A new maintenance facility for the Oxford Township Parks and Recreation Department received a green light from planning commissioners last week.

Commissioners voted 5-0 to grant preliminary and final site plan approval for a 5,000-square-foot maintenance building with an adjacent 1,536-square-foot outdoor storage shed in Seymour Lake Township Park off S. Coats Rd.

“It will finally give us an opportunity to get all of our stuff located (in) one facility and not (spread) around the entire township,” said Parks/Rec. Director Ron Davis.

He explained to the commission “the department has grown so large that we’ve got equipment strewn all over the township” and “a lot of our stuff is sitting outside.”

Having a single, central facility that’s large enough to hold all the tractors, snow plows, etc. will save the department “a lot of time and money” that’s currently wasted driving from place to place to retrieve equipment, according to Davis.

It was originally estimated the new facility will cost $362,500, but Davis anticipates it being less than that. Of this, $100,000 is coming from the parks and rec. budget. The rest has been allocated from the township’s general fund reserves.

Davis noted his department is saving money by using local subcontractors.

“Everybody involved with this project is an Oxford resident, from plumbing to electrical to site work to steel to the barn, septic, you name it,” he said. “(The savings is the result of) the relationships we’ve worked diligently, over the 20 years, to build here.”

The only ordinance requirement Davis asked the planning commission to waive is the requirement to build a safety path along S. Coats Rd.

“It’s ludicrous to spend money to put a path there that has no recreational or health benefits whatsoever,” he said. “If you’re familiar with that site, it leads to absolutely nowhere . . . I’d be the first one to tell you to put it in if it had a benefit. It has no benefit at all.”

The estimated cost for this safety path, according to Davis, is $40,000.

“I’d rather put in a play structure or a pavilion or something that people can utilize,” he said.

Davis was informed he would have to seek such a waiver from the township’s safety path committee. That’s not something the planning commission is empowered to grant.

“If we had any choice in this matter at all, we would be backing you,” said Commission Chairman Todd Bell.

Constructing the new maintenance facility is the first part of a three-phase plan in the 132-acre park.

Phase 2 will involve transforming the park’s current maintenance facility, located just east of the main entrance along Seymour Lake Rd., into the parks and rec. department’s administrative offices and a community room.

The offices and supporting rooms would occupy 2,528 square feet – 1,304 square feet on the main floor, plus 1,224 square feet on the second floor. The community room would occupy 2,095 square feet.

The estimated cost for Phase 2 is $500,000, of which $400,000 would come from the proceeds of the township’s sale of the Oxford Veterans Memorial Civic Center (28 N. Washington St.) last year.

Phase 3 involves a 3,140-square-foot addition to Phase 2 that consists of a senior activity room complete with basic warming kitchen. The estimated cost is $357,000.

“Before we can get the ball rolling (on Phases 2 and 3), we have to build this brand new maintenance facility,” Davis said.