3-story, mixed-use Douglas building eyed

By Scott Sullivan
Editor
A 3-story, mixed-use building at 200 Center St. is being proposed by Douglas Flats, LLC. It would be part of an existing planned unit development sharing a real estate office, vacant land west of the Saugatuck-Douglas District Library plus the first 3-story residential/commercial structure at 150 Center.
The developer, incorporated under the name of agent Ufuk Turan of Ada Oct. 29, 2021, has furnished the Douglas Planning Commission designs by Nederveld of Grand Rapids showing:
• Ground-floor commercial space including two residential units in back,
• 4 additional apartments on second and third floors each. Of the 10 combined, 5 would be one room, the others two-
• The property would be accessed via one proposed driveway off Center Street. Twelve car parking spaces and bicycle racks are proposed on site.
• Douglas Flats would be serviced by public sanitary sewer and water. Leaching catch basins and perforated pipe are proposed for storm water management. Landscaping would be as required by city ordinance.
The proposed building height, — 33 feet to the ceiling , 36’ to the parapet wall’s top — wood exceed Section 10.02.D 28-foot limits in the C-1 Commercial district.
“It is our understanding,” reads the project narrative, “the PUD allows for flexibility in building height. Note the existing building at 150 Center St. is also 3-story and mixed use.”
Parking too must be looked at. The 12 spaces proposed are fewer than the 18 required per ordinance, “but is our understanding that per Section 10.04.b.1, the planning commission can waive up to 50 percent of the required parking for allowed uses (ground floor commercial and the upper-level residential, for example), which would bring the required spaces down to nine.
“Therefore,” it explains, “the parking is not necessarily a departure, although it would require the planning commission to waive some.”
The two ground-floor apartments in back would need to be granted a special use, which is allowed as in a PUD that includes residential uses, the builder says.