Sumpter Planners set two public hearings on ordinance amendments

At its 33-minute zoom meeting on Nov. 4, the Sumpter Township Planning Commission set two virtual public hearings for 7 p.m., Dec. 9, to get public comment on two proposed ordinance amendments.
Jon Enos of Carlisle Wortman was present as planning consultant since the township’s former consultant Chris Adkin went to work for another firm in Jackson.
Enos said the text amendment recommended for allowing outdoor vehicle sales in a light industrial district would permit auto repair and vehicle sales in the same district.
Enos said he recommends the dealership as a special use, conditional use, that would require each such request to be approved by the township board.
“We don’t want it to be a junkyard,” he said.
The car sales use was requested by Adil, who owns 50425 Bemis Rd., that was approved as a slaughterhouse and now is doing auto repairs, as well. Once the text amendment is approved, he will apply for selling cars.
“These kinds of uses tend to get a little busy,” Enos said. “We can revoke special use.”
Trustee Matt Oddy, who sits on the planning commission as board liaison, said the township has an auction business that sells cars and that property wraps around Fox Auto and touches this property on Bemis.
Commissioners thought they were holding a public hearing on the text amendment and voted to send it on to the board with a recommendation for approval.
But it was determined that this meeting was not advertised as a public hearing, but only a public meeting, so a public hearing was set for Dec. 9.
The agenda for the Nov. 4 meeting had mistakenly listed both Item A, the zoning text amendment, and Item B, the proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance, as public hearings.
Trustee Oddy introduced Item B, the proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance, which is to establish, regulate, and specifically define the permitted locations for registered Primary CareGiver Operations being conducted under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act of 2008 within Sumpter Township.
These are changes to Ordinance sections 4.15.2, 5.16.2, and 6.55.
Oddy said this item came to the board at the recommendation of township attorney Rob Young who sat quietly during the zoom session, as Oddy continued.
He said a portion of this was repealed by the board a couple of years earlier because there had been lawsuits on the provisionary center part and the Michigan Township Association recommended townships repeal that portion.
He said this is not to be construed as opting into the MMFLA (Medical Marijuana Facilities Licensing Act of 2016).
Oddy said there have been positive court cases that encouraged reinstatement of the zoning ordinance where the township can state where caregivers can grow outside of their primary residences and that would be in an industrial zoned property.
He said they would need to set a public hearing so the township can get this back on its books.
Oddy said attorney Young would send out some new versions and meanwhile they would put out notices for a public hearing in 30 days. The commission can discuss the changes and get public input and then approve acceptance by the board.
He said what they are proposing is what every community, whose ordinance he read, is doing and putting it in industrial-zoned property.
He said this may be superceded by the state which is considering changes to the law.
[Van Buren Township amended its ordinance as well by approving the second reading on Dec. 1, 2021, but it restricted caregivers to keep grows in residential areas only, under strict guidelines using up to 300 square feet of the dwelling or 20% of the home.] Young thanked Oddy for explaining the item and said this item was referred to the planning commission by the township board for the commission to look at. He said this is not opting in but giving more control by municipalities about where they let these grows be.
The commission also approved planning commission meeting dates for 2022. They were told they were quarterly, similar to last year: Feb. 10, May. 12, Aug. 11, and Nov. 10.
The commission approved the minutes of its last meeting, which was on June 10.
Absent from the meeting was Commissioner Richard Pokerwinski. Daniel Watson, who was identified as an “Alternate” on the agenda, voted as part of the commission.