Alpena Planning Commission Hears Re-Zoning Cases

The Alpena City Planning Commission held a meeting on Tuesday night at City Hall, and the items on the brief agenda included two public hearings for conditional re–zoning.

They are also working on a sign ordinance in their commission that they want to send for approval to city council.

One of those public hearings included the hearing regarding the upstairs level of Nowicki’s Sausage being turned into a central hub for events.

“It’s got 30 foot ceilings; it’s a beautiful ballroom, I can’t wait for everybody to come there and see it,” said Nowicki’s Sausage owner Brian Peterson.

The Commission deliberated some concerns regarding the re–zoning, including potential noise issues and parking difficulties. They eventually agreed to approve it unanimously.

“Parking is parking,” said Peterson. “We’ll find a way to overcome that and the noise; I don’t think we’re going to have an issue with noise. It’s a pretty big building, absorbs a lot of sound, it’s on the second story, the rare times I think we’re going to have an issue with that, the neighborhood’s pretty welcoming and so are we.”

Nowicki’s Sausage has been in Alpena for over 100 years and has the support from the community to make these renovations.

“I think there’s a lot of people in our community that will really be happy with the old German hall being rejuvenated and being put back into use again for functions,” said Alpena City Planning Commission Chairman Randy Boboltz.

Maintaining and rejuvenating a local business that has been in Alpena for so long was one of the requests from the community.

“It’s going to be a pretty cool – I’ve seen pictures of the inside of the upstairs when he set it up for his wedding, and – really cool,” said Boboltz.

The next step is to finish up the final repairs of the upstairs floor.