Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

call the meeting to order. Oh, no. There's not We'll start with We'll start with the pledge of allegiance. That's big. Yep. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, so we've had our pledge of allegiance. Roll call, please. Bradshaw here. Hayes, here. Lap here. Hello. Shingles here. Staring here. Squadrio yo. Brown is excused and I have not heard from it. Okay. Thank you. Um let's see. Next item is approval of the agenda. So tonight's agenda is in front of you. We have one new business item and one other business item. Are there any other items that people are aware of that need to be on tonight's agenda? Not we can. Motion to approve by Olver, second by shingles. Any further discussion? All in favor of approving the agenda as prepared, please say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, next item is the minutes. So, our minutes were from April 15th. Um, starting on page three of the packet, does anybody have any corrections to the April 5if April 15th minutes? move to approve a second.

So motion by over, second by Hayes to approve the um minutes as prepared. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, so the minutes are approved. Uh, next item is correspondence, board reports, presentations. First item, as always, Commissioner Thering, updates from board of trustees. Okay, here we go. You guys ready? As ever, edge of our seats. Okay, here we go. Um, on the our April 23rd meeting, the only thing that I I've got down here to note is our first reading of the zoning uh ordinance amendments with the limited allowance for additional u building height is something we had discussed sent you. We sent it to the board of trustees and we on the 23rd of April had our uh first reading. on our May 14th meeting uh we conducted our second and adoption of that zoning ordinance. So it is passed. So that's where we are with that. Um we did have a resignation for our border review. So we are currently looking for a replacement for that position. Extremely important. we have uh a July meeting and then probably it'll be clear till December when you have the organizational meeting and then of course the beginning of the year and you have several different meetings through March. Um, we worked on our ends policy, um, which is what we give the manager, um, so that he can work on things that we want our community to be like. Uh the

one that I pointed out or the one that I'd like to point out that that I think is a little bit different is um is our future planning. For example, when we had discussed about uh someday needing a township hall in the future, it would be nice to consider starting that planning now. Not necessarily maybe through some sort of budget item. Not necessarily looking to have the full amount because that wouldn't be fair to to start having everybody pay today and have it fully paid. You know, just to have something there so that uh when the time comes because it will come um that we have something to put towards that uh project whatever that may be and that also could include other projects. So that is that's really the one that I wanted to note uh something that we kind of were adding a sentence into our ends policy to kind of help give direction for uh Mr. Soul Dryer and his staff to start working on. Yeah. Um ah last but not least something super super super exciting happening to the township and it happens tomorrow. We barring any unforeseen issues will have a new website that was led by our very own Tara. Yeah, I absolutely she Well, that was kind of weak, but she'll have to the clapping. Come on. Come on, Terra. Thank you. Thank you, Tara, for all the work that you did on that. And she did note when I was just speaking

with her that that Mr. Nanny there had was very instrumental in helping her, I'm sure, with lot lots of other staff members in putting this together. So, I'm really excited to see this. and um she hadn't heard anything as of this evening. So, as far as you know, it'll be up and running unless there's a little something that needs to be worked out tomorrow. So, do you know what time it's going to go live? So, they're going we it actually was supposed to go live today and I forgot that we had this board meeting. So, they want low um time when what people are getting on the website. So, we changed it to Wednesday. So after work 400 pm 4:30 they're going to start the transition. So even this weekend if you guys want to try to log on our website it should redirect you to the new one and nice it is I think is very nice. That's awesome. I'm expecting a 431 that we'll all be trying to get the website. So we'll probably don't try that early. Is it is it a new domain name or does it like it's a redirect? Yeah. Cool. Thank you, Tara, and to everyone else that worked on that. Awesome. That's um that's enough, you guys. I've given you everything, but that website, that should be enough to fill the bucket. That's all I have. Did you by chance enjoy a Coca-Cola before this meeting? I did not. Well, I'm excited. I mean, it's, you know, this has been something that's been that Terra's been working on for, well, we've been talking about it a little bit here and there for quite some time, and now it's it's go time. So, I'm really excited, and I know that's no easy project. So, when you see Tara as excited as she is about it, I can't help but get excited as well. So, I think it's almost been a year process.

It takes a takes a while. Congratulations. Yeah. Well done. Yeah. Well, congratulate us after you see it. Make sure you like it. I'll I'll congratulate you after you get through the first week of it being up and running issues, too. Does anybody have any questions or anything? Standard. My two main points were the website and um having things go into the our ends policy that give the the manager and his staff direction to try to figure out a way that we can prepare for the future for things that we know are going to happen. So, okay, great report. Thank you. Let's see. Next item is uh updates from ZBA. Commissioner McDonald's not here. I doubt they've met. I don't think they're When are they potentially scheduled to meet next? The June meeting was just canled. Okay. The next meeting I think is actually not until August. Okay. August. Okay. Yeah, that's right. Don't be in July because the July 4th holiday. It's just lack of agenda items. Yeah. If there are no applications for a reason. Actually, when they don't have applications, that's a very good sign that zone is working well. We like the ZBA not meeting. I had one community in my consulting world before I came here. One of the consulting clients I had two of clients and zoning board appeals that didn't meet for nine years. Wow. And when they did have to meet, we had to do all this training and had to create a holding board because they not been 20 people. So it was we deal when they did need to meet. Actually, that's a very good sign of how well the ordinance is

working. When did ours last meet? More than a year ago, right? December 2023. Y I feel like that's the usual report every month. And I I don't remember one word they actually reported, so that would explain why. Okay. Very good. That's a good sign. Yeah. Um, so the next item is our community and economic development monthly report. It's in your packet. Are there any questions from commissioners on anything you might have seen in the monthly report? Uh, I actually did have a question. um under zoning administration activities, the community and economic development uh director and zoning administrator met with the uh township land owner to answer questions about potential development of a primary solar energy facility on land near the north side of the township. Um, is that is that like in the beginning stages or is this something that been looked at for a while now or So, I was I was contacted by uh resident owns property who had been contacted um uh by a utility company that was interested in potentially using their property for solar solar energy facilities and they were basically coming to the township to look for uh information on uh you is it allowed, how it would work. Uh so we sat down with the person and and gave him suggestions and recommendations and things to look out for and um we're just waiting to hear back from either that person or the utility company. Excellent. It's good news. Thank you. Any other questions on the monthly report?

