State of the cities address focuses on developments

SOUTHFIELD/LATHRUP VILLAGE — The city at “the center of it all” talked of aspirations for 2023 and beyond at the annual state of the cities address March 27.

Lathrup Village Mayor Kelly Garrett opened the panel with an inspirational statement.

“I want to talk about your dash. If you can figure it out, it’s when you were born and when your life is over. That dash is everything you do, how you treated somebody and how you gave back to your community. Make that dash meaningful. Because I know when I’m not here, it’s not going to say ‘mayor’ on my headstone, because that’s the least important thing.”

Reflecting on the difficulty she faced in 2022 while trying to rediscover herself after the tragic loss of her only child at the end of 2021, Garrett advised the audience that this would be her last speech. After six years as the mayor and 12 years on council, Garrett announced that she would not be running again because everything she ran on is done.

“We’re in the last year now of the infrastructure project of getting our roads fixed,” Garrett said. “We’re in the last, second year of getting our sidewalks fixed, because they were pretty bad. Another thing I wanted to do was sell the house where the founder of Lathrup Village, Louise Lathrup, lived. That’s where City Hall was. It burnt down in 2009, and it’s been an eyesore for quite a while. Well, it got sold in 2022. That was the last checkmark for me.”

After Garrett’s heartfelt speech, Southfield Mayor Kenson Siver delivered his address.

“As you get older, you’re supposed to become, I’m told, more patient. Is that true? I don’t know. It’s not working for me,” he joked. "But anyhow, we have been patient. We’ve gotten through COVID and all the things that went with it, and the city continues to never stop. We’re on the move with a whole number of things.”

Siver announced that despite all the obstacles of changing workplaces, changing retail systems, and rising interest rates, new business developments are on the rise in 2023.

A new, smaller Costco is coming to Southfield to serve small businesses, hotels and restaurants, and is also available to those with Costco memberships. Siver estimates that Southfield residents will be able to use their memberships by November or December of this year. Along with the first Costco Business Center in Michigan, Southfield will also become home to the first Tesla service center in the state, which has just begun construction on Telegraph Road.

In addition to these new groundbreakings, Siver applauded the adaptive reuse of the former Copper Canyon, which will be transformed into an expansion of the New Seoul restaurant and become a gourmet market. The former AMC theater will also be granted the opportunity of a fresh start as Triumph Church. The Radisson Hotel is transforming the side of the building facing Telegraph Road into a memory care unit, and the central tower will become an extended stay hotel and a new restaurant. Enterprise will see its third expansion in Southfield with a new service coming to Garner and Telegraph Roads.

“We’re extremely pleased that people continue to find Southfield,” Siver said. “It’s a desirable place to start a business, and many of them are small entrepreneurs.”

Keeping with the theme of “adaptive reuse,” Siver announced that the old Gothic-style McKinley School that has sat vacant for years is being saved with two new family homes, 18 condominiums in the school and 22 new condominiums being built on the former playfield. Similarly, he announced multiple housing projects, including the city’s third application to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority for the adaptive reuse of the John Gray School for 60 units of subsidized senior housing.

Continuing the city’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity, Southfield’s zoning has been changed to allow for duplex housing on large lots in the city to accommodate the need for affordable housing.

“One of the questions I get asked constantly is, ‘What is happening at Northland?’ And so, I always say, ‘Well, have you driven down Greenfield Road? Because it’s very visible. We had to overcome a lot of skepticism. We had a vision, and people told us, ‘Oh, nobody’s gonna build your vision.’ Well, we’re building that vision with the thanks of Contour Company.”

Despite challenges of complicated financing, 33 easements and 900 pages to sort through, supply chain issues like the cement shortage, and environmental issues, the original 1954 mall is being transformed. Siver explained that the 1974 enclosure of the mall has been undone to allow for an open campus.

“The great thing that I think Contour is doing is, and I know that our sustainability coordinator will appreciate this, they are recycling bricks, steel, aluminum, asphalt, concrete. So much of the original mall, which was built as a bomb shelter and it’s extremely well-constructed, remains. There’s a lot of recycling going on.”

Building A of the Northland project will feature six stories, with the first floor being a retail level. Siver added that leases have already been set.

As a continuation of Southfield’s initiative to promote local artists and beautify the city, a new butterfly installation will be installed on Northwestern Highway, outside of Eaton Corp. The city’s Art Commission will continue to feature local artists in a quarterly exhibit in the lobby of City Hall. The current display is called “Visions” and features three local African American artists. This exhibit is open to the public until April 28, and on May 1, a new exhibit will be launched.

Siver also acknowledged the Nine Mile corridor, a multijurisdictional project involving Farmington, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Southfield and Oak Park. The almost 17 miles of nonmotorized pathways will connect these communities to encourage health, wellness and accessibility. The project’s final phase is set to take place May-June. For more information on this project, visit https://www.candgnews.com/news/communities-explore-connection-via-nonmotorized-pathway-1501.

The expenditures for 2023 in the Parks and Recreation Department are almost $8 million. With a $600,000 matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the city will provide an additional $600,000 to repair and expand the parking lot and add a new classroom, year-round restrooms and signage at the Carpenter Lake Nature Preserve. Beech Woods Park has nearly a $4.5 million investment, adding a splash pad, a new playground, a new parking lot and a second entrance from Beech Road.

With a firm focus on sustainability and Southfield’s future, Souzan Hanna, Southfield’s sustainability planner, shared some of the upcoming projects to better the city for the residents of tomorrow.

The city is hoping to implement a pollinator garden to bring awareness to the decline of the monarch butterfly and promote other pollinators. The city also announced the Valley Woods trailhead, which will enhance trails and further accessibility for the community. The final project is a Solar Bollard, which is a new technology. The city will install a dozen off-grid solar-lighting motion sensors along trail systems with safety concerns or trails in need of further lighting. Lawrence Technological University connected the city with a Ph.D. student from the University of Michigan, who selected Southfield to participate in this pilot project.

“Ultimately, we want everybody’s knowledge and experience to collectively put a holistic sustainability action plan together,” Hanna stated. “Similarly, we have public education materials that will educate the public city staff about what sustainability is.”

Additional projects Southfield is working on in the coming year include road improvements, particularly in neighborhoods; water main replacements; residential developments; and the digitization of files at City Hall.

For more information on topics discussed at the state of the cities address, visit cityofsouthfield.com/news/mayor-siver-2023-state-city-address.