Off-campus housing on 52nd, Pierce receives approval by Allendale Township
GVL Volunteer / Jared Wolf The housing has been approved for 52nd and Pierce
May 14, 2011
After several years of postponement and tabling, the Allendale Township Board has approved final site plans for Allsward Terrace student townhomes.
The 50-unit, 12.7-acre development that will be located at 52nd Avenue and Pierce Street has been met with heavy opposition from Allendale Township community members in the past, prompting Allsward Terrace project manager Jeff Vos to build stricter lease agreements in order to have the proposal passed.
“I believe we satisfied all of their concerns,” Vos said. “We ended up putting into place a lease agreement and a set of community rules which are tailored after some existing projects in the area. So they really aren’t much more restrictive than what is out there now.”
Allendale Township supervisor, Jerry Alkema, said this issue is not so much a homeowner versus student argument as it is simply an issue of placing a higher-density development next to a lower-density, single-family development.
“There’s a feeling that this isn’t something that we would have allowed,” Alkema said. “But in the same token, we had basic approval already; this is just a final development plan now. The difference here between lower-density and higher-density is the key.”
New revisions to lease agreements and community rules include a ban on keg beer within the entire property, a clause to give the owners authority to evict habitual rule-breakers and setting parking violation amounts.
Vos views the revisions as amicable compromises and says he would not have made revisions that he thought were “too cumbersome.”
“I think we’re okay,” Vos said. “And you know what, the township, they expended quite an effort to make sure they were doing their job and it’s okay, that’s what they’re supposed to.”
Design engineering and construction permits are next on the list for Vos, which he said could take a month or two to obtain. As required by the township, Vos said roads and utilities are scheduled for completion prior to July 2012 and is aiming at total completion for January occupancy, or a year from this coming August if necessary.
Vos said he sees no major concerns on the horizon as plans for Allsward Terrace finally begin to materialize.
“This is significant achievement for us and the rest of the approvals should basically be formalities,” he said.
