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12/18/2019 Northfield Township Planning Commission meeting LiveTimeline
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------------ Start of Editorial -----------
produced by Jim Nelson, 12/27/2019 11:50 AM.
I have transcribed and linked to the entire discussion of the Planner's proposed 2020 goals. It's worth a read, a watch, and a listen - for the subtext. Responsibility has been diffused and is un coordinated. Committees are free running, guided mainly by confirmation bias. Little more than lip service is paid to the Communal Good.
You can see the end results in the Board's floundering attempts to save their only parking lot from being sold along with the 75 Barker Road Fire Hall.
Parking gets discussed in this discussion of PC goals. It's why I stood up on my hind legs and addressed the Planning Commission at this meeting. Somewhere in my sputtering was the seed of this editorial.
What's clear is that the Board's flailing will leave no parking to plan. They're selling the Barker Road property and trying to kickstart the sale of 80% of the North Village acreage to a developer whose sole intent is to maximize the number of housing units he can sell. No one is saying WTF!
- No one who matters, that is, those whose future is affected. That's the Whitmore Lake crowd, the people who rose up and overwhelmingly beat back the old ideas and old age behind the anti marijuana business referendum.
- Yeah, that's a hint.
But none of that is impacted by the Planning Commission 2020 planning discussed at this December 18th meeting. The parking lot capable properties will have already been sold out from under Township control.
On January 7th, the Township Board will convene in a special meeting. Supervisor Chockley is hell bent to turn over to developers, almost any developer out of this universe of two prospects, the Township's 23 lakeside acres. Township Planner's bullshit has transformed this land from Whitmore Lake's only chance at a real Lakeside Park into Whitmore Lake's only chance at filling the only remaining lakeside open space with asphalt, apartments, and Low Income Housing.
The upcoming January 7th special Board meeting was hastened and arranged specifically to give Chockley's hottest development prospect the chance to apply for major State of Michigan, MSHDA Low Income Housing grants, that maximize the developer's profits and maximize the diminishment of downtown Whitmore Lake.
Read the last Board meeting packet. I've made it easy:
In that packet is an assessor's valuation, a clueless and clumsy attempt to present the lost park land as a profit making venture. The property long listed at around $3 million by Van Curler will be sold to the developer for around a million. That property was intentionally and essentially given to the Township by Van Curler's family. It is irreplaceable lakeside open space.
- This is a Township government that knows the price - but the value of nothing.
What's really stunning about those developer plans is how little space is alloted for siting actual businesses, for growth.
So, Five lousy acres is the Board's grudging allocation to the promised Lakeside park. And part of that 5 acres very likely includes the Main Street road easement passing between the narrow sliver of a beach area east of the road and the balance of the five acres on the west side. Much of the balance of that five acres on the west side will be sucked up by asphalt: a ingress road and parking. Such largesse!
5 asphalt riddled acres for 8,000 residents.
A tiny park, forever.
------------ End of Editorial -----------
Here's a portable, clickable version of the LiveTimeline
12/18/2019 Northfield Township Planning Commission meeting LiveTimeline
And here's the stuck-to-the-webpage version of the LiveTimeline
Call to Order
Pledge of Allegiance
Roll Call
Motion to Adopt the Agenda
Call to the Public
Comments from Commissioners: None
Correspondence: None
Public Hearing
- Chairperson Roman explains Public Hearing process
- Roman: Motion to open public hearing
- Statement by Applicant
- Statement by Planning Consultant
- Roman: Call upon the public for anyone that supports or opposes
- Roman: Motion to close the public hearing
9.A Reports of Committees
- Board of Trustees Report
- Cousino: ZBA Report: ZBA did not meet
- Bird: Staff Report - nothing
- Lippens: Planning Consultant Report
- Start of garbled audio
- end of garbled audio
- No Parks and Rec Report
- Infante: Downtown Planning Group
Agenda Item 11.A and 11.B Approve Conditional use and Site Plan
- Lippens
- Roman: Motion to reccommend approval of the request for conditional use
- Approved 5:0
- Roman: Motion to approve site plan
Agenda Item C: Recommend to approval 2019 annual report of activities by the Planning Commission
- Lippens: Ah, yup; we got to that time of year again when we start talking about the next years work program..
