By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
Mead Johnson Nutrition’s planned $836 million modernization of its century-old infant formula manufacturing plant on Zeeland’s east side has cleared another hurdle.
With only five commissioners present last Thursday, the Planning Commission voted 5-0 to approve the site plan for the project at 725 E. Main Ave., with a series of conditions attached to the passage. Under city charter, all five commissioners needed to vote yes to approve the site plan.
“From a process standpoint, site plan approval is an important step because it establishes the general development envelope within which Mead Johnson and its project team can continue detailed design,” Assistant City Manager Kevin Plockmeyer wrote in a memo to commissioners. “Given the scale and complexity of the proposed plant improvements, there is substantial design work that must still occur, particularly with respect to utilities, infrastructure, service connections, construction sequencing, and operational needs.”
The city and Mead Johnson will now work on a development agreement that is a condition of the site plan approval. That agreement is expected to address necessary utility improvements, replacement of the playground north of the former Bethel Christian Reformed Church and construction of a pocket park near the corner of Main and Carlton Street, according to the resolution document that was approved by the Planning Commission.
Mead Johnson plans to build a new six-story, 501,477-square-foot building directly west of its current ZSP (Zeeland Specialty Plant) building and a 117,928-square-foot addition on the north end of its ZIPP (Zeeland Integrated Powder Plant) building to the north.
The new building to be built will include manufacturing, packaging, warehousing and supporting utilities, as well offices and laboratory space. The northern addition to the ZIPP plant will be home to a new packaging line, Mead Johnson senior engineering manager Allan Barron said at a Planning Commission meeting last month.
One property owner on Carlton expressed concern about the addition of an employee parking lot entrance off that street, as well as the use of Carlton for all truck traffic in and out of the Mead Johnson facility. Keith Disselkoen owns a fourplex residential rental unit at 30 N. Carlton near the proposed entrance, and says the change in parking will affect traffic near where his tenants live.
“The number of cars, exiting the parking (lot) onto Carlton and moving to Main and waiting at Main to turn to go on the highway, will severely impact our tenants being able to come in and go out of their driveways,” said Disselkoen, who has owned the property with his wife Georgie for the last 43 years.
Disselkoen noted that the city undertook improvements on Carlton, between Main and Washington Avenue, about five years ago that included new asphalt, sidewalks, curbing and stormwater drains. Since then, he says, he’s invested $60,000-$70,000 into upgrading his property.
In its site plan, Mead Johnson had removed all but one of the entrances off of Main, moving the employee parking entrances to Carlton and Fairview Road, in response to nearby residents who last year complained that the project would result in increased traffic on Main.
Disselkoen’s concerns were relayed to Joe Eberle of Progressive Companies, the city’s traffic consultant, who reviewed a traffic study conducted for Mead Johnson by Fleis & VandenBrink. In a memo to Community Development Director Tim Maday, Eberle wrote existing counts show a peak hour of exiting traffic of 122 vehicles, and that not all 350 spaces will have cars entering and leaving Mead Johnson simultaneously.
“The peak hour trips will be significantly smaller than the total 350 parking spaces, likely closer to 125 vehicles, and these trips will be split between intersections, and then further split between left and right turns at each intersection,” Eberle wrote.
The engineers’ models showed an “acceptable” level of service, Maday said.
Disselkoen isn’t buying Eberle’s report.
“He’s not talking about incoming traffic of another 122 cars,” he said. “If there are 122 coming into the parking lot and 122 going out of the parking lot, at shift change, at peak hour, it’ll be a massive congestion.”
Rebecca Perkins, the City Council’s representative on Planning Commission, asked Barron if it was possible to move the Carlton entrance further north “so it avoids the three rental properties,” including Disselkoen’s. Barron said the company is considering such a move.
Mead Johnson undertook considerable design changes over the last year in response to resident concerns over noise, traffic and landscaping. They include increased setbacks for the new manufacturing building to at least 225 feet from the property line along Main and 400 feet from Carlton – well beyond the city’s requirement of a 50-foot setback.
In addition, the plant’s central utility building and cooling towers are being relocated to a more central location on the property in hopes of reducing noise coming from the site. The site plan also calls for more trees and landscape plantings than the city requires.
Approval of the final traffic study by City Manager Tim Klunder is one of the conditions that the site plan approval hinges on. In addition to the development agreement, other conditions that Mead Johnson must meet before any construction permits are issued include:
• Approval of a building height variance for the new buildings by the Zoning Board of Appeals.
• Approval of another variance by ZBA allowing Mead Johnson to build a fence 8 feet high along Main.
• Approval of utility design and system capacity by the city and of stormwater management plans by the Ottawa County Water Resources Commissioner.
• Approval by the City Council of vacating Division Street north of Main.
No date has been set for any zoning board variance hearings. The City Council will hold a public hearing July 6 on vacating Division.
