County planners send detailed comments to Hayes Township on updated master plan

Charlevoix County Planning Commission members reviewed an updated Hayes Township Master Plan draft and voted to forward the countys comments to the township for revision and public hearing consideration.

Kiersten Stark, Charlevoix County planning director, told commissioners she had reviewed the updated draft and found many of the December comments addressed but recommended several explicit edits, including moving Figure 1 into Chapter 1 or placing a smaller map in the text, adding a reference to Figure 8 in the Transportation chapter, and explaining the term "reference parcels." Stark said the Michigan Planning Enabling Act requires the zoning plan to show the relationship between future land use categories and the districts on the current zoning map and advised adding a "Current Zoning Districts" column to Table 2 while retaining a column for proposed districts.

The nut of the commissions concern was procedural and technical: commissioners sought clarification and more precise cross-references to make the plan enforceable and intelligible to the public. Commissioner Sherm Chamberlain urged the plan include taxable-value information for capital improvement budgeting and recommended addressing the spread of storage buildings that remove potentially developable parcels from the housing supply. Chamberlain also asked the township to consider assisted-living and age-restricted housing to help families free up single-family homes.

Public commenters at the meeting provided competing perspectives. LuAnne Kozma argued the drafts zoning plan content was inconsistent with the Michigan Planning Enabling Act and that data centers "do not need to be included in community master plans or zoning ordinances," providing a printout of the statute. In response, Hayes Township commissioners who attended the meetingRex Greenslade, Roy Griffitts and Mark Snydersaid the township had actively solicited input and revised the draft in response to many comments.

The commission voted to transmit the County Planning Commissions and staffs comments to Hayes Township for their consideration ahead of the townships rescheduled public hearing on Jan. 27. The motion carried by voice vote with all members in favor.

Next steps: County staff will forward the written comments; Hayes Township will hold its public hearing on the updated draft and may revise the plan further before adoption.