7:30 P.M.
Barber School Meeting Room
I.
Call to Order
President Keller called the meeting to
order at 7:30 p.m.
II.
Pledge of
Allegiance
III.
Roll Call
A.
Present:
Filber, Fischer, Hall, Holland, Keller & VanStrate.
B.
Absent:
Palma
On a motion by Fischer, support from
Holland, the Village Council excused Council member Palma’s absence.
Yes: 5 No: 1 (VanStrate)
IV.
Reports and Statements of Citizens:
No reports or statements of citizens
were reported.
V.
Consent Agenda
A.
Approved
the payment of the bills in the amount of 98,272.27.
B.
Approved
the minutes of the May 2, 2005 meeting.
C.
Approved use of Buchanan Street end for
placement of the Spring Lake Township Fire boat for the summer season.
On a motion by
VanStrate, support from Filber, the Village Council approved the Consent Agenda
as presented.
Yes: 6 No: 0
VI.
Report
by the Village Clerk-Treasurer
A. Held
a public hearing and subsequently approved a moratorium on the issuance of
signage permits in the Village of Spring Lake for a defined period of time.
Subject: This optional public hearing was set by the
Village Council last meeting to ensure public notice and comment before acting
on a proposed moratorium.
The original proposal
moratorium was for 60 days and would apply to all signs. The intent was to provide time to the
Planning Commission to make more informed recommendations to the Village
Council. The Planning Commission was
motivated by the need to take more time to consider sandwich board and pylon
signs, proposed by the staff, and by the potential threat of new computer
generated signs being planned for construction on Savidge.
Manager
Cotton supported the moratorium if it was for a very short period and if all
understood that temporary signage without the usual time limits were
permissible. There was too much
happening in the Village to put the brakes on all signage.
The
Council’s options were:
A.
No moratorium;
B.
Establish a moratorium for just one type of sign
of most concern – electronic message boards due to safety issues,
enforcement problems at McDonald’s and the new Design Manual;
C.
Establish a short, 35 day moratorium; or
D.
Establish the requested 60-day moratorium.
President
Keller declared the public hearing open at 7:34 p.m.
Council
member VanStrate said he thought it would be best to look over the whole sign
ordinance.
Council
member Fischer said that if you shorten the moratorium to 35 to 60 days that
only gives the Planning Commission one meeting to review.
Jim
VanTol of Advance Sign Company told council that sign codes do not change
overnight, that the language is difficult and an attorney should be
involved. Mr. VanTol said this is not
an easy project and that the council should not go into a panic mood. He feels it would take over a year to change
the ordinance. He didn’t think that
this would work when there currently were new businesses that needed signs.
President
Keller talked about the McDonald’s red LED sign having the highest intensity,
being the least expensive and unlike incandescent bulbs, having no filtering.
Mr.
VanTol said he hadn’t heard of them being dangerous to the public and that MDOT
is the largest purchaser in the state of LED signs.
Pat
Best, owner of Beans a Brewin’, said she doesn’t think that the McDonald’s sign
is offensive and wanted to know who thought so.
Council
member Fischer said that the sky wasn’t falling, so why not throw it back to
the Planning Commission to work with the ordinance and not issue a moratorium.
Council
member Hall said that we have been talking about signs before McDonald’s had a
brick in place and that it was time to put a pencil to paper and get it done.
Manager
Cotton said that the ordinance was in need of some tweaking, especially with
the electronic message boards, sandwich boards and the pylon signs.
Council
member Fischer stated that the moratorium would have no effect on McDonald’s
since it was grandfathered in.
Manager
Cotton said that the more there are than the more compounded the problem would
become and they effect how we want to see the Village in the future.
Council
member Fischer said that issuing a 60-day moratorium would just be smoke and
mirrors knowing full well that you would have to extend it.
Planning
Commissioner, John Yasenak, 505 E. Savidge Street, said that since he has been
on the Planning Commission, he has never seen a sign permit brought before the
Planning Commission. He asked if the
new library sign would come before the Planning Commission and if it would be
appropriate for the Planning Commission to review it, since the members are
appointed.
Community
Service Director Hansen said that it would not.
John
Yasenak asked if the library sign was within the ordinance.
John
Hansen said that the sign was a monument sign and it did comply with the
ordinance.
Michele
Yasenak, 505 E. Savidge Street, asked how far off the right-of-way does a
monument sign have to be.
John
Hansen said that it needed to be located on the businesses property.
Michelle
Yasenak asked how far off the property line the sign had to be located.
John
Hansen said that it could be right up to the property line.
