Currently, the township owns our Township Hall building at 11452 Jackson Road and leases offices from CACA at 12172 Jackson Road. There has been much discussion around performing renovations to the existing town hall and possibly adding offices to this building or building a new office facility.
History
In 2017, the board investigated the possibility of building offices on the 1.5 acre property with the Lima Township Hall. Several options were considered. One included keeping the Hall and adding a separate office building. Another proposed tearing down the Hall and building new offices and hall. Both had the option for adding a fire substation on this land, as the CAFA station in Lima township was a leased facility.
In 2018, the property with CAFA Fire Station #2 at 11516 Jackson Rd went on the market. The township board unanimously approved the purchase of the property in August 2018, closed in September, and in October hired MCI to complete a topographic survey and soil investigation. The property, sometime referred to as 1 Lima Center as it also has frontage on Lima Center Road, is 16.71 acres in total and has an old charging station (a.k.a. The Depot), an estimated 7 acres of usable land, and some wetland with Mill Creek running through it.
Plans were moving forward to use the new 16 acre site for future Township Offices. In 2019, Lima Center Rd north of Jackson Rd was widened, a roadway and driveway permit were approved. A proposed gas main extension for the Township on N. Lima Center was discussed with DTE. Dangerous Architects created some drawings for the board in August of 2019. The COVID shutdowns stalled progress, in October of 2020 the gas main line was installed along N. Lima Center Rd. Also in 2020, in a 3-2 vote the board approved hiring an architect and engineer to make design and site plans for the new site.
In December 2020, with a new Board of Trustees sworn in, a motion was made to stop spending any further funds towards a new hall. That motion failed 2-3 and the architect continued work. In December 2021 he presented two Master Plan schemes of the N. Lima Center Road property for the Township’s review.
After this, the board took no action and progress halted. Then, in April of 2023, the board approved 3-2 to create a closed committee for a feasibility study to remodel the existing town hall. This group hired an architect to draw up plans for adding accessible bathrooms and a workroom to the current building. This plan was presented in June 2023, but after pushback from some residents, the architect was then asked to add offices to this design. Revised plans with the addition of township offices were presented by the architect to the board in November of 2023. At that same meeting, the board voted 3-2 to approve renovation of the existing town hall with the addition of election space and township offices at a cost of $1,149,780.
Current Plans (as of May 2024)
The Board is proceeding with the November 2023 motion for the addition of offices at a cost of $1.15 million. The plan has gone to the Planning Commission for preliminary site approval. In April of 2024, this plan was presented to the public by the architect and site engineer. The plans are now being prepared for final site approval by the Planning Commission.
For more information on the township hall plans, call the office or email lima@limatownshipmi.gov.