“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
So it was Tuesday night for Mark and Marty Shepherd, co-owners of the proposed Lumberyard Events Center at the corner of Maple and Railroad streets in Wayland. The City Planning Commission unanimously approved on 7-0 votes, to approve a special use permit request and site plan for the the events center to accommodate weddings, reunions and other special events that include dancing.
The Shepherds earlier this year won conditional approval from the city for their new business, but things fell apart late last summer when they failed to meet parking requirements. Their special use permit, as a result, was revoked in August.
But the brothers came back to the Planning Commission with revised plans that appear to meet necessary requirements. The special use permit request must now go before the City Council for final approval.
When asked what’s the difference between this request and the one that failed earlier this year, Lori Castello, zoning enforcement administrator with Professional Code Inspections, replied, “This one comes with parking plans. The plans proposed before never came to fruition… But in concept, this proposal hasn’t changed.”
Lumberyard Events Center must provide for 100 parking spaces in oder to accommodate the capacity of 299 people using the building.
Castello outlines parking, lighting, drainage, operational hours and removal of a fence and addition of a fenced in dumpster as conditions that have been met. The Shepherds have agreed to shut down operations no later than midnight.
“It’s in our best interests to shut down by that time, anyway,” Mark Shepherd said.
City Manager Joshua Eggleston said the events center had a trial run at an event last May and, “The city received no complaints.”
The site plan includes paving the parking lot in back and to the north of the center by next spring.
After the two unanimous votes, Castello commented, “We’re certainly comfortable with taking this ahead administratively.”
In other business at Tuesday evening’s meeting, the commission:
• Welcomed new member Ben Adams, who succeeds Abe Garcia, who was elected to the City Council.
• Welcomed PCI’s newest zoning administrator, Heather Mitchell, who hails from Constantine and is a graduate of Western Michigan University.
• Learned that the Shepherds have withdrawn their request for rezoning at 118 W. Maple St. The request was supposed to be to rezone a central business district designation to residential, but Dahlia City Dogs apparently plans to move into the building, which is immediately to the west of the Hair Cut Hut.
