Bay City Zoning Board approves parking variance for 1001 Center Avenue bed-and-breakfast

The Bay City Zoning Board of Appeals on Oct. 14 unanimously approved a variance reducing the required off-street parking from 10 to 7 for 1001 Center Avenue, clearing the way for conversion of the property into an eight-room bed-and-breakfast.

The variance applies to Article 17 — Off‑Street Parking and Loading of the city zoning code, specifically section 122.382, which sets parking-aisle and parking-count requirements. Planning staff and the applicant told the board the property can provide seven on-site parking spaces under the current site plan; planning-commission comments requiring angled parking and a one-way drive aisle reduced the number of on-site spaces from an earlier design that had nine.

Applicant Lindsay Edmonds told the board the planned inn will have eight rentable rooms and an on-site innkeeper. Edmonds said the site plan conforms to the aisle-width and accessibility items in section 122.382 but that required elements — an ADA ramp and a dumpster placed with the setback requested by planning/building staff — removed a parking space. "Inns,…