Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

and call the meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance 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'll welcome everybody to the August meeting of the Union Township Planning Commission. Uh, we have pledge of allegiance. Roll call, please. Squat here. Bradshaw here. Brown here. Hayes is going to be late. Lap here. McDonald is excused. Oliver here. Shingles here.

Daring is excused. one. Okay. Thank you. Uh, next item is approval of tonight's agenda. You have the agenda in front of you. There's one new business item and then there's one other slash old business item. Are there any other items that anyone's aware of that needs to be on tonight's agenda or any issues with the agenda? Move to approve. Second. Uh motion by Olver, second by lap to approve the agenda as prepared. Any further discussion? Not all in favor, please say I.

I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion uh is carried. So the agenda is approved. Next item is the minutes. We last met on July 15th. So you have the July 15th uh minutes. Are there any corrections to the July 15th minutes? Move to approve. Second.

Okay. So, there was a motion by Olver, second by Bradshaw to approve the minutes. I'll just note I heard the discussion before we started recording. Um, Brown is spelled correctly in the roll call with the E, but not in the roll call vote on the second page. So, if you want to add the E there, that would be I'm sure he'd appreciate it. So, all right. Anything else? So, just a minor correction on that. Uh, all in favor of approving the minutes with the one minor spelling change, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Okay, so minutes are approved. Um, next item is correspondence, board reports, and presentations. Commissioner Thering is not here so I won't turn to him. Is there anything urgent from board of trustees that we should know about the uh this is budget season so we the board just recently adopted amendment to the 2025 budget to make adjustments where needed. Uh we'll be getting started with through the adoption process for the 2026 budget very shortly. Uh so that that's coming up. The other item that uh that's on their agenda that came from me uh is that we are in the process of of looking at adopting a new blight control ordinance

to this point actually our zoning ordinance has been the primary mechanism for for handling blight issues. We also have tall tall weed ordinance, but uh we do not have a a blight ordinance focused on things like inoperable vehicles and junk and and trash cleanup and such specifically. So, u we've had some issues with with that where we've recognized we need a little something more and so the board is in the middle of looking at that right now. So, there the second reading on the proposed ordinance is scheduled for their meeting next next Wednesday. Okay. Any comments or questions from commissioners with regard to board of trustees related items? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on. Uh, next next one is McDonald updates from ZBA. She's not here. I don't think they've met. So, uh, unless I hear otherwise, we'll just skip that one and move on. Next item is the community and economic development monthly report which once again is in your packet. Uh if you had a chance to browse through it, uh I'll open it up at this time if there's any questions from commissioners on anything you might have seen in the monthly report. [Applause] Okay, hearing none, we'll move on. Any other uh reports or correspondence that needs to come to our attention?

Okay, so we'll move on. Next item is public comment. This is the early public comment towards the front of our meeting that is restricted to three minutes on items that are not on tonight's agenda. So, if anyone has a public comment they'd like to offer on a non-aggenda item, they're invited to do so at this time. If you're in the room, come to the podium. Uh which does it have a microphone on it? It does. Okay. uh and uh give us your name and address for the minutes and limit your at least your initial comments to three minutes. Uh this public comment is open at 706.

Good evening. My name is Tim Bi. I my address is 2257 East Broomfield Road. Uh just a comment on the on the blight. Uh we have a blight ordinance in Chipoa Township. I'm a zoning administrator there. you. It's not quite the same type of community, Chipua Township to Union Township, but we ended up going out and finding a police officer to go out to do the doortodoors and it's it's been a really good thing that we did. Um, there are a number of sheriff's deputies that are looking for part-time work right now. So, it was just just an input. Um, they asked me to go door to door and I said, "Absolutely not. You can't pay me enough to to go out and do that." So, um, I would hate to see one of these two guys going out and doing doing that work. You may want to consider that.

Okay. Thank you. Any other public comments at this time? There's no band. Okay. We don't have anyone in the electronic room and so we thank the public for their comments and go ahead and close that at 7:07. So we're ready to move on. We have one new business item tonight. It is a preliminary site plan review 25-04 for Hance Real Estate Ventures parking lot expansion at 2185 East Picker Road. Turn it over to Rodney for uh the introduction.

Well, thank you very much. I appreciate I I do appreciate Tim's comments and his concern for safety and I agree with that. We've talked a lot about safety when it comes to ordinance enforcement. There's always a concern that we do air on the side of of safety risk like that. So I definitely appreciate Tim's comment. Um so uh for this item uh we have our report. It's dated August the 8th. Uh this is a preliminary site plan application. Uh there's no new building. Uh they're simply uh expanding the parking lot and it is the size of the expansion that requires this uh uh final site plan approval. In our ordinance we allow small expansions up to uh it's 2750 square feet I think. Um, so you can add a little bit of pavement uh with simply a minor site plan uh application, but this this requires more because it it it also triggers our storm water management. So they have to deal with the additional runoff that comes from the additional pavement and and that's that happens through this process. So you're seeing this plan, this prelimary site plan. It is this is considered to be an legal non-conforming site. So this is one of those projects that falls under section 12.5 non-conforming sites. It is really the primary reason it might be called non-conforming is that that um it would not the landscaping would not necessarily meet today's standards relatively minor issue but there's landscaping standards a little different than what was in place when the project was adopted. Otherwise, it's a beautiful site u and very well maintained. But the benefit is because it it pl it falls under this that as we've talked about before with a non-conforming site uh you have the ability to review and take action on a site plan that doesn't

necessarily uh bring everything up to the current ordinance requirements for site development, but but instead focuses on certain important or key elements. uh public safety deficiencies v1 and then there's 10 broad categories of other potential site improvements and and applicants are asked to address at least three of those in this case they they've more than met that requirement as noted in our report uh with the scope of the improvements fully consistent with section 12.5 we uh you see our report plans are in in very good shape overall um the uh uh Just a couple of details. Um, one is that a land combination is required. This this property uh is currently a separate parcel in the back where the new parking lot would be. Uh, so we you'll see a condition of approval to uh to ask for that land combination to be completed before construction begins. Because there's no there no building improvement, there's no building permit. Usually we tie it to issue a building permit. In this case, we're uh we're tying it simply to the start of construction. Uh the uh uh other other item on the list was related to the internal sidewalk. Uh looking at plans u they're proposing to put the new sidewalk out front. It's proposed to be entirely within the road rightway. So essentially right up to the curb u there's very little right ofway along that stretch of picker road. So they're squeezing a seven foot sidewalk into that space. Um, and then they're proposing a a section of internal sidewalk connector coming back from the road u into the property. And currently on the plan, you'll see an angled crosswalk and it's angled basically to to connect with an existing uh sidewalk on the other side of the driveway. U what we've asked is that they straighten that out. We we for anytime we have

pedestrian crossings, we want them to cross in the shortest distance possible. Uh it's perfectly fine that it crosses there in the middle of the driveways. It's going back, but but it needs to be done essentially to 90 degrees. So uh one of those two sections of sidewalk uh needs to be extend a little further to to create that 90° crossing. So that that is the second condition that we've we've recommended. Uh with that in mind, actually those those are the two items on our list. Uh we're happy to recommend this to you uh for your consideration. And as I said, we we do recommend for approval subject to the two conditions that that we just talked about. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions as you go along.

Would you anticipate that this would be a case where the final uh approval would likely occur administratively? I would expect that. Yes. Assuming they make these changes related to the conditions, it could be uh definitely administratively. Other questions for Rodney while he's up there?

The the um the angles and questions are those a saw cut two foot dub listed here cuz I know I I happen to use a dentist there. So I know the entrance way is kind of cut a skew and then cuts in on the reserve on the new proposal here. Would those just be hard angled sidewalks there versus what we see here, which is a slanted this crosswalk. This crosswalk here. So, that's the one you're talking about. Crosswalk that's at an angle right there. So, they're just going to have to extend that internal sidewalk on one side or the other of the driveway further to to be able to have a 90° crossing point. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. So, now we'll hear from the applicant or the applicant's representative.

