Residents ask planners to protect 8‑acre wooded buffer and require landscape commitments

Several nearby residents told the commission they want the developer and the city to preserve a wooded 8‑acre tract and to make buffer, landscaping and erosion‑control commitments enforceable in the final site plan.

Kate Jacobs, who said she lives at 550 Oakland Terrace, described the 8‑acre tract behind her home as likely the neighborhood’s only mature wooded area and urged the commission to retain as much of it as reasonably possible for privacy, wildlife habitat and stormwater functions. "I would ask that proper setbacks and erosion controls be maintained during and after the construction of this development," Jacobs said, and requested that any buffers or landscaping shown on sketches be required in the final plan rather than remaining conceptual.

Other residents echoed concerns about density and the loss of yard space. Keith Powers, a lot owner in Oakland Heights, said the proposed townhomes are crowded and asked whether existing trees and buffers could be preserved and whether nearby homeowners could be offered a right of first refusal on adjacent lots.