NORTHVILLE, Mich. – There’s been a lot of speculation over the last couple of years about what will be built at the Northville Downs site.
While there’s been some pushback from previous plans, the city of Northville has a new proposed plan to share with residents.
Horse racing will continue at the site for now, but multiple developers have their eyes on the property for future development.
“I think, ideally, people would like to see a park. Let’s make it into a nice park. But who’s gonna pay for the land to do that? So there’s the practical issue of who can buy it and what is economically feasible,” said resident Steve Mihalik.
Among the proposals, there is park space, but majority of it would be new housing -- from apartments to luxury homes -- which is a concern for some of the residents.
“We can’t accommodate the amount of proposed population that they want,” said Linda Jeunemann.
According to residents, the city has been very transparent and thoughtful about any future changes.
“They really have a presence,” said Brenda Mihalik. “They came back to the residents and offered several meetings if they could come and make a design plan in groups of how they’d like to see that developed.”
A virtual meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 30, to discuss the renderings, and there’s no doubt residents will bring up the traffic concerns that a project like this could influence. Click here for more information.
“I am 100% behind our mayor, and I’m hoping the committee that’s dealing with this is understanding the residents’ concerns about the number of units and then the traffic pattern,” Jeunemann said.
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