By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


Tyrone Township officials returned to meeting in person, holding a joint session with the Board of Trustees and Planning Commission.

Each year the township tries to have a joint meeting where members of the Board and the Planning Commission can get together and share ideas on township matters that flow through both entities. Supervisor Mike Cunningham said there was great value in Tuesday night’s meeting as there were many new faces on both boards, and this gave a chance to finally all meet in person and do business.

One area the planning commission has been looking at for the past couple of years are sightlines, particularly those on lakefront properties. With property owners building homes up to a million dollars on some of those parcels, Cunningham said they need to take a serious look at regulations and determine if how they are going to proceed. He said they looked at it before, but that they didn’t necessarily put their best foot forward with it and now they need to decide if on whether they abandon it or come up with something that is simple, concise, works for everyone, and doesn’t have a loophole.

The board and planning commission also considered how to handle accessory structure standards under residential 1 and 2 zoning, and lakefront zoning. The current maximum floor area for a detached structure there is 800 square feet, but there is a provision to allow for an increase up to 1,200 with approval from the planning commission. It was discussed how the planning commission had never denied this request and it had become a “rubber stamp” process. Cunningham suggested eliminating the need to go through the planning commission, then, saying there is no need to make people jump through that hoop. He said it’s not like they are running a mini-storage business and homeowners should have the right to easily secure their bikes, lawnmowers and yard equipment.