Like others, my family chose to make Orion our home because of the balance of urban conveniences, quiet neighborhoods, and the closeness to nature. During the past few decades, Orion has fundamentally maintained that balance.

That is until a few years ago, where out of nowhere there has been a sudden radical change in the zoning and development plans within the township and especially the village.

For some reason, our representatives on the councils and boards have decided that they can’t jam enough multi-family developments into Orion fast enough. Bending zoning ordinates and leveraging every discretionary variance at their disposal. All to ensure we are stacking people up as high and as densely as possible.

Within the village alone, there are several multi-family rezoning development plans underway:
· West Development is turning the old Orion High School site on Elizabeth Street into an 89-unit apartment complex.

· Another developer is turning a different lot on Elizabeth Street into a 16-unit apartment complex.
· While currently stalled, a developer was trying to transform the Orion Lumber site into a 100+ unit apartment complex.
· The Orion Marina is on its way to becoming a multi-family development.

All of these are happening within a stone’s throw of downtown. Literally adding hundreds of new residence (and their vehicles) to the already cramped and parking starved little downtown.

Why?

What is driving this sudden appetite to fundamentally change Lake Orion into Troy?

Is this what the taxpaying residence of Orion are asking for?

Is this being pushed/incentivized by the government (HUD – Affirmatively furthering fair housing)?

Why is this happening, and more importantly, is this what the people or Orion really want, and why are our representatives in the village and township so eager to make this happen?

Kevin Breslin
Lake Orion