On
a motion by Fischer, support from Hall, the Village Council closed the public
hearing at 7:55 p.m.
Yes: 6 No: 0
On
a motion by Fischer, support from Hall, the Village Council approved a
moratorium on electronic message boards due to safety issues, enforcement
problems and the new design manual for a period of six months.
Yes: 5 No: 1
(Keller)
VII.
Report By the Village Manager
A. Approved
closure of Meridian Street between Exchange Street and Summit Street for a
church/neighborhood street party on June 11th from 11 am to 9 pm and
for vacation bible school from June 13-17 from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm subject to signage
for detours posted on Exchange Street with temporary signs from both directions
and use of approved barricades.
Subject: This subject was discussed in the May 2nd
work session. All individuals present
were invited to attend tonight’s meeting.
No action was requested on the former Wednesday night closures at this
meeting. The conditions stated in the
above description were suggested at the last meeting.
Kevin
Harrington, 217 Summit Street, asked if the council was voting on the June 11th event separately
from the June 13th through the 17th event. He stated that he was against closing the street down just as a
crossing situation for three
or four hours and added that it wasn’t dark during Vacation Bible School week. He said he
was all for closing down the street for the end of the year party and suggested the need for
more parental supervision for the children and the church using the back parking
lot. Mr. Harrington also suggested that the church get orange signs that say “ Meridan
Street Closed” and place them in
advance of the area to warn motorists.
Doug
Bytwerk, pastor of the First Baptist Church, agreed that there needs to be signage, so people know ahead of time
and said that the church would be
buying their own barricades.
Pastor Bytwerk said that there would be a large tent in the street during Vacation Bible
School. He said that the corner was
a blind and dangerous corner even when
it wasn’t dark.
Kevin
Harrington asked if the tent could be set up in the church’s back parking lot.
Pastor
Bytwerk said that because of the size of the tent it wouldn’t work well and it wouldn’t draw the kids in. He said that closing down the street
hasn’t been a problem with the fire
department and the police department and the church wanted to leave the house up.
Kathryn
Croft, 217 South Street, said that if the house was removed and the lot used for activities, that there still
would be a problem crossing the kids.
Kevin
Harrington said that if the house was torn down than they wouldn’t need the other parking lot and could
use that area for their events.
President Keller told Pastor Bytwerk that the
house could look a lot better and not abandoned. He added that the church’s neighbors pay for plowing, paving and
streetlights and that the Village wants to be a good neighbor. President Keller said that the people who
attended the meeting want the Baptist Church to be a good neighbor.
Pastor Bytwerk said that the governance committee
for the house was looking to renovate it and have a family move in.
On a motion by Holland, support from Fischer, the
Village Council approved closure of Meridian Street between Exchange Street and
Summit Street for a church/neighborhood street party on June 11th
from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and for Vacation Bible School from June 13-17 from 5:30
p.m. to 8:30 p.m. subject to signage for detours being posted on Exchange
Street with temporary signs from both directions and use of approved
barricades.
Yes: 5 No: 1
(Filber)
B. Approved
a resolution for the Village of Spring Lake to participate in a “Special Blue
Ribbon Committee Recommending Amendments to the Ambulance Service Agreement”
and named Council members Fischer and Filber to the committee.
Subject: This subject was a major debate during the
first committee’s meeting. The
conclusion was to invite the Village to be a full-fledged member, even though
the Village was not an original signatory to the formation agreement. The next meeting was to be held on Thursday,
May 19 at 7 p.m. at Grand Haven Township Hall.
The
Committee’s mission statement was set to be:
The role of the Ambulance Advisory Committee is
to investigate, understand, and make specific recommendations regarding the
operation of a public or private ambulance service in Northwest Ottawa County
that provides a high quality of service for area residents that is equal to or
better than the current system.
The
only potential downside was cost sharing if the committee incurred any legal
expenses. Such expenses would be shared
on a per capita basis. The Village’s
share would be 5.0%. See below:
Population Percentage
Allocation
Grand Haven Township 13,278 26.6%
Grand Haven City 11,168 22.3%
Robinson Township 5,588 11.2%
Ferrysburg 3,040
6.1 %
Crockery Township 3,782 7.6%
Spring Lake Township
13,140 26.3%
Spring Lake Village 2,514 5.0% TOTAL
49,996 100.0%
Part of the council discussion should be
designating who would attend the meetings.
The Village Manager was at the first two meetings but cannot attend
again until late June. Perhaps the two
Council members could rotate attendance.
It is expected that at least five meetings total would be held.
