Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

and we are live. Good evening everyone. Welcome to our planning commission meeting for April 15th. We uh we missed a meeting last month for March. So, let's get rolling. Roll call. Um Andy is not here. Is he going to be here? Andy is not going to be here tonight. Okay.

So, election of officers usually that isn't that down on the agenda? You Yeah, I think we usually put it up first, but we can move it down to the bottom if you prefer. It doesn't matter to me. I It's just usually it's part of the the body of our meeting, but doesn't matter to me. It's the agenda. Yep. So, are you accepting nominations now? I'm confused. Uh, I'd like to nominate Greg for the position of chair. Start with them one at a time. I would second that. So, we have a nomination for

for Greg. And then Greg, did you have something you wanted to share? Oh, no. I'm just wondering how do we do this? Do we do a slate or do we do individual or um I think you can go either way. Um it's been a while since we've done this. It seems like a year ago, I bet a year. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I think I think going individually is probably the best way to go. Okay. For each one. Okay. So, uh, we have a motion and support for myself as chairman. All those in favor? Well, roll call. I think I think we need to say, are there are there any other nominations?

Any other nominees? Nominees. Yeah. Are there any other nominees? Okay. All right. Roll call or um I think we can do a voice vote on that. All those in favor signify by saying I I thank you for that. Do that too. And so the next one would be for vice chair. So we're looking for nominations for vice chair. Who is currently vice chair? President Cassandra. Cassandra. Yes. You have any interest in continuing? Yeah, that's fine.

I'd like to nominate Cassandra Johnston for vice chair or any other nominees. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Nice. Thank you. And we have what? Secretary And our secretary has done an astounding job. Astounding. I thought it was artificial intelligence. She is up for it one more time. Sure. I'd like I'd like to nominate Kelly as uh secretary for the board. I would second.

Any other nominations? All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Thank you, Kelly. Excellent. Thank you. And that's all. Yep. That's all. Adoption. So, adoption of agenda. Unless someone has something they would like an item they'd like to add, I would move we adopt the agenda as written. I'll support. Motion in support. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

We have an agenda now. Now, we're going to go back in history to adopt the February 18th meeting minutes history. Well, I reviewed them in depth. They look good to me. I'll make a motion to accept as written. Second. Okay, we have a motion in support. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

Right. We have our minutes. Now it's a time for uh general public comment. Um pretty much open mic. So if you have uh anything to say, come on forward to turn on the open mic. Okay. All right, other side.

I'll close public comment. Good. Okay, item F. Paul Sachs from Ottawa County. Come on. What do we got? Yes. Yep. Perfect. All right. I'm taking Lucas. Good evening. Good evening. Hi. Thank you for the invitation to be here tonight.

Stand sideways so I can also see the screen. I don't have my slides memorized so I need to look at them. But we're going to talk about activating housing opportunities across Ottawa County. I So I'm Paul Saxs. I'm director of strategic impact for Ottawa County. In our department, we are involved in a range of multi-jurisdictional efforts for the county from infrastructure, transportation, farmland preservation, um, brownfield redevelopment, housing, and several other items. And as a county, we've been a working to activate housing through a myriad of ways to address the challenges that we're dealing with countywide with providing housing stock for for everyone. We've invested $10 million of ARPA dollars that we've received as a county into a revolving loan fund and that's available for developers, nonprofit, forprofit and that offers uh reduced rates a few points below standard loan rates um which helps capital stacking when developers are working on projects. And that is a fund that's revolving um that will continue to get replenished and then after 20 years of our contract through this revolving loan fund. As a county, we have the ability to take that $10 million back, use it how we want or reinvest it. So we're continuing to analyze the success of the fund and so far several projects have utilized the that revolving loan fund. There's more in the queue. We've also as a county we've provided some direct funding to support the Samaritas project the landing at Spring Lake helping that capital stack. We've also contributed some funds to create some revolving loan pottery um funds for revolving loan scenario and so to speak for Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity and Jubilee Ministries. And they've been investing those dollars into creating some

affordable housing opportunities. And for example, with Habitat for Humanity, when they've used these funds, they hold the mortgages for those homeowners. and then those homeowners pay back that mortgage and so that money is continuing to get recycled so we can continue to reinvest it and that's really key for us to maximize the use of the dollars that we are providing. We've also set the same agreement up with Tri Cities Habitat for Humanity and they're starting to engage deeper in creating more housing stock up here in the northwest part of Ottawa County. Public Act 381 is Brownfield Redevelopment Act. There were some changes a couple years ago at the state level um that offers um Brownfield housing tiff opportunities through the Brownfield uh act 381 and we've activated several project in that regard as well. Hudsonville is a project that was supported with brownfield housing tiff dollars. There's units going in there 141 units in this particular project. Terrace station 35 of those units are hitting that relative affordability mark of the 80 to 95% area median income household units. Also supported through Bramfield Housing TIFF Windsor Place here in Spring Lake Village 41 units with five of those being restricted to those under that threshold of area meeting income. So there's a lot in that space that's happening and there's other efforts as well, right? It's going to require multitude of entities working in the space to address housing. But what keeps popping up here is the need for more forale housing units. A lot of apartments being built. And I hear some feedback from from townships, local units of government saying, "Well,

boy, we've almost have this oversaturation of apartments." How do we look at for sale housing units and look at them from a relative affordability based on those that need it? Typical single family product that's being built today on average in the county is about $415,000 for a new home. and they're large square footage averaging about 2200 square feet. Think about a starter home. That's a that's a bigger starter home. So, we're having this conversation trying to think through that housing needs assessment identified those four housing units that the county should work to activate over the next three to five years. About 260 homes priced below 171,000. And that mark of 171,000 is based on area meeting income. So that's those individuals making 50% say $50,000 a year below that threshold based on 30 no more than 30% of your income should go towards housing. That's this balance of what you have from a financial perspective and cost of living. about 2,800 homes priced between 171 274 7,000 homes getting to that 274 411. The market itself is addressing those um the ranges above the 400,000 as we know with that average price point. But let's just highlight here slides off a little bit. That's supposed to be read there on the 274,000. Just provides some perspective on who are we talking about at that price point range. And what does that cost? $80,000 a year annual salary. It's pretty good income. Say for a young professional coming out of college, $80,000 a year. They're

going to put $2,200 monthly mortgage, no more than 30% of their income. That's difficult to find that right now. Look at who are these individuals in the community that are looking for for sale housing. Nurses break down their average annual salary. Monthly housing income availability about $2,000. Manufacturing those employees. Elementary school teachers about $1,600 a month. Construction $1,000 a month for housing. As mentioned, we have rental product. It's a lot of rental product that's occurring in the county. As I indicated, onebedroom, twobedroom, $1,300 a month. Two-bedroom, $1,900 a month. Two beds, $1,500 a month. And that's a rental on on average, right? Let's just think about a twobedroom apartment, 850 square ft, one bathroom. About this home ownership, the American dream. That's really that's difficult. You know, we're putting a lot of pressure or a lot of opportunity in the apartment concept, the rental unit, but let's go back and think about that starter home. And so we activated as a county and with the housing commission support just the small stature, big impact. Let's think differently about that traditionalsized home. Over time, the size of a home has steadily increased. At that same time period, family sizes are getting smaller. I don't think this is a surprise to any of us. Go back and you think about the average size of a home we're building today. It's 2200 square feet. We're building

this. This is what we see wherever we go. What about this? This these are the communities that we see today. These are the ones we love. We cherish. They define who we are as a community. But are we building this? It's charming. It's quaint. It's authentic. We build this. This is what we see. What about these communities? Again, they're who we are in West Michigan. The neighbor has density. but has authentic charm. My point here, right? We see this all the time. New housing product looks like this. This is not what our communities look like when we think of West Michigan and our small mid mid west authentic authentic charming neighborhoods. This not quite it. It's this. No attached garages, right? but it still looks good. Put the garages in the back. Let someone build a garage later. Give them a chance to do it. Have them put a shutup in the back if they need to. They're even with no garages, it's still beautiful, clean, functional. And we hear this conversation. There's a lack of starter homes happening. And there's a myriad of ways that we need to address housing. and we just want to rethink what we're enabling, what we're facilitating from a construction standpoint. Sometimes that's a regulatory burden. So, let's think differently about that. And beyond just a regulatory burden, it's perception on how people are viewing housing stock. So, we want to do an we activated this new approach. Let's reintroduce the

