Leland Township planning commission will return next month to review the application for a proposed zoning ordinance amendment for the cultural district overlay to allow for the applicants to make further revisions following a lengthy public hearing on Aug. 6.
The public hearing last week was to consider a revised version of the proposed amendment to the language of the Leland Township zoning ordinance. Commissioners received a presentation from the applicants involved which included representatives from the Old Art Building (OAB), the Leland Township Public Library, and the Leelanau Historical Society (LHS). Planning commission chair Ross Satterwhite, secretary Skip Telgard, and ZBA rep Lee Cory all recused themselves from the hearing due to potential conflicts of interest. Planning commission alternate Brian Fenlon filled in, and commissioner Sam Simpson and township board rep Steve Scales participated and stayed on for the public hearing. Both Satterwhite and Simpson relayed to the public, a packed crowd in the library’s Munnecke Room, to be respectful to those speaking whether they may or may not agree with them to allow for civil discourse on the topic.
Cultural district overlay application
According to the applicant, the proposed amendment would create a new district overlay for three parcels of land within the “Leland Village Area to allow for the continued use and expansion of the existing non-profit organizations with community-based missions that own or lease portions of the subject parcels.” Based on the nature of the organizations, the proposed district overlay is being referred to as the “Cultural District Overlay” and will provide new zoning standards for cultural and community uses on the three subject parcels, all of which are currently zoned R-2. The application explains how two of these parcels have been historically used for cultural, educational, and institutional purposes as they are home to the OAB, the Leland Township Library, and the LHS museum and archives. The third is an adjacent parcel, 204 E. Cedar Street, which has historically been used as a single-family residence, but has recently been acquired by the OAB. The current R-2 zoning of the parcels in the proposed district “creates non-conformities on these parcels, causing potential issues for their future use, improvement, and expansion.”
The amendment would provide security and flexibility to the organizations within the district overlay so that they can continue to provide their services to the community. The applicants have historically utilized their parcels for: library uses, community gatherings, events, art displays/exhibitions, instructional programming, historical museum, research and archival storage — and see the amendment as a way to formalize “the continuation of these ongoing, historic, legally non-conforming uses within the overlay and to reduce use non-conformity within this specific area of the township.”
“Inspired by the efforts to preserve another unique area of Leland through the tools afforded by community planning and zoning — the Fishtown Historic District — the Old Art Building, Leland Township Public Library, and Leelanau Historical Society have collaborated on the creation of the proposed ordinance amendment that seeks to eliminate nonconformities at existing facilities and provide for the future expansion of the organizations’ existing uses to further serve the cultural and educational needs of the community,” the revised zoning amendment submission from Mansfield Land Use Consultants stated.
With the acquisition of the 204 E. Cedar Street parcel, the OAB sees it as an opportunity to spread existing operations over a larger area, providing “needed elbow room” for OAB programming. It’s noted in the application, among other important factors, that the proposed amendment does not seek to change the overall intensity of the existing uses within the district, rather it would provide expansion of its activities, documentation of existing and historic uses within the district, and flexibility in use for the future. Additionally, the current R-2 zoning would have allowed for private development of the parcel.
“While expanding Old Art Building activities onto a new parcel may seem to create additional impact on the surrounding neighborhood, it should be noted that the expansion is intended to provide space for less-intensive Old Art Building programming and more efficient use of spaces on its existing site,” the application states. “The Cultural District Overlay Master Plan proposed as part of this amendment shows that the site would be home to a new programming building, but left as primarily open space available for public use and river access.”
Potential impacts
The largest potential impact of the proposed amendment is the handling of parking and vehicular circulation, particularly during the busy summer season. Many members of the audience during the public hearing spoke during public comment about their concerns over increased traffic, limited parking, and noise in Leland and how they feel it would negatively impact their own properties.
Carolyn Telgard, a nearby neighbor to the overlay district, was one of the first to speak about her concerns and those potential impacts, explaining how she’s gone from “extremely excited to extremely terrified” with the proposal as her family owns the only contiguous residential property adjacent to 204 E. Cedar Street.
“We have a lot at stake,” Telgard said. “So when I stand in front of everybody and I ask you to push pause on the conversation, it’s not from a place of ‘I don’t want it to happen,’ it’s from a place of ‘we need to button this up so that the most impacted community members, which include us as contiguous property owners and the other neighbors that are across First Street and across the river, feel confident that the mission that these organizations have always had is actually still in this overlay district so that the guardrails are actually guardrails.”
Greg Kuntz, another nearby neighbor to the proposed district, followed after Telgard’s comments, and voiced that while he supports the overlay district, he has his own concerns over the compliance of the properties involved, suggesting to look at the 204 Cedar Street separately.
“It’s going to set precedence for the entire township for generations to come,” Kuntz said. “You can’t just go in and buy property, have a deed restriction and consider it done.”
There were also many who spoke in support of the district and its efforts to expand programming to the newly acquired property. Dan Lisuk, Leland resident and a former longtime OAB board member and president, spoke on how the organizations in the proposed district have helped to improve the quality of life for community members.
“These groups are good neighbors, our policy has always been to be responsive to the community’s concerns and purposes. That this proposal will improve our community is obvious and significant, I urge you to pass it,” Lisuk said.
Jessica Lukomski, the previous owner of the 204. E. Cedar Street parcel who sold the property to the OAB last year, also spoke during public comment. She said her and her sister Jennifer’s vision of the property was to preserve its “uniqueness” as well as green space, trees, a natural river bank and room to breathe, all things that she said are in short supply in Leland.
“We felt, and continue to feel, that the Old Art Building would have our best interests at heart — the best interests of Leland at heart, a solid foundation for our family legacy,” Lukomski said. “We do consider the property as part of our family, the Old Art Building will now cherish and grow and extend it to the community as our legacy, everyone’s oasis… This property has not always been zoned residential, it was commercial until 1974 when Wilbur Munnecke purchased this marina and decided it would be a public library, the historical museum, and community gathering space… All of those homes on First and Front Street were residential and they existed quite well with commercial behind them along the river.”
To read the cultural district overlay application in its entirety, go to https://www.leelanau.gov/townships/leland/about/planning_commission.php.