If anything occurs to you later, you can always pop uh Rodney an email. Ronnie and or Peter an email. Um okay, so we'll move on. Uh other reports. Thank you. I uh I asked the chair for just a moment, but I have the pleasure of of giving back to James what what uh uh we normally come from him because at board meetings I'm often reporting on on the planning commission's activities and in doing that I somewhat usurp his role as a planning commission's representative on the board of trustees. Uh he's very kind and lets me do that. Uh, and so the report I was going to provide was exactly what you provided, much better than I would have about the brand new website. So, I just would echo that it's a great uh great site. I think you'll like what you see on it. Uh, and so definitely take a look this weekend. Give a little time to do the transition, but definitely take a look this weekend and certainly love to hear your feedback on it. Okay. Thank you. So, we'll expect a detailed report next month. Okay. Are there any other uh reports or presentations that anyone might have? Any correspondence? All right. Thank you all. So, next uh we move to public comment. We always have a public comment towards the front end of our meeting which is restricted to items that are not on tonight's agenda. If there's anyone in the public who would like to address the planning commission on an item that's not on tonight's agenda, you're welcome to do so at this time. We ask you if you're in the room, come to the microphone, give us your name and address for the minutes. Uh if you're online, make yourself known and we'll um make arrangements for you to be recognized and speak. Uh this is restricted to three minutes uh regarding items that are not on the agenda. Public

comment is open at 7:14. There's nobody in the waiting room. Okay. We don't have anyone online. We also don't have uh audience members. If everyone who's here is here normally. Uh so seeing none, we'll go ahead and close that back up and we'll have extended public comment later in the meeting. So we're ready to move on to new business. The first new business item is the review and discussion of priorities for a township response to the proposed updates to the city of Mount Pleasant master plan. So, I'll turn over to Rodney for the introduction and then we'll move through it. Thank you. Uh this is uh this process of reviewing different jurisdictions and master plan updates is set forth in the Michigan Planning Enabling Act. was a law that was adopted in 2006 uh and significantly changed the process for how communities adopt master plans. Uh as part of that when the community has a draft update uh that they're comfortable with uh sharing uh there's actually a role for the elected officials to make that final call that yes, this is ready to be sent out. Uh and uh it's sent out the draft plan is sent out to all the surrounding jurisdictions and also to a number of other to the county uh go to the tribe as as every jurisdiction goes to utility companies, railroads and several other entities uh that all are invited to have opportunity for review and comment on the plan before it moves forward towards adoption. uh this is a basically I think the or the the law is a 63-day uh comment period for this and so uh we did receive u word from the city that that they did have a draft plan ready they this this these updates primarily focus around the mission street corridor uh you may have seen in the newspaper or heard otherwise

uh the efforts by the city to to look at again at the mission street corridor to kind of reimagine that area uh their their 2020 master plan uh identified a certain character uh to that change to that corridor. Uh it was recognition as I understand it from speaker of the city planner that they wanted to look at something a little more incremental in in character and in terms of incremental changes and also something that was a little easier to uh to actually make happen than what the master plan 2020 master plan talked about. So there there was a a committee there that did a lot of work, a lot of discussion uh and it did result in a set of updates that uh we shared with you in your packet book two which is the transportation plan element. Uh but the updates did affect other sections of the of the plan as well. And so that's what we just shared you the link to the city site where they have all this all the materials. uh our our uh focus in the memo, you have our memo dated May 13th was really at the transportation plan element because that that's the section that that where changes or or elements that they've proposed have an impact on the township. Um, and so in our in our memo, um, first of all, I would note in terms of that 63-day timing, uh, this is something where where, uh, we would simply want to have whatever response you would be interested in making. We want to be able to finalize that at your dub. That that timing works fine uh, to be able to do that. So, it's not something we need to take a final action tonight. If you're ready to, we certainly can, but but you have that Jim as well to respond. Uh in our memo, we identified four uh topic areas and identified some some uh had some observations we made and some concerns that we have made from staff perspective. I will tell you that there's a fifth one. I'm not sure why I

left it off u but it was left off the end of the memo. U and uh and so I'll just share with you what the fifth fifth one is. It's actually something was left off of their plan. Uh these other ones were all items included on the plan. The last one is actually uh Broadway Street. Uh and uh on the previous uh master plans for the city, uh there have always been an element of uh in the plan to identifying that a future street connection uh would be extended for Broadway Street from Bradley Street where it ends now across and over to Lincoln Road. And that's been in previous city master plans for a long time. For some reason, it was left off of this one. the the map, the transportation map that's included in book two, it simply doesn't not it's not in the text. I I don't know why it was left off. In fact, I had big recollection talking to the city planner and it was going to be there. So, I'm I'm not sure why it was left off, but uh it is something that is very important. It's important to the city uh because it provides a connection for these both city and township neighborhoods to the downtown area and it's of course also important to the township. The city's downtown is also our downtown and so that connection uh across there uh is a very important one to make. Uh on the city side there's actually road rightway reserved. The road's never been built but the rightway is there. On our side, we have a short section of rightway uh at the end of cornerstone, but the rest of it, we would have to acquire the right of way to build it. Uh but the benefit of having it listed in the plan uh both for the city and for the township uh but particular for the city is that uh is that cities have a provision in the in the state planning act that they uh can identify what they call it's called the plan the act calls a streets plan, a future streets plan. And when they do that, even when they're doing it outside their jurisdiction, when they identify

that on their plan, that that uh designation has a legal uh footing uh essentially to say any new development needs to be consistent with that that plan even when the rightway has not yet been purchased. The idea is it's reserved essentially that that the city the streets plan has identified that as a necessary street connection that will be built uh for the township is something that is not currently in our plan although our plan talks generally about uh some of these connections but it is something that in any update to our plan we will have when transportation transportation plan comes to you with that updated draft form we definitely want to have that because it is an important connection across so that that's a fifth item. Um, and we certainly talk more about that. I apologize that it it fell off the back of this memo because it was supposed to be the last item of the memo. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions about this. I said we sort of had four areas. One is a proposal for a roundabout uh at the Bluegrass Road and Mission Street intersection, which is on the border with the township. Uh the second one is is uh uh comments about uh the US27 and and interchange improvements. Uh the third one is an interesting one. This one was in their 2020 plan and I did talk to the previous township planner about or city plan about that but it's still a different plan. Uh and that is a proposal to reroute M20 to come here by the township hall uh instead of along mission street and rings road. Uh and then the the fourth one is is some comments about the non-motorized plan and uh and the proposed uh loop of uh pedestrian trails. We can start to talk more about that as well. Those are the general topic areas. Five general topic areas. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions uh that you see here or if

there's anything further we can help you with from a staff perspective as you're looking at this, happy to do so. I guess it's time to put the reroute of M20. So the proposal is now for when it cuts down normally onto Mission to now cut straight over here. I know you expressing here some concern just about the traffic flow here as it is already. H how does the redesation I guess of M20 rather than running through the Senate to run through here necessarily designate a change in traffic, you know, re uh usage? Is that something that's going to be marked where you think you could see like people regularly change their habits, you know, trucks? And I get Yeah, trucks or I guess another thing too is how is this then falling under state highway? Would that increase funding at all? Will we get additional grants for repairs on these roads or I guess I guess beyond just like a like a traffic concern which I I hold too like I mean how does it will it change our ability to make improvements on these roads because of that be classified under as so certainly there's this state highways have some state highway money how much money is entirely up to the state of Michigan we never know that u but there's certainly money available that that state helps cover for construction reconstruction work on their designated state highways. Um so so yes, it would change the pot of money that that would fund uh this this segment of roads both in the city and the township. Um the uh we talked about traffic. Yes, it would reroute traffic. I mean there are certainly the regional traffic would would be rerouted. Many people follow the mapping programs and and so the mapping programs simply say continue on the state highway and it would come this way. Locals would continue to do what they're doing. I assume most locals would actually continue to follow existing route because the existing route has a great separation for the

