Bloomfield Hollow Isn't a Fight Over One Parcel. It's a Fight Over the Whole Research Park District

"I'm furious. I think it's going to destroy the value of my property and I think it's a nuisance," John Schafer told a reporter outside a packed Bloomfield Township meeting hall in February. Schafer lives off Berkshire Road, near the wooded parcel where restaurateur Zack Sklar wants to build a $17 million event venue called Bloomfield Hollow. His line made the local news. It also missed the part of the story that actually matters if you live anywhere in the township, not just within earshot of Franklin Road.

What's before the Bloomfield Township Planning Commission right now isn't a simple yes or no on one 30-acre lot. It's a request to rewrite what the township's Research Park District allows, and that change would not expire once this particular building is decided.

The Rule That Doesn't Exist Yet

Here's the detail buried in the township's own planning records: banquet halls are currently permitted only in Bloomfield Township's B-4 zoning district. There are no parcels in the entire township zoned B-4. None. So when Sklar's team filed a site plan for a wooded property off Franklin Road, north of Square Lake Road, that sits in the Research Park District, the township had to open a separate process just to make the use legal anywhere at all. That process is a text amendment to the zoning ordinance itself, initiated by the township after receiving Sklar's application, that would add banquet halls as a special land use inside the Research Park District.

That distinction is why the commission's February 16 meeting produced two tabled items, not one. Commissioners weren't just weighing a site plan. They were weighing whether to change what's legally allowed on every parcel zoned Research Park in Bloomfield Township, a category that includes land well beyond the 30 acres Sklar wants to build on. Vote yes on the amendment, and Bloomfield Hollow becomes possible. Vote yes on the amendment, and so does the next banquet hall proposal on the next Research Park parcel, wherever that turns out to be.

What Sklar Is Actually Proposing

The building at the center of this is not a modest addition to the township's event calendar. Sklar, the chef and restaurateur behind Social in Birmingham, Como's in Ferndale, Mex, and Beau's Grillery, has spent eight years looking for Oakland County land to build something like this. The design brings in Joel Dixon, whose past work includes projects for the Auberge Resorts Collection and Four Seasons, alongside the firm behind Manhattan's Little Island at Pier 55 for the outdoor design. The plan calls for a sunken amphitheater, a glass atrium with a 270-degree view of the surrounding woods and wetlands, and food service run by Cutting Edge Cuisine, the catering company Sklar co-founded 20 years ago that now caters events at Michigan Central Station and handles activations for brands like Gucci and Bentley.

Even the building's own size has shifted across public filings. When the project was announced in January, coverage described a 30,000-square-foot venue. By the time the site plan itself became public that February, township filings listed the structure at 15,815 square feet. Both numbers came from documents tied to the same applicant. That's not proof of anything sinister, but it's a reminder that the specifics of this project have moved even in official paperwork, which is worth keeping in mind for every other figure attached to it.

Five Months, Two Meetings, One Vote Still Pending

As of that June hearing, the most recent public record available shows the matter still working through the process rather than resolved. Anyone tracking this should check the township's own notice page before assuming either side has won.

Why the Room Keeps Filling Up

Part of what turned a routine zoning matter into a five-hour public comment session is timing. Several residents said they learned about the project from a single postcard that arrived only weeks before the February vote, after some had already read about it in the news. Brett Northcutt, whose family lives near the site, put the scale of his worry plainly: "We could have between 700 and 1,000 people showing up every single day." Township Trustee Valerie Murphy, who wasn't scheduled to speak that night, asked the room a version of the same question: "Would anyone really want a banquet hall with 1,000 people regularly in our backyards?"

The specifics residents pointed to weren't abstract. Planning filings identified roughly 496 trees on the site slated for removal, with dozens labeled landmark or protected. Some homes sit as close as 80 to 180 feet from where the hall would stand, depending on which property line is measured. Planning commissioner Bruce Selik, who has served on the board for 15 years, called it "the most contentious meeting I've ever attended."

The pushback didn't stop at trees and setbacks. By the June hearing, residents had also hired their own acoustics expert, whose findings put the venue's real sound output at roughly four times louder than what had been presented to the commission. Separately, a real estate consultant's data claiming that homes near comparable event venues elsewhere appreciated by an average of 52 percent over ten years came under fire from neighbors who said the figures didn't hold up. Sklar's camp called the discrepancy a data entry error rather than an attempt to mislead. Whichever explanation is right, it's the second time in this process that a number meant to reassure the room needed a second look once neighbors checked it themselves.

If You Want a Say Before the Next Vote

Because this is a text amendment and not a one-time variance, the outcome affects more than the immediate neighbors of one Franklin Road parcel. If you live in Bloomfield Township and want to weigh in before the Planning Commission sends its recommendation to the Township Board, comments can be submitted by email to [email protected] or directed to the Planning Division at (248) 433-7795. The township posts hearing materials on its Documents on Demand page in advance of each meeting, which is the fastest way to see the actual site plan language rather than a secondhand summary of it.

Where This Leaves Things

Nothing here is settled. The commission tabled the amendment once already, held another hearing in June, and has not, as of that hearing, issued a final recommendation to the Township Board. What's worth carrying forward isn't a prediction about which way the vote goes. It's the fact that the vote itself covers more ground than the 30 acres everyone keeps picturing. A yes on the Research Park text amendment opens a door for the whole district, not just for Zack Sklar's amphitheater in the woods off Franklin Road.

If you're trying to make sense of what a zoning change like this could mean for a specific street, a specific parcel, or a specific home you're watching in Bloomfield Township, that's the kind of question worth a direct conversation rather than a guess based on a headline. Tom Holzer works Bloomfield Township and the surrounding Metro Detroit suburbs daily and is glad to talk through what local zoning activity like this actually means for your corner of the township. Book a consultation whenever you're ready to dig into the specifics.