Minutes of the
regular meeting of the Georgetown Township Planning Commission, held Wednesday,
August 16, 2006
Meeting called to order by
Chairman Honderd at 7:30 p.m.
Present: Honderd, Poskey, DeGood, South,
Huizinga, Pearson, Stasiak
Absent: none
#060816-01 - Agenda for August 16, 2006
Moved by
Huizinga, seconded by Stasiak, to approve the agenda for August 16, 2006, as
presented.
MOTION
CARRIED.
#060816-02 - Minutes
of the special meeting held on August 1, 2006 and the
minutes of the
August
2, 2006 meeting
Moved by Stasiak, seconded by Pearson, to approve the
minutes of the August 2, 2006 meeting,
as submitted.
MOTION
CARRIED.
Moved by Pearson, seconded by Stasiak, to approve the minutes
of the special meeting held on August 1, 2006, as submitted.
MOTION
CARRIED.
#060816-03 - Proposed Changes to bring the Zoning
Ordinance in compliance with the ZEA
Highlights of the ZEA
(Michigan Zoning Enabling Act) (if nothing is listed, the Zoning Ordinance
appears to be in compliance with the ZEA):
1. Notices are now required as follows for special use permits,
PUDs, zoning ordinance
amendments,
variances, for ZBA interpretation or appeal of decision for a specific parcel
and for rezonings of 10 or fewer adjacent properties {if more than 10 adjacent
properties, notices are not required to be sent to property owners or occupants
within 300 feet and no addresses are necessary , (MCL125.3103)}:
a. Published in paper of general
circulation once at least 15 days before the date of the
hearing
or the date of the meeting at which the application will be considered;
b. Notices are to be sent not less than 15
days before the date the application will be
considered
for approval to:
1. All persons to whom real property is
assessed within 300 feet of the property
(even
if in another municipality);
2.
The occupant (the
term “occupant” may be used) of structures within 300 feet if
different
than the owners (even if in another municipality);
3. Owners of property for which the
approval is being considered.
4. ZBA notices must also be sent to the
person requesting the interpretation or
appeal
2. Notices must include:
a. Nature
of the application;
b. State the time, date and place of
meeting;
c. Indicate the property that is the
subject of the request (if 10 or fewer adjacent properties,
the
notice must include the street addresses within the property);
d. Indicate where and when written
comments will be received.
3. Sec. 308(2) requires that the Planning Commission prepare an
annual report for the Board on the
administration
and enforcement of the ordinance.
4. Sec. 307(1) requires that zoning ordinances and maps be submitted
to the County Planning
Commission
for review and recommendation.
5.
Sec. 401(3)
changes the requirement of the Board to refer back to the Planning Commission
(if the Board does not concur with the PC recommendation) to an option (unless
it is substantially different, in which case it must follow the whole procedure
again).
6.
Sec. 401(5)
requires a zoning ordinance or amendments to be approved by a majority vote of
the members of the legislative body.
7.
Sec. 401(6)
states that the zoning ordinance shall take effect 7 days after publication
after adoption (must be published within 15 days of adoption)
8.
Sec. 405 allows
for conditional rezoning but states “may” so it is not required to be allowed.
9.
Sec. 602(1) gives
the chairman of the ZBA the authority to administer oaths and compel the
attendance of witnesses.
The following were proposed Zoning Ordinance
amendments to bring the Zoning Ordinance into compliance with the new Zoning
Enabling Act:
The
Township Board is authorized and empowered to cause this
Ordinance to be amended, supplemented or changed. Proposals for amendments may
be initiated by the Township Board, the Planning Commission or by petition of
one or more owners of property in Georgetown Township affected by such proposed
amendment. The procedure for amending this Ordinance shall be as follows:
(A) Each
petition shall be submitted to the Zoning Administrator, accompanied by a fee
as established by the Township Board, and then referred to the
Township Clerk to set a hearing date and publish notices. The petitioner shall attend a pre-application
meeting with the zoning administrator prior to submission of the application in
accordance with the established Township policy. (revised 11-28-2005)
(B) The
Planning Commission shall conduct a public hearing, the notice of which shall
be given by two (2) publications
in a newspaper of general local circulation, the first not more than thirty
(30) nor less than twenty (20) days and the second not more than eight (8) days
prior to the date of said hearing. in accordance
with the statutory requirements of the State of Michigan.
