Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

thinking I was all ready to flag spam and they just said, "Okay, scroll down. Scroll." Oh, okay. I will call this planning commission Tuesday, March 3rd meeting to order. Um, I have a land acknowledgement. The land on which we gather is the territory of the Ottawa and Chipoa peoples who have stewarded this land throughout the generations. Thank you for your strength and resilience in protecting this land and inspiring us to uphold our responsibilities to do the same. Roll call, please. Katie. Commissioner McGillary here. Commissioner Anderson here. Commissioner Swanson here. Commissioner Cameron here. Commissioner Duri

here. Commissioner Treadwell here. Commissioner O'Brien present. And yeah, Commissioner Hershey is um absent tonight. Thank you. Announcements. Uh, none at this time. Great. Approval of minutes. Approval of the February 3rd, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Yes, ma'am. I have a correction, please. Um, page three, paragraph 1. I'm referred to as chairperson Anderson. I think we want to correct that. Okay. And you can be chairperson if you want. Oh, no. Oh, thank you for the offer. But no, is it you though, Jackie? Is it the right person? I just put the wrong

person. Wrong title. Okay, thank you. Great catch. Um, do we have a motion? I will make the motion to approve the minutes of the February 3rd, 2026 meeting as amended. Support. All those in favor?

I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Thank you and bless you, Katie. Um, okay. Moving on to old business item A. This is the public hearing on an application by Empire Sunset Investments to reszone the properties under their ownership at 523, 525, 551, Mson Avenue from C2A to C2.

Yeah, thank you. Um, we introduced this last month at the meeting. This is an applicant by uh the applicant is Empire Sunset Investments. They previously requested and were approved to conditionally reszone the three properties to C2A with the conditions um provided by the applicant voluntarily. Um as was noted through multiple meetings of discussion last year, um the timeline has proven to be a difficult issue not just for this applicant but other applicants within there. um and with no other option to extend written in the zoning ordinance, he has submitted an application to just straight reszone it to C2. So this would be the same do zoning designation but of course without um any conditions attached. So uh there is a staff report there. Um there really aren't uh established standards for reszoning. It basically boils down to is the request consistent with what the master plan prescribes for that location. So looking at the future land use map um yes in fact it does recommend C2 as an appropriate reszoning within the area known as the commercial gateway where uh this property is located. So with that I know the applicant is here today and has put together uh a brief PowerPoint for the planning commission that he wishes to present. Okay. Um how about we hear from the applicant and then go to us and then go to the public. Okay. Hello.

Hello. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Chairwoman, I'm sorry. I'll take anything. It's

um before I get started, I just wanted to thank the planning commission for sticking with me over the past couple years. This has actually been a long process going through the conditional permit with you guys. And then we we went through about a year of trying to changing the conditional zoning. I went to a half a dozen meetings doing that and uh I got a in that process I got a lot of respect for the way you function. So, I just wanted to thank you for your support and um although we haven't always agreed, I want to thank Sue Chang who is is a representative of the neighborhood here who has done the tough job of representing the neighborhood and being willing to work with me. You're gonna move that damn microphone. Okay. Um, but anyway, Sue, thank thank you for working with me and um, so let let's move on. I don't want to take too much time here. So, I own Empire Sunset Investments. I'm the only owner. Um, and they own the property. That's why it's there. There's my email. There's my phone number. I'm more than welcome welcome to willing to talk to anybody. about this at any time. These are the lots we're talking about. 523, 525, 555. The team that I've had working on this for the past couple years, Heather Buren, she's the owner of Third Coast Bakery. And I don't know how many people have been in Third Coast Bakery. I'm not going to ask anybody to raise their hands, but she is a textbook example of

entrepreneurship in Traverse City. She started her bakery baking cookies in her kitchen and selling them at farmers markets. That's where I met her and I kept buying cookies from her and eventually I helped her find a place and out in a farmer kitchen in the middle of nowhere and you know years later we finally stumbled on a place on Mson Avenue and here we are. But um I've got tremendous respect for her and she's just just been a textbook role model of entrepreneurship. Colleen Shannon of Dove Code Studio is a contractor I have under contract to look at streamlining the workflow for Heather and maybe adding another bathroom to the bakery. That might be an addition to the building, maybe not. We're also uh she's also looking at a potential addition slightly up from the bakery which I'll show in a second. Jerry Thompson who's with Cunningham and Wimpy is here. He's a senior project manager for them. They are a big-time major construction management company in Michigan and elsewhere around the country. The other things I want to talk about is the neighborhood and and our vision. Mson Avenue and C2 zoning, the neighborhood. When we got to the conditional permit, the neighborhood had a lot of concerns,

they didn't a lot of them didn't want anything ever to happen there. That was probably would certainly have gotten a great vote. Um, and a lot of them were concerned about all sorts of things. I was very sympathetic to their concerns and that became the seven conditions on the conditional permit. With the conditional permit running out, those concerns the neighborhood has did not go away. They're still there. And five of those concerns that were in the conditional permit are going into the new restrictions on the property permanently forever. The other two we've dealt with in a different manner. So I feel like in working with Sue, we've come to a satisfactory resolution of how to move forward. But the important concerns they had of certain businesses not being able to open up on that property, although they're authorized in C2 zoning, those are going to be never never there. And the operating hours of any business there is going to be limited to 10 p.m. And that's going to be coded in the property, no later than 10 p.m. And C2 allows 2 a.m. So, I'm I'm proud that we're going to accommodate those significant concerns, but also the neighborhood center district, which turns out to be the title of the C2 zoning code, was really designed for a zoning code near neighborhoods. And it turns out when you really get

into the detail there's a whole lot of whole lot of restrictions in there in terms of setback canopy requirements. Uh Commissioner Anderson at the last meeting mentioned the canopy requirement and we weren't sure exactly what that was and we looked it up and I think Sean said it was 35% of the site has to be canopied with trees. Other building specifications and design guidance emphasize that anything developed there should have a residential flavor and minimize the impact on the neighborhood. So all those are significant restrictions that were developed due to the location near the neighborhood and the whole title neighborhood center district. So we intend to keep the neighborhood involved as we move forward. Our vision remains the same as it was a couple years ago is to facilitate a special mixeduse development adding synergy to the bakery maybe other businesses that can can coexist and other things that were going to be a positive contribution. So we have on the one side of the property we have this wonderful neighborhood. On the other side of the property we have the special road Mson Avenue which turns out to be a major corridor gateway corridor for Traverse City. When you take a look at the average annual daily traffic, Mson Avenue is

the the bakery site. I brought a laser pointer here and I don't know if well if I point to the it doesn't go through. But anyway, even where the site is, it's right there. That number right there is about 27,000 cars a day going by the bakery. There's only a couple numbers on this page any bigger than that. And it's the same road downtown between Garfield and Division and out at South Airport between Garfield and Division. So it really becomes in our view not is something going to happen there but is what's going to happen there the right thing and this is a conceptual site area plan which Jerry and I developed with input and listening to uh the people at this meeting. This should this is conceptual areas and that upper left hand corner that brown box that's where the bakery is the yellow is the existing driveway and parking area. And then if you look at the light blue to the right of the brown, that's that potential addition to the bakery I was talking about. And then to the right of that is another light blue box which I hope would be entrepreneurial small businesses. The main development is going to be along Mson Avenue and that's that dark blue area. We've pushed the dark blue area away from the south corner basically listening to the comments a

month ago here. And that's not one building. That's just an area where buildings could be. And the likelihood there is two two multi-story buildings with commercial on the first floor and residential on the upper floors. meeting this meeting the current zoning code then what's the what's in uh I don't know how to describe that color I I tried to make it orange but it wound up like anyway whatever it is to the right here peach

of that era peach peach the peach color is new parking we may or may not need another entrance on Mson Avenue I've met with the fire marshall and it looks like maybe we don't need another entrance on Mson Avenue. If we don't need another entrance on Mson Avenue at the last meeting, I think it was uh Commissioner O'Brien said, "Well, maybe if you had the buildings down that way, you could keep most of the trees on that last lot, which now is undeveloped and essentially trees." So, we've tried to push the building and the parking up. And then green is the tree canopy, which may not be big enough yet because there's going to be a canopy areas in the middle of the parking lot and medians and things like that. This is just a concept. when it becomes a real site plan, then it'll be submitted to the the planning and zoning uh department for review and approval. So, just wrapping this up, C2, the zoning we've already established really is allows a range of uses that are going to allow us to get to our vision. Based on the master plan, it is a prescribed zoning designation for the area and it's consistent with the future land use map. I hope it also encourages creative entrepreneurial businesses. So in conclusion, the staff report and the master plan support the proposed zoning and the C2 zoning I think is the

best outcome for what is really a very special site and I feel lucky to own it and we respectfully request the approval of reszoning 523, 525 and 551 Mson Avenue from congressional C2 to C2. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions from the body for John before we open the public hearing? Okay, Brian, then Jackie, um, you talked about guaranteeing those previous restrictions that were in the conditional resoning. Are you talking about a deed restriction? Yes, sir.

And who would hold the deed restriction? I have a lawyer um who who I've worked with on the deed restrictions and his his job is to get the deed restrictions placed concurrently with the resoning being done and and those deed restrictions wording I've gone through with Sue Chang. When you say who's holding it, I guess I'd have to refer that question to him. I mean, who would own the deed restrictions? You have a deed restriction. Someone's responsible for enforcing those restrictions. It's not the public body unless the deed restriction is held by a public body such as the city or some consery or some or yourself. It could be held by yourself and you could remove the deed restrictions at any time as well. That's my question is who will own the deed restrictions? Own may be the wrong word, but who has the ability to in the future lift or amend those deed restrictions if the need ever arose?

The one thing I'd say is that's not within our purview. So I don't want to pressure John into answering it. He brought it up, but he brought raised this issue. It's been raised. It has and he's making it part of his argument. I just want to know how that's handled and if that is handled then I want to know if anyone's approached the city if the city has any interest in handling that and I don't know you know it's a reasonzoning which he has brought up he's offered us the deed restrictions cities get involved in deed restrictions all the time

so I did have a chance to talk to the city attorney about that um so far we have not been approached and nor has she suggested that we hold that Um, in fact, her recommendation was to have John not speak much to deed restrictions because it is not the basis for making reasonzoning descriptions and felt that that's begin to start a precedent of a quidd proquo of like it really ties back to the master plan, not what can you offer us up. If anything, that's more like a conditional reasonzoning, which this is not an application for. So, he's just mentioning it to be transparent.

Yeah. So, we have not been asked. I don't think the city attorney would support us holding the deed restriction because um as a method to get things replaced. She does not necessarily agree with that. So I think it would be um individually owned or held by the property owner transferred with the property. Um what happens beyond that, say John Collins doesn't own it at some point, I'm not informed enough on deed restrictions to say how they can be lifted or anything. I just know the troubles that we deal with as a city trying to deal with deed restrictions from generations ago and not being able to get them cleaned up. So,

the property that was the apartment building on Garfield Avenue had deed restrictions some of which and different restrictions on it to build that apartment building. Those restrictions all had to be lifted and they were good, bad or indifferent. I'm just saying they exist and they can be removed if if that's the intent in the future. But that's my only question. If he's proposing this and it's out there as part of this, then either it's part of the application or it's not. And if it is,

it's not it's not part of my application. It's something I'm voluntarily doing separate than this project. Because it was part of the conditional permit

and a concern for the neighborhood and a concern from this committee. As a courtesy, I wanted to update you that I'm doing the best I can to honor what the community and I have agreed with. And I've been counseledled. That's the best way to do it. And maybe there's some details that need to be worked out, but it's not it's not part of and the these restrictions largely are on things like uses and operating hours and not on changing. First off, you can't change the zoning code, but I can't say you don't have to use the building structure manual on figuring out the structures on the building. You can't give a restriction to something that's illegal. These are more community neighborhood concerns. And I feel like successfully we we're dealing with that. But I'm I'm more than happy to talk to our attorney and give you a call and tell you what his answer. make a decision so tonight one way or the other. So up to this point it's probably a mood issue for me but thank you for the offer.

Thank you for coming. Was that it Brian or do you have another? Not for the not for the applicant. Thank you. Y um I had a comment and then I have just a handful of questions. Um so please monitor me for other folks. Um my comment is a thank you to Mr. Collins and to the neighbors for um working together successfully. Um everyone has has property rights involved here and I I am um really impressed with how you have continued to talk continued the conversation and um so thank you for that. Thank you.

Now um in in your presentation you answered some of my questions. Um one of them is a real newbie question. remaining um and that is about the the new buildings that may be placed close to Mson Avenue. I understand there are two of them with two floors of commercial and one floor of residential. And I think per the C2 zoning, they have a a maximum 6,000 square footprint each. And I'm not good at visualizing a three-story 6,000 square foot building. Are there are there any existing buildings that would be similar in mass to what it is that you're proposing that already exist and we could kind of refer to just to understand?

Oh. Oh, yeah. I'm sure there are. Sean could address that. Sean is Sean is looking. Yeah. Like not right at the tip of my tongue right now of any in particular. So, I'm like just Should I move on to one of my other questions? Yeah. I dig around.

Okay. All right. Um the other one had to do with um um storm water management and imperous surfaces and and I think there's a 70% guideline for for this combined parcel. Um, it brought to mind that not long ago in our city commission deliberations, we met with the Grand Traverse County drain commissioner regarding a storm sewer outlet that's just a few parcels away where 8th Street, you know, dead ends and makes a 90 degree turn onto East Bayhore Boulevard. And there is a major outlet into East Grand Traverse Bay at that intersection. And I remember photos of floating dead squirrels. Anyway, it's it's under the I understand it that the Grand Traverse County Dream Commissioner is examining the possibility of establishing a a storm water assessment district specifically, you know, to serve that major major storm water outlet. Um, and I wondered if we have any flexibility to um either request less impervious surface or to ask for more storm water retention on site. I I just don't want to make the the issue of storm water runoff rushing down 8th Street into the bay any worse than it already is. Um, so that that was another question I had. Um the reason why I get professionals like Jerry involved that type of question is a technical question which will be solved in the site planning process and the engineering to keep storm water number

one on the site and not leaving the site is the first strategy. So that's tree canopy helps that and that you've got permeable ground underneath the trees to absorb the water. But let me let Jerry talk about that for a second. Thank you.

Good evening, planning commission members. Jerry Tomzac with Cunningham Limb. Uh so typically when we come back for site plan review, we have to make sure we're complying with the drain commission requirements. U we will make sure that we comply. There are many ways we do it. We can do underground storm under the parking lot. The nice thing about most of the sites up here is it's sandy, which allows for that storm water to infiltrate into the ground. We could provide for a retention or a detention pond above, but I think in this particular case, we'd probably use the storm underground and it'll be perforated. I don't know if you've noticed that when we did Westshore Bank right there on 8 Street, it's right out here. We did the same thing there. We put underground tanks that filtrates that water before it discharges into the Boardman River. So, we would use the same methods most likely for this.

Thank you. You're welcome. And with the storm water ordinance, any development that occurs has to capture all the water above its pre-development state. So, it can't it's not allowed per ordinance to just float down street or anything like that. Thank you. One other item they typically require too now is we use what we call an aqua swirl. It's a catch basin. a brand name out there that someone made a lot of money doing and it helps to filtrate that water before it actually even goes into that underground storm. And then over a period of time you have to clean that sump and that catch basin out. So Jackie to go to your prior question just looking around. Um

so near the corner of Milicanin and east front the Huntington Bank right there. Yes. So I was looking at C2. Uh the footprint of that building is 15,000 square feet. So more than twice what each building would be allowed in scale under this zoning proposed zoning designation. And that's not counting the canopy for the drive-thru, but the actual building. So So picture that at half size, three stories tall. Yeah. And it can be a little misleading from the street because it's orientated this way, not this way. So you know, it looks narrower than its depth is. So, this would probably have a different perception because we have a requirement about,

you know, filling a certain amount of the the lot with with the building to frame in the street. So, but yeah, maybe that'll help give a It does help considerably. Thanks. Um and and I had just Go ahead, Jackie. I see something else. Yeah. One last one. Um, um, forgive me. I'm looking. You're fine. I'm looking.

I don't see the issue of the the single access drive. If I could just add a um a a frequent uh frequent driver through that area perspective. Um there I've observed multiple times where the the left turn lane from Mson westbound onto 8th Street is indeed used for um delivery truck parking for the bakery. And um kind of interferes with the ability of of vehicle traffic to to get onto 8th Street safely. and um if that is a consideration for one access point versus two, I just wanted to to toss that out there. And then my other um transit related issue had to do with just planning ahead for pedestrian safety and sidewalks and such. So, thank you. the the delivery truck issue was brought to my attention recently and I I've asked u um uh Shannon to take a look at what are the options to bring those trucks on the site the way it is right now and turn them around because we've got a we've got that second lot is vacant right now.

Right. So I I I I was not at all happy to find that these trucks are parking out there on Mson Avenue. Um, but the new plan is not going to have them out on Mson Avenue. Thank you very much. And that's that's probably the convincing argument for the second entrance into Mson because then the truck can pull in one way and out the other way and never turn around. Thank you.

I'll add a layer on the topic of curb cuts. Um, those would be permitted by MDOT because it's one of their trunk lines. So they may just straight up prohibit too because they're trying to manage access uh to the properties along there, but um they might have to reconcile that with the fire department depending, you know, this is where you might have conflicting codes and they got to come together with the solution. So and that would come with the f formal drafting of the actual site plan.

Correct. Yeah. And same thing with storm water too. As Jerry mentioned, there's a variety of different ways to manage the storm water, but usually not until they're drawing plans because they'll have to take core samples. The underground infiltration is going to depend on how high the water table is, what the soil composition is, and things like that. So, that would be um a level of detail to come in the future. Anything else from this body before we open the public hearing? Mitch,

question for staff. Just looking at the map, uh we have heard a lot from Agosa Trail residents to the east. Uh but looking to the north, um there are two parcels owned by Blney Castle, but only one of them is actually zoned commercial. Has uh Blney ever approached the city about reszoning the second?

Yeah, they actually applied to reszone. I think Brian and Anna were both on the commission at that time. was before my time, but they wanted to, I think, reszone their second parcel, the 2008 East 8th Street to C2, knock down that gas station, and build a bigger one. But, um, I think it was determined not to be consistent with the master plan. So, that the reasoning wasn't approved, so therefore, they couldn't move forward with the redevelopment. I don't know if I remember that, but I remember it. Yeah, I'm sure you do.

It was probably in my timeline, too. Okay, seeing no other comments right now from the body, I'm going to open the public hearing. Um, we will have instructions announced by Katie if you wish to make public comment. Um, if you wish to make public comment, we ask that you state your name and address. Indicate if you are a city resident, non-resident, and or a city business owner. We have a three minute time allotment per speaker. When your time has elapsed, um, my phone will beep. address your comments only to the planning commission and we request that all language be respectful to all parties.

Thank you. Any public comment on this reszone item?

Hi, I'm Sue Chang. I live at 521 AOSA Trail. My family cottage is at 2044 East 8 Street which is on the corner of East 8th in Augusta Trail. Um I always have to read this because I think it's really cute. Um it's from the record eagle 100 years ago today column and it was probably published I think in 2004 or 2005. So it was referring to 1904 and 1905. Um, there's a delightful camp on the shore of East Bay where a number of families are now enjoying the cool bay breezes and living in comfort, having abandoned the city for the time. Some of the families now located there are EJ Fulgum, William Abbott, George W. Lardy, Thomas Pearson, and JW Sims. William and Elma Abbott were my great-grandparents. Um, at that time they lived on Seventh Street. So when they were abandoning the city, they were going from Seventh Street down to the end of East 8th Street to the shores of uh East Bay and AOSA Resort. So um it's in my DNA to try and protect this little neighborhood um known as AOSA Resort. Um I'm sad. I'm getting kind of tired. I I brought all these files just to show you guys. This is like three generations of files um fighting these different reszonings and um we're just trying to protect the land, the trees and the quality of the bay. Um John is not our enemy. Um growth beyond the infrastructure is more the enemy. The intersection of 8th and Mson is tough. Um, as Old Mission population grows, uh, it puts a lot of pressure on that intersection, um, sometimes traffic curves all the way around to East Bay Boulevard.

