In 2019, Lowell Light & Power asked the city to sell a line shack building it no longer used. On Monday, that sale was finally completed with the passage of a resolution transferring the proceeds to the municipal utility.
That was one of three business items discussed by Lowell City Council during their first meeting of October. All members were present for the session.
Public Comments
Before getting to the business items, councilmembers opened the floor for public comments and heard from five residents.
Perry Beachum, chair of the LLP Board, reminded everyone of the upcoming Power Fest event. He also shared that the utility sent a crew to Florida in advance of Hurricane Milton making landfall. The linemen will assist in restoring power after the storm.
Craig Fonger shared that the Friends of the Flat had their first meeting that evening. The group has been formed in response to concerns about excess vegetation in the Flat River. Fonger noted that Mayor Mike DeVore is the group secretary. Saying that there may have been “misperceptions about the council,” Fonger addressed each councilmember individually and shared how they had been supportive of the effort to clean up the river.
“I am so pleased that we have our city council behind this,” he said.
Marilyn Branham was next to speak and said a van had been parked in front of her house on Roberta Jayne since May. “In my opinion, that’s an unnecessarily long time to be parked on the street,” she said.
According to Branham, Grand Rapids considers a vehicle to be abandoned if it has not been moved in 48 hours, and she suggested Lowell amend its ordinance to add similar language. She thought a 72-hour limit would be appropriate to accommodate those who might have overnight guests. Her suggestion was for residential streets and would not include those who have a parking permit from the police, such as those issued to residents who live in downtown apartments on Main Street.
Dennis Kent spoke next and said that while he understood there was an issue on Roberta Jayne to be addressed, he didn’t want any amendment to punish other people in the area who may need to park on the street.
Dave Austin said that he was a 30-year resident of Lowell and was drawn to the community because of its parks. He helped with the effort to rebuild the Creekside Kingdom playground and said: “What an amazing community experience that was.” Austin noted that the playground wasn’t a cookie-cutter project with pre-made pieces being bolted together. Instead, it was custom built with volunteers measuring, cutting and routing composite wood boards.
“It was humbling physically and mentally,” Austin said. “I’m just really proud of our community.”
Austin’s comments were echoed by previous speakers as well as councilmembers during their comments at the end of the meeting. Lowell Rotary Club spearheaded the project with Mark and Theresa Mundt and Cody Chambers leading the effort.
Line Shack Sale Complete
In a late addition to the evening’s agenda, Lowell City Council unanimously passed a resolution to transfer the proceeds of the sale of property on Riverside Drive to LLP.
The municipal utility requested in November 2019 that the city sell the property, which had previously been used as a line shack. Although considered an LLP asset, the building was owned by the city.
The first attempt to sell the property took place in early 2020 – with the bid period opening in March, at the same time the COVID-19 pandemic was sweeping the nation. The city forgot to include a $100,000 minimum bid requirement that was requested by LLP, and a single bid of $76,000 was received from developers Todd Schaal and Jerry Zandstra.
While the LLP Board voted unanimously to reject the bid, councilmembers voted 4-1 to accept it. Later, it was discovered that the request for bids had not been properly published so the sale could not be completed.
In 2021, the council tried again to sell the property. This time, six bids were received, and the top bid was $118,000. Councilmembers decided to have all six bidders present their plans in a special meeting so the council could select the best proposal. Ultimately, they unanimously voted to accept a $100,000 bid from BGR Investments, which wanted to turn the space into a mixed-use building.
Less than a year later, in June 2022, the council voted to terminate that purchase agreement. Councilmembers used a closed session to discuss the matter and never publicly disclosed the reason for terminating the sale.
A third request for bids occurred in August 2022. The high bid came from Lowell businessman Greg Canfield who offered $150,000 cash with the promise that if he couldn’t successfully redevelop the property, the city could keep the money.
However, councilmembers preferred a $100,000 bid from CopperRock Construction to build a six-story residential property on the site. That proposal was overwhelmingly opposed by the public so councilmembers ultimately voted 3-2 to accept Canfield’s bid.
Since four votes are needed to sell city property, the line shack couldn’t be sold to Canfield. Instead, a purchase agreement with Todd Schaal was approved on a 4-1 vote in December 2022. Schaal planned to build a multi-family residential building on the site and bid $130,000.
But that was not to be the end of the line shack saga. Although Schaal received approval from the Planning Commission in July 2023 for his building, construction has not started yet. In July 2024, councilmembers unanimously approved a resolution reducing the purchase price of the property to $62,500.
Lowell City Council once again used a closed session to discuss this matter, and no public statement was made on why the price was reduced. After the meeting DeVore told Lowell’s First Look that changes to the FEMA flood maps put the property in the floodplain. He also said a closed session was needed because a legal opinion was discussed, and the council packet shows a $1,482 attorney expense related to the line shack development agreement.
It remains unclear if and when the property will be developed, but it belongs to Schaal now as the city finally closed on a sale that was five years in the making.
Other Meeting Items
In other news, the following happened during the Lowell City Council meeting:
- Lowell City Council unanimously approved a resolution to accept a grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources which will be used for a connector trail project.
- Lowell City Council voted unanimously to order a wastewater rotor at a cost of $33,546. It will take eight weeks for the part to arrive, and bids to install the rotor currently range from approximately $22,000 to $66,000.
- City Manager Mike Burns said meetings were occurring with the Michigan Economic Development Corporations to see about getting more money for the infrastructure needed for the proposed Covenant Business Park by I-96.
- The City of Lowell website has been refreshed, a project that Burns said he had been working on for about a year.
- Burns also said the pedestrian crossing signs that had been placed in crosswalks on Foreman Street were removed because they referenced a state law that apparently doesn’t exist.
At 7:37pm, Lowell City Council went into a closed session to consider two matters, both listed on the agenda as “material exempt from discussion or disclosure by state or federal statute.” That reason appears to be listed whenever the council wishes to have a conversation with the city attorney.
The next regular meeting of Lowell City Council will take place on Monday, Oct. 21, at 7pm in Lowell City Hall.
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