By: Dean Vaglia | Macomb Chronicle | Published June 17, 2026
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — The Macomb Township Planning Commission met on June 2, giving its support to two items brought before it.
First, the board approved a site plan and special land use request for a McDonald’s restaurant to be built near the corner of 26 Mile Road and Romeo Plank Road.
Located in the Macomb Park commercial development, the McDonald’s met or was not applicable to all of the special land use criteria. Laruen Marshall, a plan review analyst, brought up several points about the site plan that needed addressing. One point that stuck out to commissioners was if a smaller, 40-foot delivery truck would work for the site rather than usual 53-foot trucks. The petitioner confirmed that this would be possible.
“(McDonald’s has) committed to using the 40-footer for this one,” said Michael McPherson, civil engineer with Atwell consulting firm. “This is not an atypical situation. They do have tight sites in other areas that they use smaller delivery trucks, so it’s just a matter of how they schedule their deliveries and which actual trucks they assign to this location.”
Commissioners approved the special land use unanimously and approved the site plan by a margin of 6-1, with Commissioner Aaron Tuckfield being the sole vote against.
Rezoning to residential
Commissioners also gave their support to the rezoning of parcels at 22550 & 22600 24 Mile Road from agriculture to R-1 residential. The petitioner, Joseph Lombardo of Lombardo Homes, requested the rezoning to build single-family homes on the properties. The township master plan calls for those parcels to be zoned residential.
Three people spoke during public comment for the item. Commenters objected to the rezoning and future development with concerns about it potentially affecting the flood plain, traffic flows, increased demands on area infrastructure and loss of agricultural lands.
With opposition and concern brought up, Tuckfield used the time to explain that the commission had very little it could do on the rezoning.
“If we get a request in front of us that is requesting to match that long-term plan and we say ‘no,’ we have very little grounds to say that,” Tuckfield said. “Typically, if we get a parcel that’s requesting (to match) the master plan, the question is if there’s something significantly different that wasn’t noticed or should have been recognized from the master plan.”
Tuckfield also defended the township’s approach to stormwater and flood water management with developments, citing the use of water retention ponds in a development going up near Waldenburg Park.
“We had multiple large rainfalls there this year, and I stopped by in March and, sure enough, the water retention was holding the water,” Tuckfield said. “The whole lot was not flooding. There was some water flooding on adjacent parcels where it had been flooding before. The water management was doing exactly what it was supposed to.”
The Macomb Township Board of Trustees approved the rezoning at its June 10 meeting. Lombardo expects development to begin around 2028.
Commission updates
Paul Mazzara was approved by the Board of Trustees to join the Planning Commission on May 27.
Mazzara comes with experience on the Zoning Board of Appeals for 3 1/2 years and the Ethics Committee for 2 1/2 years. His partial term lasts until December 31.
Commissioner Kathy Smith was approved to serve as the board’s new secretary.
Marshall mentioned that the Planning Department is working on an update to the master plan this summer. The department is currently speaking with consultants from Carlisle Wortman & Associates and plans on holding open houses about the plan later this year.