To view or leave comments on this story, click HERE.
The Lewis family owns a house next to the Peninsula Shores development (formerly known as The 81 on East Bay, located near the corner of Bluff Road and Boursaw Road). The developer has asked the Township to amend its prior PUD approval to allow the developer to build a house right next to our property – on property that the developer and Township previously agreed would be open space when the PUD was approved in 2017.
Further, the property where the developer wants to build the house was an orchard for many years and is likely contaminated with arsenic and lead just like significant portions of the rest of Peninsula Shores.
Old Mission Gazette is Reader Supported.
Click Here to Keep the Gazette Going.
If the Township approves this change and the house is built, contaminated soil will almost certainly be transmitted onto our property by the wind during excavation and construction, according to an expert the Township previously retained.
Further, we don’t believe that the developer should be allowed to renege on what they said they would do to obtain their PUD approval, and we don’t believe that the Township should take away from neighboring properties and give back to the developer benefits for neighboring properties that were committed to as a condition of initially granting the PUD.
The Lewis family and our neighbors greatly value the open space that was promised as a part of the original PUD approval, and putting a house in this open space would be hazardous and detrimental to the use of our properties for many reasons.
The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at their meeting on Monday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m., at the Peninsula Township Hall in connection with this proposed change. Full details about the developer’s proposed plans and concerns that have been raised are available in the packet for this meeting, available to view on the Township website here.
We encourage anyone who has opinions about this proposal to attend the public hearing and express them.
———————–
SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
Because Old Mission Gazette is a "Reader Supported Newspaper" -- meaning it exists because of your financial support -- I hope you'll consider tossing a few bucks our way if I mention your event, your business, your organization or your news item, or if you simply love reading about what's happening on the OMP. In a time when local news is becoming a thing of the past, supporting an independent community newspaper is more important now than ever. Thank you so much for your support! -Jane Boursaw, Editor/Publisher, Old Mission Gazette
To keep the Gazette going, click here to make a donation.
To view or leave comments on this story, click HERE.
I’m all for the house being built. you rich people in the peninsula need a reality check.
Green spaces and water access benefit everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. We ‘re all on this world together; there is no “Plan B”.
This development was approved with the understanding they would NOT build a house on that open space. Those were the rules, and the developer agreed to them.
The township must hold firm. If not, what confidence can we, the taxpayers and residents, have that they will stick to their rules and agreements in the future?
Mr. Haddox makes many valid points. The Peninsula Shores development has gone back on the agreement they reached with the Township in order to build. I personally feel there should be MORE open space, especially near established residents.
[…] affects neighboring properties. They will be able to do a bait and switch – they can say in their initial application how they are preserving the views and character of neighboring properties and how their proposed […]