Submitted by whitemice on Wed, 02/27/2019 - 07:18
The discussion of Mobility at the February 26th Strategic Planning Session begins at ~2:49:49. The purpose of the Strategic Plan is to link in a list of three to five year priorities the city's day to day operations and annual budget to the long range Master Plan(s). We still have to see how, or if, this works about but a focus on the materialization of long term planning goals is an admirable goal.
Some interesting points:
Submitted by whitemice on Thu, 02/07/2019 - 09:39
NOTE: Our summary of ADU zoning located at http://urbangr.org/GRADURegs2018r2 is currently obsolete.
UPDATE: 2019-09 - It appears that the new status-quo is what is, the disappointing results of "Housing NOW" are what we have for the foreseeable future.
Submitted by whitemice on Mon, 11/05/2018 - 06:33
This is a look at the agenda items for the MobileGR meeting of 2018-11-08.
2018 Meeting Schedule
Meetings have been moved to noon [lunch time]. MobileGR meetings are approximately an hour in length.
Submitted by whitemice on Mon, 10/15/2018 - 06:52
The WMCAT presentation to the City Commision with the results from the community out-reach events is available as PDF or ODP. The "original" Google Drive document is here.
The presentation to the City Commission on October 9th, 2018, is available on Youtube.
Submitted by whitemice on Fri, 10/12/2018 - 08:12
It has been more than six months since the Housing NOW related zoning proposals were released, and then indefinitely tabled. I have yet to encounter a detailed critique of the proposals. Given the disappointing condition of the debate I've decided to offer one here for the topic of which I am most familiar: Accessory Dwelling Units [ADUs]. Are there problems with is proposal? The answer is "yes".
Submitted by whitemice on Fri, 06/01/2018 - 12:01
Status
As of 2018-12-18 the body of this document is obsolete. The City Commission ratified changes to the zoning concerning ADUs on that date. Theoretically there will be another set of changes sometime in March/April/May/... at which point this document is will be updated to reflect whatever that result is. As of 2020-09-20 the City Commission has made no further changes, leaving us with the disappointing and unexpected results of the Housing NOW "process" :(
Briefly, the changes on 2018-12-18 were:
- Floor area ratio changed to 40% (from 25%). Size now has a hard limit of 850sq/ft. Minimum remains 400sq/ft.
- Allowed height reduced from 25ft to 20ft, except in some rare cases.
- Minimum lot area of 5,000sq/ft removed, now lots only need to be conforming to the minimum lot size of the zone.
- Confusion between ADU size and Accessory Structure size has been resolved; and ADU doubles the sq/ft allowed in the Accessory Structure.
- No change to permitting process.
- No change to Owner Occupancy or Deed Restriction requirement.
- No change to unit (1), occupancy (2), or bedroom (2) limit.
Beware the City of Grand Rapid's Housing NOW page concerning the 2018 "Housing NOW" zoning reforms; the information provided on the city's page is not accurate. For example, ADU's are not permitted "by-right" in the city of Grand Rapids.
Disclaimer & Purpose
This is not an official document; this document is not endorsed by the Grand Rapids Planning Commision, nor are its authors qualified to present legal opinions.
The purpose of this document is to provide an introduction to the regulations related to Accessory Dwelling Units in the city of Grand Rapids, MI as of 2018. Within the Zoning the topic of Accessory Dwelling Units are directly addressed in section [5.9.03]. Other sections of the code may still impact the development of ADUs so we have attempted to cross-reference the most relevant sections.
Submitted by whitemice on Tue, 05/29/2018 - 06:38
At the May 22nd meeting of the City Commission the licensing of the following items was repealed:
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