By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
According to one prospective Orion Township developer, ‘senior living? is a catch phrase term that his company is trying to reprogram.
‘As an industry we are really trying to get away from some of the ‘older terms? like institution, clinical, facility, these are really outdated terms,? Stefan Stration said , president of Pomeroy Living.
Stration and his team will soon get that chance, seeing as the Orion Township Planning Commission granted the final site approval and wetland permit for Pomeroy Living Orion Campus at the last planning commission meeting.
Pomeroy Living is an all-encompassing community of older-adult housing based out of Troy, with two main campuses in Sterling Heights and Rochester Hills.
Although a construction timeline has not been confirmed, Pomeroy Living Orion Campus will be built along M-24 in front of Stadium Drive Elementary, between Scripps and Stadium Dr. within the next two years.
The project has taken almost two years to mature.
Initially, back when the planning commission approved the special land use in November 2013, the site plan called for 183 units divided into two buildings, a freestanding memory care building and a more traditional independent living building.??
But then Pomeroy Living did a little research.
‘What is really popular today with older adults are choices,? Stration said.
The new plan will include 16 units for villas, or cottages’eight single family units and four duplexes’and 170 units consolidated into one building. The villas will be interconnected in a neighborhood setting with pathways, park benches and other amenities such as an outdoor gazebo.
The 490 foot long building will offer a combination of living arrangements, including independent living, assisted living and memory care living for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia related illnesses.
About 50 new jobs will be created in Orion Township to manage the facility, Stration said, which will provide more options than just living arrangements.
‘Whether it be different dining options, or having the opportunity to hear a lecture or attend a seminar, these are vocational things, and the changing trends that are occurring,? he said.
The community will offer some of these amenities, along with connecting pathways through the wetland area to proposed sidewalks along Scripps Rd.
Along with the site approval the planning commission also approved the wetland permit, previously approved by the Michigan Department of Environmental’Quality (MDEQ).
The permit will allow Pomeroy Living to fill two wetland areas?0.48 acres of MDEQ regulated wetlands, and .47 acres unregulated by the township, which was deemd to be of low quality.
The commission granted other variances as well, including allowing minimally shorter setbacks distances from public roads, and the building length, which by ordinance is required to be 250 feet.