Orion Considering New Fire Hall

Residential development is picking up in Orion Township. Three developments received approvals Monday, and one of them sets the stage for a new fire hall.

The township Board of Trustees voted 6-1 to amend an existing consent judgment governing the development of Heron Springs, a residential development proposed for the west side of Squirrel Road between Silver Bell and Dutton. Clerk Penny Shults cast the dissenting vote.

According to Supervisor JoAnn Van Tassel, the plan agreed to Monday will bring 162 apartments, allow Palazzo di Bocce to expand its parking lot, add a passive park along Bald Mountain Road, and swap the township’s current fire-hall site on Silver Bell for three acres adjacent to an industrial park where a new, larger fire hall can be built.

The township will be able to use the existing fire hall rent-free for two years. If a new fire hall isn’t built by then, the township will pay rent for the next two years. Shults objected because the expense of a new fire hall hasn’t been brought before the public and there isn’t enough money in the fire capital-improvement fund to pay for it.

“For us to replace that is going to cost $2 million,” she said. “I don’t know how this ever came to the township board to begin with, that we would give our fire station away without the people in the township knowing.”

Fire Chief Robert Smith said he approached the developer about the possibility of purchasing 50 feet of land to expand the current fire hall. That wasn’t possible, but led to discussions about a land swap.

“For the last 10 years, every time a developer has come up with the idea of developing that property … we would always ask for a sliver of property to the east so we could expand that station,” he said.

Smith said the existing fire hall needs a lot of work and has no room for sleeping quarters, though it is staffed around the clock. “I can put the money into renovation,” he said. “But when it’s all over and done with, I still have a small station.”

Van Tassel disputed Shults’ price tag and said the township has several ways of paying for a new fire hall: use some of the general-fund balance, lease to own, or ask voters for a short-term tax. She said a larger station is needed due to growth in the area.

“I think this is an opportunity for the township,” she said. “It limits the residential development that’s already planned. It concentrates it in one nice, upscale development. It leaves a large portion of land along Bald Mountain in a more native state. And it improves the possibility of the expansion of what has become a real destination in this township, and that’s Palazzo di Bocce. … So I think this township has an opportunity, and now is the time.”  

In August, township voters renewed the fire millage, a police millage and approved a new police millage that is expected to raise $1.2 million the first year.