Knight’s Market Expansion Gets Final OK

A plan to expand Knight’s Market, at the northeast corner of Spring and Miller, has received its final authorization from the city. The Ann Arbor city council approved the site plan and gave final approval to the rezoning necessary for the plan at its Sept. 4, 2012 meeting.

The market’s owner, Ray Knight, also owns two separate, adjacent parcels. (Knight is perhaps best known for his family’s restaurant, Knight’s Steakhouse, located at 2324 Dexter Ave.) The grocery store has been on land zoned C1 (local business) and M1 (light industrial). Another parcel at 306-308 Spring St. was zoned R2A (two-family dwelling) and M1, and contains two single-family homes and part of a parking lot. The third parcel at 310 Spring St. was zoned R2A and MI, and contains the other half of the store’s parking lot. All three parcels have been non-conforming in some way, according to a staff report, and are located in the 100-year Allen Creek floodplain.

The Knight’s expansion includes several components. What the council approved was a rezoning of 306, 308 and 310 Spring to C1. That rezoning will allow the building at 306 Spring to be converted into a bakery, although the intent is to leave the exterior of the house intact. The rezoning will also allow for approval of a site plan to build a 1,200-square-foot addition to the existing grocery store and to expand, reconfigure, and improve the existing parking lot. In addition, the the council approved rezoning to C1 of 418 Miller Ave. – the site of the existing grocery.

The changes to the parking lot include providing three additional spaces (for a total of 17 parking spaces), a designated snow pile storage area, solid waste and recycling container storage enclosure, right-of-way screening, conflicting land use buffer, and rain gardens for storm water management. An unused curbcut on Miller Avenue would be removed and the curb and lawn extension would be restored there. A temporary storage building at 418 Miller would be removed. The house at 310 Spring will remain a single-family dwelling.

Because the request involved a rezoning – a change to the city’s set of ordinances – the council had given the rezoning an initial vote of approval at its Aug. 9, 2012 meeting. The council’s final vote followed a formal public hearing held on Sept. 4.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]