7850 East Jefferson

The Villages CDC’s opposition to the request to change the zoning of 7850 East Jefferson from [[R-6) high-rise residential to [[PD) Planned Development.
The Villages Community Development Corporation [[CDC) objects to the Detroit Retirement Systems’ request to change the land use of 7850 East Jefferson from [[R-6) high-rise residential to [[PD) Planned Development, and the proposal to build a small office building on that site.
The Villages CDC represents a unique collection of near east side communities including historic neighborhoods, high-rise condos, lofts and apartments, and affordable rental properties and new construction affordable single family homes. The Villages of Detroit includes Berry Subdivision, East Village, Indian Village, West Village, Island View Village and the Gold Coast towers on the riverfront. The Villages CDC is a partner organization in the recently formed East Jefferson Corridor Collaborative formed to support the revitalization of East Jefferson Avenue from I-375 to Alter Road.
Our first concern is that the proposed use is not the highest and best use of the parcel for our neighborhoods or the City of Detroit. The parcel could and should support a better use, one that would capitalize on Jefferson as a thoroughfare, increase density, encourage walkability, increase 24-hour safety and create positive benefit to the surrounding neighborhoods and residents. The parcel is one of the few remaining undeveloped, but developable riverfront parcels of property that are left in the city. The parcel presents an opportunity both to benefit the quality of life of the surrounding neighborhoods and the general public and its potential taxable value could significantly benefit the City of Detroit. The few properties near the 7850 East Jefferson listed as [[PD) zoning are grossly underutilized buildings, the most prominent example is the largely vacant St. John Riverview Hospital on the north side of Jefferson The UAW Solidarity House on the river, just East of 7850 Jefferson is also nonconforming R-6 use that has limited interaction or direct benefit to the neighborhood, reducing walkability, riverfront access/future Riverwalk extension and inhibiting a vibrant store-front business district that could service and benefit the surrounding residential community.
Our second concern is that this proposal will take jobs and occupancy from downtown where office space tenancy is needed the most. We need to keep our city center strong, weakening our city center by allowing employees to be moved to a residential neighborhood that does not and cannot accommodate a substantial workforce, fails to make sense.
[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/awagner/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]The Villages CDC would be willing to share their vision and resources to work with the Detroit Retirement Systems to develop an appropriate use for the 7850 East Jefferson property that would benefit The Retirement Systems as well the Villages Neighborhoods. Currently the plan neither benefits our neighborhood nor the city as a whole.

There is an Editorial in Crains about the 7850 East Jefferson Retirement Project today. Seems like a waste of money,

So I guess the Villages prefers a vacant lot for the next few decades?

There is no market for high-rise new construction residential. It's the furthest thing from "highest and best use".

I'm actually surprised there's a market for office space in this neighborhood, but I would imagine we're talking one or two floor medical office or something like that. I doubt it would have any impact on downtown.

Highest and best use along Jefferson would probably be auto-oriented retail, but I doubt the Villages assoication would be thrilled with a Pep Boys.

Auto- related business? Are you sure about that - when was the last time you've been down there. It's very dense with vibrant communities shooting off of jefferson.

Why is it a goal to increase density and traffic? Aren't there enough cars on that street.. or not? Seems like a good idea.

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Originally Posted by dcmorrison12

Auto- related business? Are you sure about that - when was the last time you've been down there. It's very dense with vibrant communities shooting off of jefferson.

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It's reasonably dense and vibrant for Detroit standards, but it's hardly incompatable with auto-related business.

Jefferson is a major traffic artery and everything built on Jefferson in the last 50 years is auto-oriented.

A strip mall or standalone retail pad would be more valuable at this site than dense residential. Perhaps not as desirable to neighbors in the Villages, but definitely more valuable.

There is really a lot going on over there, Tim Horton's just opened, a developer is moving from canton into the old Book House on Jefferson, there is a pizza bistro opening in the Kean/Hibbard building, and artist studio next to Wendys, Time magazine just purchased a house two blocks down parker from 7850 East Jefferson and the Whitter just opened 134 units of housing and is now working on the second part of the Whitter complex.

Using riverfront land for a small office, with no public access is a failed 1970's -80 solution to Detroit development. We can't keep on making the same short sighted mistakes

As a resident of West Village I would most certainly rather have vacant lot on the river front then a strip mall. Downtown has vast amounts of office space that could be utilized by the pension fund for far less money then this proposed building.

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Originally Posted by Spaulding

There is really a lot going on over there, Tim Horton's just opened, a developer is moving from canton into the old Book House on Jefferson, there is a pizza bistro opening in the Kean/Hibbard building, and artist studio next to Wendys, Time magazine just purchased a house two blocks down parker from 7850 East Jefferson and the Whitter just opened 134 units of housing and is now working on the second part of the Whitter complex.

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Yeah, I'm not really getting this "there really is a lot going on over there" from your examples.

Stores open and close all the time. A Staples closes, a Time Hortons opens.

