After months of work and discussion, a draft of the updated Oxford Township master plan has been completed.

“I’m pretty pleased with what happened there,” said Planning Commissioner Tom Berger during last week’s meeting. “I think it turned out quite nice.”

The draft will be discussed during a special joint meeting between the planning commission, township board and zoning board of appeals in March. The date and time are still being worked out.

Only a few major changes are being proposed.

Under the future land use plan included in the draft, the multiple-family residential (RM) designation has been split into two tiers – medium density, which allows a maximum of four units per gross acre, and high density, where the maximum is eight units per gross acre.

Oxford’s current zoning ordinance has only one RM district that permits up to 10 units per acre, so in order to be consistent with the proposed master plan, if adopted, it would have to be amended to include these two lower-density tiers as zoning districts.

The proposed future land use plan also includes two new mixed-use designations – village mixed-use and industrial/commercial mixed use.

Berger said he’s “definitely for” having mixed-use areas.

“I think it’s viable (given) what’s happening around us and everywhere else,” he said.

Properties north and south of Oxford Village would be assigned the village mixed-use designation. This is “intended to support and complement downtown Oxford by promoting a mixture of compatible neighborhood commercial, office and residential land uses,” the plan states.

The idea is to promote multi-story buildings with commercial and office uses on the first floor and residential uses on the upper floors. Residential density would be limited to eight units per gross acre in this designation.

The industrial/commercial mixed-use designation is intended to allow a number of uses including light industrial and manufacturing, high tech, research, office and commercial. According to the draft plan, the idea is to “promote campus-style developments.”

If the draft master plan is adopted as is, the township’s existing zoning ordinance would have to be amended to include these mixed-use designations as zoning districts in order to keep things consistent.

Commissioner Kallie Roesner-Meyers was critical of the draft plan and what she saw as its lack of detail and usefulness as a guiding document for the township’s future. “I can’t point to anything in this plan and say, ‘Wow, look where Oxford’s going,’” she said.

“My basic concern is just that we’re not laying out enough of a vision and a real plan for (the next) 20 years,” she explained. “I’d like to see us thinking more about what we’re going to do here and put it in this plan.”

She believes simply updating the existing plan is not enough to protect the township’s rural character and deal with issues such as road congestion.

“This is just a very slightly modified version. It doesn’t have any teeth,” Roesner-Meyers said.

“I don’t think this is a step in the right direction,” she noted.

Roesner-Meyers pointed out how much the township has grown over the last 28 years.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township’s population (not including the village) has increased from 9,004 residents in 1990 to 12,485 residents in 2000 to 17,090 residents in 2010.

As of July 2017, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) calculates the township’s population (not including the village) to be 17,283.

SEMCOG forecasts the township will grow to 19,167 residents by 2040.

Roesner-Meyers also pointed out how the planning commission has allowed for developments with greater density despite existing zoning. For example, properties that were once zoned for lots with a minimum of 5 acres were changed to zoning that allows for 1-acre lots, she said.

“That happened under this (plan),” she said.

She believes there needs to be more detail in the master plan, so when commissioners are considering future zoning changes, they can refer back to it for guidance and “make better decisions than we’ve been making.”

“Sometimes we were just really shortsighted,” Roesner-Meyers said.

In response to her concerns, township Planner Matthew Lonnerstater, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, Inc., suggested creating and adding sub-area plans covering each of the township’s quadrants.

“(With) the master plan, it’s a lot of township to cover, but if you’re focusing on one part, you can go into more detail,” he said.

There was a consensus among the commissioners that this idea is worth pursuing.

“I’d be willing to go that route,” Berger said.