(C) If the property involved borders another
local government, the Clerk of said municipality is also to be given notice of
the public hearing and said municipality to be given an opportunity to comment
on any coordinated action or review deemed necessary.
(D) Notice of the public hearing shall be
mailed to property owners, as reflected on the tax rolls, of property which
lies within three hundred (300) feet of the affected property.
(E) If the affected property is within five
hundred (500) feet of a Municipal boundary, the Planning Commission, following
the public hearing, shall transmit its recommendation to the Ottawa County
Planning Commission which shall review and comment upon the request within
thirty (30) days of its receipt. Following such review period, if applicable,
the Township Board shall
deny, approve, or approve with conditions such amendment.
(F)(C) The Township Board may hold additional
hearings if it considers it necessary. Notice of such hearing shall be published
not more than fifteen (15) days nor less than five (5) days before the hearing. in accordance with the statutory
requirements of the State of Michigan.
(G)(D) No
petition for rezoning or Special Land Use , which has been disapproved , shall
be resubmitted for a period of one (1) year from the date of disapproval,
except as may be permitted after learning of new and significant facts or
conditions which might result in favorable action upon resubmittal.
VARIANCES
When a
notice of appeal has been filed in proper form with the Board of Appeals, the Secretary shall
immediately place said request for appeal upon the calendar for hearing, and shall cause notices stating the
time, place and object of the hearing to be served personally or by mail
addressed to the parties making the request for appeal, at least five (5) days
prior to the date of the scheduled hearing. All notices shall be sent to the
addresses given in the last assessment roll. notice of such
hearing shall be in accordance with the statutory requirements of the
State of Michigan. The
Board may recess such hearings from time to time, and, if the time and place of
the continued hearing be publicly announced at the time of adjournment, no
further notice shall be required.
ADDITIONAL PROPOSED CHANGES
(A) The
Township Board of Appeals shall consist of five (5) members. The first
member of such Board of Appeals shall be a member of the Township Planning
Commission; the second member may be a member of the Township Board; the
additional three (3) members or four
(4) if no member is a member of the Board shall be selected from the
electors residing in the Township. All
members shall be appointed by the Township Board. None of the additional three (3) members or four (4) if no member is a member of
the Board shall be elected officers of the Township or employees of the
Township Board; Members shall be appointed for three (3) year terms, except the
Planning Commission and Township Board representatives who shall only serve
while holding membership on those respective bodies. (revised Nov. 24, 2003)
(B) Members
of the Board of Appeals shall be removable by the Township Board for nonperformance of duty or misconduct in
office upon written charges and after public hearing. A member shall disqualify
himself or herself from a vote in which the member has a conflict of
interest. Failure of a member to
disqualify himself or herself from a vote in which the member has a conflict of
interest shall constitute misconduct in office.
The following is
documentation detailing applications received by the Township and how the ZEA
relates to them:
1.
Building Moving-Code
of Ordinances Sec. 10-176 to 10-181, no public hearing, no notices published
and no notices sent to property owners-no
changes necessary;
2.
Building Permit application-must comply with all ordinances, no public hearing,
no notices published and no notices sent to property owners-no changes necessary;
3.
Construction Board of Appeals-Building Code and International Property Maintenance
Code, an “Open Hearing” is held, with no notices published and no notices sent
to property owners-no changes necessary;
4.
Demolition Permit-Zoning Ordinance Sec. 3.13, no public hearing; no notices published
and no notices sent to property owners-no
changes necessary;
5.
Land Division-must
comply with all ordinances; no public hearing, no notices published and no
notices sent to property owners-no
changes necessary;
6.
Mineral Mining License-Code of Ordinances Sec. 26-71 to 26-84, a public
hearing is held, but no requirements are listed in the ordinance for publishing
notices or sending property notices, an adopted policy states that a general
notice will be published in the Advance (or another newspaper of general
circulation in the area) 5 to 15 days (same as for special use permits) or
posted at the Township Office within 18 hours of the meeting prior to the
public hearing and will list date, time and location of meeting-no changes necessary; however, the Mining Board will change their
policy to be in compliance with the ZEA;
7.
