WALKER, Mich. — Walker's Planning Commission had to make decisions on two residential developments that, on the surface, looked remarkably similar. Both were for around two dozen new homes. Both faced fierce opposition from neighboring communities. Both had been tabled before due to safety concerns.
But only one walked away with approval.
The Windermere condominiums project came before the commission for the third time — and it would be the last. The proposed 30-unit development had been struggling with what Planning Director Paula Priebe calls "the most fundamental requirement" for any new neighborhood: safe access.
"It only had one public road access," Priebe explained to me after the meeting. "They proposed to use a private road that's part of the English Hills condominiums as the secondary access. There were some concerns about that being sufficient access. It's an older, narrow, private street, lots of winding roads."
The developer had tried to get creative, even exploring the possibility of creating a new road around an existing building. But when adjacent property owners — an apartment complex on one side, a care facility on the other — said they weren't interested in working together, the options ran dry.
For Rachel Powers, who lives in the English Hills neighborhood, the commission's decision brought tears of relief.
"When we finished the meeting and found out that the board of commissioners had decided to deny the developer's proposal, there was a lot of relief," Powers told me. "The lady next to me actually started crying. She was moved to tears because it had been such a stressful ordeal for our community over the last year."
Powers described her neighborhood as "a beautiful, safe, just kind of pristine little neighborhood" where residents regularly walk the narrow private roads. Adding potentially hundreds more trips per day through their community was something they felt would compromise that safety.
"There had been kind of looming thoughts and threats of litigation, you know, for them to get rights to our road and all of this kind of thing," Powers said. "So yes, the initial feeling was very much one of relief."
In the southern area of Walker, the River Bend North development faced similar community resistance but found a path to approval.
The 22-home site condominium was replacing what Priebe called "that cornfield area" surrounded by existing homes. Like Windermere, it had been tabled before due to traffic and safety concerns.
"The original proposal showed 24 single family lots in the site condominium in that cornfield area, and the road did 90 degree bends," Priebe explained. Those sharp turns were a real problem.
"The developer brought back a proposal. It did reduce the number of lots by two, so now it's 22 single family lots in the condominium and a swoopy road, as I would call it," Priebe said with a smile. "The road doesn't have those sharp 90 degree bends anymore. It curves. It's a more gentle curve."
The planning commission approved it December 3, and on December 8 the Walker City Commission gave its final blessing.
"It's an interesting case to kind of put these two together, because they're both residential, similar size, but they're going through very different processes," Priebe noted. "One was approved and one was denied, both for traffic and safety related reasons. One ended up finding a way to approval, and the other one struggled and was ultimately denied."
For Powers, even in relief, there's a recognition that development will likely come eventually. Powers pointed to remarks the developer made before the commission, where he "did say, while he was up speaking with the board that his lawyers would be in touch with our HOA, and he has free lawyers. So, hE made that comment. We're not really sure what that means."
"You can't blame a developer for trying to come in and make some money. They have a parcel of land. That's their right," she said. "But it did come across as a bit arrogant to just continue to push. There's a there's a lot of beauty and humility and kind of knowing when to step back from something and to move on with other plans in another direction."
As for what should happen to the Windermere property, Powers had a suggestion that speaks to what many residents value about their communities.
"I think it would be beautiful just to kind of keep a nice little green space. You know, we have so many animals in this area. We hear coyotes. Sometimes there's owls, hawks, there's deer, you know, just the normal woodland creatures. And building new homes is a wonderful thing, but we do have to balance it with the nature around us."
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