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Planning Commission Recommends Preliminary Approval for Lombardo Stoney Creek Condominium 143 Home Development on Acres on Buell North of Oakland Hunt

This letter suggests the Board publicly redo a decision that was made in closed session out of compliance with the Open Meetings Act and shore up their understanding and appreciation of the value of compliance with this act to all of us.

Read it here:

Open Meetings Act Letter to Board 4-27-2020

See our 44 page report here. Bi-Monthly Report – 4-25-2020

The April 28th Board meeting has no items that most residents would consider demanding of their attention, but a link to agenda and information packet is included. The packet on the last page  has Township Manager Adam Kline’s latest information on Covid-19 specific to Oakland Township.

I sent the following email to our Board of Trustees on 4/11/2020. This document also contains a summary of each agenda item.

Board of Trustees 4-14-2020 Pre-Meeting Comments

See the entire 175 page board meeting packet here:https://www.ecode360.com/documents/OA3183/public/538528054.pdf

The Open Meetings Act is a valuable tool for residents. We should understand it and make a concerted effort to object if we think it has been violated by our Board of Trustees. The open meetings act requires discussions and decisions to be made in public, not in private.

Think what could happen without an Open Meetings Act. The Township Board could vote themselves big raises, approve developments, change ordinances, etc., without the public knowing.

Here is a link to a summary of the Open Meetings Act by the State Attorney General.

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/ag/OMA_handbook_287134_7.pdf

It contains a crucial section on permissible reasons for closed sessions.  Some things can be discussed in closed session, if rather stringent requirements are met, but no decisions can be made there.

The Planning Commission meeting of April 7 was cancelled. I did not check why, but speculate that Lombardo was not ready or no one wanted to violate social distancing. Lombardo needed to come back with information on how they arrived at 145 homes allowed when it appeared that the non-wet lands useable building area and zoning ordinance possibly allowed only  about 115.

I forgot to mention in my previous articles in early March, that traffic was a significant concern of the Planning Commission and residents namely:

• Already heavy traffic problems at two impacted intersections – Rochester – Buell and Rochester – Stony Creek.
• More traffic  cutting through Oakland Hunt subdivison to go between Buell and Collins while avoiding the dirt road portion of Buell and Collins that should be used instead. Lots of children in this sub.
• This will also increase traffic on the portion of Collins where residents, currently lead by Phylis Andus efforts,  are attempting to get a lower speed limit.