Flagstar Bank Rebuilding in Auburn
Article by Dave Kurtz | KPC News | January 15, 2020
AUBURN — Flagstar Bank will rebuild its west Auburn branch office this year, increasing its size by about 50%.
The bank won approval for its project from the Auburn Plan Commission in a meeting Tuesday night at City Hall.
Plans call for construction to start in mid-spring at 812 W. 7th St., with the building to be ready for business by September, said Michael Boggio, architect for the bank.
By rebuilding instead of remodeling, “We start out with a new building rather than a tired, old building with a facade renovation,” Boggio told the Plan Commission. Flagstar bought 52 Wells Fargo bank branches in the Midwest, including Auburn’s two offices, in 2018.
The new office will be 2,276 square feet in size, compared to 1,500-1,600 square feet in the existing building, Boggio said.
“Overall, we think it will be a great improvement to the site, and a great improvement to the State Road 8 corridor,” said Amber Bassett, zoning administrator for the city’s Department of Building, Planning and Development.
The department staff raised two concerns about Flagstar’s proposal, but the Plan Commission allowed the bank to build according to the plan Boggio submitted.
A city staff report suggested reducing the number of entrance-exit drives from two to one. It also suggested the bank might need more than 10 parking spaces, even though that number meets city requirements.
Plan Commission members devoted little discussion to those topics, and only one member voted against allowing two driveways.
“With only 120 feet of frontage on State Road 8, this property would not be permitted two curb cuts today,” the staff report said. “Staff would like to note that the existing driveways do not comply with today’s driveway standards.”
The report added that the existing branch office has 13 parking spaces. It said 16 vehicles were parked there on Saturday morning, Jan. 4.
Boggio said having 16 vehicles in the lot was very unusual, and only four vehicles were parked there Tuesday afternoon.
“There’s other banks in Michigan that have a similar situation, and they don’t have a problem with any of them,” Boggio said about the parking plans.
Having fewer parking spaces leaves more room for landscaping. Boggio added, “We had a landscape architect go above and beyond” in plans for the site.
The bank’s plan calls for a sidewalk where none exists now.
Boggio said he could not answer one commissioner’s question about the future of Flagstar’s other Auburn branch at 200 S. Van Buren St.
Also Tuesday, the commission heard that a proposed new medical office is moving to the south portion of a vacant property along the east side of Smaltz Way. It now will be built directly north of the Hampton Inn. The commission originally approved the office for a site just to the north of the new location.
Vasari Development of Fort Wayne intends to build a medical office for Fort Wayne Orthopedics with 16 treatment rooms. The commission approved an address of 820 Smaltz Way for the building’s 3.1-acre site.
An address of 208 E. 7th St. was designated for the Community Commons building that Mayor Mike Ley wants to build on a vacant lot northeast of the DeKalb County Courthouse. The building would include public restrooms and a covered pavilion.
The new mayor spoke briefly to the commission members, telling them, “We think you’re going to be busy the next few years” with development in Auburn.
Ley suggested that the commission may want to consider expanding its extra-territorial jurisdiction, where the city governs zoning of properties just outside its boundaries.
Even if the extra-territorial jurisdiction is not extended, Ley said, he “absolutely believes” the city can create working relationship with county zoning officials to achieve Auburn’s goals and objectives.
Article source: https://www.kpcnews.com/thestar/article_0047c57e-2f24-59cc-8d26-d7af22a9a840.html