East Bay Township planning commissioners Wednesday unanimously approved a new 16-unit vacation rental development on US-31 next to Bayside Market – a sister project to ParkShore Resort from hotel owner Bryan Punturo. Planning commissioners also unanimously approved plans from LifePoint Bible Church to significantly expand on its property near the intersection of Three Mile and Garfield roads.

ParkShore Vacation Rentals
ParkShore Resort’s Bryan Punturo received the green light this week to move ahead with a new 16-unit townhome-style vacation rental development at 1518 US-31 North. The project will bring three new buildings to the rear of the 1.6-acre site (pictured, rendering), which shares a driveway with Bayside Market and encompasses two parcels with an existing storage building on site. Punturo said the short-term rentals will be seasonal, not year-round, with guests receiving lounge and beach privileges at his ParkShore Resort across the street.

Township Director of Planning & Zoning Claire Karner said the vacation rental complex will have a connection to the TART Trail – which will also provide trail access to Red Mesa Grill – as well as cross-access vehicle connections to both Red Mesa Grill and the former Calypso Grill next door. A pedestrian pathway will connect the public sidewalk to the north with the TART trail to the south. There are 33 parking spots at the site, 21 of which would be for the vacation rentals and 12 of which would be shared with Bayside Market by agreement. Significant tree removal is planned for the southern portion of the site. Approximately .75 acres are heavily wooded, which will require taking out “a number of mature trees...to accommodate the new development,” according to a memo from Karner.

Reflecting trends in the short-term rental industry, Punturo said bookings would largely be contactless, with guests booking online and receiving codes on their phones to check in and out of units. Planning Commissioner Renee Edly asked how guests would get over to the ParkShore Resort, noting the dangers of crossing US-31 on foot. Punturo said some guests might drive over, and that he could also try to encourage guests to either walk up to Four Mile Road and use the crossing there or take the pedestrian bridge by the Traverse City State Park. However, Punturo acknowledged that “people are going to do what they’re going to do.”

Based on questions from planning commissioners, township legal counsel advised that East Bay Township is lawfully able to exempt short-term rentals in its Regional Business District – the main commercial corridor of US-31 – from the township’s normal short-term rental licensing requirements. East Bay Township has a cap on short-term rentals, and no licenses are currently available. The township’s exemption for short-term rentals in the Regional Business District – which is heavily populated with hotels, typically considered a comparable use to vacation rentals – is “supported by Michigan law,” said Jacob Witte of Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes.

While not applicable to this project, Planning Commission Chair Dan Leonard said he hoped township rules in the future might encourage a more cohesive design aesthetic along the US-31 corridor, also called the East Bay Beach District. The township is going through a new visioning and branding process for the district; Leonard said as part of that it’d be ideal to have a more “congruent” design standard up and down US-31. Karner noted that the township’s new draft zoning ordinance does include some recommended standards for things like windows, parking, and more, adding that township officials can tweak that further to reflect a desired vision for the East Bay Beach District.

LifePoint Bible Church
LifePoint Bible Church – located at 1249 South Three Mile Road near the intersection of Three Mile and Garfield roads – received township approval Wednesday to build a nearly 21,000-square-foot addition to its property.

According to Karner, the church was originally constructed in the 1960s as a summertime-only church called Forest Lakes Bible Church. It eventually expanded year-round and was relaunched in 2011 as LifePoint Bible Church. The building never received a special land use permit (SLUP) as would normally be required for a church on agricultural land, so this week’s SLUP approval will bring the church “into the fold” under East Bay’s zoning instead of continuing to be a legal nonconforming use, Karner said.

According to the SLUP application, the larger sanctuary planned as part of the building addition will “allow the entire congregation to worship together in one service and also provide more space for children’s programming.” The church currently has two Sunday morning services with approximately 130 people per service, but the addition will accommodate up to 460 people at one service.