Good evening. My name is Tim Bi. I'm with Central Michigan Surveying and Development here on behalf of the uh the owners of the property. They're looking at expanding their parking based on their need, not necessarily based on ordinance requirements. and that's why they had picked up that that rear lot. So, uh, Rodney went through everything with you. If you do have any other questions, I'm happy to answer. If there's something specific regarding the plans, try and answer any questions you have. Any immediate questions for the applicant?

I guess my one would be I know you said it was predicated by usage. Is that for further expansion by the the Herz group themselves? Because I know currently one of the uh units in there is vacant. Yeah. And they're operating the other side. I'm wondering what kind of then like they're not quite filled out yet. They anticipating with that rental going through on occasions they have completely full parking lot. And so what they're looking at is they they want to grow their business and expand into that that area that's that's not leased. So, if they're going to grow their business and they already have times that the parking lot is full, they're acknowledging that they need to expand that.

Thank you. I appreciate

and we have no issues with the two conditions. I think it'll have to be on the east side that I extend out because I'm coming right up to that property. Other questions? Okay, I think we'll move into our deliberation. We may have more questions. If we do, you're not you're here, so we can always ask them. So uh next is commission review of the plan. Uh it's before us. You have it in front of you. Uh it's open for discussion and subsequent motion.

Um Ronnie, you said a few of the landscaping stuff was not in compliance. Now would that be resolved going forward in the new lot here or is that part of the parcel to this development here is getting them on board with that or is that so basically under the non-conforming site section uh as I said uh we narrow essentially narrow down what we focus on u and the applicant essentially proposes these are the these are the site improvements we would like to make to to meet the the uh the three minimum three requirements uh that are in section 12.5. So there's 10 broad categories. One of them is landscaping improvements. Parking is another one. Uh lighting improvements another one. Uh building improvements. Uh various broad categories that they can work on. Um in this case they chose not to do anything with landscaping. They actually have done some things with landscaping on the site. They have kind of been cleaning up and replacing you know that but but not part of any site plan. they've just been beautifying the property. Uh but it's not any major change just as clean up and such. Um but because they they have they more than met the require I think they have five categories that they that they satisfy. Uh so more than met the minimum uh at that point we don't ask them to do anything with the landscaping. First of all the site looks very nice. which is simply if it was a brand new site like front yard landscaping, parking lot landscaping would be different. It' be a little bit more than what they have there. Um but because this is amending an existing site uh we focus only on these certain elements. And and the reason we have this provision in the ordinance is really to allow sites like this allow these these businesses like this to be able to grow to improve without necessarily getting hammered with having to do everything the current

ordinance does or requires. You know, it's an older site. It was developed many number of years ago as times many years ago. uh if and it may not be suitable to get all the way to the current requirements. For example, this one has that that uh storm water basin right up front that that really cramps the ability to do a whole lot up front. U that's why that the sidewalk is jammed right up to the curb. Uh so there just characteristics of an existing site that don't always work out to meet what the current ordinance says. And so we added the section 12.5 when we adopted the new ordinance u in 2020 specifically to make it easier for exactly this kind of project to happen. So I just mentioned that really the only issue is that in terms of a deficiency this landscaping that doesn't mean it's it's it doesn't look beautiful and it's not a great great development site. It just simply is different from what our current ordinance requires and that's that's okay. it more than met the other requirements and we're happy to support it.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate the clarity there. Um, so I know this is tied up next to a residential housing next to it. How would um the lighting that's going into the back there affect the residential view? Do you know if that's going to be coming into them? I mean, honestly, if I was staying in a place that didn't have, you know, two different lighting fixtures outside my window and then they kind kind of came up. Do we have a is there a timer on those? Are they set to a degree where we don't know that we're going to be causing undue harm to the person next doors?

Yeah. So, so the exterior lighting is a final site plan details. So, that's why you're not seeing the the details on this plan. Um, our ordinance uh is very strict related to lighting.

Uh we have maximum foot candle uh int light intensity um that's a 10 foot candles. uh I don't recall the number at the at the property line, but it's essentially zero. It's just a hair above zero at the property line, and that's at any property line. Uh so the idea is that those fixtures are fully shielded. They're directed downward. Uh and they're they're set up so that they're not uh they're not extending glare or light out to the neighbor's property. Uh so with that in mind, I mean, there will be light back there. Right now, there's nothing uh but but the lighting that will be back there will be shielded. And so it it uh the ordinance is designed to ensure that those neighbors will not be impacted.

All right. Thank you, Eddie.

Okay. I've got a question which I think it's more for Tim than Rodney, but part of it is I guess for both. I noticed that uh when I look at the plan, the new parking lot is governing is is observing the 10-ft setback whereas the old one does not. Is that one of those pieces that is part of the new zoning ordinance that wasn't in effect when this was

okay? Is that the main reason? I'm looking at this and it just strikes me. It's almost like you're it's almost like they're two separate parking lots because you've got this narrowed portion and then it you know with an in and an out uh as opposed to just making it like one big lot getting the traffic to flow. Uh right now you're coming down and um making very hard 90 degree turns to get around that parking lot. So we're trying we're trying to give a little better access to the back. Uh the other thing is with the drainage, um we're actually trying to pull some of the drainage in those those flares and that curb island that is actually on the on the southerntherly site. Um we're breaking that drainage and taking some of the drainage from the old site to the back. the detention basin that is upfront. It it was compliant at the time that it was put in. Um adding any more water to that would not be possible.

So, we're trying to to reduce the impact on that uh and take it back to an area that that we have lots of room to store water. Uh we did uh test pit back there and got down I think 90 in and found no water table. So we we have nice dry soils for it to just set and soak back into the the water table.

Okay. So, as far as traffic flow goes, um the the entrance onto the site from Pickard is on the west side of the property. Cars would go along that west side and then enter that back parking lot if they want to park there.

Um but then when they're leaving, they could either exit that through that west side or they could exit through the east side. Yeah, they could they could circle around in the new parking lot and then come back and get get out and not have to go into that old parking lot. And that's that's kind of the goal is to make that focus that back parking lot so people want to go in and come back out and get into that drive and head out and not get into that back parking area. That's where our barrier free will be. That's where the dumpster is. Um, and it's and it's tight. You You take a fulls size double cap pickup in there and that's it's tight.

What you're calling the back is the old one. No, the the back parking lot is the north parking lot. Yeah. The new park. There's only one entrance and exit. It's the one on thicker. Yeah, there's Yeah, that's what I'm Yeah, but there's two there's two ways into and out of the new piece because there's that island there that separates the two

halves. Other questions? Okay. Well, if you're satisfied, we can have a motion. I move to approve PRP25-04 preliminary site plan for the Hance Real Estate Ventures LLC parking lot expansion at 2185 East Pickard Road PID14-009-30-00008-3 and8-4 in the south southwest quarter of section 9 and in the OS office service zoning district finding that the site plan dated July 28th, 2025 can comply with the applicable zoning ordinance requirements for preliminary site plan approval, including sections 14.2P required site plan information and 14.2 standards for site plan approval subject to the following conditions. Number one, revise the internal sidewalk and crosswalk improvements to replace the angled crossing with a directed 90deree crossing of the driveway. and two, a land combination application shall be submitted by the owner and approved by township staff prior to the start of construction for this project.

I'll support. Okay. So, the motion was made by lap and it was seconded by Hayes. Uh, and you heard the motion. Uh, any further discussion? So, the motion is to approve with the two stated conditions. So, I'll ask for a roll call vote, please. Oliver, yes. Yes. Haze, yes. Branchaw, yes. Yes. Brown, yes. Shingle, yes.

