When it comes to what should be allowed and what should be prohibited under agricultural (AG) zoning, there was no meeting of the minds between officials and some residents of Oxford Township’s northeast quadrant at last week’s planning commission meeting.

In a 7-0 vote, planning commissioners recommended the township board approve proposed zoning ordinance text amendments concerning permitted and special land uses in the AG zoning district. The minimum lot size there is 20 acres.

“We took out almost a dozen different things within (the AG district) that we felt could be detrimental,” said Commissioner Tom Berger, who chairs the Ordinance Review Committee (ORC).

But, some northeast quadrant residents believe the amendments don’t go far enough to protect their area’s rural atmosphere from non-agricultural uses which they claim would negatively impact their quality of life by increasing population density and traffic on gravel roads.

“You’ve only got a few (AG-zoned properties) left. Why squander them? . . . Let us survive,” said township resident Kallie Roesner-Meyers, a former planning commissioner who lives on Delano Rd. “Every time you eliminate one of those properties (from agricultural use), it’s harder to get a vet. It’s harder to get feed. It’s harder to go down the road with your farm implements. It’s harder to go down the road with your horses. You’re squeezing the life out of that area and we’re asking you to stop.”

Special uses proposed for elimination in the planning commission’s recommendation include oil and gas extraction, recreational vehicle storage, temporary housing for seasonal labor, cider mills, fertilizer, feed or seed sales facilities, farm implement sales or repair, livestock auction yards, campgrounds, golf courses, driving ranges, country clubs, colleges and universities, and demonstration farms that are open to the public.

It’s proposed that private airports, a special use currently allowed, be eliminated and replaced with “aircraft landing strips,” which would be regulated by a new set of rules included in the text amendment.

It’s also proposed that yard waste composting facilities that are in compliance with the federal Right to Farm Act be allowed as a special use. Commercial composting facilities would be excluded.

Township Planner Lauren Carlson, of the Ann Arbor-based Carlisle/Wortman Associates, said the “more intense or commercial (land uses) were removed in an effort to protect the area and the district.”

But, some northeast quadrant residents wish to see other uses prohibited as well.

Roesner-Meyers wants to “eliminate all institutional uses” from AG zoning, including churches and schools.

Both are currently allowed as special uses under the zoning ordinance and would continue to be if the township board approves the proposed text amendments.

Roesner-Meyers believes allowing institutional uses in AG zoning would be “detrimental” to the area because they’re “contrary” to the practice of farming, the preservation of open space and other “activities that go on there.”

She said prohibiting institutional uses is “not discriminatory” because “there (are) plenty of other places within the Township of Oxford where (they) can go.”

Resident Bruce Meyers, husband of Roesner-Meyers, also expressed opposition to allowing institutional uses in AG zoning because they’re not in keeping with the “character” of the area and “contrary to the master plan.”

“The district does not have the infrastructure to support any such use nor do we want to prematurely develop by having to improve the infrastructure to accommodate such use since the master plan clearly states that these improvements are not planned in the area,” he said.

One specific use that continues to be opposed by some northeast quadrant residents is the House of Providence (HOP), a nonprofit organization that provides 24-hour care for foster youth who have been abused, neglected or unable to find a permanent family. It was founded by Jason and Maggie Dunn.

In 2016, HOP paid $800,000 for 118 acres of AG-zoned property at 3921 Barber Rd. The property was subsequently split into four large parcels, the sizes of which are 28 acres, 22 acres and two at 34 acres each. HOP plans to build three residential houses for foster females, males and disabled youth. One house, an 8,928-square-foot structure, has already been constructed on the 22-acre parcel and granted a temporary certificate of occupancy by the township.

“To have something like this move into my neighborhood and destroy my property values and destroy the whole quality of life up there is just sickening. It’s just crazy,” said Ginny Benson, who lives on Barber Rd.

Benson noted “most of us that live up there have invested heavily” in their properties.

