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Annexation Apologies
Topic Started: Aug 7 2009, 02:11 PM (506 Views)
steve emsley
Member
[ *  * ]
I would like to apologize to the Livonia voters that helped us defeat the annexation bid for the Northivlle Hospital property.

Twp. officials signing the "consent agreement" mere days before you saved us really threw you under the bus.

Now, we have purchased part of the land. This will give the developer the finances to develop faster than if we had left it alone.

This is "well founded rumor" at this point but it appears as if we will be "taking" Costco and Target off of your tax rolls.

The zoning allows for ~500K sq. ft. of big box stores.

It appears as if Costco wants a larger store and may move to Northville, Target wants a "Super Target" and will probably also go. Wal Mart I am told is a lock but that hurts us more I think as Meijer, Kroger and Hiller's could all suffer. Though those are all STRONG locations, iam not sure the local economy can support ALL of those stores. Lowe's has also been thrown around.

None of this is in stone, but it came from a good source... an opposition source as a matter of fact with no reason to lie to me.

Hopefully the costco and Target come back to your tax rolls as something else.

My apologies on behalf of most of the residents of Northville Twp.

Steve.
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Otis B.
Veteran
Steve -

I appreciate your insights on this since I have not been following this issue as closely as before since Livonia is out of the loop.

I have friends and family in Northville that supported the land purchase because it will keep the development to Haggerty and out of the residential areas. They live in the Bradner sub and were afraid of the traffic nightmate that would have been caused had Schostak developed into that area (i.e. Winchester). What's your take on this?
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steve emsley
Member
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People voted yes for one of two general reasons (I worked the polls most of the day):

1. Annexation fear... total BS pushed by the Twp. because their polling told them "Annexation Fear" would get the most votes. REIS has the Consent Agreement, Livonia could have offered them very little more than they were given in that agreement...

2. Property value protection/NIMBY... The neighborhoods touching the property were heavy yes. Can't blame them, but they were kind of misled. How long, in the MI economy, will it be before REIS builds 500 houses and a senior center? A decade? Never?

The joke is on us though. The REAL price will be close to $60,000,000 on all the bonds for purchase and cleanup when you add 5% interest... imagine if we have to sell them at 6%?

Mr. Schostak is laughing his head off somewhere... he essentially got 70 acres, the PRIME acres, just about FOR FREE out of all of this with wild zoning variances, greening exemptions and even a grant from the State.

It will start to hit home with people the nthe trees are clear cut from 7 Mile to Hawthorne and Haggerty to Pierson (where you can see the first building). The there is far more frontage on 7 Mile than Haggerty, so, they were voting to keep the development to 7 mile really. AS a tiny part of this I say goodbye tree canopy I have been looking at for 32 years. The "Welcome to Northville" canopy over 7 mile. Hello BIG BOX land and giant parking lot. Hello more chain restaurants.

This is estimated to make 7 Mile and Haggerty THE BUSIEST intersection IN THE STATE. Nice... that includes things like Big Beaver and I-75... Can't imagine that is protecting much property value for anyone in a 2-3 mile radius. And the BEST PART?

We funded the buildout by buying the crappy part of the land. lol

The Winchester point is an interesting one as the consent agreement, BEFORE the purchase, specifically DENIED that. Even though public safety wanted it.
Edited by steve emsley, Aug 7 2009, 03:49 PM.
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Mrs.M
Veteran
I really don't know why you'd apologize for what the majority of those who voted in NT decided.

The property is within the boundaries of NT and unless the proposed building is something that would be harmful to the morals (you know some stripjoint etc) of the residents...

NT has what I remember fairly restrictive codes. I know Livonia has be more relaxing on their codes expecially over the past 4 years or so, particularly for businesses because of the desparation of filling or maintaining all these empty buildings that have been springing up on a daily basis. Hopefully NT will be able to maintain some of their expectations and not lower their standards.
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be WRONG.
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steve emsley
Member
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Mrs.M
Aug 18 2009, 01:02 PM
NT has what I remember fairly restrictive codes.... Hopefully NT will be able to maintain some of their expectations and not lower their standards.
This is the impetus for the apology. 5 days before the annexation was voted down, the Twp. Board exempted REIS from just about every zoning ordinance we have. The ultra-dense development we were warned Livonia would give... has been given. They were even exempted from the greening ordinances and overrode the unanimous NO vote of our Brownfield board to give REIS a $17mil. brownfield.

The zoning, density and greening standards are no higher than Livonia, on that parcel, per. the agreement. No offense to Livonia, just clarifying.

Now, when Hawthorne is sold, the precednet has been set for that developer to get the same deal.

Basically, our Board played us and the Livonia voters while pretending to be some paragons of integrity compared to Kirksey et. al.... They are not.

No one even knew the deal was made until AFTER they voted really...
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BoaterDan
Veteran
steve emsley
Aug 20 2009, 12:07 PM
Basically, our Board played us and the Livonia voters while pretending to be some paragons of integrity compared to Kirksey et. al.... They are not.
Granted, this whole thing stunk to high heaven, but I don't understand the benefit the board sees. Are they seeing the future tax revenue from the development?
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