Neighborhood Meeting 2021-01-13 18-22-19
[01:37:33]
Kayla: Okay. Andrea, if you can verify. I don’t know if you’re on the stream. If you found it, can you shake your head? You can hear me through there? All right. Then in about four minutes, we will be ready to get started.
Thanks, everybody for jumping on so early. Obviously, this is the first time that we’ve ever done this. So I wanted to make sure that we had all of our technological ducks in a row. Techno ducks, that sounds like a cool D&D campaign.
You’re seeing the stream okay too, Andrea? You’re seeing Miria’s screen on Facebook? Brilliant. I was joking with my husband, we got to get the filters you can put on photos. How has nobody developed an all cam filter that you can just put on your webcam now that everybody’s working from home? By the time you get back in the office, they won’t recognize you.
David: I wake up in the morning, and I don’t recognize myself.
Kayla: Welcome to those who have joined. We’re going to give it another three minutes before we get started. Two minutes now.
All right. We’ve got a couple more attendees. So I’m going to be super repetitive during this meeting. We’re going to give it another minute before we get started right at 6:30 sharp.
Miria: And Kayla, one of the notes in the chat says there’s about a 3 to 5-minute delay. So we just had to keep that in mind. I know they’re sometimes lagging.
Kayla: All right. It is 6:30. I imagine we might still get people coming in occasionally and dropping out, which is absolutely fine, so I’ll keep an eye on that. And I might, as I mentioned, repeat myself a lot, because I’m going to continue to talk about the meeting format.
So first of all, good evening, everybody. Thank you for coming to the very first Technological Online Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association Meeting. It’s a learning curve for us, so we do appreciate you putting up with our technology. Also, just FYI, this meeting is being recorded on Facebook, That’s just for your information.
I am Kayla Domeyer, I’m the current president of the Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association. And we are working as an intermediary between Redstone Properties and the Neighborhood in that aspect. So as such, I’m going to be the moderator for tonight. And I’d like to talk a little bit about what the format will look like. But first, I want to introduce Miria. She is the VP of Redstone Properties. We also have with us, David, he is the VP of Redstone Land Development. And Heather, whom is the operation manager for Redstone Properties.
Now, in order to keep our meeting productive, we have done a couple of things. Most of you, in fact, probably all of you who are here know that we have been collecting questions and comments since December about this proposed development. We took all of those and we realized that they fell into a couple of major categories, which we then sent on to Redstone. And David will be speaking about those comments first. So he has some information that he wants to provide. But during his talk, and then throughout the meeting, I’m going to be monitoring the Zoom chat. So please take a moment to find the chat. When you mouse over your Zoom display, it should be in the bottom, there’s a little speech bubble that says ‘chat.’ If you have joined by phone, so not to leave you out, if you do have a comment or question, you will have to dial star 9, which will raise your hand in the chat area, and I will call on you at that time.
And again, bear with us around technology, it might take a little bit of leapfrogging to get people unmuted. When you are unmuted from the telephone, you’ll have 90 seconds to speak. But for those of you who are joining us via computer, we’d really prefer that you place your questions in the Zoom chat. I will be pulling those questions and submitting them to Redstone and then they’ll be able to speak on it.
As we saw with the collection of comments, there probably will be some overlap and things that neighbors want to address and share. So if your question is answered by somebody else to somebody else’s discussion, that’s fine. As I’m reading through the questions, I’ll sort of filter those out. Also, if you’re joining late and your question has already been answered, I might see that question and direct you to the fact that it’s already been answered, and you’ll be able to watch back this meeting to hear what Redstone had to say about it. Also, if you have a follow up question, please just continue to post those in the chat even if it’s a follow up to somebody else’s initial statement. And if you want to submit your agreement or disagreement towards anything that’s been said here, just keep those in the chat and I’ll be archiving the whole thing afterwards, and we’ll be able to say, this many people expressed concern about X thing, this many people showed support for X thing. So, yeah, outside of that, I will be repeating those instructions several times throughout this meeting. So please don’t be angry with my repetition. But I think that’s as good a time as any for Redstone to begin. I guess David will be the first one speaking. So please do, David, address the primary concerns that we sent you ahead of time for this meeting.
David: Thank you, Kayla. So my name is David. As many of you probably were involved with our previous community meeting back in March 2019, you may recall that we had one large building and a lot of concerns came up at that time. So with this plan, we try to address as many of those concerns that came up in that first meeting that we had back in 2019. So hopefully you’ll see as we get through our presentation here that you’ll see that we try to address as many of those as we can. So for those of you that maybe haven’t had a chance to really look at the site plan, at the very top of the page is Michigan Street, and then we have our existing apartment building, and that has the carports on either side. And then you’ll see the three shaded, darker shaded buildings that we’re currently showing.
So as we got through that first presentation and going through site plan review, we let this set for a while and we started thinking, “Okay, what can we do to, again, try to meet some of the concerns?” And so the thought was is instead of, and again, the concern was is that there’s this big building amongst these residential homes in the neighborhood. So the thoughts behind this concept of the three buildings is that we take that one large building, make three smaller buildings, bring it down more to the scale of the existing homes in the neighborhood. Yes, we still understand that they’re still quite large but, again, trying to just break it up, which gives us more green space between the buildings in hopefully not just as obtrusive as what the one large building is.
So what you’re seeing there is the three buildings. The original single building was 16,643 square feet is a footprint. These three buildings’ total are 14,250 square feet. So we’ve actually reduced building footprint by just under 2,400 square feet.
Just want to the elevations. So along with the size, we started then also looking at the architecture of the buildings as well. So these are just elevations around the building. So, if you look at just the three elevations down at the bottom, you’re looking at all three buildings at the same time, okay, and those would be the front entrances off the parking lot. And then the next row up would be the rear portions of the buildings, and then the next one up from there, the side view. So it gives you an idea on how the three buildings look.
The other thing that we were looking at is, again, the original build, the one large building had a flat roof. To us it looked it institutional so we thought, “Well, what if we, again, work with the architecture of the homes in the neighborhood and we put a pitched or a sloped roof on it?” So that’s what these drawings, elevations here are showing, that we have the pitched roofs. But then we also did a version, the same without the pitched roofs. As we flip back and forth, you’ll see the difference between the pitched versus the flat roofs. To us, it really doesn’t matter which way we go, we liked the pitched roof because we think it blends in with the homes in the area. But our thoughts were that we will leave it up to you, the neighbors, what’s your preference? If you have a preference, we’d certainly like to know. The City’s view is, is that they would prefer we go with the flat roofs. But they said that if the neighbors wanted to go with the pitched roofs, they would be fine with it. So again, after meeting with the City, which we’ve met with the City, I think it was two times, as we developed these plans. They said that they would be fine with whichever the neighbors decided that they would like to see. So, again, you got the look of the flat roofs ,again, I would say maybe a little institutional. On the other hand, it’s a little lower profile. So, again, there’s I guess the option of maybe what you might want to see.
