Pizza Shop, FieldHouse Expansion Rejected by Council; Meijer Pitches a New Gas Station

A proposed pizza shop and expansion to the FieldHouse sports bar downtown was rejected by City Council, as members were against raising the occupancy of the busy downtown bar.

St. Anne LLC proposed expanding FieldHouse into a suite adjacent to its building, and then adding a small pizza restaurant, Side Piece, in another vacant adjacent suite. The expansion to FieldHouse would allow alcohol, but Side Piece would not. 

At previous meetings, representatives for St. Anne said that the FieldHouse expansion would be used primarily for special events. 

Expanding alcohol services was too much for some members of council to stomach, as the proposal failed in a 3-1 vote at the June 17 meeting. Councilmembers Mark Meadows and Erik Altmann joined Mayor George Brookover in voting against the project. Mayor Pro Tem Kerry Ebersole Singh voted in favor. 

“We have 4,500 occupancy in bars in our downtown already,” Altmann said. “It’s just been creeping up over the years and we don’t need any more.”

The three council members who voted against the proposal all said noise from bars downtown is a nuisance for Newman Lofts residents living in the area, and that allowing FieldHouse to expand will add to that problem. 

“Personally, I’ve gotten numerous complaints over the last three-and-a-half years from residents across the street about this specific site, noise, etcetera,” Brookover said. 

Singh said the proposal is “not perfect” but that the challenges with FieldHouse are not unique and the city needs to continue to work with business owners to address these problems. 

She indicated she hopes the proposal is modified and brought back to council, saying the business owners have “seeds that could be salvaged for something in the future.”

Council holds a public hearing on Meijer gas station proposed for Lake Lansing Road. 

Council took feedback – but did not vote on – a proposed Meijer gas station and store on Lake Lansing Road. Developers said the store is a “Meijer express” that will contain groceries and other items not typically available at gas station convenience stores. 

The proposal, which the Planning Commission voted against recommending, has seen dissent at previous meetings due to traffic concerns and its placement across the street from an existing Speedway gas station. 

The proposal includes six fuel islands, 12 gas pumps and two electric vehicle chargers. 

The gas station would be located next to Maxson Dental. At the June 17 meeting, members of the Maxson family urged council to vote against the proposal. 

“Approving a gas station across from another gas station at an intersection that already has a higher than average crash rate is irresponsible planning,” Jessica Maxson said. “It would be an endangerment to the community and all who travel through this intersection each day.”

Greg Maxson said he is a lifelong Meijer customer and does not oppose development on the lot, but that the development should not be “a high profile, high volume” development. 

“I believe it’s [the gas station] going to create more congestion at this intersection, which is already busy,” he said. “I also think it’s going to create delays and make it harder for my patients, my staff, people that live and work in the area, to get in and out.”

A resident who lives near the site said that traffic noise is “overwhelming” and she worries that adding a convenience store will increase the trash that gets in her yard. 

During the public hearing, developers tried to get council excited about the proposal. 

Matt Levitt, a real estate manager for Meijer, said the development would represent a “new generation of Meijer gas stations.”

“It is the Meijer express and it is a larger store that provides more than your typical fuel station,” Levitt said, adding that the store would provide a convenient location for people to shop for essential items when they don’t have time to visit a Meijer supermarket.  

Levitt said the store would include food for people on the go, like salads, pizza and burrito bowls. It would also include products like beauty items and groceries that are not typically sold in gas station convenience stores. 

With multiple flooding events in the area over the last few years, Levitt acknowledged that stormwater management will have to be incorporated into the development process. 

“I want to be clear, because we are developing the site, we are going to actually improve the stormwater management,” he said. “Instead of sheet flow runoff that goes to the locations that add to the water that ends up causing those floods, we are going to collect the water on our site and put it into the stormwater system and move it north, where it should be going.”

He also said the developers worked with the city to address traffic concerns by making the exits closest to the Lake Lansing Road and Abbot Road intersection right turn only. 

Following the public hearing, council had little discussion about the proposal and did not indicate how they plan to vote. The proposal may return for a vote at council’s next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, July 15.