Friendship Township Planning Commission
Minutes November 22, 2004

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




Call to order at 7:05 p.m. by Chair Simon.
Roll call and recognition of visitors, declaration of taping devices.
Public present: Caroline Kurburski

Paul Nettleman has resigned from the Commission. Accepted with regret.

Minutes of 10/25/04 were approved.

Jennifer Gelb and Simon will be working on getting the electronic file of our Master Plan from Tip of the Mitt. This is high priority as we really need to have it in our hands for future use. Esp. when we begin the updating process.

Reviewed and discussed the panel discussion held 11/17/04 on pros and cons of township level zoning. Looked at how the information we heard would be useful to us. Looked at what we could improve with the county level zoning we have in place now.
1) Request that the county table items when they first come to them and not get into the hearing process before we even begin our review at the twp. level
2) Mechanism so the talking and discussion portion of the pre-development plans include twp. personnel.
3) Co. zoning ordinance needs improvements
4) Making sure all the documents and studies are completed and adequate before the review process begins
5) Ways to make the county more responsive to our needs

To this end we decided to see about having a meeting with two or three twp. commission members, Max Putters, the new county asst. planners being hired, Rose Letzmann (our Co. Commissioner), new county office assistant. We want to see about what we can all do to create a win-win situation in the future.

Perhaps we could work with Readmond on this initiative.

Report on status of RR-2 to FF-2. Donahey reported that the twp board expanded somewhat on our proposal to give more of the background and history of why we are asking for this change.
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 changing the RR-2 district east of M-119 back to FF-2, making it match the adjoining properties in Readmond Township.

Adjourn at 9:00 p.m. Next meeting: Dec. 27 only if cases on the docket.

Respectfully submitted,

Cynthia Donahey