WALKER, MI — The Walker City Commission has rezoned the Lincoln County Club property, clearing the path for continued consideration of a proposal to redevelop the site with 204 high-end apartments as well as single-family homes and commercial buildings.
The proposal by Stoneleigh Companies, an Illinois-based real estate investment firm, to redevelop the 100-acre golf course at 3485 Lake Michigan Drive NW has drawn opposition from neighbors. They say the influx of people and traffic will hurt the surrounding area.
Despite those concerns, the seven-member city commission voted unanimously to approve the rezoning request. They said they understand and share concerns about traffic and safety, but that the planning commission would seek to address those issues when reviewing the developer’s site plan.
“I think the rezoning itself is solid,” said commissioner Steven Gilbert. “I think we have come to consensus that having those single-family homes on the exterior of this lot is the right thing, that there’s a role for multifamily homes in this development, and that we want that commercial frontage on Lake Michigan Drive as we had put in the master plan.”
Stoneleigh Companies plans to build 250 high-end apartments, and provide space for a local developer to build 68 single-family homes on the site. In addition, the company’s plans call for making five lots available along Lake Michigan Drive for commercial development.
Monthly rental rates for the apartments, each of which is expected to have an attached two-car garage, would range from an average of $1,500 to $2,200, Stoneleigh President Rick Cavenaugh told MLive in December.
Cavanaugh also said his company would sell the 68 lots for single-family homes to home builders, and would not be involved with the properties moving forward. The same would be true for the portion of the property slated for commercial real estate, which would be sold to companies that wish to build offices or commercial buildings there.
The site plan is slated to go before the planning commission for initial approval on Wednesday, Sept. 1.
Walker Mayor Gary Carey said commissioners will look at the number of units included in the development, the project’s layout, and other factors.
“Could the plan be disapproved by the planning commission — it could be, but I know the planning commission has already approved this concept previously before it came to us as a rezoning,” Carey said.
Tricia Anderson, the city’s planning director and zoning administrator, said Stoneleigh’s project still has a long ways to go before it’s ready for construction. If the development proposal were to receive all the necessary approvals, it would likely be a year before any work could begin at the site. The project requires other approvals beyond initial site plan approval.
Stoneleigh owns and manages multifamily housing communities in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas.
The county club property is one of the last remaining large, open spaces along Lake Michigan Drive east of Standale. The redevelopment of the property, which would include the demolition of the club’s bowling alley and banquet hall, would represent a significant change for the neighborhood.
“By adding this development in, we are adding in a massive amount of traffic,” one resident told the Walker City Commission recently. “Even if the traffic’s only going 25, you’re looking at doubling, tripling the amount of cars that are going to be traveling up and down Maplerow on any given day.”
Maplerow Avenue NW is a residential street just north of the country club.
During the meeting, in response to the concerns raised by neighbors, Carey said there’s an “argument to be made for the land to remain a golf course or open.”
But he added: “There’s also an argument to be made for the housing stock that we really do need in this city.”
A study released in 2020 by Housing Next found that the portion of Kent County outside the city of Grand Rapids would need an additional 3,581 apartments and 9,760 condos, townhomes or single-family homes by 2025 to meet demand.
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Read More:Large-scale housing, commercial development in Walker gets initial approval
2021-09-01 21:23:00
