VBT Board holds 7.5-hour retreat on strategic planning

After 7.5-hours of a board retreat with two SEMCOG facilitators on Saturday, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees ended up with a mission statement for the township and selected five important issues on which to work.
The session is one of the programs provided without additional charge by the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) for dues-paying members in a seven-county area of Southeastern Michigan.
Naheed Huq was lead facilitator, aided by Ginger Juncker. The two pushed and prodded the board members to speak their minds on positives and negatives of the township and to set up a plan to address the most important issues on their minds.
Juncker wrote all the comments on 20 huge Post-It notes stuck to the wall of the Denton Room at township hall.
Huq said all the comments will be written up into a 3-5 year strategic plan for the township and presented to board members at an upcoming meeting. SEMCOG will be checking back with the board in a year to see what’s been achieved.
The mission statement the board agreed upon was: “Premiere lake community (in which) to live, work, and play, where the township provides excellent services to enhance and sustain the quality of life.”
This may be tweaked by adding at the beginning: “Van Buren Township is committed to maintaining a…” SEMCOG will work on it.
Eleven issues for the township were named by board members, and SEMCOG helped them whittle the list down to five, on which they made plans to work.
The five are:
1. Visteon Bonds. Not much could be discussed on the subject since it is being addressed by attorneys and principals. Supervisor Linda Combs said it has to be settled by 2017 when it is expected that VBT won’t have enough money coming in to pay the Visteon Bonds.
2. Lack of doing long-term planning. Board members will make sure that those wishing to develop in VBT will have a user-friendly process through the VBT Building Department, make sure there are long-range plans to address how the officials want VBT to look in 20 or 30 or 40 years, get ordinance officers out enforcing the ordinances and writing tickets, get the updated ordinances before the board for approval, have plans in place to follow when the Waste Management landfill closes, plus other related matters. Supervisor Combs said presently the township balances its budget with the savings account from landfill funds. There is $8 million in that account and they are using more than $2 million a year. “… after a few years we’ll be flat broke,” she said. Clerk Leon Wright added, “Are we going to be the premiere community if we lose the landfill?” The landfill is expected to close in 10-11 years.
3. Enhancements to Van Buren Park. The goal is to make the park accessible to all residents and be user-friendly, especially for those who want to enjoy the lake. Plans are for better ADA access to the beach, boat docking, improved beach, special events, cross-country skiing, and other ideas. Trustee Phil Hart volunteered to be the Champion on this issue, with the help of Trustee Reggie Miller and Clerk Wright. They will develop an action plan in 60 days.
4. Increase Economic Development. The goal is to have short-term and long-term plans for economic development and to create an environment to attract and retain businesses. The township board agrees it needs to find out what the Downtown Development Authority is doing in this area and get information on regional trends, economic data, and make up a plan. The township’s Director of Planning and Economic Development Arthur Mullen is key in this and he currently is overloaded with work. “Arthur’s going to have to get his assistant hired or get a contractor,” said Combs, noting a part-time assistant for Mullen is in the budget, but he has not moved forward to fill the position. They suggested the DDA might like to cooperate in helping to hire a full-time person.
5. Location. The goal here is to leverage the township’s location for both residences and commercial. They want to get the word out about VBT’s access to both I-94 and I-275, two major airports, railroad lines, several major universities, Detroit and Ann Arbor, proximity to Canada, and Wayne County’s only lake. The DDA has paid for a new township website that is supposed to go online any minute and it promotes the lake and other township assets. Huq said she would like to see VBT market the tri-community, although there was some talk about seeking a new zip code for VBT so it wouldn’t be confused with Belleville. “I don’t want a divorce from Belleville,” commented Trustee Jeff Jahr.
At the end of the meeting, Treasurer Sharry Budd said she would like the board to sit down in a work/study session with planning consultant Sally Hodges and Planning and Economic Development Director Mullen to explain to them the board’s expectations and tell them they have the board’s support.
Trustee Jahr said the board is not trying to dump on Mullen, but will provide resources and support so he can do the things they want done.
The SEMCOG facilitators told the township officials not to back off of an idea because they don’t have the funding, because there are ways to find funding.
In looking at the five issues they set for work, Trustee Miller said, “We may not get it all done during our term.” Their four-year terms run through 2016.