The City of Battle Creek Planning Commission on June 25 approved a conditional rezoning petition (PRZ25-0002) from Battle Creek Unlimited and West Michigan Land Holding that would rezone roughly 120–125 acres north and south of Columbia Avenue and bounded by Stone Jug Road and Helmer Road for light industrial uses with a buffered residential edge and a proposed multifamily area.

The rezoning, presented by applicant representative Joe Sobrowski, won approval after staff recommended the change under section 12 81.01(g)(5) of the city zoning code and after a public hearing in which neighbors raised concerns about traffic, nighttime noise from nearby aviation and trucking facilities, and potential effects on property values.

Sobrowski said the TIFA-led application is intended to create one of Battle Creek’s “last and premier, light industrial sites” and that the applicants were proposing “clean industrial” uses and voluntary covenants limiting certain activities. He told commissioners the assembled site includes about 60 acres already under TIFA control and another roughly 60 acres currently zoned agricultural, and that the application is intended to make the area marketable to industrial users while adding buffers and housing transitions near neighborhoods.

The application package presented three conceptual layouts and a combined plan that the applicant described as a compromise: a light-industrial core, a band of single-family lots intended to be market-rate homes (Sobrowski said the target sizes would be about 1,300–1,700 square feet), and a smaller multifamily parcel intended to “bookend” Helmer Road with buffering between industrial sites and existing subdivisions. The applicant said outreach included mailings to about 300 addresses and two open houses in April that drew about 17 attendees each.

Residents who testified said they were not fully aware of earlier outreach and voiced several concerns. One resident, who lives adjacent to the trucking facility, said, “If our windows are open, you hear the trucks banging into the docks all night long,” and warned new residents could be surprised by nighttime noise. Another resident said plans “keep changing,” and asked that any final development avoid lowering nearby home values. R+L Carriers’ representative Stan Richards told the commission he and his company do not oppose development but urged protection of the carrier’s ability to expand its existing facility in the future.

Commissioners and staff responded to community questions during and after the hearing. Staff said the conditional rezoning would contain proposed covenants limiting certain uses (the applicant noted the package would prohibit solar farms and said it would avoid “dirty heavy industrial” uses), and that the site has some existing height limitations because of proximity to the parallel runway at the local airport. City staff also said preliminary environmental work — including phase 1/2, geotechnical, wetland and endangered-species screening — has been completed, according to the applicant.

Commissioners clarified process implications: if the rezoning is approved, some future single-family construction that conforms to the R‑1A density allowed under the zoning could proceed as a by-right development without additional public hearings, while multifamily or nonconforming uses would return for municipal review. Commissioners and staff also noted there is no city ordinance requirement that a sound study be conducted for the rezoning itself; conducting a sound study would be up to the applicant or any future developer. Planning staff said there are earlier airport noise studies on file and offered to help pull relevant records for residents.

Several questions about buffers and amenities were raised. The plan presented shows a southern buffer of roughly 300 feet (about 27 acres of preserved/landscaped area in the applicant’s diagram) and conceptual berms up to about 20 feet topped with vegetation. The applicant indicated a planned walking trail in the buffer and said the trail surface would likely be asphalt; who would maintain it long-term would be determined later, possibly through a deed restriction, covenant or an agreement with the city when a developer builds.

After discussion about procedure — the petition includes five parcel-specific requests filed as a single application — commissioners considered the rezoning as one unified action and moved to approve PRZ25-0002. The motion passed with recorded affirmative votes from Commissioner Morris, Commissioner Dennison, Mayor Behnke, Commissioner Gray, Commissioner Godfrey and Commissioner O'Donnell. The chair of the commission recused themself from this portion of the meeting and another commissioner declared a conflict and abstained from participation in the hearing (those recusals/abstentions are noted in the meeting record but not named in the transcript).