Preliminary
Plat-Code of Ordinance Sec. 50-26 to 50-80; a hearing is held; adjoining
property owners are to be notified of the proposed hearing at least ten days
prior to the hearing; the ZEA does not
mention plats, therefore no changes appear to be necessary. However, the Board may decide to change the
ordinance to be the same as the Zoning Ordinance.
8.
Planned Unit Development-Sec. 22.6; a public hearing is held; no specifics are
given as follows; no changes are
necessary;
A.
Following notice, the Planning Commission shall
hold a public hearing on the proposed PUD, for the purpose of receiving public
comment on the PUD.
9.
Rezoning-Zoning
Ordinance Sec. 29.6; a hearing is held; adjoining property owners are notified
and a notice is published; CHANGES ARE NECESSARY.
10.
Sidewalk Waiver-Code
of Ordinances Sec. 10-211 to 10-220; no hearing is held; no notices are
published and no property owners are notified-no changes necessary;
11.
Sign Permits
(portable and permanent)-Zoning Ordinance Chapter 25; no hearing; no notices
are published and no property owners are notified-no changes necessary;
12.
Site Plan-Zoning
Ordinance Chapter 19; no public hearing is held; no notices are published and
no property owners are notified-no
changes necessary;
13.
Special Use-Zoning
Ordinance Chapter 20; a public hearing is held; notices are published and
notices are sent to property owners within 300 feet; no changes necessary because the ordinance states that notice is
provided in accordance with the statuary requirements of the State of Michigan
as follows:
(2) The
Planning Commission shall hold a public hearing on the application, after
establishing a date for the hearing, and providing
the notice of such hearing in accordance with the statutory requirements of
the State of Michigan relative to the approval of special land uses by
Townships. The Planning Commission shall
then make a recommendation to the Township Board to approve, approve with conditions, or deny
the request.
14.
Temporary Use-Zoning
Ordinance Sec. 3.25; no public hearing is held; no notices are published and no
property owners are notified-no changes
necessary;
15.
Variance-Zoning
Ordinance Chapter 28; a hearing is held; Sec. 28.8 must be changed; the ZEA
requires that a notice be published and that notices are sent to property
owners; CHANGES ARE NECESSARY.
16.
Zoning Compliance-Zoning Ordinance Sec. Sec. 29.3, 29.4 and 29.5; no public hearing is
required; no notices are published and not property owners are notified-no changes necessary.
17.
Open Space Development-Zoning Ordinance Sec. 3.28; public hearing is
required; “Notices of the public hearing will be provided in accordance with
the requirements of the Zoning Act for special land uses;” no changes necessary.
Moved
by South, seconded by Huizinga, to initiate the zoning ordinance amendments as
proposed.
MOTION
CARRIED.
#060816-04 - Proposed New Planning Commission Meeting
Procedures
PC Policy 2006-01
Planning Commission Procedures Revised
In order to formulate the
application, review and action process for the Planning Commission, the
Township has adopted the following policy.
This process will save valuable assets relating to time and financial
investments both for the applicants and the Township in regards to meetings and
reviews.
The Planning Commission normally meets the first and third Wednesdays
of the month and both are regular meetings when review, discussion and action
could take place. The Planning
Commission may table or postpone discussion and/or action on any item they
determine requires revisions or additional information, or for any other reason
determined necessary.
Information, Forms, and Fees.
Information, application
forms, submittal material requirements and fee schedules are available in the
Building and Zoning Department at the Township Office or at the Township
website at gtwp.com, Building and Zoning.
Please note that the Township highly encourages
submission of electronic files (in pdf format) along with the other required
submission materials for projection use at meetings. The electronic files can be sent by email to
mmin@gtwp.com.
OPTION 1-One
deadline per month as currently established(still meets ordinance requirements)
Deadline for
application submission.
The submittal deadline for applications for the Planning Commission is
normally two weeks prior to the first
Planning Commission meeting of the month (this meeting is normally
scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month).
