VBT Planners approve site plan for Trilogy, set public hearing on hotel

In an unusually fast approval of a project, the Van Buren Township Planning Commission held a public hearing, granted preliminary site plan approval, and recommended to the township board special land-use approval for the project – all at the same meeting.
This was at the Sept. 9 planning meeting, where the agenda was expanded from simply the announced public hearing for Trilogy Residences to include preliminary site plan approval, and a recommendation on special land use, plus a resolution to extend the marijuana moratorium for another six months, and a notice that Town Place Suites hotel was having another rezoning hearing.
The brief meeting suddenly expanded.
Usually, the planners have a public hearing at one meeting and then wait until the next meeting to vote on the proposal to give members of the public time to add their comments.
This time, under the hand of the township’s new Director of Building and Planning Ron Akers, the process sped up.
Trilogy (Bellridge Apartments) was seeking approval to demolish its tennis courts at 41500 Bellridge Boulevard, west of Independence Lane and north of the I-94 North Service Drive. It wants to construct a clubhouse and swimming pool there, to be used by residents in the existing apartment houses.
Engineer Tim Ponton said Triology wants to upgrade the amenities for the residents to construct a clubhouse, a pool and patio, along with a 1,400-square-foot gym, movie room, offices, coffee area, community room, hot tub, and three barbecues with overhead canopies, as a place people can get together.
He said there are 251 apartment units on 17.73 acres. They want to get into the ground with their construction as soon as they get approval, hopefully before winter, after demolition of the tennis courts. Triology plans the grand opening for late spring or early summer 2016.
After a public hearing with no comment from the public and a brief discussion, the commission voted unanimously to recommend to the township board special land use approval to demolish the tennis courts and build a swimming pool and clubhouse.
Then it unanimously passed a resolution to grant preliminary site plan approval, making sure to keep the parking at the present 465 spaces and converting two of those into handicapped spaces.
Hotel Rezoning
In another matter, Akers said that the last rezoning public hearing for Town Place Suites didn’t cover all the property needed to be rezoned for the project at the corner of Quirk and I-94 North Service Drive.
So, he advertised a new public hearing for Sept. 23 in the Sunday Ann Arbor News, so the legal notice would be published enough days ahead to meet state requirements.
He also said the hotel has revised its conditional rezoning agreement and will present it to the commission.
Medical Marijuana Moratorium
Akers also wrote a memo to the commission asking it to extend the present moratorium on review of applications for Medical Marijuana Establishments for an additional six months.
The present moratorium ran from April 7 to Oct. 7 and a committee met three times this summer to study the issue and visit growing operations and dispensaries in the City of Ypsilanti.
“Due to turnover in the department and the busy summer months, there has been limited time available to dedicate to this issue,” Akers wrote. “As a result of this and the complexities of the issue, the committee has not yet provided a recommendation to the planning commission…”
The commission voted unanimously to recommend the township board extend the moratorium.