Overlay district approved for former armory building, event center plans in the works

CHEBOYGAN — On Tuesday, the Cheboygan City Council approved a reuse overlay district for the former Cheboygan Armory building, allowing the facility to be repurposed as an event center and banquet hall.

"We tabled this at the last meeting when we had some guests arrive and present some documents," said Cheboygan City Manager Dan Sabolsky.

At the April 26 city council meeting, an organized group of citizens served city officials with paperwork, requesting they cease and desist with trying to repurpose the facility. This paperwork was then reviewed by Cheboygan City Attorney Stephen Lindsay.

"I did clear it with Mr. Lindsay. We are OK to proceed with consideration of the reuse overlay district application from Steve Voisin at 610 Cuyler St.," said Sabolsky. "Again, it was passed by the planning commission."

At a prior meeting in March, the city council had sent this matter back to the planning commission in order for more details to be ironed out before a final decision was made. At that time, Voisin had not determined exactly what he wanted to do with the building.

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At Tuesday's meeting, the proposed resolution was to create the reuse overlay district for the Cheboygan Armory, to allow Voisin to repurpose the building. This was the same proposal that had been tabled at the April 26 meeting.

Voisin had gone through the process of taking a site plan back to the planning commission and narrowing down his proposed uses for the facility to be an events or banquet hall. He also plans to have three living and work units in the building.

The planning commission previously requested Voisin modify the number of parking spaces available at the facility to 130, rather than the 200 required by the city originally.

Sabolsky said if the city were to approve the reuse overlay district, there would be some landscaping done to the property, to make it more aesthetically appealing, as required by the planning commission.

Several council members questioned what the living and working units are that were included in the plan, as well as if the city council could restrict the hours of operation.

In the plans presented for the reuse of the building, it shows an area of the building where there are some shower facilities, which were used when the Michigan Army National Guard used the building. There are also three rooms near these shower facilities, which would be turned into small living quarters and work areas.

"So they may be employees of the operation that goes on there, so they have places for employee housing," said Sabolsky.

There had been some discussion at the planning commission regarding the hours of operation, but the planning commission did not make a recommendation. Voisin had modified his plans to show the building would be closed after midnight. The council members were also able to include this in their approval of the plan, if they so desired.

The City of Cheboygan is not selling the property, which is still owned by the Michigan Army National Guard. The city was simply allowing for the repurposing of the building, if the military were to sell to the developer, by creating this reuse overlay district. The former armory is currently in a residential zoning district.

The council members were also asked to approve the site plan for the building, per the recommendation of the planning commission. This was approved unanimously at the April 26 meeting, as city officials did not feel there were any concerns with approving it even with the paperwork the council was given.

The council members voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve the reuse overlay district application as it had been presented to them.

Contact Features Writer Kortny Hahn at khahn1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @khahnCDT.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Overlay district approved for former armory building