FeedsTownship may buy land back from REIS developer
The fate of the vacant property at Seven Mile and Haggerty roads in Northville Township will be in the hands of voters sometime this year.
Members of the Township Board of Trustees agreed last week to ask voters to fund the purchase of the 414-acre site from a developer, whose plans and methods have prompted controversy and an annexation election.
Voters will be asked to approve a millage to generate about $23.5 million to purchase the property, formerly the site of the Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital. The developer, REIS Northville, will keep from 70 to 95 acres of the land for commercial development and the township will purchase from 319-344 acres of the property.
REIS had planned an $800 million commercial, retail and residential development on the property but the density and lack of green space prompted criticism from township officials and residents. The developer eventually moved four mobile homes to house 24-hour security personnel onto the property. Those half-dozen employees registered to vote and then petitioned the state to have the land annexed to Livonia, the city that borders the property across Haggerty Road. Livonia voters overwhelmingly defeated the proposal during an August election.
According to Supervisor Mark Abbo, the township wants to preserve the land as park area, although REIS will build on the acres of property they do not sell.
Abbo said that the developer is willing to sell the land to the township due to the faltering economy and the lack of prospective new business and homebuyers for the development.
Development at the property would be reduced by more than 50 percent and an effort to save the natural vegetation and trees put in place, according to township plans.
There are contaminated areas of the portion of the site that REIS wants to retain. That contamination will be mitigated through a Brownfield Redevelopment program.
Abbo commented that there was no time to waste if the plan is to be implemented.
“We have a 30-day due diligence period to finalize a transaction and then proceed to a millage request of our voters to fund the purchase price,” he said.
Township Clerk Sue Hillebrand is in favor of the new proposal, and noted that the board members had found a solution to an ongoing concern of residents.
“Throughout the annexation process and still today, residents have called upon the board to find a way to limit the density on the property and to maintain as much green space as possible,” she said.
“This agreement does just that, and the voters of the township will have the opportunity to vote on the best way to move forward.”
