After a public hearing in which two residents opposed the rezoning of 10 parcels along the eastern portion of North Main Street from M-1 Manufacturing to R-3 Multiple Family Residential, the Allegan City Council came to an impasse with a tie vote.
During the hearing, property owners of 700 and 770 Main St. spoke against the rezoning over concerns the residential zoning limited their ability to sell their property as an investment. 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 and Todd Heckman. The rest of the properties are vacant.
“There is nothing in R-3 that works for this property,” said Ted Heckman. “It has to be exactly identical if I want to sell it—which limits us at someone’s mercy.
“Rezone when there’s a need or request but I haven’t heard of anyone coming forward and I don’t want to be hobbled for only certain specific things.”
Mark Waanders owner of 700 N. Main said Ted summed it up. Although he’s not ready to sell his property, the buildings he’s invested in would be worth nothing if his land was bought for housing.
The parcels are between Green Street and Summit Drive. Community Development Coordinator Jordan Meagher said North Street is an entryway into Allegan and all other parcels there are residential. Rezoning would align the future land use plan adopted in 2015 which maps out increased residential opportunities and better projects an image of residential use rather than having manufacturing use at a main entryway to the city.
“Coming from the north, this is your first look at Allegan,” Meagher said. “It’s more a residential area than industrial area and manufacturing is a sore thumb.”
Meagher reiterated that if the rezone was approved, all current uses would remain their current use in the future as long as it is not expanded or altered. As a non-conforming use, any future property owner would also be able to continue this use as long as it is not expanded or altered to a different type of manufacturing use.
The Allegan City Planning Commission recommended 5-2 to rezone the property.
In the absence of council member Patrick Morgan, Nancy Ingalsbee, Charles Tripp and Mike Manning voted against rezoning.
Ingalsbee said any government body needs to have a very good reason to take away someone’s property rights.
“I feel that’s what we are doing now,” Ingalsbee said. “We don’t have anyone who wants to do R-3, that I know of, so we should wait until we have a use and then if we need to change it, change it then.”
Delora Andrus asked if rezoning is usually done before there is an interest. Meagher said rezoning begets interest.
Mike Manning expressed concerns over whether the zoning change would devalue the Heckman and Waanders properties.
Mayor Rachel McKenzie said the same argument could be made for residential areas that are right next to manufacturing.
“It could devalue their property and they would have to sit around and wait for somebody to give them what their property is worth,” she said.
McKenzie, Andrus and Traci Perrigo voted for rezoning. With a tie vote, the rezone did not pass.
Virginia Ransbottom can be contacted at vransbottom@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534.
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