Planning Commission: Attend tonight

You should attend tonight’s planning commission at 5:30 PM Est. Zoom Youtube Or in person. For the last few months Zoom and YouTube have been unreliable.

A developer, who has a summer home in Harbor Springs, is before the Planning Commission tonight to get preliminary approval on a 3 story condo at Main and Gardner. Replacing Running Waters.

This is the first building designed to specifically take advantage of expanded rights since the zoning approval. Because the Planning Commission and City Council refused to limit construction to two stories, the Planning Commission is compelled to approve the project.

There are two other sites in town, one along third and the other at State/Main, that appear to be owned by developers. These sites would also accommodate similar sized developments. Expect proposals soon.

Given the cost of construction, the condo units built will likely price at 700k-1M per unit. Even more if demand is steady.

We have said for three years this is what will happen. In the repeal and the rewrite of zoning, we attempted to maintain the prior zoning constraint of two stories. Beckett & Raeder advocated against our position. The Planning Commission voted against our position. Three of five City Council members approved the new zoning, despite our persistence to address heights and number of floors in the CBD.

Beckett & Raeder Inc, the Planning Commission’s consultant who wrote the zoning, failed to develop example pictures of what the zoning would allow. So the lay people in the community, the volunteers on City Council and the Planning Commission really could not fully comprehend this possibility.

So, WLHS hired and offered the use of a planning consultant who did foresee this. We did provide examples. We did educate the Community, the Planning Commission, and the City Council.

While our efforts to educate the community resulted in the repeal of the #439 zoning - but…..

Beckett & Raeder, the Planning Commission, and 3 members of the City Council did not. So the City modified the zoning again to allow 3 story buildings, increased heights, and changed the parameters that make these large condo projects lucrative. Projects that allow developers to leverage the towns charm to sell $1M condo units.

Because the zoning now allows this type of design “by right”, there is little legal recourse to prevent approval.

If you do want Harbor Springs to become 3 story $1M condos with a garage door on the first floor some options to consider include:

1. Attend the Planning Commission tonight and tell them “This is not what we want Harbor Springs to become.”

2. Members of the Planning Commission who supported greater heights and 3 stories in the zoning should resign. They were clearly informed of the risk, and ignored it.

3. City Council members need to correct the zoning immediately or resign.

4. Immediately replace Beckett & Raeder, with a planning consultant capable of showing tradeoffs, without bias, and in a manner for lay people to foresee the consequence of the options.

5. Help Running Waters find a new location.

6. Contact the developer and ask them to be rethinking their plan.