Township Information, Forms & Ordinances
Homestead and Inland Townships
Joint Planning Committee Workshop
Homestead Township Hall
11508 Honor Highway
Honor, MI 49640
March 18, 2008 at 7:00P.M.
Excused Absent: Mary Miller.
Other Present: Roger Williams, Paul Beechraft, Marilyn Wareham, Glen Puit, Carol Moore, Rhonda Ide, and Sharon Peregoy.
Chairman Hubbell called the meeting to order at 7:03pm.
Pledge Allegiance was recited.
Motion by Christy and seconded by Bill to approve the minutes from 19 Feb 2008 with corrections:
- Absent, Change Christy from "Absent" to "Excused."
- Review Resume for Zoning Administrator and Recording Secretary, changed "9 Mar 08" to "9 Apr 08."
- All Ayes, 1 Excused, Motion Carried.
- Other Present, add Jim Olson.
- Open Public Hearing, change "Merry Geetings" to "Mary Geetings."
- All Ayes, 1 Excused, Motion Carried.
- All Ayes, 1 Excused, Motion Carried.
Bills: Christy submitted a bill from our Attorney for $42.00, for services rendered. The Joint Planning Commission (JPC) members submitted their Vouchers for payment. Motion by Christy and seconded by Bruce, All Ayes, 1 Excused, Motion Carried.
Reports of Township Board Representatives:
- Zelda gave copy of minutes to Township Board Members. Homestead Township Board approved and transferred money into JPC account.
- Mary also gave copy of minutes to Board Members. Inland Township Board approved and transferred money into JPC account. Mary didn’t think the Homestead money has been transferred into JPC account at current time.
New Business: Interview of Recording Secretaries: Dan stated to the JPC that 2 individuals, Sharon Peregoy and Rhonda Ide are in attendance for interview.
- Roger interviewed Sharon first. Sharon told about herself and family, and stated they just moved to Inland Township 1 ½ months ago. She previously worked for the Dean of Davenport and has experience as a medical transcriber. She is currently a stay at home mother and would have not conflict in attending the meetings.
- Next Roger interviewed Rhonda. Rhonda withdrew her application. She stated she felt Sharon was a perfect fit for this type of job and highly recommended her.
- Zelda made a motion to hire Sharon as Recording Secretary, seconded by Jessica, all Ayes, 1 Excused, Motion Carried.
- Roger Williams stated that he did not use a retainer that he only charged for work done. He also stated that the Master plan is pretty well done. His contract ran out 6-weeks ago, but we still have some work to do, but not much.
- Bruce made a motion to accept, seconded by Zelda, all Ayes, 1 Excused, Motion Carried.
Review Written and Verbal Comments from Special Meeting on 4 and 5 Mar 2008: Roger Williams presented a complete breakdown of questions to be answered by the JPC board.
Mr. Graham reviewed the Master Plan and he came up with 14 written points:
- The planning commission has the right to hold more than one public meeting.
- Township Planning Act. Mr. Graham said that actually the joint planning commission is under Act 226. He wanted to make sure that the two townships created it legally and by ordinance and if it wasn’t to make sure it is fixed by the next board meeting. Looked up in past record and found that the JPC was done legally and within ordinance rules.
- Mr. Olson’s letter about changing the Master plan. All in agreement to insert sentence stating this is not the master plan. This has already been changed.
- Talked about using Mr. Olson’s language so that the Master plan would be more environmentally oriented than it is right now. Comments made, no decision.
- Mr. Olson wanted to know about growth trends and wanting a specific time period. Bruce Anderson stated to leave it at 20 years.
- Issue six and seven have to do with page numbers. It has been corrected.
- Soil: On page 44 of the master plan, we do make reference to the soil and the future planned use recommendation.
- Home Based Businesses: On page 34, it describes home based business then it is described as home-based occupation. JPC agreed to have it changed to home occupation.
- Goals: Mr. Olson would prefer to have the goals more precise and unambiguous. Comment made by Zelda noting page 36 and that a lot of goals are from the old master plan.
- Zoning Regulations: JPC noted that not all objectives have to do with zoning. More work needs to be done with this however.