If we can go back to the site plan again, first plan. One of the other items that came up the last, I guess, I would say the initial, maybe some of these came up as questions for this meeting as well, we have concerns about the carports. The car ports are up by the existing building. And as we proposed before, we will replace those. So we’re going to replace those old carports with this style of carports. This is called a double Mansard with a tail. You can see the end of the carport drops all the way down to the ground, so that blocks any headlights from going beyond the carport itself. That’s the look that we will replace the old carports with.
If we go back to the site plan here, our parking has stayed exactly the same as what it was in our original plan. So the required spacing for new spacing, we have a total of 50. And then there’s a total of 20 existing spaces for the existing building for a total of 70 parking spaces. Total required for our design is 64. So we have six additional spaces and then what’s required.
The other thing I would point out, Miria will talk about this in maybe a little more detail, is that with these three building designs, we have the same number of units but we’ve reduced the number of beds in the units, which should translate into less cars than what we originally had in the large building. I know one of the concerns that came out in our 2019 community meeting is concerns that people would park in the neighboring neighborhood streets and then either walk through yards or whatever to get to the apartments. Again, what we’re trying to achieve here is with the same number of parking spaces but lessening the number of beds, which lessens the number of headcount. Again, that should translate into less number of cars, and hopefully eliminate any need for parking around the neighborhood because there’s not enough parking in the site itself.
The other thing that that we did, and again, this came up both at the 2019 community meeting along with, I think, one of the conversations that we’ve had or some questions that came up, we are now surrounding the property on the three sides from carport to carport with six-foot vinyl fencing. That one will eliminate people from wandering off our property or through the neighborhood to get to, say, the apartments, along with blocking headlights, and providing some security for the neighborhood.
The lighting for the parking lot, we’ve changed that up just a little bit. We’re proposing to use LED solar, these will be 100% cut off so there won’t be any migrating light to the adjacent properties. We will also be replacing the lights on the existing building as well with full cutoff lights. I think there were some complaints earlier about some of the lighting on the existing building shining into one of the homes. So, again, those would be replaced as well.
So the next item I just want to talk about a little bit is the landscaping. Again, we’re pretty much keeping with the same landscaping that we had before. The one thing I just noticed on this print is it doesn’t show — we actually have, I think, six or seven trees between each of the three buildings. I’m not sure, I just I don’t know why I didn’t notice that before, but I’m just seeing now that it doesn’t show on this print those trees that we got between the buildings. And again, we eliminated 2,400 square feet of building footprint, which means we’ve gained 2,400 square feet of green space. So translate that maybe in an area that you can maybe visualize is 24 foot wide by 100 foot, that’s 2,400 square feet of green space that’s been added to this plan versus the original single building plan that we initially had developed.
We did a couple of different tree studies. We looked at the trees that are existing on the site. We counted a total of 53 trees that are back in on the site. And we’re not stating that they’re all quality trees, but that’s what we got for a count. We’re actually replacing or showing in this landscape plan that we’ll be adding 60 landscape trees, and again, these would be then high quality landscape trees. We also did a study of the surrounding trees along the property line. We had our engineering company, had their surveyors go out on site and pulled together, surveyed in existing trees that are either on the property line or just adjacent to the property line that may be of concern from our construction activity. So this plan shows that all of all of the trees that they found were just along the east side. I think we had seven to nine trees that are of concern. Obviously some of them are on the line, some are just over on our line, and then there are several that are just on the adjacent properties, again, that we would concerned with. Our proposal would be that any trees that would just need to come down because of excavation work, we would like them to, at our cost, replace that tree with two quality landscape trees. And then in the future, if any of the trees that were near any construction activity that would die, we would remove those trees at our cost, and we would again replace that tree or those trees with two additional quality landscape trees. So with that, I will turn it over to Miria.
Miria: Hello, everyone. I am going to review our floor plans. And we did switch it from the original proposal we had over a year-and-a-half ago. We met with the City, and heard the concerns of the residents, it’s the number of people. So we reduced the number of beds primarily going to more studios and one-bedrooms. And with that what we found in our years in managing multifamily is with a one-bedroom studio units or the studio units, they’re primarily one person in there. One-bedroom, it’s probably 50-50 that you might have a second person. So originally in our original plan, we had still the 30 units but we had 16 two-bedrooms. And so we flopped that too with the studios, and now we have 18 units of studio apartments. And then we decreased the number of one-bedrooms to eight to four. And then we also have our two-bedrooms are now only eight units there. So we reduced the maximum amount of people that could be up in the new development, it’ll be 16 people that we reduced. So that was 8. Let me just make sure. Yeah, 8 bedrooms that we reduced, so that would maximize to 16 people, because there’s 2 people per bedroom is what’s permitted. And with this reduction of the 8 bedrooms, like David had mentioned earlier, it will reduce the number of vehicles on the property. I know there was a lot of concern that people might be parking on the adjacent streets and then walking over to the community. And so with the fencing and along with reducing this number of bedrooms, I think that we have covered those concerns.
Someone had asked a question on the pricing. Right now our proforma states that the studios will begin at 900 per month, and then the one-bedrooms will be getting 1,050, and the two-bedrooms starting at 1,200. And then the residents responsible for the gas electric, and then we charge a flat fee of water, which is $20.
So from here, I’m going to pass it on to our operations manager, Heather, and she’ll go into our application process. And I’m going to step aside here.
Heather: Thank you. So we have an application process that residents are to qualify with two-and-a-half times the monthly rent. Their credit and their criminal background is run through a third-party company, which will determine their eligibility. We have a minimum requirement on their income, so that also helps. We’re not participating with any of the government programs or the HUD housing, and our target market is for working professionals. Along with having the city bus for transportation nearby, that’s also very appealing, especially with the Medical Mile right down the road. I will pass it back to Miria.
Miria: All right. Another couple of questions that came up just in the general comments on the Facebook or that Kayla gathered, we do have several projects in the Grand Rapids MSA. We do purchase existing buildings and we also build. So we have a beautiful community, Bauer Crossings out in Hudsonville. It’s going to be 104 units. Right now we’re at 60 units, and we have a couple buildings under construction. They are two and three-bedroom condos and three-bedroom townhomes as well, two-bedroom condos and three-bedroom townhomes. The rents there range from 1,695 to just under 1,900. It’s a beautiful development. Those will include garages, so that’s why the price point’s a little bit different. And we also are building another beautiful 32 units at Rivertown Park just south of the mall, and it’s called The View in Grandville. So with that, it concludes our presentation with the items that we reviewed that were of concern. So Kayla, I’m going to pass it on to you then.
Kayla: You have to unmute me.
Miria: Oop, do I have you muted? Hello, sorry. I got to find her now.
Kayla: There we go.
Miria: Did it automatically, I apologize.
Kayla: No, no problem. Thank you so much for going through those items. I do think that the decision that the FHNA board made to collect those comments ahead of time allowed us to really give Redstone the heads up to come back with not just gut check or I think we’ll be able to or we plan on being able to, but to really go through that presentation having seen some of those primary concerns. That said, we’re already getting quite a few questions in the chat. And while it is out of order, I do think that I’m going to start with this one because it seems to be the most obvious question that nobody’s asked yet. From Cindy, “Why is Redstone interested in adding buildings to this existing property?”
