Oceola May Get $100-Mil Village Development

OCEOLA TOWNSHIP, MI-A $100-million village plan, with residential and commercial mixed together, has received approval for rezoning here. The plan would bring 416 apartments, 276 detached condominiums and 180 live-work condominiums to a 101-acre stretch of land on Latson Road, just south of M-59.

Todd Wyett, a developer from Southfield, is joining partner Bill Clark to build the project. He says the city has approved a zoning of about half of the land for multi-family use and half for commercial use.

Included in the project is 198,000 sf of retail space, he said. The project will be made into a planned unit development, and will be presented at a public hearing at the township board of trustees July 12.

“It should be up for approval soon after that,” Wyett says.

He adds the development actually started off very small. His company currently owns about 10 acres of the property, and has a purchase agreement for the rest.

“We actually bought the smaller parcel to put up a drugstore, then we found out that the rest was available,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “We met with the township, and decided it was the ideal place to put a village.”

There’s lots of available vacant land to put such a project in the outskirts of Southeast Michigan, but Oceola seemed to be the best fit, Wyett says.

“It’s right off of M-59, which goes east and west. Nearby Howell and Brighton are busting at the seams, and everyone’s traveling up M-23 nearby. Also, the township had one of the highest increases in state equalized value, and a high rate of housing permits pulled. Five years from now, you’re going to look at the area and not believe how all this happened,” he adds.

The design is going to be drawn as a walkable community, known as a traditional neighborhood development, or TND.

“It will be a lot like ‘Leave it to Beaver.’ People will be able to sit on their porches or lean on their white picket fences out front and converse with each other. There won’t be much street traffic, all homes will have a rear alley-entrance for their garages,” Wyett says.