A new housing development in Plymouth Township will include the paving of 650 feet of Canton Center Road, leaving an unpaved section near Joy Road in the township.
Plymouth Township Supervisor Chuck Curmi is hopeful the township can lobby with Wayne County to provide paving on Canton Center from Ann Arbor Road to Joy in light of the developer’s agreement to pave the section.
The development, approved by members of the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees Dec. 10, will be located on a 6.5-acre parcel on the west side of Canton Center Road between Joy and Ann Arbor roads. Plans include both two-story colonial-style and ranch homes and will be priced in the $700,000 range, according to Leo Gonzalez of Phoenix Management Holdings, speaking on behalf of Pulte Homes, the company building the new houses.
“Along the way we decided that based upon the market we wanted to offer a ranch product in this community,” Gonzalez said. “This opened up a lot of opportunity for people that are already in single-family residences…to move into this future development, free up some housing that is needed in the community for new families to move in.”
Features of the development include a landscaped buffer maintained by the homeowners association, a pocket park for community use, and a partial paving of Canton Center Road.
The development is an example of cluster housing, an approach allowing homes in certain areas to be built more closing together than traditional zoning would permit. Regular zoning would allow only 13 homes on the site while the cluster designation will allow Pulte to build 19 homes on the land. Cluster housing is a planning approach that allows homes in certain areas to be grouped more closely together than traditional zoning would typically permit, conserving open space and promoting community interaction.
Following two public hearings regarding the rezoning, the project was unanimously approved by members of the board of trustees. Developers said a plaque will be installed at the site to commemorate former property owner Jay S. Richards who hired and grew pumpkins and other produce on the land for more than 40 years. Mr. Richards, known affectionately throughout the area as Farmer Jay, died in 2023 at the age of 96.