Um, I do worry about the impervious surfaces and how it overburdens the storm system. I understand that it um storm water will be managed on site, but we built and we built when the water was low and then the water came up high and it's really hard to manage the water when the water table is as high as it gets down there near East Bay and when all the water from all the other new buildings and impervious surfaces are rushing to try and get to the bay. Um, it's something that really has to be managed carefully. So, just something to keep in mind. Um, hopefully you received my email so you know what our concerns are uh regarding the C2. Yes, we're concerned about businesses being open until 2 a.m. Um, yes, we're concerned about amplified music from rooftops and parking lots. Um, we spend a lot of time in the summer outdoors as do all the neighbors and on the beaches. And the thought of having um amplified music that isn't what we want to listen to is disheartening, I guess I'll say. Um,

thank thanks Sue. That was three minutes. I'm sorry. That was three minutes. Oh, thank you. Okay, that's fine. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment on this item? Seeing none, do I close the public hearing then? Is that my direction? Okay, public hearing is closed. We're going to go back to the body. Uh we can comment a little more if people would like. We can entertain a motion. Um Shay,

um I'm going to make the motion, but two things. Uh this will be the second meeting that I've said this. I think this really highlights the rewrite and how important it is. Also, in the motion that's in our packet, it says 5,551 and I think it's meant to say 551 if I'm correct. So, uh, with that, I will make the motion that the application received by Empire Sunset Investments LLC to reszone the properties under their ownership at 523, 525, and 551 Monzanav from C2A Neighborhood Center conditionally reszoned to C2 neighborhood center by recommended and be recommended to the city commission for approval. Support.

Okay, we have a motion and a support. I did see Brian's hand go up. So I Let's talk about that and then we'll vote. Um question uh for the staff. What was before the C2 conditional reszone? What was the bakery property zoned?

So the bakery and the former social security were C1 um and then the southernmost property was R1A I believe. So the issue that John first brought to us was uh frankly the success of the bakery. C1 doesn't allow retail. They're allowed to occupy a building that was built before a certain date, which that one was, but they can't expand it at all. And so that was kind of what led to, as I understood it, working with John, this plan, you will, right? And that was my point.

It's like you have a choice here. You can um, you know, C1 doesn't allow the bakery. you're pretty much and which goes to the point just made our zoning needs a rewrite. Um you can have a put a bakery a coffee shop actually it calls it um inside a existing building but you can't create a new building for a coffee shop or the existing

and the same time C2 does allow gas stations um you know and car well I don't know about car wash but gas stations and other uses and this is really simply it's a resoning um and the reasonzoning here is for um you know the reasonzoning I understand and it's for all possible uses under the ordinance all possible standards under the ordinance what's being presented the conceptual plans really have no bearing or weight whatsoever it's you know the person has great intentions but something happens tomorrow the property gets sold it's a whole new ball game but the zoning stays that runs the land. Um, so it's always a concern when we're reszoning property. Uh, but I don't know if there's a better option for this property. I can't argue that C2 isn't appropriate or our most appropriate zoning code for this. Um, you could argue that those first two properties could be reszoned C2 and the um the wooded property could be left C1. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but I don't think that's really concerned the neighborhoods right now. It's a major C2 zoning. Uh the shape, the depth of the other property makes it, you know, less likely to be addressed. Um so it's a it's an interesting question for that. I don't know if it has to be C2. I don't think the master plan calls for it to be C2. I think the master plan calls for it to be gateway. If you look at the master plan, little map in our thing, it's according to that map or future land use, then we should have reszone the if we're, you know, if you

want to go by these sort of vague things, you look at that big purple circle on at the corner of A and Mson and it's a, you know, there's a lot of residential properties there should be colored purple that we should be making uh, you know, part of the, you uh the neighborhood center commercial uses. So I guess that would include the gas station being expanded. I think that's further down, isn't it? No. No. Oh, I guess I looked at the crossover point and assumed that there's the first one there and that's the other one. And then Oh, you're looking at the other per I'm sorry. Yeah.

So it's just, you know, maybe I should call it the other purple. never did like the color schemes in that our master plan. Um I just you know I I have another question for staff though and then I'll be I'm done and that is uh um now there's conditional reasoning on it currently and it's supposed to expire. What happens after it expires? Does anything happen automatically?

You know that's going to be a good question to ask with the attorney. I was looking at it this week and it it says it reverts back to its original zoning. Um, but you can't change zoning without going through a a defined process in the act. So, I don't know if that process then still has to occur to to reszone it back. Um, she was going to have to look into it because one thing that makes conditional reszoning, she pointed out, so different than all the others is the contract that goes with it or the agreement rather. So, she wanted to dig into that a little bit. The question I would have is the last time we had one revert, we had to initiate the resoning

and that may be the case. Yeah. And so, I guess my question is if we never I guess this is more philosophical question. If we never initiated resoning, would the current zoning ever really go away? Let me philosophically think on that because I can't say with any certainty right now, but I see the point that you're making. Um, and I think this is why the attorney doesn't like that provision in the ordinance a the expiration, especially at 75%. Um, I don't know how at that point you're constitutionally vested. You know, you you can't stop, you know, someone's construction at that point. Um, so, uh, more to look into.

Well, I think it's going to be a moot point. So, but who knows? We don't know till the vote is taken

I mean I yeah I grew up right down the road from here. Um still feel like a ghost of trails still pretty hidden. Uh even though I always try to drive down the road. I don't think I'm supposed to do that. Um I was in high school so um but yeah I mean to me it just I mean obviously the intention seems to be uh there it's I just think it's pretty prominent on a main road. You know what else is going to be there? has kind of been a dead zone for a while here. So, those are just my thoughts. It's just it like I think we all I drive by there all the time. It's interesting to look at it on a map. Um,

thank you, Mitch. I think you

Yes. uh redeveloping or otherwise seeing further commercial use of this these properties is both consistent with our master plan and the historical use of the existing bakery and the office building that had been there on the second parcel beforehand and I see that as a necessary step in the future. I do wish that we could have pursued the conditional reszoning and kept that um as part of our process. Yes, I understand that it presents some challenges compared to just our straight zoning codesifications, but this case did provide um a way for the co I mean for the zoning on properties to be changed with conditions that were worked out between the property owner and in this case the adjacent neighborhood. Yes, that property owner can still put restrictions into the deed, but they do not live in our zoning code the way they did before. And we can hope that it gets uh developed in the way that's being proposed that is um consistent with what the neighborhood wants. But the straight resoning does not uh leave that is the only option. However, it's the option that we have before us. And frankly, given the choice of uh reszoning this or third coast not being able to exist, I'd say reszoning is uh what's most consistent with both current use and with our and the neighborhoods on both sides of the street vision for the future.

Thank you. Okay, I'm pretty much in agreement. I think this makes a lot of sense. I'm hoping that this solves the issue and we don't see this, frankly, this property back again. No offense, John. I really appreciate it. Um I it's taken a lot of work and I think this is the right fit. I agree with Jerry that it's kind of been a weird spot that feels like it was once the office office, excuse me, and then now it's the bakery and it like something else could be going in that that we like less. So, I think we take advantage of the opportunity we currently have and I like the vision and I I like I also agree with Jerry. I think it is still protected AOSA. Um, so I I like it. Um, Brian, I did see you raise your hand one more time. Do you want to make a comment before we mo move

before we entertain the motion? Okay. Um, so we'll go back to entertain the motion that is on the floor. Um, moved by Sheay and supported by Mitch. All those in favor of the conditional re nope of the reszone. Um I I I sorry jumped the gun. All those opposed. Motion carries. Thank you very much.

John will talk about the process at the next level and um just in interest of transparency when we work with the applicant. We will try to encourage that south stand of trees to be preserved to the extent possible in meeting the canopy requirement since they're already existing. It'll probably be a nice amenity for the residential dwellers uh proposed um as well as a buffer to the neighborhood. May even have a talk with John about a future welcome sign to Traverse City on that corner. Kind of a key position and figure out a little spot to make a little gateway sign. I mean, we have the entering Traverse City uh sign, but that's functional rather than welcome.

Yeah. A number of years ago, Dave Weston, you know, he's a landscape architect in our department, um, designed a bunch of gateway signs for key spots throughout the city so we could pull those out and revisit them and pretty nice question. Yes. Right. Will the contract have to be removed or cancelled now? Because while we had a resoning, there's still the outstanding contract that doesn't expire until it expires. So, is this going to be back and for us before us? It's a the contract city that so I imagine that the city attorney will incorporate that into the memo to the city commission when we present it

and the condition and I can follow up with you with what that No, I don't if that doesn't come back to me, I'll figure it's taken care of. But Oh, you know, don't want to see it jump up on a meeting where we got 15 other things. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Okay, moving on to old business B, public hearings and possible action on the CIP and light and power CIP plans.

Yep. So, uh this was presented to the planning commission, the draft CIP, uh at last month's meeting. Um following the typical format, we did ask for uh questions to be sent to the department so we can distribute them to the relative or the relevant um departments for answers. uh because we don't create the the CIP projects. Um so Katie compiled those and they have been um included within the the memo packet for today. Um yeah, so with that um there will be a required public hearing today. Um the city comm or the city planning commission can approve or adopt the CIP. Um it does not commit any funding. It's used as a plan to help inform the city manager in the creation of the budget that the city commission then approves uh by the first week in June per charter.

I do appreciate sticking in the memo again because I needed that refresher from the city attorney on our role. Um okay, looking to this body for comments um before we move to the public hearing. Jackie, I just to be perfectly clear, we are only having a public hearing and taking action tonight on the light and power CIP. Correct? No, I think it's both. It's both. Oh, forgive me. That's my understanding.

Okay. Um, do we know how fast those then move into like the city commission agenda meetings? Like will will Jackie and Mitch then see it again like next month or will they see it around the budget time?

Um, it's really up to the city manager. Um, it doesn't require action from them. So, it usually gets presented after the planning commission adopts it um under receive and file in their agenda. Um if I recall from past years, and I'm not really in this process, I do think when they adopt the budget, it's a series of motions and they include in their adopting the CIP at that time. Okay. But it's not required that they do that, but I think that's just the practice.

Thank you. I just wasn't sure about that. Okay, seeing nobody jumping with comments, I'm going to open the public hearing and then come back to us after. So, I'm opening the public hearing on the CIP and the Light and Power CIP. Any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, closing the public hearing on that item. Back to the body. Shay.

