and his son Travis trying to uh plan the exact footprint of the property. And just to reiterate what he was saying, um, we took into consideration the fact that we might be able to possibly put two buildings on there, but we are already short of parking if we were to put up the 8 unit. So, if we were to put up two separate units of six and six or whatever it may be, we are already short on parking. So, putting two separate buildings on there would be difficult. And due to the cost of the property and the improvements that Dick wants to do, um if we were only allowed to put six units on there, um it would be hard for him to uh get his money back, per se, because of the because he does good work. I mean, he does some nice stuff and he has some really good ideas for the property. So, I just think that um if we were just stuck with just six um he would have troubles re literally

recouping his money. So, and the parking is already bad. So, thank you. All right. Not seeing any other Oh, did we Jeff Burr here representing uh 3132 Lakes Drive, the Vikings? Um, I'm opposed to putting two six units in there. I'm opposed to putting an 8 unit in there. Uh, the gentleman has already mentioned a lack of parking. You put eight units in there, two cars to a unit, that's 16 cars. Where are you going to put 16 cars and a six-unit apartment building on that frontage? Um, I would think six is more than enough. I understand the concern about not making enough money to put there, but eight units and that many people in that many spots is just too much. Too many people. Um I'm happy uh that we are changing the zoning that will help the people that are there to make their homes right. Uh given the Vikings, it does not have any effect with this this change. Um I'm just here commenting as myself. if I live farther up Lakes Shore Drive, but uh no, I don't think uh an 8 unit is appropriate. I don't think 12 units is appropriate. Um six units is more than enough in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. All right, going to go to the phones. 231 724-6721. All right. I don't think we've got anybody coming in. I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. So move. Second. Moved and supported to close the public hearing. All those in favor say I. I.

Any oppose say no. All right. The public hearing is closed and uh I suppose it's possible to have a motion to take this forward as is for further discussion if anybody would like to do so. I would move that the request to resone the properties as listed be recommended to the city commission for approval. Second. Moved and supported. U go ahead. So, um Mike, I I have a question. Um obviously know that this um zone change is not um solely based on the six or eight or whatever number of units. Um but that's obviously where I got the eight units from last meeting. Um but could you address that from your perspective? Um obviously the um staff proposal was for six units. Can you talk about um your perspective with with respect to um whether higher number would be um appropriate in that area or maybe how you came to that uh conclusion that six was a a good number. Yep. So we tried to find a designation that was similar to what's current there with allowing housing and we thought that this most closely reflected that. Now we are going from no housing allowed which basically still allowed single family because they were there and now we're going to allow those but also going all the way up to six units which is quite an increase in density. Um, now I'm all for density and I'm usually a proponent for that. Um, but in certain areas I think we do have to take a careful look at that. Um, we could

have proposed something higher. Uh, but if we did that we would have to get into large multiplexes. So anything from seven all the way up to, you know, 50 units or more. So, with our current zoning designation choices, those were our options is to either go with what we're proposing or something much larger which would take up a lot more views and a lot more land um and obviously take away from a lot of the views of the wershed. So, um we thought it was similar enough to what's there uh while allowing a modest increase in density. So, if this um is approved, is there an option for people that would want to go um more than six units by via perhaps a variance or you could apply for a variance. I don't think you'd be uh very successful. I I don't see where a hardship would come into play there, but we do have the uh staff does and individual property owners have the ability to propose ordinance amendments. So, uh, if they really felt strong enough that eight units should be allowed there, uh, they could petition the commission to take a look at that. Okay. Thank you. And can you, um, regarding the six, does this have anything to do with the actual square footage of the site whereby six is allowed or is it just anything gets six? Uh, well, it allows as a housing type small multiplexes which are allowed to have six units. And no um current site plans or property suggestions have been put forth as of now that you're aware of across all these properties. I've looked at one informally but I did not give it a full review. Now any other thoughts?

Just just one more question please. So Mike the So what's dictating the six units is the zoning classification. Yes. Uh if we can look at um look at the zoning designation and these are the building types. It only allows for detach houses, duplexes, row houses, uh small multiplex and cottage retail. So it excludes your mixeduse buildings which could be very large um and uh large multiplex buildings which are usually reserved for larger apartment complexes. Thank you. I think some of the frustration about this particular portion of the lake shore is that it's already heavily mixed use. There's a variety of uses. There's these little houses tucked in there between, you know, what most folks would consider quite um business marine usage. In fact, you barely notice the houses in this district. I think you mostly notice marine as the the notable use. However, um I I think it's on us to determine kind of the future vision there. if we allow anything over six, that could change the options drastically. Right? So now we're looking at um a row of Balcom's CEOs, if you will along that whole stretch. So the question is, I guess, if if now is the appropriate time to make this this zoning change and if it's going to give us that that outcome, this continued mix um that we're looking for. anybody

