Tractor Supply Company (TSC) cleared the first two hurdles toward opening a new store in Oxford Township.

Last week, the planning commission voted 6-0 to approve a special land use that will allow TSC to have outdoor sales and display areas totalling 24,222 square feet.

Commissioners then voted 6-0 to grant preliminary site plan approval for a 21,930-square-foot store on a 3.87-acre commercially-zoned vacant parcel located on the west side of M-24 (Lapeer Rd.), just south of Market St. It’s between the Oxford Bank Mortgage Center to the south and the Burning Oak Smokehouse restaurant to the north.

Both approvals came with various conditions including requiring plenty of natural screening around the TSC site to protect the view of surrounding neighbors.

Headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, TSC has 1,550 locations spread across 49 states.

Right now, the closest TSC stores are in Ortonville, Lapeer and Washington Township near Romeo.

Founded in 1938 as a mail-order business, TSC now bills itself as a “rural lifestyle retail store,” catering to the needs of farmers, ranchers, horse owners, rural homeowners, do-it-yourself enthusiasts, contractors, tradesmen and small businesses.

DMK Development, of Norton Shores, Michigan, plans to buy the land, build the Oxford store, then lease it to TSC.

According to Derek Marine, development manager for DMK, once all the necessary approvals have been obtained, the company hopes to begin construction “no later than July 1” and turn the completed store over to TSC by the end of February, so it can open at the end of March.

“That’s the plan right now,” Marine said.

Most of the meeting was spent discussing TSC’s proposed outdoor sales and display areas and how best to screen them so as to not negatively impact the restaurant to the north and homeowners in the Waterstone development to the west and south.

The proposed site plan shows a 17,478-square-foot fenced outdoor sales area on the store’s north side. It also shows four permanent sidewalk display areas, totalling 3,726 square feet, and two permanent trailer and equipment display areas, totalling 3,018 square feet.

“All of these areas are significantly set off of N. Lapeer Rd. and they are significantly landscaped,” said Steve Witte, an engineer with the Grand Rapids-based Nederveld, Inc., a firm working on the TSC project. “I think that’s important to know.”

Witte explained the proposed 17,478-square-foot outdoor sales area would have an 8-foot tall fence around it. The east side facing M-24 would feature an “ornamental fence,” while the north and west sides would have black, vinyl-coated, chain-link fencing.

A public hearing concerning the special land use was held and three residents spoke.

Waterstone resident Adam Stewart, who lives on Franklin Lake Circle, expressed his concern about “light pollution” from the proposed TSC negatively impacting surrounding homes in terms of quality of life and property values. He was worried about the store’s outdoor areas being “lit up for a good part of the night, if not the entire evening.”

“The homes that are immediately adjacent to this, the bedrooms are all facing that,” Stewart said.

Jadwiga Jones, a Waterstone resident who also resides on Franklin Lake Circle, wasn’t opposed to the TSC store, but she had the same concerns as Stewart.

“We like the idea of the store. It’s needed,” she told the commission.

But Jones wanted to see “some type of wall” built or some “very mature” trees planted in order to block the homeowners’ view of the store, so it won’t keep people up at night.

“I think that could solve a lot of problems,” she said.

Jones noted, “As a business owner, I look forward to this store because it’s going to help us as a business and a lot of other businesses in town. But at the same time, I do need a good night’s sleep to run a business.”

Waterstone resident Jennifer Mielnicki, who resides on Derby Lane, expressed her support for having “some type of concrete wall,” as opposed to a vinyl-coated fence, surrounding the outdoor sales area.

“That way, we’re not actually seeing all the equipment that’s outside,” she said.

In response to the residents, Witte said light pollution at night wouldn’t be an issue. He explained the lights would be connected to timers and only on “from dawn until dusk.”

“In the middle of the night,” Witte said, “there’s no lighting” except for the “low-level LED lights” that illuminate the building for “security purposes.”

The store would be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

“We did submit a photometric plan (as part of the site plan),” Witte added. “There’s no light spillover (to surrounding properties). It’s all shielded.”

As for the idea of using a concrete wall as screening, Witte said they’re opposed to that.

“We don’t think that looks attractive by any means,” he told commissioners. “So, we prefer to keep the fencing there.”

He wasn’t the only one who is not a fan of a wall.

“I don’t like looking at concrete,” said Commission Chairman Todd Bell. “I don’t think other people like looking at concrete. I think they would rather look at something natural.”

Commissioner Mike Spisz agreed.

“I don’t think a concrete wall is what anybody really wants,” he said. “I think it’s really (a matter of) they don’t want to see the product from where they’re at.”

In his motion to grant special land use approval, Commissioner Jack Curtis included additional screening requirements as conditions.

One of those requirements is having a berm along the site’s west side that’s approximately 4 feet in height and topped with “staggered evergreen trees,” planted at 60-to-80 percent opacity (20 to 40 percent transparency).

The other calls for screening the north side of the fenced outdoor sales area with evergreens planted, again, at 60-to-80 percent opacity.

Township planner Brian Oppmann, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, noted planting the evergreens at such a high opacity now, means the level will increase to 100 percent in two to three years.

Curtis’ motion also made it clear the special land use is tied only to TSC as the tenant, not to the site itself. In other words, if TSC ever leaves, that would void the special land use.