By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Dowagiac City Council Monday night gave final approval to rezoning 4.63 acres from A Residence to Planned Unit Development (PUD) to allow for development of 40 more garden apartments through Michigan State Housing Development Authority's (MSHDA) tax credit program.
Council members also approved a preliminary site plan for Eagle's Trace development, as recommended earlier this month by the city Planning Commission, along with a lot split.
The council March 28 also gave second reading approving an agreement between the city and Excel Realty of Ohio for a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) equal to 8 percent of rents collected.
If the development was fully occupied, that would result in Dowagiac receiving about $17,912 annually.
Eagle's Trace, which will be built behind Eagle's Wood on Pokagon Street at Amerihost Drive, is a five-building complex of eight three-bedroom units, eight three-bedroom units, eight one- and two-bedroom units, eight two-bedroom units and eight two-bedroom units.
Since the March 14 City Council meeting at which City Manager William Nelson Jr. said a tollgate drainage system was incorporated into the first phase of the Dowagiac Commercial Center, Judy Clarke Corak consulted a former Pokagon Township supervisor and Marcy Colclough, who headed the Dowagiac River Watershed project for the Cass County Conservation District.
Corak said at Monday night's council meeting that both told her the tollgate method was not applied, though Nelson continued to insist otherwise.
Corak said Colclough provided her with copies of the tollgate wetland system recommended to the city.
This system was used in Ingham County to treat runoff from 554 single-family homes in a 234-acre neighborhood. A similar, less-expensive version was recommended to Dowagiac.
Corak agreed with Mayor Don Lyons' comment two weeks ago that she has been against Eagle's Wood from the start. "He is right," she said. "I have been against it because I knew the nature of this land, and I knew what such a development would do to this area." The mayor missed Monday night's meeting.
Keesler also reported that streetlights aren't working along Pokagon Street. "My shop light's lighting up your road," she said. "The mayor snapped at me last time I was here because I used the safety issue. He said every neighborhood has problems. Friday, March 18's police report states there was an attempted break-in and one subject arrested for harboring fugitives. I don't know if someone made a comment to the police, but we seem to be seeing a little bit more police activity, which I'm thankful for. We get a lot of activity at 2 o'clock in the morning from five boys who look to be young teen-agers. There's no reason for them to be out at this hour of the night, walking in the woods, and they head towards town."
She said she had not reported the incidents to police because by the time officers arrive, "They're real slick. They wear dark clothing" and slip away.
Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Comstock suggested, however, that Keesler call in and file a report because it would help with prosecution if they are caught.
Keesler, secretary of the Pokagon Township Zoning Board of Appeals, commented, "One thing that's really been eating me all along, and maybe you'll understand why I've been here complaining all the time about the water and the land. My teacher taught me that this land cannot talk or defend itself. I need to sit back and think, what's the best use? Does it have neighbors? Is it going to hurt it to build something on it? I've lived by those standards. I'm the biggest gardener there is. That same land's cousin is going to cover you up someday, whether at Riverside Cemetery or somewhere else."
JoAnne Wood of Third Ward said her concern is with the number of apartments being added "in this little town. I'm not the smartest one in the barrel, but I know you don't build on wet ground - no matter what you do - when it's been a river. Are you trying to run our landlords out of business? It's going to take a lot of money to drain that land and to keep it drained."
Nelson replied, "I'm confident that the property out there is developable. We have a demand for apartments, apparently, because we have people developing apartments. And apparently some people want to live in those places, because they've had a very good response. Any community is a balance of single-family homes and apartments. I think if you looked across the community objectively, we're not that different from other communities in that respect."