Okay, thank you. That was seven votes in favor. None opposed. So, this has now been approved at the preliminary stage. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So, we're ready to move on to our other business item, which is the master plan update. Uh we've got a number of uh some study results in our packet. Rodney will introduce this and then we'll have some discussion. All right. Thank you. So you have had some good reading material, some interesting reading material. Uh this uh what you have before you the two elements, the regional uh summary of the regional housing study and then the more detailed uh evaluation of township housing situation. Uh these are part of a effort that the East Michigan Council of Governments, our regional planning agency, uh mostly focuses on transportation planning, but not entirely. Uh they they put together this uh this this project and and hired this consultant Bowen National Research uh to uh to put together a regional housing study. And you see u in the set of slides, we'll start in the regional set of slides. Uh so uh slide uh page number 33 uh I'll just reference pages on the packet. U so it's page number 33 uh you have the map that shows the the uh the eight counties that were part of this regional study. Um and uh as as part of that, uh the township for and other local governments were offered the opportunity to to uh essentially have a more detailed look at our community uh for a a very reasonable fee. And so we did agree to participate in that. And so that's how we we also the fee the concert. But I'm not I'm not going to uh uh go through all the slides uh highlight everything. There's a tremendous amount of information here. Uh for the the regional one, you're you're getting the summary of the

summary essentially in the these slides. These were the presentation slides that consult shared uh when we presented this information. If you would like the full study, it's several hundred pages long, but uh if you'd like to see the whole thing, I'd be happy to. This actually does a very very good job of laying out the the key findings and data for the region. U just a couple of highlights in the regional side. Um on the next slide which is page 34 of your packet uh there's a a graphic there which is titled demographics overall household growth trends. Uh there are really two two population related measurements that are important uh in our planning work. one is population itself. What what are the numbers? U and then we also sort have subsets of that of different income groups or other ways of of breaking down populations. But but really what are the raw numbers growing or shrinking? Uh and then but there's another number that's actually more important from a planning perspective and that is what's happening to the number of households in the community because as you'll see you can have a a relatively stagnant or even declining population number but an increase in the number of households u and uh there are a number of factors for that uh but uh but it's really the it's the increase in number of households that puts the pressure on housing itself. Well, of course, more households means more units, more more houses, more apartments that are needed to serve those households, even if each household is smaller in size. We know household size is decreasing. Uh people are having fewer kids, some some cases, current younger set, they're not having children at all. uh and so household

size is shrinking but we're seeing many more cases of either uh couples or even single uh person households that have been created. That's why house the number of households is actually increasing. We're also seeing cases of of uh uh you know on the older side of of more households being created on that side of things too at the the older end of the spectrum of age groups. So, uh, this this one from a count a regional perspective, it just notes that the kind of the tagline there, positive projected household growth will add demand for housing for the foreseeable future. And that's I think the key thing for us is that regardless of where population numbers are, we need additional housing in our in our region and county. and we'll see the township data as well uh based on this particular uh data point here increasing number of households. Um skipping ahead a few slides u as what I'll say is that if there's anything that you're intrigued by or want to talk about we certainly can uh we can always go back. I just want to hit a few highlights. U and but we can if there's something really caught your eye that we don't talk about certainly happy to do that. Uh on slide 54 or page 54 of the packet u you you'll see u uh here that it says housing gap estimates by submarket. And this this is the starting point for looking at at what is the need in the community. And uh uh this first one is is rental housing on page 54 of the packet. And you'll see Isabella County is in of the region. Is county has the second highest need for rental housing. Uh total of about 1,900 units. We'll see

if a number for the township uh in a minute, but it is a significant issue. We just met with some folks interested in doing some multiple family housing here. Um and uh one of the things we we do tell people, we are overdeveloped for student housing in the future. Uh but we we have we are definitely underdeveloped in certain other kinds of of rental housing such as for for professionals. uh there's a huge gap related to uh doctors, nurses, uh th those kinds of professions that need quiet space. They might be working off hours, you might be sleeping during the day. Uh you know, they need quiet and uh and that market is not served at all in the community right now really. uh but there's also uh uh professors CMU uh teachers uh those those professional uh uh areas and also in young families as well we have a significant gap and it's simply because most of our rental housing has been geared for so long to students that it's it would either need to be renovated or or replaced to deal with this very different desires and interests of of this other market. So the uh anyway this gives you an idea of the of the the gap in rental. U on page 56 there's a similar graphic there uh showing the gap for for overall for for sale housing in the region. The the gap that's needed and here is Villa County is a little further down the list. U but still about 2700 units short in this this evaluation. The uh I guess there any any questions on that? This this was really these were the key items I wanted to pull out of the regional summary. Uh was there anything that you saw that you would like to talk about or in this before we move to the township side?

Everybody needs housing. It's it's apparent throughout throughout every um county. Yeah. How like imperative it is right now to get more mixed housing too. people you're saying that there's a lot of people I think that are of the professional class that you're talking about but are still I know living in in student what we we would consider student housing because that's the only options that are available.

Yeah, it's available. Yeah, it's a it is a significant challenge and it's one we repeat over and over again. I'm glad to have the opportunity to repeat it here uh that we'd love to see some of that student housing be repurposed. There's some uh there's for example u Timber Creek Apartments which is our oldest uh apartment community really I think in the township 1968 6768 was built it was built it was luxury housing in 1967 68 u and certainly it could be it could go back to that now the older buildings is tough um but the the bones of that of those of that development are very solid remarkable ly solid for the age and and they do a good job of maintaining it. But there there are opportunities perhaps where some of these could be repositioned and there have been some conversations about what if we did this, what if we changed units around or join units together, various things that could be done. So I think there that that idea is beginning to get out there, but I'd love to get it out there even stronger that that there's a whole market we're not serving. uh that uh that right now they're having to commute. They're having to find housing elsewhere and commute into community for their work and we'd rather they be here. With that in mind, let's if you could we'll turn over to the township side for for just a bit. A few more highlights. [Applause] So this as I said this was a separate a supplemental study uh where they looked at our community more specifically u the uh actually want to start on on page 65 of the packet. Um here I want to show you show show you

the the the downside the down numbers. Um we have uh here on on page 65 of the packet it's titled demographics up at the top we have a graphic there uh the chart the total population by year for the township. So you see 2010, 2020, 20 24 which is their most current estimate year and then 2029 which is their project projection and you see 2010 13,000 people 2020 11,699 and from there we're seeing the essentially the projections the estimates uh creeping back up from there. Now today we're essentially I think actually to most recent estimate I saw was about 119. This one is from 2024 said 117. U but uh anyway it the numbers are down significantly from 2010. U and we have a number of of uh have had number of cases where folks have cited this to say hey look we're failing as community our population is down. Um uh we'll talk in a minute about households again about that. But more important, I actually want to talk about another element. The 2020 census for our community was significantly flawed. If you remember, 2020 census took place at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Central Michigan University was closed. The students had all been sent home just a few weeks before the census count. U and dorms were closed. uh everybody was gone and then they took the count. Uh and so we we were severely undercounted uh from that population and and uh the student population is a significant part of our community. Um and uh and so I I believe that this number is not accurate and the 2020 number simply was not

accurate at all. And the problem is is that the projections from there are based on that number. Uh so where are we? I am I going to claim we're we're at 13,000? No. And and we have data in this in this uh uh for that as well because there's there's uh some information there about uh about student population at Mid Michigan College and CMU that shows the decline. Uh I think we may get to it, but I'll just mention it. talks about 2015 the combined student population of of the two institutions was uh I think third about 31,000 the combined student population in 2024 was uh said uh 14 I think something about that we'll get to it big number big difference uh and so the number the decline is real just what is the actual decline or some kind of question but nonetheless there's a real population decline that that's reflected data. Um the the next slide. Oh, there we go. See, I'm getting ahead of myself. The next slide. There you go. Is the total enrollment on page 66 of the packet. So, there you see. I'm sorry. Was I was a little low. 17 uh 2023 is last year. And the data is 17,800 for total combined student population between the two institutions down from 31 2015. So, significant difference there. Uh I will say it uh certainly the CMU has been working very hard on on changing that and I I believe their numbers are now uh higher. I we obviously don't know what current numbers are but uh what I've been I've heard what I've been told is that they're seeing that that those numbers turn around a bit. We're also dealing right now with with simply the fact there are fewer uh students of college age. Again, we have that sort of long

baby bust cycle that we've been in. Uh, and that that is now reflected in the in high school and and entering into college years with some pretty significant reductions in simply the number of of potential students. Uh, okay. Uh, any questions on those items? I I think it's worth noting when we talk about the enrollment numbers versus residents, that's that's a huge gap. We start talking about 31,000 students in 2015 that included what was called at that time our global campus.

