Planning Commission Recommends Gas Station, Not B&B Rezoning

The Planning Commission made decisions on a pair of projects, one to build and one regarding rezoning, at its April 24 meeting .

The commission voted to recommend approval of a gas station and convenience store on the corner of Abbot Road and Saginaw Street. 

A final hearing was held for the plan replace the gas station currently at the location, with developers asking the commission to give a recommendation immediately following the hearing, going against its custom of waiting until the next meeting to vote.

American Gas & Oil, the applicant, already won the recommendation of the commission once with a similar proposal to construct a new gas station and convenience store. However, that plan failed to gain the approval of City Council. Developers have now come back with a new plan to keep the berm that hides the gas pumps from street view. 

Owner Jason Berris of American Gas & Oil and Steve Witte, an engineer from contracted firm Nederveld, Inc, rose to speak to the project and how it has evolved since council rejected it.

“The biggest concern by far was screening of the fuel islands and visibility, they didn’t want that completely open,” Witte said. “If you remember on the original plan, we were taking out the berm..and it was going to be a pretty clear line of sight from the intersection to the fuel island.”

To rectify the concerns, the new plan calls for a five-and-a-half to six-foot stone wall which would preserve the existing grading. There will also be an electric vehicle charging station at the northeast corner of the site – which was requested by Mayor George Brookover when the project was before council. These features join the proposed five fuel pump islands, a canopy over them and a new building housing a convenience retail building.

The revised plan was recommended by the Planning Commission in a 6-1 vote with only Commissioner Chelsea Denault in opposition. Denault said she would have liked to see the current structure repurposed instead of being torn down. The proposal will next go to City Council for approval.

Planning Commission votes against recommending rezoning for B&B. 

The second big matter of business was the proposed rezoning of 730 Grove Street for use as a bed and breakfast. Because the city lacks a zoning code  specifically for B&Bs,  the area would be rezoned from R-2 (medium density single-family residential) to RM-32 (city center multiple-family residential district).  A previous rezoning proposal to allow the property to be used as a B&B was denied by City Council earlier this year.

The property owner, Michael Zawacki, took feedback after the rejection from council and prepared a new rezoning proposal with the condition that the property be used for a Class B multi-family dwelling, the classification the City of East Lansing uses for other bed and breakfasts. The new proposal stipulates if owner Michael Zawacki ever sells the property, the Class B designation remains.

Zawacki gave an update on his work since he last faced the commission in March. 

“[In the resubmitted plan] I described how a local caretaker would be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the bed and breakfast,” he said. “In the meantime, since the last meeting, I’ve been speaking with a few bed and breakfast owners and managers and they shared some helpful information. They said to focus on exceptional customer service, cleanliness, and delicious breakfast options that cater to dietary restrictions [while] also maintaining a unique identity as a historically and architecturally significant home.”

Zawacki said he has submitted an application to the state for a Michigan Historical Marker.

Zawacki also submitted a business plan, something the commission had suggested in its previous incarnation, and offered a modification that prohibits the Class B multiple-family dwelling from ever becoming a fraternity or sorority.

Commissioners continued to press Zawacki on hypotheticals and it quickly became apparent that the proposed rezoning again faced trouble.

“I’m looking at your conditions,” Commissioner Cynthia Williams said, “and the new one says no sorority or fraternity. I believe you have a sorority that’s next door, right? So let’s suppose they’re having an event and the sorority wants to lease a floor for 30 days. Would that be within or outside of your condition?”

“I think he’s made additional compromises since he’s been before us with the additional conditions,” Chair Joseph Sullivan said. “We asked him to clarify his business plan; he’s clarified his business plan for us. So it’s kind of a scenario where we’re considering hypothetical negatives of approval versus hypothetical negatives of denial and that denying this, I think is risking redevelopment of this site that’s potentially less historical that does away with the building that’s there or it’s maintained as a student rental and I think the option of having this [B&B] be the use as intended here is preferable in my opinion.”

Commissioner Matt Boyd connected this proposal with one denied last year in the same neighborhood. The proposal last year was for Hagan Realty to build denser housing in the area.

“I’m still conflicted,” Boyd said. “We had the same thing happen in 2023 for, I think it was across the street, to change it to RM-32 and we didn’t even get to conditions with them, we just denied. And you know those houses were horrible so if they had knocked them down, you wouldn’t have hurt my feelings, but we denied them of everything. So now we’re going to a house asking for the same thing, but yeah we’re going to turn it into a bed and breakfast. I just don’t know. It’s just, it’s hard for me to want to approve this when we, less than a year ago, denied somebody else that was probably going to develop something nice.”

In the end, the commission voted against recommending the plan’s approval to council by a vote of 3-4, with Sullivan, Williams and Denault voting in favor.

MSU Students present on comprehensive plan.

A team of students from Michigan State University’s School of Planning, Design and Construction presented its findings concerning the city’s upcoming comprehensive plan update. The students worked with Principal Planner Landon Bartley in the process.

Through surveys, in-class presentations and focus groups, the team received feedback from 508 MSU students, arriving at results they morphed into recommendations for the city. These recommendations fell into four categories: housing, transportation, economy and recreation, and community wellness.

In housing, for example, the group recommended the possibility of accessory units with already-standing structures.

“Currently the city allows accessory dwelling units in its neo-traditional neighborhood zones,” group member Hannah Prins said, “but we’re recommending the city expand this language to other zones with a particular focus on the downtown area or near campus.

Accessory dwelling units could come from a garage that is improved or a basement apartment or loft, Prins explained.

“It’s an opportunity for homeowners to stay in their home and benefit from rental income,” she said. “It promotes home ownership and rental options [and] it preserves the character of the neighborhood because we’re not building big apartment buildings and we’re not consuming additional open space.”

The group also found students want more downtown entertainment.

“What we heard from students,” group member Jordan Swiler said, “[is] they want more variety downtown. The entertainment options currently revolve around bars and having to be 21 to participate in that entertainment. They want to see more diversity in downtown retail. Currently 54% of the retail sector in East Lansing revolves around food and 58% of those food options are fast food chains or chain restaurants. One of the recommendations that we heard [included] indoor or outdoor movie theaters, fresh food markets, street entertainment such as concerts.”

The group also stressed that Albert El Fresco is popular with students.