New DDA plan introduced at St. Clair Shores council meeting

ST. CLAIR SHORES — Late last year, Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick Inc. presented concepts for a streetscape plan in the Downtown Development Authority district, on Greater Mack between Nine Mile Road and Nine Mack/Cavalier Drive.

Kyle Seidel, the project manager, and graduate urban designer Courtney Sturgis presented to the council at their meeting on Dec. 4.

Mayor Kip Walby said the DDA had three bidders for the plans with AEW being the winner with a unanimous vote. The DDA had a number of meetings, Walby said, and they’re very interested in the plans.

“The DDA is made up of all the different businesses,” Walby said. “Not just the bars — it’s got a very good selection of business owners there and, of course, residents.”

The current plan is preliminary and nothing is set in stone, and Seidel said they are going to bring the plan back to the City Council either in March or April.

The tentative start date for construction in the DDA is December 2025 due to grant processes and other factors.

The current plan includes making the downtown more pedestrian-friendly by reducing parking and changing the roadway, adding further seating, raising the road at the entrance to one level with the sidewalk and other amenities.

In terms of roads, AEW looked at “points of conflict” between pedestrians and vehicles. Some points are areas with driveway entrances to off-street parking and Sturgis said these could be potentially dangerous.

“When we’re looking at something like that, we want to reduce those conflicts and we’ll see that reflected in our concept,” Sturgis said.

Sturgis noted that 60% of the downtown is dedicated to vehicular travel with only 18 feet of sidewalk. She also said they looked at the usage of the downtown during social district events as well as the day-to-day use.

They looked at two concepts when changing the roadway: one that keeps the two-way traffic with parallel parking on the street, and one that is a one-way street with a dedicated bike lane. Sturgis noted they asked what they would gain from a dedicated bike space.

“It’s also potential for other conflict(s), so we decided to just keep the nature of the road two-way as it is,” Sturgis said. “It allows traffic for other businesses outside of this district to continue as normal as well.”

The two-way street will not have a dedicated center lane, a few of the drive entrances will be closed and some of the parking will be removed.

Sturgis said they also talked about a pathway to get people from Jefferson Avenue to the downtown area. The two options they discussed were creating a path or creating bike lanes.

“After a long conversation, we decided at this point it would be best to go with the path on the north side and improve the bus stops along the way,” Sturgis said.

After the plans were shown, council members and the mayor offered feedback about what they saw. The plan would include removing the parking lot at the post office on Greater Mack and Councilwoman Candice Rusie, as well as other councilmembers, weren’t fans of that.

“People utilize that parking every single day the post office is open,” Rusie said. “And in terms of removing and making a government service less accessible, easily to people, in favor of another place for food trucks twice a month for part of the year just doesn’t sit right with me.”

The plan would also remove the drop box mailboxes in front of the post office. Rusie said they need to be there.

“We talk about accessibility, we would be removing accessibility to a government service for a big portion of our population and I am totally against that,” Rusie said.

Seidel said in an interview there are two options: keeping the off-street parking the same just in front of the post office, or creating a boulevard entrance for the post office. The current plan includes the boulevard entrance.

Since the meeting, Seidel said he spoke with the head of the post office.

“She was very open to all the proposed changes that we had in front of the post office,” Seidel said.

An official at the St. Clair Shores post office could not be reached for comment at press time.

According to Seidel, at a 9-Mack Merchants Association meeting on Dec. 8, around 30 people, including business owners, voiced their concerns about the lack of parking in the plan in general as well as removing the post office parking. Seidel said in an interview the current plan would reduce the 44 current parking spots to 22 parking spots.

“So after the feedback, we’re looking for somewhere in between what we have now and what we’re proposing,” Seidel said. “Probably in the mid-30s somewhere.”

Seidel said they are going back to the drawing board with some of the parking as it was one of the biggest issues.

Councilman Chris Vitale said he would like to see the police consulted about the plan regarding the pocket parks and other amenities mentioned.

Councilman John Caron mentioned the importance of confirming that the affected businesses have both a front and a rear entrance to their building. He also said that this would be an expensive project and asked what the funding mechanism would be.

“I don’t think we have an answer to that,” Walby said.

Walby later said Seidel wanted to get the concept defined first and then look at the cost.

Caron asked what the Transportation Alternatives Program grant they plan to apply for would be used for and Seidel said it would fund mainly the pedestrian improvements. The TAP grant would grant up to 80% of the project costs that are eligible. It would cover pedestrian improvements and not vehicular improvements.

“And it follows the MDOT schedule just like any project like Masonic or 11 Mile or any of those that follow that same schedule,” Seidel said.

They plan to submit the TAP grant application around June 19.

Since the DDA is so new and since they have minimal funds, Seidel said in an interview, they would have to seek funds from the City Council.

Seidel said they’re listening to everyone to make this plan.

“We have all different ages that are going to use this downtown area,” Seidel said. “We want to make sure we accommodate parking and amenities for all ages.”

“We’re very excited about the project and the downtown feel that we can invigorate in the city of St. Clair Shores,” Seidel said. “And it’s just some exciting times that we have these really cool projects that get to change how people use these downtown spaces.”