Plans to bring a 55,000 square-foot Hobby Lobby store to Traverse City could be nearing approval – provided developers and Garfield Township officials can work out lingering concerns over sidewalks, lighting and other improvements in Buffalo Ridge Center. Township planning commissioners hashed through the project at their Wednesday meeting, as well as reviewed a conceptual proposal for an event center and camping facility on Cass Road.

Hobby Lobby
National arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby hopes to open its first Traverse City store in 2018 at Buffalo Ridge Center on US-31 (home to Lucky’s Market and the AMC/IMAX theater). But several outstanding concerns about sidewalks, lighting, parking and neighbor complaints need to be addressed before the project gains approval, with developers and township officials still at odds over site requirements.

John Iacoangeli of engineering firm Beckett & Raeder – hired as an outside planner to represent the township in reviewing Hobby Lobby’s plans – told planning commissioners Wednesday developers had already addressed some initial township concerns in their site plans, including redesigning the four-way intersection at the crest of the complex and adding landscaped islands to separate maneuvering lanes between Lucky’s Market and the proposed Hobby Lobby site (pictured). But at least one major unresolved point of contention remained, according to Iacoangeli – ensuring there was connectivity between all of the various businesses throughout Buffalo Ridge Center.

“One of the biggest things we have worked with the applicant on is trying to make the project (have) some type of uniformity,” said Iacoangeli. “The way we’ve been working with them is to use pedestrian improvements to link all of the various properties together.”

Iacoangeli noted that a future build-out concept for Buffalo Ridge Center shows the possibility of Lucky’s Market expanding and a new 45,000 square-foot building going up south of Hobby Lobby. That building could house another retail or restaurant development or a potential hotel, Iacoangeli said. The variety of businesses at the center – as well as the potential for people to stay overnight – meant that visitors could be on the property from early morning to late night, he said. “This becomes more than a traditional shopping center,” he said. “This becomes almost like a mixed-used neighborhood.”

Accordingly, Iacoangeli advocated for requiring an “integrated streetscape system” throughout Buffalo Ridge Center providing wide sidewalks with pedestrian lighting and street trees connecting the theater, Hobby Lobby, Lucky’s Market, Outback Steakhouse, and other potential tenants. Petra Kuehnis of Mansfield Land Use Consultants, representing the developers, pushed back against the suggestion, saying site plans already provided for a basic sidewalk network that – while unlit and scaled down from Iacoangeli's vision – nonetheless met the township’s ordinance requirements. “We’re a big-box shopping center…and as far as big-box shopping centers go, what we’re providing exceeds anything you have here in town already,” she said.

But Iacoangeli noted developers were seeking concessions from the township on parking and other requirements, and that township officials had the right in turn to negotiate terms in Buffalo Ridge Center’s planned unit development (PUD) for improvements that benefited the public. “There’s just this great reluctance to incorporate a really nice pedestrian feature into the PUD,” he said. “The whole purpose of a PUD is to do something innovative, that’s just not a cookie-cutter (model).”

Iacoangeli and Kuehnis agreed to continue to discuss terms ahead of a September 13 meeting, when planning commissioners will review the issue again. Commissioners expressed early support Wednesday for requiring developers to provide lit sidewalks throughout Buffalo Ridge Center. Iacoangeli said he would also study concerns from several neighboring residents on Creekside Drive about allowing parking behind Hobby Lobby directly next to their homes, as well as finding ways to better block rumbles and sounds coming from the adjacent IMAX theater.

Cass Road Event Center
A couple hoping to bring an event center, wedding venue and camping cabins/yurts to agricultural property on Cass Road could face a long road to approval under the township’s zoning ordinance.

Anthony Gavaldon and Claire Bailey hope to live on and operate a farm-based business on 31.5 acres of land at 1127 Cass Road across from the Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) bus station.  Project plans call for maintaining the rural nature of the property while creating a “venue space for educational classes and weddings,” raising crops, hosting farm-to-table cooking and community events, and offering farm stays or short-term rentals in 3-7 cabins or yurts on the property.

“We really want this to be a community space,” Gavaldon told planning commissioners Wednesday, noting he has a purchase option on the site pending zoning approval. “We’re from the area and really have a passion for northern Michigan.”

While planning commissioners expressed interest in the plan, the concept faces several major hurdles to approval. Event centers typically require public sewer and water infrastructure; the Cass Road property has none. Garfield Township’s agricultural district does not currently allow wedding venues or agricultural tourism; short-term rentals are also prohibited. Officials noted, however, that campgrounds are an allowable use under the zoning ordinance, as are bed & breakfast sites. The board suggested Gavaldon and Bailey could potentially progress with their plans by pursuing a campground use on the site while also working to amend the township’s agricultural zoning ordinance to allow weddings and/or agricultural tourism.

“You might want to spend more time with our staff and see whether some of these things can be overcome by massaging what you want to do,” suggested Chair John Racine. “See whether you guys can figure out how to make something fit that can legally work. That may require changes on your part, maybe changes on the parts of some of the ordinances…it might be a long-term solution, not necessarily a quick one."