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Delaware officials OK'd the county parks commission's rezoning application, from agricultural/residential to commercial, on Aug. 14, following similar action by the county planning commission the same day.

The rezoning carries a stipulation. The county has one-year to show progress with the property or the zoning will revert to the original classification, said township Clerk James Bruderick.

With the zoning change, the parks board can now seek funding for an alternate sewer system for the property on the west side of M-25. The parks commission wanted to wait for the township's official approval to avoid problems like those they faced when trying to upgrade Lexington Park in Lexington Township.

"The funding cycle starts in April. That sounds like it is a long way off, but we will be scrambling to be ready," said parks board Chairman Jim Bowerman.

They are probably looking at 50-50 match grants for Delaware Park.

There are not as many grants now as when they created Evergreen Park on M-53, which was a 26-74 state grant.

Bowerman said the parks board has already made some changes to the original plan for the Delaware park.

"We are reducing the number of sites and making some larger so as many can pull through as can. We started with 225 sites, then went to 180.Now we are looking at 133," he said.

Bowerman explained the want to keep the numbers low enough to avoid discharging over 10,000 gallons per day of sewage because the requirements get much more stringent at that point. He said their basing their discharge at 75 per gallons per day per campsite, which is very high compared to their usual 26 per gallons per day per site amount.

"After a couple years if you can show there is nowhere near that capacity sometimes they allow you to add sites," he stated.

The board has been looking at alternative sewer systems because they do not want to use lagoons.

"We've narrowed it down to the type of system we would like to use," Bowerman said.

They are interested in an enclosed system, but are not looking at the rotating drum system that the new RV park in Forester has.

"It is too costly, he told us it cost $2.2 million," Bowerman stated. However, he noted that park has nearly 400 campsites and a number of cabins, which is much larger than the proposed county park.

The parks board is also looking at a system that discharges into a septic system rather than directly into a stream like the RV Park.

He will submit their plan to the local and state health departments as well.

The parks board will also have to hold a public hearing on the proposed campground.

The county parks board needed commercial-recreational zoning for the 120 acre undeveloped park on Lake Huron. Delaware's master plan designates the area a park, but the zoning ordinances did not allow some things needed for a campground.

The parks board plans to develop only 20 of the 66.4 acres on the east side of M-25. The campsites would range from large drive-through ones for RVs to rustic sites for tent campers.

The parks board has invested about $15,000 in the property's first survey, an elevation map and a preliminary design to present to the planning commission. The estimated cost of development is nearly $1 million.