VBT Planning Commission OKs new Jiffy Lube on Meijer outlot

A new Jiffy Lube business is coming to an outlot at Meijer after action by the Van Buren Township Planning Commission at its regular Nov. 11 meeting via Zoom.
After a public hearing at which no public comments were offered, the commission unanimously approved sending a request for Minor Vehicle Service Special Land Use to the township board with a recommendation for approval.
The commission also approved the Jiffy Lube preliminary site plan.
The 3,064-square-foot, single-story building will be located on the south side of Tyler Road just east of the Meijer gas station and Belleville Road. The .71-acre outparcel is to be divided and created from portions of the 39.4-acre parcel at 9701 Belleville Rd. and a vacant 1.33-acre parcel.
The property is zoned C-2 – Extensive Highway Business District and also is in the Belleville Road Overlay District.
Jim Kratz of Jiffy Lube said customers will be at the business from 30 minutes to two hours max. They will pull up to a bay, pull into a bay, and customers will wait in the waiting room. When the car is pulled out, customers will get back into their cars.
Kratz said the business will do oil changes, battery service, fluids, and quick repairs and they expect 50 to 60 cars a day.
“We are working with Meijer in an unofficial partnership,” Kratz said, noting they just opened a Jiffy Lube in Lenox Township. He said it is one national franchise operating in all these locations.
He said the overlay district encouraged natural preservation of mature trees, so they relocated their building to preserve a mature tree.
Paul Kammer of Fishbeck, the township’s engineering consultant, said the Jiffy Lube plans a bioretention area and will have an underground, onsite detention storage which will drain on the south side of Tyler Road to the Wayne County drain. The business will tap into an 8” water main running around the Meijer building in an agreement with Meijer and have sanitary service through the 10” line running north and south along the east side of Belleville Road.
Commission vice-chairman Donald Boynton, in his last meeting on the commission after being elected a township trustee, asked about the drainage. He asked how it would affect the flooding reported to the east, or was it too soon to ask that with this being just the preliminary site plan.
Kammer said there are concerns about the county drain that goes to Morton Taylor and then heads northeast. He said the ultimate goal is for the underground storage to hold back drainage. He said if it is properly designed the system will reduce flooding, but not to zero. It would minimize excess runoff, he said.
“How do we get the county to clean them?” Kammer asked of the drains. He said it was better to tie into the Tyler system than the Meijer system to the southeast.
Commissioner Boynton also questioned the thin brick proposed.
“If I heard it correctly, veneer brick face is not acceptable,” he said. “Do they have to change to a more durable brick?”
Vidya Krishnan, principal planner and planning consultant from McKenna Associates, said the veneer brick is not an option and because of that and other issues the first elevation proposed was rejected by the township. The applicant redesigned the building, she said.
“We did agree to modular bricks, not thin bricks,” Kratz said. “We did agree.”
Commissioner Jeff Jahr asked if it was a four-bay or an eight-bay and Kratz said it was a four-bay with one-way movement.
Commissioner Medina Atchinson asked if they will have hoists or a pit for the oil change and Kratz said it’s a pit because that’s fast-moving.
Atchinson asked if it would be open on Sunday and Kratz said it would be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Dan Power, director of planning and economic development, pointed out in a memo that if the preliminary site plan and special land use approvals are granted, the project will undergo final site plan review. The final site plan review process will involve a detailed review of compliance with applicable township and Wayne County stormwater, soil erosion, and other engineering regulations as well as township zoning regulations. The planning commission would act on a potential final site plan review at a future date, he said.
In other business at the Nov. 11 meeting, the commission approved the required formal resolution of adoption of the 2020 Van Buren Township Master Plan. The Michigan Planning and Enabling Act requires a resolution to be forwarded to the township board. Director Power said this formalizes the approval of the Master Plan, which was done at the last planning commission meeting.
Power said this was the last meeting in November and there will be just one meeting in December. He expects a couple of preliminary site plans and a couple final site plans at the December meeting, plus approval of meetings for 2021.