FeedsNorthville Township, not Canton, picked for Schoolcraft expansion
When officials in Northville Township approved the purchase of 153 acres of land from the City of Detroit, they did so hoping they’d have more control over the property.
It didn’t take them long to find someone interested in it.
The property at Five Mile and Ridge roads—or part of it, anyway—will be the site of a new public safety training facility. Schoolcraft College is in the process of negotiating the purchase of 30 acres there to expand their services.
“I am really excited about this,” said Township Manager Chip Snider, a former police officer and head of the township public safety department. “I think it’s going to be a first class facility. It’s going to be everything that public safety departments in the suburbs need.”
John Walsh, executive director of development and governmental relations for the Livonia-based college, said the Northville site was chosen over locations in Canton Township and Livonia. It will be designed to replace the training facility at the land-locked Garden City college site.
“The need for additional public safety personnel is great in this post-911 world,” he said. “We want to build a state of the art training facility that will meet those needs.”
The school currently serves about 1,000 students in the police and fire academy. They attend classrooms that are pieced together and scattered throughout the Wayne County college facilities, though. He said the $22 million project would consolidate numerous training facilities on the one site.
It will eventually include a fire tower, a large classroom structure and a driving range as well as unique features like a bank and a restaurant to simulate Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) drills. An empty airplane fuselage will be located on the site, too, to allow recruits to train for those kinds of emergency situations.
It will be constructed in phases, according to Jill O’Sullivan, executive vice president of the college, with the public safety driving range in the first phase, followed by the fire training tower and classrooms in subsequent phases.
The college will pay about $455,000 for the 30 acres of land; the offer also includes $100,000 in credits for township training.
“We haven’t completed the transaction yet, but I’m very much in favor of this,” said Township Supervisor Mark Abbo. “We will absolutely sell it for fair market value,” he added. “We’re legally constrained to do that.”
“I think we were very fortunate to be able to purchase the property at a reasonable price,” added Township Trustee Marv Gans, who retired from Schoolcraft College. “I think it’d be advantageous for us to partner with them.”
The township purchased 153 acres of land from the City of Detroit for about $2.25 million last year after the option for the property—held by Real Estate Interests, Inc (REIS)—expired. The Schoolcraft facility would be constructed in the middle of the parcel, leaving the township with ownership of the two corners.
“This is an example of exactly the reason why we purchased the property,” Abbo said.
The facility will be constructed with a combination of state, federal and local funding. The project is one of hundreds of construction projects at universities, colleges, airports, military facilities and state parks across the state that will help create more than 29,000 jobs for Michigan workers. It is part of a plan to pump $1.8 billion into the economy and help move Michigan forward, according to State Rep. Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland).
“In this day and age, it’s essential that we have a top-notch public safety team to respond to emergencies and disasters,” said LeBlanc, who is a reserve police officer for Canton. “This investment will help ensure that the men and women who get their training at Schoolcraft College will be well prepared to protect our community. This plan not only gets our workers back on the job, it also invests in Michigan’s safety and future.”
Canton Supervisor Tom Yack said he wasn’t surprised to learn that the facility had landed in Northville Township. The parcel college officials looked at in Canton—near Geddes Road—proved to be too expensive.
“It sounds like it’ll be on an ideal piece of property in Northville Township,” he said.
Snider agreed. He said the township typically hires public safety personnel that already have their degrees, but the facility will serve as a convenient location to send veterans who want or require additional training.
“This will be literally in our back yard,” Snider said. “It’s a great benefit for us.”
