Allegan City Council set a public hearing for Dec. 10, for the rezoning of 10 parcels along the eastern portion of North Main Street from M-1 Manufacturing to R-3 Multiple Family Residential.
The parcels are from Green Street almost to Summit Drive.
The Allegan City Planning Commission recommended 5-2 to rezone the property as part a process to bring the City’s Zoning Map into conformance with the Master Plan.
During the planning commission’s public hearing, two property owners of 700 and 770 Main Street spoke against the rezoning over concerns the residential zoning limited their ability to sell their property. 700 N. Main currently has warehouses and a shop for Waanders’ Concrete, and 770 N. Main is the now-defunct H&K Construction owned by Ted Heckman. The rest of the properties are vacant.
Heckman also attended the city council’s Monday, Nov, 26, meeting to tell the council that rezoning would be financially disadvantageous.
While the future land use plan is to zone the area to be used for affordable residential purposes, Heckman said the property had been zoned industrial since the late 1940s.
Except for the industrial park to the east, which does not have access to North Main Street, the properties are residential to the north, south and west with access to North Main.
Council member Mike Manning said he had been one of the planning commission’s two dissenting votes to recommend rezoning because there wasn’t a current need to rezone and it would be a game changer for the property in which Heckman had invested for many years.
Virginia Ransbottom can be contacted at vransbottom@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534.
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