- excerpts from Diane Andreassi's November 27, 2015 report in Hometown Life (Gannett)
After Lyon Township residents armed with petitions came out in opposition, the Lyon Township planning commission tabled a revised master plan that calls for more homes per acre in rural areas of the township.
Residents objected that it was too soon to revise the Lyon Township Master Plan, which had been adopted in April, 2012.*
Township Resident Steve Emsley said “the township’s roads and water system are already overtaxed." The South Lyon school system is over-extended.
Planning Commission chairman Mike Conflitti recited the party line: “The big misconception is we are rezoning property, which we are not doing. Many people want to see the township stay the way it has been in the past. There is going to be growth." Then he wheeled out his big gun, the platitude, "People have property rights whether they want to sell to a developer or a nature conservatory.”
He doesn't explain why taxpayers should have to live with the costs and after-effects.
Emsley called Conflitti’s comments "word play." "While the master plan doesn’t change zoning, it is ensuring future rezone requests will be in compliance with the amended master plan, and the public will have no argument." “There are about 10 planned developments in the township pending approval and that represents 1,000 more units that you don’t see today."
You don't have to read the news to know how dangerously crowded Lyon Township roads have become. Just take a rush hour tour of the Pontiac Trail parking lot or Ten Mile Road.
The kicker in this story is buried in the Lyon Township Master Plan, which was compiled by McKenna and Associates. Beginning on page 213, the problem of the hamlet of New Hudson is discussed. The similarities to Whitmore Lake are impossible to overlook. In McKenna's description of their future vision, you can practically hear the clanking of the bulldozers. At some future point, a similar fate awaits the comfortable nest of inexpensive houses surrounding that tiny downtown.
Growth!
* Northfield Township's Master Plan was adopted in July, 2012, but dated June, 2013.
