The Committee Passed It. That Doesn’t Mean They Bought It.
Vol. IV, No. 29 - Extending a current moratorium on gas stations will go to the full council - with less support than the committee votes suggests.
On Wednesday, June 17, Troy City Council’s Economic and Community Development Committee met in a rare mid-week session to take up two recommendations from city staff: deny a moratorium exemption for developer Mandeep Singh, and extend the city’s moratorium on new gas stations another 90 days — from August 28 through November 27.
The committee voted unanimously to forward both to full council. But, our readers would do themselves a service by not reading too much into that word “unanimously.”
A Vote to Let Council Decide
Towards the end of the marathon committee meeting, neither Council Members Madison Hickman nor Bill Twiss have full throated support to extending the moratorium. Both voted to advance the question so the full nine-member council could weigh in. The committee’s recommendation reads more like a procedural move, rather than an endorsement. The committee chair, Council Member Lynne Snee was the clearest voice in favor of staff’s recommendation. What reaches full council is a staff-recommended 90-day extension with, at best, lukewarm committee backing.
That context matters. A committee recommendation that nobody on the committee particularly believes in is a different recommendation than usually comes from these committee meetings.
On the Exemption, The Staff Recommendation was Followed
The no-exemption recommendation was the least contested part of the evening, and for good reason. Law Director Grant Kerber was unambiguous: you cannot carve out a benefit for one developer without objective, class-based criteria. A targeted exemption for Singh alone would expose the city to a “class of one” constitutional challenge. The only legally clean options, per Kerber, are leave the moratorium as-is, lift it entirely on gas stations, or let it expire August 28.
Singh’s attorney, Rebecca Simpson, acknowledged as much. She told the committee she was no longer arguing her client qualifies as a formal applicant under the zoning code — she was asking council to find whatever legal mechanism would allow her client to move forward. A representative from Choice One Engineering confirmed what this publication has reported for months: filing the formal application at the end of the design process was simply their standard practice. They didn’t understand that the fee and form submission was the legally protective step. By the time they did, the moratorium had already passed.
The committee was right to follow legal counsel on the exemption. That part of the evening was clear.
On the Extension, the Room Disagreed
Three council members who are not on the committee came to the microphone and said — on the record — that they would not have voted for the original moratorium had they known how far along Singh’s project actually was.
Sixth Ward Councilman Jeff Schilling called it “a mess from the start” and argued council should end the moratorium entirely. He pointed to the draft Unified Development Code’s language on gas stations — which would effectively prohibit standalone fuel stations in Troy by requiring any fueling operation to be ancillary to a building exceeding 50,000 square feet — and said nobody in their right mind would build a structure the size of a big box retailer just to support eight pump stations. “If we end the moratorium and they build gas stations according to the existing code,” Schilling said, “we’re not going to have any problems with it.”
At-large Councilman Todd Severt pressed staff directly: two companies made substantial pre-moratorium investments in Troy based on a reasonable expectation that the rules wouldn’t change mid-process. Is there any mechanism to address that? Kerber’s answer was essentially no — not without lifting the moratorium altogether. At-large Councilwoman Susan Westfall said she would not have supported the original moratorium knowing what she knows now, and opposed extending it further.
City staff pushed back, noting it was council that passed the moratorium, that the rationale has been consistent, and that the proposed language in the future Unified Development Code on gas stations reflects deliberate policy choices informed by trends in neighboring communities.
What Happens Next
The extension ordinance now goes to full council. The August 17 meeting is the last regular council session before the moratorium’s August 28 expiration. If council does not act by then — or pass an emergency measure before August 28 — the moratorium expires on its own, applications reopen under existing code, and the process to adopt the proposed Unified Development Code continues on whatever timeline Planning Commission and council set, but if certainly will not be adopted by the time the the gas station moratorium is set to expire in late August.
Based on what was said publicly on June 17, at least four council members — Twiss, Schilling, Severt, and Westfall — have expressed skepticism or outright opposition to extension. That math is not favorable to staff’s recommendation, though council members can and do change their positions between a committee meeting and a floor vote.
Troy’s stated economic development mission includes a commitment to enhance “the predictability and profitability of private investments made in the City.” Every additional extension of this moratorium is a test of whether that language means anything when it’s inconvenient.
Full council will have the final say. Residents who want to weigh in should plan to attend or watch the next council meeting. This one isn’t over.
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This Month, we are doing something different! We are partnering with the Troy-Miami County Public Library by using this platform to raise funds for the Dolly Partin Imagination Library locally here in Miami County! Through the Dolly Partin Imagination Library, children from birth to Kindergarten, can get a book delivered every month to their home at no cost.
And while Dolly is a huge help, she picks out the stories and she works with the publishers, there is still a local cost to the program. Your donations through our “Buy Me A Coffee Page” will help get these youngsters on the right track to a life-long love of reading!
Thanks to John And Kim, Rachelle. Loraine S., Loraine W., and a special anonymous donor, for your recent donations to this effort. So far this month — 71 books have been purchased! Thank you!