HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — After hearing concerns from residents over traffic and safety in the area of M-59 and US-23 at the Hartland Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, the board voted 6-1 to approve Livingston County's first Chick-fil-A location.
Some residents say safety is at jeopardy with an already over-concentrated intersection at M-59 and Blaine Road, right where one of the proposed entrances of the fast-food restaurant would be.
“(We) get a lot of gridlock, a lot of almost-accidents. There was an accident here just a couple day ago on the intersection itself because of the amount of traffic that comes through," Jason Fowler, who lives right on Blaine Road, said.
On April 10, Hartland’s Planning Commission unanimously approved the initial site plans, but the final decision lies with the Board of Trustees, which is why residents felt compelled to show up and speak out Tuesday evening.
“The main concern we have is safety and congestion," Lorna Coury, who also lives on Blaine Road, said.
Coury even started a Change.org petition to ask for a delay in plans, which has garnered hundreds of signatures. She and other residents say the intersection of M-59 and Blaine Road is already a backed-up mess and would only get worse with thousands of additional visitors due to the new restaurant.
“We welcome Chick-fil-A, we just want them to be thoughtful about how they do this with the township, so we minimize traffic and safety impacts," Coury added.
The main request coming from residents at the meeting was for the township to conduct an independent traffic study to see how the area would fare with the added traffic. The last traffic study in the area was done 15 years ago. However, according to the township, both the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Livingston County Road Commission did not believe an additional traffic study was needed.
Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A representatives says safety will be their highest priority.
“There’s a lot of passion. There's passion from the board, there's passion from the residents and I applaud all of that and we have passion as well because we want a safe environment here too," Chick-fil-A representative Justin Lurk said at the meeting.
The board voted 6-1 Tuesday to approve the location, saying the township will keep safety top of mind as they move forward on the project. However, that doesn't mean all residents are satisfied with one saying "we voted you in, we can vote you out next election" toward the end of the meeting.
"There is attempts to do traffic mitigation on this," Township Planning Director Troy Langer said.
