Sterling Heights oak tree: a smaller Van Dyke apartment plan spares the Sterling Oak, with a council hearing Nov. 4

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — A rare chinquapin oak that residents call the Sterling Oak would stay standing under a scaled-back apartment plan for north Van Dyke Avenue, and the City Council will take public comment on the revised project at its Nov. 4 meeting.

The Chaldean Community Foundation first proposed a four-story, 80-unit mixed-use building on roughly two acres along the east side of Van Dyke just south of Clinton River Road. The new plan is a three-story building with 29 apartments, with the oak at the center of an outdoor gathering space, according to the Sterling Heights Sentry, which cited city background material prepared for the council’s Oct. 5 meeting.

The tree is 88 feet tall and 14 feet around and predates the founding of the United States, the Sentry reported. City planners have identified it as tree 2168, a landmark chinkapin oak, in a planning packet quoted by the resident group The Sterling Oak.

What the plan keeps, and what it removes. The oak’s critical root zone would be protected, and the tree would anchor a 5,890-square-foot “parklet” that the foundation and outside groups could reserve for events, pop-up markets and a limited number of food trucks, the Sentry reported. Other trees on the site would still be lost to earth-moving, including some “landmark” trees 32 inches across or larger. The developer would replant more than 250 trees to meet the city’s tree ordinance.

“Any other trees being removed will be subject to the city’s robust tree preservation ordinance and will be replanted through their landscaping efforts,” City Planner Jake Parcell said in a prepared statement to the paper. Mayor Michael Taylor said he favors the project and is “relieved that the tree can be saved and enjoyed by our residents.”

Why the plan shrank. The city says the project, approved more than two years ago, was changed because of “unforeseen circumstances.” The larger 10-acre property sits in a floodplain, which limits how much of it can be built on, according to the city material cited by the Sentry.

The root-zone fight. The revised plan has already been tested once. On Sept. 14 the city’s Board of Ordinance Appeals unanimously turned down a request to shrink the oak’s protected root zone from about 80 feet to about 54 feet, finding no “unnecessary hardship,” according to the resident group’s summary of the meeting. A city arborist told the board the species is “pretty resilient” but added, “There’s no guarantee with any tree in construction,” the group reported. The developer’s engineer told the board that state wetland review was still under way, the group reported.

Not everyone calls it a win. Longtime resident Mark Graf told the Sentry the tree is “the celebrity,” but “the trees that they’re destroying, the replacements don’t make up for what they provide today.” The resident group argues the only sure way to protect the oak is for the city to keep the land as green space.

A taxpayer question, too. The land is owned by the city and is under a purchase agreement with the foundation, the Sentry reported, so the council’s decision is also about what residents get for selling public land. The foundation’s Tigris Tower Apartments, a four-story, 135-unit building, sits two parcels away at 43700 Van Dyke.

How to weigh in. The public hearing is on the agenda for the council’s Nov. 4 meeting at City Hall. Residents can speak during the hearing or send written comments to the city ahead of time; the agenda packet is posted on the city’s AgendaCenter before each meeting. The Mitten Daily will report what the council decides.

Sources:
Sterling Heights Sentry (C&G Newspapers), “Old oak tree preserved under new plan,” Oct. 19, 2026 (unit counts, parklet, tree counts, Parcell, Taylor and Graf quotes, Nov. 4 hearing, land agreement), https://www.candgnews.com/articles/business-development/old-oak-tree-preserved-under-new-plan/
The Sterling Oak (resident group), “A Small Win: BOA Denies Root-Zone Variance,” Sept. 20, 2026 (Sept. 14 appeals board decision, root-zone figures, arborist remarks), https://www.sterling-oak.org/a-small-win-boa-denies-root-zone-variance/
The Sterling Oak, “New Development Proposal TONIGHT,” Aug. 12, 2026 (tree 2168 planning note, planning packet link), https://www.sterling-oak.org/new-development-proposal-tonight/
Photo: Kim Scarborough, “Chinkapin oak.jpg,” July 2006, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/), cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinkapin_oak.jpg

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Tags: Sterling Heights · Sterling Oak · Trees · Housing · Van Dyke Avenue · City Council