railroad and the proposed route does not. And that's actually one of the interesting things about this that they're proposing to reroute a state highway uh across a an atgrade uh railroad crossing. And that's that's actually pretty rare today. Most most cases the state does not want an great railroad crossing on their state highway. Uh so that would then start the conversation about trying to do a grade separation at that point. uh which would have a huge impact but as I noted in the report it would have a huge impact not just in the business around it because frankly I think it would take a good bit of property in uh from the businesses in order to actually do a great separation there but it would also have a big environmental potential impact because of the proximity of this intersection to the river seems like it's one of the lowest spots that you're going to have right there. Yeah. So it that that is a significant issue on its own. Uh the uh it's interesting as I understand it. We we we have tried for quite a while to run a sidewalk along the north side of Pickard Road from Lincoln going east to connect to the existing sidewalk down. And when we originally planned for this our our engineers, we all understood that there was plenty of road rightway there because at some point in the past this was a stateowned road. Uh I don't know if the state I don't know what the designation was but at some point in the past it was a state road. uh the section of picker and the state always gets plenty of rightway. They they want more rightway than they really need. Uh so Remis down here was very easy to put those sidewalks in Remis between Lincoln and Bradley. There's plenty of road rightway to do it. It was one of the few places in the township where it was really easy to do that. Uh and so we were expecting this would be really easy. That'd be a nice wide ride over there. But when the when the road was, as I understand it, when the road was transferred to the county road commission, the county road commission abandoned the extra right ofway and gave

it back to the property owners. Uh and so there was a a very narrow rightway there. Uh there's not there's no rightway to put sidewalks in. We have to get easements all along there sidewalks. Uh what that for the for the state, this is another significant deficit for them. They want that right away. And so for them to even consider taking this road over, they're probably going to want that right away before they take it over because they want to be able to make changes and adjustments. That the four-lane cross-section is not a common one for state highways anymore either. Uh because it's it's actually not the safest way to handle traffic. Uh three either three three lanes with a lefth hand turn lane, two traffic lanes, left hand turn lane, or five lanes with a left hand turn lane is usually what they prefer. Um, and so they're they're probably they're going to want more rightway than they have. Uh, but in addition to that, frankly, we have two intersections that are very problematic right now. This this intersection and the one down at Remis are two of the more dangerous intersections in in the county. Uh, just in terms of accidents and it it's somewhat in the design, it's somewhat in the how the lanes are aligned or not aligned. Uh, but those again are are problematic to simply turn it over to a state highway highway. the state is not going to accept it in its current format. Did the town come to you with any uh traffic studies or anything done before they propose this out to you? I'm just wondering I guess like in their plans they're rerouting things through our township. So I don't know what the cross type of discussion needs to happen when doing that when they're trying to do their due diligence to see how that impacts our township. So it's it's an interesting this is somewhat of a relic leftover from the the older planning acts. uh the uh the original city and village planning act uh very specifically said that the city could plan beyond its borders um and uh the idea that the city's going to expand so

they they should be able to plan out there to preserve road space road connections even talk about land use out there uh so that when they expand it's what they already want. uh the the current planning act is a little different in that arrangement but still talks about that you can look beyond your borders. You can you can have cross conversations back and forth between jurisdictions to try to coordinate planning. Uh there we did not have conversations about this other than like I do meet with the city planner periodically. Uh this particular topic did not really come up. Um and uh uh it this is part of as I note in the report part of a very old idea uh what what used to be referred to as the ring road uh which was an idea that that there would be a a a bypass around entirely around the city of Mount Pleasant. Uh and that would include Lincoln Road on this side. Pickard was was the the northern side. uh Broomfield or Bluegrass, some combination of that was the the southern leg and then Isabella was the eastern leg. Uh and some of that sort of came to pass in that format, but the the ring road concept went away because it it what it reflected was the idea of we're going to redirect all the traffic out of the city and away from the city's businesses, which sure that means less traffic there, but it also means those businesses are suffering greatly from the lack of traffic there. And that's the other aspect really with this section. Uh we we've talked before we are significantly both the city and the township are significantly overzone for commercial. Uh we have we have vacant commercial land zoned for it. Uh that that uh there's been no interest in that really there we don't have the the capacity in our market for for that that kind of additional commercial. But we do have the capacity to move things around, to move chest pieces from here to here. Uh, you know, just as as our bank that's just down the street here used to be

downtown and they moved out here, they wanted a different a different site, so they moved from one to another. Uh, you can have other commercial businesses that will move from one place to another. And the concern about running the state highway here is we do have some commercial zoning, especially along Lincoln here, but also on Pickard. uh that that uh there's a pretty high likelihood and this is not really considered in this transportation plan for the city uh just as wasn't considered in the ring road concept either that that if all the traffic's out here the commercial is simply going to follow and so so commercial activity that's currently on Mission Street will simply move out to Lincoln Road and and it's not that we have any new growth of course we do the township benefits we get new tax base but the city suffers with the community as a whole It's a zero- sum game. You know, one simply is we're pulling it out of here and plugging it in over here. U and uh that doesn't make a great deal of sense. I I mentioned earlier that that that the city's downtown is our downtown, too. You know, Mission Street, the commercial uh core, Mission Street, is part of our commercial core as well. We we all shop in the city, we shop in the township. You know, it's it's all one uh business. and uh and so to do something that actually draws businesses out of the city and on the land we're basically we're not gaining anything from it. we're just developing vac vacant land uh to then have other land or other buildings like uh doesn't make a great deal of sense and so from that perspective as we know report they're not thrilled with the idea of relocating M20 they it just it doesn't make a lot of sense when the infrastructure is elsewhere and when the business business cores live and die by traffic counts you know some businesses are destination businesses they they people come to because they're there. Our new CrossFit down here is a destination business.

They're not they don't care what the traffic count is. Uh but others and many on Mission Street live and die by having that high traffic count so people see that they're there and know where they are and uh and to move that traffic elsewhere. It just doesn't make a great deal of sense. Has the city talked at all with MDOT about this traffic plan? It seems like that would be it seems like they've missed something if you're if you're seeing it, but they're not. Yeah. So, uh MDOT is was involved in this mission street uh conversation u the local MDOT office. I don't know to what extent other than I know that they they were in the room for some of the meetings. I don't know if if the conversations took place about this rerouting. Uh there are, you know, putting on an M dot hat for a moment. There are some positives uh to rerouting because right now that section of MD M20 that runs along High Street in town there basically from Mission uh to Washington Street is running through essentially residential neighborhoods mostly rentals rentals associated with the the university but but it's still residential. you have a elementary school right there. Uh and you have it's it's part of a neighborhood essentially, but state highways often run through that. They run through downtowns, they run through neighborhoods. U and so the idea of rerouting is to pull that traffic out of that three or four block space u and put it on this more open space, you might say. So from that perspective there's a positive uh but frankly that that positive does not outweigh the negatives. Other questions on either this topic or the other topics that were brought up? I'd like to at some point I'd like to go through each one individually and and

