OSHTEMO (WKZO-AM) — The engineering team hired by Western Michigan University to design the expanded Business Technology and Research Park is soliciting public input on what the project should include.
They held a forum last night in Oshtemo, where they received ideas about what the vacant property should retain, what it should add and what it should avoid.
The Colony Orchard Farm is 44 acres, less than a fifth of the size of the existing BTR Park, and mostly wooded. The design work has not yet begun.
Ryan Musch, a project engineer with Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr and Huber, said it will be modeled after the first BTR Park phase, but designed to work around some distinctive features.
“A lot of that depends on how much of the environment, how much of the trees and how much of the existing conditions can be saved,” Musch said. “So, it’s kind of a balance that we’ll be working with.
Some of the suggestions Thursday included adding trails, retaining trees along the front fence line to act as a barrier, and leaving the part closest to Asylum Lake wooded.
They are open to more suggestions, which can be made at their website.
Two more forums are planned.
Bob Miller, WMU’s vice president, said they hope to have the facility ready for new companies in a year. He said they’re already talking to interested firms.
– John McNeill