Miria: You want me to talk? Okay. Well, when we purchased the property, we knew there was the parcel of land, and the city is in need of housing as well, more economical housing. And with the number of units that we have there to add to with the existing 12 units that are there, it makes good sense for us to do so. So it’s a parcel of land that came with the property that the former owner did not want to add anything. It was a family owned type property. And were in the building, construction, and with the Redstone home side of things so we want to expand that property, and there’s a need for our city.
Kayla: Excellent. Thank you for your response there. For those who are just joining us, a couple of points, this meeting is being recorded and also streamed to Facebook. If you don’t want to participate in that, then you should probably leave the meeting. Secondly, the way that we’re moderating this meeting, for those of you who are able to join online, please post your question or comment in the chat, and I will be pulling those to speak to Miria and the Redstone team. And for those of you who have joined via phone, you will need to dial star 9 to raise your hand, in which point you will have a timed segment where you can submit your question or comment.
That said I have a couple more here. So first of all, a comment of opposition, “I oppose this project for us given our low density zoning.” And then also a question, “Have you considered building townhomes or single family homes that would stay more consistent with the current neighborhood scheme in order to create a more harmonious neighborhood for all of us?”
Miria: Yes, we did consider the townhome plan. And with that, if you do any of the two or three-bedrooms, so if it’s a three bedroom townhome, that would be up to six people that we could permit in that townhome. So we were trying to reduce the number of beds. That was one of the main reasons, and then reducing the number of traffic. The parking would be tight if we went to the three-bedroom with the number of individuals that could reside there.
Kayla: Excellent. So then a follow up question to that, “It sounds like there might be potentially a tradeoff between the number of people versus the amount of traffic. And if it were the case that the feedback you receive would err on the side of more traffic for a more harmonious building plan, would that be something you would revisit given the costs associated and in-site planning?”
Miria: Oh, it was about if we decided to change our plan, like to go more to the townhome style, more changing the building style.
David: Yes.
Miria: Yeah, we would. Yup.
Kayla: Okay. Next question, “Can you go over where the dumpsters and trash receptacles are now and where they will be located?”
Miria: Where they’re at right now is right here. We would put a vinyl fencing three-quarters to the way around, and then we would have different decorative, excuse me, bushes around that as well, so it would be in the same location.
Kayla: Excellent. David, you stated that as part of your discussion about trees, that in the future if any of the neighboring trees die as a relation to this project, that Redstone would replace those trees. Do you have a timeline for that? Are you saying if they die within X number of years, and then does that also cover some of those quality landscape trees that may on the off chance not take well and die?
Kayla: Yeah. I mean, it’s hard to put a time limit on a tree that may have some root damage. They don’t necessarily all of a sudden just within a year die, they may slowly just start to fail. It may be four or five years. I guess, I’m seeing at this point that there is no time limit, though if it’s determined that our construction didn’t kill the tree, then I guess it’s something we certainly have to review if it was, say, six years down the road and a tree died, we would take a look at it. But, I guess, what I’m saying is if it’s a tree and it’s close to our construction, I mean, like our pictures show, in fact it shows on this print here, we show those trees that are either on the line or just over the border. Again, those are trees that our surveyors show that would be of concern, and either some of the ones that are on the line that we know, that are just not going to survive the construction activity, then we would go ahead and take it down and replace them with quality landscape trees. But if it’s one of the other ones that’s further back and we think that it has a chance of surviving but over the next couple of years it just starts to fail, we would take care of those and we would, at our cost, take those down. And, again, for every tree we’re either removing or dies, and we’ll replace with, again, two additional trees, landscape quality trees.
Kayla: Thank you, David. This one came in to the comment form today, “How will snow removal be handled? Specifically, will parking spaces be lost in heavy snowfall? So it sounds like right now with 64 total beds and 70 parking spaces, there should be room for maybe 6 visitors and each potential person to have a parking space, would that number of available parking spaces be reduced as a part of your snow removal plan?”
David: That wouldn’t be our plan. We’ve got roughly 25 feet or so between the end of the parking lot south property line, and so a lot of that snow is going to get piled up at that into the parking lot. If we have to, we would probably end up bringing in some equipment and hauling snow away.
Kayla: Okay. “Without participating in government programs and HUD and a related to the numbers you’ve given for pricing, do you believe that this property counts towards some of the GR needs for lower income housing?”
Miria: Yes, we do, because with some of the studios downtown with the Heritage Hill District primarily, those studios will run 1,250. I think 1,100 the average for a studio to one-bedroom. So, yes, we do. And we have properties in the Heritage Hill district, so we know.
Kayla: Okay. And what is your long term plan? Is it the case that Redstone has intentions to eventually sell this development?
Miria: Yeah. Well, there’s no guarantee but we’re planning to hold. I mean, we have investors and we’re planning to hold. We own most of our properties and this is when we own operate, so.
Kayla: Okay. I have a statement of opposition from Patricia. She states that she lives directly behind the proposed development on Innes, and she strongly opposes. She believes that she will lose her property value immensely and will look right down onto the units, and a six foot vinyl fence will not help.
I also have another statement of opposition. “I oppose this project given our low density zoning. I believe this will put the property into high density status, with 1.9 acres including the current building, and there must be a better plan.”
And then, “What impact did reducing the number of beds have on the price per unit, if any? And have the prices increased in order to finance the project? Would the units be cheaper if there were more beds?”
Miria: No. It depends on what style that you’re building, it’s a by per square foot. I mean, it’s not going to be as lucrative if we were to build a little bit larger or to have the two-bedroom, but we feel that this is a good mix with our existing product right now. But no, the price is based on the number of the square footage and how many bedrooms.
Kayla: Excellent. Here’s another obvious one that nobody else asked, “Why should the Neighbor support this project? What do you believe this development does for this neighborhood?”
Miria: It expands for what is already there with the apartments, the rental development that’s there. We are going to enhance that building and enhance the carports by replacing them, bringing a little bit more life to the existing, and creating some diversity in the city or that location, that neighborhood.
Kayla: Okay. I do have a request by Cindy, if you could, are you able to indicate on this drawing, David, which of the trees that you believe you will need to remove either on the property line or near?
David: We’re going to go to the tree survey.
Kayla: Can you zoom it? Yeah, perfect, thank you.
David: So you can see the property line and there’s five or six trees right on the line. There’s a couple of other trees, there’s one behind that looks like a probably a garage or a storage unit, storage building. And then there’s three trees overlapping each other just north of that. There’s probably three trees in there that I don’t want to say iffy but they would certainly be of concern, I’m not sure we would necessarily take them out. Certainly the ones on the line, because of our mass grading, we’d probably be taking those. I just recommend taking those out, I think, will do enough probably root damage because they’re right on the line. But the ones that are 10 feet or so from the property line, again, I’d have to look at what they are and how big they are. I know the surveyors, I think they described the species and the size of the trees, but I had personally been out there to take a look at them and what their health is, and we would certainly try to save whatever we could.
