More than four years after the Sashabaw Corridor Improvement Authority (CIA) was approved, Independence Township has finally put plans in motion.
‘You have to study things and plan things before you can do things said Trustee Neil Wallace at the Dec. 21 meeting. ‘I guess it’s time that we got them to do something.?
The Township Board approved $153,650 for Sashabaw landscaping between Waldon and Maybee roads, on a 6-0 vote. Clerk Shelagh VanderVeen was absent.
‘That won’t cover everything,? said Trustee David Lohmeier.
The authority expects to collect $532,500 through 2011 in Tax Increment Financing funds.
When the township approved the plan in May 2006, it included 15 projects to rebuild sewer and power lines, construct bridges at I-75 and Maybee, widen Sashabaw, and other work.
That plan was narrowed to include: widen the bridge over I-75, widen Sashabaw Road north of I-75, and beautify Sashabaw from Clarkston to Maybee.
The original project was to cost about $16 million, about $4 million from the county. It was scaled down to about $3.8 million, with $1.2 million from the county for all three plans.
Local consultant Jim Eppink worked on the project along with township planner Dick Carlisle of Carlisle and Wortman Associates.
Eppink said landscaping would include trees down both sides of Sashabaw, as well as evergreens, flowering trees, shrubs, and perennials in median islands. It also includes stone walls and columns at Bowpointe Drive, and Clarkston and Maybee Roads.
‘The larger, straight trees are meant to establish a nice canopy, the smaller flowering trees are meant to give some seasonal color, and the evergreens will add some beauty and stability throughout the whole year,? Eppink said. ‘Really it’s a complete enhancement project for the whole corridor.?