VBT planners approve Sumpter Rd. Corridor Plan, text amendments

The Van Buren Township Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of a draft amendment to its 2020 Master Plan and the text amendments to support it in hopes of assuring that the property along Sumpter Road from Industrial Park Drive in Belleville to Bemis Road in Sumpter Township is developed in the highest manner.
The vote occurred at its July 27 regular meeting after public hearings were held on both the Sumpter Road Corridor Plan and the zoning ordinance text amendments. No one from the public spoke at either public hearing, with the first hearing taking two minutes and the second hearing taking four minutes.
Dan Power, VBT director of planning and economic development, and planning consultants Vidya Krishnan and Adam Cook of McKenna Associates have been working on this project for more than a year.
Director Power said they held a first public hearing on the Sumpter Road Corridor Plan and this is the second. He said this second hearing follows requirements of state law to let neighboring communities know of changes and to give them another chance to offer suggestions.
The plan has been on the township website for some time for people to study, he said.
Power said they have reached out to get input from the public for more than a year on this project and held a public hearing at the fire hall on Hull Road on July 28, 2021 that brought a good number of people.
After that meeting, the plans were changed. It had started out as proposing, among other things, commercial zoning placed in a strip along both sides of Sumpter Road from Hull Road to Bemis, with farmland being left behind the strip. But, residents didn’t like that plan and so it changed into proposed subdivisions on the farmland on both sides of Sumpter Road. The southeast and southwest corners of Hull Road are designated commercial anchor lots, as are the northeast and northwest corners at Bemis.
That plan has a mixed-use district and overlay district and four different kinds of lots, plus the anchor lots.
Power said Cook did an extensive history of the corridor, with pictures, and that information is part of the plan.
Power said implementation of the plan relies on the development of the R1C and Agricultural zoned lots by property owners. New development has to be consistent with those already there, he said.
He said there is no desire to expand the sanitary sewer system south of Hull and the subdivisions planned would be rural settlements in clusters. Power said a big No. 2 on the plan behind the old lumber yard at the corner of Sumpter/Hull is noted because the previous plan that if a parcel behind that lumber yard and the parcel on Hull behind that parcel come into the same ownership, it could be rezoned commercial, is no longer in effect.
Also, he said, the owner of the property on Bemis, at the northwest corner of Sumpter Road, said he may want to rezone from commercial to rural residential.
After the revised Master Plan was recommended to be sent on to the township board for approval, Power talked about the text amendments for the zoning ordinance that would support the Sumpter Road plan.
Power said they had multiple work sessions on the project with a commission subcommittee and many revisions. He said the text amendments include rules on setbacks, building types, specific uses, and an overlay district, that resembles the Belleville Road Corridor Plan, but with many differences. The newest revision was July 21.
Power said they removed the requirement for 50% glass for commercial buildings and added new permitted districts. He said they also clarified the appeals for building types and now have a more refined version of the ordinance.
“We have worked really hard on this,” Krishnan said during the discussion on the text amendments. “It is one of the best ordinances we have written.” She said it protects the area and at the same time fixes the properties that are not enhancing the area.
Commissioner Brian Cullin asked if any developers are waiting for this ordinance to be completed and Power said there are preliminary plans for what was the burger restaurant. Also, the residential building that was commercial and then restored could go back to residential use.
Commission chairman Bryon Kelley said he is not a fan of the word “appeal” because that brings up that it may be an issue for the Board of Zoning Appeals. He suggested using the words “reviewed” or “interpreted.” He said the word “appeal” makes it seems like, “I have a right. It should be more for review and interpretation, not a formal appeal.”
Krishnan said they could change that to “can request clarification from the planning commission.”
“Appeal is a loaded word,” Commissioner Jeff Jahr agreed.
“It’s a problem when you get pesky attorneys involved,” Kelley said, referring to himself.
Commissioner Jahr made the motion, seconded by Commissioner Cullin to recommend approval to the township board of additions to the zoning ordinance to initiate a proposed Sumpter Road Mixed Use zoning district and Sumpter Road overlay district. The motion stipulated that the word “appeal” would be replaced with the words suggested.
The motion passed unanimously.
The commission was meeting with a bare quorum with excused absences for Medina Atchinson and Callie Barr. Present were Treasurer Budd, Kelley, Cullin, and Jahr. There is a vacant seat.
The commission subcommittee working on the Sumpter Road Corridor Plan and the text amendments were Atchinson, Barr, and Jahr.
In other business at the one-hour-and-44-minute meeting, the board:
• Withdrew from the agenda a proposed landscaping modification at Menards, 10010 Belleville Rd., because more information is coming. The proposed plan is to reduce a roughly 160’ long section of the site’s northern greenbelt to a width of less than 20’ to allow for a gated express lane entry into the store’s lumber yard;
• Discussed possible changes to the present requirement of 30% of residential developments having side-entry garages and the present setback requirements. After much discussion, the commission informally directed Power and Krishnan to continue research and to bring back a written report;
• Voted to recommend to the township board approval of a zoning ordinance amendment concerning gasoline filling stations to make them special land use instead of allowing them by right the way it is now. Krishnan said under the current zoning, gas stations could be put in along Belleville Road to Ecorse by right. “We have enough gas stations now” in that area, she said; and
• Heard Commissioner Jahr note that he is glad the EV unit language was taken out of that gas station ordinance. Krishnan said that in her studies she found in Grand Rapids EV is exempt from zoning regulations, which she found shocking. Jahr said he thinks putting together an EV ordinance would be a good winter project, after the construction season is over. Power said that EV stations now are treated as accessory structures that are reviewed by the administration.