traditional sized home that we see today. But we've got obstacles. Zoning often prevents the smaller footprint home. There's also misconceptions from the general public about smaller. Oh, if it's smaller house, it's going to be low income people. Oh, if it's a smaller house, it's going to impact my property values. It's a smaller house, it's going to be a small lot. It's density. That's a scary thing. It's going to have a poor aesthetic. Go back to the last slides that I showed. Density, small homes, charming, quaint, beautiful, well-maintained. Think about the people that need those homes. Nurses, persons and individuals in manufacturing, right? All those things we talk about. You look at their salaries that are making. It's hard for them to afford the houses that are being built on average today. There's some and we're all talking about lack of affordable housing and we're talking about grants and tax increment financing and other methods to do that. Yes, there's places for that to help capital stacking, but let's also just reflect on what are we encouraging at the local level to help that. It might not be a financial thing. It could be a tweak in zoning. some feedback from the development community. Profit margins are low. They get that, right? But there's still a community need and there are developers that are approaching us say, "Yes, we like this product type, but that's really because our margins are tight." If it's hard to pass through site plan and going through a planning board or zoning board, there go their profit margins and makes it harder and harder.

What else? PUD process is an option in some communities, but that can add expense because a PUD process can also oftentimes very subjective, right? You go back to the developer and say, "Well, we kind of want this." and they'll they'll revise it cost money. Then we want this, right? It's a tough process. In Ottawa County, we have some communities that have PUD ordinances that they still won't let a house be built under 1,200 square feet. They restrict it. We have several townships like that. Then there's public opposition to smaller. Say a developer gets to the point of a public hearing. uh to review a project and get some feedback and then the public comes up, maybe just a small handful of them. Some of those voices of opposition can be pretty loud and it has impacted some projects that are pretty good. That's tough. Profit margins aren't quite there, but there's community good that can happen here and it just fizzles. So develop community, the development world, and we have some representatives here from that kind of backing away going, "What the heck?" It's it's hard to try to move the needle on the smaller footprint home when we have these challenges. Some feedback that I've heard directly from decision makers when I've had these similar conversations. Well, who would want from planning commissioners, mind you, no disrespect, but say, "Well, that's not practical. I don't know anyone that would want to live in a small house. I think we can all look back on my first house, your first house. People, you know, they have smaller houses. You beautiful. You can make them work. Oh, there's no garage. You never No way. We don't want one of those in our

community. It's just going to get messy. Where are they going to put their stuff out? Right. People take care. There's a pride of homeownership. let them have a shed in the back. Like that shouldn't be something as a negative to say it doesn't work. Or they'll be like density is really scary. I like the home size, but not on a.12 acre lot. That's boy, that's really scary. 6,000 square foot lot or 5,000 square foot lot. Walk around your communities. They're smaller lots that are authentic that have been here a long time and we're not building them. Why aren't we building them again if we're talking about an affordability problem? Feedback from the realtor community is a simple one. There is market demand. Our small footprint home development concept. Goals of this pilot, we want to develop a series of open-source designs for the community. The last thing that I wanted to do was go and in the local units of government. And there's other entities that are that are approaching it this way and say you got to do zoning reform. You've probably heard that terminology before. Zoning reform. Zoning reform. For me, if I was in your shoes, I'm going to have a hard time with zoning reform unless I see something and understand it. We're trying to address it visually and through education. So, we developed a series of designs that are open source for people to utilize. So, we can see it and feel it. Then with that, let's collaborate and let's look at zoning opportunities and changes. Let's have a discussion. This is this whole project's a conversation starter. Every community is different. Fully recognize that. Part of this is just education. See, does this fit in certain areas of your community. Let's take a look at it.

Maybe it doesn't, but maybe it does in in the right area. And then collaboration with builders and nonprofits to invest in this. identifying parcels, connecting with builders, working through it, streamlining the process to see if we can get some product built to overcome some of these misconceptions even by the general public of when we talk about smaller. I added the last one just outreach, education, activation. It requires more education than you would think when we just talk about traditionalsized homes. We're going to continue to talk about it and we're going to build some momentum on it. So, we started this project by getting some boots on the ground, housing commissioners, local stakeholders, building officials, and we've toured many areas across Ottawa County from Strawberry Point, not too far from here, Grand Haven, we're in Cooperville, we're in Zealand and Holland. And we started to gather these character-defining features. What makes these homes so charming? What makes them look like West Michigan? And when I talk smaller footprint home, some people instantly go, "Oh, you mean a tiny home?" Nope, not a tiny home. Tiny homes, 400 square feet or less, right? Oftent times on wheels, you transport like teeny. We're not talking tiny homes. We're talking traditional sized homes. And the, as I mentioned, they they have this character that is authentic and relates and ties into West Michigan. And you can go and order a small footprint home from Amazon or other places. Plop it down in this area. It just won't look right. Right. And we're not going to build momentum. And we're not going to have people shift their thinking on the traditional smaller footprint home

if we don't create a product that blends into the character of our communities today. I had the fortunate opportunity to collaborate with Nick Rinsky. I've worked with Nick for a while. Uh he's a professor of architecture at Notre Dame. He runs a community design firm down in Holland. And he partner partnered with me on this project to lead it. And we then hired a civil engineering architect student from Hope College, Matt Dow, who was exceptional. Matt worked with us for a couple years. And we when we did all these tours of communities and started to identify these character defining features of the product type in West Michigan, we created these themes based on where we traveled to. Homes in along the lake shore look maybe a little bit differently with their styling and their color palette than homes in town, which look different than homes that are more agrarian in rural environments. And those that might look different with different color palettes and forest areas. So we each of these categories of small footprint homes, we then have four designs within them. So in total we have 16 traditionally sized small footprint home opportunities and these are what they look like. It's been a really great ex exercise again to stimulate conversation have people start to understand the product type that we're talking about because we're thinking about smaller homes design them really well and when they're a little bit smaller you can take some of that expense and you can add it into the details to to make it shine. do the the right type of siding that's more enduring and lasting than vinyl and add some additional rafter

tails that kind of add to the authentic element of our styles today and still start to hit those price points that people are looking for because we're designing them thoughtfully. For example, there's an 824. So, we have four sizes. A four, there's a 440, it's like a 624, 824, and just over a thousand square foot. Like the 824, it's specifically designed to maximize traditional standard lumber sizes. I've got some zoning ordinances in communities say, "Nope, you can't have anything less than 900 square feet." Why not 824? because it you can help and maximize timber and cost and make it work and it's still really charming. So, with all of these designs, we did full sheet sets, full construction drawings. They still need to be stamped and certified, right? But they're they're free to download for people. And we want to encourage this. Hey, if you like this product, man, talk to your local communities about it. And this was a neat exercise as well because this actually saves people money right there if they love these homes. So you got a full construction set that you can take to a builder, go to a building inspector and bring your community and get it built. So we're trying to encourage this and get a jump start on this product type concept one. Uh one of those you can see the design here. Yes, this is a little bit smaller. I get that. But it that 440 is just right at that sweet spot of thinking about design style and functionality. And there's some layouts in there. We had an interior designer approached us and offered some free services. Uh Katie Kthers to do renderings of everything and what it looked like so you could see

