VBT planners table action on Brookwood housing development

At its regular meeting Nov. 9, the Van Buren Township Planning Commission tabled consideration of Brookwood senior housing development until the three absent commissioners could be present to share the information and participate in the decision.
The commission met with a bare quorum with Commissioners Medina Atchinson, Jeff Jahr, and Calli Barr absent and excused.
Chris Garner on behalf of owner SB-Invest L.P. wants to construct an independent, multi-family, residential senior housing development with 132 single-story dwelling units with a combined gross floor area of about 154,110 square feet.
The 44.4 acre site is on the north side of Tyler Road near Morton Taylor Road. It is zoned RM-Multiple Dwelling Residential District and the proposed Special Land Use requires a public hearing. Garner was also seeking Preliminary Site Plan approval.
At the public hearing on Nov. 9, Director of Planning and Economic Development Dan Power explained that the development would be west of Hickory Woods and there would be 25.9 disturbed acres of the 44.4 total. There would be 132 units and a clubhouse with two, four, and six-plex buildings.
Each unit has a two-car garage. There are 284 parking spaces and 264 of them are garage spaces.
All access would be from Tyler Road by a wide boulevard. The north end of the parcel would be a preserved wetland.
First speaker at the public hearing was Eric Moore who said his property on Bradley backs up to this “bowling alley,” referring to the deep, narrow parcel. He said the residents in his subdivision paid premium prices for backing up to the woods. He wanted to know about the trees.
Moore said the project is good for this community, especially for aging people like himself.
Carolyn Rushing lives on Ironwood and also backs up to this property. “We were told nothing would be built behind us because of wetlands,” she said, also asking about the stand of trees. “We got a letter from the state about the wetlands possibly being changed,” she said.
Ray Kolb, who said he lived next door to Moore on Bradley, asked if the developers could trade off the wetlands. “There’s a lot of wildlife out there,” he said.
A woman who said she was a Hickory Woods resident also asked about the tree line. She voiced concern about the traffic on Tyler Road, which she said was heavy.
“I’ve lived her for over 15 years,” she said. “Morton Taylor was supposed to be paved…The new senior complex will add traffic… The new EV plan up on Ecorse will bring more traffic.”
She said Kevin McNamara when he was running for supervisor said he would make sure a traffic light would be placed there. She wondered if that statement was just for the campaign.
That ended the 23-minute public hearing.
After the commission tabled the Special Land Use requested, Director Power said the items brought up will take more review.
The Preliminary Site Plan item on the agenda did get a lot of discussion before it, too, was tabled for consideration at a future meeting.
Director Power said the Brookwood developers had been coordinating their plans with other adjoining homeowners’ association and there are still some things to be addressed. He said the zoning is RM, the site plan submittal was complete, and a traffic-impact study was done by Wade Trim and it found “no further improvements are needed now.”
He said there will be one boulevard entry with 20 street parkings and the rest for the homes. It will include a series of retention basins and a pump station at Tyler that is part of the sanitary system and will pump sewage under Tyler to the sewer.
Power said it does have side-entry garages and shared driveways.
Chairman Kelley said he doesn’t want the full reports now, since the three commissioners aren’t here.
Vidya Krishnan, planner, said there is a regulated wetlands at the north end and EGLE (Environment, Great Lakes and Energy) was not interested in them cutting through to Morton Taylor. There was no option but to go in and out by Tyler Road.
Krishnan said Van Buren Township has tried to work with Wayne County for a light at Morton Taylor and Tyler, but right now the county is not interested in a traffic light there.
“It has always been the township’s intention. Hopefully in the future the county’s count will go up and they will consider it,” she said.
Krishnan said the township has worked with the applicants for a long time and the applicants have put forth their best efforts to solve problems.
The township’s consulting engineer Paul Kammer said the county goes by numbers on traffic lights to determine whether an intersection “warrants” a light. As more development comes in and traffic figures go up it could change, he said.
“It’s not the township’s ultimate decision,” Kammer said.
Chris Garner said the developers have five senior communities in its program. The one in Taylor is under construction, Fenton Township is breaking ground, Superior and Ash townships are under the approval process. He said they have been working for one and a half years in getting the Van Buren Township approval.
Luke Bonner, a real estate consultant with Bonner Advisory Group in Ann Arbor, told the commission the property is challenged. He said when they are seeking sites, they look for a real good community, close to airports and freeways. He said they reached out to neighboring HOAs and there were no less than six meetings with them.
He pointed out the shaded areas on the site map that showed the wetlands. He said EGLE had a hearing and looked at the wetlands for six to seven months. They determined it is a high-quality, wooded wetlands and EGLE wants the developer to put the land in a conservation easement.
To the Hickory Woods residents, he said the property behind them will never be touched and developers have no interest in disturbing trees along the property line.
He said this development is for 55-and-older residents who are active seniors. The buildings will be of brick and stone. Most are four-unit buildings.
“The township wanted different looks, so we turned garages sideways and backward,” Bonner said. He said there will be 11.8 acres of preserved wetlands and 10.5 acres of general open space, including ponds and grass. There will be 264 trees.
He said during the planning they went from 190 units to 132 and when they couldn’t access Morton Taylor, they widened the boulevard for two-way traffic. They will be sprinkling the units and they have a letter from EGLE on the wetlands.
He said Power came up with a request that week to separate shared driveways and they have enough room to separate the driveways and put something there, like a gravel-based separation.
Treasurer Sharry Budd was concerned about seniors having to back out into the streets and she asked who would own the pump station in the future.
Bonner said municipalities like to own public utilities. He said they would contribute in perpetuity to the township for care of the pump station.
Budd also was concerned about people not stopping at the four-way stop at Morton Taylor and Tyler roads.
Bonner said there will be no school buses to Brookwood since it is for seniors and people work with different time schedules now. He said he likes four-way stops.
Commissioner Bernie Grant, an architect, said wetlands can change and maybe they will be dried out with the retention ponds and other drainage for the development.
Veronica, the Wade Trim representative, said, “We will discharge to the wetlands at the allowable rate … That’s why we needed a permit.” She said there will be a seasonal stream to make sure it doesn’t dry up.
When Moore asked about ponds, Veronica said the Hickory Wood pond is a retention pond and the Brookwood pond overflows over riprap to the wetlands.
Rushing asked when the traffic study was done. Veronica said the traffic study was completed in September. She would look into whether the assisted living facility to the south of Tyler was taken into account. Kammer said the original traffic numbers were taken in the fall of 2021.
Commissioner Grant noted that the wetlands along Morton Taylor were not connected to the special wetlands to be preserved and if they dried out could they be moved and homes built there. Bonner said that was possible.
In other business, the commission:
• Approved recommending special land use to the township board for Cobblestone Creek Villas revision. They also approved the preliminary plan review with all four deviations from the original Planned Residential Development;
• Heard Power say there has been a big flush of development in the township. He said they have one more regular meeting of the commission this year in December. He said he would send emails asking about which committees each commissioner would like to serve on. Kelley said committees would cut down on time spent at the commission meetings; and
• Heard Budd ask Power to find the address of Brookwood’s Taylor development so commissioners can go look at it.