Ash Township Board to consider InSite rezoning request tonight
The Ash Township Board of Trustees will meet tonight to consider a conditional rezoning request from InSite Real Estate LLC for about 100 acres of land within the township.
The property in question is along Telegraph Rd. about a quarter of a mile north of Ready Road, and is split across two parcels that are both currently vacant. Both parcels are currently zoned agricultural, but InSite is looking to have them rezoned to light industrial for a yet-to-be-determined future project.
The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the township hall, located at 1677 Ready Road.
The township's planning commission met last month and voted 6-1 to recommend to the board that the rezoning request be denied. Tim Lake, president and CEO of the Monroe County Business Development Corporation, said that recommendation goes against the township's own master plan and the recommendation of its contract planner.
Lake said that he isn't sure what the board will ultimately decide to do tonight.
"I have no idea," he said. "It will be interesting to see what they decide to do."
InSite has been involved with numerous recent projects across Monroe County that all stem from the impending completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is expected to bring a flood of commercial traffic through the region via the I-75 corridor when it opens in 2024.
The development firm oversaw the transformation of the former Nike Missile Base site in Frenchtown Charter Township into a distribution center for Ford Motor Company. InSite also worked to bring Ford to Monroe Township, where construction is currently underway on a packaging facility at the site of the former Harbor Dunes Golf Club (also formerly Links of Lake Erie) off of LaPlaisance Road.
Lake said that developers like InSite have to work far ahead of any potential projects, which is why it is unclear what, if anything, could eventually end up on the property in Ash Township.
"That's where it conditional rezoning comes in, which is what InSite actually asked for on this property," he explained. "To me it's the best of both worlds. It protects the community, yet leaves the developer that option."
But Lake said he does understand why residents and elected officials alike still get nervous when they are asked to approve a rezoning without knowing what could potentially end up getting built.
"The biggest fear of a municipality is the different uses that could be put there that are permitted under the light industrial category, the township may not be fully supportive of in that particular location," Lake said. "That's where the rub kind of comes in. They want to know what (the developer is) putting in there."
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Ash Township Board to consider InSite rezoning request tonight
