ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.
Occurrences at two Planning Commission meetings this past week have revealed two huge challenges now faced by the City of Wayland and Leighton Township.
Because of proposals to construct two substantial residential developments, local officials now are feeling the pressure of how to handle significant population growth with limited infrastructure.
This problem is not new at all. Because Wayland and Leighton are located halfway between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids with handy access to the U.S.-131 expressway, the prospects of serious growth have been bandied about for some 35 years. Now add in the presence of the Gun Lake Casino only three miles south of the city and it appears growth pressure is nothing short of inevitable.
The Wayland City Planning Commission was approached Tuesday night by representatives of Gun Lake Investments, an economic arm of the Gun Lake Tribe and Casino. The proposed project is to install an apartment complex of up to 130 units on the vacant lot at the corner of Reno Drive and West Superior Street.
That lot has been vacant for seven years since the razing of Cars2Go, which replaced the old Wayland Chevrolet dealership. So the news of something being done about that eyesore was welcome. But at what cost?
City Planning Commission members almost unanimously expressed their support, but with two huge caveats — lack of adequate parking and potential for unwelcome traffic congestion at one of this area’s busiest intersections.
So it appears the infrastructure to handle the proposed development may be inadequate.
This was followed by GRI Moline revisiting the Leighton Township Planning Commission to present a scaled-down version of an office, residential and industrial project on the east side of Division Avenue, not far at all from the current Leighton Township Library and offices on 12th Street.
The project was turned down in 2023 by both the Township Board and Planning Commission because of fears the township doesn’t have adequate roads and police and fire department personnel to handle such population growth.
So GRI now has come back with a more modest proposal for 248 units instead of the 320 suggested a year ago. The proposal was tabled, just as Gun Lake Investments’ was earlier in the week.
These two delays in decision making may just be examples of kicking the can down the road. The real issue here is how can Leighton and Wayland come up with long-term solutions to the serious problem of lack of affordable housing in a growing area?
Perhaps the project at the corner of Reno Drive and West Superior can be scaled down to accommodate more parking, but what still remains is unwanted snarled traffic prospects.
So it appears both planning commissions need to come up with more big picture solutions to a problem that only will get worse.
“That which doesn’t destroy me merely delays the inevitable.” — Dr. E.L. Kersten of the Demotivaters.
The reality is that we are dealing with the artificially inflated cost of rental housing due to price fixing from an artificial intelligence software company. Multiple landlords and property management corporations effectively formed a digital cartel. This is a state and nationwide problem. Many states are involved in legal action, I believe our state may join.
Many other factors are also driving the cost up of course. What has resulted is that families are doubling and tripling up in homes, in effect subletting way outside of regulations. Some will simply dismiss this and say that additional housing will relieve the pressure. Some sure, this is obviously subjective and difficult to quantify. Again, -the issue is affordability.
The idealistic attitudes from developer types to install a mass-dwelling for envisioned incoming urbanites would be far from our actual needs. The vast majority do not desire to be “trapped” in an effectively rural environment without personal transportation. Some businesses desire a captive customer, perhaps that is the aim.
I ought not bring up the parking situation/debacle/embarrassment downtown under the purview of multiple entities.
This city, county, and state, operate on the assumption that snow removal and placement is not an issue. Let’s be real, it is a major source of stress, cost, and it has health impacts as well. How does this restricted parking accommodate the reality of our environmental demands?
Regardless, words I have heard for over a year say that many more appropriate parcels have been purchased south of this. Anywhere near this level of density on this spot is nothing short of ill- informed, short sighted, corporate greed.
I agree the specific spot seems obviously much better suited to some form of retail. I have thought that it could make a good place for an Aldi location. Of course this would also impact the intersection already in need of attention. I believe something like this would actually help a huge percentage of the community. Obviously it would bring competition to Harding’s. If we are really capitalists then we should welcome true competition and everything that comes with it.
I believe it is fantastic that housing proposals are possible, although it appears critical for the various well-funded interests to put up appropriately or shut up.
We are in a time where a large portion of one generation live in homes with multiple floors full of empty rooms, while another attempts to serve them and raise families in homes with too many people competing for room to breathe and park.
I believe an Aldi here in Wayland would be a great addition to our town!! We need more retail and we could really use another grocery store and one that doesn’t have high prices like hardings!!
Back in the day we had 2-3 grocery stores and the town was much smaller!! Actually we had all types of retail stores downtown, !! Do I city planners aggressively look into bringing in new businesses!!! Do what’s right for this city!!
Bringing in a new apartment complex means more police officers, more volunteer firefighters . With more police etc. , does that mean more taxes????
The only issue in the City of Wayland is planning commissioners that think they know more than a traffic engineer.
The road have ample capacity at the intersection of Reno and Superior.
We need higher densities if we want to make housing affordable. Forcing the developer to downsize is absolutely the wrong move.
Hello XJS,
I’m cautious of your singularly dismissive and polarizing viewpoint. Has the infallible engineer observed this intersection in action during busy times? Are they aware that the truck flow to the switch lot hammers the SW corner so bad that it needs to be rebuilt on a near annual basis? Have they observed the backups from poor design flow? Are they aware that the crosswalks are missing controls for certain directions, broken, and are erratically timed. Pedestrians are often nearly hit crossing at this location due to hubris, inattention, and neglect. But hay y’all, the school sports stadium signs in this town are something to envy! The imbalance of priorities are past the point of troubling.