Belleville Planners working on parking, peddling/soliciting

The Belleville Planning Commission started reviewing the parking ordinance for the city at its regular meeting on May 14. Of special interest is the downtown area, said commission chairman Steve Jones.
Commissioner John Juriga, who is also an elected member of the Belleville Area District Library Board, was intent on talking about how much parking the city would require for a library. The present ordinance doesn’t have standards for libraries.
He said 800 people responded to the recent library survey and most wanted the library to stay in the city area.
“Parking may be a deal-breaker,” Juriga said.
The commission also talked about strip malls. Commissioner Henry Kurczewski said he recently drove to the new Secretary of State’s office in the Davenport Plaza and it was pouring rain. He said he drove around the whole building and couldn’t find a parking spot.
It was the understanding that the Secretary of State required 150 parking spaces. They will check on that figure and what number of parking spaces the strip mall needed to have and how that was determined.
“They are at their capacity and are built out at that site,” Jones said of the Davenport strip mall.
When asked when all the large machinery and piles of cement and other items will be cleaned away from the strip mall site, City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said that there is a time limit in the construction permit and she thinks the Davenports are still within that limit.
Commissioner Mike Renaud said the city ordinance calls for one vehicle parking for 150 square feet of store area.
When asked if there was room for another strip mall in the city, City Manager Kollmeyer said Woody Sloane bought three lots, the Pentamaki property, on Main and Third streets.
She said the city has a count of 400 parking spaces in downtown Belleville.
“Could you buy a lot and use it as a parking lot?” asked commission vice-chairman Michael Hawkins.
City Manager Kollmery said Sam Kassab already does that, charging his tenants for parking in his lot.
Renaud said the lot has to be within 300 feet of the building it services, under the city’s current ordinance.
Juriga said in the future the city may choose to change its parking standard. He said the library architect said one parking spot for every 450 square feet of building was reasonable.
Renaud wanted to know if that was gross square footage or usable square footage, because it makes a big difference.
Juriga said the commission’s planning consultant had said 450 square feet per parking spot was not unrealistic.
Juriga said the library has a new head counter and it logs 10,000 people per month.
“It’s not necessary to have that many parking spots,” Juriga said.
Kollmeyer said it costs money to bring the planner to meetings, so the commissioner and city administration can do some research.
Jones said in Berkley, one parking spot per 150 square feet of usable floor area is required. He said in looking at other communities, 300 was a popular number, with a few using 450.
“We’ve uncovered a number of areas in the parking ordinance to investigate,” Jones said, noting they will continue their work at the next meeting June 11.
Then, Kollmeyer gave them packets of information on the present ordinance on peddling and soliciting, plus ordinances from other communities to review on the same subject.
She said food vendors have been a recent problem. One BBQ vendor was at the Pentimaki property and Hayward’s and he didn’t have health department credentials. The vendor told the city he does this in Detroit, but he was moved out of the city.
She suggested commissioners check out the Municode website that allows people to review ordinances in other communities.
“Read and familiarize yourselves with other communities and we can discuss it at the next meeting,” Jones said.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us at the next meeting,” Kurczewski said.