Dexter Township is having a special meeting on January 19, to take a closer look at the development agreement for the Hillside Acres residential project.

The township board was scheduled to look at the project at a November meeting, but it was delayed in order to set it aside for a special meeting solely devoted to further reviewing the development agreement.

The special meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Jan. 19.

According to township documents, the plan has been brought forth by RSG Development Corp. /Doletzky Open Space Project, which has an address of 11677 N. Territorial Road. The developer is the owner of 92.1 acres of land near the southwest corner of Dexter Townhall Road and North Territorial Road.

This past summer the township’s planning commission gave its approval for the Hillside Acres project, which is planned to be made up of 48 single family detached residential site condominium units with related residential uses as well as a common area open space and infrastructure improvements.

The township has already approved the site plan and granted the project planners their request to connect to the Multi Lake sewer district.

At this point the plan calls for an entrance and exit on Dexter Townhall with a gated emergency exit on North Territorial.

In November, when asked about a special meeting on this project, township supervisor Diane Ratkovich said they want to be sure that they have "stringent guidelines that are beyond the scope of the Approved Site Plan."

As a side note, the intersection of Dexter Townhall and N. Territorial has been a traffic safety concern for many years. However, a solution may be on the horizon with help from the Washtenaw County Road Commission and Michigan Department of Transportation.

The WCRC will be getting grant help from the High-Risk Rural Roadways Program, a safety grant program administered by MDOT.

This grant will be used to: - Cut down the hill on N. Territorial Rd, just west of the Dexter Townhall Rd intersection - Construct left-turn lanes on N. Territorial Rd at the Dexter Townhall Rd intersection - Place centerline rumble strips on N. Territorial Rd between Toma Rd and just west of Dexter Townhall Rd - Enhance and upgrade select safety signs along corridor.

The project's total estimated cost is approximately $690,000. The grant will cover 90 percent of the project costs and WCRC will cover the other 10 percent.

This location was chosen due to an analysis of crash history in the area. There had been several serious injury crashes from 2018 to 2020.

The WCRC project is under design now and construction is expected to take place in 2023.