- JPC to place paragraph at the end of the goal on page 41. It will be more like a summary. We made the objective more pertinent since a lot of our goals came directly from the old master plan.
- Mr. Olson had a question about the pasture scene. Mr. Olson received the photograph and now understands what it means.
- Mr. Olson stated that the future land use map follows the existing land use map patterns. JPC stated that is what they wanted it to do. Nothing will be done to change this.
- Michigan Land Use Institute Letter: Comments to the planned commercial development areas along US 31 were discussed. JPC stated that there was no over abundance of commercial use land. It could be shortened and depth added. Bruce Anderson asked primarily in Inland Township. Commercial extends down into residential property around Reynolds Road, in Section 15. What could be done about that? Roger Williams responded by saying that in 20 years this property is probably going to be zoned commercial.
- Open Space: There is a concern about sprawling of commercial property and taking away from the areas value and uniqueness and would like to see a goal encouraging the use of land for agriculture and forest business.
- Reference to page 39. Roger Williams stated that the Master plan does not comment on the Forestry and that it should because it is pretty important. The state has their own plans as to how they want to cut and harvest the state owned forest.
- Future land use map does not promote clustering of commercial developments. Zelda stated that may be the zone of the commercial land should be made deeper and not as long as to keep sprawling down, but that she did not feel that there was an over abundance of commercial land.
- Mr. Olson’s comments submitted 14 Sep 2007, and reiterated 4 Mar 2008.
- Would like to see workshops and surveys to get public participation. Bruce asked how do we get people in here for the meetings?
- Questions using the Executive Summary as the master plan. Executive Summary should not be a substitute for the Maser Plan. He stated that it does not have enough emphasis on goals and has too much emphasis on the commercial growth on US 31.
- He felt the introduction was too apologetic or unnecessarily justifying the need for a master plan. Comment made that it is what the constituents want and it shows that we are breaking away from the county zoning. It is not apologizing, but shows the intent to take back Zoning from the County. Jessica recommended taking out the first sentence of this paragraph. JPC members agreed.
- Natural Features, Chapter 5: Mr. Olson states that we should add a paragraph encouraging protection by special zoning tools. Comment by Roger Williams was made not to put any special zoning tools. He would like to keep the master plan flexible and put zoning tools into the zoning ordinance where they belong.
- Existing Land Use and Growth: Mr. Olson would like to add the impact on TC and Grand Traverse County and that it put more pressure on private land for development. Roger Williams stated that if we look at how the existing land use map was created. The reason the land use map is the way it is because of the impact on TC and GT County. You don’t see the impact once you cross the county line.
- Goals and Objectives: Mr. Olson feels we should add development rights and transfer of development rights to the introductory text. Bruce stated that this a zoning issue and techniques.
- Under Natural Resources we talked about the importance of water resources. Mr. Olson feels that we should spell this out a little better. Comment was made that Mr. Olson’s comments were in the best interest of the JPC. However, a lot of his comments were semantically and we could discuss the semantics and tear this apart but and still come up with a series of semantically preferences over and over again. To fine tune and refine, I don’t know where that system would end up. I don’t want to make this seem like a negative; I appreciate it, but we do need to leave a little flexibility. Bruce Anderson stated that the DEQ controls our water resources.
- Change “Wise Management” to “Wise Conservation”. Mary stated that she felt that Conservation sounded to constrictive with Management meaning use and Conservation meaning protection. Comment was that we need to be careful that we don’t use wording that can be vague. Bill stated, that to him Conservation meant a specific type of Management. He prefers to see Management in there giving the master plan a little leeway and the ability to make decisions as things progress.
- Recreation: Mr. Olson feels that the last line (page 37) “Wide Range of Recreation Opportunities are too ambiguous”. Bruce feels that we should leave this alone.
- Under Objective under Recreation: Mr. Olson would like to see “optimum capacity” be changed to “appropriate capacity”. JPC agreed to change the wording to appropriate as it would be consistent with the rest of the wording in this area of the master plan.
- Unique Natural Area: Mr. Olson would like to see the sentence (top of page 38) changed to “Unique Natural Areas and Features”. He would also like to have an objective that stresses the protection of wildlife habitat, biological diversity, wildlife, including corridors for animals, birds, and waterfowls. No Comments made by JPC.
