Pittsfield Board Denies Rezoning for Michigan Islamic Academy

The Pittsfield Township Board of Trustees meeting was full for its second meeting of the month Wednesday. Residents filled the room to speak to the board about the proposed rezoning of property at Golfside and Ellsworth roads that would allow construction of a new school.

Fifteen people spoke during the first section of public comments; twelve residents of the surrounding area spoke against the rezoning and three, including Lena Masri – an attorney for the school in question – sided with the school.

During her time addressing the trustees, Masri condemned the township's Planning Commission for not following precedence set by earlier commissions. It ignored, she said, two different traffic studies that found that the school would have little impact on traffic in the area.

“The Planning Commission’s recommendation is based on findings that are inconclusive, problematic and highly suspect. The proposed development not only meets the general site developments, but far exceeds them. Even the Planning Commission found that the proposed development meets the required standards of both (mixed used development ordinances),” said Masri, who spoke on behalf of the Michigan Islamic Academy.

The residents of the Silverleaf subdivision, where the property for the academy was purchased, disagreed. The twelve individuals who came forward on Wednesday all had similar responses. They argued the road was too small to hold the traffic patterns already, it was dangerous for the children, who would be walking down the road (there is no sidewalk in the area) and, while most were not opposed to the school in general, the residents did not want it at the proposed site.

“I’ve always said this is all about safety and all about traffic. Anybody that has driven down Golfside and Ellsworth at 7:30 or 8 in the morning knows what I’m talking about. This is going to get even worse if the Michigan Islamic Academy is permitted to go on. We’re going to have somebody get killed on Ellsworth Road,” said Bill Stephens, a resident of the area.

The board voted unanimously to accept the Planning Commission’s findings and denied the Michigan Islamic Academy's request to rezone the property they had already purchased. There was no discussion during the meeting between the board members before the vote.