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Greetings!
Your support on these issues in Covert, is critical to the preservation of one of the most beautiful sand dune areas in the state, if not the world.
Please help.
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Covert Planning Commission to Hold Hearings
On Proposed Revisions to Zoning Ordinance
Hearing: 6:00 PM, September 17, 2008, Covert Township Hall
The Planning Commission has been working for 7 or 8 months on the current revisions to the Covert zoning ordinance. A number of improvements have been made. The administrative variances have been dropped. If a variance is required, only the Zoning Board of Appeals can grant it, not the zoning administrator. Numerous conflicts and ambiguities have been eliminated. Regulations have been simplified. For example, now any structure can be located anywhere inside the setbacks.
PTD thanks the Planning Commission for the time, thought and effort that they have devoted to this update.
Yet, there are two proposed changes that we believe are detrimental to the character and ecology of the lakefront areas; and that will effect the quality of life afforded by the area. (These are discussed below.)
If you are concerned, attend the hearing and speak. If you can't attend the meeting, write a letter and mail/fax/email it to the Planning Commission. Sample letters for residents/property owners in Covert and for visitors to Covert are available in MSWord, text and Adobe Acrobat format.
The fax number at the township hall is (269) 764-1771.
An email can be sent in care of the township clerk clerk@coverttwp.org
Please copy PTD at info@sosdunes.org or fax to (269) 925-0288.
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Issue #1: Setbacks and buffers at lakefront and along the Blue Star Highway
The planning commission is proposing to reduce the depth of buffers and setbacks along the lakefront and the Blue Star Highway.
History
Before a major rewrite in 2006, the Covert zoning ordinance required a 200-foot vegetative buffer on the Blue Star Highway and along the lake. It also required a 200-foot front yard setback (Blue Star Highway) and a 300-foot rear yard (lakeside) setback.
The 2006 revision increased the waterfront set back to 200 feet beyond the 60-year High Risk Erosion Area (HREA) setback. The setbacks and vegetative buffers on the Blue Star Highway remained at 200 feet.
New Proposals
The waterfront setback is proposed to be the 60-year HREA setback (200 feet closer than currently required). PTD believes that this is too close. However, this is a vast improvement over an earlier, but recently abandoned, proposal to use the 30-year HREA setback, which would have allowed structures on the beach.
The setback from Blue Star Highway has been reduced to 100'. The vegetative buffer on the west side of the Blue Star has been reduced to 150 feet and has been eliminated on the east side.
These changes are moving in the wrong direction for protection of the very beautiful dune area in Covert, one of the most scenic drives in all of Michigan, and one of the most scenic lakefront areas in Michigan.
PTD counter-proposals
The vegetative buffer should be maintained on the east side of the Blue Star Highway within the Environmentally Sensitive Area overlay district. The setback and buffer depth from the highway should continue to be 200 feet. Create an exception for the one or two shallow lots that would be effected.
The waterfront setback should be 75 to 100 feet behind the HREA 60-year setback or 200 feet behind the Erosion Hazard Line - either would be roughly equivalent to the setback in effect for several decades before the 2006 revisions, 300 feet from the edge of Lake Michigan.
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Issue #2: Side yard setbacks
This issue is primarily about quality of life and maintenance of property values. Since the 1980's or earlier, the minimum side yard setback in lakefront properties has been 30 feet.
Now the planning commission is proposing reducing the setback to 10% of the width of the lot subject to a 30-foot maximum, with an absolute minimum of 5 feet. This will be the smallest setback in any district in the township! The most expensive land in the township will potentially have homes closer to each other than any other area. Is this appropriate?
And is it fair to penalize the owner of a wider lot? Isn't that what is being done? A person with a 300-foot wide lot, cannot use 60 feet of his lot, while the owner of a 50-foot lot can use all but 10 feet of his lot.
Close proximity reduces privacy, increases the likelihood that one neighbor will disturb another, and reduces the quality and value of a property. The 30-foot setback is reasonable for a district with a 5-acre minimum lot size. If it is necessary to build closer than 30 feet because of unique site conditions, then the proposal should be reviewed by the zoning board of appeals, which can verify that neighbors are protected or can set conditions that will protect neighbors.
Also of concern is fire safety in the fire drives. These houses are the most remote from the fire station. They will potentially be closer to their neighbors than others. Given the time it can take to determine a fire is underway, to notify
the fire department and for the fire fighters to travel to the remote
site, a fire can spread from one house to another when they are only 10 to 20 feet apart.
The fire lanes are not like an urban or even a suburban area. Several house fires in recent years totally destroyed the houses and burned trees over 30 feet away from the houses. If other houses were close, they would have caught fire.
PTD counter proposal:
Keep the 30 foot side yard setback or reduce it to 25 feet and prohibit any part of a structure, above or below ground, to extend into a required setback.
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"These dunes are to the Midwest what the Grand Canyon is to Arizona . . .
once lost, the loss would be irrevocable." Carl Sandburg
Sincerely,
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