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www.newbuffalotimes.com
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022
Local Government Meetings New Buffalo Times
Democracy Requires Transparency
CITY OF NEW BUFFALO JOHN HUMPHREY, MAYOR CITY COUNCIL LOU O’DONNELL, IV. MARK ROBERTSON, JOHN HUMPHREY, ROGER LIJESKI, BRIAN FLANAGAN City Council meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 6:30PM CITY OF NEW BUFFALO PLANNING COMMISSION MEETINGS to be determined NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP BOARD PETE RAHM, MICHELLE HEIT, JUDY H. ZABICKI, PATTY IAZZETTO, JACK ROGERS Board meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7PM NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month at 6:30PM NEW BUFFALO AREA SCHOOLS BOARD CHUCK HEIT, PRESIDENT HEATHER BLACK, VICE PRESIDENT JOHN HASKINS, TREASURER LISA WERNER, SECRETARY JOYCE LANTZ, TRUSTEE FRANK MARGRO, TRUSTEE PATRICIA NEWSTON, TRUSTEE CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP BOARD DAVID BUNTE, PAULA DUDIAK, LIZ RETTIG, RICHARD SULLIVAN, BILL MARSKE Chikaming Board meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 6:30PM CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Meets on the 1st Wednesday of each month at 6:30PM THREE OAKS THREE OAKS TOWNSHIP BOARD Meets on the 2nd Monday of each month at 7PM VILLAGE OF THREE OAKS BOARD Meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7PM GRAND BEACH VILLAGE OF GRAND BEACH COUNCIL Meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 7PM MICHIANA VILLAGE OF MICHIANA COUNCIL Meets on the 2nd Friday of each month at 1PM
Variances approved for Journeyman Distillery Rickhouse
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BY FRANCESCA SAGALA
he wheels for the construction standards per the recommendations in of a future rickhouse, which terms of the height and the footprint of will include an event center, the building.” tasting facility and bottling The Rickhouse will be in MU2 zoning and distribution room, “per the ordinance compatible zonings,” at Journeyman Distillery were set in Kil said. The building’s footprint size is motion when members of the Village “116 north-south 67 feet east-west,” said. of Three Oaks Zoning Board of Appeals He added that they were going from 35 (ZBA) approved two variance requests feet, which is the MU2 zoning, to 44 feet for it after a public hearing and meeting 8 inches. Wednesday, Jan. 26. Kil said the barrels will Members also approved be stored in the unheated Members also that the record reflect building with windows approved that the that the ZBA reviewed the that allow for ventilation record reflect that standards for approval and the “variation in the the ZBA reviewed that have been set forth temperature over the the standards for in Section 6.501 of the seasons is what matures approval that have zoning ordinance and been set forth in the whiskey.” found that each of the Section 6.501 of the “It allows the charred requests for the variances zoning ordinance inside of the barrel and meet these standards. and found that each the oak flavor to come Applicant Bill Welter, of the requests for into the whiskey,” he said, co-owner of Journeyman, the variances meet adding it will be stored for was requesting a height these standards. three to seven years. variance to 44 feet 8 Kil said as the barrels inches (from the currently are brought in, the distiller has “the allowed 35 feet maximum) as well as a opportunity to pull barrels off with at rear setback variance to 13 feet (from the least three years or to leave them in for currently allowed 50-foot rear setback). seven years.” Each of the variance requests were After the aging process, everything will for the proposed Rickhouse, a 7,000 be bottled and distributed. barreled whiskey storage facility to be The building will be a dark color on located on property adjacent to 109 outside with metal siding and ventilation Generations Dr. in Three Oaks. at the top ridge as well as down below It was stated that the Journeyman the barrels. team will not be increasing any “So, that ventilation is important, production as part of the project and so the height is important in order to that it’ll house the barrel whiskey to induce the ventilation therefore provide “age and mature onsite,” Gregory A. the right condition, so the maturation Kil of KIL Architecture Planning said. process is effective and complete,” Kil Currently, the barrels are stored offsite, which is “not consistent with the design said.
The alternative is a “low squat building,” which Kil said isn’t desired because it won’t “use best practice standards for maturing the whiskey barrels.” The building is in the center of the MU2 parcel. There’s an I1 parcel to the south, which will house the bottling building. Kil said that this particular property was rezoned from the previous residential zoning to I1 and MU2. He added that there’s a setback requirement for the I1 zoning, but “the buildings want be close together in terms of proximity for moving the barrels.” There’s also a 50-feet distance requirement from the Michigan Building Code. Kil said if the building is pushed to the north, there’d be a further distance, but it’d be close to the neighbors to the north.
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he nearest private residential building to the Rickhouse proper is approximately 552 to the northeast and the nearest municipal public building to the south is 175 feet. “So, even though we’re requesting that additional height, we don’t believe that negatively impacts any other adjacent properties per the location of the Rickhouse on the site and relative location of other adjacent buildings in terms of obstructing views and casting shadows,” he said. It was noted that there’d be emergency exit lighting, emergency lighting and a sprinkler system. He added it’ll be a dry pipe system, since it’s an unheated and unconditioned building.
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