Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Uh welcome to the uh Chesterfield Township Planning Commission meeting on April 21st, 2026. Um if you would please silence your phones, we'd appreciate it. Like to introduce uh some people that are with us tonight. Um, township attorney Christine Anderson is here. Uh, township planner Jonathan Palen. Um, um, Ava Miller and Joe Bomb from Gifles Webster are here. And with that, um, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, I'd like to uh take roll call. Rick Leel here. Um Richard Brookart here. James Clonowski here. Mark Renault here. Eric Haidider here.

And Carl Leonard, I'm here. And tonight we have three excused um members. Um Kathy Bosberg, Brian Carr, and Ralph Jarski will not be here tonight. Uh with that, I'd like to uh make a motion to approve the minutes from April 7th, 2026. Support Any questions? Seeing there's none, a motion by Carl Leonard, supported by Mark Renault to approve the minutes. All in favor?

I opposed. Motion carries. Um, like to make a motion for the approval of tonight's agenda.

Change Uh yeah, we're going to modify the agenda and uh the item C is for uh Adley Holmes and that's for a preliminary site plan. So that's what we'll be voting on for that one tonight. Uh with that uh motion by Carl Leonard, supported by Mark Rol to approve the agenda with the uh revision. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right. This uh at this point we have uh public comments. If anybody in the audience would like to talk about anything at all tonight, uh you got three minutes. Come on up and speak your peace. If you got anything to talk about, nothing. Okay. Thank you. Public comments. Uh there are no public hearings tonight. Sure. Uh, when you come up, state your name and address and write it in.

My name is Mark Hodm. I live on Baker Road and I just you just announced that you're not going to be discussing the Adley home thing this evening, but I wanted to bring a few things to that that I've noticed that maybe that the planning commission should really look at. I received the package or I don't know if I received everything that you received, but it seemed like I got a lot of information and there were a lot of things that make it so that they really can't do it. Um, and uh, emergency entrance needs to be 20 ft. It's only 17. Um, I went there and measured it myself. They claim it's 20. in the in you got a you got a little note from uh the um from uh the fire department that said it was uh it was 20 ft. It's not. Um we've also already dealt with the builder or the developer many many years ago. Um and we had an issue with that. It got sold to somebody else. But when you look at all the plans and you look at the houses and everything, it's got that old developer's name and everything still on it. And I believe he's still very heavily involved in the situation. And I want to make sure that the planning commission and tries to encourage the engineering group to make sure that they go to Eagle in the state of Michigan because it's a salt river. it's not, you know, just a little strain. Um, and get the approval from there. Candace Miller said, "Hey, you get the approval from Eagle, it's fine with me, you know, but it is something that Eagle has to deal with." So, those

are my main comments for tonight, even though you're not going to discuss it. A lot of things come out with the meetings. This is just a preliminary and I'm sure there'll be a lot of questions and ultimately whatever uh moves forward is reviewed by the engineers in the township. So if things are not right with it, uh they'll have to correct them. Yeah. I mean, if you look at the drawings, the drawings say it's 20 ft. But if you actually go out and measure it, yeah, on paper and out in the field, they're going to be two different things at this point. Anyways, thank you. Could Could you uh excuse me, could you just push the button on the uh Oh, sorry. Lower right. Thank Thank you much,

Mr. Chairman. Real quick, I just want to clarify that that amendment to the agenda was not the item is still on the agenda. It was just amending amending the agenda to reflect the preliminary site condominium. That was the only change. Right. That's all I Okay, that's all I had stated. Thank you. Uh with that um we got the regular agenda. Uh item A is Woodland Meadows 2 site plan 2024.

Um it's for a one-year extension. Uh it's preliminary view review site condominium R1B 10.5 acres north of 23 M road east of SAS road. parcel ID number 15- 09-10-400-007. So, uh we're just going to uh make a motion or somebody will uh make a motion to extend this uh uh application for one year. So, moved.

Second. Okay. Mo motion by Carl Leonard supported by Rick Label to extend the one-year extension for uh this item. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Item B is Morelli lot 3 site plan 2026-02 M1. It's 1.79 acres in northeast corner of Morelli. Drive. The parcel ID is 15- 09-17-301-00003. The address is 27089 Morelli Drive. And I believe that Mr. Morelli is here this evening. Um, I'm here on behalf of representing Mr. Brian Coons of Brio Properties. He's a highly reputable, long-standing business owner in the township. It's been there since 2000 in a building uh where operates BCO welding and FAB and uh they're looking to do do an expansion to their building and um I've gone through the the review from Gles Webster and all that I know is a couple minor issues. One was the um the lights. They want to make sure they're stationary and constant in intensity and color and they will be. You could add that note on the building plans when we submit those. And uh the Ballard details, typically they're a steel ballard filled with concrete and stained or painted yellow. If that is still um approvable, we'll do that. If not, if they want a plastic covering on it, we can do that as well. Whatever the township would like. And everything else is I think um there's no other revisions that had to be made that I saw.

All set. Yep. Thank you. We're gonna have uh Ava Miller go through her uh okay her part and if there's anything else that uh pops up. Thank you.

