Developers are proposing a 17-building apartment complex on a 14-acre swath of land just east of the Morgan Farms development along M-72. The property, which sits in Leelanau County but falls within the City of Traverse City’s boundaries, has a significant zoning hurdle to overcome before development can begin: It’s currently zoned single-family.

To accommodate the plans for the 102-unit multi-family complex, the developers – Harbor Springs-based North American Development Group (NADG) – is proposing a unique zoning option. Known as conditional, or contract, zoning, it effectively would re-zone the property for multi-family use for this particular development only.

“If it’s not built, the zoning wouldn’t change. The property would remain single family. The contract applies only for this project,” explains Kevin Endres, founder and co-owner of TC’s Three West commercial real estate, which represented the bank selling the property.

Though conditional zoning is a new practice for city planners around the state, Endres says it’s hardly a radical concept. “People keep saying it can’t be done, that’s it not been done up here before. Well, it can – I know because I did two,” says Endres. Though neither of the two Suttons Bay subdivisions that Endres designed – Thorntree Commons and Northwoods – came to fruition, both were approved for conditional rezoning.

Doug Mansfield, president of TC’s Mansfield & Associates, the civil engineering and land use-planning firm working with NADG, says he feels fairly confident, after presenting the project to the city commission, that the project meets the commission’s goals and criteria.

A unique hallmark of the development’s design is that each building would share a common hallway and entrance, giving tenants an opportunity to “meet and greet,” which is unlike most apartment buildings on the market today, says Mansfield. Each apartment would also have a single car garage attached to its building.

Although the development’s loan is backed by HUD, Mansfield says the development wouldn’t fall into the affordable housing category. “No kind of government subsidy is involved. It’s a full market-rate development,” he says. Each building would stand three stories and contain six units.

He adds, “It’s a complicated piece of property. It’s got tough slopes and wetlands to work around.”

The Traverse City planning commission will meet to discuss conditional zoning for the property on December 8. If conditional zoning is approved for the development, Mansfield says construction – a single phase – would start next spring or as soon as the winter weather breaks. He estimated a timeline of two months for the first building to go up, and a building to follow every two weeks afterward. He adds that a construction firm has been selected but would not reveal its name.