Warren seems to be taking note of the success that the SE corner of the Woodward Corridor has had in attracting residents and businesses & hoping to apply it to South Warren. Madison Heights & Hazel Park had terrible reputations 10-15 years ago and were interchangeable with neighboring southern Warren.
The city has by default in the west and especially NW has attracted spillover from young professionals looking for quality attractive housing near the regions main urban corridor. Warren isn’t going to get residents moving to 8 and Van Dyke looking for affordable access to Woodward entertainment but it’s good to see lessons have been learned.
South Warren specifically focused along the Van Dyke corridor in between the Mound-Van Dyke industrial corridor & the Grossebeck industrial corridor. The area has seen business and residents move out crime rise and incidents of blight appear. The city development authority wants to slow the highway like traffic speed down and improve the streetscape to improve quality of life and retain and attract businesses & residents.
It’s a good place to start for both Warren and Detroit as Outer Drive comes up to where 7 1/2 mile would be in Nortown which has blocks of upscale housing stock. Albeit there is new investment mainly in apartments and grand homes the commercial corridor is in need of investment soon before deterioration reaches a tipping point. The Bel Air Center is pretty much dead except for the luxury cinema & Forman Mills the Hospital and newly rebuilt Marion Law Center the areas keystone institutions offer a framework for new investment.
All and all it’s a pretty big deal to see Warren investing in the kind of neighborhood improvement work needed for a more pedestrian friendly future and one that could have a positive impact on Detroit.
Warren looks to make Van Dyke corridor more walkable, attract more businesses
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Protected bike lanes, more street trees and new sidewalks could eventually be coming to a mile and a half stretch of the Van Dyke corridor in south Warren under a plan the city is considering to slow down traffic in the area and "bring the character back."
The city of Warren is looking to improve Van Dyke Avenue between Stephens Road and 8 Mile Road. The city commissioned Beckett & Raeder, Inc., an Ann Arbor planning firm, to do a study of the corridor and craft a plan for how to enhance it.
The stretch of Van Dyke between Stephens and 8 Mile is Warren’s Tax Increment Finance Authority District, an area where the city is trying to encourage economic development and neighborhood revitalization, officials said. A portion of the taxes that are collected from the businesses in the district goes towards improvements to the area.
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The Beckett & Raeder planning firm conducted a study on the Van Dyke corridor over two and a half years. Brian Barrick, a partner at Beckett & Raeder, gave a presentation on the City of Warren Van Dyke Corridor Plan at a recent council meeting. He said his firm held stakeholder sessions during the study with business owners, city staff, representatives from the school district and other individuals.
The firm also created a survey to garner opinions from community members. When survey respondents were asked what deters them from visiting Van Dyke more often, the top three reasons were "limited mix of good and services," "fear of crime," and "unpleasant walking/biking experience along the corridor," according to the plan document.
Beckett & Raeder's recommendations for the corridor fell into four categories: land use, mobility, design and brand. On the topic of land use, the study recommends revising city ordinances to support mixed-use development and housing along the corridor. Bommarito said Warren wants to attract service businesses to the area, including restaurants, a UPS-type store, a laundromat and daycare centers.
On the subject of mobility, the plan includes adding protected bike lanes to the road. The bike lanes on the road aren't currently protected, but Warren is considering adding planter islands to the road that would separate the cyclists from the motorists. The plan also recommends that additional lighting be installed, transit stops be improved, sidewalks be repaired, pedestrian crosswalks be upgraded and signalized midblock crossings be added to the road.
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https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...e/74050463007/
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