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Positive Support for Canton Oaks at Planning Commission Meeting 8/4/25

https://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/2025/08/07/canton-development-housing-disabled/85546069007/#

CANTON TWP. — A developer hopes to build a neighborhood that offers housing both to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to the general public, but township officials want more traffic review before the project can move forward.

Three Oaks Communities is seeking approval to construct Canton Oaks, a 280 for‑sale multifamily units on a 24‑acre site on the west side of Lotz Road between Ford and Cherry Hill roads.

The development would set aside approximately 25% of its apartment-style homes for residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and those homes would be protected by deed restrictions to ensure long‑term availability. The remaining units would be available for what developer Bruce Michael calls “the neurotypical public,” in some cases the parents of IDD adults who want to live near their children while allowing for independence.

“This is fundamentally a for‑sale project,” Michael said at an Aug. 4 meeting of the Canton Township Planning Commission, noting most IDD units would have two bedrooms so residents could live with a friend or roommate, often another person with IDD.

The plan includes 20 four‑story residential buildings and a 23,000‑square‑foot community center featuring a basketball court, kitchen, and multipurpose rooms for residents and guests.

Wetlands and woodlands would be preserved across more than 25% of the property, with the current design keeping 64% of the site as open space.

Michael said the company has spent the past nine months collaborating with Compass Community Collaborative, a local nonprofit of parents of adult children with IDD, to shape the plan.

Fiona Doskocz, the group’s executive chair, said the community has great need for such housing.

“We actually have no choice,” she said. “There aren’t any other places. We’re hoping to get at least 75 to 80 individuals in this location…and really show what we’re doing well in this area.”

But Patrick Sloan, Canton’s community planner, said the township’s planning department is holding off on a recommendation for approval until a revised traffic impact study is reviewed.

The Ford and Lotz intersection is already under pressure from multiple projects in the area, including the Springs at Willow Creek directly across the street and a planned Sheetz gas station at the southwest corner of Ford and Lotz.

A Topgolf entertainment complex is also pending on the north side of Ford Road – including Chick-fil-A and Portillo’s fast food restaurants – although that project is on hold after EGLE denied wetland permits in February. No updates were immediately available.

Sloan said the pending projects, and the likelihood of future projects in the area, mean a broader traffic engineering study is needed for the Ford and Lotz intersection to factor in current projects and potential future build‑out in the area, with the goal of identifying needed road and intersection improvements before development accelerates.

Planning commissioners expressed strong support for the project, but voted unanimously to postpone action until the township’s traffic engineering consultant reviews a revised traffic impact study.

“I don’t believe in the ‘let it work itself out’ theory,” said Commissioner Sommer Foster, who said she supports the development but wants to see how it will affect an already congested Ford and Lotz intersection.

Contact reporter Laura Colvin: lcolvin@hometownlife.com