VBT Board approves 4.88-acre pond for sod farm

After a lengthy discussion at its regular meeting on Jan. 21, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved Todd Waller’s 4.88-acre excavation for an agricultural irrigation pond on Martz Road, just west of Elwell Road.
Treasurer Sharry Budd was absent and excused from the meeting.
Director of Governmental Services Ron Akers presented the proposal, explaining that under the township ordinances, the township board makes the decisions on excavations and the planning commission decides on the rules for such a pond to operate.
The proposal now goes back to the planning commission. The commission had considered the pond, but sent the request back to the board for it to make its decision first.
Director Akers said his memo stipulated fencing and a number of things, including a soil erosion permit from the county.
Akers said the township attorney said the township is following the proper procedures.
Supervisor Kevin McNamara questioned the hours of operation and the noise, and how long it would take Waller to dig out an estimated 93,000 cubic yards of soil and truck it from the site.
Waller said the pond he dug on Hull Road had a permit for two years and it took a year and a half.
Waller said the trucks, as with the Hull Road project, will not travel through the city of Belleville, but will take back routes.
He said the Martz Road site will send trucks to Bemis to Haggerty and Bemis to Rawsonville, coming out on Lohr Road.
Waller said Augusta Township held him up on a pond in that township and he went to court. “That’s why I’m Augusta Township supervisor now, I guess,” he said.
McNamara said the only complaint the township had on his Hull Road operation was on tracking out.
Akers said the township sent notices to all property owners within 300 feet and got only two responses. He said one response was in favor of the project and one expressed concerns.
Akers said the ordinances covering ponds are old and so the board may put a six-month moratorium on new ponds until the ordinances can be brought up to present laws.
Waller said his new venture is to grow sod for golf courses which requires irrigation.
Trustee Kevin Martin asked what will happen to the pond once Waller is gone. Will it just be a big pond on a residential property? Waller said he doesn’t know what will happen after he dies.
Trustee Donald Boynton said five acres for a pond is awfully large. He said other sod farmers he researched show roughly half that amount. He said three acres seems like enough.
“Under the Right to Farm Act I have a right to farm and decide how much irrigation I need,” Waller said.
He complained that he has been fighting the township for over a year for this project.
Michael Levitt, an attorney representing Waller, said his client can decide under the state law and his pond is 4.88 acres and nothing in Michigan law says he can’t put in a pond under five acres.
Trustee Martin said the board didn’t get this project until the last 2-3 months and it wanted to ask him some questions and he didn’t show up. The request was delayed until Waller could attend a meeting.
Waller said he applied when Dan Power was director of planning and economic development.
“We don’t believe he needs an excavation permit,” Levitt said, noting a Washtenaw County judge said it wasn’t needed and the Right to Farm Act prempts the ordinance.
Waller said Treasurer Budd, who was absent from that meeting, questioned his pond and McNamara said he wanted to point out that Budd didn’t own the property on which Kenworth built, as reported.
A man from Augusta Township said he was in favor of the pond.
McNamara said the main person against it “is me” and that’s why he is seeking a moratorium on ponds until the ordinances are updated.
The Augusta Township man asked why it took so long to come to the board and Trustee Martin said, “It takes time.” The man accused the board of taking notice of what was happening in Augusta Township and board members denied that.
Supervisor McNamara said he has concerns about longterm trucking and, “We’re not going to blow up like Canton,” he said. “It’ll be slow and easy.”
In other business at the Jan. 21 meeting, the board:
• Heard Clerk Leon Wright promote Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the great man who did so much for so many people. Clerk Wright also announced this year’s Blue Cross Blue Shield increase is 5.91%. He said under the program the township is using, it only gets charged for employees going for treatment each month. He said this saved the township $237,000 from last April 24 to today. Supervisor McNamara said the township expected a larger BCBS increase and put it in the 2025 budget, so the lower figure is good news;
• Heard Stephanie Richards introduce herself as Wayne County Sheriff’s Department Community Liaison officer for Western Wayne County, servicing 15 municipalities. Deputy Richards said the Sheriff’s Department wants to know what the communities need. McNamara said the township has a strong tie to Wayne County Sheriff’s Department because of the lake;
• Approved promotions of Kendyl Zantop, who has worked for the township for 10 years, to the position of Municipal Services Coordinator; Brittney Williams, who has worked for the township for four years, to Planning and Zoning Specialist; and Karen Pecsenye from the Water Department to the Township Clerk’s office; and Brad Barbaza, who worked for the township for three years, to IT director;
• Approved the personal services agreement and hired Matthew Smith as Community Center Facilities Specialist starting Feb. 4. He is coming from a position at the University of Michigan;
• Approved the 142-page Safe Streets for All Action Plan, which determined the top five locations in the township for fatal and severe injury accidents over the past five years. The top location is Ecorse at Denton and at Beck, which is recommended solved by a $13 million upgrade that includes a Michigan Left Blvd. from west of Denton Road to east of Beck Road. The other most-dangerous locations are Ecorse at Haggerty Road ($750,000 to fix), Haggerty at I-94 North Service Drive ($850,000), Haggerty at I-94 South Service Dr. ($920,000), and Tyler/Belleville roads (already funded) which are being realigned as part of the Belleville Road Widening Project. McNamara said the next step for upgrades is funding and the data in the plan can be used to get grants. McNamara said since the township is so small, it has to go through the county for certain grants. He also said the township needed to evaluate its entire road system, so it did;
• Approved six-month moratoriums on new applications for gas filling stations and soil removal, mining, and ponds, with those applicants currently in the system moving ahead. McNamara said, “We have enough gas stations. We need to stop until we can get a handle on it.” Akers said they have two new gas stations at the same intersection. He said the ordinances were written in 1973 and have had no substantial changes since then. This will give the township time to update the ordinances to comply with state law;
• Approved a $26,741.43 Canon Color Wave T series large format printer system for the Water and Sewer and other departments so GIS information and blueprints can be copied and printed. The current copier is 7.3 years old and they no longer can get parts to repair it. The old one is worth $1,500 on trade in, so McNamara said it is being given to the Communications Department, so they can make banners;
• Approved the purchase from low-bidder Serve Electric to install generators for the Harmony Lane Pump Station and the Water Tower in the amount of $278,000. The Harmony Lane generator is 25 years old and is operating well, but should be replaced and the new generator at the Water Tower will back up the Great Lakes Water Authority SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system. There are seven GLWA units that have to be monitored. There are 14 lift stations with 12 having generators, with 2 in the parks. The township plans to order four at a time and start replacing them; and
• Heard Wright say that when the township is looking at ordinances, he would like to help out the Homeowners Associations in the township, especially his HOA, by giving them more teeth. Trustee Bryon Kelley said, while they are at it, he’d like them to look at rental ordinances for landlords. Wright said there is one place that is renting out rooms in a house in a residential area. They are not family because they don’t look like family. McNamara said they would look into it.