Kayla: You know, what I’m going to say to you, don’t you, David, about those three trees you’ve indicated?
David: I cannot probably assume what you’re going to tell me.
Kayla: They’re mine, those are my trees.
David: And we’ll do everything we can to protect those.
Kayla: All right.
David: I mean, I thought it was really good that you even brought this up, because this wasn’t really something that we looked at on our first go around. So this is actually, I think, a pretty good perspective for us to see, really take a look at what’s there and try to address it upfront versus waiting till after we get through construction and then trees die. Okay, what do we do? I think this was good, that exercise we were going through. Again, we want to be a good neighbor too, so. I mean, we want to do whatever we can. If we have to take trees out, we’ll put trees back in.
Kayla: No, and I do appreciate you having done that, having had the survey done and speaking directly to it. I appreciate that. Thank you. All right. I have a statement here of opposition. “I oppose this project because it doesn’t fit the character of the Fulton Heights Neighborhood. The reduction of beds doesn’t address the fact that this is still a high density development squeezed in and behind single family homes in the neighborhood. This project will cut down on moderately mature trees and destroy green space. The city of GR has made a priority of tree canopy coverage, and this would unnecessarily reduce tree cover. This neighborhood is attractive partly because of the green space and I especially oppose the destruction of that. Replacing a patch of mature trees with single row of landscape trees will not match the carbon capture potential or the pleasant views. Overall, this project does not seem to benefit the neighbors or the neighborhood.” Moving on, “What is your intention with the old building, the original apartment building?”
Miria: Once we finalized the exterior of this new building, we’re going to enhance the existing. Now, that’s an all brick building, our proposal is to add brick to the new development. We also would have like the carport, enhancing those, because those are on mason blocks right now with just a roof on it, and create more landscaping in front of that existing building, too, on the on the front side and around the building.
Kayla: Okay. A statement from Stephanie, “I’m excited about the growth for our area, but do you feel that this project affects the integrity of our current neighborhood scheme or plan? And two, how do you think this will affect property values?”
Miria: Like we had mentioned earlier, I feel with the growth of Grand Rapids and the need for this price point of housing, it is going to help our local economy. There’s already an existing buildings there. With the newer units that we are proposing, we really feel that it would enhance what’s there now. The woods are decent. We went in and cleared out some of the debris that was in there, and there’s the brush that grows and things like that. And like David said, we would try to maintain how many trees we can keep there; existing trees, we would keep them for the Height. And then add more trees that would be more decorative that’s existing there. So I’m not sure if that answers it. And then with the housing values, I am not sure. That’s not our expertise. Again, those homes that were purchased around there, there was that existing building there. So I’m not sure if that had anything to do with the original values of the home or not but I know the houses around there are nice and are kept up, so it’s good.
Kayla: Okay. For those joining us, and just to address a comment in the chat, we have decided, for the sake of expediency and to get through as many comments and questions as we can, that we will be moderating this discussion via the Zoom chat. For those who are capable of doing that, please post your comments or questions in the chat. For those who have had to join the Zoom via phone, please dial star 9, which will raise your hand and then we will call on you and you will be given 90 seconds to give your statement of question or concern or comment. Unfortunately, we just want to make sure that because it is a digital format, and it is much more difficult to arrange people in that way that we are keeping things as concise and as quickly moving, and then also so that we can transcribe and disseminate the information provided here in this meeting for those who are not unable to arrive digitally given the inability to meet in person in the middle of a pandemic. So please bear with us. I realized that might not be as you might have hoped.
Okay, moving on. “Are you aware of any reductions in property values of single family homes adjacent to any of your other properties?”
Miria: No.
Kayla: “When we say high quality landscaping trees, what does that mean? Is that indicating some of these arborvitae or juniper, what I think as lay people would call bushes?”
David: Well, arborvitaes actually get quite tall, so they would be considered a tree. But I mean, if you want to talk about if we’re replacing trees along the property line or some that have died, I mean, it would be maple oak, those would be two-inch caliper shade trees.
Kayla: Excellent. “And during the 2019 discussions, you indicated that you’d be making improvements to the existing building and its carports. It does not appear that anything has been done. How can we trust you?”
Miria: No. We were proposing that if the development was passed, so if there was a misunderstanding on that, I apologize on my end. But yes, we’ve went through to clear off the shrub, we’re working with adjacent neighbors if there’s any repairs to their fences, to take care of it. Our maintenance team was willing to take care of that. And I believe, Heather had sent out letters back in November of last year with photos of any fencing that needs to be addressed, so that we could help on our end too and on the visibility on their backyard and in then our backyard, just to just clean up the fence line. Several neighbors called us, we have great conversations with them. But yeah, I mean, what we have there, we’re keeping it clean and kept up and free of debris. If there’s anything that ever you notice something, please, we’re a phone call away and we’ll take care of it.
Kayla: Excellent, thank you. “Can you address how many people per acre this project would potentially result in?” And I say potentially, because I know that you did mention that in a bedroom, there can be up to two occupants. So assuming two occupants per bedroom, how many people per acre would this result in?
David: Okay, so I’m going to read just the city allowance. City allows a density of up to one unit per 2,000 square feet of land as a special land use in the low density residential district. The city allows the road right away of half to be included in the area of calculation. Therefore, the land area for the density calculation proposed is 91,007 square feet, this would result in the ability to have up to 45 residential units on the property. A total of 42 units are currently proposed, with 12 existing and 30 new.
Kayla: Okay. And so you’re stating that that is what would be allowed under a special land use within a low density neighborhood? I think the heart of this question, and maybe you don’t quite know, the heart of this question is, were this being fresh new land that we were zoning, what would the zone as given the density that you’ve stated — would it be medium, would it be high?
David: Every municipality has a different definition for their zoning districts. I guess if it was here, it would probably be a medium density.
Kayla: Thank you. I have a statement. “I appreciate your engagement and flexibility. The buildings look nice, the scale and density is more reasonable and approachable, especially considering the access to Michigan Street. Our city needs a ton more housing, particularly for the market segment this intends to serve, and I support additional housing here. I hope you continue to connect with the closest neighbors and answer questions and address concerns. Thank you.”
Next question, “Do you feel this will create a rental community in our neighborhood?”
David: I’m not sure.
Miria: I’m not sure. We always call them communities, we don’t call them projects or anything like that. I mean, due to the size, we always try to incorporate community, a sense of community inside of one of our properties. But there’s not going to be a clubhouse or anything like that, obviously, there’s not a room. But yeah, I mean, we do encourage a sense of community, we pride ourselves on that.
David: I think she’s talking about the surrounding homes.
Miria: Oh, the surrounding homes. Oh, I’m sorry, goodness gracious.
David: I guess, I was going to say we don’t know how many are already rental properties, I guess.
