Allendale Township has recently identified a field located at the corner of Pierce Street and 52nd Avenue as a potential site for a housing development for Grand Valley State University students.

The site plan of the development, which was rezoned from agricultural use to multi-family use in 2012, was brought to the Allendale Township planning commission in May 2015 by the property owner, Harley Sietsema.

The field that is under consideration is located at 10520 to 10686 52nd Ave. at the northwest corner of Pierce Street and 52nd Avenue. The proposed construction would create 312 units, or 936 beds, for students at GVSU.

Sietsema, a pioneer graduate of GVSU and the owner of Sietsema Farms in Allendale, said during the meeting that he decided to sell the field because of his family’s farming around the Allendale Campus for the last several years.

As the university began to grow – with some of Sietsema’s father’s property later being turned into the golf course on the Allendale Campus – the family decided to sell the surrounding properties for student housing. While the original developments expanded throughout the area west of campus, the remaining agricultural activities – such as the farm’s production of turkeys and the usage of farm byproducts – affected the surrounding student housing owners.

“Once the student housing projects jumped across to the west side of 52nd Avenue, we found ourselves pretty much surrounded by student housing and realized that our usage of this land for our usual farming activities was doomed,” Sietsema said. “Therefore, we decided we could no longer continue our agricultural use of this property.”

Before plans could proceed, a variance was required due to the proposed development.

Jerry Alkema, the Allendale Township supervisor, said that there was some controversy in the beginning with the rezoning of the property. Primarily, he said it was because the area was transferred from one use to the next – from the agricultural zone to the multi-family – and that there would then be a higher amount of traffic and noise from the future developments.

“We also have been very selective as to who we are willing to sell this property to,” Sietsema said. “We anticipate a very nice community for the students of GVSU.”