Goodrich-Jack Parker and Robert Eastman thought they were making a simple request by wanting to improve the look of the “gateway to the community.”
“All we want to do is make that corner look better. That’s it. We are going to do what we say we’re going to do,” said Parker, following a two hour long debate.
Parker is the Vice-President of the Quick Save chain and Eastman is the owner of the BP station at the cornner of M-15 and Hegel Road. Their plan to expand the Quick Save from 2,400 square feet to approximately 5,000 square feet was denied in June by the Goodrich Planning Commission. He returned with a revised plan on Aug. 25 it was denied again. The four members who denied the request the first time were the only ones at the second meeting who could make a motion to approve the request, yet the original motion stood.
The debate was finally put to rest on Sept. 15 when the Goodrich Village Council approved the rezoning request of the .29 acre parcel from Village Center Residential to Central Business District. The three to two vote included President Keith Walworth and council member Mike Glynn rejecting the rezoning.
“I don’t think the four who voted no (on Aug. 25) would have voted yes for any structure. I believe they may have had their minds made even before Mr. Eastman’s presentation. I can’t speak for them, but that’s just what I think happened,”said Adam Kline, Planning Commission and council member .
Eastman was represented at the Sept. 15 council meeting by his lawyer, George Rizek, who sought approval from the council. Walworth had expressed concerns about the developer not upholding the plan.
“There is no guarantee that he will do what he says, but that’s the same with anything. I don’t think he would go to these lengths if he was lying,” said Rizek, who added that possibly the Planning commission was confused since many ideas were presented by Eastman at the outset of the project.
Nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition representing village residents and customers of the BP in supportof the project, were distributed to the council by Rizek. Council member Mike Glynn said his signature was in fact among those names, but claimed that “he really didn’t know what he was signing anyway.”
Eastman proposes to keep the reaming wall near the Mill Pond and turn the store into a one stop shop which will include liquor, beer, six new pumps, bigger food selection and a new parking lot. Parker says the current parking lot is insufficient for the traffic that flows through the village and M-15. Rizek said that the plan to expand the building meets all the criteria set in the Master Plan.
The seats in the Lyceum Building where the meeting was held were filled with confused residents wondering exactly the hold up was on deciding to turn an out-of-date gas station into something much better and more convenient for customers. Many of the residents who attended the meeting were upset at the quality of the corner and many of the residents who spoke said if the village didn’t have a better plan of how to make improvements, then why stop someone else who does?
Margaret Ford, who lives nearby on State Road said, “That corner looks like crap! It’s been a mess since it opened. You people sit up here and dictate and dictate and don’t do anything about it. You are the ones who are making it a mess.”
In response to many of the residents, Walworth explained that he lives on the Mill Pond and doesn’t want to see it turned into a business district. Some of the other council members, such as Kline, felt that wasn’t a valid enough reason to not let the business owners expand and grow to better serve the community.
“You may live on the Mill Pond, but what about the people that don’t? Are you speaking for yourself, or for the community? I personally support the idea and I think that we need something like that around here. It just seems to fit.”
Jayme Simmonds was another member of the council who didn’t share Walworth’s feelings on the project.
“We finally have a manager there that has hired respectable employees and the place looks nice now inside. I think it’s great that this man, [Parker] wants to spend thousands of dollars to improve our village and we don’t have to spend one cent. “
Parker will start the renovation of the project this fall.