The Grand Rapids Press

Chris Brechting knew he wasn't the only one concerned about a residential development proposed across his Six Mile Road home.

He and his neighbors packed the township hall for months to complain about the project's density, increased traffic and lack of compatibility with nearby active farms.

"The urban-style type of development, many people just don't think fits in with the rural community out here," Brechting said.

After a Dec. 17 vote by the township board to rezone the 53-acre former farm for a 167-home subdivision, Brechting and his neighbors circulated a petition in hopes of putting the rezoning to a public vote.

The petition calls for a reversal of the approval to rezone the land and allow Pulte Homes of Michigan to build Creekside Village subdivision on a former farm site off Six Mile Road just west of Alpine Avenue.

They collected 955 valid signatures -- nearly 60 percent more than the 571, or 15 percent -- of the township's registered voters needed.

Now the township is required to hold a special election that will let voters decide whether the Dec. 17 ruling should be overturned.

"We had very few people decline to sign," Brechting said. "Overall, they don't want to see that intense of a development."

The township's Board of Trustees is expected to discuss the issue and a date for the vote at their Feb. 18 meeting.

Creekside Village is planned as an open space neighborhood planned unit development, which is is designed to allow homes to be built closer together than allowed by typical platting in exchange for more open space.

Township Planner Frank Wash said that while state law allows residents to use the referendum process, "My main concern stems from the fact that hundreds of citizens (signed) the petition, yet less than 20 percent were present during the public hearings and only one has stopped in the office and asked for an objective analysis from staff."

Wash said that as an open space neighborhood, Creekside Village "meets and sometimes exceeds" the standards of the Alpine Township zoning ordinance and master plan.

"It also employs modern planning techniques aimed at improving community design," he said, "by way of sidewalk and trail construction, natural feature preservation and restoration, drainage management, and the creation of active playground areas.

"It is a very different style of land use west of Alpine Avenue, but has been master planned within the public sewer district for some 30 years."

The land is zoned agricultural, but is master-planned for single-family homes because public water and sewer are available to that site, as well as to some 1,000 acres in the area master planned for residential use.

Wash added that the current Alpine Township master plan also calls for the preservation of 14,524 acres of farmland outside of the sewer district.

That's no consolation to Brechting, who says if other land in the sewer district is developed, it could mean thousands of new homes in the area.

"And this isn't something that's going to take 30 years to develop, it's going to happen overnight," he said. "I think the township officials are making a mistake. They need to address the master plan."

Township Supervisor Cindy Heinbeck has said that if the rezoning is overturned, another developer could request to put even more homes on the property than the Pulte request.

Under current zoning, 192 dwellings could be built on the 53-acre site. In order to conform to setback and other rules, apartments could be allowed.

Heinbeck also said that if the decision is overturned, Pulte could take the township to court because the land is master planned for residential use.

The Feb. 18 township board meeting gets under way at 7:30 p.m. at the township offices, 5255 Alpine Ave. NW.