By K.D. Norris
Following a contentious meeting, attended by about 100 persons in opposition to a development plan proposed by the Granger Group for the city’s southwest side, the Wyoming City Planning Commission recommended that the Wyoming City Council deny a rezoning request associated with the development.
The vote Tuesday, Aug. 15, was 4-3 with two commissioners absent. The City Council is currently scheduled to take up the issue at its Sept. 5 meeting.
The issue may be a moot point, however, as after the meeting, the Granger Group announced it will change its plans in response to community mood.
“We respect the neighbors, we respect the City of Wyoming … we thought we had a better plan,” Gary Granger, President and CEO of Granger Group said to WKTV on Thursday, Aug. 17. “The neighbors said ‘No’ and so we have to stick with our original plan.
“We have an original PUD (Planned Unit Development) … a clear PUD that was approved in 2000,” he said. “We will go back to that plan. We still have additional land that we will be dealing with in the future.”
City Planner Tim Cochran said Thursday that Granger had not yet withdrawn the rezoning proposal.
The specific rezoning request, according to the agenda report of the planning commission meeting, was to rezone 98.4 acres from currently approved zoning status to low density planned unit development status. The properties include 66.9 acres zoned estate residential, 9.5 acres of general business, 15.7 of local business and 6.3 of restricted office.
The properties, generally located in the southeast corner of 56th Street and Wilson Avenue, are 3928 56th Street, 3952 56th Street, 5700 Wilson Avenue, 5850 Wilson Avenue, 5950 Wilson Avenue, 5972 Wilson Avenue, 5988 Wilson Avenue, 6002 Wilson Avenue, 6010 Wilson Avenue, and 6030 Wilson Avenue.
According to a city planning department rezoning synopsis given to the planning commission, the “proposed rezoning area is primarily agricultural fields” and if rezoned would “accommodate a mixed use development. The rezoning covers eleven separate properties. The rezoning would combine these properties with the adjoining Rivertown Valley Planned Unit Development to create a total PUD of 211.2 acres to be rebranded as The Reserve.”
According to the city planning department report, there are currently 131 single family lots within a Rivertown Valley development. The Reserve at Rivertown development, if approved, would add 185 additional single family lots, 370 apartments and about 3.5 acres of commercial area.
It is the combination of an existing PUD with a proposed PUD — and the possibility of as many as 370 rental apartments being created — which has led local single-family homeowner to oppose Granger’s plans, according to a press release from a citizens group.
According to the citizens group’s press release, the residents are concerned about “370 apartments being constructed in their backyards … (being) forced into a home owners association with no disclosure in purchase agreements … the impact that 370 new rental units would have on the local schools (this part of Wyoming the school district is the City of Grandville) … (and) Granger’s plan to use an old traffic study from 2014. We believe that the study is outdated and a new study by the City of Wyoming needs to be conducted.”
The community group also said in the press release that it has hired a lawyer, Kevin Keenan of Wheeler Upham, to represent them.
