The Farmington Hills Planning Commission approved a site plan for a Schaeffer Development / MI Homes townhouse project on roughly 4.55 acres on the northeast quadrant of 12 Mile Road and Bridal Belt, subject to typical technical conditions.

Applicant Aaron Schaeffer told the commission the development has been processed through the PUD option, secured prior approvals, and that the most recent submittal includes revised elevations, floor plans and a relocated amenity along the 12 Mile frontage. Schaeffer said the plan provides almost 63% open space because of northerly buffers, that utilities and a stub road will be provided to the eastern property line for potential future connection, and that a Knox box will be used to gate a shared access for emergency purposes only.

Staff and the applicant confirmed the site plan is consistent with the previously approved PUD agreement. City staff said they had met with fire, engineering and traffic departments; the applicant submitted a revised traffic study addressing departmental comments and the departments indicated no additional traffic improvements were necessary given recent work on 12 Mile.

Commission discussion included questions about building materials and elevations, building height (staff said proposals meet the 26-foot-6-inch roofline requirement for two-story townhomes), and density math raised by a commissioner who reviewed unit-count equivalencies. Schaeffer indicated he had supplied revised renderings and floor plans to planning staff and Giffels Webster for record keeping.

The motion to approve the site plan (site plan 65-10-2025, revised 10/14/2025) included conditions requiring resolution of outstanding items identified in the Giffels Webster review (11/10/2025), city engineer correspondence (11/11/2025), and the fire marshal's October 2025 memo to the reasonable satisfaction of the appropriate staff. The motion also recorded determinations including tree-replacement accounting: 195 trees required, 118 trees may be credited toward replacement, leaving 77 trees to be paid into the tree fund at $400 per tree.

Next steps: the applicant must submit any requested plan revisions and satisfy the identified outstanding technical items; staff will confirm compliance before issuing approvals to proceed with construction applications.