it, visualize it. Concept two. It's a two-bedroom, one bath, open layout. And you can see on the left side of the design, there's flow through that building. So, when you open the front door, you see through it, right? And then there's a door in the back, see through it. It's all visual to help with space and feel. And they're extra tall ceilings the way they've designed them. So, they got this aireriness to them. And they're also designed to think about additions if people want as well. That's what the layout looks like of concept 2. Uh that's a 672 uh with twobedroom, one bath. It's a 24x 28 footprint. Concept three is a twobedroom, two bath, open concept still with a front porch. That is an 824 square foot. So that's a 28x 28 footprint. bedroom, one bath and this is a larger size. This is over a,00056 twobedroom two bath 32 by 38 footprint. Here's just a quick composite of local zoning. The minimum lot size. Every local unit of government has a minimum lot size and then they have a minimum footprint. And you can see we have some larger quite a few larger lot sizes. Some lot sizes get smaller. Um then you have minimum building footprints. Let's highlight here. Spring Lake has 6,500 square foot minimum lot size. Fairly decent at that point. It's like uh 0.15 acre at 900 square ft. Can't build the 824 square foot house here, but you can build 900 foot house

here. That's that's good. But it eliminates of our designs looking at the character of smaller homes across Ottawa County. It eliminates 12 of the 16 designs that we created. Again, conversation starter. It's not for every community, but let's talk about it. Let's think about opportunities in all of our communities for this type of product and then look at which districts make the most sense for that. The first collaboration that we have right now, I have there's a few irons in the fire, but there's a nonprofit, Doors of Hope. They're part of City on a Hill in Zealand. They approached us. They're creating some housing for their clientele, and they want to use our small footprint home designs, which is great. I was like, "This is perfect. These will be rental product for them, but it's a great opportunity for us to showcase the product so people can see it in the real world. And again, I hope to get more project activated. This they just got PUD approval for the city of Holland. It's interesting. It's the city of Holland. They're a little more flexible uh in their zoning, but that PUD process was challenging. Absolutely. especially when we dealt with the transportation department and them requiring sidewalks to nowhere and but I won't get into that stuff. So right but these are all these considerations at the local level you can either add expense doesn't help or we can streamline how we make decisions how we plan and collaborate with development community to help encourage affordability. So this is the site plan at Waverly and 8th Street. We're putting seven of our units um in here. It's a cottage cluster design. And one of the in the lower areas, we took two of our 600 square foot homes and put a garage in the

middle. It's like a duplex and then several standalones. Uh it'll be a a really great project. They got the PUD approval uh two months ago. They're activating fun fundraising right now for it. County Housing Commission also has an action plan for the next couple years on activities that they want to activate and we engaged the public non-scientific survey just to get a feel from the general public about their sentiments on housing and opportunities for improvement and I think it was because we've been active in the space of the smaller footprint like that was ranked up encourage smaller homes that starter home we're not building starter homes anymore more that have meet that relative affordability. So that ranked really well from just over 700 residents and let's encourage some necessary local zoning changes. They also ranked well let's identify some underutilized properties and and connect with folks and let's see what we can do in that space. There's a lot of properties out there and they have potential. If we think about this product type on those properties, we can do some site designing and and have conversation with local units of government. And Holland Township, for example, I I commended their planning commission um the other month when I was speaking with them. They did an inventory in their community of underutilized parcels. So, those can get elevated. And then it's a chance to okay with some of those parcels, you know, are there vacant lots and infill lots? If they would adjust some of their zoning, you could get a someone could build an affordable home on an infill lot. They also have some other larger parcels in the township that might work

really well for a cottage court style small footprint home development. In my conversations with the planning commission and and other communities, it's hard to make the zoning changes without seeing what it can be. Part of our collaboration that we want to have from a a tri- sector um perspective, if you will, from local units of government, leadership, with the county, with developers, they should start to site design some of these things. This is another vacant parcel that we had found in another community. Let's just sketch some things out and then work with a local planning commission. Say, do you like something like this? Like this is a highle sketch, right? Doesn't take too many resources, but you can start to think about what a community what a development could look like. And then you look at your zoning and say, okay, how can we make this work? How can we encourage this to move this project along? think about price points and decision making. So these are the conversations that we are activating across the across Ottawa County and with Spring Lake Township opportunities to think about the traditional footprint home. Does it make sense in your community where a conversation for you to have with Lucas? What might make the most sense? So with that, I'll accept questions, feedback, and discussions of other collaborative opportunities. Thank you.

Thank you, Paul. You know, it's interesting because it seems like every three or four years we have discussions about affordable housing. And as we travel about, as you have too, I mean, you look at towns like Charavoy, Pasi, Little Leland, uh a number of the coastal towns. No longer can those service people who wash your dishes, who cook your food and and provide services, they can't afford to live. I know even Leland has built a dorm for the workers to come in, you know, because you can't afford there's no there's tiny housing only if you a small housing only if you find a really old house in a part of the town. So, as we discuss it and even we we recently there's an apartment complex starting over on Old Grand Haven Road and and some of the comments we get from the public seem to be that u they're worried about the type of people apartment complex will bring in or that they think they're going to lower the standard of living and that crime is going to increase because you made it more affordable. Yet I go into Moskegan, Norton Shores. They have projects now of tiny homes at is it Webster or um one of those streets that go right in from Seaway Drive in town right there on the right there's about 10 or 12 houses and then a couple blocks over in the center town there are and they're developing. That's what they're doing. these small homes. Pentwater has a great little development as you come into town along uh along the Pentwater Lake. And it is a a sidewalk down the middle, houses on both sides with front porches facing each other, road goes in the back, and the garage is in the back. I mean, there's great concepts here. Now, I've just lived in a tiny home of 250 square foot the last five months in Florida.

We do just great, but of course, the environment there allows you to do a lot outside here. you you've got you you don't you what kind of objections are you hearing at your level from people when you start proposing this concept of small homes? I think it's a great idea

and not just for starters for a lot of the older generation my age who really don't need a three-bedroom, three bath house anymore. You know, only in our minds do we need it really. We could live in a much smaller and less expensive. The feedback that we have had has just been validating that keeps our momentum moving forward. And it's been from residents that are looking for a home because they're in an apartment. They don't want to be in an apartment. They're spending $1,900 a month for a rental. Like, we want to put that money towards a house, but they have trouble finding a house to do that. development community was also really important for us to activate this project because I learned a lot from them as they those examples I shared with you before of the you know they just can't get a project through because zoning restricts it or once they get to a PUD project and the public comes out they have these misconceptions about what it is and they think crime's going to increase and all that it's like so that's why education is so big and I showed the the types of individuals that we're looking at the the teachers, the service individuals, the manufacturing employees, they want this product type and we're putting them in mainly in apartments, give home ownership. So, it has been there's been a lot of support through it, but we what my approach is to this is to just get a few more pilot projects out there. Let's prove it out. And that's why I want to identify some parcels, sketch some plans out, collaborate with a development partner, and there's, like I said, a few opportunities there. It takes a while to move the needle on some of this stuff, but once we get projects built and people see it and feel it and experience, I think we can get some mindset shifts, say, "Oh, actually,

property values are good. Oh, there's no more no increase in crime." Like we just have to get past this fear of building differently than we currently are. Let's go back to building how we used to.

When you look at those older homes, what did you guys estimate the square footage is of those older homes? Is it close to 800? It seems a little larger, right? Yeah, some are larger, some are 1,200,300, there's thousand squarefooters, there's 9,800. We we did do some GIS analyses and looked at a couple corridors down in the southeast part of the county and um it's intermixed, right? And I think that's where you get community authenticity when you got a a mix of different housing typologies from different sizes. So to just see an entire community of all 700 square foot homes, maybe that's not the quite the right thing to do. And so we want to have some conversations with developers, say, okay, mix them up, make them um bigger and smaller, but provide that that range. And that really helps. So there is, you know, all these houses that we've designed are based on home sizes that exist today here that were built a while ago. So yeah, there are a lot of 800, 600 square foot around. I bet now if you start to drive around, I do that now. I got my kids doing it now. They're like, "Oh, there's a small home. There's a small home." You start to see them when you're thinking about it. You're like, "Wow, I didn't realize

that people are living in these and it works well. It's functional." almost a curse of the planners here. I know that as I travel about the state and I do a lot in our motor home,

you're always viewing it through a different lens and you see things differently. But that small house concept, you think of post World War II, you think of that 1946 to 55, 58, 60. I grew up in a neighborhood southeast end that was probably on the very edge of town back then by the street called 28th Street, Elure Heights neighborhood. They were all 700 to 950 square foot homes, one bathroom, and there'd be three or four kids and we all did just well. You know, his dad or mom made a little bit more money, maybe added another bathroom in the basement, or you panled up the attic and made a bedroom or two up there. But, uh, that's how we many of us grew up in in that size house. But now, a starter house seems like it's 2,200 square foot. It's big.