- Lippens: and also make an annual report of our activities to the Board of Trustees
- Lippens: so we've prepared this for you to review. If you find it to be comprehensive,
- Lippens: we could vote to send it to the Board, but if we've got things we want add, changes we want to make, we can take comments and discussion tonight,
- Lippens: and then I can revise them for a January meeting and we can approve them at a later time.
- Roman: Ok. Thank you. I'll start with this one.
- Roman: I don't have any issues with the report on the first, second, and the begining of the third page
- Roman: The proposed work plan, I suppose, is what I have some questions, comments about
- Lippens: Uh, as you know, sometimes we carry over work that we suggested in the last work plan.
- Lippens: and this is kind of intended to be an ongoing work program for planning activities, and we have
- Lippens: got a lot done this year. A lot has happened.
- Lippens: but there are some things we talked about last year that we haven't had the opportunity, and we also had some ongoing projects like the Zoning ordinance, so
- Lippens: so I would like feedback
- Roman: I will give you some.
- Roman: Ok, number one. So do we have to keep the update to the Master Plan, because that's been finished?
- Roman: So, do you continue to work with Planning Commission to update the Zoning Ordinance, perhaps?
- Lippens: Oh, right, we should.... That should just say the Zoning Ordinance, yes
- Roman: update the Zoning ordinance...
- Roman: Code enforcement... As much as we can I agree that we support whatever code enforcement procedures are implementation
- Roman: Now again, it says of the Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance
- Roman: Really, should it say the Master Plan? We don't... When you're saying code enforcement
- Roman: I'm thinking like the code enforcement officer; I'm thinking like the Zoning Ordinance. Am I correct Mr. Lippens?
- Lippens: Well, uh, I think what it means is implementation of the Master Plan to the extent that there are goals of the Master Plan that could be supported.
- Roman: Ok, perhaps that could be worded differently then?
- Lippens: Yeah, but I don't object to taking it out. I mean, you're right. We enforce the ordinance, not the master plan.
- Roman: So, right, implementation of the scratch Master Plan in ??? the Zoning Ordinance
- Chick: Im trying to understand exactly where it says efforts to formalize code enforcement procedures
- Chick: Isn't that code enforcement procedures, wouldn't that come through the Board as opposed to the Planning Commission?
- Chick: Is that, isn't that an ordinance?
- Chick: Do we create the ordinance for code enforcement, is my question I guess... I don't think so.
- Lippens: well, no, so
- Lippens: There are, uh, Zoning issues that can be supported by Code enforcement.
- Lippens: but an ordinance, a standalone procedural ordinance would go to the Board.
- Lippens: What this is about is it's not just a workplan for the Planning Commission but for the Township Planner and you to kind of guide us in that work.
- Lippens: Um, we are called upon a lot to coordinate with the Building Department, the Zoning Administrator and the Code enforcement officer, as well as the Township Manager.
- Lippens: So... this is really in here for coordination of township activities as it relates to code enforcement
- Chick: [unintelligible] my question regarding the whole proposed 2019 workplan was that some of this I think that we were looking, I was looking for, of the workplan for the Planning Commission as opposed to, you know, this is kind of a very broad plan that encompasses a lot of Board issues too,so
- Roman: I agree with Ms Chick, Mr Lippens, that some of this... this is a report from the Planning Commission to the Board of Trustees regarding our
- Roman: what we've done in the past and what we intend to do in the future and not so much as what you may have on the plate
- Roman: I guess, and that's kind of, like from number 4 through, actually, all of them
- Roman: It's kind of reflective of that, although, we can go through each one if you want, but, um
- Roman: I think maybe the workplan should be like Ms. Chick says and what the actual Planning Commission will be looking to focus on for the coming year
- Lippens: Well, so, the reason why it's organized to include Planning Activities is that the Planning Commission and
- Lippens: the planning arm; we don't exist just to do the Planning Commission's work [40:23]
- Lippens: Of course you know this. It's the Board who sets the priorities.
- Lippens: and these projects that are going on. They are planning projects
- Lippens: All the coordination for the North Village Site Development that I've been working on
- Lippens: that is going to come to the Planning Commission once or if the Board selects a Developer.