OPTION
2-Multiple deadline per month to establish new procedures (still meets ordinance requirements)
Deadline for
application submission.
The submittal deadline for applications to be placed on a Planning
Commission agenda is normally four weeks
prior to a Planning Commission meeting (could be for either of the two
meetings which are normally scheduled for the first and third Wednesdays of
each month).
If application materials are
submitted with substantial, necessary
or required information missing, incorrect or not in compliance with the Zoning
Ordinance, the Planning Commission normally would postpone review and action on
the application until such time as the missing or incorrect material is
addressed and submitted to the Township.
The Pre-Application Meeting helps to eliminate such a possibility with a
review by the Township zoning administrator prior to the application
submission.
Pre-Application Meeting.
A pre-application meeting
with the zoning administrator and the applicant is required prior to application submission according the requirement
of the Zoning Ordinance. The
pre-application meeting must be
scheduled with Township staff by calling the Building and Zoning Department
at 616-457-2690. This meeting must be scheduled and held at least five business days prior
to the submission deadline for a particular meeting agenda (or as scheduled
by Township staff). Failure to attend a
pre-application meeting could result in the application being withheld from a
Planning Commission agenda.
The cost for a
pre-application meeting is established by the Township Board and can be applied
toward the application fee of the particular application being reviewed if the
particular application is submitted to the Township within two months of the
Pre-Application Meeting. Alternately,
the complete application fee could be submitted at the time of the
pre-application meeting.
The purpose of the
Pre-Application Meeting is for a complete
or nearly complete proposal and/or plan to be reviewed by the zoning
administrator with the applicant present to determine if all the necessary and
required elements are provided on a plan and that all submittal requirements
are fulfilled. The proposed plan would
also be initially reviewed for compliance with Township Zoning Ordinance
requirements. If necessary, the Township
zoning administrator could schedule the attendance of other Township
representatives at the Pre-Application Meeting such at the planner, Fire Chief
or Director of the Department of Public Works.
Attendance at a
Pre-Application Meeting does not guarantee approval for a proposal; rather it
helps to ensure that the application has all of the necessary elements and
submission materials for review by the Planning Commission.
Since the Open Meetings Act
(Public Act No. 267 of 1976, as amended) requires that all deliberations
towards decisions, as well as decisions, are to be made at meetings that are
open to the public rather than private meetings between applicants and members
of a public body (Boards and Commissions), no decisions nor deliberations
towards decisions would be made at any time other than at a public meeting.
Direct contact by applicants
with the Township planning consultant would be at the applicant’s expense.
SOPS
Township Procedures for Planning
Commission Applications
The following are procedures
for applications for site plan approval, special use permits, plats, PUDs,
rezonings, or any other applications that come before the Planning Commission.
1.
When a potential
applicant contacts the Township Office, information is supplied regarding
meeting deadlines, meeting dates, submittal materials, pre-application meeting
requirements, and fees and forms. This
information can be obtained at the Township website or at the Township Office.
2.
When a petitioner
plans to submit an application, a pre-application meeting is scheduled and held
at least five business
days prior to the submission deadline with the zoning administrator and
petitioner present. The complete or
nearly complete plan or proposal is reviewed for completeness of submittal
materials and preliminarily for compliance with Zoning Ordinance requirements
and any applicable general ordinances. A
fee as established by the Township Board is charged and can be applied towards
an application fee amount if the application is submitted within a two month
period of the date of the pre-application meeting. Alternately, the complete application fee
amount could be paid at this time without the payment of the separate
pre-application meeting fee. The
petitioner should use the information provided at the pre-application meeting
to revise the plan and/or submittal material prior to the formal application
submission. Planned Unit Development
applications have additional requirements listed in Sec. 22.4 of the Zoning
Ordinance that must be met in addition to the above standards for a
pre-application meeting.
3.
