FeedsAnnexation protest moves to Livonia
Staff Writer
Both sides of the controversial annexation of the former Northville Psychiatric Hospital site showed up Monday night at the Livonia City Council meeting.
For 30 minutes, concerned citizens took opposing podiums and expressed their views before an allotted 3 minutes each.
The debate began when Real Estate Interests, Inc. and Schostack Brothers (REIS), who purchased the 414-acre site from the state, became deadlocked with Northville Township regarding the proposed development on the site. Township officials felt that the proposed plan was too dense for the area, and rejected the REIS proposal.
REIS filed a lawsuit, claiming that the township was purposely blocking the project, and then moved security guards onto the grounds. Those seven residents registered to vote in Northville and then filed a petition to have the property annexed to Livonia. Livonia residents will vote on the issue Aug. 5.
At the council meeting, concerned citizens split along faction lines, with those opposing the proposed annexation filling up seats in the right wing of council chambers, and addressing council from the right podium, while advocates of the proposed annexation addressed council from the left. Many carried anti-annexation posters and dressed in bright red T-Shirts that read Stop Annexation!, while a uniformed officer stood at the back of chambers to discourage any debate from breaking out between citizens.
Council President Laura Toy urged citizens not to grandstand at the podium, and cautioned that citizens speaking out of turn would be ejected from the proceedings.
“This is not a debate, it’s an audience communication,” Toy said before comments began. “Let’s not do demonstrations tonight.”
Long time Livonia resident and former council member Gerald Taylor was the first to address the council, in favor of annexation.
“I’ve been a resident of Livonia for many years and the most exciting that has happened is the fact that we could acquire more land from Northville,” Taylor said. “I feel sorry for Northville that they couldn’t come to an agreement, but this land mean extra taxes and it’s a plus for us.”
Northville Township Trustee Marv Gans opposed Taylor’s views and cautioned the city to be careful what they wished for.
“These seven people are the only people who can vote on the fate of the property, not the other 28,000,” Gans said. “This is not a matter of Northville not reaching an agreement. Look out for what you get.”
Some residents felt that in the grim economic climate, the potential windfall of new jobs was simply too big of an opportunity to pass up.
“I don’t know how we got here but I think it’s a great opportunity,” one Livonia resident said. “I’ve never seen things as hard as they currently are in Livonia. We provide an unbelievable level of services to the people and they’re becoming harder and harder to maintain. We’re running out of people.”
Other residents felt that the potential gains were outweighed by the circuitous way the land might be acquired, and felt that REIS was pitting communities against each other to further their own objectives.
“I’ve been a resident for 20 years and I love this city, but this is wrong to the core,” Phil Sattler Jr. said. “It would be fair if Northville had a say. It’s undemocratic. In these difficult economic times we need to work together regionally like never before. Not take a land grab from our neighbors.”
When the citizen comment time had expired, Livonia Mayor Jack Kirksey took the podium and spoke out in favor of the possible annexation.
“Regardless of how it got here, in this instance there is only one answer,” Kirksey said. “It is good for Livonia.”
Following comments, many annexation opposers gathered outside city council walls and discussed the council member’s reaction to the informal debate.
“During the Toledo War, when Michigan and Ohio were warring over control of Toledo, John Quincy Adams said that ‘Never in the course of my life have I known a controversy of which all the right was so clearly on one side and all the power so overwhelmingly on the other,’” Northville High School sophomore Michael Wylie said. “I thought that quote seemed to apply to this.”
