235 acres of Northfield Township have been conserved as a County Nature Preserve by the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Board. At tonight's meeting the necessary rezoning was recommended for approval by the Township Board. Parking area site plans were approved.
Included in this application is a Wetland Delineation Report. It contains the map below. The report describes the indications of wetland found at various locations on the property. This is more scientific than simply listening for squishy sounds as you trudge across the tundra.
Much of the Preserve, 119 out of 235 acres, is protected wetland. That protected status spills over into much of the adjacent property, especially in the four adjacent parcels to the southwest. The County wanted to add those to the Preserve but could not.
Roll your mouse over the map below left to see the purchased and unpurchased parcel boundaries. According to Tom Freeman, County Parks and Rec. purchased the 235 acres for "a little under $6,000 an acre." [LiveVideo] Two of the parcels they could not obtain, totalling 22.2 acres and labled Wellings on the 2012 map below, sold in February, 2015 to a private individual for $221,000, about $10,000 per acre.
In another Agenda item, Nowatzke Trucking asked for site plan amendment, permission to replace a required 8 foot opaque fence with a 4 foot chain link fence. The PC declined his offer.
Planner DuMouchel's draft of a letter representing Northfield Township's response to Webster Township's Master Plan was approved.
The final revisions of the PC Bylaws were approved for public notice and will be voted on in a future PC meeting. The Article 8 provision - rewritten to turn Master Plan approval into a simple majority vote will stand unless - before the final vote on the Bylaws - one of the four Commissioners who voted to approve this revision moves to reopen and revote the issue. Commissioners who voted in favor of a simple majority were Dignan, Stanalajczo, Iaquinto, and Roman. Chockley and Chick voted against the degradation. Cousino was absent.
DuMouchel again spoke up for the Master Plan: “I know I've said this before. I just also would like to urge you to reconsider taking as consensus a position as you possibly can on the Master Plan. It is a foundational document. It will be the first thing you have to look at when every other request comes before you so I think you don't want that to be hanging by a thread. That's just my strong professional opinion.” [a LiveQuotation link]
What else is in the revised bylaws?
Less restriction on conflict of interest. Less public notice.
Despite DuMouchel's directness, there was no public follow-up to the grave concern about Beckett & Raeder's billing policies shared with us at the December 8th Board meeting by Township Manager Howard Fink. Nobody said anything. Is that because, as Fink himself admitted [LiveVideo] at that same meeting, there had been no policy in place?
My opinion is that DuMouchel's real sin was telling the PC (and presumeably, the Township Board, if they were listening,) the truth about the meaning of the 1996 and 2010 Township Surveys at the September 16, 2015 PC meeting. You read about it here and you can watch it here.
- Busy? Click here to watch just the meeting items you have time for using a LiveAgenda (updated and complete)
- Click here to view or download the Meeting Agenda
- Click here to view or download the Meeting Packet (18MB)
- Breakdown of Packet into individual downloadable documents:
- Whitmore Lake Preserve - Site Plan Review by Township Planner (1.35MB)
- Whitmore Lake Preserve - Township Engineer's review (237KB)
- Whitmore Lake Preserve - Entrance and Parking plans (2.5MB)
- Whitmore Lake Preserve - Application for the Site Plan Review
- Whitmore Lake Preserve - Wetland Delineation Report (12MB)
- Whitmore Lake Preserve - Rezoning Application (2.1MB)
- Nowatzke Site Plan Amendment Request - Review by Planner (1.3MB)
- Nowatzke Site Plans - (5 prints) (5.5MB)
- Nowatzke Site Plan- History (444KB)
- PC Bylaws Final Revision
- Webster Township Letter
- Click here to view or download the December 16, 2015 meeting Minutes (draft)
- Click here to view or download the December 2, 2015 Meeting Minutes (draft)
- Click here to view or download the Notice of a Public Hearing to evaluate Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation's proposal to create a 235 acre nature preserve, with parking spaces, near Seven Mile Road. The proposal is in tonight's packet.
- Click here to watch the entire meeting on Livestream
But remember folks, a LiveAgenda is the only way to watch a meeting. Press ReadMore to see today's.
NORTHFIELDTOWNSHIPPLANNINGCOMMISSION
NOTICEOFREGULARMEETING
December16,2015at7:00p.m.
SecondFloor,PublicSafetyBuilding
8350MainStreet,WhitmoreLake,MI48189
LiveAGENDA
3.ROLLCALL
5.CALLTOTHEPUBLIC David Gordon
7.REPORTS
B.ZBA
A.Case#JPC150006WashtenawCountyParksandRecreation,2230PlattRoad,AnnArbor,MI
48107:RezonefromLocalCommercialDistrictandAgricultureDistricttoRecreation
ConservationDistrict(Section36-125).TheparcelnumbersareB-02-04-100-002,B-02-04-300-
001,B-02-04-400-003andB-02-09-200-001andarezonedAR,RC,ARandLC,andLC.
Public comments: James Bagley John Flannigan Shawn Green
Motion to close public hearing
B.Case#JPC150006WashtenawCountyParksandRecreation,2230PlattRoad,AnnArbor,MI
48107:Siteplanreviewtoproposeinstallationofa4car,gravelparkinglotwithapaved
apron,akiosk,entrysign andbikeracks(Section36-864).
Public comments: Debbie Lambert David Perry Karen Bagley Debbie Lambert John Flannigan James Bagley
Motion to close public hearing by Dignan, supported by Iaquinto
9.UNFINISHEDBUSINESS (moved so that it follows NEW BUSINESS)
A.Bylaws:Finalreviewofproposedlanguage.
B.WebsterTownshipMasterPlan:Approvalofproposedletterofresponse.
10.NEWBUSINESS
A.Case#JPC150006WashtenawCountyParksandRecreation,2230PlattRoad,AnnArbor,MI
48107:RezonefromLocalCommercialDistrictandAgricultureDistricttoRecreation
ConservationDistrict(Section36-125).TheparcelnumbersareB-02-04-100-002,B-02-04-300-
001,B-02-04-400-003andB-02-09-200-001andarezonedAR,RC,ARandLC,andLC.
Planner DuMouchel’s report encompasses both rezoning and site plan.
Engineer Jake Rushlow’s report on the site plan
Commissioner Larry Roman points out that a parking lot is NOT required
Commissioner Cousino’s comments on County vs Township requirements, fees, costs of
Commissioner Dignan’s comments on great new park
Motion to approve by Iaquinto (approved)
B.Case#JPC150006WashtenawCountyParksandRecreation,2230PlattRoad,AnnArbor,MI
48107:Siteplanreviewtoproposeinstallationofa4car,gravelparkinglotwithapaved
apron,akiosk,entrysign andbikeracks(Section36-864).
Motion to approve by Iaquinto (approved)
C.Case#JPC150007NowatzkeTruckandTrailer/Damrath Group,LLC,6900WhitmoreLake
Road,WhitmoreLake,MI48189:Siteplanamendmenttoretainanexistingchainlinkfence
ratherthanbuildthe8’cedarscreeningfenceshownonthesiteplanapproved4-15-2015.
11.MINUTES:December2,2015Meeting - None
12.POLICYREVIEWANDDISCUSSION - None
14.COMMENTSFROMTHECOMMISSIONERS
Dignan Chick Chockley Stanalajczo Iaquinto Cousino Roman
15.ANNOUNCEMENT:NextRegularMeeting–January6,2015 Brief discussion of expiring appointments and steps necessary to replace or reappoint planning commissioners Iaquinto and Roman
16.ADJOURNMENT
There are more LiveAgendas at our website:
www.northfieldneighbors.today
