Final site plan approval for the Legacy Center was denied last week in a 5-0 vote by the Oxford Township Planning Commission because the owner, Christian Mills, failed to submit all the information required by the zoning ordinance.

“This is clearly a substandard site plan,” said Commission Chairman Todd Bell.

The site plan Mills submitted for his 208,000-square-foot Legacy Center, located at 925 N. Lapeer Rd., suffered from numerous “deficiencies” concerning details pertaining to parking, lighting, landscaping and curbing.

“You’ve got a lot of work to do to get this up to snuff,” Bell said.

“We have our homework to do,” Mills said.

Instead of discussing the site plan as a board as the commission usually does, Bell broke with precedent for efficiency sake and took charge of things right from the get-go. He even made the motion to deny.

He explained to Mills everything that his plan was lacking in terms of details required by the zoning ordinance and information the planning commission needs in order to make decisions.

The chairman suggested to Mills that he and his staff read the township zoning ordinance, specifically Section 12.3, because “it will guide you through the process of exactly what needs to be submitted on a final site plan.”

“We’re only getting one whack at this thing. It needs to be absolutely complete, every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed,” Bell said. “This is a contract between the township and you (regarding) what you’re going to do on that site before you get final occupancy.”

Bell noted he has nothing against the Legacy Center, a multi-tenant recreation center and community hub that opened last year.

“I like Legacy. I’m not beating up on you because I don’t like Legacy,” he said. “I think it’s a great thing.”

But Bell noted he has a job to do.

“I have to protect and I have to uphold (the zoning ordinance) like the rest of these (commission) members do,” he said. “We have to. That’s our job.”

Mills wasn’t originally required to submit a site plan because he was renovating and re-purposing an existing building. For many years, the facility was a Sea Ray boat plant.

However, because the scope of activities inside the Legacy Center has grown and intensified well beyond the building’s previous uses, Mills is being required to seek site plan approval to address a variety of issues.

“The old Sea Ray plant was constructed many years prior to the current ordinance and since the change of use to the Legacy Center, it requires that many of the non-conformities must be brought up to the new ordinance requirements,” explained township Planner Brian Oppmann, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, Inc., in his Aug. 18 site plan review letter.

When the 19.74-acre site that Legacy sits on was rezoned to General Commercial (C-2) in February, it was made clear Mills would have to submit a site plan for approval. Bell noted both the planning commission and himself were “pretty adamant” about it.

One of the main issues concerning the Legacy Center is parking.

The site plan shows 414 standard spaces, plus eight handicap spaces for a total of 422.

But Bell said the information Mills submitted to the planning commission lacks the necessary calculations showing how it was determined that’s an adequate number.

Based on the township’s zoning ordinance for C-2 zoning, Bell said the “most stringent” requirement would be one space for every 100 square feet of building, which means the Legacy Center would need 2,080 spaces. The “least stringent” parking requirement would be one space for every 200 square feet, which means Legacy would need 1,040 spaces.

Bell noted if the planning commission were to approve, for example, a blend of the two, Legacy would need 1,500 parking spaces.

If the Legacy Center doesn’t need that many spaces, Bell told Mills he must show the planning commission why.

“That’s why (the township planner), for over 12 months, has been asking you for the documentation to prove to us the amount of parking that you can utilize or need to,” he said. “This planning commission does not want a sea of asphalt. We don’t want 1,500 spaces out there if you don’t need them.”

Bell explained to Mills the planning commission can grant him a “deviation” from the ordinance’s parking requirements, “but we have to have justification.”

“If you don’t show it, we don’t know it,” he said. “We’re gonna tell you, you need to put 1,500 spaces on this site.”

In response to Bell’s comments, Mills said, “We’ll go back and do a final review. I hope you accept my apology for not getting the administrative piece of this accurate.”

“Get it done right for us, please,” Bell said.