VBT Board OKs Ashley Capital’s industrial district on 6-1 vote

On a 6-1 vote, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees approved Ashley Capital’s request for an Industrial Development District for its huge new development north of Ecorse and west of Haggerty.
This was following a public hearing at its July 7 virtual Zoom meeting. No member of the public spoke. Treasurer Sharry Budd cast the only no vote.
Two buildings in the new development, Crossroads Distribution Center North, are now under construction.
In an April 28 letter to the township, Ashley Capital senior vice president Susan Harvey said they are working at pre-leasing the property and some of the prospective tenants they are talking to may qualify for a tax abatement.
“Additionally, we have an appreciation for the types of tenants the township is hoping to attract to the community, and we believe our ability to sign up first-rate tenants will improve if the Industrial Development District is granted,” Harvey wrote.
“Unlike many developers, Ashley Capital’s investment strategy contemplates maintaining ownership and management of its properties for a long time. Therefore, just as Van Buren Township is concerned about the quality of the tenants we bring to the community, we are equally concerned about issues such as job creation and longevity of our tenants,” she wrote.
Harvey said if the proposed tenants have the option of applying for a tax abatement, Ashley Capital is confident they will be more successful in attracting them.
Trustee Reggie Miller said Ashley Capital has 293.81 acres and is only developing 114 acres and it wants the development district over all the land.
Harvey said the intent is to have a large industrial area, but they don’t want to build more than they can fill right now.
“The township can always say no,” Harvey said. “Maybe we’ll get a build-to-suit, but that’s not on our radar right now. We are not developing the northern part currently.”
Trustee Miller said she was apprehensive of approving all of the property at this time. She said Haggerty Road is terrible.
Harvey said they have been talking with the township and county about improving Haggerty Road.
She said these are very flexible buildings and they could have one big tenant or as many as eight separate tenants. It’s a speculative development and they started construction without tenants in place.
Harvey said they are working on buildings #4 and #5, and #6 already has site plan approval. She said their buildings #1, #2, and #3 are south of Ecorse.
“Our grand plan is to go north on the site,” Harvey said.
Treasurer Budd said she has a problem with approving the industrial district for all the property, but she has no problems with #4, #5, and #6.
“It’s a plus for us and they can proceed when the economy starts growing,” said Trustee Sherry Frazier.
Harvey said the property is already zoned Industrial and she doesn’t see any down side to having all the property in the district now.
“We’re just getting ahead of it,” Harvey said, adding if they had to delay one to two months to set up another district, they might lose the project.
Supervisor Kevin McNamara asked Assessment Coordinator Linda Stevenson if there was a downside to the request.
“The only downside would be if the person comes in and the township doesn’t want to give the abatement – and it would have to give a good reason,” Stevenson said. “They could appeal to the State of Michigan and the state would grant the abatement.”
She said there are 31 parcels and it could have been combined into one big parcel and maybe that was delayed by the COVID-19.
“Is it too late to combine the parcels now?” asked Trustee Kevin Martin.
Stevenson said it wasn’t too late and they would be required to combine them before they plan the next buildings.
“That is our intention,” Harvey said.
Trustee Paul White asked how many parcels along Haggerty and Ecorse are now occupied and Harvey said they knew but she didn’t have that information in front of her right then to answer.
Trustee White said he wanted to make sure the residents next to the development are taken care of, because they would only be able to sell their properties to one person – Ashley Capital.
Trustee Miller said those parcels are still zoned residential and she asked if there would be buffers set up.
“We worked with the township a lot and the buffers are more than adequate … We bought several homes … We want to be good neighbors,” Harvey said.
“It’s not a win-win right now,” Budd said. “It would not take that long to create a district … I would recommend just the 114 acres … not every property they own … There are still people living in [some of the adjoining properties] … I still have a problem bringing the whole thing to a district.”
“I don’t see the downfall to doing the whole thing,” said Frazier. “It could attract another business… We should just move forward and do the whole thing … Maybe attract someone right away.”
Clerk Leon Wright asked why they wanted to do it all at one time.
“It’s already zoned Industrial,” Harvey said. “The advantage is when a company is looking to develop and bring a lot of jobs – high-paying jobs – and some company is doing a national search … This would make it on their list.”
“I don’t see an issue,” Clerk Wright said.
“If we don’t establish the district, would it stop a business from coming?” Martin asked.
Harvey said that was possible.
Supervisor McNamara asked if having the district would stop the township from having a Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA) district on that property and Stevenson said she didn’t know.
“Haggerty Road needs a little bit of love,” McNamara agreed. He explained the LDFA would capture five mills from the school tax and that could be moved over.
The board then voted 6-1 to approve Industrial Development District #25 for the whole property.
In other business at the one-hour-and-33-minute meeting on July 7 the board:
• Unanimously passed the first reading of ordinance 07-07-20 (1) to add clarifications to distinguish commercial and residential/non-commercial land uses in the C, Local Business, zoning district with respect to maximum building size and to clarify restrictions on dwellings in a non-residential zoning district. These changes were necessary to move forward the assisted living project planned for the southeast corner of Morton Taylor and Tyler roads on property owned by Walt and Joyce Rochowiak;
• Unanimously approved a special land use request by Camping World to demolish 15,633 square feet on the east wing of their existing building, retain 28,239 square feet of the existing building, and create new RV parking and storage area at the site at 43646 N. I-94 Service Dr. Budd said this will make it a much more attractive area to people traveling on the roads. Frazier suggested Camping World look into rentals, which they do not offer now. She said she’d like to try one out before purchase;
• Unanimously approved a policy resolution to relax certain administrative review rules on temporary land uses for outdoor food, beverage service and retail in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Supervisor McNamara said the township basically is trying to help its businesses and Belleville has a similar policy. Trustee Miller said the Michigan Township Association recommended this and, “We have to do, as a township, everything we can to help our businesses.” Power said the policy expires Oct. 31 and it is not an override of the text amendment process and is just to get businesses up and running. The policy waives the planning commission review and the fee;
• Unanimously approved a lot split combination of Lots 67 and 68 of Edgewater Heights Subdivision at 13295 Ormond Drive by Amy and Aziz Wagner Kotb; and
• Heard Supervisor McNamara announce that the budget process is beginning and next week they will go to the departments to discuss the new budget. “It’s your budget,” he said to the board. “You can do whatever you want.” He said he will call in board members one by one to meet with him on the budget.