By Bill Shea

A new economic development study of Woodward Avenue north of Eight Mile Road through Birmingham represents an early step in potentially extending Detroit's planned light-rail line into the suburbs.

Currently, there is no plan for the modern streetcar-style transit service to go north of the city limits near the Michigan State Fairgrounds -- something critics have warned will make the Detroit project less effective because it doesn't tap into neighboring communities.

But a task force of elected officials and stakeholders from Ferndale, Huntington Woods, Royal Oak, Berkley and Birmingham was organized in September and has commissioned a first look at what must be done to create the right economic development climate for when the train service is built through those communities.

The task force is spending $13,000 of a $32,700 planning research grant from the Michigan Department of Transportation to hire Grand Rapids-based community planning firm LSL Planning Inc. to develop a transit-oriented development plan for Woodward from Ferndale to Birmingham, said Heather Carmona, executive director of the Woodward Avenue Action Association.

The nonprofit association aimed at bolstering Woodward Avenue organized the "Transform Woodward" Transit-Oriented Development Task Force in September 2010, and the plan is expected to be completed by September.

LSL, which has a Royal Oak office, will create a "framework" plan for Woodward from Ferndale to Birmingham that will include a model transit zoning ordinance, development strategies and concept plans, she said.

The remainder of the grant will be used for initial data collection, outreach and communication.

The communities have different zoning for their respective portions of Woodward -- some are blends of retail and residential, while others are purely commercial -- and the study will be used in efforts to align rezoning that maximizes economic development along the corridor.

Continued at: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-woodward-rail