Yes. So I believe this is the first time that this has gone in front of the board or the commission. Um so I just wanted to kind of uh introduce the um review and the development. So, the site itself is one parcel with two lots, lots two and three, located on the northeast corner of Morelli Drive and currently has an existing welding building, a storage building, and a parking lot. Uh, the project proposes an expansion of the existing welding facility on lot two onto lot three through a breezeway. The proposed industrial building will comprise of an office, shop space, and the breezeway. Uh uh access onto the site is proposed through three drives, two existing and one proposed onto Morelli Drive. And the planning commission is tasked with reviewing the plans and deciding as to whether the site meets all zoning ordinance standards and their intent. Um my review letter is going to be from April 3rd, 2026. And there are no nothing to address for the district in the use standards. So I'm going to go on to page three now onto building materials. So since the applicant um applied for this uh before the adoption of the updated building material standards, the development is subject to follow the previous standards. Um but it does uh mostly meet the new standards. Uh the road-f facing facade is made up of brick veneer and the rest of the facades are proposed to have stained concrete blocks and then a pre-finished aluminum coping is proposed along the roof of the building. Um otherwise the applicant addressed our two main points in the review. Um I believe that will be it. I did want to note uh

this is my first review for parallel parking that's proposed. So I was excited about that. Um but every everything else is compliant and if there are any questions I'll be happy to answer. Thank you. Did you have anything to add or I do not this time. Okay. Thank you. Uh with that we'll bring it to the board and we'll start with uh Eric. I have no problems. Looks pretty good. Okay. Thank you. Uh James, yeah, it's uh I I have no real issues with anything uh in particular, so looks almost ready to go. Thank you,

Rich. Just one question for uh Ava Miller. 3.19 Industrial District Standards B or I'm sorry, D is in David. We list items A, B, C, D, E, F. Nothing about G and then H and I. Is there not an a G? I'm just curious. Is there a a G portion for number three of the review for the use standards? Yeah, the roof mounted screening 3.19 for M1 light. So, we just noted the um the standards that were applicable to the site. So, since none were proposed, we just didn't add it on to that.

Thank you. I'm all set. Thank you, Mark. Um, actually, I did have one question. It does reference the review that was provided. It's with regards to that second driveway. Seeing as it's no longer going to run from the front to the back of the U property line anymore because that breeway breezeway is going to basically be cutting it off. What do you do when someone pulls into that area and then needs to get out because they realize they can't go through or they shouldn't be there because I don't know if there's enough room for them to turn or and I didn't see anything with traffic patterns there for that second driveway.

Yes. Um that we can add a sign it's a private drive that's really just access there's be there's a private garage in the original BCO building fab building. So to get into that private garage is off that driveway. So it needs to remain for that. There's a little bit extra before behind there. I think he's showing as like a loading zone right now or hash out area, but we can add the private drive only sign if we have to. Okay. Yeah, just I think probably something should go up there. I think anyone who's used to going in that direction may just zip right in and Okay. Thank you. That was it. That's all I had. Thank you, Rick.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I'm excited and glad that the uh that the owner is expanding um the breezeway. Is it removable? If if in fact the owner decides at some point he doesn't need to have one big building tied together, can he remove the breezeway? I mean, anything can be removed. I mean, it's block and footings. And you can take it out. And the reason being blocky buildings that I've been in the past, that's what they do. And then they make it removable so that if in fact they got to split the buildings. That was not the the intention here. The intention here is to make it permanent. But um I mean the worst case scenario, you could just like a building, take it out and take the footings out.

Thank you so much. Uh and the chair has no questions. Um you have anything else to add. With that, I'll bring it back up to the uh to the board and looking for a motion.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to move to approve the site plan for Morelli Industrial Building, lot 3, case number 2026-02, located at 27089 Morelli Drive, parcel ID 15 0917301003. Uh, subject to the following findings and conditions. Um, findings of fact, the proposed use is permitted within the M1 light manufacturing zoning district and is consistent with the intent of the ordinance. The site plan complies with applicable dimensional and developmental standards including setbacks, building height, lot area, and lot width. Parking, landscaping, lighting, and general site design substantially meet the requirements of the zoning ordinance. And the project is compatible with the surrounding industrial land uses and will not adversely impact public health, safety, or welfare. A couple conditions on the approval. One, uh, the applicant, uh, shall revise the plans to note that all the exterior lighting fixtures shall be stationary and, uh, constant in intensity and color when in use, subject to the subject to administrative review. Uh, the applicant shall provide the details of the color and finish treatment of the ballards for township approval, also administratively reviewable. The applicant shall comply with all requirements of the Mcome County Public Works Office, including storm water management standards and any other required permits and any other outstanding items identified in the GLES Webster review letter dated April 3rd, 2026 shall be addressed to the satisfaction of the township staff prior to issuance of any permits. Subject to these conditions, I would like to approve the site plan.

I'll support. Okay, we have a motion by Mark Renault to approve the site plan with uh conditions and supported by Rich ProArt. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.

Item C is Adley Homes. This is a preliminary site preliminary review site plan condominiums. Um, it's our subject matter 2026-03. It's a RM1 and RM1B 114.06 acres on the north side of 23 Mile Road, west of Baker Road. The parcel ID is 15-09-14-1000-25. The address is 33633. Miss Miller,

thank you. So, I'll be looking at our review letter from March 31st, 2026. Uh, this review is based on the plan submitted for March 2026, but I will address the updated changes. So, the site was approved for conditional resoning in July 2025. The conditions associated with the reszoning were that the applicant will provide larger minimum lot sizes for the R1B one family residential portion of the site, the 80x130, and that the applicant will provide amenities shown on the site plan for the use and development of the property, which are the recreation areas and hiking uh trails. Um the applicant is proposing one development for two sites, one for each parcel. In the RM1 portion south of the site near 23 Mile Road is a multifamily development containing 48 units within 12 quadplex buildings and all units are proposed to be two bedrooms. And then in the R1B portion of the site to the north is a single family development containing 147 lots. In the preliminary review phase, the planning commission shall review the overall plan for the site, including basic road and unit configurations uh and uh the consistency of the plans with all applicable provisions. And then looking at the bottom of page two, the applicant has provided the required materials for preliminary review with the uh exception of item D. Uh a copy of the master deed. Um the applicant is requesting to submit these at a later date. Moving on to the district standards table on the top of page three. Uh I'll just skim through what is needed to uh be said quickly. Uh the building height is not provided or required at this time. However, the applicant stated that