- Lippens: so, the implementation of development programs, for instance, the Parks and Rec Master Plan update
- Lippens: That might not be a Planning Commission activity, per se, but it is a plan
- Lippens: and it is something that needs to be done. And the State encourages Planning Commissions to adopt those plans.
- Lippens: or to support those plans as well.
- Lippens: So, this is an opportunity for the Planning Commission to communicate to the Board
- Lippens: your support for planning activities. It doesn't have to be solely things that we do at Planning Commission
- Roman: Ok, so I guess we ought to go through each one
- Roman: Cause I understand what you're saying but some of these are not in the scope of the Planning Commission that I feel has been directed to us by the Board of Trustees. So with that, I mean, we can go through each one.
- Roman: Number 4, the North Village Site Development, my comment is that
- Roman: What part does the Planning Commission take on seeking grants? We really don't.
- Roman: although if one was presented to us of course we could look at it, and so forth
- Roman: but this is, and correct me if I'm wrong, we're not the point, lead on obtaining grants
- Roman: although that may be your scope as the planning consult, I don't see it as the Planning Commission's
- Roman: We don't work with the potential developers
- Roman: That was something that we discussed earlier, that we would prefer to be removed from the development process
- Roman: so we can look at it objectively.
- Lippens: right, that's ...
- Roman: Ok, I guess what I'm misunderstanding then. So this is the annual report that's required by ordinance from the Planning Commission to the Board of Trustees, Correct?
- Lippens: Correct.
- Roman: We do not direct yourself. Your direction comes not from just the Planning Commission but also administratively, from the Board.
- Roman: the Township Supervisor, the Township Manager, the Board of Trustees
- Roman: I'm not certain that all of these items have been written directive to the Planning Commission to partake
- Roman: So... that's my point.
- Roman: I'd like to just narrow it to/as a report from the Planning Commission to the Board of Trustees and not have such a general sense, like Ms Chick mentioned,
- Roman: where it includes possible items that you as the Planning Consultant might entertain for the Township as a whole
- Chick: Correct... To me this is more of what the Planner would be working with the Planning Commission and the Board.
- Chick: But some of these things on this plan are things the Planning Commission would not be working on without direction from the Board
- Chick: and number 5 in particular caught my eye. Providing a ? for developing Township Parking Lots
- Chick: This actually came up at the Board level and the Board decided they weren't going to direct the Planning Commission to work on any of this until they got new information on exactly what it meant.
- Chick: and how to implement it and the cost and all that before they directed it to the Planning Commission to consider.
- Lippens: Just. I.. I.. understand that, but just to revisit it.. that.. these items
- Lippens: items were on the work program that you sent to the Board last year and these are carryover items that are still important
- Roman: Not all of them. I would venture to say not all of them, but
- Lippens: Well the Parks and Recreation Master Plan update is new but the Downtown parking study was on there last year. North Village site development was on there last year.
- Lippens: And that's a plan. Looking at Downtown parking - that's a planning activity.
- Roman: It is but it wasn't directed specific... Correct me if I'm wrong Ms Chick. Was that a directive from the Board of Trustees for the Planning Commission to look at?
- Chick: A Downtown Parking Plan; I can see that as a Commission thing to come up with a plan for developing parking.
- Chick: but when we start getting to specifics about how to do that I don't think that should be on there so if you just wanna
- Chick: even encourage shared parking, but no, the Board has not in particular directed the Planning Commission to do a Downtown Parking study.
- Chick: I can see where it would be part of our work, but we haven't been directed to do it.
- Lippens: So the purpose of this is for the Planning Commission to discuss what's important, and then you forward this to the Board, so the Board can discuss and direct the Planning Commission to work on it, right?
- Lippens: So, that, I mean, we can remove the parking study. We can remove anything you want from this if you don't think it's important for us to work at.
- Lippens: But the purpose of this is to communicate to the Board things that we might wanna work on in the coming year so that then the Board can authorize us to work on them..
- Chick: I don't have any problem with the downtown parking study [47:03]
- Chick: I just don't want to see specific plans, or options, as part of the downtown parking study.
- Chick: as it's presented to the Board and let them direct us to do that work.
- Lippens: So I think we could cut provisions for developing Township Parking lots.
