Michigan town approves site plan for 127-home development, so this golf course’s days could be numbered

A developer may finally get a shot at putting houses on the Cattails Golf Club course in Lyon Township in the Detroit metro area.

The township board, in a 6-0 vote Monday night, approved a preliminary site plan for Cattails Cove, a 127-home development on the 160-acre golf course property located south of 9 Mile Road and east of Griswold. Trustee Kristofer Enlow was absent.

The development has just five fewer homes than a plan the planning commission recommended denying in a 4-2 vote in May.

However, 127 is the exact number of homes Cattails Golf Club owner Tony Moscone anticipated might be allowed on the property one day, and is the number of units for which he has been paying into the sewer assessment district for the past 16 years.

“They never defaulted on that property,” Treasurer Patty Carcone noted. “He held up his bargain and I am going to hold up my bargain. It’s a beautiful project if you look at it.”

Trustee Sean O’Neil agreed the developers did a great job and would offer potential home buyers beautiful views. Trustee Lise Blades also said she believed the township had made a commitment with the property.

(Photo: Susan Bromley)

“It would be unfair this number of years later if we said it should be a different density,” Blades said. “The township should uphold their part of the bargain.”

She also commended Moscone and attorney Alan Greene, on behalf of developer Troutwell Limited Partnership, for working with the neighbors.

The development entranceway has been moved 133 feet to the west in the plan, and lots abutting existing neighbors have been moved in an effort to alleviate some previously cited issues.

Greene noted the developer met with the Road Commission for Oakland County and assured the board they would do whatever was deemed necessary for traffic.

“The Road Commission didn’t identify anything of great concern,” Greene said. “They will tell us what we need to do to make it safe and where the paving goes.”

Greene said he had not seen another development with the amount of open space preserved in the Cattails Cove development, which will provide the majority of homes expansive views of wetlands, creeks and forest. The developers plan to preserve golf cart paths where possible.

According to the Cattails Golf Club website, the 18-hole championship course designed by PGA Professional John R. Williams opened in 1991 and “embodies the natural beauty of the South Lyon area.”

This is the second preliminary site plan approved for a housing development on a Lyon Township golf course within a year. Last fall, the township board approved Settler’s Ridge, which will put 289 homes on the Coyote Golf Club course. The Free Press in 2022 ranked Coyote among metro Detroit’s top 10 public golf courses.

Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com or 517-281-2412.

Story originally appeared on GolfWeek