VBT to clear trees from former Ford property

The Van Buren Township Board of Trustees on Aug. 1 voted unanimously to spend $59,800 to clear some trees from its property at the northwest corner of Belleville and Tyler roads. This is the site formerly owned by Ford Land.
Treasurer Sharry Budd was absent and excused from the meeting. Her youngest grandson was showing animals at the Wayne County 4-H Fair that evening.
At the regular meeting of the board on Aug. 1, Supervisor Kevin McNamara said, “We normally don’t take trees out. There are 50 acres set aside to sell and it could be up to $100,000 more on this contract.”
He said the clearing will work to improve positive drainage on this site.
There will be additional costs for soil erosion control measures, land balancing, and restoration once plans have been prepared, according to Ron Akers, municipal services director.
Supervisor McNamara said land was worth $275,000 an acre at the Speedway site across Belleville Road.
Low bidder of eight was Kilansi Excavating and Land Clearing, LLC of Van Buren Township. On his proposal, partner Walt Kilanski said the alternate work of pulling, splitting and grinding of stumps and removal of grindings would be an additional $8,000.
Director Akers explained that in 2021 the township hired an engineering firm to review a few acres of the “Ford Land property” to evaluate the soil conditions to determine if the reviewed wet areas were regulated wetlands under state and federal law.
Akers said in September of 2021 the township received a letter from Michigan EGLE which indicated that those areas were not regulated wetlands. This letter has an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2023 and if the township fails to take steps to improve surface drainage on the property, the state may revoke their decision, he said.
“In order to begin the implementation of this, township staff put out to bid services to ‘clear and grub’ specified areas of the site which involves the removal of trees and vegetation, grinding of the stumps, and raking of the ground,” Akers said.
“The proposed clearing would leave an approximate 25’ buffer area of trees along the corner of Belleville and Tyler roads,” he said. “We also have our engineers preparing a land balancing and soil erosion sedimentation control plan that we are planning on sumitting to the county for permitting.
“After this plan is created there are going to be some added items that are outside of the scope of services of this bid,” he said. “These include installing soil erosion control measurers (silt fencing), completing land balancing, completing restoration of the site, and potentially adding a drain tile. These added services will be an additional cost and will be treated as an addendum in accordance with our purchasing policy.”
In other business at the 25-minute Aug. 1 meeting, the board:
• Approved purchase of a 2023 Ford Transit Connect ILT Van from Atchinson Ford for a total cost of $38,372.16 for the Meals on Wheels program. Larry Luckett, director of public services, said this is the first time a new vehicle was purchased outright for this program, which runs 3-4 routes a day, 4 days a week with the 5th day starting in September and delivers to 116 households. The Meals on Wheels program currently has three retired police Explorers that are 10 years old and a 20-year-old parks van. He said generally as the police department buys new vehicles, the retired vehicle was given to Meals on Wheels. He said there haven’t been any usable vehicles to pass down in quite a few years;
• Approved the second reading and adoption of an ordinance rezoning 24 acres of Van Born Road property from M-1 Light Industrial to M-2 General Industrial;
• Approved the second reading and adoption of an ordinance rezoning 16355 Haggerty Rd. from R-1B Single Family Residential to AG-Agricultural and Estates;
• Approved the second reading and adoption of an ordinance to increase the maximum allowable height for detached single family dwellings to 2.5 stories or 35 feet in height. McNamara said this is to match the communities around Van Buren;
• Approved a memorandum of understanding with Homestead Subdivision Homeowners Association regarding the road improvements being made in accordance with the subdivision’s special assessment district;
• Approved entering into an agreement with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) and to accept the award of $40,000 for the Planning Assistance Program for the Belleville Road Corridor Safety and Complete Streets Plan. The grant was applied for by the township DDA. As described in the agreement, the township will conduct a corridor safety study and supplemtnal complete street plan along Belleville Road with three components: Belleville Road Corridor and Operational Safety Study, Truck Route Study, and Pedestrian Traffic Study, and analysis and recommendation of the overall sidewalk connectively and the need for crosswalks along Belleville Road;
• Heard McNamara read a letter from a woman who thanked the township because the REAL team helped maintain her home with yardwork. She said she also has farm animals on her property. McNamara said senior citizens have a difficult time with property maintenance if they wish to stay on their property and he has received other letters thanking the township for the REAL team work;
• Also heard McNamara report that Channel 4 did a story on the police’s Flock cameras;
• Heard Trustee Donald Boynton say he saw that the Mobil station building at the northwest corner of Haggerty Road and the I-94 North Service Drive was demolished. He asked if the township is going to make them take down the big sign on the pole. Dan Power, director of planning and economic development, said preliminary site plan approval requires that big sign to come down.