Miria: Yeah.
Kayla: That’s a fair point. Okay. “We really appreciate how gracious the Redstone team is. I still oppose the addition of this high density property into our low density neighborhood.” And a follow up question, “Do any of you live in this neighborhood?”
David: No.
Miria: No. My daughters lived around the corner.
Kayla: Okay. I am going to jump into a couple of questions that came in via the forum today. “Traffic flow into and out of this new location doesn’t seem to be adequate. It appears that drivers would be driving through a parking lot when entering and exiting the property. Also, getting onto Michigan could be a challenge at many times during the day. Do you believe delivery vehicles will be able to navigate this driveway?” So I think that’s two statements and a question.
Miria: Yeah, yeah. And you had with the fire truck was able to go on? Yeah.
Kayla: Excellent.
David: We’re going to move on back to the site plan here.
Miria: Yeah, there you go.
Kayla: Oh, yeah.
David: I mean, we currently do have, obviously, delivery vehicles coming in and out of the site. Yes, there’s parking lot further south to the circle drive that currently goes around the building. Again, I wouldn’t foresee that there’s an issue, those type of vehicles’ drivers know how to navigate through these kind of situations. So we’ve also have to run this by emergency services, and they’ve approved this layout.
Kayla: Thank you for that diligence. “If approved, what would be the construction hours, as there are residential houses all around the property and some people work nights and sleep during the day?”
Miria: We typically, at the developments that we’re constructing that’s surrounding a neighborhood like this, would start around 8:00 in the morning, and then they usually end by 3:00 or 4:00, they’re gone pretty early.
Kayla: Okay. “What is the plan for trash pickup? Early pickup would be too much noise for surrounding neighbors.”
Heather: We don’t have anything to do with that.
Miria: That’s the city of Grand Rapids.
Heather: Yeah. That’s on the city or the —
David: Yeah, we don’t have — go ahead.
Miria: Go ahead, Heather.
Heather: We don’t have any control over that. That’s all regulated by the City and by the companies for the waste services. So there’s nothing that we have control over that, unfortunately.
Kayla: Thank you, Heather.
Heather: You’re welcome.
Kayla: “Are the apartments and the new housing considered part of the FHNA area? And would Redstone be interested in becoming FHNA members or sponsors to assist in neighborhood contributions and community?” I swear I did not write that.
Miria: Most definitely. And we would pay our dues, too.
Kayla: Okay, hang on. $8 times 64 total beds, just figuring it out. “What are the plans to handle walking cut-throughs on people’s property?” I actually think this was addressed, but I want to confirm what you said, David, that it appears from the number 5 there all the way around, including the houses on Innes, and then backup all 10, you’ll be putting a 6 foot vinyl fence surrounding the property, is that correct?
David: We would go from carport to carport. So with the new carports going all the way to the ground, that should give us pretty much a solid barrier all the way around the property.
Kayla: Okay, thank you. “What is the tone of the current tenants of the apartment building in relation to this additional noise traffic and activity?”
Miria: Some of them would want to transfer.
Kayla: To the new space or away from where they are?
Miria: New building, yeah. Sorry. We’ve had long term residents there, there’s 10 two-bedrooms there and two, three-bedrooms currently in that. In our three-bedrooms, I think we have one person who uses one is an office and has an extra bedroom, it’s one person in there. And the other one, I believe, is a parent with a child. But yeah, we had Michigan medical students, we have young professionals going downtown, and then a couple of retirees too.
Kayla: Okay. Someone has asked, and I’m adding post this meeting, “Can you please post the addresses of your other developments so we can go and see them?”
Miria: Yes, we will.
Kayla: A statement from —
Miria: We actually — a flyer that we could send to you, Kayla, if you want to distribute.
Kayla: Yeah. And if you have it in a PDF, I’ll be happy to put it on our Facebook page and website as well. I have a statement from Susan, “I think having an additional rental community might encourage more of the surrounding homes changing from rental into home ownership, which I think we haven’t seen. But I think what Susan is suggesting there is that there would be more rental opportunity in this building and thus not necessarily renting homes. From Aaron, “I don’t believe these price points are in any way anything less than competitive. I don’t want these apartments here at all. But I find it absurd to use the need for, quote, ‘rental properties’ at this price point as a positive topic.” From Susan, “Will there be a rental supervisor or manager on site?”
Miria: The size of the property doesn’t warrant a manager on site, but we have it, we are about 10 minutes away is our home office. So we are through this property more than any other properties. But with our maintenance team, we have just under 10 individuals, and our operations team is constantly driving our sites, doing light checks, doing grounds check, hallway checks, and just on the property as well is our vendors that take care of things too.
Kayla: Thank you. Cindy answers the question that I think somebody else asked related to the homes within 300 feet of this being rentals. She states that, “Only a few homes within 300 feet of this building are rentals and ours. Even then, they are still owned by someone or a family member. The homes within 300 feet are owner-occupied and currently have a market value of between 200,000 to 300,000.” Thank you for that, Cindy.
Another statement, “I support Anna K. completely,” that was a previous statement. “Once an exception is made to the low density, it will be cited to allow more high density and development in the future. Mature native trees have benefits of temperature control, air quality improvement, and animal habitat. I have observed red tail hawks and owls in the mature trees surrounding this building. I oppose this development.” So do you want to speak at all to whether or not allowing this special land use would potentially collar City decisions about surrounding area?
Miria: Not being part of the city, I’m not sure, Kayla.
Kayla: Sure.
David: Like this project and any other project, they look at each one individually. So, I guess, we couldn’t say whether this would make a change in their attitude as far as allowing other projects like this in neighborhoods, I don’t know.
Kayla: Thank you. We wouldn’t want you to conject on what the City might potentially do. Statement of support, “These rental units support the home owner rental characters of our neighborhood. The density matches or is less than some of the rentals that are already here, and contribute to Grand Rapids’ need for more housing and smaller housing. Sitting along Michigan is a smart development given its transportation capacity.” Another statement, “I think the traffic to get in and out of the development in addition to the high traffic volume on Michigan Street is going to create lineups and difficulty. It is not set up for high density housing. The neighborhood is not zoned for high density housing. This is not right on Michigan Street. It is set within a single family zone. More renters can also mean higher crime as well.” Katie, I’m not sure if you were here earlier when Heather went over what I think were meant to be just points to relate to the concern for crime, specifically regarding the type of decision-making process they’ll be making when allowing people to rent. But do you have anything else to say related to crime or maybe addressing the fact that this property, while it does, abut Michigan Street, the space where you are building is very deep in this particular plot. And therefore, for some it seems doesn’t feel like it’s on Michigan Street, it does feel like it is quite literally in a lot of people’s backyard.
David: The only thing I can say about the traffic is, like I said, emergency services all reviewed this plan, and it didn’t have any issues with the amount of traffic that would be coming in and out of this development.
