Chesaning to refund $933 site-plan fee for 709 W. Broad St.
The village council's Sept. 15 agenda shows a site plan review at 709 W. Broad has finished — but nothing in the packet says what is going into the building.
Something is moving at 709 W. Broad St. The Chesaning Village Council takes up an item Tuesday night to refund $933.13 to that address for what the agenda calls "the remainder of Site Plan Review fee" — the money left over after the village's review of the property wrapped up.
The review itself is already done. The Sept. 1 meeting minutes, included in Tuesday's packet, record the Planning Commission report in a single line: "Met and approved a site plan." The minutes do not say whose site plan, for what address, or for what use. The packet contains no planning commission minutes and no site plan documents, and it does not name an applicant for 709 W. Broad.
So the village has approved a plan for the West Broad corridor and is handing back the unspent portion of the fee, and the public record in front of the council says nothing about what is being built or opened there, or when. A site plan review is the step at which a local planning commission signs off on a building's layout, parking and drainage before construction permits are issued. The Current has asked the village for the planning commission's minutes and the application file; Village Administrator Tom Ebenhoeh is the office that holds them.
The refund is one of two action items Tuesday. The other is Resolution 06-2026, which sets a 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 public hearing on abandoning the unused Railroad Street right-of-way between Brady and Pine streets — a step The Current reported on earlier this week. The resolution states the village "has not utilized the Right-of-Way and has no future plan to do so," and that the hearing is not itself a decision to abandon it.
The council will also get its first look at a proposal from OHM Advisors to write a joint five-year parks and recreation plan covering both the village's and the school district's recreation property. The fee is a $10,000 lump sum, set out in a Sept. 8 letter from OHM project manager Vanessa V. Warren. The firm advises holding the two required public input meetings in October, with the plan submitted to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in early 2027. Communities need a current five-year recreation plan on file to be eligible to apply for DNR recreation grants, the proposal notes. It is listed for discussion only, not a vote.
On the consent agenda: the Sept. 1 minutes and $157,901.69 in accounts payable, with no itemization in the packet. That follows $286,571.69 approved Sept. 1 and a separate $5,600 Rootnote invoice the council cleared that night on a motion by Navarre, supported by Larner, with Chludil abstaining.
The packet also carries the police chief's September report. Chesaning Police logged 85 offenses between Jan. 1 and Sept. 10, up 15% from the same stretch a year earlier, with a 63% clearance rate and two full-time officers. Drunk-driving arrests went from three to 11.
What happens next: the council meets at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, in Council Chambers at the village offices, 218 N. Front St. The 709 W. Broad refund and the Railroad Street hearing resolution are both up for action. The next regular meeting is Oct. 6, and the Railroad Street hearing is set for Oct. 20. We will report what is going into 709 W. Broad when the village releases the file.
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