- Lippens: We could cut encouraging shared parking and providing payment in lieu of parking.
- Chick: Yeah.
- Roman: Ok, so that would be develop a parking plan for downtown that includes provisions..., what, what again?
- Lippens: provisions for developing parking lots, Township parking lots
- Roman: so you have the idea there
- Chick: So I'm [unintelligible] with the planner, cause the planner should be, presenting things to the Board that we should be considering and having them look at this and say, ok, let's work on that and then as we get this directed to us, then we can look at all the options,
- Roman: Again, the um, ok, that's for that one. Number 6
- Roman: Assist as needed with the evaluation of the Equalization Basin. Provide assistance in developing fact sheets, presentations, and facilitating discussions
- Roman: I'm sorry?
- Chick: That sounds like a Board
- Roman: I'm trying to give Mr. Lippens our input, so, I agree
- Roman: There's already been, or, there's an ongoing discussion, and I don't know the end result of it from the Board regarding the Equalization Basin
- Lippens: So, it's possible that this should drop off. I know I wrote this last year because it was while we were currently doing the Master Plan.
- Lippens: and we were thinking that uh there could be a part of growth evaluation as part of the Master Plan adoption process
- Lippens: But if the Board has handled this and Township, the Planning Commission doesn't feel there's work to us, for us to do in this regard since we have adopted the Master Plan now
- Lippens: I certainly wouldn't oppose dropping this from the list if...
- Chick: I don't think we're ready to make that kind of decision yet. We're still doing a design study. and we haven't even gotten past the design study to figure if we want to go forward, so
- Lippens: I would support cutting that if that's the feedback from
- Cousino: I'm just wondering, does the Board have a similar document that they work off of for their goals for the coming year, where a lot of this stuff could be transferred over to them and not be under our purview at this point in time?
- Cousino: Cause I agree with Larry that, uh, that it, that this feels like the Planner's role in what's going on but not necessarily the Planning Commission
- Cousino: Our role is, take direction from the Board and review plans that come in to us, site plans and that kind of stuff that's coming our way
- Cousino: We're not on committees where we're creating things out there besides Master Plans and Zoning Ordinances, right?
- Cousino: So we're not really out there trying to develop downtown parking so to speak as a commission. We can review it. We can have input. But we aren't, we aren't like out there bird doggin' it.
- Roman: I agree with your take on it, Mr Cousino.
- Infante: I absolutely agree also. My problem with 6, probably because I sit on the DDA,
- Infante: is that I thought that was what 8 was doing. In fact [unintelligible]
- Infante: is they are creating committees to look at developing, for example, um, park[unintelligible] at the Northfield,
- Infante: the North Village park. It seems to me the DDA is doing a lot of this work in conjunction with the Board
- Infante: and this is sort of Kitchen Sink for I think a lot of activities that we would receive
- Infante: requests for input or we would get documents after a lot of these decisions have been made or plans have been created
- Infante: but for us to be responsible for; a lot of this is grant writing, and as someone who writes grants,
- Infante: I thought, Wow; I didn't realize this was part of the DDA's purview.
- Infante: So, I just thought some of the financial work and a lot of the Committee work didn't seem like Planning Commission work
- Infante: especially because I sit on the DDA and I hear about it from them and they are doing it
- Roman: Thank you. Actually I think 8, 9, and 10 can be removed.
- Roman: We don't do a Capital Improvement Plan. That's a Board issue.
- Roman: and we don't secure MDNR grants
- Roman: although that may be a directive to you as a planning consultant
- Lippens: I've got no objections to removing 8, 9, and 10 if...
- Roman: Ok, so we go to 7. So we have, and Mr. Iaquinto's not here, we have a Parks and Recreation Committee
- Roman: so, I would think that, Miss Chick?
- Chick: The Parks and Rec master plan was actually created by the Parks and Rec. The Planning Commission had nothing to do with it.
- Chick: I don't even think it came before us at any point. It went right from Parks and Rec to the Board. for approval
- Roman: So it's already been approved
- Chick: Well, no, it needs to be updated, but when we did it last time, that was the process. It never came to the Planning Commission.
- Lippens: It should come to the Planning Commission
- Roman: And I agree with you Mr. Lippens.
