Traverse City Record-Eagle

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January 27, 2012

Officials may soon vote on Meijer plan

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Acme Township planning officials can take some solace as they wrap their review of a proposed Meijer store: Residents on either side of a drawn-out, oft-contentious issue aren't particularly happy.

Planners are likely to take a final vote on phase I of the proposed 182-acre Village at Grand Traverse development when they meet Monday at 6 p.m. at the township hall. A vote would wrap months of study and scrutiny over store plans and signal a major step toward a development project initially pitched in 2004.

The project would then go to the township board for final approval.

Phase I consists of a 214,000-square-foot Meijer store that would anchor what could evolve into more than 1 million square feet of retail space on M-72 and Lautner Road.

Acme resident and Meijer advocate Paul Turowski called the township planning review process a "joke." He contends anti-growth planning commissioners needlessly stretched the review for more than two years.

"They are hiding behind these tiny little objections," Turowski said. "They keep postponing it over these little ridiculous things."

Not so, responded Meijer opponent Charlene Abernethy. Delays are the developers' "own darn fault" because they submitted plans that were four years old and outdated.

"I think the township has come a long ways ... but it's still not what I'd want to see," she said.

Acme's business community emerged as among the township government's harshest critics, joining residents who worked with Meijer's citizen front groups to harass township officials in past years.

Meijer illegally paid those groups more than $100,000 to secretly influence township elections in 2005 and 2007. Meijer paid the state nearly $200,000 to settle campaign finance violations, and the Grand-Rapids area retail giant and Village at Grand Traverse LLC developers together paid more than $4 million to settle several lawsuits related to their actions.

Local business owners have asserted at planning commission meetings that a Meijer store will help their own struggling businesses survive. Delays, they charge, soured the township's economy.

Such complaints amount to "wasted breath," Abernethy said. A Meijer store is inevitable, but its appearance and other details needed to be hashed out.

"A lot of people seem to have forgotten the past, but we all haven't, and we don't trust them," Abernethy said.

"Why would we want to give them a free hand to build whatever icky thing they want," she said.

Steve Smith, Village at Grand Traverse's managing partner, said he has no complaints about the process. He declined additional comment.

Terry Boyd, a local engineer who is a development consultant, said his clients are extremely happy with the end product.

"The township's been uncomfortable a bit because this is such a big project for Acme, and they want to make sure all the Ts are crossed and the Is are dotted," he said. "We have to remember that while we deal with this every day, the planners see it once a month. It's a lot to digest."

A new traffic study consumed significant time and required agreement by the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Grand Traverse County Road Commission and development consultants. That plan will dictate future design along the entire M-72 corridor.

Another big topic of discussion: storm water retention. Boyd and the township's consultant had differing ideas, but the developers eventually conceded on most of the township's requests.

For their part, township officials relented on several issues, including larger signage and variances to allow buildings to exceed Acme's 35-foot height limit. Planners also delayed requirements for sidewalks on interior roads and along M-72 until phase II.

Abernethy said she's pleased by the developers' storm water concessions, but wishes planners had required more green space and not allowed a delay in sidewalk construction.

"I'll probably be dead and buried by the time phase II comes along with the economy the way it is," she said.

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