VBT planners approve final site plan for Woodland Meadows

The final site plan for the Woodland Meadows expansion to construct a methane gas recovery plant was approved unanimously by the Van Buren Township Planning Commission at its regular meeting on Aug. 28.
The request was by Kyle Robbins, project manager, of Ameresco on behalf of Waste Management of Michigan.
Robbins said his company has constructed many gas recovery plants across the nation. He said the landfill gas from the landfill will be processed into high-Btu renewable natural gas and delivered to the Detroit Edison Gas remote metering station for injection into a natural gas pipeline.
The facility and accessory site improvements will include a 12,652 square foot compressor building, a 2,754 square foot electrical building, compressors, tanks, process vessels, flares, process coolers, and wastewater treatment.
The site is a 5.41-acre lease parcel on the west side of Hannan Road north of Ecorse Road and is zoned C-1 – General Business District.
Vidya Krishnan of McKenna Associates, the township’s planning consultant, said this site is the former golf course and is governed by the state waste management. On Feb. 21, the project was given preliminary site plan approval by the commission with a deviation to eliminate the required landscape buffer between he plant and the landfill. The commission also wanted the gate to be a muted earthtone color rather than the white shown in the drawing.
At that hearing, Commissioner Jeff Jahr had asked about whether the fall pattern of the nearby cell tower would hit a corner of the planned building.
Krishnan said they were told it is highly unlikely that the tower would fall, but it was recommended for the township fire department to put an emergency response plan in place.
Paul Kammer, the township’s consultant from Fishbeck Engineers, said a separate stormwater management plan was approved by Wayne County for the site, but now that includes rerouting a ditch that goes through this project. He said he recommended approving the final site plan unless the county doesn’t grant final approval and then they would have to rethink it.
A report from American Tower on the 140.4 foot monopole reported on the fall-zone evaluation for the monopole.
“This letter is to detail the results of evaluation of the subject tower owned and operated by American Tower Corporation with regards to the potential fall radius in the unlikely event of a structural collapse.
“Statistically almost all collapses occur during natural disasters such as tornadoes or hurricanes, during which total devastation of the surrounding area would also occur. The design characteristics and safety factors incorporated into both the material and loading of the tower structure make a catastrophic failure highly uncommon. In the unlikely event of failure, the expected fall radius for the evaluated tower would likely be limited to 140.4 feet.”
A letter from the Van Buren Township Deputy Fire Chief/Fire Marshal Andrew Lenaghan, dated the same day as the meeting, said: “In the event of a catastrophic failure of the cell tower, the compressor building, condensate treatment building, and outdoor mechanical equipment could potentially be in the collapse zone radius. For this reason, an emergency response plan will need to be provided, and approved by the AHJ (authority having jurisdiction).”
Commissioner Bernie Grant, an architect, was concerned because he saw no final elevations in the plans. He was told they were the same as the the Feb. 21 drawings, and was assured he would get the drawings.
Commissioner Grant said he was very sensitive to elevations and wanted to be sure that they build what they say they are going to build. He obviously referred to the Hampton Manor construction at the corner of Tyler and Morton Taylor roads that did not build what the final site plan required.
Other details were discussed before the final site plan was approved.
Costco Beck Rd. property rezoning
A brief public hearing was held on a request to rezone 38.80 acres of property on the east side of Beck Road, south of Michigan Avenue, from M-1 – Light Industrial to M-2 – General Industrial District. The request was made by Ryan Hartsuff on behalf of property owner Costco Wholesale.
This is west of the current property Costco owns and is considered a site for further expansion in the future.
The only speaker at the public hearing was Maureen Little who said her family’s property abuts the site up for rezoning and they are concerned about what’s going to be done there.
Krishnan said the residences on Beck are zoned M-1 for future development and the master plan foresees that area as high industry. The rezoning is in line with the future land use plan.
She said no development is being approved for this property now and the southwest portion of the site is wetlands.
Hartsuff said the expansion will alleviate a lot of the truck traffic within the project itself.
Hartsuff said they will be applying for development on that site within the next few weeks if it is rezoned.
Krishnan said the parcels will be combined.
Commissioner Jahr pointed out there is no road access from the property involved and Beck Road.
Director of planning and economic development Dan Power said a 20’ buffer will have to be put up between residential use and M-1.
Little, who said she was the daughter of the owner of one of the properties on Beck, asked if there were plans to use Beck Road and Director Power said there weren’t.
He said the homes see lights from a development across Beck Road that are very bright and at night they hear “beep, beep, beep” of trucks backing up from somewhere.
“We’ve been there 70 years and she wants to know what’s going on,” Little said of her mother, who was seated next to her with a walker.
Krishnan asked Little to leave a phone number with her so she could alert them once plans are produced, and so Little can see them.
The commission voted unanimously to recommend rezoning to the township board. Commissioner Jackson Pahle was absent from the meeting.
Commissioner Medina Atchinson said she realizes this does not have to do with the rezoning, but she wondered if the staff had come up with the number of truck tickets the VBT police department has written for trucks heading south on Belleville Road to I-94. In the original Costco development, truckers were to be routed to Ecorse Road and then to I-275 and told not to head south to I-94.
Power said the commission’s recording secretary, Christina Harman, also works at the police department office and she is trying to get information on truck tickets. They have to figure out how to seach and Harman said the tickets don’t say truckers are from Costco.
Hartsuff said Costco is making a list to go with the presentation of its new development proposal.
Commissioner Atchinson asked what do the residents do about beeping and loud radios. Who do they contact?
Power said there is an ordinance for loud sound decibles. Krishnan said they have to follow the ordinance and if it is a public nuisance the ordinance officer will ticket them.
Little added from the audience that she sees a lot of trucks on Michigan Avenue and many trucks as the Ford dealership is parking their vehicles. “There’s a lot of traffic,” she said.
DTE Morton Substation
After a discussion, the commission granted a minor modification of the approved landscaping plan for the DTE Motor Substation project on behalf of DTE Electric. The applicant was granted final site plan approval for the construction of a 120-13.2 kV, 80 MVA nine-circuit substation and related site improvements at the commission meeting of Feb. 8. 2023.
The site is at 42061 Ecorse Rd., on the south side of Ecorse between Haggerty Road and Kirkridge Park Drive.
Director Power said he visited the site and saw missing landscape at the east end of the site. He showed commissioners a picture on his phone.
He said there was no landscaping where it was supposed to be. He wanted to modify to add trees in front and allow flexibility of the staff to make sure it turns out right. He said there were supposed to be eight evergreens, 22 shrubs on the DTE property but there is no space. But, screening is on the berm offsite in the greenbelt created by Ashley Capital next door.
He said the boundary was incorrectly drawn. He said he can come back to the commission after checking whether there had been modifications to the berm.
“Make sure it’s right,” said Commissioner Grant.
Commissioner Jahr said to make sure the modifications adhere to the screen ordinance. He also asked Power to check that the fence is in the right place and bring the information back to the commission.
“I’ll verify a lot of things,” Power said.