Belleville planners approve new city Master Plan, send it to council

At its regular meeting on April 9, the Belleville Planning Commission unanimously approved the 2026 city Master Plan and sent it on to the city council for final approval.
This was after a public hearing on the plan at which there were no public comments on the plan. The Independent was the only person in the audience.
Councilwoman Julie Kissel, who as commission vice-chairperson was chairing the meeting, said there were no questions from the public on the final document.
Absent from the meeting were chairman Jim Courage and commissioners Raytheon Martin and Mark Kowalski. Also absent was interim city manager Steve Jones.
A synopsis of the Master Plan was presented by Andy Aamodt, senior planner at Giffels Webster of Birmingham, and Ava Miller, staff planner at the firm.
They said the Master Plan work kicked off in August of 2024 and finally got to today’s public hearing and consideration of final adoption.
Councilwoman Kissel said they will bring the Master Plan to the city council at its April 20 meeting for approval.
Aamodt said state law puts the Master Plan in the hands of the planning commission, but if they want to send it on to the city council that is OK. He said the resolutions of adoption from both the planning commission and the city council will be printed in the Master Plan.
Aamodt said they may not see the Giffels Webster representatives at the council meeting, because their contract is over with the vote of the commission.
It was noted interim city manager Jones, who was absent from this meeting, may want to have them at the council meeting and he could arrange for that, if necessary.
In other business at the half-hour meeting, the commission:
• Heard a report from Kissel on the March subcommittee meeting of the tri-community planning commission. She said the three planning commissions meet together mainly to report on their activities. The subcommittee looks at specific issues. She said Ron Akers, director of municipal services for Van Buren Township, said he would find out about Sumpter Road easements. She said the VBT Water Study report on Belleville Lake will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on April 30 at the township hall and it may involve a proposed tax. The next joint meeting will be July 29 at Belleville’s new city hall;
• Heard Kissel also report that she prepared two stories and both may be in the next Van Buren Today magazine. She said she wrote about the joint planning commission meetings and also how to tell where you live, since the 48111 covers three municipalities and residents get confused;
• Heard commissioner Alvis Brigis comment on data centers. He said he finds it interesting that Google is the one behind the Van Buren Township data center because Google has the greenest effort for such facilities nationwide. “Google has shown itself to be the lesser of the evils,” he said. He said the water main project in the city blew out two toilets and other things in a house he owns, but that will be good in the long run since there was nasty sludge in the lines. He also said Hayward’s is looking very nice. There is a May 22 event at Diamondback with the “Belleville Three” performing where the Belleville High School Robotics Club will get a portion of the ticket prices, he said. The club will show off its robot there. He also said he wants to draw high-tech drone companies into Belleville to operate. He also proposed turning High Street into a park;
• Heard commissioner John Juriga remind them of the Mayor’s Ball on April 25 to benefit Friends of Michigan Animals Rescue. He said the Rotary’s Cozadd Foundation gave them a grant; and
• Learned the Atwater Bar and Grill, a taco-inspired tequila bar, opened at the former Bayou Grill location on Main Street. It was noted they brought tacos over to the city workers who were moving items from the current city hall to the new city hall.
After the meeting, Kissel gave the commission a tour of the new city hall, where the meeting had been held.