Miria: Everyone of 18 years of age or older, we do run the criminal background and we do their credit reporting. So there’s a threshold that either they meet or approves with special conditions, meaning possibly a one month deposit. There’s a range, it’s cut and dry. We don’t stray from that. Anything over a certain number is — and it’s not just based on your credit score. That’s one of the items that is reviewed, but we do not stray from that. It’s a third-party, any emotion with leasing to certain individual is removed and it’s cut and dry.
Kayla: Thank you. Patricia states that there will be no real buffer between her property directly behind on Innes, and that vinyl fence would not suffice. Would Redstone consider constructing an 8 foot brick wall and potentially with four trees as a buffer?
David: No. No, I mean, I guess we’re going to what we’re proposing right now.
Kayla: From Stephanie, “I own commercial property across from a property that was granted in a typical approval, similar to what Redstone is seeking. I have dealt with grave effects from that exception they were given. How do you plan to manage noise violations?”
Heather: Noise complaints with our properties are not a big issue. We work really closely with the police departments in the areas that we have properties, we manage them very well. We have those long term residents who live in these places. They call them their home, it’s not just an apartment, and they treat it like it is their own home. So they want to tell us what’s happening with noise or if they have issues with crime or anything like that. So we make sure to stay on top of that, whether it’s having an officer go out and patrol our property. We have the right to evict anyone with a 30-day notice. If they commit a crime, we can evict them with seven-day notice. Sometimes it can be as little as four days. So we have laws that protect us as the landlords as well to keep our communities nice. And that’s really what we tried to do. We work really hard to keep nice communities. I invite you to go out and check out some of our communities. And like we said, we’ll get our flyer to post to your Facebook page so you can see the properties that we do have currently and how we maintain them and how they are.
Kayla: Thanks again, Heather. I have a statement from Stacey, “I second thoughts on needing more of a buffer for Innes.” We also have Cindy asking, “Do you have a date for a planning commission hearing scheduled?”
David: Not yet, we’re in the process. We’re guessing at this point it will probably be sometime in April.
Kayla: Thank you. Katie has a statement, “I am concerned that the high density housing in the backyard of people’s homes will create a decline in home ownership in the surrounding area. Homebuyers will not want to live near this and the homes nearby will start changing over to renters one by one. This will harm home values and change the makeup of what has been stable.” From Sarah Harper, and this is something that Redstone and at least myself have discussed, “Have you considered selling the vacant wooden property to FHNA instead of developing it, and has that been discussed?”
So for those of you who are on the call who might not know, that is precisely how the Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association became owner of the Hillcrest Community Garden. The garden was for sale by the City, I believe. The FHNA was actually formed with the purpose of raising money for and purchasing that. At the time that that was conducted, we paid $45,000 over a period of time as a nonprofit. I can say with all certainty considering that Redstone purchased this property for, I believe, according to public record, $1.2 million, that the Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association would be unable to reach any sort of funding milestone to purchase this property.
Katie says, “Even if they screen well for who they allow to rent, ownership hands change, and that does not create long term stability.” And this actually echoes something that we saw also in the public comment form. “When this special land use is granted that special land use is owned by the property, not by the property management company,” and so this person is stating concern that if the variant is granted regardless of Redstone’s best intentions at some future date, any sort of high density or any sort of building that fits within this density exception would be allowed. I’m not sure that you could say anything about that because it’s not in your plan. You have stated that you don’t plan to sell the property, but do you have anything more to speak on it?
Miria: No, we don’t. I mean, it is our plan to hold, so.
Kayla: This neighbor through the forum is expressing dismay that only the neighbors within 300 feet of the property were informed. They equate that to not soliciting question or comment from anyone outside of 300 feet of the property. “In March 2019, there were neighbors from the entire neighborhood that submitted letters of opposition or attended and spoke at the planning committee hearing, this is important to everyone in our neighborhood. If this project was approved, it would set a precedent for other properties in the neighborhood.”
Miria: Well, like David mentioned earlier, the City does look at every application in its own. I’m not sure how all their criteria, we have the application process. The requirement was to send out the notification 300 feet. We worked diligently with Kayla and the board with the Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association, beginning in December, and we knew the notifications went out on the website. I believe, Kayla, you guys also hand-delivered some to make sure those who didn’t have the technical means received it, because that was a concern, and also on the Facebook page. I believe it was over 600 views at that time. I think that the requirement was met, and we took in all the notes and we condensed it into our presentation today.
Kayla: Thank you. I have a statement, “As a real estate broker and a resident who does a lot of business in the Fulton Heights, this project concerns me. The potential detriment to property value, particularly among those properties backing up to the proposed development seems obvious. Increasing density and decreasing green space and the tree canopy would not only decrease the quality of life for residents, but it will also affect future resale and values, in my opinion.” Another statement, “As a property and homeowner on Alton Avenue, I am adamantly opposed to this project being submitted to amend the special use permit.” We have a number of statements of opposition, which, again, I will tally these, and these are from the form, “I oppose the destruction of green space for apartment buildings. The apartment density does not fit the character of our neighborhood. This is a wonderful neighborhood. It is a disgrace that Redstone continues to try and profit off of tearing down the little green space we do have. There are people’s homes that will never be the same. I would have a different opinion if this was being built for low income families, but the benefit would then outweigh the negative consequences. But this is simply a for-profit company trying to maximize the land they have purchased.” And I do want to talk to that. This does not fall into what we would call low income housing. Did I already ask this question?
Miria: Yeah, for the subsidized housing?
Kayla: Yes.
Miria: Yeah.
Kayla: Okay. Susan asks, “Have the owners of the surrounding property considered buying the woods?” And I guess the deeper question to you then, Redstone, would be, “Would you consider selling the woods?”
Miria: Possibly, I wouldn’t say no. But depending on the price for what we paid for it. But yeah, I mean, we could review with our owner.
Kayla: Okay. “Our neighborhood is worth preserving. It is one of the few neighborhoods in our city that is still predominantly homeowner-occupied, which makes it desirable to live in. How does this project drive tax dollars for our city long term?”
Miria: That’s not my expertise. I’m not sure.
David: Maybe more residents in the Grand Rapids would be collecting more property tax in there now.
Kayla: A question, “Has water drainage been discussed? There is a large amount of hard surface in the site plan, and there is already flooding of basements around the 300 block of Baynton from insufficient city drainage. I don’t see any water runoff ponds.” Again, I believe that means in the site plan.
David: Yeah, it’s not shown on the landscape, this is the landscape plan. But we do have several plans that pick up both parking and onsite storm water, and actually takes it out to a storm sewer trunk line out in Michigan Street. So, again, it’s been reviewed and approved by the Department of Public Works.
Kayla: Okay. Thank you. I think this is a statement, “I want to keep in mind and help my neighbors work towards achieving the best possible development for our community for that piece of property. It may not be possible but I’m committed to helping try. Last time, the developer seemed to feign interest in our opinions but over time, it became obvious that the only actual goal was to get the most apartments as possible in there and the overall plan was awful.” I don’t know if this person is now on the meeting, but you did go over, I think, a number of changes that were made in relation to the 2019 community meetings.
