Despite having been a loyal Bordine Nursery customer during our many years living in Bloomfield Hills, my wife and I are deeply troubled by Bordine Nursery’s decision to establish a temporary presence in Oxford during late spring/early summer 2009.
Your decision is patently opportunistic. Moreover, it is a flawed business decision based upon the current economic climate in Oxford Township, Orion Township and environs. The area does not need a three-month ‘skim-off-the-cream-and-run? Bordine Xpress operation that’s based on a tent-on-a-parking-lot and serviced sanitarily by port-a-potties!
Indeed, our area already offers its price-sensitive customers many excellent–and long-established–stores that sell a wide variety of products: Meijer, Oxford Farm and Garden, Harvest Time Farm Market, Jacobsen & Wojo, Goodison Farms, Home Depot, and the original Wojo northwest of Oxford.
The residual impression left with some area consumers may be that Bordine Nursery now is flailing-about trying to deflect attention from any negative aspects that may be impacting one or more of Bordine Nursery’s permanent locations in Rochester Hills, Clarkston, Brighton and Grand Blanc.
Moreover, Bordine Nursery’s litigious mind-set is highlighted by the fact that, according to a recent Royal Oak Tribune article, your company attorney has stated your company plans to sue the City of Royal Oak because its Zoning Board of Appeals has denied a request for 2009 renewal of a temporary license to operate a Bordine Xpress in a parking lot at 4850 Coolidge Road, opposite the venerable English Gardens store.
Should Oxford Township’s Zoning Board choose to reverse the recent uninformed decision by the Oxford Township Planning Commission favoring Bordine Xpress, does Bordine Nursery or Bordine Xpress then intend to sue Oxford Township?
I might add that it is encouraging to note that Bordine Nursery’s last-minute cancellation of its requested Monday, April 13 appeal before the Orion Township Zoning Board of Appeals, following the township’s enlightened refusal to grant a ‘Temporary Use Permit for seasonal sales.? [As stated in Orion Township’s Notice of Public Hearing, ‘The petitionar–AB-2009-7, Bordine Nursery, 600 South Lapeer Road–is seeking relief from Zoning Ordinance 78, Section 30.07 requesting a Temporary Use Permit for seasonal sales. Bordine Nursery would like to install a tent located in the (formerly Rite Aid) parking lot for a display of plants and flowers]. Bordine Nursery conveniently left out the word ‘sale,? as in display AND SALE of plants and flowers?!
As in Royal Oak and Oxford Township, your business tactic is to install a short-term, peak-season Bordine Xpress tent operations–across from long-term, tax-paying, upstanding community members–so your company can seek to benefit from peak-season ‘skimming-of-the-cream.? Alas, it seems that Bordine Nursery’s role as a positive industry model has become overgrown with weeds!
My wife and I sincerely hope that you and your company will re-evaluate the decision to play ‘take-the-money-and-run? this summer with citizens in the Oxford Township and Orion Township market areas.

Richard Halladay
Oxford Township