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Variances approved for Journeyman Distillery Rickhouse
Local Government Meetings
New Buffalo Times
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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
BY FRANCESCA SAGALA
The wheels for the construction of a future rickhouse, which will include an event center, tasting facility and bottling and distribution room, at Journeyman Distillery were set in motion when members of the Village of Three Oaks Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) approved two variance requests for it after a public hearing and meeting Wednesday, Jan. 26.
Members also approved that the record reflect that the ZBA reviewed the standards for approval that have been set forth in Section 6.501 of the zoning ordinance and found that each of the requests for the variances meet these standards.
Applicant Bill Welter, co-owner of Journeyman, was requesting a height variance to 44 feet 8 inches (from the currently allowed 35 feet maximum) as well as a rear setback variance to 13 feet (from the currently allowed 50-foot rear setback). Each of the variance requests were for the proposed Rickhouse, a 7,000 barreled whiskey storage facility to be located on property adjacent to 109 Generations Dr. in Three Oaks.
It was stated that the Journeyman team will not be increasing any production as part of the project and that it’ll house the barrel whiskey to “age and mature onsite,” Gregory A. Kil of KIL Architecture Planning said. Currently, the barrels are stored offsite, which is “not consistent with the design standards per the recommendations in terms of the height and the footprint of the building.”
The Rickhouse will be in MU2 zoning “per the ordinance compatible zonings,” Kil said. The building’s footprint size is “116 north-south 67 feet east-west,” said. He added that they were going from 35 feet, which is the MU2 zoning, to 44 feet 8 inches. Kil said the barrels will be stored in the unheated building with windows that allow for ventilation and the “variation in the temperature over the seasons is what matures the whiskey.” “It allows the charred inside of the barrel and the oak flavor to come into the whiskey,” he said, adding it will be stored for three to seven years. Kil said as the barrels are brought in, the distiller has “the opportunity to pull barrels off with at least three years or to leave them in for seven years.”
After the aging process, everything will be bottled and distributed.
The building will be a dark color on outside with metal siding and ventilation at the top ridge as well as down below the barrels.
“So, that ventilation is important, so the height is important in order to induce the ventilation therefore provide the right condition, so the maturation process is effective and complete,” Kil 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 Members also approved that the record reflect that the ZBA reviewed the standards for approval that have been set forth in 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. Section 6.501 of the Kil said if the building is pushed to zoning ordinance the north, there’d be a further distance, and found that each but it’d be close to the neighbors to the of the requests for north. the variances meet these standards. The 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.