get a sense of what the if there's a consensus or just what people think. But we can also have questions still if people have questions. Do we want to take it from prior recommendation A? Yeah. Yeah. I thought we'd go back to back to the beginning. So the first one is the roundabout my chair here as well. Yes, sure. I'm certainly available. I think your comments about the roundabout make a lot of sense, especially with the pedestrian traffic in that area. There are always people c I mean it's crazy, but there are always people crossing that five lane road right there. And so to not have that in consideration for the development and it would, as you pointed out, it would slow down traffic a little further south before you hit that intersection. So, seems like that might help help with the traffic flow without having to put in I think they're going to get a lot of flak for trying to put a a a roundabout in that particular intersection. I think there are intersections where it would be useful in this area, but I don't know if that would be the one. Well, if we build the sidewalk as everything is looks like it's going to happen in front of Red Lobster, if you build it, they will come. They already use it right now and there's no sidewalk there. So you build that sidewalk and it'll get you especially, you know, if it's well lit, there is a ton of things that people need and want and use there. So that place is when there's a game there there's people always there. Always. When there's a game or any kind of get together in at the school, that place is full. The best of drivers in a roundabout. You know, once once you get rolling in that roundabout, it you know, you're going to hit your brakes. you're also, you know, it's

going to be, unfortunately, people like to drive a little closer than they should. And I think, yeah, I don't think it's a good idea. I I don't I think we can live with the light. Yeah, it's okay. I mean, it backs up it backs up with people trying to turn, you know, left or right, but I I think it's a small sacrifice to pay and save us a lot of accidents. And I think the insurance companies are definitely going to hate that because they're going to start paying out because of all the little fender vendors that are going to start popping up there. Yep. I mean it how bad does how I know it gets congested, but I mean really is it so bad that we need a roundabout? I just don't think it's so bad that it would need a roundabout to put the pedestrians in that kind of a danger. So you got to sit through two lights or three light on on the if it's 15 times a year. I don't know. Is it more or less? I mean I don't think it's I don't think it's weekend it gets pretty bad during the weekend but I mean as compared to you know coming from coming speaking from experience coming from a big city it's really not that bad right and most of the traffic is going south turning into on the blue grass. Yeah, that's, you know, that bet if you're there at the holiday time, it'll back all the way up to the Marriott. And of course there's, you know, that creates problems because then individuals coming out of what used to be JC Penney, they don't know what's there anymore. Um, honestly, I think it would benefit from having another light there personally, but that's just me. Yeah. And of course, to your point, on game day, um, the tailgate traffic backs up down Broomfield. It does. And I mean, it's it's Yeah, I around the I just don't see that being a reasonable solution. Me neither. Creates some attractive nuisance and especially the size of it. Like where I

I grew up in Boston and roundabouts are prevalent. There's two to three in every town. I know in Gloucester there was one of the largest ones in the state where there three lane roundabout. You can enter in, come out, two out and these are people that have been driving on these things for their entire life and it's a it's a mess every time you still get on it. But when one thing you see that you brought up which is very important to me that is incredibly hard to handle in a roundabout is how do you maintain access for people with disabilities? How would you expect people that they're cutting across and moving one lane at a time to try to be able to satisfy in a place where drivers are, you know, if I'm not sure the actual plan if they're planning a single lane rotary, multiple lane rotary with exits only on the outside, but again, those are coming into factors too where it creates a potential for people to be pushed to the side when it comes to accessibility, especially people that are living in those apartments that we have down in those areas that need to get across to whether they're going to school or going from school to get groceries over at Target, Walmart and areas like that. I think the two roundabouts we have actually seem to be pretty successful. The one downtown um it's very slow traffic. So for pedestrians and there are a lot of pedestrians down there, there's still places they can get across and that does and there's not unless there's a big event going on, there's not a huge amount of traffic at any given time, right? And the one going north of town up onto 127 has almost no pedestrians. Yeah. So that traffic keeps moving and it's not really an issue there either. But the south end Yeah. the traffic and then people it seems like that's just not a good place to put disaster. Now the north one as a bicyclist who's tried to ride through the Northwind I can tell you that it it is certainly not a safe space. I I would not not I didn't do it twice. Did it once. Um but that that's what I'd love

to get a a pathway around that allows bicyclist to to avoid that. You're right. Absolutely. There are no pedestrians there that are affected. Just consider bicyclists. So I'm sorry about that. This land is partially ours, partially Mount Pleasant. Yeah, we uh the township uh our corner is is the the southeast corner where Red Lobster is. Uh it's interesting the city boundary is actually the the the whole intersection technically is in the city because the city boundary actually cheats just a little down bluegrass uh uh before it cuts across that goes north. Uh but uh essentially the southeast corner is the township there. Okay. So our our our side doesn't fall halfway through the line. We're not 50/50 line here. We are actually okay. I like the idea that they're thinking about different things, but at the end of the day, they need to go back to the drawing board on that one, I think. Yeah. My my understanding that I don't call if I put this in there, but but uh my understanding is that in part this location is being driven by uh comments from MDOT that there's some safety safety money available potentially to improve an intersection with the roundabout based on crash data and that this intersection meets those criteria for crash data. Therefore, potentially some money could be allocated towards a roundabout improvement to reduce those types of crashes. Broomfield is though is also in that same situation. Uh and they're not proposing a roundabout in Broomfield. What you brought up was interesting is they they want to do this, you know, an attempt to slow traffic coming in. But this is anecdotal for my part, but I find this the fastest traffic coming in is coming off the highway which is coming up south from that into our lane. And then you proposed a roundabout place there. Was it where you say like 850 yards south of the proposal, right?

Where where the where the Mission Street, Mission Road uh intersection is basically the continuation of Mission Road uh meets that the 127 business. I mean, it'll make a lot more sense if you're trying to reduce traffic coming in. people cutting through could roundabout back up the other way and it would slow those people that are just flying in up 127. And it would allow them that that 800 feet, that last 800 feet, they could change the design of that road to make it clear that you're in you're in an urban space now, a different lane configuration would keep the traffic from from speeding back up as it comes to bluegrass. One of the reasons why I suggested that site 800 or so feet south of Bluegrass is because there is a very uh important need to have a new uh access into the shopping center there, Indian Hill shopping center. Um the uh and and this actually gets back to the problems at that at Bluegrass. A lot of the problems at Bluegrass are with those left-hand turning movements. And it's not just the intersection turning movement, but it's also people trying to turn left out of the shopping center there by ex sporting goods and such. U and uh and it's because that's the only way in and out is to Bluegrass and and uh if there was a if there was a way in and out off of the business loop down there at the south end of the center down there by where Big Lots uh store was u that that would create a new new configuration. It would allow a lot of that traffic that currently impacts that bluegrass intersection to to access that intersection in a different manner. Uh to go about the south entrance and then go straight through the intersection, not making left-hand turns anymore. Yeah, I thought it was a great suggestion. So you're you envision that a roundabout where you're talking about there would be uh the entrances into it would be coming south on mission or on

