VBT Planners review 14′ wall at JPMorgan/Chase

It was primarily the disaster of 911 that determined that the amount of banking data stored at all four JPMorgan/Chase locations in the country required increased security. It’s required by the FDIC.
One of those facilities is at the northwest corner of Haggerty and Tyler roads in Van Buren Township.
At its regular meeting Jan. 23, the VBT Planning Commission reviewed and commented on a proposed six-foot variance needed for a 14-foot wall to protect the site at 9000 Haggerty Rd.
These comments will be forwarded to the VBT Board of Zoning Appeals which will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 to consider the wall-height variance.
This site security for blast protection is part of a high-security hardening of the 53-acre site called Project Sycamore.
At the planning commission meeting, Julian Beglin, project manager, explained Project Sycamore. His company, H.F. Lenz, was hired by JPMorgan/Chase for the project, he said.
The property was formerly owned and operated by Bank One (NBD) as an office and bank processing facility with lots of paper, he explained. Since 1997, JPMC has owned and operated the facility, primarily as an office and data center, with a third-party tax-processing tenant leasing space in the building.
Beglin said JPMC added a building for data processing and computers got smaller. They were into data processing, rather than paper.
In 2018, H.F. Lentz was hired to prepare design documents to provide additional site security measures in compliance with other JPMC operated facilities throughout the United States.
As part of this effort, and to harden the site against potential external threats, the design includes a 24-foot-tall Visitor & Vehicle Receiving Center which provides a single point of entry into the site for all employees, visitors and vehicles.
In addition to the receiving center, site security includes perimeter fencing that consists of an 8′ high, anti-climb, K-rated barrier fence for the entire site perimeter and 8′ high precast concrete block wall along the western and northern boundaries.
Additionally, along the entrance driveway to the receiving center, a 14′ high, decorative precast concrete block wall is proposed to provide a protective “screen” from the main building of any potential threat that enters the site. This wall and 3′ horizontal to 1′ vertical earth berm currently exceeds the permitted wall height by six feet.
Beglin said each precast, reinforced block of the wall weighs 1,000 pounds and they are held in place by gravity. There is an underdrain along the sides of the wall.
He said everything is protected by cameras and motion detectors.
In other business at the 90-minute meeting on Jan. 23, the commission:
• Approved temporary land use, Jan. 24-May 15, for Jeffery Langford of The Real McCoy Southern BBQ, to operate an outdoor carryout restaurant in the parking lot of the party store, 39431 E. Huron River Dr., at the southwest corner of Hannan Road;
• Approved the final site plan for a 43,260 square foot dry depot expansion to the west end of the building at Costco’s facility at 5860 Belleville Rd. This includes 40,560 square feet of cross-dock and 2,700 square feet of office space. Wayne County has already permitted for the whole expansion;
• Approved preliminary site plan for U.S. Signal’s first phase, a 25,000-square-foot data processing building at 9275 Haggerty Rd. at the northeast corner of Tyler and Haggerty roads. Wayne County had them move their building back 15 feet so its water would be out of the buffer. U.S. Signal will have to dig under Haggerty Road to connect to a sanitary sewer main without cutting traffic flow;
• Reviewed proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance on fences, walls, and other protective barriers. A public hearing will be held Feb. 13 on the changes. McKenna Planners said there was a lot of fence discussion on Subaru’s protective fence, as well as JPMorgan/Chase and U.S. Signal’s requirements. This reportedly streamlines the language;
• Heard Ron Akers, director of planning and economic development, report that the February meetings will not be cablecast because of updates going on in the board room. The meetings in February will be held in the Otisville-Sheldon Room where cablecasting is not available.