NFP review board declines to recommend variances for most West Cork Street parcels after debate on slope, access

Kalamazoo City — The Natural Features Protection Review Board on Tuesday reviewed variance requests for five steep, wooded parcels along West Cork Street and, after extended questioning about access and slope protection, voted not to recommend variances for four of the five lots that a developer says are needed to build duplex housing.

The board heard presentations from city staff and the applicant, developer Jeremy Cole, who said limited slope relief is required to construct safe driveways and duplex units on the parcels and that the request is narrowly tailored to building footprints, driveways and utility corridors. Nolan, the city’s NFP board liaison, told the board staff had worked with the applicant since last fall and that relief was being recommended in staff reports for the slope and slope-setback standards because the parcels have steep, contiguous slope complexes that make configuration difficult.

Why it matters: The parcels lie inside the city’s Natural Features Protection overlay, which sets protected-slope and woodland-preservation standards. Granting a variance would allow disturbance inside those protection zones; denying it would limit development options for the property owner and, the applicant said, risks an unconstitutional regulatory taking if lots have no practical access.

Details of the request and developer position Jeremy Cole told the board the West Cork Street parcels are heavily wooded and steep and that prior iterations of the project had been more intensive (he described plans for up to 35 units, later reduced to 16…