By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Local developer Dave Barker, scheduled for arraignment Sept. 8 on three felony allegations, is proposing a 90-unit Forest Gate condominiums on 13 acres at 485 Ferry St. west of the former Haworth plant and north of Northern Lights Condominiums. He plans to plead not guilty in Allegan County 57th District Court.
It and a long-delayed Jeff Kerr request for a site plan review and condominium approval for a 324 W. Center Street mixed-use development will be subjects of a planning commission public hearing Wednesday, Sept. 21, in city hall at 7 p.m.
Also on the agenda:
• Michael Pezok’s request to rezone 423 West Center St. and 424 Fremont St. from R-5 Multiple Family PUD (Planned Unit Development) to R-5 Multiple Family, and build additions to Units 6-9 of the Fremont Street Condominiums, part of the Center Park Place Condominiums; and
• A 42 North Custom Homes site plan review request to remodel and move an existing dwelling at 39 Washington St. in Douglas’s R-2 Neighborhood Conservation District.
Public notices for all appear elsewhere in this week’s Commercial Record.
The flurry of hearings follows termination two weeks ago of 3-year city planning and zoning administrator Nick Wikar.
Forest Gate
Barker will go before Judge William Baillargeon Sept. 8 on one charge of false pretenses-$100,000 or more and two separate counts of larceny-$20,000 or more.
Both stem from a March 28 incident involving complainants Leland Curtis and Philip Palley. Barker was released on a $5,000 cash bond.
He said Monday allegations resulted from a Pier Cove contract matter involving his coastal-armoring Argent Management “based on incorrect information.
“The correct information is another contractor blocked access to that project,” he said.
In the meantime Barker — whose local projects include brokering the $10-million sale in 2014 of the former Presbyterian Camps’ 130 acres south of Saugatuck’s Oval Beach to Dune Ridge, LLC — has a new one.
As proposed, his by-rights Forest Gate on land zoned R-5 Multiple Family Residential would include 18 buildings totaling 90 homes, with sidewalks and two roads connecting to Ferry Street plus another south to Wiley Road.
Barker has proposed steps including vapor barriers to mitigate long-existing groundwater contamination from former Haworth site occupant Chase Manufacturing on that slice of the 50.34 acres he controls on former MiRo Golf Course land. He said he hopes to start building as soon as spring 2023.
Barker complained to Douglas City Council at its Aug. 15 meeting that planning commission and Summer Grove board member Louise Pattison had libeled him writing in an Aug. 10 letter included on record in that night’s agenda packet had gone bankrupt after his 1997 Summer Grove development plans had gone awry.
“I never filed for bankruptcy,” he said, “and plan to seek legal action. I’m working on a $30-million project for the city, have investors flying in and we see this.”
Barker in early 2019 signed a memorandum of understanding with Douglas, then led by city manager Bill LeFevere, to explore developing the now-leveled former Haworth 7.1l-acre site at 200 Blue Star Hwy., the now-vacant land he controls north and west of it, plus 16.84 city-owned acres southwest of and contiguous to the other two fronting Wiley Road. That total 75-acre mixed-use proposal remains at this point conceptual.
324 Center
Kerr — a veteran real estate professional who at one point was North America’s largest developer of outlet malls — with partners seeks to build 20 site condominiums as part of a mixed-use development along West Center backing up to St. Peter’s Drive on land in the R-4 Harbor Residential District.
Like Barker he spoke at the Aug. 15 council meeting after which Wikar was terminated.
In early 2020 Kerr and then-listed partners son Christopher; general contractor Doug Damstra of 42 North Custom Homes; realtor Bill Underdown at Century 21 Affiliated of Douglas; project manager Kelly Kuiper of the Nederveld Inc. engineering firm; architect John Blair of r2 Design Group; plus senior project engineer Timm Appleton and designer-landscape architect Josh Molnar, also of Nederveld, proposed housing plus retail, office, restaurant and personal service commercial shops at 324 W. Center St.
“I am frustrated with Mr. Wikar,” Kerr said. “He has made the project very expensive to us.”
Former planning commission chair Bob Kenny, a 46-year Chicago area land-use attorney who now also lives in Douglas, that night noted, “Word gets out about experiences developers have in a city.”
Boilerplate
All applications are available for review at 86 Center St. city offices during business hours. Written comments may be submitted there before the hearings, To arrange for disabled access, call the hall at (269) 857-1438.
