By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — Two proposed ordinance amendments in the City of Three Rivers would set requirements for veterans’ housing and streamline some special exception use permit processes.
The pair of ordinance amendment drafts were discussed for the first time Monday by the city’s Planning Commission, where both were set for a public hearing at their next regularly-scheduled meeting, which is currently scheduled for Monday, June 2 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, but could be done as early as a proposed special meeting on Monday, May 19.
Beebe said both of the ordinance amendments proposed were a “rough draft” for the commissioners to review during the meeting and consider for public hearings. Most of the discussion commissioners had Monday revolved around cleaning up some of the finer points of the proposals.
Under the proposed veterans’ housing ordinance amendment, it would provide specific zoning district designations and provisions that would allow for different-sized homes for veterans to be permitted in the city. It would be called “Veterans Group Housing” so as not to conflate it with “Veterans Homes,” which get federal funding.
Specifically, such homes would be allowed in the R-2, R-4, and B-1 districts, with the proposal currently calling for small houses to allow six or fewer veterans, medium houses to allow between six and 12 adults, and large houses to allow between 12 and 20 adults. Such housing would also provide veterans with care for five or more days a week for any period withing a given calendar year for two or more consecutive weeks.
Some of the details that would need to be ironed out are whether or not they would be allowed in any other business zoning district, as well as how many people specifically could be in the houses. Three Rivers Director of Community Development John Beebe said if it’s done as a permitted use, it would be allowed in the other residential zoning districts, while for group housing, if it’s approved for the B-1 district, it would also apply to the other business zoning districts.
Planning Commission chair Chuck Friese wondered if they needed to answer the questions about how many people would be allowed in each home or wait until public comment is taken on the proposal, to which Beebe said they could do it either way. Commissioner Jenny Koski agreed it should wait until their next meeting to let commissioners “digest it a bit more,” but said that veterans housing should be in the code.
“I think we need to get this into the code, because when you have one home already, and potentially down the road there could be more, I think it’s good for us to be proactive with this,” Koski said. The city recently approved an ordinance amendment at 308 and 318 S. Main St., which includes the current location of a veterans’ home, to rezone it to R-5 to allow for multi-family housing, with City Manager Joe Bippus having floated the idea the houses could be used for veterans’ group housing.
Beebe added he is also looking to get feedback on the proposed ordinance from Stoney Summey, St. Joseph County’s veteran’s affairs coordinator.
The other draft ordinance amendment discussed Monday would streamline the process for what Beebe called “recurrent” special use exception (SEU) permits. It would make it so only one public hearing would be required instead of two if an applicant were to apply for such a permit for the same type of use at a property that had been the subject of a previous SEU for the same type of special use within a certain time period.
“To me, if it’s the exact same use, why are we going back to the Planning Commission? We’re delaying the applicant’s process whereas we could still be allowing at least for one public hearing at the City Commission, and they’re the only body that has the authority to approve special permits anyway,” Beebe said. “We’re trying to streamline the process, but still follow the requirements.”
Beebe added that if the change were to be made, the fee schedule for permits would not change, but the timeline would be shortened for applicants.
The time period of which such a recurrent SEU permit would be accepted to streamline the process was debated a bit by commissioners, with 18 months and two years being floated about as possibilities, with the actual timeframe still to be determined.
There was also discussion on how to handle marijuana facilities under such a rule, and if they need to go through the full process or the expedited process if they want to get an SEU to expand from, for example, a grow operation to growing and selling. Commissioner Karl Armstrong said that should be “more than enough” to go through the expedited process, adding it “shouldn’t matter” if the business is a marijuana-focused or not. Koski added that if they were going to add more, it would be a considered a different special permit.
Both votes to schedule the public hearings were unanimous votes by the commission.
In other business…
- Commissioners recommended to the City Commission approval of a special exception use permit for a massage establishment at 145 W. Michigan Ave on the second floor of LA’s Coffee Café.
- Beebe told commissioners that the site plan drawings for the new amphitheater project went through an internal review at the city, where it found no major concerns. However, he added that Police Chief Scott Boling brought up the issue of security lighting at night, which could be discussed at a later time.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
