The Sun and News

Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Middleville and Caledonia Areas

No. 30/ July 29, 2023 Published by J-Ad Graphics, Inc. • 1351 N. M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI 49058 145th year

- Kent County Youth Fair kicks off this
week at new location
- TTES officer pleads to drug charges,
receives sentence
- Treatments for invasive plants
continue on Gun Lake
- TK has 15 student-athletes honored
as all-conference
- Drivers get dirty at county fair’s off
road derby

IN THIS ISSUE...IN THIS ISSUE...

Alto woman honored by Grand

Rapids Sweet Adelines chorus

Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
In 1979, Judy Herrick was
a mother of two school-age
children and living in the
Saginaw area.
“I really wanted to do
something unique and inter-
esting,” she said.
Herrick saw an advertise-
ment in a local weekly news-
paper that said, “Singers
wanted.” The ad was for a
singing group in the area that
was meeting at a local ele-

mentary school.

The ad triggered memories

of how much Herrick loved

to sing. She had sung in sev-

eral choral groups at her high

school in Freeland, just north

of Saginaw.

Herrick responded to the

ad and found the local chap-

ter of Sweet Adelines

International, a women’s

organization dedicated to the

education and promotion of a

capella singing, particularly

barbershop-style harmonies.

“I was hooked in a min-

ute,” Herrick said.

Forty-four years later, at

age 79, Herrick is still sing-

ing. The Alto resident has

been an active member of the

Grand Rapids chorus of

Sweet Adelines for 34 years

and was recently named the

local chapter’s Sweet

Adeline of the Year. She says

she was “floored” by the

honor.

Caledonia village

planners putting

together solar

ordinance

Greg Chandler

Staff Writer

Planning commissioners

in the village of Caledonia

are crafting an ordinance that

would allow residents to

erect solar panels on their

homes or in their yards.

On Thursday, the plan-

ning commission began

working on the ordinance,

pulling ideas from similar

laws in other communities

around the state.

In the end, commissioners

got a lot of their ideas for

what they would like from

neighboring Gaines Charter

Township.

Commissioners pulled

from the Gaines ordinance

quite liberally. When it came

to regulating build-

ing-mounted solar energy

collectors, commissioners

proposed using the Gaines

model of limiting

roof-mounted units to no

more than 3 feet higher than

the maximum building

height for residential-zoned

districts, limiting wall-

mounted units to be no high-

er than the height of the wall

to which they’re attached

and banning wall-mounted

units on the wall facing the

street.

For ground-mounted solar

units, commissioners again

looked at the Gaines ordi-

nance. They propose adopt-

ing the Gaines ordinance that

would limit such units to the

rear yard of a home and

require such units to meet

the same setbacks as acces-

sory buildings. They also

propose a 12-foot height

limit on a ground-mounted

unit. They only differed on

the maximum size for a unit.

While Gaines has a

1,500-square-foot limit per

unit, the Caledonia commis-

sioners are proposing limit-

ing the size to no more than

10 percent of the lot size, up

to 1,500 square feet.

Any resident wanting to

put in a solar unit would

have to present a site plan

and get a zoning compliance

permit approved by the vil-

Gaines Township Board and Planning

Commission hold joint meeting on

zoning ordinance overhaul

James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
Gaines Charter Township
planners haven’t done a com-
prehensive update to the
township’s zoning ordinance
since 2007 but are embarking
in earnest on that this sum-
mer.
They hope to have it done
by early 2024.
The township board and
planning commission held a
special joint workshop meet-
ing on Monday, July 24, at
the township hall, primarily
to discuss the process for
overhauling the township’s
chief legal document govern-
ing land development.
This past spring, planners
completed the first full
update of the township’s
master plan since 2008. It
included an update to the
2017 Future Land Use Plan.
The master plan is a guide-
book that sets long-range
goals and priorities for devel-
opment and steers zoning
and land-use decisions. But it
is not a legal document. The
zoning ordinance is the town-
ship’s actual legal document
that governs land use.
Township officials figure
it is a good time to overhaul
the ordinance, not only to
coincide with the recent
updates to the township’s
master and future land-use
plans but also to help prevent
any further legal problems.
The township was sued for
$4 million in 2022 by a firm
called Caleydonia LLC, rep-
resenting Indianapolis-based
American Kendall Properties
LLC. American Kendall had

proposed building a town

center called Prairie Wolf

Station on an 82-acre parcel

of farmland along 84th Street

just east of Kalamazoo

Avenue. It would have

included a retail center,

townhomes, apartments and

much more.

However, the township

board voted to reject the pro-

posed project. The subse-

quent lawsuit contended that

American Kendall has the

legal authority to build on the

site — by right — under the

terms of the township’s cur-

rent zoning ordinance and

the master plan that was in

place at the time.

Under the auspices of a

Kent County Circuit judge,

the township and Caleydonia

LLC recently agreed upon

terms of a consent agreement

that will allow the Prairie

Wolf Station development to

proceed in exchange for the

dropping of the lawsuit.

“I think we did get burned

across the street (with the

proposed town center)

because our process allowed

(American Kendall) to be so

far down the pipe with what

they had invested that they

were not going to let it go,”

Planning Commission

Chairwoman Connie Giarmo

said.

The township hopes to

avoid future lawsuits by

spelling out in the new zon-

ing ordinance specific

requirements and restrictions

for property development.

“In my opinion, we need

to stay away from activities

that allow us to get sued,”

Township Supervisor Rob

DeWard said. “The planning

commission and the board

have to ask themselves, ‘Am

I against this because I don’t

like pink houses? Or am I

against it because there is a

legitimate standard that they

haven’t met?’ Otherwise,

we’re going to end up in

court again.”

The township hopes to

avoid that by specifying in

the new zoning ordinance

what is and is not allowed in

regard to land use.

“Let’s get the standards

figured out to get what we

Judy Herrick of Alto

has been an active mem-

ber of the Grand Rapids

chorus of Sweet Adelines

for 34 years and was

recently named the local

chapter’s Sweet Adeline of

the Year. (Photo provided)

Residents in the Village of Caledonia will soon be

able to erect solar panels both on their homes and

in their yards once planning commissioners craft a

new ordinance to set guidelines in place.

See SOLAR ORDINANCE, page 2

See JUDY HERRICK, page 2

Gaines Township Community Development Director Dan Wells (left) and

Horizon Community Planning Consultant David Jirousek share a laugh at the

township hall on July 24. (Photo by James Gemmell)

See ZONING, page 3