Many of those individuals don't metriculate on the Mount Pleasant campus, so they don't live here. um they live in Washington DC, they live in Atlanta, Georgia, Richmond, Virginia, wherever that global campus site was. So I think there needs to be an asterk there to note that because when we start talking about economic impact and residency and those kinds of things, it's a false positive in terms of the number. And I and I've mentioned this before and in terms of how those numbers are reported. Um the census numbers obviously reflect um more accurately, but CMU enrollment numbers as well as Mid Michigan because M mid Michigan enrollment numbers could reflect uh Clark County residents, not Mount Pleasant, although a significant number of individuals in enrolled at Mid Michigan now live in Mount Pleasant because we have a Mount Pleasant campus where we had a previously had a Mount Pleasant site. But now there's actually a Mount Pleasant campus. So that somehow has to be note uh noted. I don't think that the that 31,000 reported uh is ever coming back again. Uh to to your point of uh that's all we have to do is look at the the number of high school graduates and that number is declining and actually falling off a cliff and around 2030. So um just worth noting just so that we understand the dynamics of how that growth is going to to be measured. It can't be measured by um enrollment numbers. It's just a false positive. Um, sorry. Wanted to to clarify, is this program, this global program something that was uh is no longer in in Central Michigan University or is it just

It is. It's called uh innovation and online now and that's a crowded market. We the university uh thrived in that market for a long time because of the uh military okay uh connection since 911. there's been tremendous decline because we don't own that market with uh the military anymore. Okay. So, it's just it's just loss of market share and not like the a shutting of the program. Well, it's it's both because yeah, that program there are different programs that just aren't as relevant as they were. Okay.

It was a satellite school program. So, they're physical. If you were in a different neighborhood or region, you could go to physical locations where now like a lot of schools are transitioning more to online based remote learning. Well, and here's a just a more act and this is obviously don't quote me on these numbers, but at a high um CMU's onampus um enrollment never exceeded 21,000. But the number but the global campus has been as high as 9,000.

Yeah, that was that was the number that I that I remember back in uh 2008 2009. Correct. When I when I went there was in the 20,000s low 20,000s. Correct. That that's when President Ral was here and that was that the enrollment peak and then 2010 is when we start to see that 2010 was actually the peak and then it started to decline after that. Tell you exactly why too. Yeah. Yeah. It is several horrible recession. What's that? It was a horrible recession. Yes. Myself and many of our peers uh headed for better better hills during those years.

Yeah. And again, I think when we're reporting, you know, these numbers and of course, some of us work for the university, so we we understand how that's, you know, I know Tom's served in various capacities, alumni board, and those kinds of things where you you have a better understanding. Uh this is true, but it's not accurate. The slip of the line is different.

Yes. And and I I think that especially as you're talking about planning because um I sat in these meetings and listen to uh developers come in and they're you know they're hearing you know a president say you know Central Michigan University will have 30,000 students on its on its CMU campus. That's not realistic. The infrastructure doesn't support it. Uh nor does the demographics in terms of the number of high school graduates. it doesn't matter how many international students you bring in. So again, just that was just more of an FYI just so that as we're predicting, forecasting, and more importantly expecting um that that's you know those numbers are never going to be there'd have to be an invasion from Mars for us to for us to get for us to get

has a different type of housing. That's a different type of housing. Absolutely. I guess we could do shuttling to the moon. But no, in all seriousness, it's just uh and of course we've increased um international students, out of state students, but we're doing that in states that are declining because this is an overall population decline, not just the Michigan is just um more extreme than some of the other states. And and it's coming. All of the forecasters who do that, and I'm not one of management expert. Um, but it's it's going to be more compound. So, just something something.

Excellent. Thank you. And I appreciate the the clarification. Um, all right. Uh, let's turn to page 68 of the packet. Uh, and uh, and this is where we see our households. And you see we we saw the population decline in the numbers but here we see the the chart households increasing uh down between 2010 and 2020 as I said that I think at least in part we have flawed 2020 census data but what we're seeing from there is we're seeing a pretty significant increase and this data uh as if you if you dig into what national research says it's a combination of of available estimates and their own work. They they do a lot of their own research of these numbers. So these they're doing their own surveys, their own uh research to pull these these uh these numbers together in an accurate way. Uh and on the next slide, next page.

Could I interject? Oh, good. So, first of all, um that page is numbered 69 on my packet. I don't I don't know. Right. The one that has total households by year, if that's what you were talking about. Uh yeah. Okay.

But so I wanted to ask I wanted to go back to the page just before that which is the select population characteristics by area other than the poverty level where it specifies they're talking about the population of under 18. What population is that the percentage of? Because 72.7% unmarried strikes me as pretty high. So we we do have uh uh and this is significantly because of our student population but not entirely. Uh we in Isabella County uh in general and in the township in particular we our numbers skew young and old. uh they they skew high at the young end college basically college folks or young young recent graduates um and and then we skew at the older end where we're we're part of that trend in Michigan of an aging population where the the older end are going

okay but is it is it when it says percent it says it says uh it just says uh uh you know higher share of unmarried population Is that all people or is that adults or do we be adults? They would not be counting children in that number. Okay. So 18 and up. All right. And then the other one that struck me is like in the middle the college degree. I didn't think the state of Michigan's percentage was anywhere near 41%. That's actually a lot higher than I thought. Yeah,

just a little surprised by some of the numbers. It is interesting. Some things, oh yeah, that makes sense. But yes, often surprised. I agree that number is higher than I expected as well. Uh but there has been a huge push in this area now for quite some time to encourage uh folks to get degrees and and you know college degree can be a community college associates degree would meet that requirement

and uh with the with the uh the efforts right now uh to uh allow through state programs to have free tuition to to get an associates degree if you don't have one if you're for a while was 25 and older. I think now it's actually younger than that that you can qualify for that free tuition. U there are many more that are pursuing those especially in the associates degrees to building up their skills skill level. Any other thoughts on those items? I was impressed that the charter township union's rate for college degrees was 48.5%.

It does meld a little weird with the fact that we are a region with some of the lowest high income jobs, you know. So that says to me too that how are we going to hold on to that demographic? Yeah. Because once they graduate, there's no reason to stay without without having the proper opportunities in town to Yeah. do that. How do we attract those high paying jobs here? How do we get industry to come here?

And you'll see that at the end of this uh if you you may have already read read the end of the story. Uh they talk about some of the strengths we such as one of the items that they they do mention. We can very aware of it. Um so, uh let's see. Let's let's flip on ahead. Uh I haven't noticed slide 82. We'll see if it actually is. I'd already printed the book before before the package were put in. So I hand the numbers right. It's it's the uh one that's this one that has the graphic here in community outgoing page 83 on our packet.

Okay. I'll just add add one. So page 83. Uh this is an interesting one actually another one that has some uh positive elements to it. U this talks about uh where where people live versus where they work. Uh you see the circle in the middle uh with the 313 on it. These are people uh in and this is in their own survey work. Uh their estimate based on population 313 uh that that live in the township work in the township. So in their survey that that arrangement. So, not a huge number, but but a starting point. Uh the uh the inflow into the community. Uh this is these are folks who work outside of of the township. Uh I'm sorry, live outside the township and work in in the township is 4,044. You add those two numbers together, uh you're up over uh about 43 4350 or so. 43 about 40 4,300 certainly uh people that uh that are coming into the community or live here and work here and and then 3,800 work somewhere else. Uh now they're hours arrows are going off to the east. I suspect that's probably not not inaccurate that we have a number of folks that live here and work over towards Midland with DAO or other things. But uh but this is all the outflow. They're simply working somewhere else. Uh and so we have more folks coming into the community than are to work than are leaving. Uh but this this 4,044 number is also an opportunity uh that what you know and it's one of those what can we do to help attract those folks to live here as well as work here. And to some extent that is providing more housing and more opportunities for the types of housing

that people are looking for. um what I mentioned earlier about doctors and I've had conversations with our our hospital leaders who said we have doctors that are commuting from Lancing, commuting from southeast Michigan to work in our hospital here. They simply can't find housing that's suitable for them and and so they're having to commute for you very long distance away in order to to make things work for their housing situation. So, uh, one of the areas where where hopefully we can in terms of our planning, uh, we can look at trying to to broaden our housing mix and, uh, hopefully attract new housing opportunities that can make some of these commuters into residents. The other side of it was what was already just said is how do we we uh to attract new types of jobs, new new industrial, uh, new high-tech, whatever those things may be, the higher end higher paying jobs that that can help some of those outgoing commuters to be able to stay here as well. And that's part of a significant part of what I do on the econom economic development side and what our middle development corporation is doing on that side, but there's certainly always more to do.