Finally, “My biggest concern about the project” — this is not finally for those who are still in the chat, I will continue to monitor it. This is the last that I had that were from the form. “My biggest concern about the project is that it’s not cohesive with the current neighborhood. They’re proposing to lengthen an already displaced high density property into a low density neighborhood, which is likely to get a great change in our neighborhood. It doesn’t make much sense to me. And it scares me that if we’re willing to allow one high density into this low density neighborhood, what’s to say there won’t be another proposed? There will be. We all purchased homes here because it was zoned single family, low density. A high density property would do nothing more than disrupt the harmony of our neighborhood and its original plan. I do however think that we need affordable housing. But I also hold the opinion that the City should be careful where it’s allowed, and avoid cutting deals with developers who are looking to capitalize on growth. We need smart growth mindset that will support the future of all residents and homeowners.”
Okay. So for those of you who are still on, if you have not yet submitted a comment or a question, please do so in the Zoom chat. I will be calling those out. We have a statement, “This is directly in my backyard and none of this is acceptable. I oppose. I second the idea of the surrounding property owners purchasing the woods.” So I suppose the next step in that conversation, Miria and David, would be for you to speak to your owner and see if the owner would be willing to divide and sell the woods, and at what price point.
David: Sure.
Miria: Yeah.
Kayla: It’s worth discussing. Another thing that I want to talk about just because it sounded like an action step to me that came up earlier, we did get quite a few comments that suggested something like townhomes instead of the existing apartment building aesthetic. Redstone, you mentioned that technically because of the way townhomes are, that would mean more people on the property, and thus you went with this model. I wonder if in addition to asking the neighbors about the roofline that they would be interested in with these three buildings if it is worthwhile for us to discuss the among the neighbors the tradeoff between having potentially more people but having a better aesthetic in the space. Is that something — obviously you want to go to the City Planning Commission, so I don’t know how quickly we would be able to turn around any sort of poll or public feeling on that. Andrea or Quinn or Matt, if you have any thoughts, please post them in the chat because you’re on mute. But we did see that, I’m just counting. I’ve seen that at least nine times, the suggestion to build townhomes.
David: Kayla, I guess one thing I would just make comment on that is that townhomes are set side-to-side versus on top of each other. These are obviously two stories. Townhomes are set side-to-side, so when you look at the footprint of what a townhome would take up and the numbers that we could get into this area, one, your footprint’s probably going to be similar to the same, plus each townhome has it’s typically a garage and a driveway. So you probably end up with the same or near the same amount of building square footage, and you probably end up with about the same amount of pavement.
Kayla: Thank you, sir. Good takeaways.
David: I mean, your tradeoff is probably building style but you still don’t think you’re going to have a change in the canopy cover or anything like that.
Kayla: Yeah. Reading between the lines on some of those particular submissions, it’s my feeling — and I could be wrong speaking for people who have anonymously filled out a form — it’s my feeling that potentially they’re speaking to a rental feeling versus a home feeling and the concept that a townhome might feel more in line with the neighborhood.
There are a couple of comments on the Facebook. “Has any consideration been given to remodeling the current building versus tearing down and rebuilding? You’re not tearing down the existing building but have you considered?” I know you’re going to be doing small renovations with the existing building, but is there anything else considered in terms of maybe expanding that building’s footprint instead of building three additional?
Miria: We did look at that, Kayla, and we were going to mimic it and flip it but it was the amount of space that would have taken going long. The surface parking, I know we flipped it, and that was a few years ago. It was like David had said earlier with the townhome, you’re still probably with equal footprint size and less green space. In regards to the existing building, we will give it a little bit of a facelift. How much, we’re not sure yet. We would like to kind of blend the two buildings together so there’s not so much of a difference due to the age, when that first one was constructed in the ’60s. But we do, we’d like to keep a nice product. There’s our development, and Caledonia had two existing buildings, two 6-unit buildings that were there for over 30 years, and we purchased those at the end of 2015. We did start construction on 24 units, 5 buildings. And when we designed the 5 buildings, we took in consideration what was existing, the siding then was the same siding. We replaced the siding on the existing buildings and they blend into just a person driving by, you wouldn’t notice that all 7 buildings are not the same. So we mimic some aesthetic things. We have a design team in that, and it was nice. So we had enhanced the whole property on that project.
Kayla: Okay. And so you’re not 100% sure yet what that would look like on the existing property but you do plan to make them homogenous.
Miria: Right, as much as we can, because it’s completely brick.
Kayla: Yes. I believe we’re winding down just from the speed at which comments and questions are coming in. Just a reminder, for those of you who are still on the call, please do take this opportunity to place your comments or questions in the chat. I have one here, “I bought a home that backs up to the existing apartments, and it’s the only reason that I don’t see that home as my forever home. It is solely due to the line of site apartments that I have in my backyard,” or rather, to the line of sight the apartments have into their backyard or vice versa. “I believe that a townhome or townhomes would at least remove the line of sight into people’s backyards.”
And I will say, as we did talk about, Miria or David, I don’t know if you do want to show the composition illustrations but we do have those available on the Fulton Heights website. For those of you who are here, I did a composition illustration photo to describe what the tree canopy might look like and what the backyard view might look like because I think sometimes it’s difficult to imagine. I do agree that there is potential concern between the space between backyards and the height of this building, that there could be people on balconies or on windows looking into backyards. I’m not sure it’s different though from neighbors being able to do that, but that’s worth stating.
From Bonnie, “I’m a senior citizen who has lived here for 40 years. I live on Social Security and I don’t have much to improve my property. But what it does have going for it now is the privacy of the woods behind the backyard. I’m afraid the property value will decrease but I also agree with other people’s reasons for opposing any development in this space. A third on purchasing the woods, but also agree that townhomes are a better fit for the neighborhood. I don’t know how this all jives with the existing building. It seems that the existing building offers a lot of opportunity for someone who’s willing to invest in it.” And I take that to mean, Aaron, investing it instead of building additional units or additional building units.
Okay. I’ve got an opposition. “In addition to the impact on the character of the neighborhood, I’m concerned about the additional traffic. Statement, “I know business people are interested in making profit but I hope that those making decisions can realize the harm they’re doing by building into this neighborhood. I hope that they will highly consider selling the wooded area to the surrounding neighbors at an affordable price based on the average income of the people in the neighborhood.” And here’s a question, “Do you know why the City recommended a flat roof?”
David: That’s just their general preference for multifamily. Other than that, well, I think probably the other thing they look at is a flat roof is a lower profile than a pitched or sloped roof.
Kayla: Yeah, and I did think we saw that in the composition drawing, that there’s a lot more visible if we do the pitched roof over people’s, for example, I have a 6 foot fence, so over my 6 foot fence, I don’t see much of the building but I would see quite a lot of the pitched roof versus the flat, I think, right. That’s what we discussed.
David: Yeah. Like I said, we really don’t have a preference. We thought, when we showed up to our first city preliminary review, we showed the sloped and pitched roof design. They came back and said, “Well, our preference is flat roof,” and so we came back in with both. And they said that they would go with whatever the neighborhood would want to go with. So we left it showing both just to give residents an option if they like one look over another.