And starting at $500,000.

Yes. That's what we're experiencing. And site design, you know, is is very important. Um, for example, I had a developer from over on the east side contact me and said, "I love the project. You know, I want to I want to bring a small footprint home development concept over to West Michigan. Will you help me do that?" Like, well, what are you thinking? Show me your site design concept. And it was he just took this parcel that was available and straight roads. Every home was the same, straight lines, and it had no charm. It had no authenticity. I was like, I won't get behind your project because you're not going to sway the public that this makes sense if it's not done well. So, it's so many different variables need to go into thoughtful planning. Home size, layout, design, all of it. But if we those things can add cost. I think Kelly can can speak to some of that, but if we make it easier from the local decision maker perspective for those types of projects to happen, you can help costs and move it through.

Did you guys do any work on like rowousing or look into rowousing and you know, I guess they would be considered condos here, but multilevel apartment buildings that are ownership. I mean,

living in West Michigan, you just don't see any of it. Um, you know, I my my current job I have a lot of employees in New York City in Pennsylvania and when we go and meet at their sites that's that's all you see. Yes. I currently have a creative director who's buying a home and it's a sixth floor apartment. And so I as you talk about apartments, what's the feeling locally when you talk to everyone about ownership apartments, non-renal apartments, but I mean it increases the density. You still build equity in that apartment. I mean, did you get any any feedback locally on that?

Yes. Um, we just toured a a really beautiful town home project that Jubilee Ministries is working on in the city of Holland. That was one of those that we helped to to capitalize and that is starting to help people understand the value u functionality and and beauty of the town home project. Um, I think more of those can happen, but people need to get used to it. There there there's another township above the river in Ottawa County where there was a town home development that was proposed and they went through the PUD process. They did less density than what was allowed. like it just made sense with the space and everything and was and they're not using any tax incentives and no grants everything functioned. They're going to hit price points that we wanted at around just under 300,000. Unity came out and spoke out against it. Didn't like the density of it even though it was less than what was allowed by right. That is a that's our the big challenge is just people's perception. We've got to shift that. It's going to take a long time. So there's a lot of interest in the product, but getting it over the hurdle and getting it built is more difficult than you think it would be.

I'm thinking Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, right? Anytime you get into the little burrows or the city centers, it's just rowhouse. You'll walk a half a mile and it's just row houses. And as soon as you leave the city center, it looks like Borculo, right? There there's a house every, you know, quarter mile. So, I I I don't know how we get over that. Yeah. That perception.

Yeah. It's a bigger I'm working to champion a bigger land use vision for the county. I mean, you know, I've heard you talking about groundwater and we think about our groundwater challenges and people think, well, it's so disjointed. You're trying to protect groundwater and protect farming and you want housing at the same time. It can all work together. We need to maximize our infrastructure. A big opportunity. That's why opportunity parcels, if we do more analyses and assessments of where are these parcels that are on existing infrastructure, how do we maximize? We're already paying for that infrastructure. There's capacity in that water infrastructure. How do we get the homes built? And once we get people to connect the dots on land uses, they'll be like, "Oo, well, having density is much better than continued expansion of these large lots, bigger homes, depletion of an aquifer system. But we've got to do a lot of education for people to understand why density and uh makes sense and building a little bit smaller and going up as well.

Big conversation to have in this county. Good luck. Yeah, we're trying. I'm interested in your perspect your perspective on the comments you made around the cost of PUB developments from a developer mindset in the conversations you've had recognizing that most of the ordinances don't fit your model anywhere really uh eliminate 12 of the 16 solutions um and we're not going to change zoning ordinances overnight obviously or master plans even faster um

there is that relief valve And historically speaking, what I've witnessed many years ago when I sat on this board prior is that the developers that brought a PUB or a site condominium in some some cases missed marks and that's what drove cost. They weren't doing the due diligence up front. They were trying to present a concept, maybe cut a corner or two. That's been my experience. So, I'd be interested to hear your comments about what you found from the developers and where they see those costs really lie because it's not like we're going to as a board we're going to say, "Well, we we'd like you to plant, you know, tulips like Holland all the way through the the development." We're not going to force that type of action. Just trying to understand that comment deeper.

I probably can't answer it as well as someone more in the trenches in that space. Um, but for example, even when we work with the city of Holland, we're on the east side of 120th and there is no sidewalk. required to put a sidewalk into nowhere and and that process they you know they wanted retaining walls and everything. So we went through and they like well you have to put a sidewalk in that's what the transportation department says you had to do. Well, so we had to go back, spend some money, hire an engineer, figure out what's this gonna do, where it's going to go. We got to build this retaining wall. And then we go back and say, this is going to add a ton of cost to the product type. It's just going to make it really difficult to activate. Say, well, why don't we change the sidewalk? Why don't we shorten it, move it? Say, well, you got to go back, redesign it, do it. So, it's those kind of iterations can add up.

Sure. know if you have more to speak to that, Kelly.

Uh, yeah, I hear you on people not uh developers uh coming with kind of halfhatched plans. In our experience, and for the record, I'm Kelly Kyper. I I'm the land planning and entitlement manager for Eastbrook Homes. Um, we uh have experienced where we try, you know, for a long time you try to do a half-hatch plan because I don't want to spend a lot of money before I'm going to get turned down or the nimism is going to run me out of town. So, in the last few years, we've taken the like 110% all-in approach. And I won't name the community, but we're currently dealing with this. Don't worry, it's in Kent County. Um, so we say, you know what, we're going to give it our full effort. I'm going to do a phase one. I'm going to do a traffic study. I'm going to already have a fully engineered plan basically and work with the drain commissioner's office there. I'm going to make sure my density meets. I've got everything you could think of. I spent money on renderings. I've got a professional who's doing aerial drone renderings renderings flying through the community. I've got couple hundred,000 into this project. It meets all zoning requirements, but it is a PUD. And I get I'm on my fourth planning commission meeting now. And all the feedback I get is really like it. I just would I wouldn't live here. It's a little too dense for me. It's not It's not for me.

It doesn't have to be for you. It has to be for the person who it works for. Right. That that's the challenge is when you do a PUD, the subjective nature comes in and we say, I can show you a checklist that says I meet all of these requirements that you've set forth in the zoning ordinance, but there still leaves this open door of I can get a no vote because somebody just says, I I need an attached garage or I need, you know, five bedrooms. Um, and so there's that kind of fear is now I've got $200,000 into a project and I can't get a a valid reason as to why it can't be built. Um, and that's that's a hard pill to swallow. So then it makes me want to go back to the drawing board and come back to you with a half-hatch plan on my next one. But then you're going to look at me like, what are you doing here? You know, this is half. You can't It's like a lose-lose situation every time. For me, it feels like if we're going to have master plans and zoning ordinances that speak to the goals and the visions of what this community wants, then when a developer comes forth to fulfill that, it should be an automatic yes, not a I know we said that in the master plan, but it's not really what we want here. You know, it's like a lot of these master plans have kind of this fluffy language about wanting eight units per acre. In reality, you don't want anything more than three. Well, and Eastbrook's fought density issues for

30 plus years. Yeah. And you've done it well off of 148th and M104. And I mean, I I can appreciate that comment. It's just some of the smaller ones when you're looking for what was the term you use the uh whatever the the sites, the plots, the underutilized.

Yeah. you called them underutilized or or or activating sites or something that that are utilizing the existing opportunity parcels. That was what it was like using that. I think the concept fits well because you're already in an existing structures in existing areas that are like the village, like other areas of Spring Lake Township. It's a challenge when you're putting it down into a farm field, right? I can see where you get a lot more feedback there.