Yeah. on mission entering from Old Mission, but then on the other side there'd be an exit out into the uh shopping center that doesn't currently exist. Exactly. Okay. It's a good spot for that kind of an exit. And that would presumably eliminate currently if you're on old mission and you're coming out and you want to get on mission and you want to go north, you have to go down and do a Michigan left and that Michigan left would presumably no longer be necessary. That's great. All right. Well, I'm not hearing I haven't heard anyone say great idea roundabout at Broomfield and Mission. So, or Bluegrass and Mission. So, it sounds like, again, speak up if I'm misstating, but it sounds like we're in support of the position on A. Um, so let's go to B. And somewhere there was a picture. I guess I was having slight challenge here is the title of this one. We left the original titles. Uh, and that title reflects an old plan. So, I'm sure in the final version they're going to retitle this. What happened to that picture? So, your suggestion here is both ramps at Broomfield and extending the ramp current ramp that's just an a just a northbound ramp into Mount Pleasant. I actually I uh the uh the the comment about Broomfield um I I would actually

recommend that we uh not have an interchange at Broomfield Road and just have it at the 127. Right. And and part of the reason that was Broomfield Road and 127 was intended to be an interchange. It was intended to be a uh what's called a rural uh interchange. Um and it would be a very simple design uh on and off ramps. It wouldn't be clover leafs or anything like that. Very simple on offramps uh for rural use. And this is no longer a rural space. Uh and there is rightway for that rural design. They have some basically if you look at a map, you can see kind of triangles there that that the road the highway department owns. uh but there is not enough right ofway there to do a modern uh interse interchange design which is what is needed now u at that location to support the level of traffic that would go there if they had one there. Um so I our thought is don't have an inter interchange in Broomfield whether a half interchange or or not is this sort of looks like a half interchange u but actually yes to to update the south uh interchange pleasant exit 139 which right now is basically half an interchange uh you can only get off uh going northbound just as at the north end you can only get off going southbound uh into that round into that roundabout uh because when that created 127. They thought of they say they were thinking of having one interchange at the north end and south end and having this wonderful connection in between would be the business loop and it was all going to work out great. And at the time that was all rural u and so it just be really nice. The traffic would be easily go where it needed to go and they'd be able to access go off to the left and go to the college go off to the left go downtown and and everybody would be happy. And of course what happened was, as it should, that became the center of of town. That became the new business district. And it very quickly became a traffic uh mess. And so that that system

of half interchanges really doesn't work. Um and our thought is to simply make that south interchange a full interchange. Uh that that is part of what they propose, but we we actually can take a step further and say whatever we do, we need to extend the US 127 business loop through 127 and over to Summerton Road. Uh because right now there's you have you have Broomfield to get across, but the next way to get across south of that is well south well in the rural area. Uh and this is a spot where 127 that business loop would be perfect to help create a circulation pattern for traffic that functions much better for the whole area. Uh it would also benefit the tribe with by providing a another access for the casino and especially for for truck traffic and such for the casino and it would benefit us as we've been talking about when that corridor for industrial. Uh so having that connection there at Summerton would also benefit the the things we've been discussing about some additional industrial road. I'm trying to understand what you mean by extended to Summerton because Summerton is east of 127. Right. Right. Yep. So, currently business 127, the loop goes from 127 west to Mission and up and then back to 127. So, what where are you adding 127 though, right? You wouldn't call it 127. You would just extend the road over 127 all the way to Summerton. Yeah. So, this is one of those wonderful things we have. We have Mission Street and we have South Mission Road, what you call Old Mission Road. Um, and and then we have this other creature which is this this essentially it was intended to be a giant entrance ramp that that goes from bluegrass, curves south and east and then enters onto southbound US 127. And

they call that it doesn't have any other name than US 127 business. Now that business the whole section is the business uh including Mission Street. But but this section that's all it's called. That's 127 business loop from Bluegrass to the to the to the interchange there southbound 127. So when I say the business loop I'm talking about that curving road from Bluegrass. Yeah. That goes down there. And right now it just flows into southbound 127. Uh northbound 127 flows onto it coming back. Um that like I said half an interchange. My my recommendation is that that that business loop road goes through it basically goes through the interchange and to the other side and ends at as you said just to the east at Summerton Road. So that would be part of that would essentially form a new entrance into the business loop over there. Okay. But so if I'm on that loop I'm I'm going south. I'm I'm the only reason I'm on there right now other than there are ways to get into like uh the shopping center, but other than that, I'm basically going back to 127 to go south, right? Are you talking about a bridge over 127? Well, it would it would it would either be bridge over or bridge it would either the road would bridge over or 127 would bridge over. right now. Uh right now the northbound traffic has a bridge that that that uh that goes over and and in u so part of the bridge bridging is already there and you just orient the road to go through that space. But there would be at least one more bridge that would need to be constructed to make it work. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions or comments on B? That seems to work really well with uh

proposed uh some of the proposed industrial area that we're looking at with the master plan. Yes, sir. That would that would work really well with that Summerton area, which is one I think the one of the top choices look like on that. Yeah. Yes, it certainly would would be an excellent addition for that. Of course, bridges are not cheap. So that the next question would be okay, who pays for that? But well, this no matter I mean there there is interest as as was commented here in having that be a full interchange so southbound traffic can access that the same way as northbound traffic can. Yeah. Um uh and there's there's a number of reasons for that. the the uh our uh the university is interested in it. Uh what's called the smart zone, the C what our CWRC area on the south side of the university. Uh they would very much like to see a full interchange down there. U as we have an interest in it. Um the tribe has an interest in it uh for for their their commercial activities. Uh so there's an interest and and uh uh so the idea would be the thing goes up back up over the road and part of it there there would be another entrance ramp on to 127 north and then some of it would just continue on to Summerton. Exactly. All right. Okay. And I would say that I guess one other thing that that would recommend that we do is name this road. Let's give it a cool name if somebody has to be somebody's memorial highway because it really does need a name. It's hard to reference it just as a business loop because nobody knows what that means. U so I I suppose that would be something we could add in but it's really for some other time. U it really does I'm sure there's somebody we can honor the so and so memorial highway uh because it really does need a name. Okay. Other thoughts on that one? All right. All right. So, we had partial

discussion earlier on C rerouting of M20. Uh had a few arguments I guess on both sides, but uh any further thoughts. One one of the compelling facts was the crossing of the the railroad tracks right by the Chipoa River by U what's the auto uh body shops. Thank you. And uh so it sounds like that alone would be a reason to not do it. Uh because obviously you've got a river there. So I'm sure you can only It sounds like the road would have to go down in order to be is that that's that's the way I was reading it. They they would uh they would not be able to lift the the river tracks up. You you'd have to lift them for miles in either direction in order to get grades. Right. So this would be a case of lowering the road. Okay. So, I thought maybe if we have another person that needs to have something named after them, we could have a tunnel under the chipa. How's that? Better than a bridge going over, I suppose. Yeah. The other thing that that stretch of Pickard, I don't know if it's just me, but that has such weird it it wasn't designed as a trunk road or at least it wasn't rationally designed as a trunk road. just if you're going if you're going on on picker especially I feel it more when I'm heading west but it just you know there's this little curve and then you're straight and then it kind of

curves back past that's past Midian I think right isn't it I'm talking about right here in town if you start in Meer and drive this way okay yeah you're right cuz right there in front of the Yeah right past and if you increase truck traffic on there and other things it's not going to be a pleasant place to No, it's definitely not. There's also a neighborhood there, too. I mean, I know there's a neighborhood downtown, but there's also a neighborhood along Pickery with houses. It's residential as well. Now, the old Mount Pleasant Center, that whole side is not being not really populated very much right now, but the tribe also has been talking about doing something with the boarding school. So, that would also be impacted probably by construction and right ofways and things like that that are required there. And this is already a heavy I mean I see personally a heavy truck flow as it is going to the concrete plant. Yep. At the south here. So it's constantly I live on um Bamber right off of Pickard. They put the new intersection in which has been a great great thing there. I cannot say enough about how nice it is not to see two or three people get t-boned every year. But there is already a steady flow of concrete trucks running up and down up and down up and down day to night. and additional contracting, additional heavy freight running through is it is going to be disruptive to those both those areas. You talk about the potential native uh campus that they're putting in on there and the people that are on this on the front there. Well, especially if there's a right of way issue that's going to encroach on property along there. Those are not wide front yards. They are. So, and I realized downtown too the houses are very close to the street, but they were I mean those are much older houses that were built that way whereas uh these are newer houses as well along right here. That was why years ago from from uh

