The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
FSW request for rezoning gets the OK
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: June 26, 2008
Magellan Development Co.'s bid for rezoning the former Federal Screw Works property was granted June 17 by the Chelsea City Planning Commission.
Advertisement
The shift from light industrial or I-1 zoning to Planned Use Development zoning made it through the commission with a 5-2 vote in favor of the change of zoning for the parcels on South Main and Congdon streets.
Commissioners Anne Valle and Rik Haugen voted against the motion, while Joel Abramson and Jack Garland were absent.
The plan submitted for the rezoning was largely unchanged from the one the commission saw last month.
It was tabled for some minor tweaks, including a setback increase for the first proposed building from 10 feet from Main Street to 15, as well as the removal of eight parking spaces on Congdon.
Proposed parking on the site currently consists of 137 parking spaces, although the worst-case development scenario would call for 175 to 185 spaces.
The proposed bank, restaurant, medical offices and retail space fall well below that guideline based on site traffic estimates for those types of development, according to Planning Commission officials.
Magellan's Rene Papo was on hand to discuss how he perceived the process thus far.
"I think we've addressed most of the issues, and the rest are pretty minor that can be addressed during the site plan process," he said.
According to commission documents, a review of the area plan - the basis for the PUD rezoning approval - was largely close enough to all of the stipulations and requirements of city ordinances to be acceptable to the City Council, or easily addressed through further interaction between the commission and Magellan.
Another detail the commission needs to address is its standard for ground floor clearance. Currently the maximum permitted in a PUD district is 20 percent and the plan submitted by Papo on behalf of Magellan has 23 percent specified, according to analysis of the area plan by the city's community planning consultant Carl Schmult.
"We are going to have our planning consultant and zoning administrator re-write the PUD ordinance to increase the ground floor coverage that is allowed," said Planning Commission Chairman Christopher Rode.
Currently there are no ground floor coverage requirements in other zoning districts, so it will be added to those in addition to the PUD requirement being increased, according to Rode.
Ground floor coverage, parking requirements and setbacks are all mechanisms to keep a building from taking up too much of the square footage of a land parcel, or conversely to allow them to fill parcels with structures in a denser urban area.
"We have new ordinance language that is going to go in place once we get past the Master Plan that we've been working on," Rode said.
Magellan originally came to the commission with a plan that called for C-2 Commercial zoning, which limits the types of goods and services provided to the public.
"The handwriting was on the wall for them," Rode said. "We weren't willing to recommend rezoning of the site to C-2. They wanted to ask for C-2 zoning because they weren't going to be constrained by the ground floor coverage percentage and they liked all the uses that were available to them in C-2."
Rode added that such zoning was "inconsistent with (the commission's) plan that was in place and being proposed for an amendment to the (city's) master plan."
"It really boiled down to they could do much of what they were going to do in C-2 with PUD rezoning," Rode said.
Another consideration is the developer's timetable, which involves wrapping up a brownfield abatement plan already in process with phase 1 and 2 site investigation completed.
"The brownfield plan is going to take us four to five months and it will take six months for work on a site plan once the (brownfield) plan is done," Papo said.
The site plan hinges on the brownfield.
According to city Planning and Zoning Administrator Jim Drolett, the city could have approved the brownfield plan as early as the June 24 City Council meeting, which would leave final approval up to the Michigan Economic Growth Authority, the body responsible for approving the plans and releasing the tax credits that developers receive for reforming such blighted properties.
Additionally the credit was recently increased from 10 to 12.5 percent by the Michigan Legislature last April (i.e. a $10 million development could receive a $1,250,000 tax credit once MEGA approves the plan).
"There still may be some minor adjustments to the plan," said Drolett. "There's time for that. The utility work has got to be done and we've taken that into consideration with the buildings.
"The traffic studies (also) have to be done. (Papo and Magellan) have to get driveway approval from (the Michigan Department of Transportation) for driveway cuts," Drolett added.
"It's on track, it's just a matter of time now."
Community outcry was relatively muted compared to last month's display by community members and Citizens to Keep Our FSW Heritage - a group of former FSW employees and their family members.
Residents Maura and James Robbins, and Tom and Mathilde McDaniels filed a letter with the commission, which was entered into the meeting's record.
"Our families live within one block of the site and we would like to point out that noise and lighting issues should be addressed cautiously," the letter stated.
"Unlike the Clock Tower complex, or the Main Street corridor, there are many houses that directly adjoin the site and therefore these issues warrant very serious consideration.
"We would ideally like to see Magellan consider how much noise certain businesses might create when they negotiate their leases."
The letter also brought up parking and traffic concerns, which will in part be hashed out during the site plan process and by MDOT.
According to Rode, the downtown has more to lose than gain in terms of parking without the Magellan development.
"The parking will be beneficial for the neighboring Chelsea Center for the Arts; they are very limited," Rode said.
"Parking in FSW will allow some parking for CCA events and other people that are in town that may be going other places downtown, but may be making stops elsewhere."
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
