Woodview Commons final plan for Scio Township gets a greenlight

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After making its way through the planning process for the past several years, the mixed-use development called Woodview Commons took a big step forward on October 26.

Proposed to go in at the southeast corner of the Jackson and Baker roads intersection, the Woodview Commons’ final Planned Unit Development (PUD) site plan got the approval from the Scio Township Board to move forward. The development agreement was also approved subject to a final review by the township attorney.

There are still some adjustments expected to be made to the plan going forward, specifically in consideration of the Great Blue Heron rookery discovered this past summer near the site, but there’s a process in place for the township and developer to see that properly addressed.

According to township consultant Doug Lewan, the site is 90.6 acres and the developer is proposing to bring three properties of vacant land together for a project that would have commercial and residential elements.

The development will consist of 48,000 square feet of flex retail space, a 150 unit senior care facility, a self-storage facility and a mixture of residential housing-types, including: stacked flats (252 units), attached ranches (113) and townhomes (59 units).

Lewan said what a PUD does it allows a rezoning to a specific plan. Township officials noted that community benefits are a condition for any PUD.

Township supervisor Will Hathaway said in his report that one of the community benefits in the Woodview plan is a long segment of pedestrian pathway to be constructed by the developer.

The developer also plans to contribute $500,000 to the township to defray township utility expenses and within 30 days after the date on which there are 318 completed units, the developer plans to contribute $225,000 to the township to defray the township’s costs of building a new fire station and/or purchasing a new fire truck with aerial ladder

A big part of the plan’s adjustment did come late in the process when township interns working to inventory the township's nature preserves discovered that there is a significant Great Blue Heron rookery of over 50 nests in the West Scio Preserve, adjacent to the Woodview Commons property.

According to Hathaway, “The township conducted an environmental assessment of the heron rookery and determined that protecting the nesting area would call for a buffer zone and seasonal restrictions on construction in the southern portion of the development site.”

The plan is to pull the development further north, away from the herons' nests, resulting in an increase in open space within the development.

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