Update: Roundtable Working Sessions Continue — Week of June 4th, 2012

Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning (DWPLTP) recently met with four more groups of community leaders and experts in working session meetings.  Each group met to discuss an important part of city infrastructure, and living standards for citizens.  The four Working Sessions were about Public Land, Neighborhoods, Land Use, and Public Utilities.  The list of attendees for each meeting is located at the end of this post.

The Public Land session brought together multiple public agencies that own property in the city of Detroit.  Discussions focused on developing a shared strategy for acquiring and dispensing properties based on vacancy rates of the areas where they are located, amongst other market factors.  The agencies agreed to share all property ownership maps/information and to use the upcoming Wayne County Tax Auction as an incentive for developing a shared strategy for public land dispensation.

At the Public Utilities working session, agencies that operate the water, sewerage and electricity in Detroit discussed their plans for maintaining, renewing, or retiring infrastructure within the city.  The utility providers offered feedback to scenarios that the Detroit Works Project team (Happold Consulting) presented based on projected future demands and proposed maintenance and service strategies.

The Land Use working session brought a wide range of experts in urban planning, architecture, land development and city planning.  Their discussion critiqued the different typologies–building blocks–proposed for Detroit, and discussed ways to model the city’s progress in the future.  This discussion helped identify additional ways for the Long Term Plan to be used by city officials and developers.

The working session on Neighborhoods included community leaders and city officials who work daily to improve neighborhoods in Detroit.  The meeting was organized differently, asking participants to break into three groups based on the vacancy in their neighborhood.  From these discussions, DWPLTP gained very useful information about strategies neighborhoods are using across the city, priorities within the neighborhoods, and connecting groups facing similar challenges.

The information from these meetings is extremely valuable to the Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning team.  It will be used to shape and enhance the solutions being developed.  Working sessions like many of the other engagement tactics used bring together different groups and ideas from across the city.

Attending Groups:

Public Land: State of Michigan Land Bank, Wayne County Land Bank, City of Detroit land bank, and the Detroit Planning and Development Department.

Public Utilities: DTE Energy/MichCon, Detroit Department of Public Lighting, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, and NextEnergy.

Land Use: American Association of Planning – Michigan, American Institute of Architects-Detroit, City of Detroit – City Planning Commission, City of Detroit – Planning and Development Dept, Community Development Advocates of Detroit, Heritage Realty Service LLC, Lee & Associates, National Organization of Minority Architects – Detroit, Next Energy, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, Urban Land Institute, Wayne County Community College, Wayne State University – Urban Planning, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture.

Neighborhoods: ARISE Detroit, Black Family Development, City of Detroit City Planning Commission, Community Development Advocates of Detroit, Eastern Market Corporation, Focus: HOPE, Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp, Hantz Farm, Heritage Realty Service, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Lower East Side Action Plan, Michigan State Housing Development Association, Southwest Detroit Business Association, Southwest Solutions, University of Michigan Urban Planning, WARM Training.