McLaren Health Care is preparing for what it hopes is its final appearance before the Independence Township Planning Commission, for a while at least.
At stake: a $600 million Health Care Village project on some of the last property left for development on Sashabaw Road.
McLaren is on the Planning Commission’s Jan. 18 meeting agenda, which was rescheduled from Jan. 11. They are seeking overall approval for their Planned Unit Development project.
‘Our intent has been to work closely with the Township and find a happy medium that would fit its vision for development,? said Kevin Tompkins, vice president of marketing for McLaren Health Care.
If approved on Jan. 18, McLaren’s next step would be with the Township Board of Trustees, at its Feb. 20 regular meeting at the soonest, for the first of two readings.
McLaren plans to move forward with phase one of the three-phase project as soon as the Township Board grants final approval, Tompkins said.
With that and the time needed for final engineering work on the site, McLaren could break ground on phase one in May, he said.
Phase one includes the ‘gateway? to the 73-acre site on Sashabaw Road, Bow Pointe Drive, and I-75. It would include two-floor retail buildings for banks, restaurants or shops.
‘We’re in discussions with a great number of retailers,? Tompkins said. ‘It’s very preliminary.?
Phase one also includes about 137,000 square feet in medical office buildings for the Clarkston Medical Group, headed by Dr. James O’Neill.
These would include a 15,000-square-foot McLaren Ambulatory Surgery Center, for outpatient, same-day surgical procedures. McLaren would lease the space from the CMG, Tompkins said.
‘They’ll be our landlord,? he said. ‘It’s an interesting way for physicians to participate in the project.?
Phase two includes medical facilities and possibly a trauma center.
Phase three would include a 300-patient, five-story hospital. This would require a variance from the township’s height ordinance, which would require more hearings before the Township Board.
McLaren first presented the plan to the Township more than a year ago, in December, 2005, and presented it to the Planning Commission in January, 2006.
After working with township planners to revise the project, it was open to public comment at a special Planning Commission meeting this past September. The proposal was also up for cenceptual site plan approval, but was tabled at the Sept. 21 meeting.
After further revision, the commission took it off the table and granted preliminary site-plan approved it at its Nov. 9 regular meeting.
At the meeting, the commission requested that McLaren commission an independent study of the effect its development would have on tax revenues,
Township officials had expressed concern that a not-for-profit hospital operation would lower tax revenue.
McLaren commissioned an assessment by Ernst and Young to compare the tax-revenue potential of the health park with a light-industrial office park.
The study is complete and has been submitted to the Township, Tompkins said.
The Planning Commission will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Jan.18 at the Independence Township Library, 6495 Clarkston Road. Its regular meeting schedule is the second and fourth Thursdays of the month.
For more information, call the Township at 248-625-5111