Planning commission approves conditional rezoning for roughly 120-acre light-industrial/residential site

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…