At the time a
formal application is submitted (including a signed application, fee, ten copies
of a site plan and any other relevant information), the materials are reviewed
by the zoning administrator for completeness and the application is placed on
the Planning Commission agenda for the next regular meeting (which could be either meeting of
the month, normally the first or third Wednesdays of the month). If substantial or required elements are
missing or incorrect, the zoning administrator would recommend to the Planning
Commission to postpone review and action on the application until such time as
the missing or incorrect elements are addressed. An application would not be added to the
Planning Commission agenda until the pre-application meeting has been
held.
4.
Notices for any required public hearings would be
according to the requirements of State Law.
5.
The zoning
administrator conducts a formal review of each application that has been
submitted by the deadline, has been determined to be sufficiently complete and
correct, and for which a pre-application meeting was held. The application materials are reviewed for
compliance with all requirements of the Zoning Ordinance and applicable general
ordinances. The zoning administrator may
contact the planning consultant with questions regarding any application, site
plan or complicated detailed proposal in order to incorporate additional
information into the review. Only those
applications with questions or detailed complicated plans would be forwarded to
the planner for a review. The planner
would present a review to the zoning administrator of those specifically
requested plans and the information would be incorporated into the formal
review provided to the Planning Commission.
6.
The formal review
compiled by the zoning administrator would provide information as to whether
Zoning Ordinance and applicable general ordinance requirements have been
met. For rezoning applications,
capability, consistency and compatibility would be evaluated. In addition, information regarding past
history, current circumstances and any other relevant material would be
incorporated into the review.
7.
The agenda and
the formal review compiled by the zoning administrator (along with submission
materials) would be forwarded to the Planning Commissioners prior to the
meeting (agendas and minutes by email and paper copies of site plan via US
mail). Members who have questions or
would like additional information prior to the meeting could contact the zoning
administrator.
8.
At the Planning
Commission meeting, the zoning administrator would present the formal review
with any additional information that had been requested by Planning Commission
members. If requested, the zoning
administrator would provide recommendations with options for motions, including
possible conditions. However, the intent
is for the Planning Commission to have the responsibility to deliberate the
actions and to take the action they deem appropriate, after being provided with
all pertinent information (specifically if ordinance requirements are met) and
considering the request.
9.
If an applicant
requests withdrawal of an application, the procedure would be the same as for
any application such that if the Planning Commission has the responsibility to
take action, they would act upon the request, but if the Board takes action,
the Planning Commission would make a recommendation to the Board.
Moved
by Pearson, seconded by South, to adopt Policy 2006-01, with the proposed
revisions to the Planning Commission process, as presented, with option 2 for
multiple deadlines per month, and to recommend to the Township Board to adopt
the policy
MOTION
CARRIED.
#060816-05 - Proposed Zoning Ordinance Amendments to
Sec. 13.3(H), Chapter 20
The
change to Sec. 13.3 would allow a day care center with a special use permit in
the OS district. The Planning Commission
stated at a previous meeting that it had been an oversight and the use should
be allowed in the OS district with a special use permit. The Township attorney recommended the change
to the title of Chapter 20 for special use permits.
(H) Day care
centers.
Moved
by Poskey, seconded by Stasiak, to initiate the zoning ordinance amendments as
proposed.
MOTION
CARRIED.
#060816-06 - Overlay Zone for the Baldwin St.
Extension Area (map1,
map
2, map
3)
The
chairman opened the floor to public comments.
Steward
Healey, 60 Baldwin St., was concerned with access during construction and asked
that a driveway be installed to Mill St.
There
was discussion regarding the boundaries for the overlay zone and the decision
was made to keep it manageable and confined to the specific area of the
extension with the possibility of adding more area later. It was noted that the Master Plan would have
to be amended to be consistent with any proposals and the Zoning Ordinance
would have to be amended to include the overlay zone requirements in order to
administer the proposed changes for this area.
The
goals were determined to be as follows:
1.
The purpose of
the Baldwin St. extension is primarily to move traffic in and out of the
Township.
2.
Good access
management should be practices along this route.
3.
The primary area
of the overlay zone was the triangle piece of property and ideally this would
be developed as a PUD.
4.
Interior access
should be provided to this triangular piece of property from Main St.
5.
Design Plus would
be contacted to help with the study of the uses for this area.
#060816-07 – Adjournment
The
chairman adjourned the meeting at 9:15 p.m.