Kayla: Okay. Stephanie says, “We really appreciate that you’re wanting to work with us, but we do feel strongly that this high density property proposal just doesn’t work for the neighborhood. Please consider buying a property to build your apartments somewhere that doesn’t penetrate behind 20 or more homes, 20 plus deep behind homes.” Another person has a question, “Is the current building within the low density classification if you include the undeveloped area?”
Miria: Is the count?
Kayla: I don’t think it is, right, because this is amending an existing land use variance, which would indicate it wasn’t low density in ’62 when the original building was built.
Miria: That’s correct.
David: Yeah, probably.
Kayla: And another, “As a renter in Fulton Heights, I’d like to assure the neighbors that not everyone that rents especially in a higher price point is a detriment to the neighborhood. I’ve lived here renting for three years. I’m active in the neighborhood in a positive way. I can appreciate the concerns about aesthetics, traffic, property values, etc., but simply having renters does not equal an increase of crime or issues when the tenants are screened properly.” Thank you, Sarah, for that.
And I’ve got another opposition statement, again, a lot of the same things that others have said, “This will not be my forever home with sightlines to this new development. I worry about the future impact of the neighborhood, including decreased property values, and I feel the project doesn’t enhance the neighborhood in any way.”
And it’s worth noting, everyone, that yes, the Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association is tallying for our own records, and we will share those records with Redstone, what was stated, how many neighbors came out, what kinds of things people addressed. But when Redstone does apply for the City Planning Commission, that will be the time for you to officially state your position. So please do not conflate this discussion. With that City Planning Commission meeting, Redstone or the City will notify all within 300 feet, and the neighborhood association will do our best to notify everyone in the neighborhood. And at that point, you will be given instruction for whom to direct your comments, questions or concerns to related to the actual decision that the City Planning Commission will make on the special land use. So please don’t, I want to make sure that everybody’s very clear, this discussion is great. This is something we are facilitating to help the community and Redstone understand each other and to hopefully create a good conversation, but this does not and will not replace the comments that you should submit to the City Planning Commission if you feel strongly about that.
We have a question from Facebook, “What are the tree canopy requirements for this lot post construction versus prior to development?” I’m not sure what the requirements mean. I know the City has a requirement, but I believe you already stated, David, that you meet that requirement.
David: Right? It’s 30% green space. 30% of the total amount of land, it has to be green space, and we’re at 41.2% of green space.
Kayla: Okay. All right. So I think we’re winding down, Stephanie does state that they will collect an oppositional petition. And that is absolutely your right, Stephanie. I believe that that is everything. Of course, this doesn’t end the conversation. So for those of you who are on and for those of you who are now watching after the fact on Facebook, please, if you still have or questions that haven’t been answered or comments that you want to share with the neighborhood association or Redstone, you may do so by submitting those to the Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association. We are gathering those and submitting them to Redstone. And if you want, you can contact them directly. I’m sure that your contact information, Miria, is available on the Redstone website. But for Fulton Heights, if you go to fultonheights.org, we have a button right there on our homepage that gives you a link to the site plan, and also to a form where you can submit your questions and comments. That will also be the place where we will continue to keep people updated about any City Planning Commission meetings, any changes in the development. So please do that if you’re, as I said, if you’re watching post or if something occurs to you after this meeting.
I really want to sincerely thank everyone who participated in this, not only Redstone who brought a significant number of people to speak to particular areas, but also to the Fulton Heights Neighborhood Association board who helped to brainstorm how we might potentially do this in a pandemic. And then also to every single one of the neighbors who liked, shared, commented, and then also joined this meeting, we really do appreciate your feedback. That is absolutely the purpose of this facilitation. I think we all want to live in the best possible neighborhood we can. Sometimes we have differing opinions as to what that might mean, and I really appreciate the discourse that we’ve been able to conduct.
It does look like a couple people are posting some more items in the chat. A couple of statements about renters that do not automatically mean that crime will increase but it doesn’t mean that it will not, especially because we cannot control who buys the property in the future with this special land use in place. And then finally, one question, if you have any crime statistics within the existing properties that you own. At this point, my friends in the chat, I do think we should stop so that we can wrap up this meeting. If you have anything else, please direct it to fultonheights.org, and put it in the comment form on that site. So crime statistics, Miria, do you have anything or you Heather, of your existing properties?
Miria: We can get it. I mean, we would pull it from the City or the township. There’s one property in Wayland, we just had a couple of domestic disputes. Nothing in Hudsonville [inaudible 01:33:42] since we took ownership. Not on the property, knock on wood. I think our Caledonia one was four-and-a-half years ago, five years ago was a domestic dispute again, which is out of our control, but law enforcement was called and it was taken care of.
Heather: Also, if any of these residents that are currently living with us are charged with a crime, we do get informed of that, and we have the right to remove them from the residency. That’s part of our lease, that’s part of our application process. They have to adhere to that. I mean, it’s not like you can control crime, but we’ve got the best grip on it we can for what we do and following the laws that we have to follow.
Kayla: Excellent. Thank you, Heather. I’m going to break my own rule, and I’m going to ask one more question because we have seen this come up. “Can the developer provide the original land use variants for citizens to review?”
Miria: The original back in the ’60s, is that the question?
Kayla: Yeah, or do you have access to what is currently on file in terms of that land use variance?
Miria: We can check, definitely.
Kayla: Yeah. I would appreciate that as well. I think we’ve mentioned that a couple of neighbors had stated that the City was unable to find that, which I’m not sure. I think it would be helpful for people to see the context around the initial building if it is available.
Miria: Okay. Yeah, we’ll look into it, definitely.
Kayla: Okay. Well, I’ve already said my thank yous. I’ve already broken my own rule twice in asking additional questions. This is very much how I put my young son to bed, slowly and multiple times. Thank you, again, everyone. I appreciate you. I hope that everyone stays safe and has a great evening. And we will keep you informed to the best of our ability about the development.
Miria: Yes. Redstone wants to say thank you too. We appreciate all the comments.
Kayla: Excellent. Thank you. I’m going to go ahead and save the chat. And for everyone else, you are welcome to leave. Okay, Miria, I believe I have saved the chat. And I also have the meeting recorded and I’m going to stop our Facebook Live. Perfect. Great. Thank you again, everybody.
Miria: Yes. Are you all set then, Kayla, because I know you wanted us to stay on for a few minutes? You’re good?
Kayla: I think I’m good. Let me just check. I tried to open the saved chat file. Oh, were you able to see your saved chat file? Oh, there it is. Yup. Then we are good. I will work to have this transcribed to the best of my ability, and we will be able to look back on that and share that with those who maybe don’t want to watch a video or weren’t able to visit the meeting or want to reference it in some other capacity.
Miria: Yes, thank you.
Kayla: Good night, everybody. Have a good one.
Miria: Yeah. Bye-bye.