the building height will not exceed 32 feet and will be one story. And then this is for the multifamily development. And then scrolling down to the next table on page four. Uh looking at item E uh for recreation area, the applicant has provided a total of 46,000 square feet of recreation area which is stated on CP4. This is provided through the proposed 10- foot wide hike hiking/iking trail that totals 32,000 square ft and the proposed recreation park area with a kayak and canoe launch totaling 14,000 square feet. This also includes a swing set, gazebo, bike parking, and park benches. And no separate adult and youth rec recreation areas are proposed. Uh, scrolling down onto page five, um, uh, standard F1A, the building spacing. This has been addressed by the applicant and is stated on the multifamily architectural drawings that the building elevations will be revised to show no windows on either side of the buildings to keep the 20ft spacing between the buildings. Uh item I for 48 units 48 trees are required and four trees should be planted in the front yard green belt of each building. The applicant has proposed to plant 61 total red maple trees and put three in the green belt of each building for a total of 38. Uh the 10 this is 10 trees below the required amount. However, an additional 23 red maples are planted along the drives of the development. Um so 38 red maple trees are planted in the front yard green belt of the buildings and this results in 13 extra trees being planted from the required 48. Additionally, the applicant has provided decorative plantings surrounding the front elevations of the building and the

planning commission should discuss if the decorative plantings and the boulevard trees satisfy this standard. Going down to page seven, that second table, this is for the one family portion of the site. Uh again with the maximum building height, the uh building height is not provided or required at this time. The applicant stated that the building height will be added and meet the standards. Looking at the minimum lot width, uh, this one is actually compliant. The applicant provided an explanation in their response letter stating that there are two emergency access drives shown on sheet SP4, but only one of them will be chosen. So, this leaves enough room for lots 35 and 36 to meet the lot width requirements when one of them is removed. and the applicant provided two sheets at the end of their site plan package uh showing both of these scenarios. So you can see uh looking at the minimum floor area per unit uh it is not provided or required at this time but the applicant stated it will be added to the updated floor plans and meet standards. Uh going to page nine for building and surface materials uh in the building elevations provided. The applicant is proposing the multif family buildings that are composed of brick and vinyl. Uh the road facing facade appears to be all brick which is compliant. All elevations have a brick impact barrier and the left and right elevations have an 8 in vinyl lap siding and the rear elevation additionally has vinyl shake siding. Uh the applicant noted in their response that additional details for the building materials we will be provided and meet the standards for the sidewalks. A 10- foot wide shared use path is required along the north side of 23 Mile Road and has been provided by the applicant based on the updated plans. Looking at the landscaping,

uh a landscaping plan has been provided showing the placement of trees and shrubs throughout the sites. It includes the planting details, the common and botanical names and notes that irrigation will be provided for the multif family units and that open space will be seated uh seated mode and maintained on sheet 21. The fronted landscaping the applicant noted that the area is the required 10 ft width. And for the single family portion of the site, all lots have at least one straight tree with most of them having two. This totals around 300 proposed norm maple trees, which is an improved uh street tree species. Um, looking at lighting, the applicant noted that automatic sensor landscaping lighting will be provided to enhance security and convenience throughout the site. The products are attached at the end of their response letter, and it is noted that further details will be provided during engineering. As for bicycle parking, six bicycle spaces are required. Uh the applicant uh provided these six and provided a bike parking detail that meets the requirements for waste management. Uh the applicant noted that trash collection will be provided by curbside pickup for both multif family and for the single family lots. And then for number 18 blocks, the planning commission may wish to discuss if an explicit easement should be provided for the flood lay limits on the Salt River. And then lastly, 21 design standards. There must be at least four building elevation types. As the ordinance states that a dwelling must have three other dwellings with a different building elevation between the dwellings that repeat a front elevation. Uh the applicant has provided five building elevation types and there are at least four that are different since the rosewood and the Hawthorne designs look similar. Um, but the planning commission

may wish to discuss if these designs are different enough to be within the three houses of each other. And the applicant also addressed the steps and porch comment that is further down. Uh, they stated that buildings will be updated during design to include steps or a porch for the rear doors where grade change warrants it. And then I'll be available for any questions. Thank you. Uh, is the applicant here tonight? Come on up and, uh, turn on the mic, state your name and address, and, uh,

hi, my name is Jason Matteo of Matteo Engineering. I'm the engineer for this project. Uh, just wanted to had a couple general comments. Just wanted to start off by thanking the planning commission for having me here uh to represent the project for the opportunity to discuss this exciting project and uh for your consideration and approving uh the project for preliminary site plan. Uh we I believe the project as you can see and as Ava described the project balances a significant economic value for the township and for the region while also protecting the natural features of the site. Uh the site plan before you maximizes the build buildable areas while preserving the natural flood planes, wetlands, and repairarian habitat along the Salt River corridor. Uh in addition, this project offers several beneficial uses of these natural resources, including a park, kayak, and canoe launch, and a bicycle and pedestrian pathway for residents to enjoy along the Salt River. Uh the proposed bicycle pathway will also improve the bicycle path connectivity in the area. Um I thought Ava did an excellent job of describing the project and uh the planning uh planner review comments. Uh we've been working very closely with Ava, your planning consultant, and Giblles Webster, uh throughout the review process, and I believe we've gone above and beyond and responding to each and every one of those review comments. Um I I will say we are working very closely with the state of Michigan, with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Um, I know those folks uh quite a bit from all the previous projects I've done and um and successfully completed. We we did also already receive our Eagle permit uh flood plane and wetlands

permit for the proposed bridge crossing for the project as well. Uh so we are happy to report that. Um, in terms of some of the the comments that, uh, Ava brought up, um, we do intend in the next phase, uh, to redo the Hawthorne and and Rosewood, uh, architectural drawings, uh, such that they are, um, markedly different from each other. And so we meet that four building elevation types um, that you seek. Um, in terms of the master deed, Ava mentioned that, uh, we we do intend to, uh, complete the master deed, the really primary reason why we're not doing so now is only because throughout the next phase in the engineering phase, uh, there could very well be some changes to the site. And so, we want to make sure to capture that in the master deed uh, when we're closer to completing uh, the engineering phase. Um, so we're here before you. I'm I'm happy to answer any questions or or concerns you have. We are um asking for your consideration and approving us for the preliminary site plan for the project.

