By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — During its meeting on March 18, the Independence Township Board of Trustees approved the final site plan for Waldon Village II by a 6-0 vote. Township Supervisor Chuck Phyle was absent from the meeting.
“Just for everyone’s recollection, this project was approved in 2021 with multiple phases. Phase one was the single family townhomes, those are under construction currently. Phase two was the 48 homes off Walters Road, those are also still under construction,” said Planning and Zoning Director Brian Oppmann. “Phase three was essentially split with the market being one kind of a, 3A, and this is what we term West Commercial. So, this is the rest of the commercial project.”
The commercial part of the project includes a market/grocery store which is currently under construction, 21,000 square feet of restaurant/commercial space and 5,000 square feet for office/commercial space.
The site plan proposes a 4,298 square foot stand-alone restaurant, a 14,460 square foot building with a restaurant, office and retail uses, and an 11,470 foot childcare center. The plan also includes outdoor patio/plaza areas.
“This is a couple years in the making. The Planning Commission voted unanimously, six to zero to send this to the board for final site plan approval,” Oppmann said.
Board members discussed some of the changes made to the original site plan including a reduction in the number of buildings from four to three, the addition of bike racks and the location of trash receptacles.
Trustee Sam Moraco who sits on the Planning Commission gave a bit of an overview of how the commission added to the project.
“We were limited to what was already approved here, so we tried to do our best to dial it in at the planning commission level,” Moraco said. “Our main focus was the protection of the residential properties that are adjacent to it.”
Trustee David Hayward spoke to remind residents of the development process, noting that he is aware many residents are against the development.
“A lot of times residents come and they see this building coming up, and I’ll be honest, it’s too late at that point if you’re concerned about the developments, which I do hear a lot,” said Hayward. “When I was running for office, I knocked on a lot of doors, and I can tell you that over 90% of the people I talked to were not happy with the developments that we’re doing, and with this, we can’t just simply vote no because we don’t like it. We are voting to allow something that is legal, that has passed all the tests of what the township allows.”
Treasurer Paul Brown added that development within the township benefits everyone, especially the school system.
“The schools collect something like 65% of the tax dollars. So, the greatest beneficiary of increasing developments that pay taxes on our school system, which is very important. To keep our home values up, we have to have a great school system,” Brown said. “What the township collects, and any increases in taxes, we collect about 24% of all your taxes come to the township and of those funds we get, something like 80% goes to police and fire. So, it’s the most important things you want: schools, police and fire, right?”
The board approved the final site plan for phase three — West Commercial of Waldon Village II contingent on the Planning Commission’s approval of a sign package for each tenant.