um this current zoning change at the moment um is anything else predicated on this in the near future Mike? No, I'm not aware of any projects that are waiting for this other than the one I'm trying to get a sense of where where folks are at here. I think that the default is going to be to um move it forward with, you know, staff's efforts unless there's some clear indication otherwise. So, just putting that up. Change property taxes at all? We are no longer taking comments at this time. Roll call, please. Um, Commissioner Simmons, yes. Blake, yes. Made, yes. Kenir, yes. Yes. Ciphford, yes. And Laroy, yes. Motion passes. All right. Do we have additional item on the agenda? We do. Case 2025-35, request for a special use permit to operate a drive-thru for a restaurant at 431 East Lake Avenue by Lewis Centis. Forgive me for butchering that if possible. Staff update on this item. So, the property is zoned B2. Uh, it's been used as a restaurant in a church most recently in the past. Um, drive-through restaurants are allowed as a special use permit. They must meet at least two requirements. That being a setback of at least 60 ft shall be provided from the street

rightway line and any existing or proposed maj thoroughfare and ingress and egress point shall be located at least 60 ft from the intersection of two streets. Uh, they meet both of those requirements. Um can pull up the site plan and you can see uh that the traffic would flow one way. It would enter off of the second most southern entrance off of Main Street and uh come in around the building and it would be on the west side of the building where they would take the order. Now, that would not be on the driver's side as you would traditionally see. Um, the window would be on their right. Um, however, that's not a rule. And you do see some drive-throughs, such as Checkers, do that with their second drive-thru. Um, so it shouldn't be an issue. There's plenty of stacking space uh for traffic to to wait in line. There's also adequate space leaving the uh drive-thru so you don't uh have issues with seeing traffic. Uh one issue I did note is that there would be parking. Uh and we can go to the aerial map. The parking currently uh the lines are are slanted in one direction. That would need to be corrected. If they're coming in off that first curb cut, um they would have to be parallel parking stripes. I'm sorry, perpendicular. And then um also I would request that there's some kind of measure to to put down where traffic would not drive into the drive-through area. So, there could be some type of uh parking strip or some type of median placed on the road where you don't get people trying to park in the parking lot and colliding with people coming out of

where the drive-thru would be. Uh other than that, it seems like a pretty straightforward and good location for a drive-thru. We did notice everybody within 300 ft and did not hear anything from the public. Yeah, there we go. Okay. and is the applicant here today if you'd like to come forward and give us some update about your project, your name, where you're joining us from. Hi, my name is Luis and um I'm the owner there. We used to have a Kas tacos in there was where we start one of my dream and that was part of that and idea since I'm working outside and winter time is part for me will be outside so maybe if we you guys let me do that um then we can work inside in that part and you know I'm trying to bring from little piece of Mexico to Michigan, Michigan. My um uh dream. So I don't know if you guys through that. That'll be awesome for for everybody. The community is happy with GG's real right now. Um I don't know. Does anyone have any questions for the applicant? Okay. Thank you so much. We have one here. One more. Sorry. Hold on. We have one question for you. Are are you pretty familiar with the neighborhood? Oh, yes. I've been there for 20 something years in there. Okay. I just I one of my biggest concerns is the kids that are riding their bikes and um the way the setup is and the attention that could not be paid possibly to kids going back and forth

through that alley as well as um on those streets. I'm there 24 hours pretty much. I I leave there. So, uh I've seen some kids around in the body. And one more too. Um what what are your intended hours of operation right now? We got uh well once if we open that place probably uh 11 to 9. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, if we have anybody here in the audience who would like to speak on this item, please come forward now. Not seeing anybody, so we will go ahead and go to the phones. 231724-6721. Give folks a few minutes. Do you mind if I ask a question? General question or to him? No, just general. Um, is there not another option for the drive-thru, like a different way for it to go? Because I know you said that the driver side it it wouldn't be near the window. Well, if they did, they'd have to either come in off a lake and then there's not enough stacking spaces. So, that could probably lead to an accident. Yeah. People would be in the street. Okay. And that' probably go for the same on the first exit, the most northern exit off of Main Street, I believe. Um Yeah. And so you probably could see some backup at that intersection. Yeah. Okay. I don't um have anybody calling in on the phones, so I think we can go ahead and close the public hearing and move to discussion. Go ahead. Move to close the public hearing. Second. Moved and supported to close the public hearing. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. Hearing none. All right. Public hearing is closed. Have further discussion. So,

