Council approves amendment to Frontier Settlement plan at 700 Old Decatur Road, adds sidewalk to school access

The Saginaw City Council voted to approve a textual amendment to the Frontier Settlement Planned Development at 700 Old Decatur Road that adds a second public access, replaces an emergency-only OptiComm access with a cul‑de‑sac turnaround for fire apparatus, and includes a sidewalk between Lots 21 and 23 to provide direct access to the nearby school.

Susie Victor Tavingo, assistant director of economic community engagement, told the council the changes were necessary because a new developer purchased the property and proposed revisions that city staff marked as a major change. "Staff has coordinated this proposal, and they believe that everything is as efficient as possible so that we can get traffic to be alleviated and also increase public safety," Tavingo said.

Jason Schwab of Baird Hampton and Brown Engineering described the revision as largely an adjustment to a previously approved plan and said the addition of the secondary access will reduce concentrated traffic at the single prior entry and provide better emergency access. The council asked staff to add language specifying a sidewalk to improve safe pedestrian access to the school; Tavingo confirmed staff could add that language to the development agreement.

After closing the public hearing with no members of the audience speaking on the item, a council member moved to approve the amendment including the sidewalk language; the motion was seconded and the presiding official announced the motion passed.

The amendment will proceed to the administrative steps outlined in the city’s approval process. Staff said they will finalize the revised language incorporating the sidewalk requirement and update the development exhibits accordingly.