Acme approves KMart reuse

Oct. 20—ACME — After months of debate over a controversial proposal, Acme Township trustees voted to approve plans to repurpose two vacant stores on U.S. 31.

The 6-1 vote at their meeting Monday, with Trustee Paul Scott voting against, puts developer Strathmore Real Estate Group one step closer to repurposing the vacant Kmart and building apartments outside both that store and the former Tom's Food Market nearby. Both are part of the same planned unit development, with township planners previously allowing Truly Free to open an order shipping facility with retail space inside the vacant grocery store.

Plans are for 186 apartments in buildings outside the two vacant retail spots, as previously reported. The Kmart would be repurposed as warehouse space and self-storage in the back and middle, with indoor pickleball courts, a fitness center, coffee shop and more in the front. The developer also would provide space for nonprofit Grand Traverse Mens Shed.

Jacob Chappelle, Strathmore Real Estate Group principal and attorney, said in an emailed statement the company was pleased with the decision and thanked the community for its support.

"We recognize and appreciate the trust Acme Township has placed in our team, and we will keep working hard to deliver this community-oriented project," he said in the email.

That support showed through in some of the comments trustees heard at their meeting. One of them, township resident Rhonda Stevens, said she was concerned about the self-storage but decided the proposal would be an aesthetic improvement. She pointed to the apartments and landscaping as a buffer, plus plans to renovate the former Kmart's façade.

Another resident Julie Hay said she was tired of driving by a "mall carcass" for the last five years. She believed the project would be a good reuse of existing buildings.

Township planning consultant John Iacoangeli said the question of what to do with vacant big-box retailers vexes many of the communities he works with.

"They've become blighted, they're obsolete and communities cannot find a use for them," he said.

The developer's plans to build self-storage and warehouse space in the vacant Kmart drew the most objections, with several township residents and others telling trustees they thought it was the wrong use for the property.

Township resident Pat Salathiel echoed what many said in comments and emails to trustees: the two empty stores represented Acme Township's last big chance for some kind of village center with retail and restaurants — she said she would like to see a flower shop or sports bar, and other commenters offered their own ideas.

"I just don't get it, I think we can do so much better, we can be so much more creative and it just makes me very sad, and I hope it goes back to the planning commission for some more work," Salathiel said.

David Bieganowski, an attorney who spoke for several residents and business owners who opposed the plans, pointed to a petition with more than 100 residents' signatures against the proposal.

Bieganowski questioned if the apartments, plus the warehouse and self-storage space, as a waste of the township's "premier showpiece."

"It's obvious this is an attempt to avoid the underlying zoning and to sneak in the profitable light industrial use," he told trustees. "It's a blatant misuse of the PD (planned development) ordinance."

He also argued the approval process was riddled with errors, and that trustees rushed through the planned unit development application without digging into Iacoangeli's recommendations.

Bieganowski pointed to comments from Chris Grobbel, another planning consultant who previously worked with Acme Township. Grobbel told trustees he believed the plans didn't meet the various standards that planned unit developments must satisfy. Plus, the application seemed to be missing several elements, like details about stormwater plans and water and sewer service to the project.

Some of those details, like stormwater plans, will come in during the required site plan review the developer must seek before construction, Iacoangeli said. Other issues, like water and sewer, were addressed at previous meetings.

What's more, the township's recently amended zoning ordinance specifies how much of a planned unit development's land uses can run counter to the underlying zoning classification, Iacoangeli said. Township officials added a 50-percent cutoff for any uses that otherwise wouldn't be allowed under zoning after previous plans for the Kmart called for turning all of it into self-storage.

In this case, the otherwise nonconforming uses amount to 40 percent of the planned unit development, Iacoangeli said.

He pushed back on comments that the planning commission didn't do its job as untrue, arguing they reviewed all the required pieces over six months across a handful of plan iterations.

"They did their job and they did it very deliberately with the thought in mind that they were going to develop a project that would be much better than what currently is in ... the current two buildings and which meets many objectives of the master plan," he said.

Acme Township Supervisor Doug White echoed this in rejecting claims the application was rushed through, noting how long the planning commission spent with it.

Overall, White believes the board went over the application, listened through it and made their decision.

"I think it'll be a good project for the township, I think, in that it will hopefully get ... the Toms and Kmart building will be put back to use," he said.

Other opponents pointed to former Strathmore Real Estate Group president Scott Chappelle's recent 38-month prison sentence and more than $1.2-million restitution order after pleading guilty to tax evasion, questioning whether the township should work with the company.

Jacob Chappelle, Scott's son, previously said his father has no interest in or control over the project for which he acted as consultant, and township Attorney Jeff Jocks previously told planning commissioners they had to consider the application, not the applicant.