we're talking about um just the layout of the driving through um and there's supposedly an alley back here. It's hard to see on Google um street view exactly how that alley operates. So, would this render that alley unusable? Because we would be we're covering, you know, based on this yellow line here, we're cutting off half the alley. Would it continue to be an alley? I feel like it's cut off cuz they got the store right there. I don't think it is an alley. Yeah, I think it's a cut off. Well, you say it's not an alley, but it's an alley on the designation. So, um, we've talked in the past a lot about continuing to maintain alleys. Are we currently maintaining this for plowing or any other purposes? I don't believe we maintain this as an alley. I'm trying to look it up really quick. Keep talking. It looks like the when when it turns to the left south, that's not maintained any longer. So, I don't think anybody knows that. Cut through those trees right there. I'm pretty familiar with that neighborhood. But you can still cut through those trees. You can still drive through there. You can still drive through there. I know you can walk through there. Walk through there. Okay. Um but it hasn't been, you know, abandoned as far as not since I was a kid. There's uh there's no designated alley on Okay. So it's just it looks like an alley. Yeah. Now in that space there there is an alley north and south um that terminates at that point, but east and west there is no alley. Okay. Yeah. You had another question, Brad? Can I make a motion? Sure. So, I'd like to make a motion to approve the request for the special use permit to operate a drive-thru for restaurant at 431 East Lake with the following

conditions based on the findings of the planning exercise. Um, that traffic flow arrows are painted to indicate the flow of traffic. Um, and that the parking lot lines are painted to face the appropriate direction of the traffic flow. We're talking about perpendicular, right, Mike? Yes. And that um a barrier is installed near the northwest corner of the building to prevent parking traffic from colliding with drive-thru traffic. Second. Okay. It has been moved and seconded to approve as presented. Any final discussion about the site or any concerns? Okay. We'll take a roll call, please. Commissioner Wat Laoy, yes. Ziper, yes. Gan, yes. Yes. Yes. Blake, yes. And Simmons, yes. All right, motion passes. Good luck, sir. And I believe that is the rest of the public hearings for today, but we do have an additional agenda item. So, let me get back to here. Pull the agenda back up real quick. There you go. All right. Right. We wanted to have a discussion on an article that was provided to the planning commission in regards to parking mandates. Yep. I just wanted to send along another uh article I saw uh on parking. Something we've talked about a lot over the past several years. We've done a lot

to uh minimize our required parking. Uh and it seems to be working out great. Uh we mostly focus that on downtown though. And as you can see, there's other cities that are taking it even farther into their neighborhoods uh in strictly residential neighborhoods with a little bit of commercial, which has always been um kind of a hot topic issue. Um as we see today, a gentleman was complaining about not being enough parking. Um but what we constantly see uh with developers is them trying to meet our standards. And I can tell you as being a planner for over 20 years, parking requirements are completely made up. We don't know how to calculate them. We're just grasping at straws and coming up with numbers and equations that really don't I don't know how that we really come up with them. Um and it really is uh limits development options when we're um trying to build require something that maybe is not ever going to be used. So, uh, we see, you know, developers trying to look at what they need and and develop it on their own without extra parking spaces that the city might, uh, require. So, um, there's some big things going on in some larger cities like Dallas and Denver that are completely getting rid of their parking requirements throughout the city. And in Kansas City, it looks like they're starting a moratorum until 2028 um, for commercial parking mandates. So, just wanted everybody to read the article and share any thoughts that they may have on that. I'm with you, Mike. All right. I'm a millennial, though, so I think I get a pass. I I'll I'll continue, you know, as an individual to, you know, focus on these

type of topics. And and um I think moving forward uh we should really look at the arbitrary nature of of these uh mandates because they really are arbitrary and a lot of urban planners, you know, city engineers, they'll admit it. You know, it ended up in a textbook after World War II and nobody knows why. Um and again uh the successes we've seen in other municipalities throughout the United States when we eliminate some of these arbitrary mandates. We've seen uh example city after city of revitalization uh because of the flexibility. you know, a developer is going to have some parking or, you know, make some type of accommodation um see how it exists, you know, with with within the area. And we even see it here downtown. There's no parking downtown. By the time I left office, we had added 385, maybe 400 and some surface parking, you know, areas throughout the downtown. So, parking isn't the issue. what's what has been the issue is um you know filling in those empty teeth so that you have some uh storefronts and additional residences so it doesn't feel so lonely but we'll get there uh and I think we will because of uh the flexibility and the creativity that we can find within formbbased code um the uh issues that came before us tonight gives us more flexibility and uh uh grounds for creativity and what's key to that is really addressing and seeing how these arbitrary mandates such as the parking mandates have impacted the