You're all set. All set. Thank you. Thank you. Um with that, we'll bring it back up to the board and we'll start with Eric. Hi. Thanks for coming out. You did a pretty good job on your first initial uh reviews. Uh you answered some of my questions. Uh the one question I have on the uh the Bton Kayak launch, is that public or is that going to be for the residents only? And if it is for residence, are you going to have some type of signage for for public use? Yeah. Uh we and we we do intend to provide signage. Okay. So it's purely for the residents. Uh for public use.

Public use. Got it. Okay. All right, that's it for right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, uh, James. Yeah, most of my concerns have been addressed. The trees in the front yard, I think, are fine as well. Numbers, uh, there was some issue with the numbers, but, uh, it looked good. They had the additional trees there and different spots. So that's it from Thank you. Uh Rich,

I I think you did a real nice job responding to Gus Webster's report. I have a question regarding traffic, though. Chesterfield Township Traffic Division sees a possible concern turning left on a 23 mile road out of that subdivision. They see a blind spot uh with the guard rail that protects the river. Are how are you going to address that? Are you going to not have left turn on the 23? Are you going to do a traffic study? What are you going to do?

Uh so we do have as long as the microphone is still on. Okay. Yeah, we do have uh we made sure to account for clear vision triangles into and out of the entrance to 23 mile. We do intend to have a left turn out of the development onto 23 mile. Um, as far as the guardrail goes, I believe that's about 29 in tall from the road surface to the top of the guard rail. So, that really shouldn't uh limit sight distance. Um, in terms of the traffic count, when the project was reszoned last year, it is less dense than what the original master plan accounted for. And and so we believe at this point a a traffic analysis or traffic count is unnecessary given the fact that we're less dense than we originally the township originally planned for. When it comes to the decorative planting and the boulevard trees that you intend, can you describe those for me a little bit? I I don't know what the what those are and how they meet the standard.

Sure. We we do provide so for the multifamily portion of the project um that includes 12 buildings a total of 48 units and as Ava pointed out we provide uh more than the total number that's required that which would be 48 trees green belt street trees. Um, the only reason why we on our landscaping plan that we uh submitted, the only reason why we don't provide four green belt street trees directly in front of each building is only because of the limited space between the driveways. And so the concern is just uh you know we still intend to meet the minimum requirement in terms of total number of street trees. that from a practicality perspective, we felt that if those street trees are too close, if they're planted too close to each other, which they would be if we had four per building in front of directly in front of each building, that then they would probably grow into each other and ultimately in just a couple years time would one or both would have to be removed. So just from a practicality perspective instead we show three green belt street trees in front of each building and then of course we have extra along the boulevard.

Thank you. I'm all set here. Thank you. Thank you Mark. Actually all things my question is actually for Jonathan. There's a number of uh items I think that need still need to be addressed, but I'm sure assuming you and your group are fine doing that administratively with a number of items that need to be updated. Yeah. Um based on the items that were brought up tonight, um I've also discussed them with the applicant. Um I think they're minor enough that I'm comfortable doing that administratively. Okay, that was my only question. Thank you.

And also just to mention too that as was stated, this is preliminary. So, the planning commission will get to see a final set of drawings with all those items reflected in the final. Thank you, uh, Rick.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, and and I apologize you don't have a drawing in front of you. Um, on Logan Court and Camden Drive, you have the um, you have lots through 20. And that and that's the that's the one that I have up on my screen right now. There's an elevation change. go. It's going from 582 to 588. Now that when you get up to 588 and 586, does that get you out of the out of the flood zone, out of the flood plane, is that up high enough so that that when the river does come up, um if you remember, I think you were here for the preliminary um approval that um there was a lot of concern about water. is by what you're doing going to achieve that question?

And if you could repeat the lot numbers that you were referring to. I'm sorry. The the page that I'm looking at is on your drawing number. My computer's not acting very fast. Uh, it's okay. Spo numbers in particular, just I I chose those lot numbers because there's elevations on all of those lots, right? We we did develop a very detailed um grading plan at this stage which is

right and we felt important just so that we could assess the feasibility of the entire site and it's easy to put a site plan together but without a detailed grading plan sometimes you know so it it really helped us in developing what we believe is uh a a very feasible constructable site plan. To answer your question in terms of flood plane, um we did do a very detailed um delineation of both the flood plane and floodway. Um this kind of thing actually falls into my expertise. I do an awful lot of uh flood plane work. I'm a certified flood plane manager and have been for almost 25 years. and and so um we the intent with this with the grading plan associated with this site plan is to minimize impacts to flood plane. We are staying out of the flood way completely and um and we fully intend to we've already started our application process with Eagle for the cut and fill in the flood plane and intend to mitigate any fill in the flood plane as part of the project. So, we're not the the idea with the permitting process with the state of Michigan is to show that this project does not increase any risk of flooding on this site or on any adjacent parcels.

Okay. Yep. Thanks.