Ronnie, can I pull back to page 75 just for a quick second? Just something I noticed I think plays on the other side of this. It said going forward 62.8% 8% of renting households in Charter Township will continue to earn less than 50,000 through 2029 and 45.2 continue to earn less than $25,000 annually. I guess my concern comes with how do we attract these new people in to fill those higher income their you know housing and renting things but at the same time not abandon these people making under 25 annually that are still going to need quality affordable housing. You know,

a lot of places you can see as you attract in those higher income people to stay and work in the neighborhood, it inevitably forces out the people that are at that cutoff. As more people become willing to pay more here, we're going to see more people that are on that lower income sphere starting to get pinched.

Yeah, it it is a real problem. Uh we have uh we have right now we have four active uh what I refer to as tax credit low-income properties. These are ones where where the state of Michigan provides a a tax credit for the for the development of low low-inccome housing that's rent essentially rent controlled. Uh the township also participates in that. We have a tax abatement process for that. Uh and right now there are four uh projects there. There were used to be two more. Uh, one fell out of that program to become very low-income housing. Uh, listening ear folks bought it and it's it's now focused on folks coming out of homelessness. So, it no longer fits in the tax credit project type of thing, but still very in the low income housing sphere. Uh, one other one fell out of it to become market rate housing. And, uh, it was something that was in process when I came here. uh that was that was is already well on its way. It was a three-year transition. Uh essentially after a certain point, after a certain age, after the housing, this type of housing is developed, the developer can choose to take it out of the low-inccome housing program, they pay some penalties for that, but they take it out and make it market rate, but they have a three-year transition process for that. So, that that that project did come out of it. It's not market rate housing. um that uh we had a developer that bought uh several other of the low housing developments and came to the township to let us know their intent to convert to market rate and we were able to work with them and we're able to help them understand first of all that we have plenty of market rate housing we you know I said overdeveloped in student housing we don't need more in that same realm uh but we have we have we have zero vacancy. Essentially, the low-inccome housing has zero vacancy. You'll see that in these numbers. Um, and so we don't want to

lose any of those that we already have. And anyway, the township actively worked with the developer uh and we were able to put put things together and and help and also they worked with Misha uh the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and were able to get some adjustments made that allowed them to keep those projects in that that environment. So there's they're going to remain going forward low-inccome housing, but it it took an a very active effort on the township part to make that happen because they were already down the road. They essentially started and they were just notified us and we're able to turn the bus and get it back on the on the on the track that it need need to be on. Uh the problem actually right now is it's uh it so far has proven uh very very difficult to develop new low-inccome housing. Uh the state of Michigan has has a scoring system for projects to get the the tax credits. Uh and uh right now they have two categories, urban and rural u and uh and they have then two two levels of tax credit 4% projects or 9% projects. Everybody wants the 9%. Uh because the numbers work better. Uh the problem is in order to get the 9% even to get the 4% you have to score very high on this this scoring chart u and for urban communities in Michigan that are labeled as urban you're essentially competing against city of Warren city of Detroit city of Grand Rapids city of Kalazoo the big communities that that uh because of the nature of those communities essentially store they they they have a lot higher score on that scoring chart it uh because of how the map was created that that serves our state right now. Uh Mount Pleasant and almost all of the urban area uh almost all the sewer district for for uh our township, Union Township, is considered urban. The only

area that is considered rural that's in our sewer district is down the street here u next door to the Crestwood assisted living facility. There's a the sewer the sewer comes under the road and and ends at the at the assisted living and there's couple vacant lots there that are uh residential and are considered to be uh rural for purposes of this this uh chart. So we've had a number of these low-inccome housing developers that have looked at those properties because they qualify it make it will be easier for them to get to the high scores they need uh for the state tax credits. Even there though, so far we haven't had any be successful. Uh we work with them. We're happy to work with them. We we had we've had some look at other sites that are in the urban area of the township on the map. We have also pushed Misha to change the map. Uh because frankly both us and Mount Pleasant really should be in the rural category. Uh it doesn't make any sense that we're urban and arguing with communities that are 10 times or 20 times our size. Uh but that's that's the problem on the low income housing side right now is trying to get to that tax credit threshold. Uh other other comments or questions? I just have a couple more. All right, we'll move forward. U let's go to page uh probably be page 95 in traffic right at near the end. Uh it's a it's a spreadsheet there up at the top. It's a tit of development opportunity sites. Uh and it has a list of 11 sites. These were ones that we worked with the the researchers to identify. Uh not all of them are residential. Uh we did identify uh some sites that that are are either mixed zoning or zone business

uh that could be residential sites uh based on the character and what's going on around them. Uh one of these is uh over Butt Street uh south of Jameson Park there. They're they're next door to I think the Hampton Inn. There's a large vac 88 acres there. Um it is uh number 74 on this list. in zone B7 business. It's been vacant for a long time with a park next door uh with residential behind that area. This is a site and and uh good sewer capacity. This is a site that could go for something else. Uh even the B7 district right now, it could go with for what's called a mixeduse development that would allow commercial and residential. But but from a perspective of development, it could be a good uh highdensity residential site on its own. obviously need to be reszoned but it's one of those items that will be on our list as we're looking at the future land to consider what do we want to do with that. Um so just some sites there you'll see as I said a few of them uh business uh most of them are are low density residential um that category generally you see that category where we don't have a lot of sewer capacity that we have enough to allow for essentially single family home development but we don't have enough sewer capacity to allow for a higher density project. Uh so where you see the the R2B or you see R3 those are ones where generally you have higher higher ser capacity available. Um so the uh on your on your table uh and it's in the slid set as well but I want to give you the bigger version. Uh asked our our our GIS specialist to put a a map together of the site. she did number them. Uh but uh just to give you an idea of where these sites are, they're all in the red on the map. Um

and so it just kind of gives you a picture for for where these properties are in the community. Uh number of them on this side of town. There's the uh the the vacant land to the north of us on the other side of Pickard Road up toward up to River Road. There's several properties there that fit within that that realm of kind of lower density housing. Yes. It seems like um for lowincome housing um transportation is going to be a key issue. So it seems like having prioritizing if you get to that point of actually developing prioritizing places that are on either routes with sidewalks or roots with some kind of access for people who aren't necessarily driving cars,

transit. Yeah, that would I think be a really important thing to keep in mind too when you're looking at development sites because this, you know, space off north here on Lincoln, lovely space, lovely place to live. Highly recommend this area of town or this area of the county, but at the same time, you have to drive everywhere. There's absolutely no way to walk. I mean, you see people walking, but it's you take your life in your hands when you walk on Lincoln. No, I mean people do walk on it, but I mean I really think that you have to think about that when you're trying to prioritize spaces is think about very carefully who is going to be using the space and the fact that many of them may not have cars or access to cars.

Well, one I I apologize if I if I created confusion. This map is not just for low-inccome housing or multiple family housing. This is simply these are spots that are good for potential residential development at various scales. And certainly this area Lincoln, we're near the end of the sewer pipe. uh if we go north on Lincoln up the river uh so it's going to be lowering or lower and lower density housing not low income but low density housing right

there's simply no way to do multiple family in there with our sewer capacity uh and and yes absolutely there where uh in fact this is one of the conversations we've had with the low-inccome developers because most of our low-inccome housing is on Isabella Road over uh basically around Broomfield to Bluegrass that space there uh no sidewalk box, no connectivity to anything. U and uh that's a huge challenge when we're trying to work on over time, but but but we're working on sidewalks getting him while on bluegrass in Brooklyn. We haven't even gotten to the point of extending him on his bill. There's no point in putting him on his bill if we don't have the connectivity to get into town from there.

