By Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

At a virtual meeting Monday night, the Brighton City Planning Commission approved an 8-month site plan extension for the developers of the “West Village of Brighton” project at the former Lindbom School site.

The project would consist of 140 luxury townhomes of from roughly 1,300 to 1,550 square feet at the 10.5-acre site on Brighton’s northwest side. Lindbom was mothballed in 2010 because of what at that time were declining enrollment and budgetary issues in the Brighton Area School District.

The school and property were subsequently sold to Fenton-area developer Pat Battaglia. Battaglia’s former company, American Classical Academy Brighton Holdings LLC, purchased the school for $1.45 million from the Brighton Area Schools in 2015. He proposed a charter school called the Livingston Classical Academy for the site, but the school board turned down his request, and he found a sponsor in the Whitmore Lake school district instead. Battaglia later proposed a senior housing and assisted living complex at the Lindbom site, but financing fell through.

Another proposal that did not bear fruit was submitted by Robertson Bros. of Bloomfield Hills, which proposed single-family homes but later abandoned its plans because of the issue of underground trichloroethylene contamination caused by a former nearby industry.

A spokesman for SR Jacobson Development Corp. of Bingham Farms, the current developer of the property, told planning commissioners Monday night the company has three other projects that, like West Village, are also in limbo because of the coronavirus pandemic. He said that due to the COVID-19 issue and its effect on the economy, his company has so far been unable to get the financing needed. The spokesman said several hundred thousand dollars would be required just to get the architectural and engineering aspects accomplished. He said that when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the company began looking at alternative financing, which it is continuing to pursue.

Commission members, in unanimously passing the site plan extension request, indicated their desire that in eight months or less the company will have its financing in place.