Zeeland Record
Mead Johnson Nutrition’s planned $836 million modernization of its century-old infant formula manufacturing plant on Zeeland’s east side has cleared another hurdle.
With only five commissioners present last Thursday, the Planning Commission voted 5-0 to approve the site plan for the project at 725 E. Main Ave., with a series of conditions attached to the passage. Under city charter, all five commissioners needed to vote yes to approve the site plan.
“From a process standpoint, site plan approval is an important step because it establishes the general development envelope within which Mead Johnson and its project team can continue detailed design,” Assistant City Manager Kevin Plockmeyer wrote in a memo to commissioners. “Given the scale and complexity of the proposed plant improvements, there is substantial design work that must still occur, particularly with respect to utilities, infrastructure, service connections, construction sequencing, and operational needs.”
The city and Mead Johnson will now work on a development agreement that is a condition of the site plan approval. That agreement is expected to address necessary utility improvements, replacement of the playground north of the former Bethel Christian Reformed Church and construction of a pocket park near the corner of Main and Carlton Street, according to the resolution document that was approved by the Planning Commission.
Mead Johnson plans to build a new six-story, 501,477-square-foot building directly west of its current ZSP (Zeeland Specialty Plant) building and a 117,928-square-foot addition on the north end of its ZIPP (Zeeland Integrated Powder Plant) building to the north.
The new building to be built will include manufacturing, packaging, warehousing and supporting utilities, as well offices and laboratory space. The northern addition to the ZIPP plant will be home to a new packaging line, Mead Johnson senior engineering manager Allan Barron said at a Planning Commission meeting last month.
One property owner on Carlton expressed concern about the addition of an employee parking lot entrance off that street, as well as the use of Carlton for all truck traffic in and out of the Mead Johnson facility. Keith Disselkoen owns a fourplex residential rental unit at 30 N. Carlton near the proposed entrance, and says the change in parking will affect traffic near where his tenants live.
“The number of cars, exiting the parking (lot) onto Carlton and moving to Main and waiting at Main to turn to go on the highway, will severely impact our tenants being able to come in and go out of their driveways,” said Disselkoen, who has owned the property with his wife Georgie for the last 43 years.
Disselkoen noted that the city undertook improvements on Carlton, between Main and Washington Avenue, about five years ago that included new asphalt, sidewalks, curbing and stormwater drains. Since then, he says, he’s invested $60,000-$70,000 into upgrading his property.
In its site plan, Mead Johnson had removed all but one of the entrances off of Main, moving the employee parking entrances to Carlton and Fairview Road, in response to nearby residents who last year complained that the project would result in increased traffic on Main.
Disselkoen’s concerns were relayed to Joe Eberle of Progressive Companies, the city’s traffic consultant, who reviewed a traffic study conducted for Mead Johnson by Fleis & VandenBrink. In a memo to Community Development Director Tim Maday, Eberle wrote existing counts show a peak hour of exiting traffic of 122 vehicles, and that not all 350 spaces will have cars entering and leaving Mead Johnson simultaneously.
“The peak hour trips will be significantly smaller than the total 350 parking spaces, likely closer to 125 vehicles, and these trips will be split between intersections, and then further split between left and right turns at each intersection,” Eberle wrote.
The engineers’ models showed an “acceptable” level of service, Maday said.
Disselkoen isn’t buying Eberle’s report.
“He’s not talking about incoming traffic of another 122 cars,” he said. “If there are 122 coming into the parking lot and 122 going out of the parking lot, at shift change, at peak hour, it’ll be a massive congestion.”
Rebecca Perkins, the City Council’s representative on Planning Commission, asked Barron if it was possible to move the Carlton entrance further north “so it avoids the three rental properties,” including Disselkoen’s. Barron said the company is considering such a move.
Mead Johnson undertook considerable design changes over the last year in response to resident concerns over noise, traffic and landscaping. They include increased setbacks for the new manufacturing building to at least 225 feet from the property line along Main and 400 feet from Carlton – well beyond the city’s requirement of a 50-foot setback.
In addition, the plant’s central utility building and cooling towers are being relocated to a more central location on the property in hopes of reducing noise coming from the site. The site plan also calls for more trees and landscape plantings than the city requires.
Approval of the final traffic study by City Manager Tim Klunder is one of the conditions that the site plan approval hinges on. In addition to the development agreement, other conditions that Mead Johnson must meet before any construction permits are issued include:
• Approval of a building height variance for the new buildings by the Zoning Board of Appeals.
• Approval of another variance by ZBA allowing Mead Johnson to build a fence 8 feet high along Main.
• Approval of utility design and system capacity by the city and of stormwater management plans by the Ottawa County Water Resources Commissioner.
• Approval by the City Council of vacating Division Street north of Main.
No date has been set for any zoning board variance hearings. The City Council will hold a public hearing July 6 on vacating Division.
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