Phi Mu sorority is getting a new house.

The Mount Pleasant Planning Commission unanimously recommended Thursday a special use permit and site plan review for the construction of a new house at 802 S. Main St., by property owner Olivieri Management.

The house at the property will be demolished, and a new house for Phi Mu sorority will be constructed in its place. Olivieri Management did not say when demolition and construction will begin.

“This is a nice project,” said Commissioner Kim Ellertson. “I think it will be one of the nicest, if not the nicest, in the vicinity of the university.”

The house will have 10 bedrooms and five bathrooms, and will house 10 Phi Mu members.

“I’m really excited about it,” said Milford senior and Phi Mu member Kirsten Storey. “I think it’s something we need to help us with our recruitment and the overall morality of the sorority.”

The Planning Commission’s only recommended change to the site plan was to include some form of south side barriers between May Street and the parking lot behind the house.

The commission granted both a site plan review and a special use permit to Olivieri Management, provided the applicant adheres to the proposed plan.

Other business

The commission also approved the site plan review and special use permit for the extension to the Central Michigan Community Hospital. The addition would allow the hospital to add a 3,200-square-foot Cardiovascular Center to the existing hospital at 1221 S. Drive.

The expansion is expected to take three months from start to finish, and is scheduled to begin Jan. 18, 2010.

By unanimous vote, the Planning Commission extended a site plan review dated Sept. 2008.

The original site plan was approved for Mid Michigan Inns and United Apartments to add a 2-unit addition onto an existing 7-unit rooming and dwelling building located at 812 Pleasant St.

The extension was granted and will expire Sept. 4, 2010.

The commission briefly discussed the “Downtown to Campus Connection” project, designed to increase pedestrian walkability through the city of Mount Pleasant.

Some of the recommended changes were changing Main Street into a two-way street and adding more on-street parking.

E-mail the author: Randi Shaffer