Western Michigan University anticipates construction of infrastructure--roads, sewers and drainage--for Colony Farms Orchard will begin in September 2016.
Before then the public will have at least three chances to offer its preferences regarding the project. The Colony Farm Orchard property, 44 acres at the northwest corner of Drake Road and Parkview Avenue, adjacent to U.S. 131, is to be the site of an expansion of WMU's Business Technology and Research Park.
The existing BTR park has no further room for development.
WMU is now seeking design proposals from architectural engineering firms demonstrating their qualifications for undertaking the process. The university's goal is to have hired a firm by Oct. 15.
Bob Miller, associate vice president for community outreach and point person on the BTR Park says in addition to design prowess, one of the major qualifications the University is seeking for the project is that its team be experienced in working with the public through public presentations or design charrettes (a collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem).
A number of steps in the design and development phase are already in the planning stages.
The steps include:
• Selection by the end of September of a project advisory committee to work with the selected firm. The committee will be made up of community members, WMU faculty, staff, and students.
• A minimum of three public input sessions. They begin in November as the design process gets underway. There will be a second in January to view the work's direction and a meeting in April to see final designs before construction documents are drawn up.
• Construction is slated to begin in September 2016.
• Completion of Phase II infrastructure construction by June 2017, with parcels available for development by private-sector partners immediately thereafter.
Those interested in the development of the Colony Farms Orchard property will have a number of opportunities to make their views known, provide feedback, and have their questions answered, Miller says.
Source: Cheryl Roland, Western Michigan University
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