Youth softball and baseball players from the local area and beyond are expected to flock to a future Turnin2 facility coming to Hartland Township.

Turnin2 softball and baseball training center operator Ron Pezzoni is “super-excited” about expanding into a larger sports facility, which will be built at the southwest corner of Old U.S. 23 and Clyde Road.

Pezzoni expects construction of the 64,530-square-foot indoor training facility and four outdoor softball fields to happen next year — the exact construction schedule has not yet been determined.

The facility will also feature batting cages, locker rooms, a pro shop, offices and concessions.

The township’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a special land-use permit for the facility Tuesday. The township Planning Commission had previously given it the green light in August.

Pezzoni, the varsity softball coach at Howell High School, owns a smaller Turnin2 facility at 4860 S. Old U.S. in Brighton Township.

He said the much larger additional facility in Hartland would serve the eight baseball teams Turnin2 added this year as well as fast-pitch softball teams.

“We’re also excited to have people travel to us” for tournaments and training, he said.

Finding “higher-end competitions” for travel teams often requires teams to travel outside of Michigan, he said. “Our teams often travel south to Ohio or Indiana” or other states.

Indoor practice fields and four outdoor softball fields will serve softball teams as well as younger boys’ baseball teams, Pezzoni said.

“The fields will be able to be multi-use for softball and baseball,” he said.

However, “initially, we won’t have a (baseball) field that is big enough for the older boys,” he said. “That might not happen immediately.”

He said future goals, once the Turnin2 facility is built, include possibly adding a baseball field.

Township Supervisor Bill Fountain said during Tuesday’s meeting that the future sports complex will be a good fit with the township’s “Friendly by Nature” brand.

“Especially at a gateway coming into this community,” right off the freeway, “to me, it says family-oriented and the outdoors type of feel that we are working on for our brand,” Fountain said.

“I am excited to have you be part of our community,” he said.

Cars would enter and exit off Old U.S. 23 and an additional gated emergency access will go in off Clyde Road.

The majority of the now-vacant wooded 94.5 acres is expected to remain natural.

The land was previously zoned for conservation agriculture, so a special land-use permit was needed to put private recreation on the site.

Landowner Black Wing LLC, Asselin McLane Architectural Group and their project team made a few big changes to the plan to appease neighbors and planning commissioners.

A revised plan eliminated outdoor field lights.

The location of the entire sports complex was moved 80 feet to the east, toward Old U.S. 23 in order to create more of a buffer between the facility and nearby properties and to preserve more natural vegetation.

Contact Livingston Daily county and townships reporter Jennifer Eberbach at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTheWriter.