Company eyes Milan Township for 9,000 home development

People in the Dundee area already concerned about the pace of development may begin hyperventilating right about now.

Crosswinds Communities, a giant real estate development firm headquatered in Novi, wants to build 9,000 homes plus commercial and industrial developments on 4,000 acres in Milan Township. The area is bounded by Petersburg, Day, Wells and Sherman Roads, on both sides of US-23, just north of Dundee.

If the development is completed, the increased population is estimated at 30,000. That’s a community about the size of Inkster, Garden City, Allen Park and Madison Heights. It would be slightly larger than Mount Pleasant and Wyandotte.

Milan Township is holding a special informational meeting for the public on Wednesday, June 23 at 7 p.m. at the new Milan High School.

Plans for the community are to be unveiled at the meeting.

Part of the affected area is in the Dundee Community Schools district. Superintendent of Schools Robert Black said he was just informed about the proposed development on Thursday, June 17.

“The area in the Dundee school district is not huge, but it depends on how they plan to develop it, as to how it will affect us,” said Mr. Black.

Mr. Black said it would be strange to suddenly have a community of about 30,000 people living “right in our backyard.”

Mr. Black said he planned to attend the meeting. He said Milan Township Supervisor Sam Mills must have known about this for some time, and was at a loss as to why the district was not notified earlier.

A call from The Independent to the Crosswinds Community company has not yet been returned, neither has a call to Mr. Mills.

Other school districts that would be affected by this development are Milan and Britton.

Mr. Black said that with the residential developments in the works just for Dundee now, the proposed 3,000 homes would double the school district’s enrollment.

“It’s inevitable that we’re going to have to expand again,” said Mr. Black. The question is when.

According to an article in the Friday, June 18 Ann Arbor News, the development would be filled over a 20-year period. That would require constant development of about 450 homes per year.

Crosswinds Communities, headquartered in Novi, is a huge developer with communities in Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Virginia, California and North Carolina.

According to the company’s website, so far, the largest community built by the company is “Brambleton,” in Louden County, Virginia on 2,000 acres. The company is advertising it as “Virginia’s newest home town.”

Still under construction, it is to include 6,200 homes, a 450,000 sq.ft. “town center” area, and 2 million sq.ft. industrial area.