Uh, I'll make the motion to approve the city of Traverse Cities and the Traverse City Light and Powers capital improvement plans for fiscal years 2026/27 through 2031/32 as consistent with the master plan in terms of location, character, and extent or moved and supported by O'Brien and Treadwell. Brian,

um, I'm going to be voting against this. uh one it's my tradition two uh simply because you know we there's no there's no we do not create this we have never created this I've been told and I'll ask the um in past that we can neither add nor take anything away from this from these um from the CIPs And because if we could add things then I would certainly add funds a project in there to rewrite our zoning ordinance.

Okay. And if I could add things I would add a completion of a sidewalk system in the city that allows you to go along Mson Avenue at least to Tom's East Bay and connect. But there is no such system on either the east I mean either north or south side of Mson Avenue. There are large breaks in the sidewalk system. I think that would be a priority. That's where I would put a priority. Instead, this system has a priority system that's created by not the planning department who is the liaison to the planning commission but by city administration with no input from planning or us. And as you can read from this, we are supposed to set priorities. We have spent no time setting priorities. Instead, we're given a list and given three days to ask questions and then we're supposed to vote and approve on it. I don't expect anybody else to die on this my personal battlefield against the CIP. But the city administration, regardless of who the city administrator has been, have never honored the spirit or even in my opinion the letter of the law of the uh Michigan Planning Enabling Act. Okay? We're never included in this. We are given no rights. Just hold a public hearing and vote it up or down. We can't amend it. And I can give you a number of reasons of individual projects that I don't think uh fit with the master plan. But can I do anything about those? So no. Can I tell you that there, you know, that I don't believe parking needs shows up anywhere in our master plan? That we tear down an existing building for parking needs. Is that in the master plan? I would question that. I don't see it that way, but other people would disagree with me.

I guess you could debate that question. Maybe they can convince me. I don't know how moving a city-owned business and which employs probably what hundreds of people in this community. moving it out of the city balls with moving uh I mean we're supposed to be bringing follows either the city master plan or the uh new strategic pillars of the strategic plan for the city. Isn't aren't you supposed to be encouraging manufacturing? Isn't electricity a manufacturing industry and instead we're moving it into Garfield Township? And um and I guess if I was going to put together a uh CIP and the master plan, I would include the principles of the master plan, not just the principles of the city strategic plan. I think they should both be in there since we're actually guiding our decisions based on the principles of the action of the uh master plan. Um and then there's a number of uh items that don't even list what the benefits for the community are. So there's a number of those throughout engineering department is particularly bad at that. Um and so how do you judge whether or not it's a consistent with the master plan? And actually, I'm not even sure uh I'm not even sure where finding it consistent with the master plan is even written anywhere that that's our job or their own ability on this. It's not in the Michigan Enabling Act. It's not cited in the city attorneys. It's just sort of um I mean it's not really stated anywhere

in ordinance that I can find other than when projects come to us they have to be reviewed for uh you know location character and extent and then the question I have is always based on limited information that we do have can we actually say whether or not some of these projects meet that and finally if I was creating this master plan as a action of the planning commission. I wouldn't include vehicle replacements in it. Um, and by the way, in case anyone ever wants to look at it, these two plans combined are over what, 500 pages. So, I'll be voting no on it. Um, I just wanted to let everyone know and I'm off my soap box.

I hear you, Brian. And um there are many things I agree with as somebody that has been here for a while. Um we we have had multiple hour long meetings where we are discussing item by item by item to no avail like passing it with notes with memos to the city commission. Um we I've been through a variety of these CIP meetings. Um, so I hear your frustration. There were a couple hands, but I didn't catch them. Jerry.

Uh, yeah. I would just say I've been around the CIP's constantly evolved, and I think it's still evolving. There's just been a lot of different approaches over the years. So maybe it's something that'll get addressed as we move forward with the strategic plan, master plan because yeah, I hear what Brian's saying is it's always it's constantly changing. Well, that's all I have to say just from someone that's on staff. Yeah, you're seeing both sides of it.

Mitch, were you also gonna say something? I would like to thank Commissioner McGelary for his uh fine speech. Uh but it is this hasn't been just a frustration in now I'm in my fifth year but it seems at least a decade before that that I had been following the city affairs that the CIP at the planning commission level and then at the city commission level does get to be a contentious process about what we even can do. And essentially it does come down to an up or down vote on this package of hundreds of projects which I understand it is the role of engineering of streets of parks of the other departments to uh weigh in and say these are our priorities. This is um what we need for projects. this is what makes sense for a timeline. But it doesn't seem that uh we as the in both my roles as an elected and an appointed representative of a city then have a say in aside from yes or no on the whole thing. We as a the plan commission created the master plan um with an addendum of the mobility action plan. But when it comes to say street repairs, the overarching philosophy is we have streets in the city, they should be kept in good shape. Let's look at the pacer ratings and the vehicle counts and what needs uh the most work and what we have budget for and then structure it

accordingly. It isn't looking at oh the mobility action plan called for um enhancing bicycle mobility along this corridor so maybe we should uh move uh re building this street up to account for that. It's something that I would like to see but doesn't seem to be the process that we go through. Yes, we can ask questions. We can provide feedback but uh ultimately it is um us not making the sausage. It's saying yes the sausage is good enough. Jackie.

Um, I have some empathy for some of Commissioner McGillivar's comments. Um, particularly regarding process and timing. Um, I think the expectation for an appointed board to review literally hundreds of pages of a CIP plan in a period of 72 hours is probably um, unrealistic. and my experience over prior years of CIP review in the within the planning commission context have been um disappointing in terms of do I exert lots of review, lots of oversight and and provide robust input which is not usable or do I simply opt out and um I The conclusion I am unfortunately reaching is that I can have uh more of a voice in the direction of the CIP acting as a city commissioner than as a planning commissioner. And my inclination at this point is to um abstain from voting on this item.

Brian,

um I I'm sorry. I have one more comment and this is really directed to our elected city commissioners and I'm just going to read this. To further the desirable future development of a local unit of government under the master plan, a planning commission after adoption of a master plan shall annually prepare a capital improvement program of public structures and improvements unless a planning commission is exempted from this requirement by charter or otherwise. I'm in favor of otherwise. We really are just wasting time spinning our wheels and this is really a project of the city commission. They should just legislate it us out of this. You know, we still are happy to review projects that come before us, but seriously, we're getting, you know, having us review whether or not we should be replacing uh, you know, buying a new lawn mower is not part of our job. or sewer lines or anything else, you know, it's um it's otherwise and you're right, you've got more control over it on the city commission and even then it's limited. It's like changing the direction of a of those super tankers. Very slow process.

Okay. Well, I think we're going to vote on the motion. Um, all those in favor? I. All those opposed? No. Okay. Roll call, please. Katie. Commissioner uh or Chairperson Dur. Yes. Chair Commissioner uh Treadwell. Yes. Commissioner O'Brien. Yes. Commissioner McGillary. No. Commissioner Anderson abstain. And Commissioner Swanson, yes. Um, it did carry.

I will say, Brian, just to your point, um, we were contacted by MDOT, I think in 2028, they want to do a mill and fill on the portion of Mson and 131 from Garfield to 3M. Um, it does need a reconstruction eventually, but they're not going to get any funding for at least five years. So, they're trying to do a band-aid. So, they reached out to us in East Bay. Um, and we are exploring ways to figure out, can we get those sidewalk gaps filled at least on one side of the road or the next, but it's not in their budget to do it, but they reached out because there may be economy of scale with contractors already being mobilized and stuff. So, we're we're exploring it, but still in the works. but it's not in the CIP.

Again, things don't have to be in the CIP to be budgeted. Um, and things that are in the CIP aren't guaranteed to be budgeted. It's a plan to help guide decision-m process um for the formation of the budget. Okay, moving on to new business. Item A, determination of master plan consistency of the proposed public plaza known commonly as Rotary Square. I believe Harry is here and I'll turn it over to Sean.

Yep. So we do have Harry Burkholder, the executive director of the downtown development authority as well as Jason Ball from the consultant team that they hired. Progre we are no progressive the name changed. It's progressive companies.

Progressive companies. Thank you. um who has been working through the community engagement and the design process on this project. Um perhaps some of you participated in those last year. There was a number of community events. So this is the uh plan being presented to the planning commission for the long anticipated public plaza known as Rotary Square downtown. So this would be at the southeast corner of State and Union across from the post office. Um and so the purview of the planning commission looking at this again falls back to the um location character and extent consistency with the master plan. Uh so with that I will hand it over to Harry.

Thank you Sean and good to be with you commissioners. Um I'm going to be brief in my comments before I turn it over to Jason. But I want to reiterate uh the long uh plan or the long vision for this project. Uh this was actually in the original 1997 TIFF plan and here we are 29 years later uh finally getting to it. Um uh I'm sure you've heard quite a bit about this project, but we've been taking the last uh almost year as a community to talk about what this space will look like. Um and I'll let Jason go through the highlights of that process and that we came up with. But I think what we found is a really good balance between uh what we from what we heard from the community was let's make it active but not too active. So we have space for formal events, whether those are concerts or market or even winter events, but also enough room to have very kind of passive public space for you just to sit and enjoy lunch. Um, we had feedback from over a thousand people within the community. Um, and I think what we have is a plan that represents what we heard from the people who live in Traverse City. Um, and very excited to to present the final design. Um, just as a little bit of a background, we really got this effort uh off the ground in 2018 and 19 when the DDA received uh appropriations from the state of Michigan to help purchase the bank that used to be at the site. And then we also received a million-doll grant from Rotary Charities as part of their centennial celebration. All that money has gone into this process so far. So, no public dollars have been spent in the planning and and the preparation of the site. Um, that will change once we actually build the site. Um uh but that's a little bit of the background on how this site came to be. Um with that I'm going to turn over to Jason who going to walk you through our process and then the plan itself.

Uh thank you here Harry. Good evening. My name is Jason Ball. I'm a senior planner with Progressive Companies. Yeah, bear with us. Jason apologize. I don't mean to interrupt you but for some reason it's not connecting to the screen. So, we just want me to jiggle the wires. I know. It worked fine for John. We had a tech guy. He's like, "When do I stand up?"

