Mallard Cove
58 houses on 132 acres — with 54 of those acres deliberately left undeveloped
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About Mallard Cove
Mallard Cove sits on the northeast side of Saline, off Textile Road between Woodland and Lohr, in Pittsfield Township. It holds 58 houses built from six floor plans by Bayberry beginning in 1989, most of them on more than an acre, and a great many backing onto wetlands or large common area.
The number worth holding onto is the land. The community covers 132 acres and 54 of them were left undeveloped — more than forty percent of the site. That decision is why houses here back onto wetland and open ground rather than onto each other, and it is the neighborhood's defining physical feature thirty-five years on.
- —54 of the site's 132 acres left undeveloped — over forty percent
- —Most houses back onto wetlands or large common area
- —Only six floor plans across 58 houses, which makes comps unusually clean
- —Pittsfield Township taxes, Ann Arbor mail, Saline schools
- —Wetland adjacency is regulated — confirm the boundary for any lot
The land that was left alone
Fifty-four undeveloped acres across a 132-acre site is a substantial commitment, and it produces something a denser plat cannot. Most of the 58 houses back onto wetlands or large common area, which means the open ground is distributed through the subdivision rather than pushed to an edge.
Wetland adjacency carries specific implications a buyer should understand rather than simply enjoy. Wetlands are regulated — what an owner may do near them, including filling, grading, dock or structure placement, and tree removal, is governed by state and sometimes federal rules on top of any local ordinance and the association's own restrictions. Establish where the regulated boundary sits relative to a specific lot line, and what is and is not permitted, before planning anything.
Drainage deserves attention for the same reason. On a site with this much wetland, grading, water table, and seasonal standing water vary considerably from lot to lot, and a basement's history is worth asking about directly.
The homes
Bayberry built the subdivision from six floor plans beginning in 1989 — the same builder responsible for Travis Pointe South a few years earlier, in 1985 to 1987. Six plans across 58 houses produces real consistency, which makes comparable sales inside the subdivision reliable: differences come down to plan, lot, and condition rather than to construction unknowns.
Most lots run over an acre. At roughly thirty-five years old, the houses are past the first full replacement cycle and into the second on some systems. Roofs, furnaces, air conditioning, water heaters, windows, and electrical panels are all live questions. On a site with this much wetland, the water and sewer arrangement the listing names is worth thinking about in context — a drain field and a high water table interact, and service history matters more here than on drier ground.
Because the plans repeat, a buyer can genuinely compare like with like here in a way that is harder in a custom-built community. Identify which of the six plans a house is, find the others, and the pricing exercise becomes largely a question of lot and condition.
Township, mailing address, school district
This is the most common source of confusion in the Saline market, and it applies directly here. Three systems attach three different names to the same houses, and none of them can be inferred from the others.
The municipality is Pittsfield Charter Township, which sets the property tax rate and provides services, permitting, and inspections — township rates rather than city rates. The mailing address is Ann Arbor, which is a Postal Service routing decision and carries no governmental meaning whatever. The school assignment is Saline Area Schools, whose district covers the City of Saline and reaches into Pittsfield Charter Township along with portions of Bridgewater, Freedom, Lodi, Saline, and York townships.
For comparable sales the consequence is direct. The best comparables are inside the subdivision, and after that other properties in the same township carrying Saline school assignment. A City of Saline house carries a different tax bill; a City of Ann Arbor house carries a different tax bill and a different district entirely. Using either produces a number that will not survive an appraisal.
The town they take their name from
Saline exists because a surveyor liked the ground. Orange Risdon was surveying the road that would connect Detroit and Chicago between 1824 and 1827, and in 1824 he bought land in what is now Saline Township. He came back in 1829, and in 1832 he platted a village on part of his land and named it Saline for the river and the newly formed township.
The site had three things going for it: a position on the Chicago Road, now US-12 and still the main street through town as Michigan Avenue; prime farmland in every direction; and the Saline River for water power. In the first years Risdon's own house served as post office, polling place, hotel, and general store at once.
Downtown Saline today is a working Michigan Avenue rather than a preserved facade, with locally owned restaurants and shops, Summerfest and Oktoberfest, and a weekly farmers market. Rentschler Farm Museum sits at the eastern edge on four acres the city bought in 1998, holding a frame house and eleven outbuildings that have been on the National Register since 2013.
Getting around
Mallard Cove sits off Textile Road on the northeast side of Saline, in Pittsfield Township. Downtown Saline is a short drive southwest and downtown Ann Arbor roughly fifteen to twenty minutes north, with US-23 close to the east and I-94 north of that. Detroit Metro Airport is about half an hour east.
Pittsfield Township wraps the south side of Ann Arbor and reaches down toward Saline, which is precisely why so many neighborhoods here carry city names they do not belong to. It covers 27.4 square miles and counted 39,147 residents at the 2020 census, and it was organized as the Township of Pitt on March 7, 1834 before being renamed Pittsfield in 1839.
Schools
Mallard Cove is served by Saline Area Schools despite sitting in Pittsfield Township with an Ann Arbor mailing address.
Buying or selling in Mallard Cove
Match the floor plan first — with only six across 58 houses, that is an unusually clean starting point — then the lot, then condition. Lot is the big variable here: what a house backs onto, how much of the acre is usable, and how the ground drains all move value independently of the plan.
For buyers, run the systems review for late-1980s construction and add the site-specific work: service history on the water and sewer arrangement, drainage and basement history, and the regulated wetland boundary relative to the lot. Read the association's recorded restrictions, particularly anything governing the common ground and the wetland edges.
For sellers, the 54 undeveloped acres are the case and most listings mention them only in passing. Over forty percent of the site left as open ground and wetland, on a subdivision of 58 houses on acre-plus lots, is not something a buyer will find in a conventionally platted development — and it cannot be added later. Name what the specific lot backs onto, state the township and district plainly rather than relying on the Ann Arbor mailing address, and document what has been replaced.
Community details reflect public records and local knowledge and can change — always verify what matters to your purchase. Explore more of Saline's neighborhoods, or browse active listings.