Lincoln to um man what's the Bradley that was why that used to just be two lanes. Well, three lanes. It was a turn lane and then two lanes in each direction. And that was why I just remember the N because there was nothing to the um north. None of those businesses. Nothing was there. I think the the vet um was there. I think it was the only thing. But you were at the end of the that there wasn't even a stop light there. That was a stop sign for years. And so it's it's changed a lot. And a lot of the people on the south side moved moved out early. He did 15 yards of his front lawn. Okay. Well, it sounds like I mean this is I think it's well argued and it sounds like again there's support. We can't reroute 20 because if we do then people won't go underneath the bridge and Tom had that bridge painted when he was with United Way. So it was it was it was an eyesore before it was painted. Now they keep repainting it because people are trying to paint it in a different way. Oh, is that right? Not a graffiti. Oh, but you Tom, you're the reason that was painted. Oh, we worked on it. That's wonderful. That's it is such a a blessing that really is just it completely changes the the character of that space. As someone who moved here after it was painted, I've always just thought that's one of the nicest things for me like new people coming in. I didn't even know the place coming in from the west and made about you know 700 years old. It was rusted. It was it was and that that was the gateway to

Mount Pleasant. And of course, we started directing people to turn on Lincolnfield when they were they were coming in the campus because you didn't want you didn't you didn't want to see that. It was an ugly site. So, okay. So, we would we wouldn't want to destroy Tom's legacy. So, thumbs down. Definitely not. I know. I know. We're going to name the bridge after eventually. Yeah. Tom Wolver memorial bridge. Well, let's not name it that for a long long time. Would it make it an overpass? I was trying to find something to say there. Good night. Well done. Fantastic. All right. So, I think we're all set, I guess. Good night, everyone. Tomorrow. All right. Couple more here. Uh, let's look at item D, the non-motorized network Mount Pleasant Circle Loop. Um, I have a question. I want to So, I'm I'm looking at the the the map there. It talks about um I guess what I'm wondering is this is not automatically a a paved pathway that exists independently of roads. Some of this is just like bike lanes on roads. Correct. Uh the the intent is that this would this this actually comes from the 2011 nonmotorized plan region motorized plan and it's it's really not been altered from that. U and so it's something our comments are really related to maybe we should think a little different but the idea was that that this would be uh separated and paths. Uh obviously there's some places where that's not

feasible, but the idea is as much as possible would have paths separate from the roads. Okay. And so when you talk about um routing it uh up I guess you're talking up Isabella and across Broadway. Do you envision those as being again separate from those roadways? Again to the maximum extent possible. Uh Isabella is pretty tight. Uh we've been looking at trying to do sidewalks along Isabella north of that in our East EDA district. Uh and there is room to get the sidewalks away from the from the edge of the road, but not much. Uh and uh it's similar on that stretch uh between between Broadway and Isabella. Uh there's some businesses there, but the the rightway is tight. So it might be something where the sidewalk ends up right against the curb, for example. uh in some areas. Uh the main reason for the reroute, the the crossing at Remis requires a new bridge. There's no bridge at Remis. This is by the new jail. U and so we'd have to have an entirely new bridge structure built there. Um and and then on the other side, it's it's kind of rural over there. We have the the uh the tribe has a industrial park and it and uh you know, it it doesn't go into the park, but it goes by it. Uh and uh so it could go into the park if they were willing to do that. That would be up to the tribe. Uh but uh the main reason is trying the cost of trying to build a new pedestrian bridge over 127 versus making use of the existing bridge at Broadway. And uh perhaps uh I mean there are there's been some places in the state of Michigan where they have been able to actually attach a pedestrian crossing to an existing road bridge. Yeah. You've seen some of that down in Arbor and some other places. Where would where would bicyclists be? Would they be on the pedestrian piece or would they be on the roadway? Well, if

if uh let's say let's I think the main thing with the crossing of Broadway is in all likelihood what we would do is we would work with with MDOT when they're ready to replace that bridge that it's an old bridge. It's been around a long time. Eventually, it will need to be replaced and that's that time frame is sooner than later. Uh and so any new bridge we would simply work with them to get a design where it includes pathway crossing separate from the road. Uh but even without that with the existing bridge uh in Ann Arbor if you if you drive along I94 in Ann Arbor uh you come to the is it the Liberty Street Bridge? I think it's one of the bridges down there. Um it's an old two-lane bridge. Um uh and uh they actually essentially hung a pedestrian pathway uh can levered it off one side of the bridge and it's structured properly for that but it's literally can levered off one side and it's part of that bridge structure um in their design. Now that bridge was sufficiently structurally sound and and such they could do that. Whether this one is or not I don't know but it's a very similar design. Yeah. Uh but so whether it's that modifying that bridge or when that bridge is replaced we get the crossing. Either way, it's easier to to do a road bridge that has pedestrian elements then try to a separate pedestrian bridge. Yeah. I mean that's all that's fine. I just am am not a big fan of putting bicyclists onto heavily traveled essentially trunk lines like Isabella. uh if we can at all avoid it because I just think that those are heavily traveled roads and it doesn't strike me as as the safest option. I wish uh 127 I wish they had more rightway uh because often that you've seen that downstate I275. They one of the earliest bike

paths was constructed along I275 all the way from Novi down way down river down south of 94. Uh and it was all within that that highway rightway. Uh and there have been others been done. A stretch of 127 down near Ithaca has a stretch of that. Uh our stretch in this area, the rightway is is just not wide enough off the side of of the road to be able to add a a bike bike path through there. That otherwise that that would have been a great option if we could have done it. Okay. I mean, part of this motivation, I assume, was connecting it to MID and and the tri the tribal areas and so on. The interesting part is on the on the DIA they have for their um non-motorized network, it's it's lined up like it is going right to Mid Michigan Community College, but in fact it's like a block south of that, right? Yeah. Like if it was going to line up with Mid Michigan College to get to that, it would be on the recommendation that you gave because then that would run right over the bridge right on to Mid Michigan. Well, I would add that to your your point about that alignment with Michigan. This doesn't line up here where it's shown us. So, Mory Court Arena, yeah, it goes to that, but then it would have to cut north to get in and it would line right up with the Ziggwig Center in Michigan. It would be on that main road with with the features it's they're using as, you know, destinations or attractions. Yeah, that is a great addition because you're right where they're showing Mid Michigan Colleges, there's nothing there. It's just east of the the trib's industrial park, but there's just some houses there. It's a big farmland.

