A 154-unit senior living facility and 33-home residential subdivision have been approved by Garfield Township trustees to be built on North Long Lake Road west of Zimmerman Road.

Trustees this month unanimously approved a planned unit development (PUD) – or a zoning plan for a specific property – for Oakleaf Village, to be located on nearly 53 vacant acres at 5143 North Long Lake Road next to The Children’s House (pictured). Wallick Communities, a development group that specializes in low-income and senior housing throughout the Midwest, is planning two phases of construction for the site.

Phase one calls for a senior living campus to be built on the northern section of the property, which will include a 155,000 square-foot one-story and two-story licensed adult care facility. The campus will include 50 independent living apartments, 60 assisted living units, 24 memory care units, and 20 independent living detached villas. An 1,800 square-foot maintenance building is also planned for phase one.

According to project documents, the property will feature outdoor amenities including a multi-use path, pocket neighborhood parks, an outdoor patio, gazebos, pickleball courts, and water features. Indoor amenities for residents will include 24-hour care and security, a multi-purpose room for movie nights and large group activities, bistros and pubs, classes, a beauty salon and barbershop, large living rooms for gatherings with visitors, and “state-of-the-art dining and exercise facilities.”

Approximately 12.6 acres of open space will be preserved on the property, with both indoor and outdoor activities offered to residents. According to Wallick Communities, typical residents of their facilities are 65-74 years old for independent living units and 75 years and older for assisted living and memory care units.

Phase two of the development will include 33 standalone single-family homes built on the southern section of the property. Wallick Communities previously stated the homes will range from 1,800 to 2,400 square feet on individual lots over 15,000 square feet. Representatives noted to trustees this month that the residential homes – which will be for sale, not rent – will not be age-restricted. When developers first brought the project forward earlier this summer for review, phase two also included plans to build 42 additional senior care units. However, those units were subsequently eliminated during engineering to provide adequate room for emergency vehicle access, according to Township Planning Director John Sych. Adjusting the phase two plans brought the total number of units planned for Oakleaf Village down from 229 to 187.

Sych noted to trustees that Oakleaf Village has undergone required reviews from outside agencies, including for water, wastewater, stormwater, emergency vehicle access, and soil erosion and sedimentation control plans. Outstanding concerns – from the township, but also from several neighbors who called in to the trustees’ meeting – primarily focused on traffic and other potential impacts to surrounding neighborhoods. Oakleaf Village will eventually have four access points into the development, starting with an entrance off of North Long Lake Road that will be built in phase one. A two-way left-turn lane will be constructed along North Long Lake Road from Lone Pine Drive to Zimmerman Road to provide a continuous center lane from the Traverse City West Senior High School driveway to Zimmerman Road.

In phase two, access is planned to be added from Zimmerman Road into the development, with Colonial Drive also extended as a public road to provide access to Oakleaf Village from adjacent neighborhoods Heritage Estates and Eaglehurst Estates. Citing concerns from the Grand Traverse County Road Commission about the traffic impact of another entrance on Zimmerman Road, township trustees included a condition in their PUD approval requiring developers to obtain a traffic analysis for Zimmerman Road prior to phase two construction. That analysis may identify upgrades the developers need to make to the corridor to ensure safe ingress and egress to the development. “I think there is concern that adding another driveway, roadway entrance off of Zimmerman probably will need some type of additional improvements there to ensure safe left-turning movements into the site,” said Sych.

Some neighbors protested against plans to extend Colonial Drive, worrying it would drive more traffic into the surrounding neighborhoods. “To have more people come into our subdivision is ludicrous,” said Heritage Estates resident Elizabeth Pomeroy. “We have problems with people going too fast, and there are children out there.” Another resident, who identified herself only as Laura, said she was worried the “relatively peaceful neighborhood” that is populated with walkers and kids playing outside would be disrupted by cut-through traffic and speeding vehicles. “I’m very fearful you open that (road access) up two doors down from us, and that’s all going to change, that’s all going to be destroyed,” she said.

Sych told trustees that Colonial Drive was originally built as a stub road with the understanding and intent that it would be someday be connected to adjoining development to the north. He also said Heritage Estates is currently a potential fire risk because of having a large number of homes in the neighborhood and only a single access point from Zimmerman Road. The Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department typically requires neighborhoods with more than 25-30 units to have multiple access points, which the Colonial Drive extension will now provide. Sych also said township documents call for creating “cohesive neighborhoods” by connecting subdivisions whenever possible. “That is in line with what our zoning ordinance and master plan encourages,” he said.

In response to questions about having fencing or other types of buffers around the development, project representatives said Oakleaf Village has an extensive landscaping plan that will provide natural buffers around the senior living campus. The single-family homes on the back side of the property will be similar in design to those of the surrounding subdivisions, which Sych said would allow them to look like a natural extension of those neighborhoods. “Quite honestly, it’ll look in terms of the density and layout similar to what’s in Heritage and Eaglehurst,” he said.

Interlochen resident Sue Swift, whose family previously owned property targeted for the Oakleaf Village development for several decades, told trustees she was excited to see the plans for the site. “To have Oakleaf Village on the land that was our home from October 1967 to 2013 would be such a tribute to our parents’ legacy…the love our parents had for everyone, young and old, in the community would live on forever,” she said. “What a gift to so many elders in the Traverse City area to have a beautiful community surrounded by love, hope, and care.”