Well, it sounds like we all took his training earlier today, so All right, guys. Does anyone need a break? Do we want to take a five minute break? I can get some water while Jerry Okay, we'll take a three minute break while Jerry works on this presentation. There we go. Gotta love the IT department. Now we have two extra minutes.

Mitch is in the I did do. Yeah, you've got three minutes. Sorry for the resess.

It's actually karma. Last time I was here to present for the DDA, Becket Raider went after me and I had to unplug their USB and plug mine back in and their presentation didn't work. So, it's just karma working its way through. Well, now that we've all returned, I'm going to cut the break short. Thank you. Oh, Maxwell is not back yet. Just kidding. Oops. Okay, we have one minute left, but let's get started. He can just miss the first couple of words. So, we're coming back from break.

Uh, thank you again. Uh, my name is Jason Ball from Progressive Companies. I've had the pleasure of being the lead consultant working on this project with Harry um and the team at the DDA as well as our advisory committee. Um, so I'll just quickly walk through some background on kind of how we got to where we are today, what the overall kind of conceptual design is. Happy to answer any questions about that and then I can we have just a couple of quick slides on consistency with the master plan from our perspective. Um, so this is a timeline that actually started in January of last year or October, December actually of 2025. So we've been at this process for about 14 months. Um, over that time we hosted a variety of community engagement events. Hopefully some of you been have been able to partake in a couple of those. Um, as Harry mentioned, in total we had over a thousand points of feedback over the course of what we called the imagine Rotary Square um, sort of design process. So there was a community survey that actually closed almost exactly a year ago, actually about a year and a month ago. Um, we then had meetings in the opera house with a bunch of different stakeholder groups about sort of the vision for Rotary Square, what that would look like. Um about a year ago right now, we hosted pop-up events uh at the YMCA, local coffee shops just to sort of again raise awareness about the process, get general feedback. Uh we then got blessed with really great weather for an open house in early in midmay. Um and then had another h openhouse in June uh on Rotary Square sites on the site of Rotary Square itself. Both of those open houses were followed up with online surveys. So if anybody couldn't attend, they could provide the same feedback online. You can see here the numbers for our responses. As Harry mentioned, we had about a thousand total responses. Um, over that time, again, I'm kind of repeating some of the things Harry said. There were some consistent themes that came up over and over and over again. Um, one of them when we first started, we had this question of should this be an urban square or should it be more of

a natural park? We heard very clearly lean more natural, less urban and paved. So, that's reflected in the designs. Um, as Harry mentioned, there is a lot big priority for Rotary Square to be a place for people from Traverse City, uh, folks that live here, folks that come to work in downtown, not a place that's focused on hosting, um, events or sort of tourist season focused things that it should operate well 365 days a year and really serve folks at Traverse City. Um the last thing on this list, but it probably isn't last in terms of priorities, um was the thinking through the connection to Fish Pass in the river from Rotary Square. So, as you all are probably aware, there's an alleyway that runs between Rotary Square and the river as well as some parking spaces. Um, from the beginning, this rose to was always the top one or two things we heard from the community when we were doing engagement was we can't miss the opportunity to make that connection to the river and fish pass via Rotary Square. Um, so I believe in your packet was what we called our schematic design package which walked through all the different design um, details from a conceptual perspective as well as the public engagement. So if any of you had questions about that, I'm happy to answer those. But just from a broad overview from a conceptual perspective, this is our kind of rendering of what the proposed conceptual design of Rotary Square looks like on your left and then as you all are used to seeing it as a planning commission kind of our boring landscaped site plan on the right hand side here. Um your sort of CAD line drawing. Um the concept here really uh based on community feedback. We we called this our Paskki stone option um with the sort of oval shape in the middle. The inspiration for that really was kind of thinking about the Paskki stone in terms of connection to the the landscape and the water. Um, and then sort of filling in the space around that as Harry mentioned, wanting to be sure that the uh the square or the park has a couple of different functions that it can host small events. It can be a

larger gathering space, but also that it's got these um effective nooks and crannies. not nooks and crannies that are unsafe, but places where you could still sit with somebody while something else is going on and have sort of a quiet conversation, enjoy a cup of coffee, um, and not have to be sort of in the middle of it all. So, this is just a series of uh, renderings or perspectives from that design packet you all had. Um, the top left of this is sort of if you're standing at the corner of State and Union looking in to Rotary Square, what that entrance way looks like. Um top right is a view of what we called the overlook um and some swing benches. We our advisory committee really sort of was on to this idea of having some sort of adult and yet playful elements in Rotary Square. So we didn't want it to feel like a playground, but at the same time we didn't want it to be sort of stuffy. Um and so the swing benches are there. You can see the small slide down from the overlook. Again, there was a strong desire to include some elevation in the space, not just have it be flat. And so there's that overlook element in the northeast corner of the site. And then the bottom left is sort of looking down Union Street. Again, we're sort of wanting to be sure that we related to the street. There's nice seat walls and some options there that face Union. But also then as you sort of enter Rotary Square, you have sort of a separate some separation from the street. And then lastly in the bottom right hand corner is sort of looking over that central lawn space. And there's a large uh pavilion structure at the southern end of the site just in front of the alleyway that you know 340 days a year or whatever functions the nice state shade structure an opportunity for people to sit and get out of the sun um be out of the weather a little bit but then on those days where there's an event or something happening at Rotary Square it's a good place to be able to put a portable stage in. It's full of necessary electricity utilities AV etc to host those kinds of events. Um, so we're through conceptual and

schematic design. We're now getting into the design details. So we're working with uh the DDA as well as the city on how we're sort of wrapping up finishes. What kinds of pavers and choices are we making for concrete uh throughout the site. Also thinking about how that relates in the alleyway. One of the things we heard very clearly from our from our partners at the city who are on our advisory committee was we needed to be sure that alleyway continues to function as an alley, but we wanted to be to provide some mechanism to be able to say this is still an alley. You can drive through it, but we don't really encourage you to drive through. It's really a space that's designated for the park that has that option to move through. So, if you look through the design details, you notice there are some removable ballards there that could be installed when an event or something is happening to sort of limit vehicle access. The rest of the time it would be open, but with some sort of messing with the concrete finishes a little bit, making it clear that as you're driving through it, it's a place that you should be paying attention to pedestrians driving slowly, not, you know, quickly cutting through in your car. Again, from a planting perspective, uh we've worked the city with the city's parks department to be sure that we're selecting plant materials that align with their expectations and things that they know work uh here in Traverse City. really leaning into native plantings um as well as a variety of different species that are going to um sort of age well over time. Also thinking about site furnishings, right? Having uh effective bike racks but interesting bike racks. So the loop there on the left hand side is our bike rack design. Um thinking about water fountains on the site that you know also include water bottle filling stations as well as a pet uh drinking fountain in the bottom. Again, just thinking about how we relate the site well to sort of the use in Traverse City. Um, light fixtures that are similar to the ones in downtown. So, just sort of working through all those features to be sure that we're really um blending the site in well with the existing character in urban design in Traverse City. And again, these just sort of those details

on the structures that we're working through now. No big changes here, but again, just thinking through exactly how those function at this point in time. Uh, being sure that they're going to work well. And we we're feeling very good about where that's headed. Lastly, I know storm water is a priority for the city. Um, we've worked through storm water design, working with the city engineering department just to sort of wrap up some of those details designs. Um, being sure that we're managing storm water effectively on the site. Obviously, we're not adding a lot of imperous surface, but it is increasing slightly with the hardscape um to the north of the alley. And so, providing for that and being sure we're managing effectively, working through that with city engineering. So that's kind of the quick overview on design. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has or the process on engagement. Uh if you have any otherwise I'm happy just to hop into consistency with the master plan if it's helpful.

Sure. Um I two things I've noticed AT&T is and this might be a question for Harry more than you. I noticed AT&T is is plowing their snow into those trees along the parking lot there. Is that something that you guys have been working with to maybe stop? I I think that's a an ongoing conversation that we need to have with them. Um certainly we're aware of um the issues of that continued activity if this site were to be fully developed and we were actually looking at some design scenarios that would mitigate that. Um, but that's a conversation that we're going to have to have with AT&T.

Okay. Um, and then the other thing, the the alley. I really like this. I want my alley to look like this. My question is, are there curbs like how it swivels like that? Are those curbs or am is it just different colors of concrete? Basically, different colors of concrete. Those are not curbs. The curved lines are the sort of hard lines on the sort of north and south of that image, right? That it's just different colors of concrete. Cool. Um Mitch and then Jackie.

Yes. Um number of questions, but two right now. one. I assume that this is uh just the rendering you went with and isn't actually part of your project area, but I notice you have removed the bus stop uh both the marked parking and the physical bus shelter uh along State Street. It I'm presuming that that will be continuing. That's correct. Yes. And it's just not in the renderings because it wouldn't be cute. I think it was I think it was very cute. I think it was actually not in the original aerial image we used to base the rendering. So, I apologize. It's there now. Yep.

And it's important to incorporate elements of the built landscape that are likely to continue. Another thing is it's in site plan. It's not in some renderings like here, but the desire path um there will be um paths that people take across the grass. But while this shows one going from uh the northeast the northwest corner um towards fish pass in the south um east. I just looking at the space uh would seem it more likely that there'd be a desire path forming um perpendicular to that as people um have a clear sight line across the corner and will walk across a nice green space rather than taking the sidewalk.

Yep. So we actually talked about that uh as with our advisory committee as we wrapped up design. Um so we identified this one pathway through the middle. We hesitated to add more just because we felt like it would break up the lawn area uh to a greater extent. So we have also thought in in great detail about how we're going to seed and ensure that we maintain that space well. And so there is an operation and maintenance p plan that went along with this that we've worked on with the DDA to ensure that space is effectively maintained. And I think whatever desire path we think will happen, unfortunately, we're likely to have people take another one that we don't anticipate. Always happens.

Yeah. So, um, we've tried to anticipate that as well as we can, but with the understanding that we really, uh, want to be sure that that turf is wellmaintained, especially if there are events, right? It's going to need to have a pretty good maintenance. Um, one of the things we talked about early on in the process was whether we wanted to do artificial turf instead. We heard loud and clear that wasn't a good option. So, with natural turf, you've got some maintenance things that you've just got to do, and that's kind of our our reality. Jackie, um could you tell us a little more about um the child-friendly amenities that are planned and also um ADA accessibility and amenities?

