Planning commission chair resigns
Don Ayers steps down amid recent rezoning approval to house refugees from south border
Alma Planning Commission Chairman Don Ayers has resigned.
The move came immediately after city commissioners voted 4-2 to reject his board’s recommendation to deny a conditional rezoning request to allow a former Alma nursing home to be converted into a facility to house young male refugees.
Ayers, who was a city commissioner from 2004 to 2018, had been a member of the planning commission for 15 years, the past two as chairman.
He also resigned his position on the city’s zoning board of appeals, which he had served on for about five years.
The refugee center issue has created a firestorm of controversy among community members since it was first proposed about three months ago.
It has also led to a group of citizens filing recall petitions against three city commissioners.
“I actually had my mind made up (to resign) a couple of months ago,” Ayers said. “I was fed up with the dirty names
I was being called.”
He became even more upset following Tuesday’s city commission meeting regarding comments made by Commissioner Roger Allman, who made the motion to approve the rezoning request.
“He threw (the planning commission) under the bus,” Ayers said. “He didn’t defend us.”
The vote by city commissioners paves the way for the Michigan
Masonic Home, owner of the former Warwick Living Center, to lease the building to Grand Rapids-based Bethany Christian Services, which will operate it as a temporary home for unaccompanied male refugees ages 12-17 from the southern U.S. border for up to 45 days.
“I knew the outcome even before the (planning commission’s) July 12th public hearing,” Ayers said. “I knew it would be a 4-2 vote, or 5-2 if they had let Greg
Mapes vote.”
Mapes, the city’s mayor, recused himself from voting on the advice of the city attorney due to his 40-year affiliation with the Freemasons.
Despite what some city commissioners had claimed, Ayers said, “I didn’t have my mind made up before the August 4th planning commission meeting” when members voted 4-2 to recommend
denial of the rezoning request.
“I listened to both sides,” he said. “I made no public comments. I didn’t have my mind made up before the August 4th meeting (when he voted to deny the proposal).”
Ayers, 67, who’s retired and lived in Alma since 1975, noted that he will miss serving on the planning commission.
“I enjoyed it but it’s no longer fun,” he said. “There have been too many personal attacks. I don’t need that headache anymore.”