Village of Peck Planning for the Future
Spicer Group Assists with the Village’s Master Plan, Recreation Plan, and Zoning Ordinance
In 2021, the Village of Peck was awarded a Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC) Technical Assistance Grant. The Village was undertaking a comprehensive update to the existing zoning ordinance, which was enacted in the 1980’s.
The zoning ordinance update began with an update to the Village’s Master Plan and Recreation Plan. In 2019, the Village hired Spicer Group to update both plans, and at that time, the Village Zoning Administrator (now Supervisor) Tim Heiden was enrolling the Village in the Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC) program. RRC is a voluntary program offered through MEDC that communities in Michigan can enroll in. The goals of the program are to help communities create an environment that is friendly to high-quality development and placemaking by enacting processes that are transparent, predictable, and efficient.
“Tim really did this process right. Almost five years ago, he saw an opportunity to make Peck more marketable and took the right steps to ensure that he could get the tools in place he would need to capitalize on the funding opportunities offered by MEDC,” said Spicer Group Community Planner Jennifer Stewart, AICP who was involved in the Master Plan, Recreation Plan, and Zoning Ordinance updates.
“Because of his forethought, hard work, and perseverance he was able to guide the Village through these extensive updates and be the champion of the RRC process for Peck,” said Cindy Todd, PLA Director of Planning.
When updating the Master Plan and Recreation Plan, Spicer Group understood that the Village was interested in pursuing the RRC Certified Community requirements. Therefore, both plans were tailored, in particular the Master Plan, to meet the requirements of the program so the Village could use their new Master Plan as one of the RRC requirements. Following the adoption of the Master Plan, the Village did the heavy lifting to become engaged in the RRC process. Once they were engaged, they were able to apply for a Technical Assistance Grant. The grant is only available to communities who are engaged in the RRC process.
The grant requires a 25% match and the remaining 75% is monies from the State. It can be used for a variety of updates; however, the Village of Peck applied for and was awarded a grant to update their zoning ordinance.
Zoning is a set of rules that separate a community into different districts or areas, each of which has a specific set of guidelines for how the land can be used. Oftentimes, zoning ordinances can be cumbersome and difficult for the average person to comprehend. One of the tenets of the MEDC RRC program is to make ordinances readable, friendly, and uncomplicated. The program’s intention is to lessen the barrier of understanding for the everyday citizen, to ensure a community has common sense rules for development, and to create a process that ensures development is completed in a timely manner.
For the Village of Peck, this meant a comprehensive re-write of their existing ordinance which was 40 plus years old. Spicer Group Planners Jennifer Stewart, AICP and Michael Daly-Martin, AICP assisted the Village with the update. In addition to ensuring the ordinance complied with the current enabling legislation and outlined clear processes and responsibilities for the Zoning Administrator, Planning Commission, and ZBA, the update also included standards that addressed some of the following topics: ground floor transparency of buildings in the downtown, build-to lines or zero lot lines, multiple types of housing, shared parking or a reduction of parking requirements, EV charging stations, bicycle parking, and green infrastructure rules for rain water collection, street tree planting standards, parking lot landscaping, and native planting requirements to name a few.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation also prioritizes accessibility and user-friendliness. In order to achieve that, Spicer Group created a zoning ordinance in an interactive format. Instead of long paragraphs of text and lists, the ordinance includes tables, charts, and diagrams to illustrate detailed concepts. Additionally, the document was set up for electronic users to easily navigate through the pages by clickable links that take users to specific pages or chapters. For example, if someone were to click on a topic in the table of contents, the document would jump to that page, eliminating the need for users to scroll through multiple pages to find what they are looking for.
“The interactive capability is really awesome for our clients, and it is an exciting project to be a part of. Some of the other interactive features include: a back button so the user can go to their previous page, chapter buttons on the bottom of each page so users can jump between chapters if they need to review a different section of the ordinance, links in the table of contents, and links to state laws throughout the document,” Stewart said.
“The new document is more efficient and will allow the permitting process to go much quicker,” Heiden said. “The new zoning ordinance document is a lot easier for the average person to understand and overall, the Village Planning Commission loves and is happy with the updated document.”
A big change that is already underway for the Village of Peck is a new housing project of townhouses. Prior to the ordinance update, this style of housing was not allowed in the Village. The Village plans to continue this trend by encouraging more residential and commercial developers to look at sites in Peck.