Okay. Other comments on that piece? Page 18. Is everybody show? Excuse me. Okay. And then the piece you mentioned earlier about um the connector between uh on Broadway between Bradley and Lincoln. This is on the map on page 10. Uh just his future transportation plan and you you see some road types there and such in previous versions the previous versions of this uh showed Broadway connecting over Lincoln. Um, and it so there was a category called future roads and it it just labeled it coming across and this one they they left it off. I'm not sure why. Yeah, but they left it off entirely. So it's it is an item that that uh is important both the city and the township. Yeah, that's come up before though. Is there currently a like some sort of pathway? No. So on the broad on on Bradley Street uh you have the entrance into the Clark Funeral Home. Yes. That driveway is actually the road and it comes in and curves turns to the left and that that's curving into their site. That that entrance is actually the road road right away. Okay. And so uh if you look straight west from there uh standing in that entrance you can see the the south end of the cornerstone estates. The last couple of homes include one that's just being built. U and at the end south end of cornerstone estates there's a little turnaround down there. Uh, and it's just kind it's like a big tea turnaround. And that's actually a about a 400 foot stretch of Broadway Street rightway that was reserved as part of the Cornerstone Estate subdivision. Okay. Uh, and uh there's no road there, just T turnaround, but but that's actually the

section of rightway that exists in the township. Uh, the rest of it there is no rightway right now in the township, but on the city side there's a rightway reserve. Okay. So, I mean, I think people think I'm I'm sensing people think that's a good idea. What What is the process there if if they choose to go ahead? I like the idea. I just have no idea really what it would take to make it happen. Well, uh, as I said, there's the quirk in the planning act that that allows a city the city to designate a future street and it has some legal standing in terms of any any future development should respect that future street location. Uh, so having it in the city's plan is good. Having our plan is good. We currently don't have in our plan. Um but uh beyond that uh we've we've simply been talking with folks who have been interested in developing property. When Cornerstones with Estates was developed, it came up and they they did in fact put that that connection in. Uh I don't know how much trouble there was getting that but but uh uh but uh anyway, it was included in the plan. Uh so it was again recognition that that was that was reserved essentially. Uh, you know, as you've seen in our reports, we we've been talking to some folks about the urban property over here, the vacant land, which is which is uh basically the south of the line where that broadway would come across it. The vice the Broadway would come across the north side of their property. Um, and uh there have been some some folks interested in that property. uh the talk about I think the broken school um uh in the past was interested in the property.

So when when they were interested, we'd had some conversations with some of them about it. Uh and and we've had conversations with the the owners, the Urban Family. Uh and and uh so as part of that, we could get that rightway reserved literally. They could dedicate or provide us an easement uh for that road. Uh or the township could buy the the rightway. uh if we need to we can condemn it uh through eminent domain uh because especially if we have it in our plan u it's a public improvement and that we could if we had to go that route that's certainly not the preferred route u on on our side I think the preferred route would be to work with the developer interested in developing that property and see if we can get something done where as part of that uh we can create the conditions where we can get that road constructed not necessarily that the developer is going to construct did, but that simply that that the means for us to be able to do that would become become possible and that would be primarily having the rightway. Southern Lots been for sale for two years now, three years. Oh yeah, far longer than that. It seems like um for a business or any even a school having that additional access to the city would be a selling point. It would be for that property. Yeah. And there certainly would be a cost. It's it would it would be a significant cost to construct. Uh it would ultimately something that that our board of trustees would be involved in. I'm sure would we would have funding uh commitment from the township. I all that is not it would be up to our board of trustees ultimately. U but and obviously we'd have to be working with the city and there would be some kind of commitment on their side too. Uh but it is nonetheless that it's a worthy project because it would help create those connections and create those loops uh that that are so important to allow people to get where they need to go and

it would help integrate u the township and the city's downtown. So I think it would benefit the downtown as well. Okay. Um so based on what Rodney said earlier, we have a couple choices. One, we can uh we can actually endorse this tonight uh or we can uh essentially take a month to digest redigest it and uh take action at our June meeting. So when you say endorse this, do you mean Rodney's recommendations? Yeah. For the plan. Yeah. As our response to the master plan, Mount Pleasant master plan, right? I mean, another option if people feel like they want time to go in and look at the entire plan or or other other parts of it and u you know think about if there's any other things that you want to uh propose responding to. That would be one reason to wait. Uh but again, those are those are the two main options that I think are in front of us. I'm sorry. I apologize for interrupting. I was just going to say certainly if if you if you wanted if you do decide to wait if you're interested we could essentially convert this into a kind of a resolution format something where it be a plan commission resolution and incorporate the comments that you had tonight into that so that yeah I think we'll want that that give you a bit more power when going back to discuss these issues agree we create a resolution resolution to I'm sorry, not gonna let somebody else suggest this. I'm not getting to incorporate Rodney's plans into a Ronnie's recommendations into a

resolution resolution. Second. Did that make sense? No, it does. And actually, although you've made a motion, it this can be the consensus of the commission. It doesn't have to be a formal motion that so that's up to you. you know, you have a motion on the floor, but it can also simply be the consensus of the commission. I I will push your consensus of the committee there. Okay. So, we'll just withdraw the motion. Um yeah, so it's the it's the consensus of the commission to ask uh township staff to draft a um resolution a resolution uh with these uh basically take taking the the the uh content of our memo and converting it into a resolution that would be appropriate for us to approve and transmit to the city of Mount Pleasant. and and we'll certainly set it up. So if there's anything else that comes in, we can add that in the other comments. Okay. That fits the dedicated timeline for a response from the township. We're not You'll be fine. The June meeting is fine for that. Perfect. Thank you for your work. Thank you, Rod. Thank you. I appreciate that. And if anyone does find anything, um, I guess what I would suggest would be, uh, communicate it to Rodney so that, uh, you know, and and we can decide how to handle it, whether it should be, you know, an agenda item or whether he would do the same thing or or if it's just maybe not something that is, you know, that we need to comment on. But yeah, if you have thoughts, uh, send them his way. All right. Um, so now we'll move on to the remaining item which is under other business. Last

month we discussed the issue of how the zoning ordinance treats uh, gunsmiths. And so there's a proposal here to modify the zoning ordinance or amend the zoning ordinance. So again, I'll let Rodney speak to this and then we'll dive into it. My microphone is blinking close, but uh u yeah, you have our our memo dated May the 12th. Uh and uh what we did here was just to give you a visual look at what what we're really talk what we're really talking about in terms of uh this is not you have a formal amendment yet but but just give you an idea uh and it really two relatively simple changes. One is in the in the table format there where you see and there be a corresponding change in the zoning district. Uh that simply changes it from a special use to what's called an accessory use. Home occupations are accessory use means they have to be inside somebody's home as part of that that principal residence. Uh and then uh and you can actually see in there at the bottom of page 42, the first page of the memo, you see that gunsmiths are also allowed in the business districts and that that's permissible use. It's a commercial activity. Uh and it's just like any other commercial activity at that point. U so we're really just talking about the the home occupation side where where this license is for people that have their their activities in their home. And then the other change shared with you the entire section of the home occupation uh regulations in section 6.19. And you can see really the only changes in that subsection 7 allowable uses that simply be to add gunsmiths. We're adding that item 7g u and just noted that they're allowed subject to the federal licensing

