The process of updating Oxford Township’s master plan continued March 22 with a joint meeting between the board of trustees, planning commission and zoning board of appeals.

Its purpose was to allow officials to go over the draft plan and provide the township planner, Matthew Lonnerstater, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, with input, particularly any changes they’d like to see made.

During his presentation, Lonnerstater explained the significance of a master plan.

“It’s really a guide for development (in) the township at least 20 years into the future,” he said.

It’s also the document on which the zoning ordinance must be based per state law. The last time the master plan was updated was in 2011.

As part of the draft plan, Lonnerstater updated various pieces of background information about the township, including population trends in Oxford and surrounding communities.

“Oxford Township, being at the top, has grown 37 percent population-wise from 2000 to 2010, which is, I believe, the highest of all adjacent communities and higher than Oakland County as a whole,” he said. “So, we’ve had some significant growth over (those) 10 years.”

Between 2000 and 2010, the township population (not including the village) grew from 12,485 to 17,090.

At the top of the list of the draft plan’s goals is “community character,” which means “preserving and enhancing the special characteristics of the township, while promoting a balanced approach to land use” that takes into account “both demographic and economic factors.”

This is to be accomplished by preserving and promoting the “scenic rural character in outlying areas” and “village character near (the) Village of Oxford,” promoting an “attractive appearance along (the) M-24 corridor” and establishing “urban service areas,” something that’s new to the plan.

There are two urban service areas in the draft plan – a primary area and a secondary area.

Lonnerstater explained the primary area contains properties that are either currently connected to municipal water and sewer services or are located in the existing sanitary sewer district, meaning they are eligible for access to the system.

The secondary area is where expansions of utility services could occur in the near future.

Large areas outside of the urban service areas are intended to remain residential and rural in nature, according to Lonnerstater.

“They don’t have access and they’re not planned to have access to these water and sewer utilities, so their densities should be much lower and the uses should correspond with that,” he explained.

The proposed master plan does call for lowering the maximum density allowed in multiple-family residential (RM) zoning.

Under the future land use plan included in the draft, the 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.

According to Lonnerstater, development of the draft plan took into account the results of a public survey conducted between March 13 and May 15 of 2017.

A total of 352 people responded to the survey, 65 percent of whom were township residents and 17.5 percent were village residents. The remainder were from surrounding communities.

Based on this survey, Lonnerstater wrote, “A majority of residents do not want to encourage new residential, commercial or industrial development, but place importance on preserving natural features, improving vehicular traffic flow, improving pedestrian connectivity (safety paths) and (encouraging) re-development rather than new development.”

Given the relatively small number of participants, Planning Commissioner Ed Hunwick asked if the survey results can be considered “valid” from the standpoint of being able to use them to provide the township with “some kind of idea where we need to go.”

“I think that any public comment is valid,” Lonnerstater replied. “I certainly don’t want to discredit their comments.”

“I don’t think we have the right to say that it shouldn’t guide our decisions,” Lonnerstater noted. “I think public input in any form is important.”

Township Supervisor Bill Dunn expressed his preference to not allow any expansion of industrial uses given their potential impact on the local environment and the limited availability of municipal water and sewer services.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to do anything with industrial – at least I won’t do anything with industrial . . . I just think it’s a bad idea to look for more industrial,” he said.

Given one of the draft master plan’s objectives is to “preserve/promote village character near (the) Village of Oxford,” some officials questioned the exact meaning of “village character.”

Dunn noted downtown Oxford is a “mishmash” of designs with “a movie theater (that) looks like it’s (from) the 22nd century” and “some yellow restaurants.”

In response, Lonnerstater explained that village character “goes deeper than” facades. It means things like providing a “walkable environment” and making sure the parking lot “is not the most prominent feature of your development,” so that “when people are driving through the township, the impression isn’t just cars.”

“In a downtown area, you’re not going to want parking in front of your building,” he noted.

Planning Commissioner Kallie Roesner-Meyers believes implementing the vision and goals of the master plan has consistently been “a problem” in the past because it’s used “general terms” and been lacking in solid definitions and effective visuals to help future officials understand what is meant by things such as rural character and village character.

She said she’s “seen other master plans that spell it out more clearly.”

“We have these great goals, but we don’t really know what they mean,” Roesner-Meyers noted.

To her, that makes it “hard for people who weren’t there at the time” of the master plan’s creation to “continue it on.”

Lonnerstater agreed that visuals do help.

“I’m going to be adding pictures to the plan,” he said. “There’s a lot of blank space here now.”

Lonnerstater also agreed that “broad, fluffy terms, if they’re too vague, they don’t really mean anything.”

That’s where adding sub-area plans to the master plan could be quite helpful. Sub-area plans would focus on portions of the township, such as the northeast quadrant (i.e. horse or hunt country), in greater detail. But in order to have sub-area plans, township officials would have to agree to fund their creation.

The draft master plan’s objectives include supporting “renewable energy technology” and encouraging “green building-design.”

Given this, township Clerk Curtis Wright inquired as to whether the municipality could offer incentives to developers and companies in order to encourage them to utilize green technologies.

“Absolutely,” replied Lonnerstater.

He noted the township could, for example, grant zoning waivers in exchange for projects built according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

LEED is a framework used to create buildings that save energy, water, resources and money, generate less waste and support people’s health.

Dunn noted he wants to encourage more green initiatives, “but I don’t want it mandated.”

Moving forward, Lonnerstater explained once the planning commission looks at the final amended draft plan, they’ll make a recommendation to the township board that it be distributed.

If the township board agrees, copies of the draft master plan will be provided to surrounding communities, Oakland County and relevant state agencies. They will have 63 days to review it and send Oxford their comments and suggestions for changes.

During this period, Lonnerstater said, “Public comment is certainly welcome as well.”

“We certainly want to make this accessible to the public,” the planner noted. “Once the planning commission reviews the changes that we make now, we’re going to put it online. Everyone should have the opportunity to comment on it.”