BY JOETTE KUNSE
Special to the Clarkston News

The proposed development at Waldon and Walters roads was back in front of the Independence Township Planning Commission at the July 9 meeting.
The proposed 68-acre development’s name has changed from Sashabaw Marketplace to Waldon Village.
Jim Eppink, spokesperson for Silverman Construction, told planners the team has made some changes to the project following feedback from the March planning commission meeting.
“Our team increased the amount of greenspace, and added additional buffers to Waldon Road and added more connectability to the original plan,” said Eppink.
The need for greenspace, buffering and the large amount of parking spaces were all items the planners had stated needed to be adjusted during the March meeting.
Eppink’s new drawing shows a 16.7 acre proposed park on the northern edge of the property to be donated to Independence Township.
Use of the park will be determined by the township, according to Eppink.
“The park area is approximately 25 percent of the development,” Eppink said.
The Phase 1 apartment complex proposed in the development will be named “Springs at Sashabaw” and the 280 garden style apartments first proposed will stay the same. Garden style apartments all have front doors opening to the outside with 50 percent of the apartments having garages.
Rents will range from $1,350 to $2,150 for studio apartments, as well as one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Amenities include a pool, clubhouse, and a dog park.
The complex is designed and owned by Continental Properties, and will have full-time management and maintenance staff.
“The apartments will add 280 sewer tap-in fees to the township and the taxes on the development will be non-homestead property tax, higher than residential lots,” said Eppink.
Developers have increased the setbacks from the property lines to 40 feet.
The neighborhood retail phase of the project is down 9.6 acres from the original plan of 21 acres. Parking places were reduced from 1,000 to 358. The redesigned retail includes a market, one restaurant, small retail, daycare and a gym, with the theater and one restaurant in the original plan eliminated.
Eppink shared the residential portions of the development had changed slightly with the addition of one additional home to a total of 47, increased lot size of 115 feet by 55 feet lots and with homes in the price range of $400,000 having increased sidewalks and bike paths to the park.
Additionally, there will be 52 park homes or single-family condos with Cape Cod architecture with two-car garages in the price range of $350,000. The condos will range in size from 1,350 to 1,850 square feet and focus on empty-nesters.
Eppink detailed the traffic study occurred in November on a weekday and a weekend day. The preliminary findings show a need to widen Waldon Road to three lanes between Walters and Sashabaw roads, adding a right turn lane for proposed site access in Phase I.
Phase 2 would add a traffic signal at Waldon Center Drive and Waldon Road as well as signal timing modification at Waldon and Sashabaw roads and right lane access for proposed site access points.
The Oakland County Road Commission is still looking at the traffic plan.
Planners asked some questions of the development team, including the impact on Clarkston Community Schools.
Eppink told the planners they felt approximately 90 to 136 students would come from the single-family homes and possibly 40 from the apartment complex.
While the meeting was not a public hearing, residents were invited to speak. The meeting was on Webex as well as having the township meeting room open.
Resident Bill Scarborough came away flustered with the discussion.
“I’m disappointed in the cookie cutter project and my major objection is the density of the apartments,” Scarborough said. “You have 280 units with one entrance. The project looks like three separate projects with three distinct developers.”
Planners shared they thought the development company had listened to their March meeting comments and added more green space, less parking spaces and improved retail compared to the previous plan.
Planners wanted developers to work on connectivity, how residents of the community would get back to the park, how close the apartments are to the Walters Road homeowners, and adding comments on how close the apartment buildings, clubhouse and pool were to homes on Walters Road.
When asked about the possibility of another township park, Derek Smith, director of parks, recreation and seniors for Independence Township, said he was overjoyed.
“I’m excited about the idea of the park,” said Smith. “From our department master plan, people want more walking trails in the community. It provides open space the public can enjoy.”
Brian Oppmann, Independence Township Planning and Zoning Manager, said Silverman Construction will return to the planning commission for a public hearing before going to the township board.
Planning commission meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month with agendas on the township website. Webex meetings will continue in the coming months.
The July 9 meeting can be viewed on IndependenceTelevision.com under “Government/Schedule.”
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Going back to last December, the Independence Township Parks, Recreation and Seniors Department received a partial grant for Walters Lake property acquisition from the State of Michigan DNR Grants Division (Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund).
And while the potential purchase was met with negative feedback from local residents who wanted the area to stay the same, the township kept in touch with the owners of the 76-acre, two-parcel piece of the land, the Zeunen family and Clarion Farm LLC, who did not wish to sell the land located by Clarkston and Eston roads.
At the March 17 township board of trustees meeting, unanimous approval was given to withdraw the bid to buy the land and to terminate the application approval with the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.
“For the last couple of years, the township has been kicking around the idea of trying to expand our park system, that’s part of our master plan, and as a component of a growing community, retaining greenspace is pretty important, I think, to a lot of different people,” Independence Township Supervisor Pat Kittle told The Clarkston News. “When the passing of one of the property owners on the Walters Lake property happened, we had approached the family to see if there was any interest in preserving the family name and creating a legacy in honor of the family and see if we could turn it that property into a park.”
Kittle also said that a new park would have been a fine addition to the township.
Township officials filled out the grant applications and were verbally approved for the $4.5 million with a $1.5 million match from the township for a total of $6 million.
“Last year, the state gave us $2.25 million of it and said that if you guys really want to push this, you can apply for the second half this year,” explained Kittle. “In the interim, when all this was going on, the family had been approached by other entities as well who were interested in the park or the property. I thought we’re going to kind of get caught in limbo because I know there was other communities in the state who were really interested in developing the park and we had a couple of million dollars tied up.
“In talking with the property owner, it was identified that they had changed their mind, and that there is no intention of doing anything with that property right now until they weigh all of their options. I do know that they have been approached by developers, and like I said, I don’t want to get in any sort of competition with anybody.”
Kittle said that triggered his mindset to “pull the plug on the entire project.”
“More importantly, if the family has no intention of doing anything, let’s just let it stay as is,” he said.
In addition to voiding and forfeiting the Dec. 2019 grant approval, the township also waived its option to apply in 2020 for additional park funds or grant funds for the purchase of the property.

— With files from Matt Mackinder