Uh thank you. Um the chair has no further questions. Um, so if you don't have anything else to add, I'll bring it to the board and I'll entertain a motion for this uh preliminary site plan. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion. A motion, please. This is for the preliminary site plan approval for Adley Homes LLC site plan 20263 partial ID 15 09 1410 025. After review of this evening's discussion considering the Gibble Gibles Webster engineering report dated 33126 and the Mateo engineering report of April 15th. I offer that the site plan substantially meets all zoning ordinances and standards as applicable. RM1 and R1B are compatible with the surrounding area consistent with the master plan. The applicant has addressed all concerns identified in the Guffles Webster report and the traffic concerns have also been addressed adequately at this time. For this reason, I move to preliminary preliminarily approve the site plan with some caveats. All concessions and agreements stated in the Mateo consulting letter dated April 15th sent to this planning commission are managed administratively. They include but are not limited to for RM1 section 3.1.9D.

The maximum building height updates to the elevations are meant to be in accordance with our ordinance requirements. 3.9F1A. The building elevations will be revised to show no windows on either side of the buildings and will also be in accord with all of our ordinance requirements. For R1B section 3.15D, all the building height callouts will be updated in the elevations and be in accordance with all of our ordinance requirements. The same thing for the floor area plan. square footage will also be added in accordance with our ordinance requirements. And then the detailed building materials, the sidewalk width, the landscape plan updates, phototric plan for proposed lighting, bicycle spacing, trash enclosure details, steps, and or porch requirements. All of this has to be managed administratively and extremely consistent with your report, the Mateo engineering report. Lastly, either alternative described on page eight of the report for the minimum lot width is acceptable. Any deviation from that needs to come back before the board. With these caveats, I move to approve the preliminary site plan. We have uh support. Do I have or We have a motion to approve. Do we have support?

Support.

We have a motion to approve site plan preliminary site plan approval by Rich uh Brookal um supported by James Kanowski. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. and we'll see you again sometime in the future. Sounds good. Thank you.

No presentations or reports. Um we have planning commissioners comments. Uh but we've got the this I think we do the data centers first. So item A on number 10 is the zoning ordinance discussion for data centers. Um I guess we can start with that. Um Jonathan, were we going to have Yeah. Is anybody from the township step?

Yeah. So, um, tonight we are just going to, um, I I have Mitchell Connor, Township Engineer here, and then I also have, uh, police chief, um, Craig Miller, and fire inspector Rich Muha here to, um, I'll invite them up to the podium. You guys can fire away at them if you have questions. I think they each wanted to make a a brief thing on what they're looking for. Uh, also mentioned that, um, there was a couple of, um, activities over the past week. Uh there was the I sent you all an email. There was the um town hall meeting at Mcome Community College. I'm not sure if any of you have attended or would like to mention anything from that. And also there was a a tour. I know there was some interest from the commission on going on a tour. There was one that was held in a couple of spots did open up. So uh Mr. Lavell and Trusty Vosberg did get an opportunity to go to that. So um I don't know if Rick wants to to address that at all. And then if there is interest in another tour, please let me know. They said they could do another one if there's enough interest. Um, but they have to it's a group that coordinates with the data center and they have to set it all up and schedule it. So, let me know. Um, I think it there's probably a minimum threshold of people they need in order to put it in place. But with that, I can turn it over. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I do apologize. Could I have us take a fivem minute recess? Thank you. Uh we'll not even five minutes. We'll uh come back at uh 7:45. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Uh we uh we can get started again if you would state your name and tell us what you uh have to say. Thank you.

Uh Mitch Oconor, Township Engineer. Uh thank you for the opportunity. Uh Director Palin asked me to come speak. Uh we we have a water main master plan and a sanitary sewer master plan. Uh which takes into account the developments that you know residential development or industrial that is taken into account in the master plan. Uh in fact the master plans water main sanitary sewer master plans are based on the zoning master plan. Uh and those pipes have been sized and rolled under the ground and backfilled. the the ask we would have for data centers is because we're not familiar with them and we normally don't ask for this. Uh but during the site plan review process, we would ask that we get the uh the projected water usage and also the projected uh effluent coming from the the data center. Uh we would like that opportunity to consider that or to equate that during the site plan review process. all set. Thank you. Uh, whoever wants to come up next, uh, hit the button there and state your name.

Good evening. Uh, Craig Miller, fire chief for Chesterfield Township. I just wanted to come before the commission real quick, say good evening, and let you know that the fire department usually is working the background. Uh, we are part of the process with all new development building in the township. We have five licensed fire inspectors that work in the department and we regularly work in concert with director Palin in the planning office and Mr. De Masteraster in the building department. Uh with me tonight is our senior fire inspector, Sergeant Rich Muha and Rich has a tremendous background in uh the topics talk about tonight. So I'll uh defer everything to him. Thank you. Good evening.

Evening. first. Do you have any specific questions at all before I kind of run through a couple things? Would you like the questions before I don't know if you have any

Well, I guess we run through. So, obviously we don't have any data centers. Um, anything anything new is obviously a concern for us, something we don't have, something we don't work with, but fire departments come over the years, we're very good at adapting to all the changes around us. Some of the primary concerns with data centers are first access and security. Uh because of what they have for the equipment and the data that they're storing on site, they have very tight security. So it' be one thing that we would have to work with any center to make sure we had proper access to be able to get us into the property if they had an incident. Their fire suppression systems within those buildings get very complex and technical. They'll start at the building level with an entire structure just like in here we have a fire sprinkler system. Then they'll go down to a room level. That'll get down to where you'll have just multiple servers within a room. And then they'll actually go down to even a rack level. So they'll have multiple levels of systems for fire prevention as well as detection. Um those systems are constantly always evolving. They could be clean agent systems. They could be using water. There's a lot of different ways that they will do it, but there are a lot of technologies that are constantly changing that are uh quite effective on them. Um, interior arrangement is always a concern of ours. Guys going into a smoky environment, we got to figure out where we're going, how to get around. So, that would be one thing that we would do with working with training uh with the building and the facility to make sure our guys are familiar with it that if there was an event within the structure that we could be able to uh navigate the building safely. Um, other things that they take into account, uh, fire separations. So, you'll have making sure that there's firewalls between areas that are just the computers, racks, servers, and batteries and battery storage rooms. They'll make sure that there's firewalls, and those are uh meet standards that are um designed for that type of equipment to be in them. So,

it's not like you're just going to have a general room with a bunch of lithium ion batteries in it. It's going to be a built a room designed for that type of a storage in it. And also a smoke detection fire suppression system designed for those rooms. And one of the because of the high dollar amount that goes with these buildings, the fire safety aspect is extremely attached to the economic standpoint. You're not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. You're potentially talking about billions of dollars when you get into the equipment as well as the data that's stored on site. So, they're going to make sure that they're obviously with any project, we have to make sure we stay on top of them, make sure they're building it right, but it's in their best interest to build it correctly to protect their assets that are inside that building. Any questions?

