MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - With the influx of many new developments in Meridian Township, including Whole Foods and the possibility of Okemos Pointe, some local businesses are effected by the amount of traffic found in congested areas.

"The turn lane gets backed up quite a lot, which interferes with our business since it blocks the traffic and everything," said Devin Hodges, a Manager at Wash World. "When people are trying to leave my business it takes forever to turn left, so people are getting stuck in my parking lot."

With the possibility of added cars on the road, concerns about traffic safety are always on the minds of the Meridian Township Police.

"No matter what you do, when you have a congested area and high traffic volume, you're going to see an increase in crashes in that location," said Meridian Township Lieutenant Greg Frenger. "We want drivers to put away the distractions, focus on their driving and be careful."

Meridian Township Department of Public Works is also preparing to handle traffic impacts based on these potential new developments.

"As everyone is aware with more development, which is a good thing in our community, as long as it's managed growth, it does have, I don't want to say problems, but there are impacts to the community, and one of those is traffic," said Derek Perry, Meridian Township's Assistant Township Manager/Director of Public Works.

Perry says that Meridian Township works in concert with to Ingham County road department to try to manage traffic.