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Planning commission forwards Consumers Credit Union drive‑through and site plan with conditions
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Summary
The commission recommended approval of a special use for a drive‑through and approved a site plan for Consumers Credit Union at 900 Water Tower Road, adding conditions including sealed plans, resolution of engineering items, and a fire hydrant location agreed with the fire marshal.
The Big Rapids Planning Commission recommended that the city commission approve a special land use permit to allow a drive‑through for a Consumers Credit Union branch at 900 Water Tower Road and separately approved the site plan with conditions.
Staff said the property’s use as a financial institution is permitted by right but the drive‑through (teller‑plus digital teller system) requires a special use recommendation. The applicant had prior approvals in 2023 that expired; the current submission includes a roughly 1,000‑square‑foot increase to the building to expand the training area, raising the planned occupant capacity for training to about 70. Architect Nick Luke (Bosch Architecture) and Cindy McDonald (Consumers Credit Union) described the project timeline (drawings in May, bidding to follow, summer groundbreaking, roughly a year to completion) and the intention to offer a community training room and extended digital service hours.
Technical questions centered on utilities (reuse of the existing sanitary lead and water tie‑in to Perry Avenue), fire‑safety requirements (fire marshal requested a hydrant on site), site lighting (motion‑sensing dimming strategy), ADA access, handicap parking distribution, grading and detention design, and whether the detaining pond can be designed as a dry pond given sandy soils. The architect said utilities will tie into Perry and that a final grading and detention design remain to be coordinated with the reviewing engineer.
The planning commission moved two actions: (1) to recommend the special land use permit for the drive‑through to the city commission (meeting ordinance standards cited in staff report), and (2) to approve the site plan subject to conditions 1–6 listed in staff recommendations plus additional conditions: inclusion of a fire hydrant in a location agreed upon with the fire marshal, all conditions addressed prior to issuance of building permits, and submission of a set of sealed plans. Both motions were seconded and passed by roll call. Staff said the special use will be scheduled for city commission consideration and that applicant representatives should attend to answer questions there.
