By Jim Bloch
The Port Huron city council has overridden the planning commission’s recommendation to deny a rezoning request by Community Housing Network, Inc. to build a four-story high rise with 37 apartments south of McLaren Hospital.
The council voted 7-0 to override the planning commission at its regular meeting Oct. 9 and to schedule the first reading of an ordinance approving the rezoning at its next regular meeting Oct. 23.
CHN, Inc., of Troy, is a nonprofit organization that tries to prevent homelessness and provide housing assistance to cities and individuals. CHN had asked the planning commission to rezone 10 pieces of property on the west side of Erie Street, between Lincoln and Rawlins streets, from A-1/multi-family residential to A-2/high rise multi-family residential.
The planning commission voted 3-2 to deny the request at its regular meeting Oct. 3. Two members were absent; one member abstained.
“We had several planning commission members who were missing, absent from the meeting that night,” said City Manager James Freed, as heard on the recording of the council meeting posted on the city’s website. If the missing members had attended, he said, the rezoning would have been approved.
The hospital is having a hard time attracting employees in part because of the lack of affordable housing, Freed said.
Jeff Pemberton, the council rep on the planning commission, said there was a lot of confusion at the meeting.
The four-story high rise will offer low to moderate income apartments. The staff report in the planning commission’s packet called the project “greatly needed within the city.”
“As you know, McLaren has assembled properties throughout the neighborhood between St. Clair County Community College and McLaren for quite some time,” said David Haynes, director of planning, told the council.
Haynes said the goal of high rise is to create workforce housing, “which we need desperately.”
“The two story, rather historic building at the corner of Erie and Rawlins, we’re going to preserve that and do a duplex, upper and lower,” said C.J. Felton, director of real estate development for CHN. “The city owns a home right next to it that was acquired, I believe, through tax foreclosure, and had actually been slated for potential demolition. We’re going to preserve that home and turn it into a three-bedroom rental. So there’ll be 40 units in the total development… It’s in your master plan that this particular neighborhood is slotted for higher density development… It’ll be the nicest building we’ve ever done and we’ve done 300 units of multi-family housing.”
The first floor will feature a community space and a leasing office.
Haynes said the planning commission made a mistake when it said that Erie Street was not a major thoroughfare, which the project requires: “But by definition it is. Major thoroughfares are main arterials, including collectors, within the city… Erie Street is a collector by definition.”
There was also a concern that the building would block sunlight from neighboring residents. Haynes said that the only properties that would be affected would be those already owned by McLaren.
If council approves the first reading of the rezoning request on Oct. 23, it will come back for final approval on Nov. 13.
The site plan for the project is expected to be reviewed by the planning commission in November. Felton said he submitted the site plan to the city Oct. 6.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