ability for people either to live, create a business and do it more flexibly. Um I will draw your attention uh within the article towards the bottom uh the housing ready study. Uh if you click on that and you go in there will be a map and the uh map shows housing uh ready cities and one of them is Moskegan and that's a direct result of the action that we took last year and the encouragement we gave to the elected officials at the commission level to finally get zoning reform through. Um, Moskegan's been a leader. We've been recognized as a national leader by the organization that this article came out of. And we can continue to leave lead and uh and and be a model uh with our zoning, with our infill housing program, uh with looking at, you know, best practices uh that allow us to build in a reasonable, responsible way, but a way that doesn't hinder people. uh that we found created um after World War II and uh again those arbitrary mandates that nobody knows where the heck they came from. That's it. But I think we have a lot to be proud of here within uh this group and um our fellow elected fellows on the uh elected uh bench uh for the work that's been uh you know attempted through the uh past uh 20 years.

So I think I have maybe a a different point of view. Um, I understand the need to make sure that we don't have seas of ashvault, um, that aren't used and aren't necessary, but I think we also need to recognize that, um, for our commerce to thrive to thrive, um, people need to be able to park to get to those places. And and while it be while it's great to think that we have alternative modes of transportation, I don't think in Moskegan those systems are um welldeveloped yet in terms of mass transit. Um you know, people do ride their bikes um on occasion. and I ride my bike seven miles to get to these meetings, but for the most part, I think people get to um businesses by car. And so I think we need to strike a good balance between um making sure there's enough parking and and not having overkill. Um, and if that's through um not requiring bis individual businesses to have the parking, that's fine. But then another entity, maybe the city um needs to have some uh some parking available um for those areas of commerce. I think that's a good point. You know, I I'm constantly kind of pushing this idea and a lot of planners are, but each city is unique and I know it's not going to work everywhere because not every city has that infrastructure that's needed. And I think of places like maybe the Getty Street corridor where uh they're surrounded by residential, so there's not really parking in behind them. There's some side streets, but it's quite a walk to some of them. There's no on street parking. So, if a

business did decide that they didn't want any, um, they may lose a lot of customers, which could be on them, or, you know, you could cause customers to use somebody else's parking lot, or it's not that clear-cut that you should just get rid of parking. No, but I do want us to start thinking about this, but if if people drive to a business and they can't park in a what they think is a reasonable distance, they're not going to go there, you know. And so, like I said, I think I I think it just needs to be a balance. Do we have a GIS layer for public parking? Um, no. I We might have some type of map we've created that shows off streetet parking at I'm a big proponent of using the tools that we know are available to us. And I think that it's a lot easier to understand the overall parking landscape when we can just say, "Okay, all these streets allow public parking. here's one large parking area. And so when a business is coming in and asking, you know, do I need parking? It's easy to see, well, clearly there's plenty of parking around you. Um, I think that any moves the city can make to use mapping towards decision- making, I think is it's very beneficial and allows us to have a more overall view because there are some places where we think, well, that's not a big deal. And there are other places where we think I don't want to walk that far. And shared parking, I think, is is a real key in some of these areas where, you know, maybe a business is is open during during the daytime and they're not open at night and but, you know, vice versa. They can share the parking. Yeah. And allowing, you know, some places downtown where, you know, maybe they don't really want people using their parking lot, but when Hackley Park is full, people are parking in the parking lot. They're going to park wherever they can get to. So, you know, it is sometimes also just building partnerships and having appropriate signage that says you can or can't park somewhere. If somewhere seems like you're going to get in trouble, then people might avoid it and it could be a perfectly reasonable place to park. Um,

but I think also part of it's just culture. I think it's, you know, I I walked to the the fireworks this year from my house and I wouldn't have thought to do that except I had friends who just moved to Norton Shores and they thought, well, we can just walk there from here and I thought, I guess we could, right? I I would have normally gotten in my car and driven from the high school to, you know, it's closer to Heritage Landing and it was was a perfectly fine experience. And so sometimes we just have to, you know, kind of build culture that it's okay to walk more, bike more, not park so close, but any other final thoughts on that? Okay. Um, do we have any I don't think we have a new business component here. We have public comment, I think, is one last item. Anybody here for general public comment today? Seeing none. Okay, I'll go to the phones one more time. 2317246721. See nothing. All right, folks. Who wants to do it? Motion to go home. support motion and supported to adjurnn. All those in favor I opposed stay here by yourself. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]