May 19 – Update
Hannah Farms Update
Hello Neighbors:
I hope that this finds you and your families well and staying safe during this troublesome time.
You may recall in mid-March we corresponded regarding the proposed senior living community on the Hannah Farms property to the immediate west of Indian Lakes Estates (ILE). A public hearing on the project was scheduled before the Planning Commission on March 16th. and subsequently cancelled due to the stay-at-home order.
We have just been informed that the meeting has now been rescheduled for Monday June 8, 2020 at 7 pm. This will be a public hearing before the Meridian Township Planning Commission on the proposed senior living center by Andev. Andev Group LLC is a global real estate business development firm in the Midwest specializing in constructing senior living communities. They are headquartered in Chicago. This public hearing of the Planning Commission will be a virtual meeting directly through Zoom. Those property owners within 300 feet of the proposed development will also be receiving notice by mail, probably sometime this week. For more information on how to watch and/or participate in the meeting please go to the Meridian Township website at www.meridian.mi.us and click on “Meetings”. Once the meeting is posted by the Township it will provide a variety of options on how to access the hearing including Zoom, Comcast channel 21, YouTube, Facebook, as well as a call-in phone number for participating in the public comment phase.
The Andev plan has not changed since its submission for the March meeting. For your reference, I have again provided attachments to help with perspective. Additional information will also be available on the Township webpage when the meeting is posted, including the agenda.
As a review, Andev has applied for a Special Use Permit. There are basically two components to the Special Use Permit approval process. First, the Planning Commission has approval authority in terms of the use of the proposed site, and second, the Township Board—because the project exceeds 25,000 square feet—has approval authority on the over all size of the project. Therefore, if approved by the Planning Commission, the Andev application will move to the Township Board for approval on size.
Finally, as shared in our last correspondence, the ILEHA Board-- under the guidance of our legal counsel Mr. Jack Davis--found that the Andev plan met or exceeded land preservation and setback requirements as established by the Township. Additionally, the plan’s secondary ingress and egress design does NOT connect in any way to ILE. However, as also mentioned previously, we still have questions regarding the surface water management plan. We are working with Andev to secure the calculations they used in developing their plan so that we can verify their claim there is no adverse surface water impact on our neighborhood.
In closing, please know that your ILEHA Board and our legal counsel Mr. Davis remain committed to vigorously protecting the best interest of our neighborhood consistent with the wishes of our homeowners. This effort has been ongoing through generations of ILE homeowners. Now that we are reaching the final phases of development of the Hannah Farms property, we must do everything that we can to maintain the quality of life in perpetuity here in Indian Lakes Estates.
Kindest Regards, Joe