• OCC will close (and sell) the entire campus in Fall of 2026

• Waterford Township's board of trustees has voted to approve a purchase agreement for 51 acres, which includes some buildings and most of the southern portion of the property. The purchase is contingent on the bond passing this fall (2024) and the sale price is $2.8million.

  • The bond proposal has passed and will cost near $35 million over 20 years for the property alone.

  • The purchase proposal includes only a very small portion of the nature reserve, which is only big enough to grant access to the Hess-Hathaway park. The public nature reserve is still expected to be developed as residential, so OCC can make more one-time money from the sale.

  • Oakland County Parks has formally offered to purchase some or all of the property, if the requisite parties consent. This would protect the nature reserve and kick off their vision's first phase of a new system of trails and pathways across Waterford, including possibly a dog park alongside the nature reserve. The partnership opportunities between Waterford and Oakland County are huge, and this is COWL's preferred solution to protect the existing community residents.

• The Township Master Plan was dramatically changed in 2024 for its 20-year update, which removed the "open space overlay" which formerly offered some protection to this region of the township. The Master Plan now shows a PUD development area and residential zoning planned for the area. 

• A document leaked to us showed early collaboration between Waterford Township and OCC, where non-public negotiations resulted in a map designating the plan which ultimately unfolded, despite denials from OCC of any plans being considered whatsoever until after the Waterford bond proposal was voted on - none have come forward to explain this, but this might be due to our tendency to share information transparently with the public.

Waterford Township Master Plan to be revised by October 2023! Waterford Township will be adopting a new Master plan! The Master plan will be designed for a 20-year period. What this means is, the new Master Plan will be in effect from OCT 2023-OCT 2043. This is an important time to voice your concerns and vision for Waterford Township's future! The Master Plan acts as a guideline that drives many things such as spending, land use, focus areas, and more! Please reach out to express your needs, wants, hopes, and dreams for our towns future! You can use Map.Social to map issues or opportunities, visit https://www.hlplanning.com/portals/waterfordtownship/ and visit the documents page, or contact the Township or us for more information. Let's work together to protect our township! 

Some delays have occurred relating to the firm hired to help design the master plan, so it is unclear when the final plan will be approved.

Hess-Hathaway offers 10x10 Garden Plots to the community, according to their terms. Access to the garden begins each year during the month of April-Labor Day. 

Clarkston High School has teamed up with COWL to update our website. From March to May 2022, they worked with us to renovate our website so that it is updated with all our new information. This opportunity allowed us to expand our communication with our community. It was a great opportunity to work with these gifted students. 

Annual Waterford Township Clean-up event for Earth Day! Saturday, April 23, 2022 8am-2pm. COWL members meet at Warming House to participate and show off their new t-shirts! We love working together with our neighbors, friends, and community to do our part to protect Mother Earth. It was a wonderful time, great turn-out, and great weather.✌❤😃🌎 Join us next year!