Thank you very much. Uh, bring it up to the board. Start with Eric. Yeah, because of the unknown of these data centers, how they plan on cool. Uh, and again, you hear a lot of stuff about how much water they're going to consume and the effluent that's coming out of there. We we do want to be in the during the site plan process, we do want the numbers of their projected water usage and sewage, uh, which we normally don't do. So, yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah, we'll just go down the line.

Okay. Um would would you need any special fire equipment? I'm sorry. Uh for for these uh data centers um you are you referring to like new apparatus or things like that? As far as our equipment and our vehicles, I don't see that we would have to have any changes and adjustments to that. There might be uh smaller like gas detection equipment, uh maybe different hand tools, some things like that. I wouldn't think that there would be any reason to to change our apparatus or anything like that. There's multiple departments all over the entire country that are actively working with these facilities that have very similar fire apparatus to what we have right now.

And you mentioned that the there's different like batteries are separate from computers. there's different is that something that we need to address through the planning process. Right? So that would be that would be handled through the building plan review process. Uh that when we were going through and looking at the building and the way everything's fire separated, no different than when we would look at for lack of a better term of building a Walmart to make sure that you know here's your retail space, here's your automotive space. you have to have minimum fire separations between them or different uh complexes where you might have an assembly use versus a small business use where you're making sure that they have the proper fire separation between the different classifications of the occupancies.

Thank you. Um Rich, I'm all set. Thank you, Mark. I'm good to go. Thank you, Rick. Back to the batteries if you wouldn't mind. you know, I mean, we are in the process of writing the ordinance right now. Um, and I've I've done some research and um, what I've seen in other areas, they actually put in their their right in their ordinance um, how much allowable if in fact they decide to go with lithium ion batteries, how much allowable batteries are allowed to be in each room. Is that something that we would want to put right in our ordinance so that it was upfront? Um,

like I said, I've seen other it could look as kind of like a yes and no because if you were to if you were were to try and say, "Okay, for a lithium ion battery, we're going to put you limit you at how many ever milliamp hours or how they rate them. But now they changed the battery technology and the size has changed now where you could have had where at one point in time whatever the the amperage hours you put on those batteries could have been a big room. But now 6 months from now that changes and now that same amount of battery you could fit on a small desk. So with the I'm not sure if that's something you would want to get that specific in because it might end up limiting you and pigeon holeing where you kind of get stuck and then the battery technology changes and then maybe next year it's no longer lithium ion. It's a different battery technology and now you limited it in that way. um something something that we're really concerned with,

you know, because otherwise they use lead acid batteries, right? You know, which which has been around for quite some time or they use a dynamic system which is a centipal they use um motion to um as the power goes out, you've got 10 to 30 seconds before your backup generators kick in in order but but then of course there's no hazardous chemicals at all,

right? Um there's multiple ways of cooling these units, cooling these these computers. Um they do it with air as they're currently doing right now, but it's becoming increasingly inefficient. um they do it with water or some kind of fluid so that um they pump water through a heat sink through each individual computer or now they're doing immersion where they emerge actually take the UPS or I'm sorry the um the computer equipment and they immerse it in a tank in a um in a swimming pool. That could be mineral oil which you know we've been dealing with for years in our transformers and what have you. it's nonflammable or they use fluorocarbons and um as it as as you know I'm sure more than all of us that when a fluorocarbon has a a very low boiling point and um so as it gets hot it turns into a gas they recycle it through the machinery and pump the fluorocarbon back into the tank again. I don't think that there's any issues with any of that as far as something that we need to put in again in in the ordinance.

Yeah. Again, uh the cooling, that's another thing, the cooling how you stated multiple different ways. The way that they cool them, and by no means is that my expertise is how they do any of that, but from just my research, the way that they're cooling them is constantly changing from what they were doing back in the 70s uh and into the 80s of the evap complete evaporative evaporative style of cooling where the water was coming in. and it's just evaporating out in the air and then they're just refilling the system versus now a lot more common is the closed loop systems or other ways to do it. So again, that's one of those that the technology I'm not sure on that point of again how specific you would want to get. That's probably one of the more of the the legal type question as to how specific you would want to get on some of those factors.

Reason I'm asking these questions, I would just want to do what we can to help you.

Right. Right. No, appreciate that. As far as access, um, I did have an opportunity to visit data. I've been I've worked in many data centers. Um, sometimes they have fencing, gating outside, you go through a security guard, then you're into the into the computer equipment. They've also got, um, some of them have man traps where you go through one door and there's a specific amount of time and if and if you're not registering, your face isn't what's supposed to be there or you're not doing what you're supposed to do, um, it doesn't let you in through the second door to get in. So, you're trapped inside of a inside of a cubicle, you know, um which I would think that you would have a problem with that. Um, you know, again, if there's anything that we can do to help make your job easier,

uh, things like that should be addressed within the fire alarm system. Uh, where if the fire alarm is actively functioning, that doors go into an unlocked position so that we could be able to gain access as well as people can properly egress so that people aren't trapped in the building in a fire condition. They can lock those doors when the the building is in normal operation where you might have a delay to egress or something like that or trap you where you can't necessarily just go from point A to get out of the building. But once the building would go into a fire alarm, they're supposed to be able to open, activate, and let you exit the structure. Right. Right.

