Tuesday morning’s announcement that the more than 60-acre site that houses the Orchards Mall and its periphery parking lot and outlots will go on the auction block next month is music to the ears of Marcy Hamilton and her colleagues at the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, because it might just be the best chance to implement strategic planning for the Ox Creek Watershed they have been working on for more than 18-months now.
Hamilton, a Senior Planner for the SWM Planning Commission, has been shepherding dozens of community leaders, stakeholders, business owners, citizens and others through a comprehensive study and visioning exercises since launching a grant-funded steering committee at the beginning of December in 2016. While the major focus of the group’s studies is driven by the health and welfare of the Ox Creek Watershed which runs all the way to Lake Michigan, the center of attention has been the Benton Township commercial district in and around the Orchards Mall and peripheral properties and commercial neighborhoods.
Moving from steering committee kick-off and discovery meetings, the process has advanced through engagement sessions with stakeholders conducted in February of 2017 at the Orchards Mall itself, a Design Charrette with Andrews University later that same month, and various ongoing meetings with the township, the Berrien County Drain Commission, multiple business owners, and participation in the township’s Master Plan among other input and feedback.
Marcy tells me, “The public engagement meetings offered insights into what would be desired by the stakeholders as representative of the public at large.” She tells me that primary learnings from the process to date include:
- The need to improve roads to better accommodate all users — cars, pedestrians and bicyclists…
- The need to manage water run-off from rooftops and parking lots using low impact development techniques to green up the area and improve the condition of Ox Creek, which is a tributary to the Paw Paw River…
- The need to revitalize the entire Orchards Mall area with mixed use development and public gathering spaces as a gateway to Benton Harbor and St. Joseph and the regional commercial/retail hub of SW Michigan…
The vision plan for the Ox Creek Watershed listed both advantages there and opportunities. The identified advantages include:
- Grant Funding
- The Gateway nature of the area to the St. Joseph/Benton Harbor community
- The major supermarket (Meijer) included there
- Hotels that are at capacity year-round
- The Connection to local waterways
The identified opportunities include:
- The chance to improve road safety
- The chance to manage water run-off
- The chance to revitalize the mall area
- The increased perception of safety
- The opportunity to be a shopping destination
- The opportunities for mixed-use development
- The opportunities for new townhomes
- The chance to clean up blight
- The chance for more green space
- The chance to restore fruit trees
- Opportunities for parks and trails
- Opportunities for accessibility by bike and on foot
- Opportunities to attract young professionals
- Opportunities for outdoor market and gathering spaces
The artist’s architectural rendering included in this story on Moody on the Market was created by Wightman & Associates, key players in the ongoing work of the steering committees and creators of a new Rain Garden installation at their property along the Ox Creek Watershed, eliminating pavement that had previously contributed to water run-off issues.