“I have just about everything that I am worth (invested in) my farm and I have worked harder to keep that farm, I think, than most of you can imagine over the last 30-some odd years,” she said.

Barbara Blanock, who also lives on Barber Rd., said HOP’s plan to create an “institutional campus” with “multiple” buildings “doesn’t fit” because it would bring a “high density” use to “a low density area.”

“It would be putting a dagger into our heart to have something so different from the (current) atmosphere . . . that we enjoy,” she said.

Blanock told commissioners she’s been “begging” them to stop HOP’s “institutional development” for two-and-a-half years because it will “forever change” the northeast quadrant.

“We rely on (the planning commission) to maintain the living conditions and the lifestyle that we have chosen,” she said.

Not everyone from the northeast quadrant who spoke at the meeting was opposed to HOP.

Beverly Turner, who lives on Delano Rd., said HOP is “not a place just to house children.”

“The Dunns and their staff are trying to improve the lives of children, helping them to become productive citizens when they become adults,” she said. “How can any one of us object to that when this is so much needed today in this great country, the United States, in which we live?”

She encouraged people in the northeast quadrant to “make an effort to get to know the Dunns” by visiting them “to see what’s going on there.”

In response to claims from critics that HOP is “a million-dollar business,” not a nonprofit, Turner said the horse farms in the northeast quadrant “are businesses as well” because they make money by boarding and training horses, training riders and sponsoring shows.

“It’s a fact that they’re in this to make money,” she said. “Maybe they don’t make a lot of money, but they make money.”

Turner, who has owned her Delano Rd. property for 30 years and lived there for 16 years, believes people should be “good neighbors” by “actually (getting) to know one another.”

“If someone new moves in, go see them,” she said.

She said the township could “promote this idea.”

“It takes effort, but it’s worth it,” Turner said.

As it has been at prior planning commission and township board meetings, it was brought up that a group of northeast quadrant property residents previously submitted their own proposed language for text amendments concerning uses in the AG district.

Because their proposal hasn’t been discussed or voted on by the planning commission, Roesner-Meyers said “we don’t feel like we’re being heard.”

“You’re making an ordinance that affects everybody in that district and the overwhelming majority of the people in that district have asked you to look at this and discuss it with them,” she said. “You haven’t even discussed it with us. You haven’t . . . given your reasons why you’re not even going to discuss it.”

Roesner-Meyers said the text amendments proposed by the residents are “legal” and “will hold up in court.”

“I don’t understand why you won’t consider it,” she said.

Meyers agreed with his wife.

“These amendments conform to the master plan . . . I see no valid reason (why) the planning commission has not acted on them,” he said.

Benson said she’s talked with planning officials on boards in other townships and they’re “absolutely appalled” when they hear northeast quadrant residents have “asked for help” from their planning commission and are “being ignored.”

“I don’t understand it,” she said.

Larry Roesner, a township resident who lives on Cobblestone Lane and is the father of Roesner-Meyers, told commissioners “we don’t have a lot of (properties dedicated to) agriculture” left and “once that’s gone, it’s gone.”

Given that, he doesn’t understand how the planning commission “just disregards” what the residents have proposed to preserve their area.

“I don’t know what we have to do to get the board’s attention. I really don’t,” Roesner said.

“I’ve been coming to these meetings for two years and I would like to state that not one of you people cares about doing the right thing, is doing the right thing and you’re all doing this illegally,” added Metamora Township resident Cindy Unis, who lives on E. Davison Lake Rd.

In response to residents’ criticisms, Berger said the ORC “received a lot of information”  and documents from the public concerning this topic and it tried to “look at all the comments” as it crafted the proposed text amendments.

“Maybe we didn’t (address) everything . . .  the way everybody wanted it, but we did do quite a job (at) eliminating a lot of the (inappropriate land uses),” he said.

Berger believes the recommended changes are “moving (things) in the right direction.”

On a personal note, Berger said he would “love to see” the northeast quadrant “stay as pristine as it possibly (can).”