Despite hours of discussion about the possible rezoning of hundreds of acres of Salem Township land for a research and development complex, no decision has been made concerning Johnson Controls Inc. planned move from Plymouth Township.

Another meeting to discuss and possibly decide on the JCI proposal will be scheduled for later this month.

About 60 residents packed Salem Township Hall Tuesday night for the presentation by the company concerning the rezoning of 367 acres in the area of Napier and Joy roads.

Dean Boik of JCI promised a lot of jobs at the proposed facility, adding that there would be no manufacturing at the site.

"It could be as high as 5,000, at the beginning it will be about 1,700," he said. "They would be executive, technical and engineering jobs."

JCI's Todd Fink said that the company was dedicated to the notion that the township would not have to pick up any of the costs of building the facility. More than that, he promised that its construction would create a windfall for state and local municipalities.

"There will be about $507,000 in permit fees to Salem," he said. "Residents in the county would see $4.1 million in additional revenue, $2.5 million would go to the Plymouth-Canton Schools and local and state governments would see $457 million over the next 12 years."

At the same time, he added that the company would be asking for a tax abatement on the development -- a measure that could at worst halve those revenue figures.

Township Trustee Linda Hamilton had a bone to pick with JCI officials about the way the township has been treated throughout the process. She said the behavior flew in the face of the company's stated ethical standards.

"Your policy says that you believe in the free enterprise system and conduct business with the highest ethical standards," she said. "Salem Township has not been treated with respect."

She said that the township was not included in road construction talks, that the company acted dishonestly by radically changing its plans after the first meeting and that their negotiations for land for road access "reflected poorly" on JCI's pledge to work openly and fairly.

Despite her rebuke of JCI's business practices, Hamilton said that the township had to put the problems in the past and move forward with the company. JCI officials strongly objected that they had acted unethically in any of their dealings with township and county officials.

If he had his choice, Country Club Village Board of Directors' President John Dillon would rather things moved backward in relation to JCI's plans for the area. Country Club Village would be the facility's nearest neighbor, something he and other residents were not looking for when they bought their homes.

"As homeowners, we're concerned about the impact of a building of that size on our homes," he said. "We're concerned about the infrastructure that will be required to support it."

He said they are concerned about the impact on local roads, highways and water and sewer service. Those services, he said, are already stretched thin. If the decision were up to members of the neighborhood, they'd stop it in its tracks.

"When we moved in, the builders said uses in the area would be residential and rural," Dillon said. "We're not happy with a complex of any sort. How is this going to impact the value of houses in this area?"

The saga with JCI started in February of 2000 when the company started to consider Salem as a good location for its new research campus, they petitioned the township for a zoning amendment in November of the next year. Before a public hearing could be held, the company changed its mind about the plan and took a request for access to Gottfredson Roads off the table. At the meeting, the petition was tabled for a number of reasons.

The company came back to the township after striking a deal with the former planning commission member for the purchase of a plot of land he owned that would make the Gottfredson access road possible.