If anything. the Time Magazine temporary house is illustrative of neighborhood residential instability.

The Whittier project is tax-financed upgrade, but not really an expansion. It was filled with poor residents until 2001, and then began renovations for the middle class in 2003.

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Originally Posted by Spaulding

Using riverfront land for a small office, with no public access is a failed 1970's -80 solution to Detroit development. We can't keep on making the same short sighted mistakes.

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Not sure why you say 70's and 80's. Everything built on East Jefferson during the 90's and 00's has been built in the exact same manner. It would seem clear that after 40 years of such growth, that is the natural growth pattern and highest use for Jefferson.

It may not be the preferred or "best" use for some residents, but the market has generally determined otherwise.

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Originally Posted by crawford

Not sure why you say 70's and 80's. Everything built on East Jefferson during the 90's and 00's has been built in the exact same manner. It would seem clear that after 40 years of such growth, that is the natural growth pattern and highest use for Jefferson.

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Everything built on East Jefferson during the last 40 years has been low-rise office buildings housing government agencies moving out of downtown?

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It may not be the preferred or "best" use for some residents, but the market has generally determined otherwise.

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What does "the market" have to do with where government offices are located?

I don't think Crawford has ever been on that part of Jefferson, or if he has, he hasn't looked at it very closely. The south side of Jefferson between Belle Isle and Berry Sub is not, and never has been, given over primarily to auto-centric uses.

That area is a residential community that is one of Detroit's largest concentration of apartment buildings, many of them luxury buildings, interspersed with several public parks. There is no commercial development at all on that side of Jefferson, and the only thing there along that stretch that is not an apartment building or a park is the UAW headquarters.

The parcel in question is one of the last lots left from the days when that strip was lined with estates, as the sort of Grosse Pointe Shores of its day. If you look you can still see the ruins of the estate's fence just behind the sidewalk there. To develop a parcel like this one for the type of use proposed by the Detroit Retirement System is both out of character with the surrounding neighborhood, but is also a wasteful and deeply unimaginative use of one of the few remaining prime vacant riverfront lots along Jefferson.

Oh, and the Whittier was not "filled with poor residents" until 2001. It was a private middle-class retirement community for assisted and independent living.

Crawford doesn't believe there is a market for any development in Detroit, so who cares what he says? It's not a tenable opinion, but an extremist one and simply the mirror image of the position or opinion that Detroit can support every development proposed in it.

Anway, given the dysfunction of the GRS, I wouldn't be giving them any kind of help in building a new headquarters. Let them continue out of CAY Municipal Center. If they are really hurting for space, let them find an existing 30,000 square feet of space in downtown, or find an existing site already zoned to what they need.

The most recent Crain's article on this:

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The Detroit Planning Commission has asked for more information before making a decision about a rezoning request for a property the city's retirement system hopes will become its new headquarters.

The retirement system bought the 4.81 acres at 7850 E. Jefferson Ave. in January 2008 for $1.8 million.

Walter Stampor, executive secretary of the city's General Retirement System, has said that a 30,000-square-foot, three-story office building would house the 55 employees currently occupying space at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.

The estimated $7.2 million building is a joint venture of the General Retirement System and the Police and Fire Retirement System through the PFRS/GRS Jefferson Avenue Corp.

The land is currently zoned for high-rise residential development. The pension boards requested a parcel be rezoned for planned development.

Residents of nearby community the Villages — encompassing the neighborhoods of Indian Village, Islandview and English Village, West Village, East Village, the Gold Coast and the Berry Sub — opposed the zoning change.

Villages CDC President Kim Clayson attended the City Planning Commission meeting, along with other neighborhood residents.

Clayson said residents question whether a new office building is the best use for the property, and points to the number of existing buildings available for redevelopment.

The planning department staff asked that the plan incorporate public access from Jefferson to the Detroit River, along with an easement along the river, Clayson said.

The pension board representative opposed such access on the grounds of security concerns, she said.

The board tabled the request but is expected to vote in September, Clayson said.

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Man, after reading that they are fighting even providing access to the river through an easement, it makes me even more against this. This is the kind of stuff that sends up "bad neighbor" red flags.

Oh, buddy. An earlier article [[August 2) from Crain's reports on the GCS's excuse for their move:

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Stampor said the department has grown as the complexity of pension benefits has deepened and as the ranks of city retirees have swelled.

“Every time we've tried to do any type of expansion, we're at the discretion of the [[Detroit-Wayne Joint) Building Authority,” he said. “Right now, there's no way to expand unless we move to a different floor.”

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Wait, wait; bring me a fainting couch! They'd have to move to another floor! Oh, the horror of it all.

Put on hold for a moment what the right use of the site should be.

The bigger question is why should the city planning commission even consider rezoning to enable the pension funds to leave downtown.

It is true that the Pension funds are can move any where they want to.

But the City Planning Commission should in no way approve a rezoning that encourages the depopulation of the Central Business District. It would be irresponsible to rezone to create new office space when there is so much space available downtown