Work on Carla’s Fresh Fruit Market will be able to proceed without formal site plan review and approval by the Oxford Township Planning Commission.
‘If there’s no more stops ? hopefully there won’t be ? probably in a couple of months I’m going to be ready to do a grand opening,? said future market owner Mimmo D’Anna.
At its meeting last week, the planning commission said no site plan review/approval was necessary, however, the board informed D’Anna and the property’s owner, Bob Turner, that they must remove two nonconforming signs leftover from the previous business and either install a safety path along M-24 or pay an in-lieu-of fee into the township’s safety path fund.
There was concern that site plan review might be required for renovation of the existing vacant building at 1200 S. Lapeer Rd. so as to allow a gourmet market, similar to a Papa Joe’s or a Vince & Joe’s, to open there.
‘My feeling was it’s your decision as to whether or not they need a full site plan review,? said township Planner Don Wortman, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates. ‘Does this constitute a substantial change in operation??
Site plan review is required for ‘all new construction, structural alteration or substantial change in use (as determined by the planning commission),? according to the new township zoning ordinance.
‘Our building official at the time said it’s not a change in use,? said Planning Commission Chairman Don Silvester. ‘We should honor that decision by our building official.?
Back in May, Mike Darling, the township’s building official at the time, wrote a letter stating, ‘My preliminary determination is that the use of the building is not a change of use, and a site plan will not be required.?
Darling, who’s since retired from the township, reiterated this opinion in a July 26 letter in which he stated, ‘The proposed use is a permitted principle use. Site plan approval is not required, in that the previous use was retail and the proposed use is retail.?
Although the building at 1200 S. Lapeer Rd. has been used for many different commercial purposes over the years, it last housed Warehouse Flooring Outlet.
Around October/November, D’Anna was notified formal site plan review and approval might be needed. But the planning commission decided one wasn’t necessary.
‘If the use and the change that’s inside the building is in compliance with the code, I don’t have a problem,? said Commissioner Tom Berger.
‘The biggest issue I have in this whole mess is that we’ve drug it out this long,? said Commissioner Jack Curtis.
A stop-worker order on the Carla’s Fresh Fruit Market project was issued by the township shortly before Thanksgiving because, according to township Deputy Supervisor Deanna Burns, D’Anna was doing work without a building permit.
D’Anna called it all a ‘big misunderstanding? noting he had some rooftop heating/cooling units delivered and was closing the building in for the winter months.
‘They thought I was working on it,? he told this reporter. ‘I was not intentionally proceeding with the work.?
Burns noted D’Anna’s workers were putting up wall framing and he did not have a mechanical permit for those rooftop units, which she said were being installed.
The stop-worker order will remain in effect until D’Anna’s revised plumbing, electrical and fire suppression plans are approved, then a building permit will be issued.