Right. Uh so it you're absolutely correct. But yeah, I'm specifically saying low income for that. I I mean I think the it's nice to have an idea already of where you're sort of looking at residential potential residential development. Yeah.

So that one of the one of the one of the streets we have actually in this community is we have available property that's zoned for residential planned for it has water and sewer uh to it uh that it that was designed for the zoning. Um so can't not can't increase it but we but what it's zone for we can do it. Uh and so we have sites available and the challenge really has been on the development side. We simply don't have developers working in that space right now. Uh in part construction costs are very very high. Labor costs are very very high. U cost $400,000 to build a a modest single family home. uh you know certainly well over 300,000 u those are are numbers that you can't imagine just five even five years ago u and uh and so to to develop a subdivision for example or to develop an apartment community uh that is a very large risk and uh and so one of the things that that the regional plan looks at is how to mitigate that risk and how do we how do we try to find ways to incentivize some things that help to mitigate that risk. The state is also doing that. They have some new tools potentially available. Things are just starting to come online that that will help to balance the risk a little bit for the development committee. But in the housing side, it's there is a lot of risk for for developers and and so what we've generally seen is developers infilling existing uh subdivisions where there are vacant lots and they're buying those and and putting a single home on it and selling that home rather than developing developing new neighborhoods or new new projects. Uh well, that gets us right to the end here. The last thing on my list uh would be slide 98 if uh my amendment count is

correct. It's titled housing gap. Uh you'll see on on that page u uh the uh some some numbers there down towards the bottom there's a part of the bottom paragraph it says overall it's estimated that union has a minimum rental housing gap of 663 units and a minimum forale housing gap of 344 units. So right now the demand is that we could we could have 344 new for sale homes or condominiums and and they would go and I wouldn't be surprised at all that it would go uh very quickly because there is a real need for new housing. Same thing 600 units of rental housing that at at a minimum we could we could fill and we had the same thing like I said we might be able to build for student housing but we've talked about already there is a demand for for for the better rental housing that simply does not exist here and so when units become available they are snapped up very quickly. Uh and then on the following slide and this be the last one uh uh title strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Uh this this table here just uh kind of gives you a uh quick synopsis of of what they found and what they what they recommend as priorities. U the uh uh we talked about essentially talked about those priority prioritizing those commuters coming in. uh we have we have the land available. We yes we have development opportunities there and definitely have issues with with no almost virtually zero vacancy can see the low-inccome housing side. So these are just some for them the priority takeaways that that they had from our their look at our community that uh that I think are important to consider as we're moving forward from here. So that brings me to the end of the quick run through of uh the information.

U so I guess my question is what have you learned or what what did you what is there anything else that you found uh compelling that we should be talking about?

You know what this kind of made me thinking of this last part here about just how thin that margin of availability is and how quickly anything that's gets on the market uh gets snagged is something that came up a few meetings ago. We had someone come in about Airbnbs and about that rental. And we had someone come in who was in a unique space where they had another facility that they had built on their existing land for a relative that was no longer around. But since that time, I went on and did some research online. I found, you know, just personally and like just anecdotal looking maybe a dozen and a half people that have purchased properties in our township specifically for Airbnb rentals. People that are promoting like, oh, this is my third house that I purchased in the neighborhood, you know, for Airbnb. Come find us online. And that just reads, it just doesn't sit right with me, I guess, when I see such a need for housing. to then see what comes across to me a little bit like a hoarding situation, you know, or and seen how that's affected, you know, people like Traverse City and Gaylord that have higher housing needs in ours as it is already that have looked to ban it. But just I just question like uh if like self-reporting that we have right now for that type of venue is um has enough teeth in it, you know? Well, uh, actually, I'm glad you brought it up because what you're what you're telling me is that it's time for us to do another look. So, it's been a little while since we've done this. I the, uh, in terms of ordinance enforcement, um, we we are not patrolling the township, whether digitally or in person. Uh, obviously, we have we have eyes out. We have we have employees that that watch. We have certainly have people that let us know when they see something going on in their neighborhood. um and and when we're out

and about, we we look, we notice things and and uh and respond to them. But uh but there's not a dedicated zoning patrol going street to street watching for violations. Uh in the same way, there's not a dedicated uh patrol online going on the Airbnb site or Verbbo site. Uh we did we we have done that uh before and in fact you've experienced a result of that. We had a a project coming here before you for a special use permit. Uh and so what you're telling me is it's time to do again because those sites not only do they need the special use permit from you that's right now it's a special use it's public hearing u but also they are uh subject to our rental housing inspection program and that that is as important to me as the special use process is. I want I want the neighbors to know. Um just so everybody's aware, it's all above board. But more importantly, that that rental housing inspection and certification process, it's all about safety and and while some homes are perfectly set up to to be rental units, u there are a number that aren't, especially older properties, uh but we often see folks have to make significant changes in order to meet this the minimum safety requirements for the for the property maintenance code and our in our housing licensing ordinance. Um, and one one of those that came up actually in a previous review of those online sites end up choosing not to go into this the short-term housing because of the the scope of of improvements that were needed for safety um to uh to be a part of the rental program. So, one thing I'll I'll add on to that is I think it's a good idea to start to for us to look at that again because if we're going to start building new housing, whether it's, you know, regardless of what level of income it is, you're going to have those are going to look at that and go, it's an opportunity. I'm going to snatch up these properties and,

you know, put them on Airbnb or Verbbo. And speaking from experience, when I lived in Houston, uh, one of the things that they started doing was building those little small postage stamp sized uh, three-story town homes. And I did a little bit of Uber driving for a while. um in between jobs and I went to one of the brand new neighborhoods and there were like maybe three units that belong to actual people that lived there. The rest of them out of like I think it was 50 units all of them Verbbo and Airbnb and I would hate to see that happen here. Uh yeah, if if we already have a shortage of households and they're getting snapped up instantaneously, there just might not be the opportunity for the hoarders to get any more than they already have. So, if we do increase any number of housing, uh we could see definitely an uptick in in people who are doing short-term rentals. Mhm. If you'll forgive me for a moment, I'm going to look at that camera up there and just invite those that may be watching this. That it's far better to to uh uh come to us and and and uh and apply for the the things that need to apply for special use permit and the rental certification than for us to find them. uh because there are some potential penalties that apply when when uh when folks are doing things they shouldn't and are caught and have to do after the fact uh requests for that kind of stuff. So So there you go. I put it on the record on our video as well. So we don't have an audience here. U and we will certainly run the check again. It's been a little while since we've done that and see where we are. And if you find something since we have some folks that are interested in this, if you find out about things, please share them. Uh you can you can email Peter uh or email them to me if you if you prefer to email it to me. But Peter uh is our zoning administrator. So he's the direct ordinance enforcement official for that. So if you see something online,

screenshot it, share it with them. Hey, this is what I saw. U if you certainly hear of an address or know of an address where you think something's going on, let us know. What happens with any enforcement action, the first contact is informal. you may have a problem. It's not a you're in violation because we don't know that for sure.

It's even if we see Facebook posts or whatever and they have addresses orb. So our first response is always this is what's going on. This is what we we've learned. You know, you you you may be a violation. This is how you solve it. And like I said, one of those cases that we had the last time, although they were listed in in one of those directories, they had not started yet. And so they technically were not in violation. U because just listing there is not a violation. It's doing it that is a violation. Um so anyway, so please share those and and we treat everybody respectfully and we assume that they're that they're not in violation. If we're inviting essentially inviting a response and only when we we have that information that there is an issue, then we help them solve it.

All right. Well, that uh like I said that that brings to the end of what I have for the Okay. for these. I was going to I have a question and then a couple comments. Um I was looking at the SWAT thing and they mentioned one of the threats was the roughly 3,900 people who commute to a job outside the township. But is there any thought as to what fraction of those people commute to a job in Mount Pleasant? I mean I'm assuming if you like me if you drive into the city that's not the township. So they must be in that group as well, right? They would be in that group. Yes.