Yeah, absolutely. I two comments I'll I'll sort of leave you with. I don't need to take Paul's time. Um, two thoughts I always like to bring up is when we require 80 foot and 90 foot lots, width lots, you know, with 10- foot sideyard setbacks, I get the comment a lot of, "Well, you don't have to build a six-bedroom house. You don't have to build a 3500 foot house there." I kind of do. the land costs and the infrastructure costs are now astronomical where in order to make a profit margin even in the slightest, I actually need to build the biggest house I can just to turn a profit. So large lot zoning is actually encouraging the situation we're in right now because a a a home builder must maximize their ability to make a profit and that is by building the biggest home that can fit on a 90 foot wide lot. So, in order to encourage and incentivize smaller lots, we have to decrease our zoning width requirements. The other thought I'll leave you with is, you know, I know I have an arsenal of home plans that I can even still fit a third stall garage on a 60 foot wide lot. I've got a lot of communities I work in where 90 foot is the minimum, two 90 foot lots next to one another, but I know I can build a beautiful house with a three-stall garage on a 60 foot. So for every two lots, I could actually fit three homes that still meet all of our criteria that we've come up with in our head. Three, four bedrooms, a three stall garage. So if you can envision, yes, you know, eating up farmland or eating up rural land that we want to protect, but if we are going to use it to fill this housing need, let's use it in as smart of way as possible. And if we're going to put the water and sewer infrastructure in, let's put as many houses as we can comfortably on that infrastructure to make it not feel like a waste that we're eating up all this land for no reason, you know.

Thank you. Oh, don't leave. All right, Kelly. So, you know, we've worked over the past 20 or more years probably with Eastbrook and P5 and whatever

and other other developers as well. Of course, the downside to your 3,500 foot house is pretty soon you just squeeze all the people could afford because it raises the prices in the whole area, right? But what we have found has really helped probably at least the last 10 years at Lucas's suggestion is when a developer comes in and they're got an option on land and they have something they want to put there and because it's more than eight homes it's going to have to be a PUD here which we I like and I think the developer because then there's more give and take but what seems to be most effective is you in your mind have an idea of what you want to do. You you guys are good at looking at what our ordinances allow. you must have an idea of our master plan and so on.

So you do a a rough idea, you have a plan, conceptual plan. Yeah. And you come in a nonformal, you just come and you present it and then you get feedback from us and that see so when you come back the next time you're not having to do a whole redevelopment process. You know kind of what we would really like to see. You know what you want to do and then we can work out the details and

and I love that. But you'd be surprised that not many communities allow that. Some say don't come before my board unless you've got a fully a fully designed plan with a full application fee. Yeah. So I do and I you know I've only been with Eastbrook for two years but I've been in land planning for 15 years. I am currently on a township board in Georgetown Township. I've been on a planning commission as EBA. So I know your work well and it's helped me in my work. Um it's it's just not everybody is you, you know, and and now even the communities who once were willing to have a conversation with us, the nimism, for lack of a better term, um is getting so loud that even the communities we had a good repertoire with are sort of shutting down a little bit because they're getting really fearful of their community coming out with pitchforks at them. Yeah. Thank you.

She follows you though, Paul. You're more important than agent.

Any other comments? Well, this is a uh a critical issue for for our community as well as just all of West Michigan and Michigan in general. Um, right now you're kind of seeing the uh a reversal of where people are moving. You know, now it's to a point where they can't afford Austin. They can't afford living in the Sunb Belt. All of a sudden, Midwest is starting to have more appeal. It's affordable. It's community. Um, it's the homes that you were showing that that have character that build a sense of community. And so long as we can continue to um provide that sense of community, with with density comes services. With density comes all kinds of interesting things that um that your neighbors can have. they can have a uh a little cafe on a corner. Your your density supports those kind of things and it becomes even more of a living community. So, I'm I'm all in favor of what you're talking about. Um I would love to identify some projects that um you know that could be meaningful for our community. Um, but you know, we we do have a pretty steep hill to climb though. You know, our our community spoke pretty loud to us a year or so ago. You're very familiar with that.

So, you know, how do we how do we make it easy? How do we make it a uh an easy yes and reduce the risk? Fash some things out on education before we go too far down the line. One thing that Spring Lake Township has done and done pretty well over the last year or so is our community engagement. And you know, this would be a a really good topic for to get our community engaged into. So that's a an opportunity potentially down the road as well too. Anything else? Well, I'm very thankful for the topic that you brought up. Um it was well presented and um it's information that we need to hear. So thank you.

Thanks, Tom. Okay. Zoning ordinance text amendment. Correct. That's correct. Would you uh give us a rundown? It's been a while. Yes. So, where are we at and what do we got to do?

Sure. Sure. So, we we uh did have a public hearing on this text amendment that's uh was in your packet there to allow for child uh care centers, daycare centers uh within places of public assembly um aka churches uh within our community. And um the back at in February there was generally a a favorable uh the planning commission was generally favorable towards that concept. And so with that, Mr. Bolie uh took that draft language and put it into ordinance format here for review. Um but in a nutshell, it's right here on the on the agenda really. It's it's you know to allow the daycare centers and places of public assembly in the A R R1 and R2 district as a special land use. Um that is um so it does have to any it would have to come back to the planning commission. Um and there would be a public hearing and there's also a a pretty long list of uh requirements um along with that special land use request. So, um, you know, the applicant is here as well, and I think they made a a a point that there's there's a real need for this in in our community, and we already have churches in our community that do that. I think St. Mary's and um one on on Ranis, trying to think of that one. Um, but at any rate, so that it's it's happening. I think it it's working well. Um, and you know, these are places where there's already, you know, some some already have schools and some of these are kind of rural, but certainly we want to make sure that that it's a safe location, you know, for for that type of use, which is why we're we're we're making it a special land use, have them come in and go through

site plan review, have that public hearing, so the neighbors can come in and and see what's happening and and they're they're aware of that process. Um so that is it in a nutshell if you have any questions.

So our actions tonight are what? So tonight um if you are supportive um and make a recommendation to the township board to approve this language. Um, and if you proceed with that, then I suspect the township board would have it on their May agenda for consideration upon which if they did adopt it, then it would become law within I think it's eight days of publication in the newspap. So, um, I do think the applicants um, they are excited and and ready to get get going with this process. So, they would probably we'd look at seeing them probably back here in June for that hearing for that use. So, okay.

Well, I found it real interesting, Greg, when I went over the uh 915A, the daycare center and a place of public assembly. So, my 45 years in education primarily with real young children. This is like designing a preschool or a ele young elementary, you know, a K through three program. It's all really good stuff. And just to give me perspective, I went and visited the Christian Life Center today in between rain showers. And uh well, I didn't get out of the car because I hadn't yet take off my shorts from Florida. I got big boy pants on tonight just in honor of your uh re-election. Um it was it was a perfect example. You could look right there and you could run right down the criteria and see how that could fit pretty nicely with minor modifications here and so on. So I think the as I read the ordinance I like what I saw. I think it looks good comments. I wasn't here for the original piece uh unfortunately but just looking through this and kind of trying to make sure we get there there seem to be a little bit of areas of clarity. So, on page two, item C, um I felt we probably should come in with something that reverted to the underlying zoning ordinance um as approved for outdoor play areas. Uh just my thought there on item E as well. the have limited hours maybe a comment about operating hours and then um I don't think I think we should state something clearly as to what those hours should be or what the lensure is allowed for um not leave it subjective to the planning commission um should be reviewed part of it of course I do agree with that on page three item O um again kind of getting to the point that this should be included any special land use

permit request um should be submitted as such and um noted as I'm sure we you'd review Lucas with any of it that before you brought it to us. And then um item V leave some open interpretation it felt like to the operational needs is it of the daycare or the public assembly that is that's contained within because you can make an argument for either side. Public assembly might be 247 whereas a daycare might be six to six. Just some observations I had. Thank you. So, are you suggesting then that um we really should be addressing these or do you think that this ordinance as written allows us those considerations when the time comes? So, what I would like to, I guess, propose is that um there's I guess there's a couple different ways of of you know, we could come back with a different draft that modifies some of this language to address that if desired. Um we could also recommend uh approval as written with those comments up to the board. Um, so that's I I think you can you can also I'm trying to think like if if you could you could make some minor tweaks to this tonight as well if you wish to do that and send it up with those tweaks. Of course they I'd like to I would just highlight those to Mr. Boli as well who who helped us draft those and make sure he's comfortable with that. But um yeah, gen generally, you know, um as far

as C goes, Jeff, could you on on page two, item C? Y, maybe we could just a little more clarity on that one. What was what was your concern with that? Uh that it should be in that the daycare should be in um located entirely within the existing place of public assembly except for approved outdoor play areas. Okay. really the play areas I saw as allowed per the zoning the zoning ordinance because we're looking at four different zoning ordinances for four different districts district yeah districts sorry that some may or may not allow outdoor recreation areas oh okay so not a not a problem with it and that's just my comment just that hey whatever's whatever's district we're in

oh yeah right if it supports it great no problem but if it doesn't no so you're not necessarily suggesting a change to to just just highlighting that it's open for interpretation a little bit. Mhm. And then E just again was the operating hours. Um maybe that would be my friendly amendment is instead of limited hours, limited operating hours. Um be where I'd suggest.

