A meeting of residents who live in the old Lindbom School neighborhood in Brighton has been scheduled for Tuesday to discuss concerns associated with a proposed development.

SR Jacobson Development Corp. of Bingham Farms has submitted a preliminary site plan for 140 “luxury” apartments to be constructed on the 10.5-acre Lindbom property, which has been vacant since the school closed in 2010. There have been various proposals for the property, including a charter school, senior housing and single-family homes - all of which have been dropped by the developers at one point or another.

The latest proposal - the West Village Townhome development - went before the Brighton City Planning Commission on Feb. 3rd, with neighborhood residents saying the project would be too large and cause too much traffic in their quiet neighborhood on the west end of town. After the public hearing, the commission gave preliminary approval to the site plan as a Planned Unit Development, while saying certain issues must be addressed. City officials say a traffic study will have to be completed, and a couple commission members were critical of the design, saying it needs to be substantially improved.

The person who arranged the meeting, Brad Munce, says he is organizing it partly out of concern for his mother, who lives in the Lindbom neighborhood, but also for the residents, saying they need more information - not only on the development itself, but also regarding the plume of underground TCE. With a chemical name of trichloroethylene, TCE was used as an industrial solvent and degreaser by a former industry located northeast of the neighborhood. The plume of toxic gas has been slowly advancing over the years through the Lindbom property and toward the high school and Brighton Lake. Munce says the state has been remiss in its duty to keep the affected residents informed about the health risks associated with the plume. Munce told WHMI that he also plans to have a second meeting, when he will be inviting a representative of the Environmental Protection Agency, and EGLE - the Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy - formerly the DEQ. “The people are interested in the statistics, the testing results and plans to clean it up,” he says.

Munce would also like to see a future “Cancer Cluster” study to determine whether there is an abnormally high incidence of cancer in the neighborhood. He says one resident who spoke at the Planning Commission meeting said he has lung cancer, and Munce is wondering if any others who live in the neighborhood also have the life-threatening disease. The meeting will be held Tuesday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, located on the banks of the Mill Pond in downtown Brighton, beginning at 7 p.m. (TT)