Specialty Social Security office coming to Union Township

A different type of Social Security office will open later this year at Sweeney Road and Broomfield Street in Mount Pleasant.

Union Township Zoning Administrator Woody Woodruff said the proposed branch will service people who wish to appeal Social Security claims denied at a regular office. The construction plan was approved last week by the township’s planning commission.

A groundbreaking is set for mid- to late-March, said John Stadtfeld, vice president of JBS Contracting, the group responsible for construction.

“There are currently two buildings like this in Michigan,” Stadtfeld said. “This building is going to serve northern Michigan.”

The federal government will lease the building from Newgrass, said Stadtfeld, the property owner. It is expected to create 70 new jobs in the area.

“We were just fortunate that the developer that we lined up with got the job,” he said.

The Mount Pleasant office will serve the Upper Peninsula, Stadtfeld said. The only two other facilities with similar purposes are in Detroit and Grand Rapids.

It will join Central Michigan University’s Education and Human Services Building as one of the first LEED silver-certified buildings in the area. The LEED certification process is independent of the county and is based on standards for sustainability.

“There’s only a few buildings that are gold certified in the U.S.,” Stadtfeld said. “To be able to have one that is silver is pretty impressive.”

Some of the requirements for certification are landscaping for low water use, special carpool and hybrid parking spaces, bicycle racks and manufacturing with local and recyclable material.

“Most of the materials that are in the building will have to be made within 500 miles,” Stadtfeld said.

The building will lack the ‘green roof’ certification, although 20 percent of the materials will be recyclable materials.

In addition to LEED certification, this will be one of the first new buildings in Union Township to fall under the sidewalk ordinance, which ensures each facility includes exterior pathways.

“Glory hallelujah,” Woodruff said, “this plan has sidewalks.”

The fire department and the Isabella County Transportation Commission — two entities that also had to approve the project — have not expressed any problems with the current plan, Woodruff said.