Nearly 10,000 square feet of new development to be constructed in Seymour Lake Township Park was granted final site plan approval last week via a 3-1 vote by the Oxford Township Planning Commission.

The new development includes a 3,126-square-foot senior center, a 3,010-square-foot station to house Oxford Community Television (OCTV) and a 3,840-square-foot warming/concessions building and open-air pavilion.

“We’re ready to get going on this thing like tonight,” said Ron Davis, director of the township parks and recreation department. “It’s go time.”

But instead of talking about the proposed buildings, most of the planning commission’s discussion centered around the parks and recreation department’s request for a waiver from the township ordinance that would require construction of an 8-foot-wide safety path along Seymour Lake Rd. in front of park.

“If we have the funds to put this (senior center) in, we should have the funds to have a safety path . . . because we need to set a good example,” said Commissioner Kallie Roesner-Meyers.

“If it’s a housing development, I’m the first one (who) says put sidewalks and safety paths in there,” said Davis. “This isn’t a housing development. (A path in front of the park would go) absolutely nowhere.”

Davis was referring to the fact that the nearest existing safety path it could possibly connect to is approximately 2 miles to the east at Dunlap and Seymour Lake roads.

Township ordinance requires all developers of property along a public roadway to construct a safety path within the public road right-of-way extending the full width of the property.

Developers have the option of making a payment into the township’s safety path fund in lieu of actually constructing a path.

The parks and recreation department requested a third option, waive the requirement to build or pay.

To Davis, “it’s a waste of money” and “fiscally irresponsible” to build a safety path until there’s another path to which to link it. It will most likely be five to 10 years before adequate funding is secured to extend a safety path from Dunlap Rd. to the park, he told commissioners.

“Why put it in now when we haven’t got (the safety path system) past Dunlap? That just doesn’t make financial sense,” he said. “If you guys know me, I’m pretty frugal with funds.”

Davis also feared that putting in a section of isolated safety path would give pedestrians a “false” impression that there’s a safe way for them to get to the park when in reality, there is none from either the east or west.

“It gets no one to my park on a bike in a safe manner,” he said.

Roesner-Meyers disagreed.

“I wouldn’t be in favor of waiving the safety path (requirement) along Seymour Lake Rd. I would say put it in,” she said.

She indicated the payment-in-lieu-of option would be acceptable to her as well.

Roesner-Meyers believes a section of safety path there would be used because there are “large subdivisions that are well within biking range” of the park.

Given the park is a “hub of activity,” she believes there should be a safety path to encourage people to travel there by bicycle or on foot as opposed to motor vehicle.

When it comes to requiring developers to install segments of safety path even though they’re not connected to a larger system, Roesner-Meyers noted “we do that everywhere else” and those sections get used.

Commissioner Ed Hunwick expressed his concern over waiving an ordinance requirement for a government entity.

“If this was a private development, would we be allowing them to (have a waiver for) the safety path?” he asked.

Davis explained there’s a big difference between a developer and the parks and rec. department.

“A private individual is running a business making a profit,” he said. “We’re not making a profit. We’re here to provide recreation.”

Davis noted the wetland area located between Coryell Drive and the park would require the township to construct a boardwalk through it in order to connect a path in front of the park with a safety path extending to the east. He indicated building this boardwalk would be quite an expensive proposition.

“We spent $60,000 just redoing our boardwalks in Powell Lake (Park) this year and it’s not even close to the magnitude of what that’s going to cost to go through that wetland area,” he said.

Davis made it clear that the parks and rec. department strongly favors having more safety paths.

“The biggest proponents of safety paths and recreation (are) us,” he said.

But he’d rather not spend money on a path until the township is ready to build the larger path along the south side of Seymour Lake Rd. from Dunlap Rd. to Baldwin Rd.

“I’m just trying to be fiscally responsible here,” he said.

After listening to all the discussion, Hunwick said, “I don’t have a problem with (granting) the waiver.” He just wanted to make sure the planning commission wasn’t going to “get in trouble” for doing it.

Outside of the safety path issue, Roesner-Meyers expressed her displeasure that residents didn’t have “more of a say” in the township board’s June 13 decision to give the parks and rec. department $300,000 from the municipality’s general fund reserves to assist in the construction of a senior center.

“The citizens should have had a vote on something like this,” she said.

The parks and recreation department has pledged to contribute $100,000 from its reserve monies to the project, which Davis believes can be built for $400,000 or less.

Prior to the commission’s discussion, Roesner-Meyers’ husband, Dr. Bruce Meyers, was critical of the senior center’s location during the public comment portion of the meeting.

He described it as being placed in “a corner of the township (that’s) away from the general source of population.”

“I could see it someplace like on Glaspie St. (in the village) or someplace where it would be (in) a central location for people to get to,” Meyers said. “But this is kind of on the outskirts. It’s actually going to be serving our surrounding communities almost better than it is our own community and township.”

Davis argued “that park is the best place to have this senior center” because that’s “where we can program” for senior citizens.

“They’ve never had programming. They played cards (at the former Oxford Veterans Memorial Civic Center, which used to serve as a senior center),” he said. “What about pickleball, tennis and that type of stuff? So, that’s why it’s going to be located there.”

Davis noted Seymour Lake Park is extremely popular and heavily used. On any given night, he estimated there’s 1,000 people there.

“That is the place to be Monday through Friday,” he said.

Meyers also said he hadn’t seen anything in the newspaper regarding “how” this senior center is “going to be paid for each and every year in terms of maintenance, expected costs, staffing.”

“This seems like a significant outlay,” he said.

As reported in the Leader’s June 20 article on the senior center, Davis told the township board that all operations and staffing costs would be covered under the parks and recreation budget, which is funded by its own dedicated millage.

“The township would be removed completely from it as far as finances (go),” Davis told officials at the June 13 board meeting. “We would program it, staff it, run it, maintain it. It would be our baby.”

At the July 11 township meeting, which was reported about in the July 18 edition of the Leader, officials voted to move forward with placing a 15-year, 1-mill tax proposal for the parks and recreation department on the November ballot.

This proposal would be a renewal of the parks department’s current 0.8295-mill operating tax, plus a 0.1705-mill increase.

During that meeting, township Supervisor Bill Dunn expressed his opinion that a slight millage increase should be requested so that the parks department can have a little extra cash in its annual budget to help operate the senior center.

“I think it’s important for you to be financially able to maintain (it),” Dunn told Davis at the July 11 meeting.

As far as the new OCTV station, the Oxford Area Cable Communications Commission has budgeted $350,000 for the entire project, which includes plans, construction, moving expenses and furnishings.

The 3,840-square-foot warming/concessions building and open-air pavilion, which will be located near the new ice skating rink at the park’s south end, will be paid for using proceeds from the $2 million bond approved by voters in November 2016.