MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - On January 9th, Meridian Township's Board meeting was 3 hours long and an hour of the meeting was spent discussing the Master Plan Implication Strategy.

“The adoption of the master plan is a significant step forward,” said Chris Buck who was hired as the Economic Development Director to foster development in the Township. “The master plans envision ‘first floor store fronts and upper-level apartment and condos [which] will provide an eclectic mix of user that will take advantage of plazas and street cafes to create an attractive streetscape.’”

One of the Township’s goal in 2017 was to execute a strategy that will help redevelop Downtown Okemos, Downtown Haslett, Carriage Hills Commercial Area and the Grand River Corridor. The Master Plan has been looked at as a unique strategy that could help the Township attract more businesses in vacant areas like Haslett Village Square.

The Master Plan has been heavily discussed recently, and there are still a few factors interfering with the plan. According to the Township Treasurer Julie Brixie, there are certain rules in the Mixed Use Planned Unit Development that is a barrier to the current plan.

“There is a lot of charm there, there is a lot of potential there… We could come up with a low density plan for this and this is something that will be available to us right now,” Brixie said. “This is my neighborhood and this is something that is a big frustration for me that we have been so unsuccessful to deal with challenging areas in the township.”

Although the Township spent over an hour discussing the Master Plan Tuesday, further discussion will be had in order to improve the plan.

“I support this proposal, now there's tweaking and etc. that gotta to be done… but there is also some good stuff in here already,” said Township Supervisor Ronald Styka. “I think it's the right direction, I think it's what we have to do to if we want to solve these problems.”