A waiver allowing the Legacy Center to have 193 less parking spaces than required by the zoning ordinance was granted Nov. 10 by the Oxford Township Planning Commission.

However, officials required the owner, Lake Orion entrepreneur Christian Mills, to bank the “western and northern portions” of his 19.74-acre property at 925 N. Lapeer Rd. in order to potentially add more parking spaces in the future.

“I think you’re going to need them. You’re going to need them soon – sooner than later,” said Commission Chairman Todd Bell.

Planning commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the amended final site plan for the 208,000-square-foot Legacy Center, a multi-tenant recreation center and community hub that opened last year. Absent were commissioners Tom Berger and Kallie Roesner-Meyers.

This approval included a number of conditions. The main ones had to do with parking.

A total of 426 parking spaces are currently provided for Legacy Center visitors and employees.

The township zoning ordinance requires 619 spaces based on the usable floor area of the lease spaces and the number of employees at each business.

Using the information Mills provided, township Planner Matthew Lonnerstater, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, conducted an analysis of the anticipated parking demand based on the peak hours of operation for the various uses in the building.

From this, Lonnerstater determined “at one time, the most amount of parking” that would be used is 413 spaces.

Given Legacy currently provides 13 more spaces than this, Lonnerstater said Mills’ request for a waiver to reduce the number of required spaces to 426 was “reasonable.”

“It does, technically, meet our peak-hour demand study,” he said.

At the same time, the planner also recommended that land be banked to develop more parking in the future.

Bell agreed and explained this gives the township “a vehicle” to require Mills to add more parking if at some point in the future, Legacy visitors and employees are observed parking on the grass, on unpaved surfaces or anywhere else they’re not supposed to.

Commissioner Ed Hunwick inquired as to how the township would go about enforcing this.

“The (ordinance) enforcement officer would write a citation if they were parking anywhere other than on the paved areas,” Bell said. “I think once it’s identified that they’re parking in areas that are not paved or for parking, we can force him to (add parking).”

But Bell noted he doesn’t believe the township will have to force Mills to add parking because he’ll do it on his own as the Legacy Center’s occupancy and use continues to grow and the need for more spaces arises.

“I think as a good businessman . . . he’d be crazy not to pave it,” the chairman said. “You don’t want people walking in mud and tracking (it) in the building.”

Mills agreed.

“We want to make sure that the building is nice and that people will have appropriate access,” he said.

However, Mills expressed his concern about the possibility of him being cited and required to add more parking if one person chooses to park on the grass when there are still plenty of spaces available.

Bell assured him “one car isn’t going to cause it.”

“I just don’t want to be in a situation where tomorrow, we wave a wand and now, I have to spend $250,000 on parking that I don’t quite need yet,” Mills said.

“That’s not going to happen,” Bell said.

However, what would lead the township to require more parking, according to Bell, would be a large event during which 50 or 100 vehicles were parked in non-parking areas.

“That’s going to trigger that we need to get this done at some point in time,” he said.

Bell noted banking land for future parking is not about the township having “a trump card” that it “throws down” when there’s “one car (on) the grass.”

It’s simply about having land earmarked for future parking needs and making sure “that’s all it can be used for.”

But again, Bell stressed he doesn’t believe the township will have to step in.

“You’ll know when it’s time,” he told Mills. “We won’t have to tell you.”