Of course, we have to keep in mind that's not specifically for the Christian Life Center. This is for the dayare any daycare here in the area that we would that we would approve, right? And then likewise, I mean O is fine. I can let that that's that's fine. It's just we'd want to understand what they're doing and those should bring that forward anyways. And V though really is the exterior lighting is is a concern like is it for the public is it for the public assembly or for the daycare because the two have different operations, right?

Yeah. I I think with with V um you know it it lighting is you know it can be

problem. It probably can be a problem. That's you know for sure. Um and keeping that shielded and you know we have that within our ordinance today is that you know we have to have the the night or dark sky friendly lighting and every you know lighting needs to be shielded and you know so you don't see the luminary and and pointed downward. Um so I think V would would certainly uh spur that discussion uh with the applicant when they come forward to you know look at that that what is that lighting layout and how how that might affect residences in the in the vicinity

right because the current if you just look at the Christian life center is not going to be a problem but others could be in tighter neighborhoods. It's a good point

and I don't know that you can really having specialized in working with young children, preschoolers and infants many days as a as a teacher or a staffer of those children the hours of uh play outside have to be very flexible because when the kids start rebelling just get them outside run around for 10 or 15 minutes that might be at 8:30 in the morning might not till 2:30 in the afternoon. I'd just like to see what I mean, granted, we're talking about the daycare here, but I wouldn't want to be misinterpreted that it's for the place of public assembly is the operational hours. It's really about lighting for the needs of the daycare, right? Mhm. Correct.

As long as I mean, if long as we can all agree that we understand that that's the intent, I can live with it. Not that I wasn't living with it before. Sure. And and sometimes when we adopt these ordinances and they're new and we we begin to apply them, then this is something, you know, thinking about we might see a few more of these in the in the future and and as um we can always tweak these ordinances too if we find that there's something, hey, there's something we missed or this is too restrictive or or something along those lines. But uh

are you the point are we at the point now where you could give this to Mr. Bolt with the notes of what our comments were? He could do a little bit of tweaking and it could be ready to roll. Yep. I'm good with that. Yeah. I don't want to hold it up for those small I don't either. We didn't have a meeting last week last month. Yeah. Any of these items that we're talking about are also conditions of lensure. So, it's Yes, we're we're going to beat this thing to death if we uh are not careful. Y agreed. I I'm hearing consensus. Would you like a motion? I would love a motion.

This is strong language. Uh, I'd like to make a motion to recommend approval of the zoning ordinance text amendment to allow daycare centers and places of public assembly in the A RR R1 and R2 districts as a special land use per the draft amendment ordinance date of would be 02. It'd be today, wouldn't it? February. Yeah. Yep. as it complies with the applicable review criteria section 109 B7 of the zoning ordinance. Have a motion. Support.

And we have support. Lucas, can you do roll call or do you does this need to be by consensus? Um I I I think by consensus is fine as a recommendation. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Excellent.

Thank you. Alamino, please. I don't have the um I can't see the um the language of the agenda item, Lucas. Oh. Oh, sorry. Landscape view private road. Okay. Yeah. So, this is the the um Fairmont Development.

Yeah. The the Palamino Place there, which is the new private road. Yes. The planning commission requested. We were going to suggest a little bit of landscaping just right there by the road. And um so we we now have that plan. That's what you were showing. That's what that is. And Miss Kyper is here tonight to walk us through that and some of those details uh for you. Hello again.

Uh again, Kelly Kyper uh with Eastbrook Homes here uh though representing Paramount Development Corporation, which is the development company for this project. Um I was not the presenter two months ago. Mr. Tempest from Drea was he's our engineer. Um but we are here to follow up on the approval for this private road. Uh after that meeting Lucas had provided us with some context sort of like the best available ordinance excerpt to provide some guidance for the landscaping here. And that was from your uh screening for parking lots and maneuvering lanes uh which requires uh two deciduous trees, four flowering landscape trees and four evergreen trees uh for the first 100 ft of that private road there. So that was the plan that was included for you. Um you can see that we have included um and I will say too we went through a couple iterations of this. you know, when you think about a buffer, um, you know, you you kind of place them along the road sort of straight away to provide almost as much more of a wall, if you will. Um, but actually based on this number of trees and the anticipated growth of the root systems, um, we really needed to spread them out within both sides of that area to protect the longevity of the trees. So, the spacing of this is per our landscape architect to make sure that these trees don't die in the first couple of years. Um but these first uh four trees kind of beyond the initial landscaping up front are your ornamental trees. Then we've kind of uh intermixed the evergreens uh and then some of those deciduous trees. And that's in an effort to kind of scale up from the pretty landscaping up front. You kind of scale up through the ornamental uh then the evergreen and then back to the deciduous that should grow up close to the same height as some of the mature trees that exist on site. Um, at this time we've just met your ordinance in a way that

says deciduous, flowering, and evergreen. Um, when we work with our landscapers, we usually trust their judgment and sort of go with what they have in stock, what they have been seeing, you know, has been working for them in the last season. Likely the deciduous trees will be uh a maple. Um, our evergreens, we've often been doing a green giant or a Norway spruce. And then um the flowering trees, we've typically been doing a pear or an eastern red bud. So those will likely be a Bradford pair or another kind of pair. I think it's the Bradford pair. Yeah, there's one problem that Bradford pair is they stink and they split. They go tall.

They're not my favorite. So I've been trying to suggest Okay. There's other nice trees you can I agree with you. Yeah. They love it because the flowers are beautiful and they they grow pretty quickly. I agree. It's not my favorite. Um, so I will put I'll be an advocate for for a non uh pair species there, but um we hope to be able to um because we'll have water here at this project now.

Um we'll be able to irrigate this area. We are planning for irrigation. So the irrigation will be installed with the water mane installation. Uh but likely just based on timing, this landscaping would not be installed until fall. Um, but we're not anticipating this project to be paved until around October anyway. So, about the time of paving, we'll do the landscaping as well. Any questions? Thank you. Any other questions? Why do you look at me? Because, you know, I always have questions or what? No, I'm I'm telling you to ask a question.

I will. Thank you. And I will I'll comply with you, sir. Um, very nice that you're doing the the so often the people come and they pot some trees and bushes or whatever and then there's no no followup and a year later they're looking pretty sorry. Um, I'm glad you said pinpoint some species because I noticed you identified your real bright stuff right at the threshold, but you didn't back. But now you've given me a better idea of what's there. So that works for me. I would like to recommend considering the age of a couple of people on this board, you might want to increase the font size because I had to get out my Inspector Cluso magnifying glass. I could print you out the big 24 by

and with my bif focals, I'd probably be able to read that. Did Did you um share this with our landscape architect or is it okay to go as is with as far as you I did not because it looks like a great plan. So, it's only 100 ft long and it's a narrow little strip and I like what I saw. I think it's very nice and my wife who's a green thumb also gave it a stamp for approval. Mrs. Ketchum right there. No, I like the interest of it's not um it's going to look natural. It's um going to be a um visual block um covering all the bases of what we asked for. Yeah.

