MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - New Hope Church which is currently located on Haslett Rd. between Ridgeway Dr. and Carlton St. is requesting a special use permit from the Planning Commission to construct a new building that will be 42,000 square feet.

The special use permit is required for any building over 25,000 square feet.

“The church had formed about seven years ago and they have grown very rapidly, and so they wanted to stay in the township and they wanted to provide for the future expansion of the church and so they made these plans to build a new church," said Vice-Chair of the Planning Commission Patricia Jackson.

The church is hoping to construct their new home on a 13.5 acre piece of land on the northeast corner of Newton Rd. and Saginaw Highway.

Jackson said the only issue that the commission is facing with the project is the contamination that was found on the site many years ago.

"Several years ago another developer had come in to make an application to build on that land and they found through environmental assessments that there were petroleum residue and petroleum products in the soil," Jackson said.

The previous applicant was given a Brownfield grant.

"What we are not clear on just yet is what happened to that contamination that was found several years ago that was found," Jackson said.

Jackson said the commission hopes in the next couple of weeks to get clarification on how that contamination was resolved so that the project can be referred to the Township Board.