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Blank Slate Creamery's Scio Township location is on Jackson Road. photo by Lonnie Huhman
Blank Slate Creamery, which opened in Ann Arbor in 2014 as a family-owned business, is expanding its operations into Scio Township as it takes on a new location on Jackson Road.
However, there are some certain conditions that come with this.
The Scio Township Board approved a conditional use request at its Aug. 15 meeting for Blank Slate Creamery to use Suite C at 7879 Jackson Road for limited retail sales and production. The township board’s decision was based on the recommendation of the Planning Commission with the following conditions: 1. Only pick-up retail sales are allowed, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days per week. 2. Install one bike hoop in front of building. 3. Retail space not to exceed 10 percent of the gross floor area.
According to the township, Blank Slate Creamery requested a conditional use approval to provide carry out/retail activities to allow for pick-up for on-line orders of limited products.
“The site contains an existing multi-tenant structure with associated parking and site improvements. The applicant indicates their operations will be conducted in Suite C which contains 3,220 square feet of space to pasteurize and then freeze ice cream and sorbet, as well as produce other related dessert products such as cookies, brownies, ice cream cakes and pies. Orders must be placed 15-30 minutes in advance from a limited menu of pre-packaged items. It is not intended to be a high-volume use. The applicant has noted they will limit the number of orders per hour if volume becomes too high on any given day. Pick-up would be offered between the hours of 3PM and 9PM daily. The applicant is requesting the condition use approval to allow a limited commercial carryout/retail activity in 178 square feet (5.5%) of the space,”
Blank Slate owners Janice and Gerald Sigler attended the planning commission meeting. They said they were asking to use a small portion of the space for retail of ice cream pints, cakes and novelty items, and depending on demand, the pickup hours would 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. They have experience with online orders/pickup. The production part of the facility will supply the Ann Arbor and Brighton locations and do some wholesale.
The location is west of Baker Road.
On its website, this local business describes itself in part this way: “Blank Slate Creamery opened in 2014 in Ann Arbor as a family owned business. Our goal is to make deliciously creamy, all-natural ice cream with ingredients you recognize. We make our ice cream mix and most of our inclusions from scratch…”
Not a franchise, Blank Slate Creamery has 2 locations; the original in Ann Arbor and another in Brighton. Now it looks like Scio will be the third spot.
