Downtown Kalamazoo business owners have to follow special rules when they build a new building or make big changes in an old one. Note: The Kalamazoo City Commission's Februray 2 meeting was canceled due to bad weather. This story has been updated to reflect the change in timeline.
The city says that’s to ensure that future downtown growth is pleasing to the eye and friendly to pedestrians. The City Commission could decide this later this month whether to approve similar rules for an area south of downtown. Some welcome the plans. But others say a better proposal would include more input from the neighborhood.
The city has named the proposed area the Southtown Design Review District. Its border to the east is this busy stretch of Portage Street near Washington Square. From here it extends south to Stockbridge Avenue, west to Burdick and north to Walnut Street.
The new Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine lies just outside the district. The future Kalamazoo Valley Community College Health-Focused Campus lies within it. City Community Planning and Development Director Laura Lam says those developments – and new businesses on Portage Street near Washington Square – are what prompted the city to make a design plan for the area.
“We thought, in terms of that opportunity, being able to look at the guidelines in the downtown as a model, whether those could be extended to this area to provide some guidance on how businesses that were expanding or locating in this area could be more vibrant and more attractive and really more pedestrian in scale and nature,” she says.
The guidelines cover everything from siding to signs to a building’s height. But Lam says the rules are sometimes misunderstood. They wouldn’t apply to homes or most apartment buildings. Nor would they affect minor improvements to existing businesses. And even for new buildings, she says, exceptions are possible.
“I think the intent is not to limit, but to say, ‘have you thought of other options that are out there,’” she says.
The Edison Neighborhood Association has endorsed the district. So has the Edison Business Association. Its president Frank Lucatelli says he thinks it will lead to smarter development.
“The success of the city depends on having high enough density where there’s a vibrant activity and life in the city,” he says.
Still, that doesn’t mean there’s a consensus. Ned VanderSalm of VanderSalm’s Flower Shop opposes the proposal.
“Essentially we just don’t want to be told what to do. I understand that there are rules and regulations that need to be followed but I believe there’s plenty of them right now,” he says.
But it’s not just business owners who’ve raised concerns.
Michelle Johnson was among those who spoke to city commissioners about the proposal at a public hearing last month. She’s the executive director of the Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative, whose building at Portage and Webster Streets falls within the district. Johnson’s critique of the Southtown proposal starts with its name.
“We’ve been here almost ten years. In the last week and a half is the first time I ever heard of this ‘Southtown,’” she says.
“And as someone who’s invested in the Edison neighborhood, as an organization that’s invested in the Edison neighborhood, I feel pretty insistent upon being able to retain that identity.”
It might seem like a detail, but Johnson says a name change is often the first step in separating people from their homes.
“If we understand anything about American history, we understand what we lose when we change a name. And that people are oftentimes pushed into that in order to accommodate this change and this move in American culture that oftentimes, does not benefit them,” she says.
Lam acknowledges that the city went back and forth on what to call the district, which does include a piece of Vine and a slice of downtown. She says a member of the public suggested “Southtown.”
The proposal emphasizes “walkability.” But Johnson says people already walk in Edison.
“They’ve never stopped in almost the 10 years that we’ve been here. But the question is, walkable for who? Do we want to make this walkable for people who don’t live here, who don’t have an investment in anything except the corridor, this business corridor?” she asks.
Lam says the city’s goal is to get even more people walking.
Johnson says she wants the city to collaborate with people in the neighborhood on issues of social and economic justice. That would mean answering a variety of questions.
“How many people in the neighborhood are going to be employed? How many people are going to be able to have a business? What do they want?”
Lam notes that the city has made major investments in affordable housing in the area. And she says her department will keep the conversation open on the proposed district.
The current plan includes a review at the end of the first year. Johnson says that’s too late, because the guidelines would already be in place. Lam says she thinks the Southtown District proposal is ready to be approved.
