Staff previews 2025 planning report, records database and development activity

Planning staff presented a concise 2025 annual report to the Kalamazoo City Planning Commission and previewed a new cloud-based database to store planning-commission records.

The staff member told the commission the Enabling Act requires submission of an annual report and said the 2025 summary highlights two rezonings (properties on Ross Cam and Millard; parcels in the Beyond Burdick development), a special-use permit request for a rooming house at 1303 Lake Street, a city-planner request to replace a cell tower at 1516 Rockledge, and a Speedway gas station special-use permit at 19918 Riverview now in site-plan review. The capital improvement plan was approved by the commission.

Staff gave workload numbers: the site-plan review committee reviewed 34 site plans and 42 pre-site plans in 2025, and five cases required approval from the Natural Feature Protection Review Committee. Staff emphasized that pre-site plans represent a large portion of the committee’s workload.

The staff member also previewed an internal cloud database project to modernize planning-commission records and said the archive can trace decisions back to early records — ‘‘we can trace it all back to a letter from the city manager in 1918,’’ the staff member said — which staff expects will make records retrieval faster for future site-plan and zoning reference needs.

Commissioners praised recent joint training with the zoning board of appeals and the Natural Feature Protection board, and several members complimented a statewide housing webinar staff shared; no further action was requested.

Next step: staff will finalize the annual report for submission upstream to the city commission and will continue developing the planning-records database for staff use and future public presentations.