The Mackinaw City Planning Commission ran squarely into a request that would be in conflict with downtown greenspace requirements at its meeting Thursday, November 13, backed off after about an hour's debate, but agreed to tackle it another time.

Appearing before the commission were Dave McFarland of Architect Forum and Craig Bonter of Cedarbrook Village retirement community at 450 South Nicolet Street. For two years, Mr. Bonter, with Mr. McFarland as his architectural adviser, has been combining units in what was a 160-room Ramada Inn into multi-room assisted living quarters for seniors.

Their plans now call for a covered ramp leading from the parking lot to the building's medical facilities and physicians' offices, which would be a safer way for residents and other community members using those offices to enter and exit. The plan violates the village's greenspace stipulation, which says the equivalent of 25% of the building's footprint must be greenspace.

"It's impossible," Mr. Bonter said of fitting his plans into village requirements. "It can't be done."

They note that the building met all greenspace codes when it was built in the 1970s. The new ramp, he said, actually would add to greenspace because grass would be planted under it, but still fall short of new village requirements.

Rob Most, the commission's chairman, said the wording of the ordinance should be reviewed by Village Manager Jeff Lawson, with a view toward seeing what, if anything, could be worked out.

Commissioner Rosada Mann disagreed.

"I like this ordinance the way it is written," she said. But Mr. Most said he would like to at least give Mr. Lawson a chance to review the ordinance wording.

Mr. Bonter said his next step could be requesting a zoning variance.

"That's one of several routes we could follow," he said, "but with this red tape, we incur additional costs and lost time, which has an impact on jobs. So I pay my architect to do this all over again, to resubmit this for the next meeting."

Mr. Bonter said also that village regulations require far more parking spaces than are actually needed. Of 35 residents who could drive, he said, only one does.

"I would love to convert those spaces into a garden for my residents so they could grow tomatoes and carrots and things like that. It's wonderful therapy," he said.

"There's certainly a better use for that asphalt than what's going on right now," Mr. Bonter said.