City manager explains mess next door to Senior Co-op on Sumpter Rd.

At the Oct. 10 regular meeting of the Belleville Planning Commission, city manager Jason Smith explained the mess on the Davenport Brothers Construction property next door to the senior co-op on Sumpter Road.
City Manager Smith said after the Monday, Oct. 7, city council meeting which included a complaint from a co-op resident about the worsening conditions of the property, he sent a letter to Davenports on Tuesday.
Smith said that Steve Davenport told him his family’s company is demolishing buildings behind the former hardware store at Fifth Street and N. Liberty Street for the Downtown Development Authority to increase parking in the adjoining city lot.
Smith said Davenports are bringing the debris from the demolition site to their vacant property on Sumpter Road to sort out the debris for the landfill.
Smith said this property causes a constant state of distress for the neighbors and the conduits and trailers that produced other complaints have been moved off.
Building official Rick Rutherford said Davenport is waiting for a trucking company to come in to separate the stuff from Fifth Street.
He said Davenport had site plan approval to build homes on that property but then they didn’t continue and the approvals have lapsed and they have to come back before the planning commission to start over.
Rutherford said the Davenports are trying to solve several issues on the site, including water and stormwater.
He said after Davenports got site plan approval there were no permits issued because they couldn’t get through their engineering problems. He said they will have to put in infrastructure.
Smith explained that once they have a site plan approval they have 12 months to break ground and ground has not been broken.
Commissioner John Juriga said the city rezoned the property to residential so they could build and now they are storing equipment and other things on the lot.
Commissioner Michael Renuad asked why something wasn’t done about this sooner, since they talked about the mess on that residential property two months ago.
Rutherford said they told him they thought they had room there and could process the debris.
Commissioner Renaud said he has a friend who lives at the co-op and the mess is right on the co-op’s property line. He said the ordinance officer should move forthwith.
“We’re on it,” city manager Smith said. “I gave him 30 days to get it out.”
In another complaint against Davenport, Smith said Steve Davenport said he doesn’t remember being responsible for taking out the curb cut on Main Street when Davenports built the offices at 337 Main St.
Smith suggested it could have been agreed to with “a wink and a nod” and never put in writing, so it can’t be enforced.
Commissioner Becky Hasen said she remembers Davenport architect Wayde Hoppe presenting the project in a planning commission meeting and she recalls Hoppe saying that they’d take care of it. Over the years since 2016 when the site plan was approved, she has repeatedly asked about the curb cut that is a danger to pedestrians.
Commission chairman Michael Hawkins said the curb cut work was not in the drawings and it was already there.
Rutherford said he would try to find drawings and Smith said the date on the building is 2017, so it would be before then.
Smith also spoke about an ordinance violation at 553 Main, Paddle Belleville. He said when they talked to the business owner he said the city administration and the DDA should help him market his business not put up blockades.
Smith said Police Officer Jeffery Gueli, who is doing some ordinance work, will be sent over to cite him.
Juriga said he thinks Officer Gueli should be required to come to the planning commission meetings and Smith said Gueli is not the official ordinance officer and they have started negotiations for the new police union contract which he hopes will include Gueli as helping as ordinance officer.
It was pointed out Paddle Belleville has an A-frame sign that is allowable if it is taken in at night, but he can’t use trees, bushes, and shrubs to support signs and also there is a kayak on his property in the green space that the owner thinks promotes his business.
Rutherford said the business will be sent a letter of compliance, just for the sign.
Smith said the kayak gives off an appearance of unusable junk. He said if the owner doesn’t come into compliance, there will be a fine that will continue to be fined.
“We’d love to work with him,” Smith said.
In other business at the 58-minute meeting, the commission:
• Discussed the commission’s joint meeting on Oct. 2 with the DDA and city council concerning the rewriting of the Master Plan. The process is 12-18 months long. Giffels Webster consultants will put something on the city webpage in the next week or so to help with the Master Plan process. Andy Aamodt of Giffels Webster will be at the next commission meeting to continue the process;
• Heard Councilwoman Julie Kissel, who is a member of the commission as a liaison from the council, explain the by-law review now under way. She presented copies of the 2004 version and the 1996 Belleville and recent Traverse City by-laws that have been put together by city manager Smith, that contain the newest state laws. She said she put it all together for commissioners to review and then asked them to send her any thoughts to include;
• Discussed identifying non-conforming properties and zoning anomalies. Smith said he is unsure if the ordinance on the website is 100% accurate. He said the city council would like to get all of the codes scanned by Municode and linked to their website. The Clear Code would have the verified planning ordinances. Smith said new developers put together their plans from the ordinances on the city website and when it’s wrong they have to change their plans to comply, which costs them money. Smith said a lot of the city processes have been done verbally and they need to be in writing. Assistant city manager Steve Jones said they have to work out how to put the new stuff in and to verify that everything is up to date;
• Heard Commissioner Renaud question why the former hardware store, purchased by the DDA, is not listed for sale. He said he knows they want to put pop-up shops in there, but there are so many vacant spaces downtown. Smith said the DDA bought it to have control of it so that renters will not just come and go. It will be a business incubator that will train new businesses in how to work and proceed to a shop of its own. He said state and county groups are offering to help with incubators. Renaud said the DDA has owned the hardware store for a year now and asked how much longer will it be until we see some kind of movement. Assistant city manager Jones said he expects activity within the next six months. He said the issue is the wall and they can’t move forward without a repaired wall;
• Heard councilwoman Kissel say she hopes the videos taken by Van Buren Township at that day’s State of the Communities event will be posted on the city website; and
• Heard Rutherford say that the owners are working on the roof of the arcade building on South Street and the inside is gutted. They want to take down the awning and, “We’ll see where they go from here. We have no plans yet,” he said.