VBT Planners adjourn senior apartments to Sept. 9 meeting

A public hearing on proposed plans for Clover Communities senior housing facility was held via Zoom at the Aug. 26 meeting of the Van Buren Township Planning Commission and then adjourned to its Sept. 9 meeting.
No member of the public spoke at the hearing.
The applicant, Clover Communities of Van Buren LLC, is requesting special land use approval for construction of a proposed senior housing facility with 125 independent senior housing units at 8470 Belleville Road.
The property is located on the west side of Belleville Road between Tyler and Ecorse roads and is zoned C-2, Extensive Highway Business. It also is in the Belleville Road Overlay District.
The parcel is about 17.7 acres, which includes the 15.8 acre development site and a 1.9 acre out-parcel along Belleville Road.
Clover had presented a plan with siding instead of the majority of brick/stone as required by ordinance and went to the VBT Board of Zoning Appeals, which rejected that request. The BZA did, however, approve Clover’s appeal to be allowed to have more garages than allowed in the ordinance.
Dan Power, director of planning and economic development, recommended the Aug. 26 public hearing should be opened, but should not be closed so it could be reopened at a future date. At that time the commission may reopen the public hearing and act on the special land use and preliminary site plan requests.
“I’ll see you in two weeks with updated plans,” said Beth Ernat of Clover Communities.
She said she has had three calls from residents looking to rent apartments and she said she told them it will be two years “before we are built.”
In other business at the 33-minute, Zoom meeting, the commission:
• Approved an amendment to the Country Walk site plan to add revised single-family architectural elevations. Brad Gilbert of Gilbert Homes said they have built 12 homes in Country Walk and have 16 more lots for upcoming construction. Power recommended conditional approval with the planning staff reviewing each home site. At issue is if a home is substantially different in architecture than the homes on either side and across the street. Country Walk is located on the east side of Martinsville Road, north of Savage;
• Approved, with conditions, an amendment to the approved Arlene Arbors site plan for revised single-family architectural elevations, also requested by Gilbert Homes. The unfinished Arlene Arbors is located south of Savage Road between Five Points and Martinsville. Power said Gilbert had presented an approval letter from the homeowner association in 2018 and Power wants to make sure that is still active. There will be administrative oversight of these eight sites, as well; and
• Learned the Charter Township of Superior has sent a letter of intent to update its master plan and VBT is invited to comment.