During public comment at the May 5, 2005
meeting, the Village Manager read the following statement given his previous
experience in managing a Fire Department that provided ambulance service to an
eight-community district:
This is a message to the Hospital and to
the Ambulance Service and it is predicated on the Hospital wanting to continue
to manage the ambulance service.
My personal favorite alternative is to
request re-engineering of the ambulance service costs to continue it as a 100%
user fee supported service without the need for more taxes. Correspondingly,
under this scenario, the Tri-Cities communities need to enthusiastically
support the Hospital management and its employees to make this re-engineering
possible and successful.
Council
member Filber asked if you are a Village of Spring Lake resident would you get
hit for the 5% and the Spring Lake Township’s 26.3%.
Manager
Cotton said just the 5%.
Attorney
Bob Sullivan said that the Village would only be committing to the percent of
the legal fees incurred at this time.
On
a motion by Fischer, support from Filber, the Village Council approved adoption
of a resolution for the Village of Spring Lake to participate in a “Special
Blue Ribbon Committee Recommending Amendments to the Ambulance Service
Agreement” and naming Council member Fischer and Filber to the committee.
Yes: 6 No: 0
C. Set
a public hearing for June 6 and/or June 13, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. to solicit public
comment on a combined notice to the public of No Significant Impact on the
Environment and notice to the public of a request for release of funds for the
proposed Lake Pointe Project and to use up to $400,000 of CDBG funds from the
Michigan Economic Development Corporation for a total estimated investment of
up to $8,000,000 at 917 West Savidge.
Summary: This project would produce a 5,000 square
foot waterfront restaurant, 34 condominiums and 20 full time equivalent
jobs. This job creation qualified the
Village for up to $400,000 of infrastructure and streetscape enhancements.
West
Savidge Street was in disrepair and very much needed reconstruction. The streetscape was a mix of poor design and
needed improvement. The MEDC was
contemplating an invitation to the Village to submit a Notice of Intent. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce was
employed to conduct the necessary State Historic and Environmental submittals
for the purpose of meeting the development timetable. This hearing was the same as was conducted of the Harbor Steel
Redevelopment/Village Place project last November.
The
eventual Notice of Intent and the Community Development Block Grant Application
would be developed and placed on file with the Village Clerk-Treasurer for
public review in advance of the hearing.
Public review was encouraged.
Further, public notice would appear in the newspaper and be distributed
to the adjacent neighborhood.
On
a motion by Fischer, support from Hall, the Village Council set a public
hearing for June 6 and/or June 13, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. to solicit public comment
on a combined notice to the public of No Significant Impact on the Environment
and a notice to the Public of a Request for Release of Funds for the proposed
Lake Pointe Project and to use up to $400,000 of CDBG funds from the Michigan
Economic Development Corporation at 917 West Savidge.
Yes: 6 No: 0
D. Named
the Village Manager the certifying officer for the environmental, grant and
other documents pertaining to a grant request from the Michigan Economic Development
Corporation for the proposed Lake Pointe Project at 917 West Savidge.
Summary: The Village needed to appoint a certifying
officer to sign the appropriate paperwork and progress reports. The Chamber listed the Village Manager on
the State Historic Preservation request letter.
On
a motion Fischer, support from Holland, the Village Council appointed the
Village Manager as certifying officer for the environmental paperwork, the
upcoming MEDC grant and other documents pertaining to a grant request from the
Michigan Economic Development Corporation for the proposed Lake Pointe Project
at 917 West Savidge.
Yes: 6 No: 0
VIII.
Reconvened the Work Session at 8:38 p.m.
IX.
Approved a budget adjustment for increased funding of the Mill
Point Park band shell.
Summary: The Spring Lake Rotary Club was funding the
bulk of the band shell structure.
Spring Lake Township was helping to fund a construction crew. The beams were larger than volunteers alone
can handle. The Village was handling
the foundation design, relocation of the electrical and the concrete pad.
Stakes were placed last
week. The MDEQ permit was expected to
be completed in a matter of days. Work
could begin when the soils and other engineering was completed (May 20th). We remained hopeful that the June 2nd
first concert deadline could still be met.
The total amount
budgeted was $5,000 in the Public Improvement fund. The actual costs would be greater however $3,500 for engineering and soils,
$4,000-10,000 for the concrete pad and $3,500 for extending the electrical and
moving a light post.
The concrete pad was large (40’ by 80”). The concrete cost options were $4,000 for plain concrete; $6,000 for colored or brick-like; or $10,000 for slate-like.