Bloggin’ on the Edge

Posted by Scott Spielman at 4:00 AM | Comments (3)

Sometime this week, officials in Northville Township are expecting a $2 million check.

They may have even received it already—they finally closed on a deal to sell 15 acres of land on the corner of Five Mile and Sheldon roads to developer Grand Sakwa last Tuesday.

Whenever it arrives, the $2 million currently doesn’t have a home—other than a township account. The question is, what will the township do with it?

I can already guess a few of the proposals. The township purchased the 15 acres from Wayne County for about $600,000. They used the land acquisition and park development millage to pay for it, so a logical suggestion would be to repay that fund. The board, in fact, essentially agreed to that through an informal vote last year.

If they go through with that plan, the suggestions for that money will probably come pretty quickly. You can probably guess what they will be, too: additional improvements for Community Park, returning some of the features that were a part of the original proposal for the first phase of the construction. Thayer’s Corner will probably come up again, too, despite a recent decision to remand the concept to the Parks and Recreation Commission to develop a more finalized plan for it.

I don’t think I’d do either one, but I’d be tempted to put in some additional pathways throughout the township to bolster the passive recreation opportunities for the overall community.

It’s tempting, when one gets a sudden windfall, to rush right out and spend it. It’s our duty as citizens, right? We have to keep the economy going because there’s no indication that anyone in Lansing can come up with some credible ideas to spark it.

There’s nothing wrong with saving it, though, to better plan for your opportunities. There could be better uses for it, too.

Township Treasurer Dick Henningsen has voiced concerns about the dwindling fund balance. It could be used to bolster that.

Township Supervisor Mark Abbo has continually expressed an interest to use assets to leverage additional assets. This transaction has already accomplished that—the township received a triple return on its additional investment, as well as 15 additional acres of land in the form of a land donation that Sakwa offered along with the $2 million.

That could perhaps be the best use for the funds, investing it in future purchases that the township can use to build up its land bank. Community Park is a fine facility as it is. It doesn’t appear as incomplete as officials say it is; only those familiar with the overall plan may guess that there are other things that should be out there. There’s also no real need to put money into Thayer’s Corner Park, either. If the people passionate about development there—the Friends of Thayer’s Corner—are unwilling to finalize their plan, why should any taxpayer money go into it?

Land values will continue to go up, though.

If the township can pick up some additional property and build on their investment, that’s the way to go.

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