Belleville planners recommend ordinance change on boat storage

After a public hearing on Jan. 11, the Belleville Planning Commission voted unanimously to send a recommendation to the city council for approval of an ordinance change on summer boat storage.
The ordinance amendment’s first reading was put on the city council’s Jan. 16 agenda, with the second reading and vote on adoption on the Feb. 5 agenda.
A proposed request for a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals for driveway storage of his boat during the summer was broached by Adam Beyer several months ago. Because of the shape of his lot in Victoria Commons he couldn’t store the boat behind his house, as required by ordinance.
The proposal of a change to the ordinance to promote the idea of the city as a boating community instead of a variance was considered and the ordinance amendment put together by City Manager Jason Smith, based on ordinances from other lakeside communities in the state.
The public hearing on the ordinance amendment was first to be set in Dec. 14 meeting, but the announcement wasn’t properly posted by the administration, so the commission heard comments from several residents on Dec. 14, but were cautioned by chairman Michael Hawkins that the public hearing wasn’t until Jan. 11 and their comments weren’t on the record until that meeting.
The public hearing on Jan. 11 had a rocky start, since the public hearing was posted by the administration for 7:30 p.m. and the meeting started at 7 p.m., leaving the commission a half hour to use up before it got to the item the people in the audience had come to address.
At 7:30 p.m., chairman Hawkins said, “Do you think we’ve stalled long enough?” and opened the public hearing.
The city manager introduced the proposed changes and commissioners discussed the proposal before members of the audience were invited to comment.
City Manager Smith said that the ordinance involved seasonal parking in a residential area for trailers and motorized watercraft between April 1 and Oct. 31, 12’ from the street and 5’ from the sidewalk edge as long as it doesn’t block any street signs. He said the city attorney preferred the measurements be left out and so they could do that and say it couldn’t encroach.
Chairman Hawkins said he has talked with Victoria Commons residents and they said it would be difficult to meet the 5’ measurement.
Smith said they could amend the amendment to say “it does not encroach on street or sidewalk and not block street signs and traffic.”
Commissioner Mike Renaud said he was not sure they could take out the measurements. He said in his neighborhood in Harbour Pointe the city doesn’t do anything about cars parking. He said an abandoned car without plates sat for six months without enforcement.
He said he didn’t complain because he didn’t want to be the bad guy.
Hawkins asked where the 5’ came from and Smith said it was Tawas. He had looked at that ordinance. He said they do have longer driveways in that area.
Renaud said at Harbour Pointe there is a boat parked at the end of the driveway at the street.
The public at the public hearing were then invited to speak.
Mary Emerson of Madelon Street asked those present not to take anything she said personally. She said two generations of her family have lived in the city.
“When we moved into Madelon, we were the youngest” and now they are senior citizens.
He said April to the end of October is way too long for the boat parking and the traditional dates are Memorial Day to Labor Day.
She said there was a boat parked across the street from them for two years. She had complained to the city many times without results.
Emerson said her husband Bill moved to Belleville when he was four years old. His sister came to visit and she is a walker. After walking around the city, the sister announced, “The town really looks trashy.”
Emerson said, “When nobody enforces the ordinance … everything goes to hell.” She said two cars are on the lawn on Liberty Street and they are not supposed to be parking on the lawn.
She said Belleville is so transient these days and people move in and out and have no connection to the city. She said other people care for their homes, plant flowers, mow the grass.
Emerson said luxuries such as boats cost money, space, insurance, and time. “I don’t want to see them parked on driveways,” she said. She said this will place more onus on the police department. She said kids already are breaking into cars.
“I still like the city, but I don’t like what I see,” she said.
Kent Emerson, no relation to Mary Emerson who just spoke, lives in Victoria Commons and at the last meeting had presented packets of pictures he had taken.
Chairman Hawkins said all of the vehicles in the pictures are against ordinances.
“It’s been a month, and they are still there… We still have a camper between two homes,” Kent Emerson said, noting now others are asking the homeowners’ association if they can park their campers, too.
“What’s the plan as far as enforcement?” he asked, adding the camper in the picture had weeds around it.
“Enforcement is not our area,” Hawkins said.
“I know. It’s the city council,” Kent Emerson said.
City Manager Smith said they are shifting things around to make enforcement a city council priority. “It’s 1,000% on the radar,” he said.
The third person to speak at the public hearing was Adam Beyer of Victoria Commons who started the whole boat parking issue.
He said he agreed with some of the stuff said and he promised Mary Emerson that he will never take offense to her words. He said his boat has a swing tongue, so he will have to swing it around but he can deal with that.
Beyer agreed that recreational vehicles are luxuries and they will be free for all the kids to break into. “Maybe,” he said. “It is what it is.”
“We live in a boating community, but maybe the time suggested is a little long from April through October,” he said.
“How many residents own a boat?” asked Mary Emerson and that information was not available.
Beyer said it’s on the city sign.
“If you live on the lake, you should have it in the lake,” she said of the boat.
Hawkins closed the public hearing after 25 minutes of discussion.
Mary Emerson asked if she calls in a complaint will anything be done? Smith said it would. She said in the past she had come in and talked to the city manager and police chief and nothing was done.
Smith said a lady called the city on Monday about a couch and matteress in a front yard and on Tuesday it was gone. “It gets addressed since I’ve been here,” he said.
Hawkins said they are getting off the subject. After more discussion the time for the summer boat parking was changed to May 1 to Sept. 15 and the distance from the sidewalk set for at least 1’ and 12’ from the street. The boat, pontoon or personal watercraft must be trailered and operable.
When they were discussing the dates, City Councilwoman Julie Kissel, who now serves as the council liaison to the commission, said, “I did not want this at all” and thought variances would be the way to go.
But, she said, it could be a big mess, if the variance were granted because a variance stays with the property after the present owner sells the property the new owner could use the variance in other ways.
Referring to the shorter time limit set, Commissioner Renaud pointed out that Beyer has his boat in storage and he can get it out any time to use it.
In other business at the one-hour-and-20-minute meeting, the commission:
• Reelected Michael Hawkins as chairman and elected Julie Kissel as vice chairman. Former vice chairman Matthew Wagner had resigned;
• Heard Smith report he will be meeting with Elizabeth Renaud and Tammy Dohring of Van Buren Township about ways the city can help with the Iron Belle Trail. He also said they had just finished the parks master plan and will look into the city master plan, which was redone in 2011 and refreshed in 2017;
• Heard Commissioner Becky Hasen ask about the upgrades to Victory Station that were coming and heard Smith say he thinks the city missed a deadline and that is not coming;
• Heard Smith announce that if any residents of the city want to be on the charter committee to let the clerk know. The city needs nine members, he said;
• Discussed the part of the B-2 ordinance that had been removed, but still is part of the ordinance. It was the part about the percentage of service businesses allowed per block. That will be researched. Hawkins said if it’s not out, they will have to start the process from the beginning to remove it; and
• Heard Hawkins say he hopes the city manager and police chief will work on ordinance enforcement.