After four hours of discussion and public comment during a public hearing Monday night, the Alma Planning Commission voted 5-2 to table a request from the Michigan Masonic Home and Bethany Christian Services to rezone the closed Warwick Living Center allowing it to be converted into temporary housing for young male refugees.
Board members Greg Mapes and Michelle Pitts cast the dissenting votes. Both are also members of the city commission, with Mapes serving as mayor.
The issue has created quite a controversy in the community with about 400 people packing the Alma High School auditorium for the meeting.
Just as the hearing was to begin with Clerk Aeric Ripley starting to take roll call, several in the audience started shouting that the meeting should start with the Pledge of Allegiance. When Chairman Don Ayers said that could be done after the roll was taken more than half those in attendance stood and recited the pledge on their own.
City attorney Tony Constanzo laid out the rules of the public hearing. Each speaker would be given five minutes to state their case.
He also reminded them the planning commission would be deciding whether or not to recommend the city commision approve the rezoning request based on what is justifiable and allowed by city policies and its master plan.
“This is democracy in action and we should all be proud and want it to work the way it should,” Costanzo told the audience. “This is not Facebook, We’re asking for decorum and respect for everyone.”
He also noted that “the police are here just in case.”
Public Safety Director Mark Williams and a couple of officers were on hand throughout the meeting.
The commission initially heard a 10 minutes presentation from the Masonic Home, owner of the Warwick Living Center, and Grand Rapids-based Bethany Christian Services, which would lease and operate the facility if rezoning is permitted.
Masonic Home CEO Mike Logan said the proposed refugee center would provide a positive economic impact for the community by creating 50 or more jobs and making use of a vacant building.
BCS would lease the former nursing home for three years at a cost of $385,440 annually.
That’s nearly what the Masonic Home is paying for the center it purchased in 2014, CFO Todd Moeggenborg said.
BCS Executive Branch Director Krista Stevens told commissioners the agency operates in more than 30 states and “impacts hundreds of thousands of lives every year.”
“We keep unaccompanied children safe,” she said. “For many of them this is truly a life and death situation.”
The proposed center would house male refugees ages 12-17 from the southern U.S. border for up to 45 days or until a family member or sponsor in this country can be located.
They would not attend local schools and have little or no interaction with the community while at the facility.
Stevens also noted the center would be fully funded by the U.S. government” and would “cost the state of Michigan nothing.”
Planning commissioners had several questions for Masonic and BCS officials including security issues, the vetting process for those being brought to the center and whether or not the Masonic Home had any other offers for using the facility for a different purpose.
The center is required to have security cameras and door alarms but “it’s not a jail” because these will be “low risk children,” Stevens said.
Vetting is done by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and screened before being transferred to the custody of the U.S. Department of Human Services, the agency responsible for relocating the unaccompanied children with certified providers, she added.
Moeggenborg said Masonic did have discussions with another party about turning the facility into a children’s mental health center but after initial talks didn’t go anywhere they decided to go with the firm offer made by BCS.
The hearing’s public comment section went on for nearly three hours with 40 people speaking, 25 in opposition to the rezoning request and 15 others supporting the move.
Some came from out the area to speak including a community activist from Lansing and another from Grand Rapids, 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley from Allendale, and Christy Hutchinson, president of Women Fighting for America, who has extensive experience dealing with refugees, and border patrol and ICE officers at the southern border.
All voiced opposition to the rezoning request.
Several speakers also noted that Mapes should disqualify himself from the decision-making process after he mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that he had been a member of the FreeMasons for 40 years.
In addition to local residents, others who commented came from Mt. Pleasant, Shepherd, Coleman, St. Louis and other nearby communities.
Some were concerned about safety and over taxing local law enforcement services, among other issues.
There were also those who called the deal between the two nonprofits simply a “money grubbing” move by the Masonic Home and the facility should be used to house local homeless children or veterans and not “illegal immigrants.”
Under U.S. immigration law the young unaccompanied refugees coming into the country are granted “legal presence” and have access to “due process” upon arrival in the country and are not here illegally, according to BCS officials.
Some who supported the rezoning efforts accused protesters of acting in “fear” and were “afraid of the unknown.”
They noted that migrant farm workers come to Michigan every year and provide a valuable service. They also know that if they break the law they will be sent back to their home countries where they labor for as little as $5 a day.
A couple told how they themselves or relatives had come to the U.S. as immigrants and were able to make a good living and contribute to the community in a number of ways.
Former Alma Mayor Nancy Gallagher also spoke in favor of the rezoning citing the Masonic Home as a valuable member of the community for many years.
She also told planning commissioners that all of the flammable rhetoric “has very little to do with the issue before you.”
Former city attorney Chuck Fortino agreed saying that “a legal entity can’t be denied an opportunity to operate as long as they comply with your requests.”
The planning commission “can impose any conditions it sees fit to address concerns,” he added.
But after listening to all of the dialog from both sides of the issue commissioners felt they needed more time to make an informed decision on the rezoning request.
The next meeting is set for 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 2, however, that could change in the meantime if members wish to schedule a special meeting sooner.
The next session will not include a public hearing but additional comments from citizens will be taken.
At that point the board must either decide to recommend approval of the rezoning request to the city commission, recommend approval with changes or recommend denial.
