Bloggin’ on the Edge

Posted by Scott Spielman at 3:00 AM | Comments (1)

Stop me if you’ve heard this before:

The Northville City Council discussed upcoming changes to the downtown and Councilman Tom Swigart wasn’t happy.

I thought so. It’s become a common refrain in the City of Northville for the past several months, virtually since the end of the Downtown Strategic Planning sessions and probably before (my memory is a little fuzzy.)

Monday night they talked about surveying work for the downtown area in preparation of the streetscape project that will start up in 2008. It’s the second of three major projects—so far—that have come out of the strategic planning session. The first, a new town square, is going out for bids right now with construction slated to begin this summer.

Swigart’s comments about the surveying work and the streetscape mimicked those he’s voiced all along—the plan doesn’t seem like Northville, he’s concerned that there hadn’t been enough public input sought, and the proposals all originate from the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board, which he called a biased group.

He meant it in a pejorative sense, I think, but other than that I think he’s right. They are a biased group—their goal is to improve the downtown because it’ll improve the city, overall. Count me biased in that way, too.

I don’t have a problem with Swigart’s opinion. It’s a free country and he’s free to voice it. He thinks his concerns are legitimate, even though he’s been reassured time and again that these plans have been developed through nearly two years of meetings, with input from several different groups, at open meetings where residents were not only welcomed, but encouraged to come.

I do have a problem with the way he characterized the process, though. He would state his opinion, and then toss out a little snipe at those involved.

Take the parking committee, for example. One of the changes in the DDA bylaws sets up such a committee as well as a marketing committee, business retention committee and design committee; those four areas are where the DDA will spend their funds, going forward.

Swigart was concerned with each committee and what they were doing; the parking committee was: “out there counting parking spaces or something like that.”

It’s important to remember that the people in these committees—and there are a lot of people taking part—are volunteers. They’re trying to tackle complex issues on their own time to come up with a plan that will better the community as a whole. They don’t need to be belittled from the top. They should be thanked for their work, not have their efforts insulted.

Swigart keeps talking about people who say the plan ‘isn’t Northville.’ He’s appealed to those people to come and voice their displeasure at the council. I haven’t heard it. Maybe I’m just not around often enough.

If that sentiment is out there, though, I’d like to hear it to provide a more complete picture throughout the ongoing construction season.

We have plenty of ways to comment through our web site, www.journalgroup.com. Drop me a line, type in a comment. Let me know: Are you happy or unhappy with the plans for the city?

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