Correct. Have you been in situations lately where you come to the stop sign to go and they have such nice plans growing so tall you have to inch out into the actual into the traffic before you see to turn? That's a problem. Yep. Thank you. Thanks. Any other comments? I was just curious if there's going to be a street sign like a

an entrance sign. So, because there's only the six new lots plus the home, um we aren't planning on a traditional monument sign for a neighborhood, but what we are planning on is a decorative street sign. Um something that is kind of ornamental with like a big almost like wooden flag post that says uh Palamino Court on it. Yeah, those uh landscaping monument signs, I love them, but they cost like $20,000 for a single-sided sign now. So, and requires some maintenance. It's a little Yeah, it gets a little out of control quickly. Yeah. Wow. Well, excellent. Thank you so much.

So, has this met the uh the needs of our request? Uh we don't need to approve it or we see it, we like it, we can move on. Or do we say all those in favor? Well, I think Yeah, there is a motion there. If if you're You suggested one. Yep. You want to do it, Kelly?

Okay. I a motion to approve this landscape plan is presented for the private road at 16549 Taft as the application meets all criteria in the applicable sections of the zoning ordinance with the following conditions. A, the applicant will comply with all verbal written representations. B, all landscaping will be placed on private property. and see maintenance of the landscaped area will be defined in the private road maintenance agreement or other documents as approved by the township attorney. Also, the fact that the verbal representation of irrigation, I think that is

powerful. It's appreciated too. I'll support that motion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I I opposed. Thank you.

You'll represent the township board.

Yeah. So, fill us in, Lucas. Okay. So, I didn't prepared to do that. I read that. I But what I But what I can tell you is that uh Mr. Baxter was appointed Yeah. To the planning commission and a new alternate for the

and uh yes, we do have a uh the the zoning enabling act also allows for two uh zoning board of appeals alternates. So now we have an we have two alternates and um Christian I think it's Basil I think is how it's pronounced is his last name. So he's a new alternate on the ZBA. So um that's a good thing. it kind of kind of sets the the um the stage to where you know we will probably always have a full five member board um in place there uh depending on who's there and who's not. So we did have uh you know a lot of excellent candidates for the planning commission position and that's why we asked you know Christian to jump into that seat. Um and you know that's really Jerry's role, Jerry Jerry Rabidu, Supervisor Rabidu's role. So um yeah, exciting exciting news there. Um there's there's u the board also approved the funding to move ahead with a conversion of the basketball courts at Risinga Park. That would include uh basically taking half of the court, putting three pickle ball courts on one side and then refurbishing the basketball courts on the other and um possibly I can't remember if that's going to include some some rims that might actually accept a basketball. But the

seems ideal. It makes the game way too easy.

Yeah. But the um so so we're pretty excited about that because you know that's that's something that that the rec committee's talked about for years and and so that you know the the park it's a great park but it is it's it's out there away from the street there. We don't have eyes on the park like we do in so many of our other parks. So getting more people out there makes the park feel a little safer and more usable and and pickle ball will hopefully do that. And we think there'll be this first phase is really, you know, doing the surface, putting in fencing. Uh the second phase will probably be more of the furniture benches, maybe some shade, and that maybe even a drinking fountain down the line. There's been some clearing of of the trees around the courts as well as some some underbrush that's been cleared to make sure you have some some some good shots through to the existing shelters that are there and those will probably turn into pathways eventually, formal pathways. So, it's a it's an evolution um out there, but really the basketball courts were not getting used all for the most part. I mean, maybe there was a, you know, like when someone had a family gathering, there was, you know, dad and a couple little kids out shooting that kind of stuff or whatever, but um not too much use as far as like getting the teenagers out there, playing games and things like that. So,

no, that's actually next month. Oh, yes. Next month. Yes. Yep. So they're actually illegal here today. Is that correct? Well, no. Illegal is a strong word. So those are the two things that are fresh on my mind that that stick out from the board from the board meeting. There are many other items on the on the agenda, but so the loan for the corridor authority. The what? They approved the loan for the

Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Um, so yes, the the the the board loaned the corridor improvement authority $50,000 for the plan that they're currently uh getting started on. So pretty excited about that. There was some discussion about how much interest to charge them in that process. Um, but that's not something that's uh something they've done before actually for the CIA because the CIA funded some driveway movements out on M104 when the new center turn lane went in um kind of out on that eastern part. So um

do we have professional help doing that? Yes. Yeah. So that will be progressive companies

and they've they've worked with the CIA quite a bit uh so far already and they're also doing a project a corridor study in the village as well. So that'll be a collaborative project. We're pretty excited about that. And you know, the the village has some exciting ideas going on with the Jackson division or where where pling is cleaners are on the north side. They're um trying to re re um or or have a a new vision for what that side looks like and maybe complement the other side of the street where you have instead of kind of these smaller suburban style buildings to to look at, you know, getting some really good traditional twostory uh brick and and you know, facade type buildings that that complement what we have, you know, with with Epicurian Village and some of the other older buildings that are that are in place, too. So, Progressive is helping with that as well. So, I think what'll come out of this is a is a great community project because everyone, you know, the village and the township, they're they're different municipalities, but it's one community. So, it's it's pretty.

Do you see us edging any closer to what I'll call architectural standards for the corridor? Um, as far as adding more to what we have, I you know, maybe

right. I I just does what we have fit the bill. I mean, we we have some architectural standards, but it's it's not a vision. It's very open. And I was just wondering if um they have thought of I don't want to say uniformity but um a a theme. Sure. So I think what and and I you know this pro this plan is is very much going to I mean it it's going to float not just in front of the CIA but it's going to come to the planning commission township board as well. There will be some really great engagement activities involved with that and so those will be great discussions to have. Of course, the roundabout will be in there.

Um, well, that is still part of the conversation. Then I think I think the the intent is to really try to say, okay, is if it's going to happen, where is it going to happen and when? because the the CIA is really excited to be doing some things, but until you know that that's the kind of that's a big development and well that's kind of the elephant in the room a lot of that could influence a lot of things.

Absolutely. So and I think looking at the the land uses along the corridor that'll be part of you know something that that Progresso will come here and talk with the planning commission about. um see if there any changes are necessary or or desired along the corridor. You know, there's there's been talk about, you know, utilities as well. Does it make sense to run utilities further east down the corridor from 148th to 144th, things of of that nature. And so at the end of the at the end of the day when that plan is all done, what we hope to see is is a is a very good list of projects that come that have price tags with them that the CIA can say, "Yeah, we're we want to do we've got some lowhanging fruit that maybe doesn't cost so much that can have immediate impact, but we've also got some big big ticket items like a roundabout that might need a few years to percolate."

Right. Right. Well, cool. That sounds exciting. Any update on what the board feels about developing the North Bazaki property? And two, did I read in the paper when I was down south that the depot is now going to be a restaurant or something?

Correct. Yep. So the the North Bazaki property which surrounds the depot, it's about 40 acres there. The board has been looking at potentially acquiring that and develop developing that into a light industrial park. And so there's a subcommittee that's been working on that for for quite a few months and I'm not sure anything definitive is has come out of that yet. Um but at the depot itself has been acquired by the folks who run it's a it's an online they they do a lot of different things are very creative folks but they um they have an organization called Keep Your Daydreams and I believe it's a YouTube channel and so they you know they they do a lot of different things from related to camping and and full-time RVing.

Yeah, because they had a little house out there for a while. Mobile house on wheels and so on. Yeah. Yep. So, um this will be their gift shop, coffee shop, and they'll have a test kitchen there. Uh so, they're quite popular. So, I I I think the the um that that site itself is going to see a lot of activity in coming years. Mo most of us made a cameo in one of their online videos. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Most of us. We made a cameo in one of their videos. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. We didn't we didn't get any credit, but I got a call from a a a friend who moved to North Carolina and he was trying to show things about Michigan to somebody and so he ended up on their YouTube channel and as he's showing things about Michigan from their YouTube channel came across a video and there we all were sitting up here. You need an agent.

