By Jim Newell

Review Editor

Thirty, twenty, even ten years ago the Baldwin and Brown roads corridors were relatively undeveloped, or underdeveloped, with large chunks of vacant land and a more suburban feel.

Driving down those roads today, anyone can clearly see the level of development taking place that is changing the landscape of Orion Twp. on the west and south sides.

But development is inevitable for a growing, thriving community. The Lake Orion Review recently sat down with Orion Twp. Supervisor Chris Barnett to discuss his thoughts on the amount of development occurring and the township’s approach to attracting businesses to the community.

Menards was the “first domino” in development along Brown Road, opening Aug. 14 after a $12 million investment developing the site. (See the Aug. 15, 2018 issue of The Lake Orion Review for the related article.)

Hyatt House hotel is looking at a location near the Huntington Bank on the corner of Baldwin and Brown roads, and the township announced that Aldi’s is coming to the front of the Menards development.

“Originally, they were looking at a smaller retail use and a restaurant, but Aldi will take up the entire front lot,” Barnett said.

Baldwin Road is in the second year of a three-year $50 million project that will see the construction of five roundabouts, widening the road to four lanes in some sections, pocket parks, sidewalks on both sides of the road and new development on vacant land.

The largest piece of undeveloped property on a main road is on Baldwin Road just north of Shalom Baptist Church, Barnett said, and would be a prime location for development.

“Some people would say, ‘Why would we try to bring development here?’ Because it’s coming. It’s going to happen, no matter what. I would rather get a cool, mixed-use higher-end development than something that’s not as nice,” Barnett said.

“It’s a question I get a lot: Are we building too much, too fast? My answer is I don’t really know if it’s too much, too fast, but I do know the properties being built on are private properties that people own, that it’s their right to develop.

“If we can have a say in it, and if we can try to encourage things that fit with our community and bring the value of our community up, then why wouldn’t we try to go out there and do that?” he said.

“There will be people, certainly, that are not in favor of it (development). People who will say, ‘When I grew up on Baldwin it was a two-lane road. And I actually do understand that argument. I do. At the end of the day, we don’t own the property. We can’t prevent someone from selling or developing their property. We can make it difficult, and a lot of communities do that. There’s a time in the past when Orion Twp. didn’t have the best reputation for being easy to work with, so developers would choose to go other places. I don’t feel that’s the right approach, personally. Some people in our community may feel that that is the right approach.”

“Menards took a site that was a former sand and gravel operation when they originally widened I-75. The sites already a lot lower than the road, because there are parts that were never filled back up. There were parts of the site they had to excavate, from where it was, down 60 feet, to put dirt back in and re-compact it. It was a really, really difficult site to develop.”

“I would anticipate in the next month or two we will be making announcements of other things coming to Brown Road,” Barnett said.

“As part of this plan, anyone that develops on Brown Road has to put in a sidewalk in front of the property. But we’re encouraging internal connections, too,” Barnett said. “Brown Road is really unique because the properties are 1,300 feet deep,” Barnett said. “So, we don’t have to have people develop just the front of the property and have a whole bunch of nothing behind.”

Taking a proactive approach

Barnett said the township created a vision of what it wanted to look like and sought out businesses that would fit into the community.

“We took a proactive approach. A lot of times communities will wait for people to knock on their door, but we put this marketing piece together to talk about who we are, where we’re located, the proximity to the airports, the city of Detroit.”

The township created marketing booklets highlighting the area’s demographics, development opportunities and current business landscape and sent them to businesses they thought would fit into the community.

“We’ve sent out a bunch of these (marketing booklets) to the big developers across the country, actually, to try to catch somebody to do a large-scale development.

“One of the things we highlight, is we’re one of only four spots between Detroit and Flint where there are exits off I-75 only one mile apart. Which seems strange, but if you really think about it and you think about driving through – Rochester Road is (exit) 67, then the next one is Big Beaver, exit 69, Crooks is 72 (or something) – everything is a couple miles apart. It’s unique to have a mile marker as one mile apart. So, we promoted that. We showed potential investors our vision,” he said.

Barnett said if he could put anything he wanted on Brown Road it would be similar to the developments in the suburbs of Chicago, like the Partridge Creek mall, with businesses and apartments above it; and a mix of retail, restaurants, condos.

“We were trying to cast that kind of vision. We haven’t gotten anything like that yet, but we’re talking about the streetscape improvements, we’re talking about greenspaces – that’s really important to have public places for people to hang out.”

“There’s been a ton of time, effort and thought that has gone into the plan from our staff; OHM, our engineering firm, and their architecture wing in Ohio; and Strategic Communications Solutions, a consultant of the township.”

“We don’t have an economic development department. Most communities, most cities, certainly have economic development departments and teams,” Barnett said. “We have zero employees that do economic development. Certainly, it’s one of the hats I wear, and I enjoy it.

“What we find is a lot of communities just wait for the phone to ring. And we certainly could take that approach. We’re trying to be proactive and make something that is really nice, not just wait for it to fill in.”

“One of the examples is the community survey that we do every other year; we really do take the data seriously. The number one thing that our residents have asked for is a high-end grocery store,” Barnett said.

“Ultimately, your investment is your home. So, we invest in our schools, we invest in our parks. Those things should translate into higher property values.”

“I look at this the same way. Is Menards the be all, end all? No, but people are really excited about it. The same thing as the Miracle League Field. That’s something that’s going to draw people to our community who will say, ‘Wow, this is a great place to live.’ The more people who are saying that the more you can raise the price on your house.”