VBT planners set Agritourism, Mixed Use public hearings

Public hearings on amendments to ordinances on Agritourism and Signs in the Mixed-Use Sumpter and Belleville road overlays will be held before the Van Buren Township Planning Commission.
At its March 13 regular meeting, the commission heard Dan Power, director of planning and economic development, and Vidya Krishnan, planning consultant from McKenna Associates, explain the proposed changes.
After discussion, the commission voted unanimously to direct Director Power to schedule the public hearings. Commissioner Bernie Grant was absent and excused from the meeting.
Power said the hearings likely could be set for the April 10 meeting.
An Agritourism subcommittee, made up of commission chairman Brian Cullin and commissioners Bernie Grant and Jackson Pahle, have met several times over the past year to gather information. It had its final meeting at DeBuck’s farm, a very large agricultural site on Martz Road.
Director Power said the proposed Agritourism ordinance calls for one site plan review with a recommendation to the board of trustees. The minimum 10-acre site would not have to come back for approval every few years, the way it does now.
He said Agritourism refers to outdoor mazes, the marketing of agricultural products, u-pick operations and ancillary projects, such as playgrounds, petting farms, tours, exhibits, gift shops, kitchen, entertainment and meeting spaces.
Krishnan said the residents in the south end of the township want to maintain a rural community. This would call for approval once, rather than again and again.
She said DeBucks run their operation really well, but the next person might not. This ordinance provides standards and a framework to protect the township’s interest, she said.
Chairman Cullin asked if it would be evaluated after the first year and Power said that was removed in the last edit.
Treasurer Sharry Budd, who sits on the commission as the board’s liaison, said first DeBucks ran a corn maze, now they have a tulip festival, lavender festival, sunflower festival, and then they are back into Halloween again.
Commissioner Jeff Jahr asked if this ordinance might attract more Agritourism and he was told it might.
Chairman Cullin said DeBucks came in every year or three years, “whatever we wanted.”
The other ordinance amendment that will have its public hearing on April 10 will consider changes to the overlay districts for Belleville Road and Sumpter Road to provide specific regulations for signage in these districts.
In other business at the one-hour-and 35-minute meeting on March 13, the commission:
• Approved temporary land use for Ricardo, Inc., to operate a mobile refueling station on its property at the northeast corner of the Haggerty/Tyler roads intersection through August. Ricardo had received permission from the township for this type of operation three times in the past and last year it had approval but didn’t do the operation. The Ricardo president said they are working on low-carbon transportation in Germany, Great Britain, and Van Buren Township and they have five generations of hydrogen-fueled trucks. They put the hydrogen in when they have contracts. The operation would have the possibility of four to five fillups;
• Heard an administrative update from Power on the redevelopment of the former Chase bank building at 10680 Haggerty Rd., next to Trilogy Apartments and backing up to Haggerty subdivision. It has been vacant for 20 years. Anchor Realty and Big Sisters in Nursing has remodeled the former bank into an office facility to use for counseling services for medical professionals;
• Heard an administrative update on River Front Rentals at 40731 Edison Lake Rd., next to French Landing Park, which has applied for use change/new business approval to use an existing industrial building for fabrication of modular buildings and equipment for events. It was used for storage between 2015 and 2022 when it was sold to the person proposing this use. It plans to fabricate mobile kitchens out of shipping containers. Budd voiced concern about how many trailers will be stored outside, right next to the township’s newly renovated park; and
• Discussed ongoing work on ordinances on EV stations, reforms to the master plan, opening up the office/light industrial zoning to other uses, and keeping up to date on state changes to solar farms and other laws.