Former hospital could be converted to apartments

by Peter Jakey-Managing Editor

Members of the Onaway City Commission discussed the rezoning of the former hospital building and conducted a public hearing, Dec. 2.

Mark Pruchnicki requested the parcel be rezoned from professional commercial to multi-family.

Pruchnicki is interested in converting the facility into apartments.

“It is kind of spurred by the future hiring at Moran Iron Works,” said city manager Joe Hefele. “Although, the apartments would be available to others as well.”

The commission tabled any action until a future date.

The city’s planning commission conducted a public hearing Oct. 30 and voted unanimously to recommend that the city commission consider rezoning the property to medium density. The recommendation came at the direction of city attorney Mike Vogler, who believes making it multi-family would be spot zoning, since the parcel in question is only 132-by-132 feet.

The other locations zoned multi-family (Lynn Street Manor, Jamestown Apartments and Onaway Apartments) are much larger parcels, which would be typical for apartment complexes.

“In multi-family it requires a significant amount of actual property per apartment unit,” said Hefele. The city’s zoning ordinance requires that, in multi-family districts, there be at least 3,000 square feet of land per apartment dwelling. Under this requirement, Pruchnicki could only have five apartments.

“If you were to rezone it to medium density residential, you wouldn’t be spot zoning, because you are converting an existing building, into something else, the requirement that you have all that property isn’t there,” said Hefele.

Multi-family dwellings are allowed in medium density residential districts by special use, which means that if the commission should vote to rezone it, the matter still would go through the planning commission again.

The only written comment was from the owner of the property, the Robinson Family Trust, which supported a rezoning contingent upon the sale of the property to Pruchnicki.

“If the sale of the property did not go through, the owner would prefer it remain professional commercial,” said Hefele.

James Gibson is concern about the number of people it could bring into that small space. “I’m not opposed to improving the tax base and bringing people in, but I want to make sure that it fits and it is going to be good for everybody,” said Gibson.

The city manager added “there are a lot of moving parts here.”

Hefele said the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) is a vital part of the project. He has been unable to get a meeting with the buyer and state agencies. Plus, MSHDA has indicated that HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development) has placed a moratorium on any and all future rental rehabilitation projects until it has taken care of issue with existing projects. MSHDA also could require more space per apartment, superceeding the city’s requir

ements, and possibly put the brakes on the project.

“We can’t have a pubic hearing for a special use permit for apartments, because right now it is still zoned professional commercial and it is not even allowed,” said Hefele. Vogler said medium density residential “Is the better route. I think that needs to be communicated back to the owner of the property and the person interested in buying it. And they should write into the purchase agreement the condition that it be rezoned medium density residential,”

A second meeting with all the interested parties could take place after the holidays.

The building housed Boysville before closing several years ago.