Resident urges board to accept Oakland County Parks’ $2 million offer for land near OCC and preserve connected green space

During the public comment period a resident who identified herself as representing several local groups urged the Waterford School District Board of Education to accept an offer from Oakland County Parks and Recreation to purchase district property near Oakland Community College for more than $2 million.

The speaker said the parcel connects to Hess Hathaway Park and the Llewellyn Nature Reserve and argued preserving the land would benefit both the community and students by creating local access to outdoor programming. She said a previous petition on change.org had gathered more than 1,400 signatures and a new petition started the previous week had drawn over 250 signatures.

“We represent a few groups ... we've got over 1,400 people who wanna preserve that beautiful land,” the resident said. She also said the county parks department had offered “over $2,000,000” for the parcel and urged the board to refer the offer to its legal team and expedite a decision. The speaker expressed concern about traffic and limited infrastructure near Cooley Lake Road and Hospital Road if the parcel were developed for residential use.

Board members did not take action during the meeting. The public comment occurred during the non‑action portion of the agenda; staff said in the item introduction that trustees were to refer matters to legal counsel as appropriate but no formal referral or vote on the parcel was recorded in the meeting minutes.