A housing development with a mix of 18 townhomes and an 18-unit condo building is being proposed for the former Traverse Bay United Methodist Church site on Ramsdell Street off of Bay Street.

Traverse City planning commissioners will discuss the project at their 6pm meeting Tuesday at the Governmental Center. Will Bartlett and Tom O’Hare of Keel Capital are seeking city approval to reduce the minimum lot size for a planned unit development (PUD) – a zoning plan tailored to a specific property – to redevelop the site. The city’s zoning ordinance requires a minimum lot size of three acres for a PUD, but the property at 1200 Ramsdell Street is 2.31 acres. City commissioners, however, can authorize PUD applications for properties under three acres, which they recently did in 2024 for the 1.16-acre Mill District development on Woodmere Avenue.

Planning commissioners will review Keel Capital’s application and make a recommendation to city commissioners on allowing it to move forward. In its application, the company said it’s working with Cornwell Architects and Gosling Czubak on a “a thoughtful reinvestment that transforms a vacant institutional property into a high-quality residential community.” The church has been vacant since Traverse Bay merged with Central United Methodist Church, with the July merger announcement citing a lack of “operating revenue necessary” for Traverse Bay to operate on its own. If the Ramsdell Street property sells within a year of the merger, proceeds will be split between the newly merged Central United Methodist Church on Cass Street and a variety of mission services, according to the announcement.

Keel Capital is proposing “a mix of 18 townhomes and an 18-unit condominium building,” for the site, the application states. The layout utilizes the “natural grade change as Ramsdell Street slopes up as one travels west on Ramsdell from the Bay Street intersection. The plan concentrates the four-story (three residential floors above one level of enclosed parking) condominium building along Bay Street – where grade is lowest – and steps down to three-story townhomes along Ramsdell to maintain scale compatibility.”

The condo building is “being designed with architectural features to reduce the visual impact of height and create a more comfortable human scale along Bay Street,” according to the application. The approach “ensures the building does not overwhelm passersby and maintains a visual rhythm consistent with the surrounding neighborhood fabric, particularly as one’s eye moves from the five-story Bayview Professional Centre to the more traditional neighborhood south of Ramsdell Street.”

Nine townhomes along Ramsdell Street will have tuck-under garages, while interior townhomes on the north end of the property will have detached garages. “All parking for the condominium units and townhomes is either enclosed, set back from the street, or set behind residential buildings,” the application states. The developers said they’ve “worked carefully to design a project that fits within the area’s fabric while re-energizing the block.”

Keel Capital also addressed issues like infrastructure and tree preservation. The housing project will turn a “a non-taxable church parcel into one of the stronger contributors to this neighborhood’s tax base with minimal new public infrastructure required,” the application states. “All improvements – water, sewer, stormwater, sidewalks, lighting, landscaping – will be privately funded and maintained.” New sidewalks are planned for Ramsdell, along with “enhanced stormwater management, high-efficiency building systems, and EV-ready parking.”

While some removal of mature trees is required, the developers said they “don’t take that lightly.” Keel Capital said it would plant at least two new trees for every tree removed, coordinate replacements with the city’s forestry staff using native species, expand the overall canopy coverage with streetscape and interior landscaping, and remove “the approximately one-acre sea of asphalt parking.” The developers said their goal is that “this site ultimately has better stormwater management and more living, healthy trees than it does today – just distributed in a more sustainable way.”

City Planning Director Shawn Winter notes that if the planning and city commissions allow a reduction in the minimum lot size, the PUD application must still go through a separate future approval process. A PUD allows the city to negotiate with developers on conditions to “help influence a design that is consistent with the master plan and where possible provides a public benefit,” Winter wrote to planning commissioners. “When used correctly, PUDs can be a win-win for both parties…conditions cannot just be a personal wish list but rather need to demonstrate a nexus between the need and requirement, are intended to achieve a legitimate government purpose for public benefit, and be narrowly tailored to achieve that outcome.”

Keel Capital has been involved in several other housing projects in Traverse City, receiving Garfield Township approval earlier this year to construct three buildings with 149 rental apartments on US-31 just north of McRae Hill Road. The firm also made a bid to buy and redevelop the TCAPS administration building on Webster Street, but that property was ultimately sold to developers Ken Richmond and Eric Gerstner instead.