- Roman: On a lot of topics that we're discussing and a lot of these topics that we've already dealt with in the past several years
- Roman: There's all these subcommittees... They should be coming to the Planning -
- Roman: in my view, and this is just my opinion,
- Roman: These subcommittees ought to be presenting their findings and thoughts to the planning commission
- Roman: so that we can review them and then we're the ones that should forward these things to the Board of Trustees
- Roman: and absolutely, that is not what is happening in the past several years. I guarantee yoiu that.
- Roman: Certain things, yes.
- Roman: Most things, no.
- Roman: and if you really look at the bylaws of the planning commission, it is our job
- Roman: to do many of these things
- Roman: We can do it as a subcommittee from ourselves. We can assign others to do those kinds of subcommittee work
- Roman: and what we have is the Board, on its discression, assigning subcommittee duties and none of them are coming back through the planning commission
- Roman: so really, I would hope that possibly you [addresses Chick] in your capacity could inform the administration and the Board of Trustees
- Roman: as to, I mean, somebody really needs to look at the bylaws and see the function of these groups
- Roman: and how they should coordinate and how they should communicate
- Roman: because we have a disconnect
- Lippins: Maybe that's something to add to the work plan. We could look at the bylaws.
- Roman: Well, there's certainly a lot of things we could work on.
- Roman: My point is that, again,
- Roman: as with some of the hot topics that we've had in the past two years,
- Roman: I'm not going to allow the planning commission to just jump in on a topic and discuss it for months on end
- Roman: forward it to the Board of Trustees and have a
- Roman: just a mess... I want more directive from the Board of Trustees
- Roman: directly to the Planning Commission, as to what they're after and
- Roman: and let us provide any help that we see necessary to guide the Township or guide the Board of Trustees to that goal
- Roman: We're not the plan setters; they are. But certainly we're here to serve and provide any assistance we can
- Roman: to do studies, to make recommendations, to look at it in depth
- Roman: Obviously because they have so many topics they can't do it.
- Roman: But yet again, that capacity's not being utilized by this Planning Commission. That's my opinion.
- Chick: And I'd just like to remind the Planning Commission that there was a motion passed at the Board level
- Chick: that nothing comes before the Planning Commission that hasn't been directed from the Board as a whole
- Chick: voted on as a Motion and then sent to the Planning Commission.
- Chick: I just had a comment.The Parks and Rec Master Plan. That was actually the first year they had done it. They probably didn't have a process. They just did it and put it through.
- Roman: I'll let other Commissioners... My opinion, for tonight on this proposal,
- Roman: Mr. Lippens, I'm good with 1 through 3, and the possible modification of 5
- Roman: and the rest of them I'm not really keen on but having this discussion tonight perhaps you can
- Roman: take away some further changes that you may want to make to this document
- Lippens: I would recommend that we keep 4 and 7 on here
- Lippens: because I do think they are things that we will wind up working on
- Lippens: over the course of this year or should work on
- Lippens: 4 being the North Village site development
- Lippens: even if that's through an application
- Lippens: but I anticipate that being something that will certainly and should certainly continue to involve Planning Commission
- Lippens: and I have been updating Planning Commission the entire year on our progress with that work
- Roman: If that's your intent I strongly suggest you alter your writing, your write-up of 4 and 7
- Roman: I would be willing to entertain it but not in its current language
- Chick: I would be ok with number 4... I don't think we should have anything to do with the grant
- Chick: We shouldn't be talking about acquiring additional lake frontage. That is a Board issue
- Chick: and DNR grants is again is not something that we, that's not our wheelhouse
- Infante: I would like to second that
- Lippens: I write grants for park funding so that's why it's in there, because oftentimes planners write grants
- Infante: Planners for sure
- Roman: So, if you want to provide us with another draft on the propsed work plan
- Roman: I think you want to say 2020, not 2019
- Infante: I might be missing something but on the other items, speaking of the categories
- Infante: Should the update of master plan be as completed on there???
- Lippens: No, I think you're right
- Lippens: It's kind of like a, uh, so big we forgot to put it on there
- Roman: So, um, we can see another document on that
- Roman: We'll go to the Calendar of 2020
- Cousino: Did we miss the whole marijuana thing?
- Cousino: It was pretty much occupying 95% of our time