requirements. they this but I've shared you the shared with you the whole section 6.19 so you can see all of the rules that apply to home occupations already this is any home occupation and so gunsmiths would also be subject to all these same rules Okay. Um All right. So, it's before us. It's you're and so I mean the idea would be if if we think this is looks good then we might the next step would be uh schedule a public hearing and direct or put it into full form and then put it on an agenda and have public hearing and move forward in that respect. That that's correct. We we uh there may be there's a couple other items we we're looking at more. So we we uh the thought would be is that the next step is yes, we put it into an amendment format. We have a couple of the housekeeping items that that Peter's brought to my attention that we can tuck into the same amendment. So the idea was we would bring you back an amendment document that include this and any any that are unrelated to this, right? Okay. And uh and that we take a look at it. So I I wouldn't suggest we set a hearing right away, but Yeah. Yeah. But we'll we would put together a kind of that little group of things and bring them all together at once. Okay. Do you need a motion for

that or just actually here? Again, if there's a consensus in the commission are comfortable with that, comfortable with this idea that we we move forward in this direction. If you'd like to talk about it more, if you're not comfortable with it, we're fine with that, too. I guess I just have one question. Well, first of all, the fact that uh the fact that R 3A and 3B have been left out of this means that it's not allowed there under any circumstances. Correct. Home occupations or right or not? Well, of this type. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Which means it it has it has to be either a a single family home or possibly a duplex, but nothing more dense than that. Exactly. All right. Okay. Then I guess the one thing I'll ask is, can you think of any other this specific of a business that might somehow be treated like this either that you know of or that you can think of? I'm just kind of still I'm to some extent I'm still wrapping my my head around the idea that this particular business needs this. I understand the discussion we had, but I wonder if is there anything else out there that would be even remotely similar even for different reasons. Well, um you know you actually if you look on page 44 that uh that list of allowable uses you can see a lot of interesting things there. Uh the uh uh among them for example are beauty salons and barber barber shops. Very small activities. Uh but nonetheless you can have a home occupation for a beauty salon or a barber shop. Uh one that that I always try to make sure is in in every ordinance that I've drafted over the years is is the one uh just just below

that which is home office for massage therapist. Uh and that one is called out specifically because often in the past anyway uh world's changed a little bit but in the past when you talk about massage most people thought of the adult business massage Asian massages or whatever you know that were really red light district brothel or whatever. Uh and so we so I actually called out massage therapy in the in the ordinance and actually called out his home occupation because many massage therapists work out of their home u because we want to make sure that that they're taken care of that they're not lumped in with the adult activity. U so there are certainly businesses that need to be called out in some way. The gunsmith is is an interesting one. Um and and uh it was a special use for some of the reasons we discussed. I mean as Mr. Brown is not here tonight. He expressed concerns. There were other other concerns about uh gunsmith being in a neighborhood. U but reality that we talked about that anybody can have a collection of guns. They do not need to tell any of their neighbors that they have it. U and they are under even whether you have your own collection or you're a gunsmith. you are pretty strong safety obligations related that so that there was a logic to making it a special use but it creates this conflict that we'd rather resolve the conflicts well so I'm looking on in 2-15 page 2-15 I'm looking in the definitions and so gunsmith is listed and it says a person who makes or repairs firearms and so I think we had this discussion last month. That's what I thought it meant. Does it also mean someone who just buys and sells guns but does not make them or repair

them? Right. Right. Now in our ordinance uh yes that we treat a gun a a licensed what we're calling a gunsmith with a federal firearms license that sells weapons. They are treated as a gunsmith. We don't have any other category for them. They would be prohibited entirely if we didn't include them under that gunmith category. So, so yes, they where where does it do where does it do that explicitly? Well, frankly, I think there's an opportunity there to improve our definition because it really should that's not really consistent even with the federal firearms license definition. So, I I think there's an opportunity there to fix that, too. Is is the is the word gun or the term gun dealer not a term of art that people use? It's not in our ordinance. Okay. U this I'm glad you brought that up because that is an excellent opportunity to improve clarity in that area as well. If I was going to bring up an example of like third party sales that I know are current now is that there's um a few auction houses that will do estate sales for people that own large amounts of guns. So you'll see them facilitating one was in Mount Pleasant a year ago. person had upwards of 50 firearms and then Sherwood auction services facilitated through their website. So in that case would they be considered a gunsmith or gun dealer for that site? I mean they're following the new enactions they put that came through about you know um even to buy ammo or guns everything every person bidding needs to have a pre-background check those type of facil those type of acts which I'm I'm assuming are the same for anyone that would be offering operating a gunsmith place here would they they would have to follow the same background checks all those things so I I think it does come hard to say like a gunsmith is a it's a hard definition to find versus like just a firearms dealer, especially when we have third party sales that go on

through businesses as well operating. No real answer here. Just an example that you know there are other definitions. And you brought up too um like something that was kind of governed under special uses like this was um caregiver growers. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. The medical marijuana caregivers see them in the in the in the section that I referenced. Um they're a weird creature uh because the 2008 state law uh allows them as part of a person's home. Uh and uh initially the interpretation of that 2008 voter approved law was that it was it it could ignore zoning. Essentially that was outside of zoning. uh we couldn't touch it in zoning and uh they could if they got their state registration permit or whatever they could operate out of their home and uh a number of years ago now a couple few years ago uh there was a Michigan case law that a change decision was made court level free court level but anyway a a relevant case that said oh yeah absolutely these caregivers are subject to local zoning and all across state of Michigan. All of a sudden, we had to deal with them because now they're subject to local zoning. And so we added one of our punch list amendments, we added it as a allowable home occupation. That's actually another case. uh in this case because the 2008 law has some very specific privacy provisions in it kind of overly restrictive I think but but there were these privacy provisions that made it impractical to have a special use requirement for a caregiver and that's why you see it here is simply a home occupation and not not a special use uh because if we're really following this the 2008 act we can't notify people uh of a hearing uh related to their

property. So kind of actually in a way similar to the gunsmith that probably for a similar reason that there's a good reason for having privacy for marijuana operation even at a small scale. Any other thoughts? Okay. So what I'm hearing is I'm not hearing any objections to going forward with uh the next steps. All right. Thank you. Okay. So those were uh we've completed new business and other business. Next item is extended public comment. So, if there's anyone around who uh didn't speak before but wants to speak now, there can they can address the planning commission on any item whether it was on tonight's agenda or not. Uh extended public comment is open at 8:29. Once again, we don't have physical audience in the room tonight, but uh still one online. Okay, we don't have an electronic audience either, but uh we'll go ahead and close that back up until next month. Uh next item is final board comment. Any comments from commissioners on anything for the good of the order. Okay, sounds like people are ready to head out and get on with their evenings. So, uh, we've completed our agenda. Does, um, otherwise, so we have we definitely have the, um, uh, the township response to the master plan and then this item probably next month. What else? Anything else

does, how does it, is it too early to tell how next month's agenda looks? Uh, we have a couple of potential business items. Uh, we have the Thrive Church uh, final site plan. As you recall, that one was coming back to you because Mr. BB was not here for the primary site plan. Uh and uh it's quite likely that one will be on your agenda. Uh we may uh have uh the event center. Uh you remember the Mid Michigan College event center and this amendment that was just recently adopted by the board. We may have that. Uh they have some outside agency uh approvals they still need to resolve uh that could affect the site design. So, uh, they're working on that, but there's potential for that one to be coming. Um, I think is there anything anything else you think of? That's okay. Sounds manageable. So, all right. Thank you. So, we've completed our agenda. So, we will stand in adjournment until June 17th.