Orion Twp. board approves rezoning request first reading

By Jim Newell
Managing Editor
jnewell@mihomepaper.com
ORION TWP. — A new gas station could be coming to Baldwin Road after the Orion Township Board of Trustees voted 5-0 on Monday to approve the first reading to rezone a vacant property so that Kroger could build a retail fuel center.
Treasurer Kim Urbanowski made the motion to approve the rezone request, which was supported by Trustee Julia Dalrymple. Clerk Penny Shults and Trustee Brian Birney were absent from the meeting, with notice.
The Kroger Company Michigan Division is proposing to rezone the site formerly occupied by PNC Bank from Office and Professional (OP) to General Business (GB) to build a fuel center. The site is on the east side of Baldwin Road in front of the existing Kroger parking lot.
In its rezoning application, The Kroger Co. Michigan Division said that adding a fuel center was necessary to keep the store “competitive.”
“Kroger intends to keep the existing grocery store viable and competitive by continuing to offer convenience to its customers. The conditional rezoning will provide a contiguous parcel with the existing Kroger grocery store to install a fuel retail center,” the application stated.
The proposed fuel center will be located at 3111 S. Baldwin Rd. and include eight dispensing columns that allow for 16 pumps, a 540 square foot transaction kiosk. The Orion Township Planning Commission recommended the rezoning request at their June 19, 2024 meeting.
“We want to keep Kroger. I want to say that very specifically on the record. We understand that Kroger as a company doesn’t want to keep grocery stores open in many regions if they don’t have the retail fuel attached to that, and we know that to be the case for this site,” said Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett. “I fully support this case.”
Barnett added that the Kroger store property is deed-restricted “so it could never be a grocery store again, so we would be staring at a potentially large, vacant big-box former grocery store.”
Orion Township Fire Marshall Jeffrey Williams reviewed the proposed gas station and said in a memo to the township board that the fire department “has no concern at this time regarding the proposed change.”
As part of the conditional rezoning, Kroger will exceed the landscape tree quantity requirements by 50% and provide screening between S. Baldwin Road and the fuel center.
Kroger had proposed adding a fuel center to the property previously but that request was denied because of the location the grocer intended for the gas station. With the acquisition of the PNC property, the planning commission felt it was a better location for construction.
“Many of us were here when this proposal first came to us several years ago on a different site on the Kroger Plaza property. For many reasons it was turned down but at that time our consultants, the planning commission members and staff all encouraged them to try to find a better site. In my opinion, this is a much better site,” Barnett said.
The board will consider a second reading and possible adoption of the proposed rezone request at its meeting on Sept. 16.