- Mr. Olson would also like to see a bullet that states: land uses on public and private lands should be coordinate between the Townships, Federal, and State Agencies so that State and Federal Government decisions are consistent with and do not impair the natural resources and are consistent with the high quality of natural resources and recreation in the townships. Roger Williams explained that it is for the protection of the Townships. JPC feels that bullet one under Recreation covers this.
- Public and Community Services: Roger Williams said this goes under zoning and should be added that the Township is not responsible for any state take over, and is pretty well covered. He also believes that we should take a stand on alternative energy sources to the residents and businesses in the Township. Bill comment was, that he did not know what kind of technology was going to come in the next 20 years, and felt that it limits us.
- Transportation and Land Use: Jessica stated that she felt we should not specify any one specific type of transportation. Zelda suggested a bullet being added for encouraging alternative energy sources. JPC would also like to see a bullet added for public transportation. Jessica agreed however, did not want to specify any one type of transportation.
- Mr. Olson also had a suggestion that we should encourage pervious (gravel) roads and parking lots and scale down the size, and add on as needed. It would allow water to soak back into the ground. This goes more into zoning rather than planning.
- Housing and Residential: Fred agreed with the stipulation that it conserves natural resources. Also, locate houses in or near the village or in existing high-density residential area when possible. The future land use map shows only two land use districts for housing. Medium density should be encouraged near the village and existing water and sewer areas. Bruce said that this was a zoning issue.
- Business: Mr. Olson recommended locating commercial in or around existing villages or commercial centers. Roger Williams said that this again was a zoning issue and was pretty restrictive. JPC members agreed.
- Agriculture: Goals appear to convert agricultural land into residential. Roger Williams said that we should change the wording of this and add a bullet to include forestry products.
- Employment: Mr. Olson would like to see a bullet added to encourage outdoor recreation businesses and related to conservation, agriculture, forestry, water resources, biological education, science, research projects, and facilities. Bruce disagreed.
- Future Land Use Plan: Mr. Olson stated the plan restricts Honor to what it is today. Roger Williams noted that the village of Honor does have its own plan and zoning ordinance.
- Mr. Olson did have a recommendation at the public hearing held 4 Mar 2008 (page 45). He would like to see the wording changed from “designated” to “reserved for various”. Roger Williams said he did not have a problem with that. Roger also said that he thought it was a good idea to change the third sentence to say “Subdivision and other types of group and mixed use development near existing village and business centers” JPC members agreed.
- Cliff Graves: BCPC Requests that recommendation in the county plan be incorporated into the master plan and zoning ordinance. JPC stated that this had been previously addressed.
- Kathy Ralston: Wondered what kind of a census JPC had received. No comments made.
- Jim Olson: Reiterated his comments in his letter. Has already been discussed.
- Glenn Puit: Spoke about news letter and the commercialization of US 31 and that is needs to be restricted to specific areas and that the JPC needs to aim for low density.
- Terry Money: Stated that we should always keep our state land. Jessica stated that she took two key points away from this; 1) He is an advocate for citizens private rights, and 2) is to keep state land zoned.
- Glen Puit: Reiterated his comments made at the previous meetings. Also spoke about sprawling issues and changing the zoning of commercial land from the Intersections of Lamb Road to Lake Ann Road. Stated this will continue the Sprawling in this area.
- Carol Moore: Stated that if anyone has a problem with commercial land zoning, maybe they should purchase the land, and that way, they can protect it from development. Isn’t that why were Americans too have the right to choose what we want to do with our own land?
- Paul Beechraft: Stated that the commercial land along US 31 was designed back when Inland Township had its own Master Plan. Benzie County Planning Commission (Don Schwartz) spearheaded this project and was the main push to establish this area as commercial use.
Next Meeting will be a special meeting at Homestead Township on 9 Apr 2008 at 7:00pm. JPC will listen to a Briefing provided by Mr. Cortwright on Planning/Zoning and will also review the Job Resumes for Part Time Zoning Administrators. Motion to adjourn made by Bruce and seconded by Fred, all Ayes, 1 Excused Absent, Motion Carried.
Meeting adjourned at 9:30pm
Submitted by
Sharon Peregoy
JPC Recording Secretary
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