Friendship Township Planning Commission
Minutes June 27, 2005 7:00 PM

Donahey T Franklin J Gelb Kurburski D Simon F Troup B Trufant
Present x x x x x x
Absent x



I.
II. Call to order at 7: 05 p.m.
III. Also present residents Mike Cullip, Jeff Radle and Grace Persinger
IV. Reviewed notes of 05/23/05 (quorum not present, notes taken)
V. New Business:
A. Residents in attendance interested in discussing the rumored development on Five Mile Creek Road and what the Township Planning Commission could do, what they could do, etc. Master Plan and our current status in county zoning was discussed. We have received no requests for said development. Also discussed the procedures and implications of changing to Township Zoning.
B. Discussion of Township Zoning. Proposal and passed to do a survey that would serve both to educate Township residents about the zoning issues and gauge their opinions. Ideas should be forwarded to Denise before the next meeting so she can have a draft ready for us to look at.
C. Heritage Highway – July 19 meeting with supervisors of Friendship, Readmond, and Cross Village to discuss concept of overlay Tree Protection Ordinance from M-119 corridor at Readmond Twp Hall, 6:30 p.m.
D. RR-2 to FF-2 Status
1. We need to submit this request on the form that builders use when asking for variances etc. Max finally let us know this.
2. Proposed and passed unanimously wording change to:
Whereas, contiguous properties in adjacent county-zoned township are FF-2;

whereas, the majority of attendees at two, well-publicized town meetings specifically on this topic agreed that the density in RR-2 (1/2 acre) is higher than desired;

whereas, the township Master Plan calls strongly for keeping the rural character of the township;

whereas, the township Master Plan specifically states as a goal that the RR-2 area be changed back to FF-2;

whereas, we have long-time residents who indicate they and many others were not in favor of the RR-2 designation when it was made and voiced this opinion at the township level;

whereas, we can find no one to support or give any reasons for why the change was made to RR-2 other than a recent (within the past year) memo from M. Putters surmising perhaps a buffer between SR-2 and FF-2, which does not seem to have much credibility as a reason after investigation. (It is actually a non-buffer as far as density goes: .69 acre lots to 1/2 acre lots to 2 acre lots.)

whereas, we have no other tool under current zoning to achieve the lower density desired by the residents of the township;

Therefore, because this is the best and most expedient tool currently available in the zoning code to address the density issues (1/2 acre lots vs. 2 acre lots), we propose rezoning all or part of the RR-2 district east of the SR-2 district east of M-119 to FF-2 (with the exception of platted parcels in said area), making it match the adjoining properties in Readmond Township.
E. Planning Commission educational requirements – this was discussed again. Felt important to encourage and support education. Hard to require it.
F. Thank you to Max considered (he retires in fall). No action.
VI. Open Discussion for issues not on the Agenda
A. Master Plan discussion and implementation. Donahey voiced concern that we not skip meetings just because no issue on the agenda. We need to implement the Master Plan. To this end all were again asked to review the last ten pages of the MP (64-74) and come prepared to discuss the items they feel are most important to move forward on.
VII. Adjourn at 8:25 p.m. Next meeting: July 25

Respectfully submitted,

Cynthia Donahey

Action items
Survey ideas and thoughts to Simon before next meeting
Review and prioritize pg. 64–74 of MP for next meeting
Forward RR-2 to FF-2 resolution to Twp. Board for action.