A quiet corner of Commerce Township could be in for a major makeover, with a developer pitching a 15-acre retail cluster at Wise and Union Lake roads anchored by a roughly 75,000-square-foot grocery store, plus a car wash and two drive-thru restaurants. The concept would pave over an old golf course and replace a shuttered bar with customer parking and new commercial buildings, while the landowner has offered to hand over a sizable chunk of nearby acreage for park use. Neighbors say they are bracing for more traffic, more noise and fewer views of the greenery along Golf Lane, and planners warn that a tangle of regulations and road work issues still stands between the idea and a construction crew.
What’s proposed
The early concept shown to township planners came in the form of a one-page schematic that clusters the grocery, car wash and twin drive-thru spots around internal access drives and surface parking on the 15-acre development site. The owner has said that roughly 50 of the overall 65 acres would be transferred to the township to extend Victory Park, according to a conceptual layout posted on Scribd. The broader proposal was first detailed by local broadcaster WXYZ.
Park gift and wetlands
The township has already posted that work at Victory Park is scheduled to begin this week, and any park expansion tied to the development would plug into those upgrades, according to the Charter Township of Commerce. On the regulatory front, the wetlands on and around the site are expected to be the biggest obstacle. The state requires compensatory wetland mitigation, which can involve restoring or creating replacement wetlands or buying mitigation-bank credits when mapped wetlands are disturbed. Replacement ratios and permit requirements are spelled out on the Michigan EGLE website.
Neighbors push back
Residents along Golf Lane told township officials they felt blindsided by the possibility that the open fairways and marshy views they were promised could become a busy retail strip. One resident said, "I was told that this would never change, that it would be a golf course and a wetland, and I'm disappointed, to say the least, that it’s gonna be developed." Another warned that the intersection is already under strain, saying, "There is already a lot traffic on Union Lake Road." Both comments were recorded in coverage by WXYZ.
Next steps
For now, the plan is still in talk-it-through mode. The proposal was presented as a preliminary discussion item, and before anything can be built, the developer will have to submit formal applications, detailed engineering drawings, and likely traffic and environmental studies as part of the township’s standard review process. The planning director said the township will coordinate with the Road Commission for Oakland County on any road improvements that might be needed. Commission records show Union Lake and Wise roads have already been through recent culvert and pavement projects. If the retail-and-park package survives the technical reviews, it would then head into public hearings and formal site-plan approvals, where the political battle over what belongs on those 65 acres is likely to heat up.