Yeah, absolutely. So, the entire site's um ADA accessible. The uh platform in the northeast corner includes an ADA accessible ramp. Um, in terms of child focused amenities, uh, it's I won't say it's limited, but it was from our, uh, advisory council direction. Actually, what we heard from the public as well was a feeling that there are a fair number of places in throughout Traverse City, parks that are geared towards kids. And there was a strong desire to be sure that this park was sort of geared toward everybody, that what didn't have a strong leaning as focused as a a playground or a space just for kids. So, there are a couple of elements in the northeast corner that I would say are more like family or kid focused, right? There's a small slide off of the overlook that you can see in the upper right hand corner of this slide. And then you can't quite see in this slide, but there's a couple of we call them small mounds. They're sort of elevation areas just uh the other side of the sidewalk from that slide that were again intended for places that kids could sit. They can roll down them. we sort of carved out that more family oriented space in that northeast corner of the site.

Thank you. And then I did have a comment in terms of alleyway access. Is this timely or would someone else have some comments first?

I think Jerry, were you gonna Did you have something? Okay, Jackie. Jerry. Um I I this is just more more in the category of a heads up just to um alert you that there's a a fairly distinctive traffic pattern that involves the library the the library the alleyway um and and Central United Methodist Church where there's drop off and on the ground level in front of the church on Cass and then a circling back via Lake Union alleyway to access the the church's back parking lot. And so when you talk about ballards and things like that, I'm hoping that CUMC is fully engaged in that conversation.

Yeah, they were actually one of the earliest stakeholders that we we had as part of the conversation. So those removable ballards are really there just to clarify as an intent for if there's an event or there's something happening on Rotary Square, like there's a not your everyday use, but a large event to be able to block off vehicle access to that alleyway. The intent is that in normal operations that alleyway would be open and available. Thank you. So, yep, Jerry.

Yeah. I mean, I think in general, this is a great like the design. It's one of those cases where we hear like, oh, another bank's going in and in this case, the bank's gone away and now we have a park. I just feel like we hear that a lot. Why don't you put a park here? And so, anyway, I think it looks great. My kid would love the slide. I do think, you know, that connection to Fish Pass is important. I know there's, you know, this whole area would be pretty transformed all said and done, but just being able to I know there's push and pull on the trees there, but, you know, that that'll really open up the river to be able to actually view that whole area. Right now, it's you kind of have to go on the bridge to kind of see what's going on at all. Um so anyway, I think it's a great design looks great and um be excited to see if this uh came to fruition. And just to clarify the point on the the trees relative to the river, so we aren't proposing removing any trees from that space. That area was actually pretty thinned out at part of the fish pass construction this summer. So there was a lot of like underbrush and things there that kind of prevented view of the river. Much of that is gone now. most of that view is quite opened up compared to what it was. So, we aren't actually proposing, just to be clear, changing anything on that slope. Um, but that slope compared to a year ago or 18 months ago has a lot less sort of scrub, low vegetation on it that prevents you from being able to see the river now than it did before.

Right. Oh, little story. So, probably back in 2017, maybe 2018, planning commission voted to remove the town square concept from the CIP. Tie it back.

Long before this, they actually had a location, but we didn't felt we basically felt it didn't meet the six-year priority list. Um, we were ignored, of course, and but anyways, it just also bolsters my argument. the planning commission should be removed from the CIP process. With that, I'll make the motion to affirm the proposed design of Rotary Square for the southeast corner of Union and State Streets as presented at the March 3rd, 2026 planning commission meeting be found to be consistent with the city's master plan in terms of location, character, and extent. Support. It's a great project. Support.

Um, I just have one comment. I think it is a fabulous project. Uh, of the two that we have recently reviewed, Farmers Market and this project, emotions are happening. These are like the perfect projects. These are what I want. These are what young people want. These are evergreen. They're meant for the future. They're meant to be just something that we have which is exactly what we want in a master plan and is in alignment with the master plan. So I very much what is happening? So I very very very much appreciate it. Um I just want to make sure you hear that praise. Uh and as somebody that is this is literally my walking path. My walking path goes Washington 7th all the way down, go back down sixth, and I'm the person that crosses from southwest corner to northeast corner of that park through the little grass. So, I'm very excited to see whatever comes of this project. I will adhere to the sidewalks. I will walk around. I'll do whatever. Um, but I'm very excited. So, thank you so much. We will vote on the motion and then you can say something after Harry.

Oh, so sorry. We're going to do public comment first. Okay. I'm going to close public comment, Jackie. Um I I I actually wasn't finished with my question. Oh, I'm so sorry. That's okay. No worries. I can wait until after public comment if you prefer. We just opened and closed it, so it's perfect timing.

So, um can we talk parking and parkland? Um, I understand that, um, you know, the plans for the Fish Pass overlook would involve, um, was it 12 surface parking spots being eliminated roughly? And isn't the south side of the alleyway actually city-owned parkland? And and how does that factor into your plans? So, that's that's one of my remaining questions. I I have to get clarification on if the parking spaces are actually parkland. Um this will be actually on the March 9th city commission meeting. We're going to discuss the alley because that is ultimately a city decision. We don't have control over the alley. So we're going to have that conversation. Um we have um designed the space where if the alley was not allocated as part of this larger project, we would still move forward with the square itself. But the alley is kind of an addendum to the larger project. I think it connects everything, but that's ultimately a decision by the city.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And then my second second remaining question had to do with are there any more details available on your operations and maintenance plan? I'm being sensitive to the fact that, you know, the majority of Rotary Square is not city-owned property. and um I'm I'm interested in what standards of maintenance you hope to achieve and um you know funding for it and and some more details there.

I'll let Jason speak to the kind of standards that you mentioned in terms of the long-term funding. We are looking at opportunities to continue our partnership with Rotary Charities similar to what the maintenance agreement is for the Borman Lake Loop which is essentially an endowment. Um we're having those active conversations as part of that million-dollar grant that they gave us. Um, but we're looking at a variety of options, but that's one we're pursuing. Um, in terms of the standards, I'll let Jason speak to that.

Yeah, sure. So, we have what what I would call is like a 75% maintenance and operations plan now because when we crafted it at the end of this phase you're looking at in front of you, we didn't know what kind of plants we'd have in the site. We're now just at the point in the last week where we have a pretty good idea of literally like what kinds of plants are we planning on so we can go into that next phase of detail and operations and maintenance. In the initial conceptual design, we didn't know exactly what species we were going to have and so what the requirements would be for ongoing maintenance. So, um, the standards in terms of expectations are we have standards in that plan for how frequently trash cans are emptied and how frequently beds need to be weeded and cleaned with an assumption that that would be contracted as Harry mentioned through an endowment or paid for separately by the DDA versus a city requirement. Does that answer your question?

Thank you. Yeah, the latter part does. I was much more interested in um our plans for keeping this squeaky clean and usable by everybody and not running into some of the the um feedback regarding maintenance that we as the city commissioners receive. Everyone heard them last summer. So that's my that's my interest. Thank you. Okay, let's vote on this. Oh, Mitch.

Yes, just some final comments. Uh I think that this is um a great process that has gone through with a lot of public feedback. I definitely think that in terms of location, character and extent. Um location is definitely consistent. The character is um a much more activated space and the extent is what it is. Um but my concern looking at it is yes, it does preserve green space. Yes, it has uh more dimension to the green space with the additional tree planting and additional shade, but it does have a significant increase in the amount of uh impervious or potentially impervious surface whether it's uh concrete, could be brick or other treatment and some wood in there. Um that though yes, it won't be um owned and operated by the city. same as a lot of parks. It does seem like it uh will have increased uh maintenance costs and uh potential long-term problems. Um I think that it's a nice vision, but I do uh have some little warning bells going off about uh whether it is too grand um to be executed and to be kept up. But I hope that it will be.

We have to be positive here. Okay, let's vote on the motion. All those in favor? I I. All those opposed? None. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Exciting project. Yeah, super exciting. Got me all emotional. It was so exciting. Um, okay. Moving on to new business B presentation on Grand Traverse County zoning atlas project and the corridor anal analysis project by Maxwell. Yeah. So Maxwell has he's going to queue up his computer now agreed um to provide an overview. So the county in partnership with housing north and through support by their economic development commission corporation corporation

corporation who supported them through funding has uh been participating in this national effort called the zoning atlas where they kind of normalize if you will all the different zoning ordinances within the county because you know they're all written to different codes. um and to display it as a map focusing primarily on where can housing occur based on the zoning as well as where are utilities located to support that housing which led to the second phase the corridor analysis. So you've probably heard us talking about these. There's been a couple meetings I think uh Jackie and maybe Mitch have been to one. I saw some of them at the curling club. But u we wanted Maxwell to give an opportunity to share that with the planning commission as well. So he'll be doing that today.

Awesome. Thank you Sean. Um not going to take too much of your time this evening, but I did want to run through uh two of the maps associated with the project we've been working on with our zoning atlas and and corridor. I do have a couple of slides that I have um I should speak into the mic. I apologize that I've shamelessly pilered from uh our January 9th presentation uh by uh Ryan Kilpatrick and and Flywheel uh companies as um as Mr. Winner mentioned uh we have been working in partnership with housing north uh on the uh zoning atlas and uh what you have here in front of you and included in the board packet uh is a link uh that uh the public can go on and explore our our zoning atlas. Uh again as Sean mentioned uh the the idea is to normalize uh some of the the the zoning uh across districts so that we can look at uh data and trends on a broader uh regional level and also provide uh transparency and and insight uh to the general public um with with regard to this data. So, uh, I wanted to just briefly kind of go through the mechanics of how how the site works and, uh, give an example. What has been great about this project is that when we started off in our in our area here in our region, the we were the only purple and this was all white and blank. And so now as other communities have started working on their zoning atlas, we're we're starting to see uh other counties fill in um we can even look at you know what's available or what what we can build by

right in in other areas of of uh northwest Michigan here. So, um, if you go on zoning atlas, uh, you can select the jurisdiction that, uh, you want to look at. And in our case, uh, I've selected Traverse City, but, uh, it's going to show us some information from our county as a whole. And then we have Let's go down here and select Traverse City again. And then I can come down and um look and search for properties that I can build single family homes and it'll show me this information. Where can I build apartments by right in our county? And you can see that a lot of the purple disappears. We can also see where uh accessory dwelling units um can be built. And then we have some advanced filters where we can look at some specific housing types and additional factors uh as far as what is allowed, you know, minimum parking requirements, uh two family properties. And again going into some of um these additional characteristics of what is what is what is allowed to be built by right when we come down here. Oh, sorry.

