Big Rapids panel approves Saint Andrew’s parking expansion to improve Manna Pantry deliveries

Big Rapids planning commissioners approved a site-plan review to expand the parking lot at 323 South State Street, the site of Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church and the Manna Pantry, adding six parking spaces and a route intended to accommodate box-truck deliveries.

The approval, granted with a condition that three designated areas shown on the applicants’ site plan be fully landscaped, also requires the applicant to submit a revised, dated site plan and supporting documents within 60 days. The vote was recorded as yes by Wilcoff, Vogel, Kaleidos, Cloud, Montgomery and Reddick.

The proposal, presented at a public hearing, was described by Michelle, city planning staff, as an expansion that would add six new spots and a box-truck route “mainly for delivery for the food pantries” and would serve both the church and the pantry. Michelle said the property is zoned “RR, restricted residential,” and noted that because the expansion adds fewer than eight parking spaces the city’s zoning ordinance does not require an engineered plan for review.

Michelle told commissioners that the zoning and landscaping rules for expanding parking on a preexisting site do not force full compliance with the city’s generally more demanding landscaping standard; she said she calculated the site would need approximately 300 square feet of landscaping to meet the ordinance’s formula and discussed options with the applicant for where to place that landscaping so it would not interfere with truck turning.

Reverend Radha Michelle Tropica, rector at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church and the applicant representative, said the change is intended primarily to “help meet the increased needs of the Manna Pantry, and make it more efficient and safer for food deliveries, to be received by the pantry.” Tropica and other presenters emphasized retaining existing green areas where possible; she said two smaller rectangular planting areas on the plan are existing landscaping that the applicants intend to keep.

Jodi Gabert, senior warden of Saint Andrew’s and a former pantry volunteer, described the pantry’s growth and distribution needs. Gabert said Friday distributions bring donations from local grocers and that the pantry is handling large deliveries: “We are getting 8 to 1,200 pounds of food on a Friday from Walmart, Meijer, Aldi, Panera,” she said in public comment, and added the pantry is seeing about “1,800 visits per month.”

Commissioners questioned whether a box truck would be able to maneuver through the proposed 12-foot delivery entrance. Tropica and the applicants said the planned route should accommodate a 16- to 18-foot box truck and that current deliveries are handled by multiple pickup trucks; they said a donated box truck they anticipate in the future would not exceed the 16- to 18-foot length.

The commission’s motion to approve the site plan review covered both stated phases of the project and included the condition that the three areas designated on the submitted graphic be landscaped. The commission also noted that the pantry’s insulated/refrigerated storage unit and distribution shed had been permitted under separate applications and are already approved, though applicants said installation would await new paving under the approved site plan.

Applicants were instructed to coordinate with planning staff to mark up and submit the revised plan; staff said the materials must be in within 60 days. Following the vote, commissioners expressed hope the change will improve safety and ease deliveries for the pantry’s operations.

The meeting also included an unrelated update on the city’s rewrite of the zoning ordinance, which planning staff described as an organizational restructuring effort to improve usability; no substantive ordinance changes were adopted at this meeting.