We'll work on that for you. And is the I don't do you have any dealings with that subcommittee that's looking at the development of that 40 acres on North property because I they should know that a real concern that we all expressed here was a second access site that they have to work on finding.

Absolutely. Yes. That's something I have shared with that group to keep in mind and and if if there's an second access that could pop out up by the uh transformer station or whatever that's called there by consumers. Um there's already an easement that kind of runs through there. Of course, the the the grand the grand trunk rideway that's there where the North Bank Trail is. you know, there's space in there potentially redesigning that uh to accommodate a roadway. Um, so yeah, that's

especially if someone other than the North Bay Trail Group would throw the money to redesign that and do the actual work, that that would make it even better. But yeah, definitely getting getting access to M104 via the the stop light would would be of course any any site plan that comes, you know, that that gets designed would come to this group as well. So, you'd have input and but I think it it's important to reach out to I think who owns that property sooner than later um because that would be an ideal spot for that. He could even bury those power lines.

Big guy. Yeah. I I I'm not sure how that works, but that's a pretty big facility right there. Yeah. Yep. Excellent. Thank you. Yep. So, that's the township board uh zoning board of appeals. Jack, I don't know if you want if you did your Oh, I did my research. I wasn't did your research, but why don't you go ahead? you should talk about. Uh there was a an application um the the Paramount Development.

Thank you. I was I'm thinking about the one that's coming up. Um but the with Paramount Development that you guys are all familiar with for the private road, the they they did receive a variance to maintain that accessory building in the front yard. Right. So, um, Mr. Bolie kind of helped with some language to to help that become a reality. So, um, pretty easy for the zoning board of appeals last month. Tori on 17805 Oakwood.

So, Tori was was tabled again. Um that is it's it's a very unique situation where the owner wants to construct a water a waterfront accessory building a a shed. Um the but that what they have is one of those decks that come off of the the upper the upper slope with long posts that come down to the lower slope and then they they basically closed in the area underneath the deck to make it so kind of a makeshift shed if you will. But within that space is like an old pump house and and a some old concrete steps that are breaking up and so it's kind of hiding that. But the ZBA said, "Well, that's still that's an accessory structure." So that you only get one. So it's the the one under the existing deck or the one down by the water that you're proposing. So they're they've asked the applicant, okay, to remove that area under the deck in such a way to that it's no longer an enclosed structure. So um and that's That's been the challenge. And plus that structure, that existing structure goes over the property line and infringes on the adjacent property. So, turns out they also need to get permission from the neighbor to go through the the process, too. So, they can't really proceed until until they get that permission. So yeah, and we have another one coming up um in in May that's kind of a similar situation where an existing or a waterfront accessory structure that was constructed without a permit built over the property line as well um

off of Highland Drive. But in that case, they did they did eventually get the property owner's permission. But in both cases really this is an opportune time to fixment. So whether that's through a land land uh or property line adjustment or uh possibly an easement or just removing the structure off the adjacent property is so because otherwise as we chatted earlier about you can't get clear title on the property. It's probably minor in nature, but it's still an issue that good time to contend to fix those things. So that's my report.

That's that's an interesting one for Well done, Jack. Thank you. Thanks, Jack. You're welcome. And our rec committee was rained out because we were going to do a some some touring out at Rising Park and hit the trails and and it was a really cold, rainy day. And

I I would have been fine. A lot of I know a lot of people are on spring break and but we called it and then uh community engagement the uh corridor or the community ambassadors are still continuing to meet and at their last meeting um really what they decided to focus on in in May is the boom road uh bike path possibility. So understanding that there there needs to be some significant engagement on that um before moving ahead and before the board really decides whether that makes sense to to put a bike path there. So

a beautiful stretch of property, but uh great views. There'll be some resistance from the Oh, there's Yeah, there's already been Yeah, resistance has been showing up at board meetings and so on. And so first first it's first it's bike riders in front of your house and it's thieves next. Be careful with that. Was it the same thing?

But yeah, there's there's some really um some really nice trees along the right of way through along Boom Road and so on. So it's it's and plus you've got, you know, unique situations where you've got owners that own both sides of Boom Road, which makes it unique and and so it's it's a challenging right of way, a lot of turns, twists and turns. So we'll see how that shakes out.

So when you say they're going to focus on it, what are they just going to talk it through? Are they going to go meet with property owners? What's the what's their plan? probably a method similar to like when we looked at the Bayou Park there, you know, a format whether it's a public hearing, people can come up to the to the mic and share their concerns. um or just doing more a more relaxed format where you know we kind of go around the room and mic around and kind of the something a little less formal than than a hearing. So that is part of the discussion that the ambassadors will have and they're what we're going to do is work through some formal engagement worksheets to make sure we don't miss anybody. Who are the stakeholders? you know, what's the the best way to do that? I mean, could you have a community survey, you know, do you have, you know, public meetings? Um, just see which one fits the the most, I think, and just ranking it really because this is probably going to rank high, you know, on the kind of on the in the red zone for engagement. Um, kind of like the like like the roundabout type of thing. It's it's a very uh everyone has a strong opinion on this one, I think. So, um at the end of the day, gather all that information, try to make sense of it and make the and help the board come up to a logical decision. Some of that is is the standard 8 foot bike path that we put in along rideways. You know, there's also been talk about, you know, the shoulders maybe getting, you know, a foot shoulder uh or maybe three foot, but there's pros and cons to that

because that can speed the road up if you widen the road. So, uh there's trying to gauge the sentiment of the of the community along with the people who live there. You know, that's that's the challenge too because it's not just the people who live there who will use it obviously. um have some work ahead of us on figuring that one out. Feels like the rec committee should be included with that. Oh, for sure. For sure. Y

I was just going to ask that. Who is deciding? I thought that would be coming from the rec committee, the bike path expansion.

Yeah. So I mean ultimately the board is the one who would make that decision and when the uh millillage was put out there for the there's like the maintenance millillage and then there's the new bike path millillage and both of those passed and and part of that discussion that state road hickory one oris and boom world were all kind of high in the list for new bike pads. does. And so when those other three get done, three or four get get done, the township will know what type of funding is left and really be able to say, okay, how much of this can we actually do? Because Boom Road connects to 48th and 152nd and 144th. So, so is this I have to look see well what do you have left to be, you know, So would the recck committee um host those engagement meetings and things of that nature? I I can see that happening um of the the lead on that. But at the end of the day, they would be making a recommendation to

I think we covered the uh quarter improvement authority um information. So, one thing I was just going to add there too is when when when that plan is done, it'll be really close to 2027 and then that's a time when I would really, you know, the if if the board supports this is to move right into looking at our master plan. We'll be at about our fiveyear interval uh where the the planning enabling act says we we must open it up and review it. So, I think the timing will will be good and um just to kind of because the CIA the corridor plans I I kind of look at that as a sub area plan and it'll just be a nice dovetail into a full master plan process and see how that goes. Well, I hope we have a robust master plan process this time and we didn't have a lot of um public input and I'm hoping through our community engagement that um that we'll be bringing more people in.

Yeah, co didn't help things. No, you're right about that. Just coming out of it, I think, at that time. And

so yeah, I I I think the the board in township overall is to turn over every stone in the community engagement department in making sure everyone's, you know, having a chance. And so, you know, that that the vision force process from from about a year ago, I think went really well. We're still, you know, we we now have that community engagement page. We've got the ambassadors who are active providing excellent feedback. Um, so I I really appreciate the ambassadors because it's like the the group, it's an ad hoc group. They're not appointed. They're just a volunteer group who want to sit around and talk about these things and and address, okay? you know, really sure that that we're thinking about everything before we start taking action on on things. So, um it's a good group.

Yep. I agree. I'd like to mention too, I think we're real fortunate to have lended a new member with experience. Jeff Baxter was on this board a number of years ago and a couple of us remember him, some of the older folk here. and uh he'll he'll be a good asset to be back with us. No, that's excellent. Yep. Happy to join. Thanks to have thanks for having me. Mind your P's accuse. I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. I support. All those in favor? I