FeedsPlanners dejected by Sakwa proposal
A prominent Northville developer still has some work to do before his latest project wins admiration from the township planning commission.
Representatives from Grand Sakwa went before the commission Tuesday night for preliminary site plan approval and special land uses required for a new commercial complex on the corner of Five Mile and Sheldon roads.
The 15.68 acre site on the northeast corner was owned by the township and sold to Sakwa after his plan convinced officials that it would be the best use of the land.
The plan didn’t thrill the commission, though.
“To be honest, when I looked at this site plan I was pretty disappointed,” said Planning Commissioner Lisa Anderson. “I thought we had an opportunity to do something creative. This, to me, is more of what we already have.”
“The game plan was to take a piece of property with some unique potential,” agreed Commissioner Robert Nix. “There were a lot of features about this site that made it attractive,” he told the developers. “What happened is, we have a lot of open space but you never really captured the uniqueness of the property.”
The plan calls for about 72,000 square feet of mixed retail use in five buildings, the largest of which is a 30,000 square foot structure set aside for a fresh grocer. There’s also room for a 5,000-square-foot restaurant with outdoor seating, a 4,300-square-foot bank with several drive-through lanes and drive-through pharmacy.
The buildings will occupy slightly more than half of the site, while the remaining eight acres is set aside as a buffer zone between the homes to the north. That allows room to more than double the minimum setbacks between commercial and residential uses, according to Charlie Jacobs, project architect.
“It was our intent to preserve what was there and enhance it with an even greater barrier,” he said.
After the plan wins preliminary approval, it must still go before the Township Board of Trustees for final approval. The special land uses–for the outdoor dining, outdoor sales associated with the market and for the drive-thrus–must be approved. The site also has to be rezoned from residential use to business uses.
The overall square footage has increased from about 68,000 to about 72,000, which the board has to agree to, as well.
Bill Eisenberg from Grand Sakwa said the firm would take into account everything they heard Tuesday night, which included an exhortation to make the site more architecturally appealing, too.
“We’ll certainly go back to the drawing board and come up with a type of hybrid,” he said.
