The East Bay Township Planning Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a new 16-unit vacation rental property on U.S. 31 next to Bayside Market – a sister project to hotel owner Bryan Punturo’s ParkShore Resort. The Planning Commission also unanimously approved plans by LifePoint Bible Church to significantly expand its property near the intersection of Three Mile and Garfield Road.

ParkShore Holiday Apartments
Bryan Punturo of ParkShore Resort received the green light this week to build a new 16-unit townhouse-style vacation rental property at 1518 US-31 North. The project calls for three new buildings at the back of the 1.6-acre site (image, rendering), which shares a driveway with Bayside Market and includes two parcels with an existing storage building on the site. Punturo said the short-term rentals would be seasonal, not year-round, with guests receiving lounge and beach privileges at his ParkShore Resort across the street.

Claire Karner, the township’s planning and zoning director, said the vacation complex will have a connection to the TART Trail — which also provides access to the Red Mesa Grill — as well as vehicular cross-connections to the Red Mesa Grill and the former Calypso Grill next door. A pedestrian path will connect the public walkway to the north with the TART Trail to the south. There are 33 parking spaces on the site, 21 of which are for the vacation rentals and 12 shared by agreement with Bayside Market. Significant tree removal is planned in the southern portion of the site. About 0.75 acres are heavily wooded, which will require the removal of “a number of mature trees … to make way for the new development,” according to a memo from Karner.

Reflecting trends in the short-term rental industry, Punturo said bookings would be largely contactless. Guests would book online and receive codes on their phones to check in and out of units. Planning Commissioner Renee Edly asked how guests would get to ParkShore Resort, noting the dangers of crossing U.S. 31 on foot. Punturo said some guests may come across by car, and that he may also try to encourage guests to either walk to Four Mile Road and use the crossing there or take the pedestrian bridge at Traverse City State Park. However, Punturo acknowledged that “people are going to do what they’re going to do.”

Based on questions from the Planning Commission, the township’s legal counsel said East Bay Township can legally exempt short-term rentals in its Regional Business District — the main commercial corridor of U.S. 31 — from the township’s normal short-term rental licensing requirements. East Bay Township has a cap on short-term rentals and no licenses are currently available. The township’s exemption for short-term rentals in the Regional Business District — which is home to many hotels that are normally considered comparable uses to vacation rentals — is “supported by Michigan law,” said Jacob Witte of Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes.

While that doesn’t apply to this project, Planning Commission Chairman Dan Leonard said he hopes township rules could encourage a more consistent design aesthetic along the U.S. 31 corridor, also called the East Bay Beach District, in the future. The township is currently going through a new visioning and branding process for the district; Leonard said as part of that, it would be ideal to have a more “congruent” design standard along U.S. 31. Karner noted that the township’s new draft zoning ordinance includes some recommended standards for things like windows, parking and more, adding that township officials can further tweak that to reflect a desired vision for the East Bay Beach District.

LifePoint Bible Church
LifePoint Bible Church – 1249 South Three Mile Road, near the intersection of Three Mile and Garfield Road – received approval from the congregation on Wednesday to expand its property by approximately 21,000 square feet.

According to Karner, the church was originally built in the 1960s as a summer church called Forest Lakes Bible Church. It eventually became open year-round and reopened as LifePoint Bible Church in 2011. The building was never granted a special land use permit (SLUP), as would normally be required for a church on agricultural land, so this week’s SLUP approval will put the church in East Bay’s zoning plans rather than continuing to operate an illegal use, Karner said.

According to the SLUP application, the larger church space planned as part of the building addition will “allow the entire congregation to attend worship together and also provide more space for children’s programs.” The church currently has two Sunday morning services with about 130 people each, but the addition will accommodate up to 460 people at one service.