VBT planners approve 6-unit retail building on Belleville Road

One of the tenants in the new six-unit retail building approved on Oct. 23 for 10573 Belleville Rd. by the Van Buren Township Planning Commission will be a Sherwin-Williams store.
A request by Ronald A. Chiesa Architects of Clinton Township was to construct a 10,362-square-foot multi-tenant retail building with parking, landscaping, and affiliated site improvements on 1.74 acres.
Owner of the development is Jason Kishmish of Farmington Hills. Applicant is Grand Management.
The property, which previously had contained two homes, is located on the east side of Belleville Road between the N. I-94 Service Drive and Westlake Circle.
Planning consultant Vidya Krishnan of McKenna Associates reminded planners that in December 2016 the commission gave conditional approval to a preliminary site plan for a three-unit commercial building at the site. Then the township board granted special land use approval that month for a proposed drive-through.
The project expanded, with an additional parcel, additional tenant spaces, and a relocated drive-through and was subject to further review in 2018, again receiving preliminary site plan approval and special land use approval, however a final site plan was never approved, she said.
The applicant restarted the site plan review process in 2023, this time without a drive-through, but with additional tenant spaces. The previously approved special land use runs with the land, but as newly proposed the project does not include the special land use.
If the applicant wishes to establish a drive-through in the future, full site plan approval from the planning commission would be required and the current site layout may not be feasible for a drive-through, Krishnan said.
The current project was granted preliminary site plan approval by the commission on Jan. 24, 2024.
When asked by commissioner Medina Atchinson if Sherwin-Williams paint store was still coming, as previously announced, Kishmish said it was, along with a national chain and other first-class tenants.
It was noted the drive-through was removed because the Sherwin-Williams trucks would not have room enough to navigate the site with a drive-through in place.
Paul Kammer, consulting engineer from Fishbeck, said the hook-up to the sanitary sewer on the east side of Belleville Road is near the road, so they may have to close a lane of Belleville Road to work on it.
Chiesa had brought samples of the materials that will be used in construction and commissioners wanted to make sure they had the exact identifications of each sample and the colors to make sure it was not changed before construction.
Chiesa said sometimes a particular material is no longer available, so there has to be a replacement made.
Commissioner Jeff Jahr made the motion to grant final site plan approval, conditionally, stipulating that prior to granting any building permits the specific material numbers must be listed. If they need to be changed, after review the township staff would be able to approve the changes. Also the different varieties of plants proposed to be planted to shield the transformer were acceptable.
Commissioners explained that they have had problems in the past with materials being changed between approval and construction.
Chiesa said, “It’s not going to be blue siding…” referring to the commission’s problems with the Hampton Manor development at the corner of Tyler and Morton Taylor roads.
In other business at the one-hour-52-minute meeting, the commission:
• Heard a presentation from Krishnan on a draft of an ordinance that would create a Commercial/Office/Industrial Planned Unit Development zoning and then discussed it at length. The township once had PUD zoning, but no longer does and commissioners agreed this would help them deal creatively with new developments with a minimum of 50 acres. A sub-committee was formed of commissioners Bernie Grant, Jeff Jahr, and Peter Creal to meet with Krishnan and go over details of the draft before bringing it back to the commission for action;
• Noted that another sub-committee that worked on the EV fuel charger issue never brought its results back to the commission. Krishnan said it wasn’t that they didn’t do a draft, but there was a decision to back off for a while when they saw the state might get involved in EV fueling. Krishnan said they have an EV ordinance draft and it will come before the commission soon;
• Discussed several zoning code changes that they might like to work on. Ron Akers, municipal services director, presented a list of what is basically a punch list of items that need attention, including maximum lighting standards, emergency vehicle access for cul-de-sacs, limiting the number of gas stations at road intersections, and drive-through stacking spaces. He also suggested reconsidering building heights for hotels. Commissioners added reconsideration of red brick requirements along Belleville Road, with Krishnan saying, “We don’t want a red brick corridor, with every building the same red brick.” Other suggestions were made and Director Akers said they will work on all of these things, starting with lighting and the Belleville Road Overlay District;
• Heard commission chairman Brian Cullin say that the Sumpter Township Planning Commission has asked for a copy of Van Buren Township’s new Agritourism Ordinance. He said Sumpter has a lot of farmland. Cullin said the next joint meeting of the planning commissions of Van Buren Township, Sumpter Township, and the city of Belleville will be Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, and he hopes it will be at the library; and
• Heard Steven Dark, a resident who usually participates in the planning commission meetings via zoom, comment in person on the proposed PUD ordinance and on the proposed change to maximum lighting allowed. He said he likes warmer temperatures for lights and the LED lights are blinding when they are turned outward toward traffic instead of downward.