FeedsWhat’s next for Northville hospital site?
Time to get down to business.
Now that they know they will have jurisdiction over the former Northville Psychiatric Hospital site, officials in Northville Township are deciding what happens next.
Township Supervisor Mark Abbo said that means bringing the details agreed to in the consent agreement between the township and REIS to as successful a conclusion as possible.
“In the next few months, I anticipate they’ll submit a plan,” said Abbo.
The township and the developer agreed to a plan days prior to the Aug. 5 primary in which voters in the City of Livonia rejected a plan to annex the property from Northville Township.
The consent agreement, approved by Judge Sean Cox, spells out what the developer can and cannot do as they construct the estimated $400 million project.
The agreement provides for a larger commercial district than township officials would have otherwise allowed.
“We were forced to give up more than we normally would have,” said Township Trustee Marv Gans.
The township had initially proposed 16 acres of commercial space on the corner of Seven Mile and Haggerty roads. The plan township officials approved last year bumped the commercial land up to 25 acres, but the consent agreement allowed for 110 acres of commercial property with up to 950,000 square feet of commercial use.
The consent agreement stipulates that the developer only has to meet township setbacks on the fringes of the development, but can follow its own guidelines inside it. They can dictate the number, location and size of the buildings, as long as the commercial buildings are not taller than two stories.
Three fast food restaurants are permissible on the property and other uses with drive-throughs—such as banks, pharmacies or coffee shops—are allowable, as well.
The agreement limits the number of residential uses to 500—about half as many as the developer proposed in their original version of ‘Highwood’ and, ironically, prohibits the placement of manufactured or modular housing on the land. The annexation proceedings defeated last week by Livonia voters was initiated by the security personnel living in such structures now.
The township also agreed to allow the property to be developed as a Brownfield site, a proposal they initially rejected.
In exchange, the township receives 100 acres of land.
Abbo said the increased buffers along the borders of the property were put in place to protect existing residents.
“We were very cautious to do that,” he said. “We wanted to do that to protect them from the size of the development and from the impact of the development.”
He said he anticipated a good relationship with the developer, now that the contentious portions of the negotiations have been decided, saying there is now an open window for communication.
He hopes that communication spreads to Lansing, too, where legislation to protect townships from annexation procedures is still stalled in the Senate.
“I hope it’s really taken to heart in Lansing and it’s taken into consideration and they change the law,” Abbo said. “That way something good can come out of this. They can make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