So, we would have that would be again part of the plan review process. And one of the things that right now uh we do do all of our plan reviews inhouse. uh when we would get to something this complex, we do have it within our ordinances and with the code that we can lean on experts outside of our department and I would definitely be taking full advantage of leaning on some experts on the different details and fine levels of this obviously something new. It's quite different than working on to reference like a Walmart again. It's a lot different from working on their fire alarm system than working on this. So I would definitely be waiting on experts to help me with that process.

Okay, great. That's all my questions. I'd just like to make one more comment. Thank you for what you do. And um is there anything else at the planning department or this planning commission? How can we help you in any other way for any other subject? um working with Jonathan uh since the five years I've been up here, I think we've built a pretty good relationship going back and forth and everything's been working good since we've gotten full-time inspectors finally with the department.

Great. Thank you very much. Um I don't have any uh thing to add to that. So uh there's nothing else up here. Um, any of the commissioners have any comments about anything else? You got three minutes? I got one last question, Mitch. And are we prepared water-wise for this new? Again, we have master plans already developed. Yeah.

The pipes are in the ground. Uh, those master plans did not take into consideration a potential user this big. So if if they do have high demands that we can't provide, uh we would have to, you know, they would have either have to store it on site and pump it at they as they need it. Uh yeah, it needs to be considered during the site plan review process. And you had mentioned the effluent. Yeah, if the effluent comes in with like a high mineral content or that needs to be discussed also, you know, if we're putting a load on the Detroit treatment plant, then that would need to be resolved. I I would think at the site plan review process. Anyone else? Uh with that, we're ready to adjourn. Um you know, I I do have one thing and it's not on here. The last meeting we talked a little bit about the uh the uh doggy daycare. I don't know if that's something that somebody's inquiring of where it's going to go. Um, I brought up that years ago we used to bring our dog to a place and u I actually called them up and uh it was all American Dog Resort and that's a franchise type operation. They've got maybe six or eight locations. The one that I used to go to is in uh Roseville and it was not around residential. I think there was a couple of homes that were nearby, but it was like an older type sub that couple houses survived. It was all businesses and that and uh so they allowed the dogs outside for play because it didn't um impact anybody inside. Uh at a busy time they uh like around holidays. Sometimes during the summer they're real busy. They can house overnight up to 120 dogs. So, I thought that was quite a bit. And

uh they do a lot of the just daytime stuff. Uh they had mentioned um different people bring their pets in. Firemen sometimes will bring the dog in just for the day. They have a charge for half day for um whole day. Then they have the overnight stays. Um they do grooming, dog grooming there, but that's about it. They don't do anything else. So, uh I don't know what Chesterfield currently has, but um the other the next closest uh of their operation is uh in Shelby. So, uh um there's nothing really in uh in our area north, south, or west of us until you get out to Shelby. So, if this does go anywhere, um I think it's kind of a neat idea that, you know, if we have locations that maybe we'll end up with something like this, uh over and above what we might have now. So, that's all I had for that.

It's up to you if you want. Um Rick had an opportunity to go and visit a a data center and uh some other things. So he's going to share a couple of the highlights with us. I'm not going to bore you with too much of the uh the information that I wrote down here. Um the data center that I I did have an opportunity last Thursday to visit a data center. Like I said, I've been in many data centers, but this was specifically I went there specifically to to aid us in the development of our of our ordinance. Um, this particular data center was 123 net. It was in Southfield and they um they size a data center based upon the amount or they base it upon the electricity being consumed or used in a data center. This one was a se a sevenmeg data center. seven seven megawatts of energy. Um they're looking to update and go up to a 16 megawatt. This location was a co-use data center. So they um they had multiple floors. It was a it was a uh six-story building. They have multiple floors and um they did their cooling via air. They had a um the racks were all in rows and then they had cold air pumping. Then the racks had a a a separation wall halfway through the rack through the the actual housing of the rack. Then they pumped cold air in one corridor. The air went through that corridor, went into another corridor where the warmer air was taken, of course, back into the the cooling system. That's how they cooled it. Um it was a um not a very high techch data center. They had customers like for instance um one area was for online gambling and um you know which I was surprised

but they didn't have those any behind any kind of fences. I could have went up and touched their equipment which I found very strange but um it was uh it wasn't very high-tech. So they they coexist with many other industries. So it's not just for instance one user occupying the whole data center. It was hundreds of different users. Some people had one rack, some people had a row of racks that they were using in their in their data center. Um one of the other things that um that I found very interesting in that in that when when I was talking to the gentleman is again you know, we're we're talking about data centers coming to Chesterfield or the possibility of a data center coming to Chesterfield Township. Um, in order to do so, we've got to be able to get that receive that information, that data, and send the data back out to wherever it has to go to, which means we need some kind of fiber lines. That's currently the way that we we send our message around is on fiber optics. And I'm thinking there's no big fiber runs in in our area. I was wrong. There is a there's a map that I I requested which I haven't received yet which I will pass on when I get it. There is a currently a a fiber run that is coming from Canada across the Slair River going through southeastern Michigan and uh exiting Michigan in Benton Harbor going under Lake Michigan over to Chicago because as I've mentioned before there's a there's a super fiber run that runs across the United States Atlantic to the Pacific goes to you know other countries around the And that's the reason we see these mega centers in Ohio, Virginia, areas along that along that route because they can

