Kalamazoo planners approve special-use permit for six-person rooming house at 1303 Lake Street

The Kalamazoo City Planning Commission on an 8-0 roll-call vote approved a special-use permit allowing the converted dwelling at 1303 Lake Street to operate as a rooming house for up to six unrelated adults.

The approval follows staff findings that the property — an approximately 1,850-square-foot house built about 1904 — meets life-safety and building-code requirements and that the proposed use aligns with surrounding residential land uses in the RM-15 zoning district. The commission debated, and rejected, a binding condition requiring the owner to define and surface an unimproved secondary driveway.

City planning staff told the commission the house was vacant around 2020, was later purchased by Housing Now LLC, renovated and inspected under the city's rental-registration process. The housing inspector identified the unit's occupancy pattern as a rooming…