VBT planners seek to keep trucks off Belleville Road

Truckers were charged with ignoring Van Buren Township’s agreement with Costco to avoid heading south on Belleville Road to I-94 and to use Ecorse Road to I-275 instead.
At the regular meeting of the township planning commission on Aug. 14, the request of Costco for preliminary site plan approval to add a cold storage facility to its 5860 Belleville Rd. location was considered, and finally approved.
The Costco project is a 54,200 square foot cold depot addition with a 2,700 square foot office addition and related site improvements. It is located on Costco Wholesale’s 71.56-acre parcel on the west side of Belleville Road south of Van Born.
The first approval for the project was in 2018 and there have been some issues with the trucks going all the way down Belleville Road to I-94, against the agreement, which was to use Ecorse, said the consultant from McKenna Associates.
He said they are trying to address the concern and are working with the county to improve the signage.
Ryan Hartsuff of MG2 spoke on behalf of Costco Wholesale and said they have just shy of 300 trucks per day. He said the new construction will help process the trucks and get them off Belleville Road stacking.
He said they are working with the county to erect a sign at the northwest corner of Belleville and Ecorse roads to direct truckers to Ecorse. Hartsuff also said they are redistributing flyers to the truck drivers and inform them they will get a ticket if they go south.
Commissioner Jeff Jahr asked the staff to pull police reports on how many tickets were issued for this since 2019. He said with hard numbers, “…we can be convinced things being done are sufficient.”
Commissioner Medina Atchinson said she sits in her office and sees them go by and she reports trucks to the police department.
“I don’t want them there,” she said, noting they are cleaned up for awhile and then they are back.
Dan Power, director of building and economic development, said they can find the numbers, but you wouldn’t know where the trucks came from and they could have come from another facility.
Commissioner Jahr agreed that not every inbound truck is going to Costco.
It was mentioned that the construction on I-275 also could have altered truck routes.
Commissioner Atchinson said the map approved for the truckers needs to be shared with the township ordinance and police departments.
Commissioner Bernie Grant asked about signs and Power said they were just at the outbound exits at the site and none at Ecorse Road.
Power said Wayne County Roads has jurisdiction of the roads and they have to work with the county to get signage off site.
Hartsuff said they are going to the county to get those signs at the southwest corner of Ecorse.
Jahr said the burden should not be the entire obligation of this applicant.
The preliminary site plan was approved, with stipulations that they work on inbound and outbound routes of truckers.
Power noted that a public hearing is set for Aug. 28 for rezoning of property to the west of Costco, plus a couple of other matters.
Public hearing on new gas station
A public hearing was held on a proposal to construct a new gasoline filling station, convience store, and drive-thru restaurant with five diesel fueling pumps and 16 regular gasoline fueling pumps at the northwest corner of Ecorse and Haggerty roads.
Director Power said after the public hearing, the staff will determine when the proposal is ready to be put on the agenda for review by the commission for action.
Applicant Frank Jarbou of Symmetry Management is seeking a special land use for the gas pumps and the drive-thru service.
The site is located on 2.25 acres of property split from seven parcels with a total area of 4.46 acres. The site is directly across Ecorse Road from the site recently announced for a Sheetz gas station/restaurant and across Haggerty Road from a present truck stop.
Jarbou told the commission his family has owned this property for 30 years and his brother has owned the gas station at Ecorse and Hannan for 40 years.
He said he didn’t like the Sheetz layout and wanted curb appeal. He said he talked to three neighbors to the west and they are all for his plan.
He questioned whether another fueling station was needed and people are opposed to Sheetz. Now a local property owner wants to develop.
Just one person spoke at the public hearing. Ali Salame, of the truck stop at 41358 Ecorse Rd., said the developer really is building a truck stop and freeway zoning is required for that. He said the drive-thru restaurant is nothing new and the Hannan/Ecorse location has that.
Salame said this proposal should be denied because it will intensify conditions of a flood-prone area and adversely affect the community. Salame noted that the developer himself complained about the Sheetz plan.
“It’s not OK for Sheetz. OK for him?” Salame asked.
He said the area doesn’t need another gas station, since business has declined 20% and stations are struggling to sustain themselves.
He asked if there had been any soil testing. He said in 2000 when they built the truck stop across the street they found the settling and shifting of the silt and clay did not allow for the intended use. He said they had to spend $975,000 to remove the soil and then replace it with gravel, then compact it to support the structure. He said that amount would be $2 million to $2.5 million today.
In other business, the commission:
• Accepted the VBT Economic Development and Marketing Plan that was in front of the commission in late July. It has been reformatted and changes made as the commission suggested. It is planned to be on the township board’s first meeting agenda in September for consideration;
• Approved the landscaping plan modification for Menards at 10010 Belleville Rd. to allow for a gated express lane entry into the store’s lumber yard. This would make a reduction of a roughly 160-foot-long section of the site’s northern greenbelt to a width of less than 20 feet. Pat Rewald from Menards in Wisconsin said this change will help them stay competitive and 345 of their 370 stores have made the change. It allows smoother customer service, he said;
• Heard Commissioner Atchinson ask for updates on the Chick-fil-A and Pulte Homes developments and Power said Chick-fil-A hasn’t reached out to the township yet, but they had been asked for a traffic study. He said Pulti Homes is having ongoing discussions, since it is part of a planned unit development. Power said the senior highrise on Belleville Road is still under construction and Hampton Manor on Tyler Road still has to have sod installed and a screening wall in front of the generator and the township is holding a substantial amount of money until this is done. The certificate of occupancy has been issued; and
• Heard Treasurer Budd comment that a friend of hers said she is moving into her apartment in the development on Belleville Road in September.