Three residential duplexes proposed for a group of adjacent parcels on West Cork Street cleared a key review step at the June 23rd meeting of the City of Kalamazoo’s Natural Features Protection Review Board.
The parcels — at 112, 114, and 132 West Cork Street in the West Edge Hill neighborhood — sit within the city’s NFP overlay district because of protected slopes, slope setbacks, and a woodland complex on site. The challenging topography has kept the lots undeveloped for years despite being zoned for multi-family residential use.
Jeremy Cole of Statewide Rentals LLC is proposing to build one duplex on each parcel, accessed by a shared driveway that enters from Cork Street and routes up to the flatter areas at the top of the slope. To make that driveway work, the project requires relief from the city’s protected slope and slope setback standards — which is what brought it before the NFP Review Board.
Staff Liaison Nolan Bergstrom noted that the shared driveway design is actually an improvement over the original proposal, which called for individual driveway access across each parcel. The consolidated approach reduces the total impact to protected slopes and woodland areas on site.
The board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the variance requests to the Zoning Board of Appeals, with conditions requiring full site plan review approval and tree protection measures during construction. The ZBA is the final authority on granting the relief.
The Zoning Board of Appeals is the next step for this project. Kalamazoo residents can find meeting schedules and agendas at kalamazoocity.org.
