VBT Planners OK Mayser, Country Walk homes, parks plan

At its regular meeting Sept. 28, the Van Buren Township Planning Commission approved the Mayser USA final site plan, the Gilbert Homes plan to build 10 new houses in unfinished Country Walk subdivision, and the Parks and Recreation Master Plan for 2016-2020.
Mayser Polymer is building a 50,346-square-foot manufacturing building and offices and making related site improvements at 6200 Schooner Drive. Mayser now is located in Canton, just down Michigan Avenue from this site, but it wanted more space because business is growing.
This phase will be built on an 8.91-acre portion of the 14.58-acre site which will allow for expansion in the future.
At one point the township wanted Mayser to put a decorative fence around its storm pond, but approved instead dense vegetative buffering in this industrial area. Terracing will be on the south side of the pond. Also, the township is allowing a rectangular-shaped pond, instead of the natural, irregular shape the ordinance calls for.
Mayser Polymer received preliminary site plan approval with conditions at the May 11 planning commission meeting.
Gilbert Homes
The planning commission discussed at length the design of 10 houses Gilbert Homes wants to build in phases three and four of unfinished Country Walk subdivision.
Gilbert is in the process of acquiring these 10 lots from Blue Country Walk, LLC and has submitted plans for the houses it wishes to build.
Country Walk, the largest subdivision in Van Buren Township, was planned in the early 2000s to have 536 units, but fewer than half were built before the bottom dropped out of the economy in 2007.
Commission chairwoman Carol Thompson said the township’s Planned Residential Development (PRD) agreement was made just for the Country Walk project and, she said, “The PRD is not living up to our plans.” She asked township staff to look at changing it and to come up with a faster process for PRDs.
The existing PRD was approved in 2002, amended in 2005, and had expired. A memorandum of understanding was approved in July 2015 between VBT, Country Walk Three Homeowners Association, and Blue Country Walk, LLC. This outlined the responsibilities of the parties with regards to completion of the development and required compliance with the PRD agreement.
Gilbert Homes was asking for revisions to the plan for single-family architectural elevations. At first, Gilbert presented a single home plan for all 10 house, but when it was told they had to be substantially different, it presented three different plans.
Commissioners said they didn’t like bump-outs for the fireplaces, the porch model had too-small a porch, and brick should be over the garage, even though the rest of Country Walk has vinyl there. At the end, the commission approved the elevations, leaving details to staff.
“We’d like you to come back with 10 or 20 more,” Thompson told Bruce Gilbert and Edmund Aronowitz, who were present on the project.
Parks & Recreation Master Plan
The township’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan was last adopted by the board of trustees in 2011 and must be adopted every five years for the township to be eligible for state and federal recreation grants.
The lengthy document was first presented to the planning commission at its Sept. 14 meeting and commissioners wanted more time to review it before taking action to recommend it to the township board for a vote to adopt.
The plan is for the years 2016-2020.
Treasurer Sharry Budd, who sits on the planning commission, pointed out three changes that needed to be made in the document to make it accurate before presenting it to the township board for approval.
The commission voted unanimously to recommend the amended document to the township board.
McKenna Associates planning consultant Patrick Sloan said the document has to be sent to the state by the end of the year – or by February or March.
“We have lots of time,” he said, adding the noted changes will be made.
Zoning Ordinance Update
In the fall of 2014, McKenna started work on a comprehensive revision of the zoning ordinance and since then has held 13 meetings with a planning commission subcommittee to review the proposed changes and make revisions.
The draft version now is ready for the planning commission to review. Sloan asked the commission to set six meetings or parts of meetings to go over the document.
Ron Akers, director of planning and economic development, said one of the planning commission meetings a month could be set aside for this during the winter, since work in his department is a little lighter in winter.
Thompson said they will rely on the staff to set the schedule.
Belleville Lake invasive species
Matthew Best, deputy director of planning and economic development, gave a lengthy report on possible management of the invasive species in Belleville Lake, namely Eurasian Milfoil. He said he had been asked to study the problem.
He said in Michigan, Eurasian Milfoil is spreading, with voracious growth in the spring.
“You run your boat through it and you spread it,” he said. “Fragments of the plant grow into new plants.”
He said Belleville Lake has two boat launches and if you don’t clean your boat you could spread it to the lake, and that includes jet skis and kayaks.
A lake without boat launches could be pristine, he said.
For Belleville Lake there is Eurasian Milfoil miles up the Huron River and it comes downstream.
He went through a list of management methods and the costs, which go up very high and have to keep being redone.
“What can VBT do?” he asked.
He answered himself, saying there is moving water in the lake and the milfoil is difficult to eradicate.
“The township has no jurisdiction,” he said. “Nothing says the township has to do weed management. There is no funding in the current structure.”
He said the MDEQ has to approve treatments and the herbicide treatment is not popular with them.
He said property owners around the lake could set up a special assessment district of $1,000 per year times 300 residents for five years.
There are no grants available and no magic solution.
“Once you have it you can never get rid of it,” Best said.
Some lakes hire people who are Environmental Sentries to inspect each boat, but Best does not recommend that.
“Can VBT succeed in ridding the lake of Eurasian Milfoil? No,” he said.
“Whether homeowners have the will and if we can get it approved is the question.”