Canton planning commission approves rezoning for MECCA despite traffic concerns

The Canton Township Planning Commission on an affirmative vote recommended rezoning a parcel at 6200 North Ridge Road to allow the Muslim Educational Community Center of America (MECCA) to pursue future school and daycare uses.

The vote came after staff and outside engineers discussed an updated traffic impact study and access design; the commission approved the rezoning motion moved by Commissioner Janowski and supported by Commissioner Foster. The motion recommends rezoning parcel 031-99-0007-000 (11.47 acres) from RR (rural residential) to R1 (single-family residential) while noting traffic study review will continue as part of any future special land use application for the mosque and related uses.

Patrick Sloan, a township planning department staff member, told commissioners the rezoning application does not, by itself, change the currently pending special land use review for a religious institution because religious uses are a special land use in the current RR district. Sloan said the applicants submitted a revised traffic impact study dated September 2024 with some December 2024 data and that Canton’s traffic consultant, Wade Trim, had not yet completed a review of the revised study.

Traffic engineers and commissioners focused much of the discussion on driveway geometry and left-turn treatments on Ridge Road. The applicants’ team said they had worked with Wayne County on road geometrics and that Wayne County gave preliminary approval to the bypass/pass-through lane design on the west side of Ridge. Jesse Parkinson, representing Green Tech Engineering (project sponsor), said the team had “put a lot of effort into Wayne County” and received the county’s geometrics recommendations.

Mohammed Lutfi, the applicants’ traffic engineer, said his team had proposed a center left-turn lane and called it “a better design,” but that Wayne County preferred a bypass lane rather than a center left because the county does not want multiple isolated center lefts along the corridor. Commissioner Cruz and others said they found the county-recommended bypass/“pass-through” lane “convoluted” and raised examples where a similar configuration required later rework; Cruz said the proposal “is an intense use” and warned of queuing and stacking onto Ridge Road.

Commissioners and staff also discussed that the mosque’s peak arrival times occur outside traditional commuter AM/PM peaks—Sloan said peak demand shifts toward Friday afternoons—and that the traffic study identifies existing deficiencies at the Ford & Ridge intersection that would need mitigation by the responsible road agencies (Wayne County for Ridge Road; MDOT for Ford Road).

The motion adopted by the commission included findings required by section 27.06D4 of the zoning ordinance and recommended approval of rezoning. Roll call following debate recorded five yes votes and two no votes: Yes — Commissioner Foster, Commissioner Janowski, Commissioner Lee, Commissioner Singh and Commissioner Zuber; No — Commissioner Cruz and Commissioner Watkins. The commission noted: rezoning is a recommendation to the Township Board (two readings expected) and is not an approval of any future special land use; traffic mitigation details will be addressed in the special land use review and through county review as required.

Next steps: if the Township Board approves the rezoning, the applicants will continue special land use review for the mosque; if and when a future school/daycare special land use is proposed it will trigger additional, use-specific traffic review and public hearings.