Based upon the jurisdiction that's selected, we also get information uh cards on the var the various uh the various zoning. And so we can we can click on one here. Let's go C3. We can zoom to that district. And here if I have more details of some of the activities that are allowed, minimum parking requirements. So, this goes into uh to a little bit of depth about um the three here. Uh and we can do that for other communities. You know, we can go in into Garfield um and select some of these advanced filters to search for for areas where we may be able to build what we want to build. Um this is again sort of a general overview. Um and what we see a lot with respect to our construction codes office for instance we we we get calls daily uh from folks asking you know can they build uh something in a certain township? Uh and what we what we find value in is being able to point folks towards this tool to search, you know, what they're looking to build and as a starting point for understanding, you know, what community or communities they should be contacting

with respect to perhaps wanting to build a two family home or a one family home with an ADU unit. um uh just depending on what is permissible by right. So uh this was really the first step of uh what we've been working on and um it is uh available for for the public to look at. So um I I do want to share, you know, a couple of slides before we get into the the corridor um map as well. the the project itself. These are sort of our our guiding principles for um the our zoning atlas and corridor um corridor opportunity analysis. We want to make sure that we're increasing our options in our community, that we're uh making uh good investments into um sustainable development. Uh creating green space and vibrant places for people to enjoy. and that this is a locally driven and collaborative initiative that where we can bring together local units, our the county and the community to create better spaces. Uh we know that there is a need for additional housing in our community both in the short and the long term and sorry and also there's there's a need for different typology of uh of housing. So this this slide is very illustrative of the different types of housing and the affordability point. So, making sure that there's housing for for everybody uh in our community is very important.

It keeps wanting to go to slide 12. Uh so, I apologize for that. Um we also we also want to show, you know, in terms of the median rent in our area for a two-bedroom apartment, what that means for uh folks working in different fields, what is affordable based upon the average income? uh in those careers. And then we also know that uh based upon uh research and information that we've received from our community that uh different types of housing um particularly for younger younger uh folks as well as baby boomers um are of interest. So uh we know from the results that we received from the national community survey that we conducted earlier this year that uh housing opportunity well while single family housing opportunities are very important to our community also housing opportunities for for younger people making sure that there are opportunities uh for seniors to live in our community. These are all very important uh based upon the the results that we received. This is just sort of a broad overview of infrastructure costs and um you know what what the impact is on higher density development. Um it affords us the opportunity to pay off infrastructure improvements. um uh far quicker um because we we need overall less infrastructure to support uh higher density development. And I I pulled this from from our presentation as well because I I thought

it would be gerine to when we go into the the the corridors is this is an overview of the value per acre the taxable value per acre of our county. And you'll see obviously I don't know if you knew this but people like to live around water and so that's I mean to spend a lot of money on it too. Yeah. And so, um, and there's Kingsley.

Yeah, absolutely. So, um, we'll kind of see that, you know, a lot of this information is reflected in the in the in the corridor portion, uh, of the project. So based upon um really availability of existing water and sewer infrastructure and you know development potential the these are the corridors that we identified for for our county. Um, in addition to what you see in blue, we have also uh identified areas that are hamlets and those are circled in in green where either water or sewer or both may not be uh directly available to support, but the character of that area or other factors lend for a what we'll call a Hamlet style um development to take place. These are the corridors uh that uh we've identified for Traverse City. And here is a list of the uh the roads that are included in our corridor map overall. Um and and we'll kind of get into this when we look at the map. These are static uh images showing uh vacant and underutilized space uh broken down by what what we're calling town center, village center, uh on corridor within the buffer and again those hamlet areas. These are uh the areas specifically that we're denoting as as town centers. And

so, uh, when we think about what that might look like, this is, uh, you know, four to five story development that's more of a a downtown main street sort of feel. Village centers uh, would be a lowerrise, mixed commercial, uh, two to threetory uh, and the and and these areas highlighted in, uh, blue are our village center. um uh designations. And here you'll see uh this is a breakdown of oncoridor um parcels that that we have identified. And finally, uh this is uh this is a map showing our inbuffer uh largely characterized as uh single family homes. So infill development opportunities, smaller housing types um to support affordable uh housing options. And then oh sorry uh I want to talk about our hamlets as well. As I mentioned before, these are areas that are not necessarily served by water and sewer. Um, but we do see uh opportunities to develop affordable housing in these hamlets. And then one of the examples that uh was shared in our meeting on January 9th, I I did want to I'm sure you're very familiar with the site, but we we talked about uh the site and development potential of the Garfield and Carver location. Uh these are some stats on what the tax value looks like on that

that site currently. And um as as we're aware, there's there's no housing um as part of that part of that site currently. But what could it look like? Um this was uh a model that that that we looked at during that January 69th, I'm sorry, presentation. And this shows a mix of of different housing types. Uh commercial opportunities. Uh Ry's Diner is still there in this plan and there's uh 350 plus uh residential units. Taxable value is significantly higher than what it currently is today. And I'll add because we talked about this at the January meeting, um I think unbeknownst to them, this was actually one of the three priority four priority redevelopment sites from our uh master plan as well. So they were seeing the same vision that uh the planning commission did as well. Can you go to the previous slide?

Sure. I just want to pay homage to the former lenorita. It's one of the few images where we still see it. So thank you. Remembering the days of old. Oh man.

And this is just a sideby-side comparison of of the last two slides. So all of this um resulted in our our corridor map and this is similar to the zoning atlas interactive available to the public. It is on its own website. Currently we're looking at um also having this information on the county site. But um again, similar to our zoning atlas, we can search by a number of factors. If we want to look at, for instance, town centers and village centers in our county, sometimes it's hard because we got to zoom out so far. So, we don't want to forget about Kingsley and F Lake down here. Um but let's say we want to look at, you know, some vacant properties. these this would this would um this starts to narrow down you know the opportunities uh uh and and parcels that are develop that are potentially developer or redevelopable. We also want to look at what properties have water and sewer service or maybe we just are interested in sewer service. So that changes what what parcels are potentially in play. I'm not going to go through the barrier type section. I've had trouble uh working with that. So, I think we need to address um what that triggers in the mapping. Um but we can also search uh steep slopes uh wetland coverage of parcels and then we have the opportunity to also play with uh the assessor's classification. So, if a if a parcel is classified as occupied versus vacant, it'll change uh what populates. Uh we

can search by classification. Uh as well as uh who owns a a parcel, whether it be private, state, county, municipality. Um and then also it's been playing around in here with uh the different uh different municipalities. So we can search Kingsley for instance. Let's search um Traverse City. So that's the parcel that meets the criteria that that we've selected here in in a number of factors. But um we can also um we can also um layer on top of this map the wetlands. We can do the steep slopes map. We can do uh areas that are protected lands and so we can start to get a really good understanding of what parcels are potentially out there and h who who we should be having conversations with and and what specific um what specific parcels or properties we should be we should be talking about. So that's a very brief rundown of the the two maps that we've been working on. Um, after this we're we're completely done with housing. We've solved the issue. There's no next step. We have the information out here. Of course, I'm not being serious. This this project is

really a starting point for continued engagement. So, we what we've been talking about is that if uh local communities hate 90% of the information that's presented here, that's still a success because we can talk about the 10% that maybe we can find some common ground on. And and our really our next step is to do that engagement with local units, with community members, and find out where there are areas of interest in looking at either specific corridors or specific properties within these corridors and how we can layer uh county incentives or somehow support uh development of housing along what we've identified as as these corridors of opportunity. So that that that it really is the next step. Um and we want to find ways to be transformative uh in these projects. Uh we want the county to play uh you know a role that we're the catalyst for for further development. But it really uh begins with working with our local units here to understand what they want and and get their feedback, incorporate that into this map and then move forward accordingly.

Thank you so much. I think this was great. Um it's going to be really useful to have that information as a region. Yeah, it's helpful because as a region, I think we think of ourselves as being pretty rural most of the time, which we are. So, it would seem like development can happen everywhere, but when you start layering in, well, this is tribal land, this is state forest land, this is wetlands, steep slopes,

you can start to realize that not a lot of the land is uh developable. And it can also help make more informed decisions. I know when I went through the presentation at the curling club that they held um the the whole conversation or presentation included you know what is the cost per mile to extend infrastructure. So then understanding okay where can we utilize the existing infrastructure rather than making that huge investment um which of course has a maintenance burden in perpetuity. So, um, and I liked how that one where Ry's Diner is, you showed, I mean, just by changing the development pattern, you increase the taxable value by 12 times, which that's what communities in turn use to provide maintenance, provide services to to the infrastructure and things like that. So, um, definitely a helpful tool to see it at this scale and all the different layers, uh, incorporated.

Mitch,

yeah, I'm glad we have this now. Uh, while I'm not proposing we amend our master plan to put this back in. I really wish that we had this as a tool through our master plan process and hopefully we still have this in another few years when the master plan gets revised because it does allow us to see yes we are working within our eight square miles but how does that fit into the broader um development and planning and zoning landscape? Because when it comes to uh the corridors, what is happening at uh along Garfield or Woodmir Barlo or uh North Long Lake doesn't end at the city limits. And it does make sense to look at a broader vision of what growth is happening outside the city. um where uh planning and zoning allows for more development than is there and how we can be in concert with uh the townships that surround us rather than um just looking introspectively without the fact that the roads, the water and sewer that connects all those people extends beyond our boundaries. And places like Traverse Heights are a neighborhood, both residential neighborhood and commercial corridors that you don't necessarily notice uh when you cross Boon Street whether you're in the city or not.

Jackie, um I I am curious about uh funding on particularly on the zoning atlas. Um I seem to recall County Commissioners allocated funding for for county participation. Has the uh city of Traverse City likewise contributed funds to this project? Not so. And just to clarify, it was the Economic Development Corporation. Thank you. Um but I'm I'm not aware if there there has been a contribution from from the city.

No, I don't believe we've made a direct financial contribution. We've provided some inkind staff time by participating in the process. I think Jerry's probably provided some things.