Okay. So that's got to be a large portion of those. Um I was this is really nice. I like this map. I was comparing it to our future land use map in our existing master plan. And I was happy to note that the majority of the what you've highlighted in red here, the majority of them are already designated for residential use. Not all of them, but the majority are. Um, I think one of the things that I would be interested in in knowing would be if there's if there's this demand out there, uh, we have developers who build single family homes, multifamily homes, you know, whatever. Why aren't they building more stuff if the if there's this demand out there? Is it because the demand is is they don't perceive it as being at the higher end which is what they want or is it you know is it you know what we've heard before from some sectors is it that there's too many too much regulation or too much of this or that I would just be curious to know what what you know why there isn't that you know more development going on

it's it's interesting on the regulation side that's certainly one of the comments the township is over is overregulated our our rules for for residential development have not significantly changed since the 1991 zoning ordinance or even earlier in some cases. our our subvision ordinance which is one of the ways to do a a residential a single family developments a subdivision plat that ordinance is the same which it dates back to 90 1994 or something like that hasn't changed the state law has been updated and actually we have to follow some things in the state law that that uh that have become a little bit easier haven't amended the ordinance to to get there yet but we follow state law even even though our ordinance is over but the rules haven't changed On the zoning ordinance side, even though we have a new zoning ordinance, the the requirements that would apply to condominium development, mult family development, aren't that significantly different. Landscaping might be a little bit more robust uh than than it was in 1991, but not that much. Uh and in fact in some cases it might actually be easier

to develop uh today than than it was under the 1991 or it just because things are a little more clear and setbacks are reduced in some cases. Parking requirements are reduced for multiple family in some cases. So uh the the comment that we're overregulating is simply not true. Uh the uh uh I I'm thinking maybe we'll try to see if we can get one or two office. I don't know if they will, but we'll see if maybe we can get uh somebody to come in and talk to you about it because I think it'd be worth hearing from them directly. Uh from my perspective, what I see is number one, just simply the high cost of materials and labor.

Those numbers are crazy. You went to Home Depot and if you can remember what you paid for that 2x4 in 2019, look at what you're paying for that 2x4 today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A sheet of plywood. Oh my gosh.

Um so that's what the what the the residential construction folks are doing as well. They might be able to get some things wholesale. Maybe it's a little bit of a break, but but in reality, they're paying those same multiples. Um and and then the other side of that in part of that really is the high cost of labor. Uh for reasons we've talked about there are fewer people u and we we have a lot of skilled trades folks that are aging out uh that are older and not not working as much as they they they did in this community. A lot a number of folks in the development community that are beginning to age out uh and are not as as motivated and not as they're not as driven as they may have once were. So they're not and they're also much more riskaverse than they might have been 101 15 years ago. So uh those are the pieces of the puzzle that that we're we're dealing with here uh that that is certainly affecting what what happens. U I think there is another number and that that population decline number the raw number of uh scarce folks. Uh they're not looking at the household number going up. They're looking at the population number going down and saying hey where's my market? uh what they're not looking at is is those niche markets. Uh and that was a conversation we had with the folks that came to us the other day. It's a conversation we have over over again there. We we may not have student everybody wants to build student housing because it's a college town. We that's over overdeveloped. But if you look over here, this market's underdeveloped. So even if overall it may not be growing, this market you could serve and have a great result. So that's the other piece of the puzzle is get is helping folks change their perspective and look at new opportunities. And it's it's been a hard one here. As I say, it's been very hard to get people to to look at it differently. Generally where we've had success, it's it's from folks that are uh not the older line development crowd, but they're folks

either that are moving in from out of the area or they are from out of the area and and see an opportunity here. Those are the folks we generally can already see it or we can help them to see that there might be something they want to explore.

Yeah. The other piece of this that you just mentioned, when I was preparing to read this, I thought that I was going to find that there was a large uh vacancy rate in that student housing. Uh it looks like they looked at four large complexes. I don't know which ones. I don't know whether they were all student. I don't know whether there were some significant ones that they didn't look at, but I was surprised that that the vacancy rate wasn't higher. I don't know if that's because they're letting fewer students live in each unit to keep them occupied or what they're doing, but I have to believe I mean Stan and I went through this and Peter in the in the late 2000 as early 201s we approved all these big developments and I can't believe that I know I understand that that a a professional is not probably going to want to live in a large development like that at least not for a long period of time but when you talk about potential affordable housing, other sorts of things, things like that can be retrofit and they can be, you know, because some of those those complexes are less than 20 years old still.

Yeah. Yeah. There certainly are opportunities and I think we're seeing as as Commissioner H said earlier, we're seeing people that are living in this type of housing, they're not students anymore. They may have been uh but others, this is simply the housing they have available. So I think that also is keeping those vacancy numbers down because the demand is there simply to have any kind of housing that's convenient to where you work such. So that's a piece of the puzzle.

Yeah. And maybe a higher lack of transitional housing out of that, you know, condominiums that people could buy that are affordable, things that people can move to long-term housing. I know lots of people that are still in those student housing because there's not really a another option for them to get out to someplace nicer. I mean they like do they like to set here they like to settle down and you know be part of this community long term but that housing crunch is making it hard for them to do it in a place that really feels like a quality home for them you know.

Uh to answer your question uh about the uh why aren't developers making more housing. Uh another thing that I've read reports on is just the fact that like with with the material cost um material cost does not scale linearly with the square footage of a house. And so it costs almost as much money to build a uh 800 square foot starter home for a small family as it does a 1,600 square foot or a 3200 square foot because the square footage is just empty space. And um the developers just want to get the most cash available and they they are the ones that uh like are pursuing the projects like the McMansions. Um just because yeah, you uh a $400,000 house costs almost as much to build as a $150,000 house. So why wouldn't you pocket the $250,000 extra? So thank you for your comments. Uh the last item on our our list uh is the right at the end of the packet u is uh the housing plan element. uh starts on page 104. Uh this is this is I just wanted to get your response. We're starting to put this piece together. Um and I wanted to get your response to the data that you've seen. Um and uh and so this the uh the first part of it, the part that's under director's note number one, uh the part that's in the box, the text box, this is new. It's just a simply took what what you shared with with uh with you before about your h priorities for housing when we did the framework for the master plan uh uh document. Uh and I essentially turned it into a purpose statement and a goal statement. Um and and so I just want to get that what we're doing with each of these sections. We'd like to

have that statement up in the top that kind of this is why this is important. Um, and uh, and so I want to just make sure that that we're on the right track with what what we wrote there. Uh, and if there's anything we should add or or emphasize differently and then and then the second part, direct uh, director's note number two, you see down there, part E, plan for housing, and we have a number of bullet points. These are this is direct this is your framework. This is what you what we worked on and what what you uh uh asked us to to build the master plan section for housing on. And so here again based on what you've learned tonight uh from based on what you've gained from the this information, is there anything we need to change or anything we need to add to these bullet points as we're putting the the document together, this section of the master plan? I have one chicken head. No,

don't touch anybody. No, I think it's mostly it's mostly relevant and apt for, you know, what we what we've been talking about. Um, one reaction I have is under the uh the plan, uh, number seven, yes, we should strike a careful balance, but I think the days of people coming to us with developments for large student complexes are are gone. um at least you know they'll eventually even the ones built in you know 2010 will eventually become old and they'll want to build probably something new but they're not going to be coming with those. So so you know something along the lines I worry about you know whether those whether any of them are just going to kind of become vacant or not no longer you know useful or whatever. So some sort of you know kind of transition to other types of housing or reuse or something would would be you know perhaps of interest but

overall I think it's good. Do you want to uh talk about number seven? Uh you want to simply strike the second sentence. Bluegrass area remains the best because in reality the bluegrass area is also very good for other things for professional housing. That's an area that is connected in or sidewalk network is not perfect there but but it's mostly there and you are close to to amenities and things you can walk. We have a ton of people walk on bluegrass road and encore. Uh, so it might actually if you're comfortable with it, it might actually be a good thing to strike that sentence that talks about that area for being for student housing. I would suggest then that you actually add maybe a phrase about appealing to sort of a young professional. If that's the demographic that we're really looking to hold because that's the one we're losing, that might make sense to highlight that instead. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that would be the that would be a place where you would imagine these uh potentially these developments that are, you know, commercial on the ground floor and have residences above and so on.

