Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Genoa Township is hosting a town hall event Wednesday evening in hopes of gaining public input on what do with property it acquired from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The property is located at the southeast corner of Brighton and Chilson Roads. It’s a 77-acre parcel near Oak Pointe.

The town hall is set for this Wednesday and work done by a consultant hired by the board will be reviewed.

Supervisor Kevin Spicher told WHMI Spencer Kellum with K2 Environmental Consulting spent about a week on the site evaluating and surveying the property; which includes a solid tree list and topographical work.

The consultant studied the property and identified invasive regrowth, beneficial regrowth, areas of interest topographically, and a plan to regain walkable access to the property.

As for the terrain, Spicher said the damage is extensive in terms of missing trees and there is a tremendous amount of large stumps scattered throughout the property that weren’t cleaned up. He said there’s a lot of invasive growth but there is some valuable regeneration occurring.

Spicher said they’ll be working to determine the best plan/result possible with what they have to work with – noting there’s an idea of cutting in an access ring that kind of outlines the perimeter of the property, and then divide it up into unique zones.

The state had originally planned to lease the property for a gravel mining operation and later a seed orchard but those plans were scrapped amid public opposition, and the township purchased the property from the MDNR.

Spicher says the state sold the timber rights to a company that cut down a lot of hardwood and removed it but then didn’t come back and clean it up to the level they had hoped for or the DNR expected “as it didn’t put enough teeth in the agreement to get it done”.

Spicher said the site is not totally safe with all of the stumps nor the beautiful piece of ground it once was but they’re confident they can get it cleaned up a bit and implement some plans to try and get the property to recover and become a future asset again.

Spicher said there did seem to be a desire amongst the board to maintain it in a pretty much natural state with low traffic impact activities. He noted there is limited access due to the topography and not a lot of space for parking so it really can’t become some huge park – so it would be more of a chance for passive recreation like walking through woods, observing nature, or bird watching.

Spicher stressed the restoration project is “not going to be inexpensive” as there are unfortunately a lot of trees missing, basically a clear-cut, and they can’t just replant saplings; they need to be a little bit bigger trees to try and get some regrowth going.

Spicher says the goal is to craft a plan, and possibly have the consulting group assist with a grant application. He said they’ll be examining potential funding sources, along with possible state assistance.

Spicher said they’re hoping to gather feedback and input from residents and the public at Wednesday’s town hall, and general ideas to restore the property.

It starts at 6:30pm at the township hall off Dorr Road.