Thank you. And I had did have a follow-up question to Mitch's comment. Um just I think the need for a collaborative approach to the corridor planning is obviously essential and I wondered in terms if Grand Traverse County is going to act as a convenor, I wondered what your plan is for next steps and timing. Sure. So, um this, you know, this is a an obvious dovetail to something else the county is working on, which is um looking at establishing a community development department. So we would anticipate that um associated with some of the work that we do uh to uh you know promote collaboration in our community uh to focus on uh affordable housing opportunities that we would utilize this data and play that convenor role in in bringing communities together around uh you know additional corridor planning. But we're we're just getting started on on on that uh process. Um we're we're looking to hire a consultant and um and and start our our community de development department planning. But in the interim uh our next step will be to reach out to communities. We've had a couple of presentations at this point. We did a webinar uh at the end of February. um and ask for input and engagement. So that that'll be the first step. Um and hopefully we can complete that uh right around the time that we're we're hiring some additional staff and that we can support um some initiatives moving forward.

Thanks. Next one, Jerry.

Yeah, I'll just say um as a map person that this is awesome because the city we usually at the city limit we don't for good reason. We just manage what's in our city, like our zoning layer. If I was going to try to go grab all these zoning, I mean, it would be a full-time job. So, the fact that you've been able to compile, you know, a whole region of Michigan's, not that, but you know, this this project really shows that it really takes a huge amount of collaboration because it would, you know, let's say I got the zoning layer from Garfield Township. Well, then they would change it and now I got to get another copy, you know. So, I know you have a challenge probably also to make sure this keeps up to date,

but I'm assuming with the county helping uh providing parcel data and all that. I just think all the intricacies that would go into managing this. So, this is um very cool that um makes like a pie's job a little easier because someone else is doing this because this would be a huge task for us to do internally. if the city commission said we want to look at regional, you know, again, so I'm just fortunate that we uh that this sort of work's going on because it makes our resources less burdensome to do something like this or pay someone to do it, right? So that's all I have. It's really cool. Sure.

Uh I asked Jerry during your presentation if he was nerding out and he didn't deny that he was. Yeah, it's just very um but that was he actually brings up one of my questions. If let's going to bring it back to the rewrite. If we go through a rewrite, all of this updates, right? Like you you get that information and it updates this these maps.

Yeah. So, we we're working on a we're currently working on a plan to make sure that that we can stay updated with those changes. It's going to involve So, we're very fortunate that our our economic development corporation is super supportive of this project. They want to, you know, in the future if there is a funding need to as as it relates to doing updates, they've been they've signaled their willingness to participate in that. So, uh the funding piece, you know, is is there. The other uh thing that we're we're working on is is is trying to understand how we we might be able to capture those updates. So, Um that's where a community development department again has a role. Um we have utilized um a product called or we're in the process of use utilizing it. It's called air table and we want to maybe use that as a form to to put out there in order to collect that information. Um and then seeing that uh if we can utilize AI to track like changes uh over time like analyze um meeting minutes from planning commissions or so forth and just so we can collect all of those changes um and then and then do them at a set schedule.

Yeah. I will say before the county abolished its planning department and planning commission under state law, townships, I know cities are exempt, I can't remember about villages, every time they do a zoning amendment, they have to send it to the county planning commission. So that's one way if that was back in place, you would have a back stop to catch all those little tweaks and amendments that come through.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Sounds like we're moving on to reports. Yeah. So, um, couple You're not first. I'm so sorry. You look my way. I did look your way and then I and then I looked at the agenda. Uh, city commission, I'm so sorry. I have a report.

Um, last night, uh, city commission took action to support the strategic plan OKR's work plan as it was presented. Um the individual commissioners are have been requested to supply timely input on priorities of the long list of projects that were in that work plan. Um and and those will be compiled by the city manager and digested and attempt to make sense of them. Um we hope that we will see uh the results of that prioritization um before the the budget proposal by the city manager which as we know is going to extend for a two-year period this time rather than a one-year period. Um we are hoping for an internal report on priorities before our first planned quarterly report which is targeted for June. Um, and I wanted to issue another thank you to all of the staff and department heads. That work plan represented a really heavy lift from our department heads and um a great deal of leadership from Colleen Pavellio who is our um newly appointed director of communications and strategic initiatives uh familiarly known as CSI. So, thank you, Colleen. Thank you, department heads. And um we're moving forward on trying to prioritize a work plan that's being driven by this strategic plan.

Okay. Now, it's your update, Sean. All right. So, um I think I let you all know, but we did um initiate the traffic study that would be associated with Tommy's car wash. As of last week, our um on retainer engineering firm for traffic is uh engineering items estimated about five weeks. So maybe um at some point in April it'll be ready to come back. Was that weighed trim? Yeah. Thanks.

Yep. So they're estimating about five weeks on that. Um next meeting uh the study session we'd like to talk through more about the zoning ordin ordinance rewrite process. Um I have a meeting with the city manager on Thursday about that. Um and on that topic uh I did receive a call on Friday from a commercial realer um someone that uh it was like a courtesy call if you will, but uh he had been showing the property where the car wash is proposed to prospective clients. Um and he just called to say, you know, I've been following this. I know the planning commission has concerns. He's like, we are getting a lot of interest in car washes in the city of Traverse City. So, I say that'd like to have that conversation at the next meeting, too. You may not want to wait till the completion of the rewrite to address those autocentric uses that are called out in the master plan. Um because you may find yourself in a situation where it's a byright use and all the standards are met and you don't have any ability to influence it beyond that. So, um, that'll be topics of discussion at the next meeting. Um, and then I just wanted to briefly go over, um, down in Lancing, there's been a suite of housing bills introduced as part of a bipartisan legislation. Most of them, um, won't impact us, but I'll just hit the highlights real quick. Um, and these were introduced in the last session, but died in the lame duck after the election. Uh it would uh if passed uh under their current form, it would allow duplexes um everywhere that single family homes are allowed in uh metropolitan areas within the state. And as of 2025, we are in a metropolitan area now that consists of Benzy, KCASa, Leela, and Grand Traverse counties. The laws would um prohibit a minimum parking space requirement of more than one space per dwelling unit. Uh it would update the procedures for protesting a zoning amendment by broadening the radius around a subject property um and

increasing the signature threshold from 20% to 60% required to um consider overturning that. Uh it would define setbacks in the metropolitan areas of no more than 15 feet for front setbacks, five feet for sides, and five feet for rears with exceptions for sensitive areas. Cap the minimum dwelling size at 500 square feet. We don't have minimum size requirements. Prohibit minimum lot sizes that are more than 2500 square feet for single family homes. We're currently at 4,000. Allow ADUs anywhere that a single family home is allowed um with no caps on or no additional special requirements for them um such as owner occupancy or anything like that. and then require that uh studies that may be needed to make a decision cannot exceed 60 days. So they have to be done in a timely fashion to be more responsive to the need. So this is one of those exa examples of what we would call preeemption. Uh the state as a privilege uh delegates land use regulations to the local units of government. I say privilege because it's not a right. We only have it because the state has allowed it to us. Um, and we see this from time to time when the local units of government aren't necessarily responsive enough to the needs of the state citizenry. The state sometimes steps in and takes some of that control back. So, um, again, most of this we are already covered under because of the reform that has occurred uh over the last few years, but just wanted to make you aware that those are the bills that have been introduced um, and are being considered

and that's the language. As they're introduced, they could get significantly amended. uh as they could die in committee, you know, but I just want you to be aware of what has been introduced. Question. Yeah. Did you say the front yard side back and the front yard setback would be 15 ft? Not more than 15 in metropolitan areas. Yeah. Right. And that would be for all property or just residential.

Um for residential. So this is just dealing with housing. Um and a lot of it when you get into the bills it's tied to not only metropolitan areas but those areas that are also served by water and sewer. So um some of us were asked the last time these were introduced to provide some feedback and that's a concern is that they didn't have the specification to just metro areas or water and sewer. So when you get into rural areas where you have to depend on wells and drain fields and the spacing requirements we can see with the maps here.

Yeah. That it doesn't really work that well. Um, and even within a site, if you have all the space to do it, you might not have the soil composition to do it in that location, which might force, you know, if it's clay rich or something like that. So, we were glad that they were responsive to making some of those modifications this time around. But yeah, we'll just keep keep you guys posted on that, how it works through committee and things of that nature. That's all I got. Oh. Oh, sorry. Other side. The the office hours next week. Oh, were you going to say that? I was going to say it, but go ahead. Oh, I put the wrong date. I'm sorry. It's tomorrow. Yeah, it's not tomorrow. Is it not tomorrow? Well, we were normally doing it the Oh, you're right. the week after.

Okay. Yes. I put the wrong date. Yeah, I have it on my calendar as the 11th. The 11th. Perfect. Okay. But last I checked, nobody had signed up, Brian. Um, so if anybody wants to sign up, Debbie, I mean, honestly, Debbie's been to a couple. I'll send her a nice little text message about it. Yeah, if she's back. But anyway, so if you guys want to do that next week. Thank you. Um, joint planning commission has not met. and update from board of zoning appeals who I believe also has not met.

Cancelled for next week again. Exciting update from the repairarian buffer committee. Leslie, do you want to do that? Um or do you want me to um we met on a very time timely fashion it felt like um the committee was really excited. We reviewed the like one last version of the ordinance and uh provided some I think notes and feedback for Lesie. We had a 30inut conversation about fences in the waterways. Um more conversation when it hits this deck.

Yeah, I don't think we'll be talking that long about fences. Um so it was it was a good meeting. Um, anything else to update on? See it back soon. That's really the update. Um, update from Grand Traverse County.

The only update that I have tonight is to share that on Friday the county put out uh to bid to hire a consultant for uh to complete a housing study. And we want some additional information. You know, we obviously have the the 2023 study, but but we want some additional updated information on the the housing ecosystem in our county um at all all price points um and uh talk in and some more data about short-term rentals and secondary homes in our community. And so we're looking to hire a consultant uh to complete that study. It's it's available for public bid. So, um, we're we're just going through that process right now.

Thank you. Um, do we do I have to list all of the receiving files or No, because they're just on the agenda. I can move. Yeah, they're just there for you all. I am not going to open public comment because we Oh, no. Because we have nobody in the audience for public comment. Um, so this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Every time people mention the zoning rewrite, nice to see. I knew we were going to talk about it.