It was a close vote, but a proposed senior living facility that will be located in both Oxford and Orion townships was green-lighted last week.

Oxford Township planning commissioners voted 3-2 to grant final site plan approval, with a list of six conditions, for Grace Premier Senior Living.

The facility will be located at 985 N. Lapeer Rd. on the west side of M-24 and south of Manitou Lane. The site previously housed New Beginnings Baptist Church, which is slated for demolition on Thursday, Sept. 20.

Voting in favor of the approval were Commission Chairman Mike Young and commissioner Ed Hunwick and Jack Curtis. Voting against it were commissioners Tom Berger and Kallie Roesner-Meyers.

Grace Premier Senior Living will be a single-story, 54,052-square-foot facility that will provide both assisted living and memory care services. It will contain a total of 63 units – 57 one-bedroom units and six two-bedroom units – to house up to 69 residents.

The boundary line between Oxford and Orion townships will run directly through the building.

Berger noted he’s “for this development,” but he voted against site plan approval because he felt too many of the conditions attached to it were dependent on reviews and approvals from the township attorney and he was “reluctant to support” something “without having some knowledge of what (those legal) opinions are at this point in time.”

“I’m not against the project,” he said. “I just want people to know where I’m coming from.”

Roesner-Meyers voted against site plan approval because she wanted to find out whether the township Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) intended for Manitou Lane, a private road, to not have a sidewalk installed when it granted a variance on Sept. 10.

Under the township zoning ordinance, the ingress/egress to convalescent or nursing homes must be on a county primary road.

Grace Premier Senior Living was granted a variance from that requirement so it can have two ingresses/egresses along Manitou Lane.

According to township planner Lauren Carlson, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, because the facility’s entrances/exits are going to be off a private road, not a public one, “a sidewalk is not required” along Manitou Lane.

But in Roesner-Meyers’ opinion, granting a variance to allow the facility access from a private road doesn’t mean a sidewalk is no longer required like it would be on a public road.

“I’m thinking when you give a variance, you allow it to be on a private road, but you’re still holding it to the public road standards,” she said.

Carlson disagreed.

“The county road standards don’t transfer to that private road,” she said. “We don’t create a whole new set of standards because of (the variance).”

In a Sept. 14 email sent to Oxford Township Deputy Supervisor Deanna Cushing, Carlson noted that Grace Premier Senior Living is “still required” and has “committed” to building a safety path along its property’s M-24 frontage.

Roesner-Meyers wanted the planning commission to reach out to the ZBA and clarify if it was the board’s intention to not require a sidewalk on Manitou Lane.

“We, as a board, can actually ask the ZBA that question,” she said.

“I do believe there’s a question of fact (as to) whether or not we actually did waive the sidewalk requirements,” noted Roesner-Meyers before casting her ‘no’ vote.

The sidewalk issue was raised during the meeting by Tarner Houser and Andrew Griesser, two residents of Settlement of Manitou, the subdivision which is only accessible via Manitou Lane.

“I think it’s essential (to have a sidewalk),” said Griesser, who lives on Algonquian Trail. “I don’t think it should be an option.”

Houser and Griesser requested a sidewalk be installed along Manitou Lane – from M-24 to just beyond the planned second driveway for Grace – to help protect youth traveling to and from the bus stop at M-24 and Manitou Lane.

“Right now, we don’t have a safe road for our kids to walk down to the bus stop,” Griesser said.

They believe a sidewalk is needed because the Grace facility is going to add more traffic to the private road between employees and visitors.

“With that additional traffic (comes) additional hazards,” said Houser, who lives on Manitou Lane.

“I think before anything is approved, it’s essential that we have a sidewalk,” Griesser said.

Settlement of Manitou is part of the Lake Orion school district and it was noted by Griesser that school buses “will not come into our sub,” so students are picked up and dropped off at M-24.

“They say that the buses can’t turn around in our sub because of the (cul-de-sacs),” he explained.

Clark Harris, one of the partners in Grace Premier Senior Living, noted that while they’re not installing a sidewalk on Manitou Lane, they will be doing a number of other things to “enhance safety.”

Those improvements include removing and reconstructing 575 feet of Manitou Lane, correcting a drainage problem, installing curbing, removing some trees to improve the site distance for drivers and adding traffic calming measures, he told commissioners.

Grace Premier Senior Living has also verbally committed to participating in a written maintenance agreement with the other property owners along Manitou Lane to help fund things such as plowing, salting and repairing the private road.