Final site plan approval for a single-family site condominium project consisting of 30 detached units was recommended in a 5-1 vote last week by the Oxford Township Planning Commission.

That recommendation will be forwarded to the township board and it’s expected to be an agenda item at the 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 14 meeting.

The Sterling Heights-based Clearview Homes is proposing to build a residential development called Savannah Ridge Estates on 41.36 acres located in the southwest corner of the township on the north side of Stanton Rd., just east of Baldwin Rd.

The proposed 30 units would be constructed on lots ranging from 1.01 acres to 1.75 acres. The lots will line a private cul-de-sac to be named White Pine Way. The plan shows 15 units each on the east and west sides of the street.

Savannah Ridge Estates would not be connected to the township’s water and sewer systems. Each home would be served by its own well and septic systems.

The development would be part of the Lake Orion school district.

Construction site garbage and the required safety path were two big topics during the planning commission’s discussion.

Commissioner Jack Curtis, who also serves as a trustee on the township board, expressed his concern about trash and debris from the future construction site potentially littering surrounding properties if it’s not properly contained and regularly hauled away.

He noted the township has had some issues with Clearview Homes’ construction sites in Waterstone.

“The trash from Clearview Homes ends up in everybody else’s yard,” he said. “You store all your garbage in the garage until (the home being built is) done and then you have it hauled out. I might suggest a dumpster.

“You’re getting a lot of complaints about litter and trash. You’re becoming part of this community pretty heavily and I don’t think you want to tarnish your name because the undersheriff is getting crap blown in his yard.”

Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe lives in Waterstone and has had issues with Clearview’s construction waste blowing onto his property.

The other issue was the required 8-foot-wide safety path. Under the zoning ordinance, Clearview Homes must either construct a safety path along the north side of Stanton Rd. or in lieu of that, pay money into the township’s safety path fund.

Clearview Homes had intended to pursue the payment-in-lieu-of option.

Jerry Griffith, vice president of operations and land acquisition for Clearview Homes, explained “it doesn’t seem to make sense” to install a safety path in that area “if there is no intention to have anything around it right now.”

This part of Stanton Rd. does not contain any safety paths, nor is it slated to have any based on the township’s safety path master plan.

Griffith noted Clearview would also like to avoid installing a safety path in order to help preserve the site’s natural look.

“We’re trying to avoid removing some of the trees the safety path would require removing,” he said. “That was the biggest reason for us.”

The payment-in-lieu-of option must be approved by the township board following a recommendation from the planning commission. Under the zoning ordinance, the township engineer is to provide a cost estimate for the safety path if it were to be constructed and that amount is to serve as the basis for a recommendation on how much the developer should pay.

In this case, township Engineer Jim Sharpe, president of the Oxford-based Sharpe Engineering, estimated it would cost a total of $106,802 to construct the Stanton Rd. safety path.

That figure includes the estimated $62,500 it would cost to construct half of a bridge that would be needed so pedestrians could cross over the Paint Creek Drain.

Griffith thought the estimate was high.

“Quite honestly, I think we could do the work for a lot less money,” he said.

“It’s a huge amount of money and (it) really changes our lot cost,” Griffith noted.

Sharpe indicated he was willing to look at alternatives to his figures if Clearview Homes provided them.

“That is just an estimate, so if they went out and got hard prices from a contractor and can prove this is realistic, this is what the pricing is, and (my) estimate is found to be too high, then we would certainly evaluate that and we could come back with an adjusted number,” he said.

Township Planner Matthew Lonnerstater, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, concurred.

“The cost estimate (submitted by Clearview Homes) has to be analyzed and deemed acceptable by our township engineer,” he said.

As part of its recommendation for final site plan approval, the planning commission included a condition that “the cost estimate given by the developer has to be assessed and approved by the township engineer” and the in-lieu-of amount “will be determined by the township engineer and the developer” prior to township board approval.