By Sterling McGinn
The Newberry Village Council tabled the decision on adopting zoning ordinances for a couple of months to allow citizens more time to review the matter.
Nearly 30 residents attended the public hearing of the Newberry Village Council to hear and voice concerns over the possibility of the approval of zoning ordinances for the Village of Newberry.
The hearing took place in the village chambers on Tuesday, November 19.
The village is seeking to adopt zoning ordinances—regulations that would control land use and development within the village limits.
Having zoning in place would help the village be eligible for certain grants.
“The primary motivation for us to look into a zoning ordinance and to try and get one in place is so we can participate in the Redevelopment Ready program through the State of Michigan,” said Village Manager Allison Watkins. “Once you complete the Redevelopment Ready program, you are eligible for grant funds that are not available to other municipalities that are not Redevelopment Ready.”
Previous conversations with Verizon over a proposed cell tower also underscored the need for zoning in the village, she said.
“They would not remove some of the language from the contract we could not sign, and they threatened to just buy property and put a cellphone tower up because there wasn’t any zoning,” Watkins said.
Many of the residents in attendance that night said they hadn’t heard about the planned ordinances or hadn’t had the time to review the document.
For nearly three years, the Village of Newberry Planning Commission has been working to develop the ordinances with guidance from Beckett and Raeder.
“There was a master plan adopted a few years ago that was for the community,” said Sara Kopriva from Beckett and Raeder, who appeared via Zoom that night. “Once you have a master plan, it can lead you into zoning ordinances, which are based on your master plan, you have to have a plan in place in order to have zoning ordinances.” You have not had zoning; this would be the first zoning ordinance for your community. It helps to protect the property owners, the ones that have the property and the neighboring properties.”
A zoning steering committee, which was made up of residents, reviewed the draft ordinance preparing for the planning commission, who recommended the approval by the council.
“We focused on what we absolutely need to regulate to try to contain blight and to make sure that things like cellphone towers, or strip clubs or a business that wants to put a gas station in the middle of a residential area can’t do that…right now there is nothing to regulate that,” Watkins said.
Prior to the planning commission’s recommendation to present the ordinances to the full council, they held a public hearing in June with only one member of the public in attendance and no public comments. Every Water and Light utility customer also received a notice announcing the holding of the November hearing.
Though an additional public hearing in front of the council was not required, Watkins suggested the board hold this public hearing because no one attended the June hearing.
The ordinance will ultimately be voted on by the Newberry Village Council.
One written question was received by Newberry resident John Bergman regarding the use of storage containers. Bergman asked if the use of storage containers for permanent storage would be prohibited after the ordinances were approved.
Watkins said that under the current proposed ordinances, shipping containers would not be allowed, but containers currently in use would be “grandfathered in” and left in place. If that property was ever sold, the zoning ordinance would take effect and the containers would need to be removed.
“I think there are quite a few things in here that are a bit of an overreach especially for small town like this,” said resident Cole Crim. “This is step number one in my opinion of bringing what’s downstate up here. I moved up here for a reason to get away from things like this.”
Newberry resident Vicki Fall asked how the ordinances would be enforced in they were to be approved.
“We already have ordinances in this village that are not being enforced,” she said.
Jim Young asked if a new position would be created to enforce these ordinances if adopted.
“Besides the money you are spending on the proposal, this investigation, the ordinances, and the finalization of it, are you going to be hiring another position for this that the taxpayer will be paying for this?”
Watkins said there are no plans to hire an additional enforcement officer. She also said that zoning board would be the planning commission and the zoning board of appeals will be the village council. The part-time ordinance enforcement officer will take on the responsibilities of enforcing the zoning and Watkins will attend a training to become the zoning administrator.
During the regular session, the council voted to table the adopting of the zoning and direct all public comments to the village manager who will present them to the planning commission for review. The deadline for written comments regarding the proposed zoning ordinances is January 10.
Finally, the November regular session was the last meeting for trustees Lori Stokes and Jack Olson. Both had served the council for a number of years and President Catherine Freese recognized both of them for their service.
The council will now change to a five-member governing board, which had been changed by the adopting of an ordinance a while back.