get and receive all that information relatively easily. So I you know I think that we probably have a pretty good possibility of getting a data center here in in this area. um this particular data center um each rack required 20KW of energy. Now using 20KW and my math at 208 if they if they run their equipment at 110 volt that's a 45 to 60 amp circuit. Now, they already have racks that currently right now they have racks that can use 130 kW of energy, which equates to 361 amps per rack. The forecast in the very near future is between 250 to 600 kW per rack. In the future, as things progress, they're projecting that they'll have one meg of energy per rack, which is an extreme amount of energy. And as we know from our physics classes from way past is that when you've got this energy going in, either they're using it or it's being dissipated into some some other form of energy, which is heat. What they're currently doing is and what we're all seeing around this area is they're using air conditioning. The whole water thing is is something that is recently came up, but Rick currently all the ones that we for instance the the one that's going up in Seline is using air conditioning. They have a tremendous amount of air conditioning. they're going to cool these rocks, right? Um, they can use water and there's been comments made about, you know, the million gallons of

water coming out of a out of a um out of a system. I mean, these are some pretty smart people. I would think that they would find a better way of cooling this equipment. They have to have very clean a very clean fluid to go through these heat sinks in order to remove the heat. So, they're not going to they're not going to use something that has got debris in it or some other things that would plug up such a tiny orifice that's got to go through these heat sinks. So, they're going to use a some some kind of a purified system. And as I was speaking with the fire marshals just a moment ago, there are there are um they're currently working on and they have been using an immersion system where they take the actual CPU, they immerse it into fluid. So it's on a really hot day, we jump in a pool to cool us off because all that fluid is surrounding us and it cools us off quickly. They're doing that with these CPUs. They're putting them in in this nonconductive fluid. It could be a fluorocarbon or it could be a mineral oil, something that is nonconductive to cool it. And then they they they cycle this fluid out and then they they cool the the fluid again, pump it back in. Now, that can be done with a chiller system or an evaporative tower as with heat exchangers, a an evaporative tower, which you would use more more water on, but um you know, we've been experiencing that with plastic injection molding FL factories for years. That's what they use to cool their equipment. So that's just a brief talk on that. Um besides that, um they did one very interesting thing that they that was brought up last Saturday at this at this town, uh town hall meeting was they had an engineer there from Michigan State and he brought up a graph or a picture on the screen and he showed a drinking water bottle with it was

threequarters of three/4ers full and he said, "You realize that if you use AI and you do you ask it one question. If in fact they're cooling with water, it would use that much water to for you to ask that one question. So you can imagine how many millions of people are asking a question every second. How much water can be used unless they come up with a a better way of cooling these racks? So and and he had he echoed my statement just a moment ago that water just isn't isn't the way to do it. And they're coming up with new technology. I think that once we get all of this AI online and we all understand it, I think AI is probably going to figure out how to cool itself in in a different way. With that, I've, you know, there there's plenty more if anybody wants to Oh, I guess one more thing that um I'd like to bring up if I if I may is there is tax incentives that the state of Michigan has put forward. These tax incentives go through 2050. And the requirement is is that you have to spend 200 a minimum of $250 million on a project and you have to employ 30 people and those 30 people have to be paid 150% of the medium wage of the area that the data center is being built in. Now we all know that the one to Seline is um it's a seven billion dollar project. So they clearly met their the criteria. Um but even a $250 million project, that's a big project. And um I would think that if in fact somebody's going to build a data center, they would probably want to meet that threshold in order to um get the tax incentive. So, I would imagine that we're going to probably if in fact we do get something or if one is going to being built um it's going to be sizable because $250 million is a it's a

pretty good size construction project as well as equipment project. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sure. Uh has now I don't know I don't have any real solid facts on it. Does has anyone heard of a data center going in in Lennox Township?

One of the gentlemen there was there was a whole eight of us on Saturday. Not very many people showed up. One of the gentlemen was an assistant to a congressperson and I didn't get who it was, but he was there on the same for the same reason. He wanted to hear what was going on. Um, as of right now, what I've been told by this gentleman and what I've read online is that, and of course, this is speculation that Lennox Township has not had anybody come and ask for presented anything to them yet as of now. And in fact, in the article that I had read, it said it was just a rumor, but that was, you know, of course, nobody lies on the internet, so

that that's what I had read. But yes, there is rumor of that right now to the point where a congressman is sending one of his assistants to these kind of meetings to find out if they know if they can find something out. Okay. I I heard the same thing from somebody different

and uh it it's just a rumor and it it's possible that these rumors are kept under the radar. there's so much negativity that I think maybe they just keep it on the down low and you know they're just exploring with you know without exposing it and then get media involved and people are showing up at meetings and so I think you're going to see that for a while that uh some of the inquiries to go into a certain community are maybe going to be under the radar at first until some of this information gets cleared up and people have more information uh about it and they get a chance to discuss it and know the facts rather than just all the rumors. So there might be some conversation in Lennox. Not sure. So if nobody else has it,

just a correction on your comment about the doggy daycare. We do have a doggy day care in Chesterfield. Is it just for the daytime? No, you can go overnight. Do they have Okay. Yeah. And so the ordinance is because it might expand into kennels. No, it's been it's been there for a long time. So that's why it's way before this. So Okay. Yeah. It's the one on 23 mile, the tree lodge right by the animal on 23 and SAS. When we use this place, it was like in 2000. Oh, I I took my dog there. It's fantastic. Yeah. My dog turned out to be a better social dog by going over there. Yeah. They're great places. So um and it was a vet, so but it's great.

Yeah. Is it I don't know how large that one is, but they they during peak they could do 120. On average they're doing 50 60, you know, a week is their average. Probably about 50 60 dogs there. It's in the plaza center, you know, where the Yeah. Okay, good. So, no, it's great. I get another dog. I have a place that's closer. Yeah, real close. Thank you. Um there's nothing else. uh at uh 8:17. I'll make a motion to uh adjourn the meeting. Uh motion by Carl, supported by Rich to tonight's meeting at 8:17.