Lakeside development near Buchanan Street to get further review Monday

Sat, Jul 18, 2009    to del.icio.us

GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP — Plans to develop 27 acres into an "exclusive" and "quiet" neighborhood near Lake Michigan will be further discussed Monday by the Grand Haven Township Planning Commission.

The commission will hold a preliminary review of Beach Wood Site Condominiums during its 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Township Hall, 13300 168th Ave.

Early last month, developer David Bos and Todd Stuive of Exxel Engineering unveiled plans to the commission to replat and develop 27 acres — currently platted as the Sheldon Beach subdivision.

The property is bordered by Buchanan Street and a public beach area to the south, graveled Beach Road and the Christian Reformed Conference Grounds to the north, Lakeshore Drive to the east, and graveled Bluewater Road to the west.

Bos and Stuive are proposing to replat the property as a "site condominium" and develop 17 1-acre or larger lots — a much smaller scale from the original 114-lot Sheldon Beach subdivision.

The original subdivision was planned back in the 1920s and has never been developed, according to Township Community Development Director Patrick Waterman.

If replatting the land is approved by the Township Board, the "paper" lots and streets will essentially disappear and the lots will merge into a single large lot, township attorney Ron Bultje said.

Even though the development will have single-family homes, the land will be developed as site condominiums — which will be sold as condo units rather than individual lots.

The proposed subdivision, however, will house single-family homes of various sizes — similar to Dewberry Ridge, at the south end of 178th Avenue near Brucker Street; and The Shores on Lakeshore Drive.

"It's meant to be very private, very quiet," Bos has said.