FeedsMayor criticizes annexation literature
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Livonia Mayor Jack Kirksey said anti-annexation literature distributed recently was nothing but propaganda.There weren’t many supporters on the side of Livonia officials Tuesday, when Mayor Jack Kirksey scheduled a press conference to speak out in favor of annexation of the former Northville Psychiatric Hospital property.
Specifically, Kirksey said that he wanted to refute some of the misinformation being mailed to Livonia voters by annexation opposers in hopes of swaying the Aug. 5 vote.
“On the first piece of literature, it is claimed that there will be an $1800 tax increase to residents, which is fictitious,” Kirksey said. “It also claims that Livonia taxpayers will have to pay $30 million for the building of a new Northville School and $2 million for new buses. None of this is true. Everything on this piece is false. We are currently investigating whether any postal or election laws have been violated.”
Kirksey went on to say that the second postcard being distributed was designed to mislead voters, and took issue with the suggestion that the windfall of local jobs promised by developers would consist primarily of low-wage service positions and retail jobs.
“They are suggesting that all the new jobs would be burger turners and of no value. That is not true,” he said. “This will be a mixed-use property. We have not sat down with the Schostak Brothers, because we don’t think that would be appropriate under the circumstances, but there are plans for a medical facility, which are not minimum wage jobs.
“There will also be office positions. Those are good jobs. There will be some managerial positions in retail. Those are good jobs. We feel this will be a quality development regardless of who retains control of it, and we feel that a development of this significance will create a synergy to all those around it. If it’s not good for Livonia then why is so much money and time being spent to convince Livonia it’s a bad idea?”
Audience members from both communities, however, took issue with Kirksey’s optimistic spin on REIS’s circuitous business practices and felt that leveraging a wider tax base against the community’s integrity was a losing proposition.
“You are doing this at the expense of Northville Township,” Northville Township resident Irene Piccone said. “I am over 80 years old and I have some moral standards, and I must be very naïve because I thought that other people had some moral standards too. I hope the people of Livonia have higher standards then their officials and don’t rob their neighbors by raping the community next to them.”
“What about our property values?” Livonia resident Sharon Harbin said. “We’re in a declining market right now and who’s to say that mega density of the wrong type of development won’t affect out property values?”
“I know Livonia well and I am morally offended that the council has agreed to say that they agree with this,” Northville Township resident Carol Lawrence said. “This is not what good neighbors do, let alone good communities. This is an archaic law that was never intended for this purpose. It’s a crappy law and you know it, sir, and you say, ‘Well, what can we do now? It’s on the ballot.’ You can choose not to back it.”
