10-25-2022 1:48pm

A mixed-use development with a hotel component goes before Scio Township

The frontage of 5411 Jackson Road, where the proposed mixed-use development might be located on its vacant land. photo by Lonnie Huhman.

A proposal for a mixed-use development is now in front of Scio Township officials and it is asking to build a nearly 50,000 square feet hotel off of Jackson Road.

At the Oct. 24 meeting of the Scio Township Planning Commission, the plan titled “Honey Creek Business Park” went before the commission seeking recommended approval for a conditional land use for a mixed use development. The Sun Times News followed up with planning commission chair Jan Culbertson about the proposal. Culbertson said the planning commission voted by a 3 to 2 split to recommend approval of the conditional use to the township board of trustees.

The request for conditional land use for a mixed use development approval will now go before the township board.

In explaining the recommendation, Culbertson said, “A conditional use is not an approval of a site plan or layout, only the uses and the square footage of each use on that property.”

The applicant for the proposal is the AR Brouwer Company. The property address is 5411 Jackson Road, which is just east of Zeeb Road. The site is 25 acres.

According to the report from township consultant, Carlisle Wortman Associates, Inc., the applicant is requesting conditional use approval for a mixed-use development to construct a 48,100 square feet hotel with 122 rooms; 13,500 square feet office building; 25,000 square feet office/light manufacturing building and an 8,000 square feet multi-tenant retail building with drive-through.

There would be a total gross square footage of 96,400 square feet. The plan states the existing manufacturing building fronting Jackson Road will remain along with all existing built site improvements while the vacant southern portion of the site accessed from Zeeb Road is the proposed location for the listed site improvements.

The plan is very much in the early stages with the township. Culbertson said the applicant needs to combine the parcels and also go to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a two-story height variance for the hotel.

Culbertson said the applicant has not started the site plan process yet—“so the layout they submitted shows their intent, but could change.” She said if they do not receive the variance for the hotel, they would need to return to the planning commission for a new conditional use or submit as a Planned-Use Development (PUD).