Um I wish Tim was still here because I was I could ask him. There was he's been to us a couple times with a potential project that didn't get off the ground the first time and then we talked again. Do you know if that's still possibly I think it was going to be on Broomfield,

the Den Broomfield it was called and uh uh the the developer this was a I believe a doctor I think that own the property uh and was this was part of his investment side of things. Uh he was unable to to uh get the bank to move this. He he got caught up in CO caught up in the credit crunch that came out of CO and uh he He simply stopped working on it. Plans are still there. They could pursue it anytime they wish. I we haven't talked to him about the long time, but he certainly could pursue it if he wished to.

One, you know, actually talking about that topic. That's what what this was for those that weren't on the plank at the time. Uh Broomfield Road and Sweeney Road. Sweeney Roads that that kind of snake- like road that goes through between Broomfield and and for us in the township between Broomfield and and Bluegrass. Uh and it's part of a larger development project that really never got going uh called Tall Grass development. A little bit things happened but not there. And there were several lots u this is directly west of the Social Security Administration building. Uh several lots there and and the proposal was build two buildings. I think Virgin was two buildings. The last version had them together as one building and they would be several stories tall, first floor, commercial office, residential above. Uh, and it's what what the ordinance calls a mixed use building and it's allowed in the in the business district. They wanted to to have more uh residences than I think than our ordinance would allow. They wanted basically an extra floor I think of residences. And so uh they were proposing it as a planned unit development. uh and it it and uh that was the direction they were headed. They never they never really got beyond the initial stage. I don't think we even held a public hearing on it. Uh but they did come and meet with the flying commission at the time. And we we have a I think a couple of iterations of concept plan. Uh and uh uh as I said it was essentially COVID material problems and then credit problems. uh banks to stop lending money uh that that uh pushed that project into into abance. But uh uh it was a nice project. One of the things is happening though in the development community rel these mixed use buildings is that the developers want residences on the first floor too. Uh they they may have commercial on part of the first floor, but they want to have uh residences down

there as well because the hardest thing to fill is the commercial side. Uh that the residences fill up very quickly. The commercial side is slow. U this happened downtown actually with our building that the the Green Tree Co-op is in. We're actually very fortunate. The Green Tree Co-op wanted to move there uh because it was the the commercial side that everybody was saying the residences are not going to sell. they're not they're not going to rent. It's going to be empty for a long time. Well, those residences all disappeared like that that the commercial side took longer uh to to fill. And that's definitely the case with these kinds of buildings. For this this this doctor, he was going to put his own practice in the first floor and I think he had a tenant that was going to take part of the other part of it. So, it wasn't an issue for him, but it is often an issue for folks that want to do this kind of thing. Uh so it's it may also be something we need to look at in terms of our ordinance. Uh and do we do we even go more on the residential side and allow them to be at least in part of the first floor? Um simply because as I said we have a we have a overabundance of commercial property uh and and have a real gap on the residential side. It's a it's an interesting challenge. At what point is it no longer commercial zone when it's all homes? Uh but but uh it is a it is something I think we're going to have to look at from a practical standpoint.

I I have a related like point slashquest to that. Something that uh Commissioner Hayes had had mentioned about there being the one the need for more housing, but two the need for uh more opportunity for the people here uh to be able to afford the housing. And um what like how do our plans like our master plans and stuff um in our future meetings h how does that tie into this? Are are we planning on doing something similar for uh researching how to attract uh businesses and and stuff like that uh

exactly? Yeah. So, if you recall, we we did the study of US 127 for industrial development, the core,

and shared with you some the results of that and and kind of a a first take on a on a plan for for for economic development, industrial development. That will be coming back to you uh updating that, revising that, and you'll have a a more complete document to respond to. Uh that's that was one of the items that I'm working on right now. Uh, and this is an item that the Middle Development Corporation's been helping us with as well to to uh make sure we're focused on the market right now and what what's expected in the next number of years. U so yes, that will be coming back. That is something that's part of my work right now. I work with uh go and meet with local businesses uh what I I call business retention visits. Sometimes they call them other things, but it's all about simply finding out what what the business community is need, what their concerns are. Um, and uh often when I've gone sometimes I I just go without appointment and surprise people occasionally. U but but that I learn things because they oh, you're from the township? Well, let me tell you about, you know, that's fine. That's great. I want that. uh it's very helpful for us as we as we work on what we're doing to have that communication. So there will be in terms of plan definitely that will be coming back to you.

Well and that's that's the industrial is uh do we have any plans on talking about uh I know that we had mentioned young professionals so professional services uh coming into the area as well. Uh that's a great question. So the uh so the the plan although we really we're talking industrial on that corridor the the I think the plan just called plan for economic development. Okay. And so yes, it will be broader than just industrial. Okay.

Although that's it's a important part of it. We also have uh in the current uh or current master plan we have we have a commercial plan essentially and it has a specific focus for the bluegrass uh center area uh that talks about some of the things that that that we wanted want to see happen there uh over time. Some some of which have come to pass, some not. uh we'll be coming back to you with a more focused look at that as well for commercial and office and the professional services side of things from a land use perspective. Now you're talking about really attracting businesses but we also have to deal with it from yeah

from the language side. So you'll you'll be seeing that as too that that's another one that is in the midst of being developed out of again out of the framework that you provided and and the the data that we have. We're we're putting that document together. Give your first first flush at it to take a look at and comment on other feedback for Rodney on the housing plan. You feel like you've gotten what you were looking for? I do. Thank you very much. Good discussion.

Okay, you're ready. So, we're in the home stretch here. Uh, let's see. We're ready for extended public comment. So, this is the second public comment of our meeting. If there's anyone who would like to address the planning commission on any item, whether it's on tonight's agenda or not, uh, make yourself known. If you're in the room, come to the podium. If you're online, make yourself presence known. We'll give you an opportunity to speak. This is public comment on any item. It's restricted to five minutes. just give us your name and address for the minutes. This public comment's open at 8:40 and we don't have anybody in the online and we don't have an audience right now. So, we'll we'll assume that we'll just go ahead and close that back up for another month. So, extended public comments closed at 8:41. Uh, next is final board comment. Any comments from board members? Um, nothing too much, but Ronnie, will we get an update on your uh communications with the master plan for Mount Pleasant and the roads and stuff like that? I don't want to

I if you don't mind, I can give it the two the short version. Yeah. Yeah.

So, we did communicate your your recommendations to the city. Uh I just saw recently their minutes uh for for their last meeting. Uh you can find them on their website. Uh I saw them through the Chamber of Commerce. Uh the Chamber of Commerce shares their minutes uh with their their members um and uh talked about sharing ours. Well, we do that, but that's another kind of conversation. Uh but anyway, they shared the minutes uh and they did uh talk about uh your direction to them. Uh they did not talk at all about the roundabout. There was nothing in the minutes about the roundabout. Uh but they did comment on some other things that they did make changes on. Specifically, they made a change to to put back the connection the Broadway Street extension comes over to Lincoln that's back in the plan. Uh they made a comment on uh or recognizing the comment about street routing M20. Uh but it wasn't clear in the minutes what they're if they did anything or not on that. Uh I have a right normally have a a meeting once a month with the city planner. Uh unfortunately the meeting this month uh had to be cancelled due to a conflict but we have one scheduled in another couple weeks I think

and uh so I was planning on learning more from that but at least on some of the things that that we shared with them they did respond to them and make adjustments u something else that I don't recall now but they made some adjustments other things at least acknowledged the comment it was interesting that the the But I don't know. There's nothing in the minutes about it. It's going to put a kink in things. Uh trying to develop bluegrass if we don't have pedestrian rightway there.

Well, in terms of constructing that uh that will involve the Michigan Department of Transportation and we will be part of that conversation since the township has one corner of that intersection. Uh and so uh I I suspect that we'll be on good discussion. I remember now the other item the other item was the uh the south interchange. Uh they did acknowledge the direction we gave and in fact very much agreed with it and they and they made adjustments uh along the lines that we we talked about related to f how how to focus on that potential interchange improvements and and improvements along that stretch of mission. Right. Thank you.

Yeah. All right, that's it. I'm done. Any other comments from commissioners? Okay. Well, we've completed our August agenda, so we'll stand adjourned until September. So, have a good evening, everybody.