Master Plan Hazel Park, Michigan
Prepared for: Hazel Park Planning Commission Hazel Park, Michigan
Prepared by: McKenna Associates, Incorporated Community Planning # Urban Design 32605 West Twelve Mile Road, Suite 165 Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334 Telephone: (248) 553-0290 Facsimile: (248) 553-0588
Adopted by the Hazel Park Planning Commission: March 21, 2000 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
City Council
Ben Colley, Mayor Donna Vance, Mayor Pro-Tem Ken Mayo, Councilman Jack Lloyd, Councilman Doug Pashakarnis, Councilman
Planning Commission
Michael Webb, Chairman Joel Holcombe, Vice Chairman Al Sheridan, Recording Secretary Lisa Chrouch Robert Peterson Linda Zeiss Elaine Carene K. Joseph Young Richard Robbins
Administration
K. Joseph Young, City Manager Gary Carey, Community Development Director Amy Vansen, Community Development Planner
Hazel Park Master Plan i March, 2000 Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ...... i Table of Contents ...... ii List of Maps, Tables and Figures ...... iv
I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
A. History and Background ...... 1 B. What a Master Plan Is and Is Not ...... 2 C. How to Use a Master Plan ...... 4
II. EXISTING CONDITIONS AND TRENDS ...... 6
A. Regional Analysis ...... 6 B. Existing Land Use Survey ...... 8 C. Environmental Analysis and Evaluation ...... 19 D. Community Facilities and Services ...... 23 E. Utilities ...... 29 F. Housing Quality...... 33
III. VEHICULAR TRANSPORTATION EVALUATION ...... 39
A. National Functional Road Classification ...... 40 B. Twenty-Four Hour Traffic Volumes ...... 42 C. Act 51 Road Funding ...... 43 D. Public Transit ...... 45
IV. SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND PROJECTIONS ...... 46
A. Population and Housing Trends ...... 46 B. Age, Sex, Race, and Educational Background ...... 48 C. Household Composition ...... 53 D. Income and Employment ...... 56 E. Housing Characteristics ...... 59 F. Other Demographic Characteristics ...... 61 G. Comparison with Neighboring Communities ...... 61 H. Neighborhood Planning Needs Analysis ...... 64
V. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS ...... 66
A. Major Employers...... 66 B. Occupation by Industry ...... 67 C. Major Commercial Areas and Corridors ...... 68
VI. VISIONING SESSIONS ...... 87
A. Visioning Session ...... 87
Hazel Park Master Plan ii March, 2000 Table of Contents
VII. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ...... 92
VIII. FUTURE LAND USE AND FOCUS AREAS ...... 99
A. Summary of Conclusions ...... 99 B. Future Land Use Plan ...... 102 C. Focus Areas...... 111 D. Thoroughfare Plan ...... 117 E. Community Facilities Plan ...... 119 F. Utilities Plan ...... 121
IX. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY ...... 122
A. Introduction ...... 122 B. Basic Implementation Measures...... 122 C. Focus Areas...... 123 D. Focus Area Strategies ...... 124
Hazel Park Master Plan iii March, 2000 Table of Contents
LIST OF MAPS, TABLES AND FIGURES
MAPS
Map 2-A Existing Land Use ...... 12 Map 2-B Census Tracts ...... 14 Map 2-C Community Facilities ...... 26 Map 2-D Main Water Lines...... 30 Map 2-E Major Sanitary and Combined Sewer Lines ...... 31 Map 2-F Major Storm Sewer Lines...... 32 Map 2-G Housing Condition Survey ...... 34 Map 2-H Targeted Project Areas ...... 35 Map 3-A Functional Classification and 24 Hour Traffic Volumes ...... 41 Map 3-B Existing Road Classification for Act 51 Funding ...... 44 Map 5-A Downtown Potential Trade Areas ...... 73 Map 5-B Dequindre and 8 Mile Potential Trade Area ...... 76 Map 5-C Race Track Site Potential Trade Area ...... 82 Map 8-A Future Land Use ...... 110 Map 8-B Focus Areas and Corridors ...... 113
TABLES
Table 1-A Differences Between the Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance ...... 3 Table 2-A Comparison of Land Use Inventory Categories ...... 10 Table 2-B Existing Land Use Inventory Comparison 1978-1997 ...... 11 Table 2-C Housing Units by Structure Type by Census Tract, 1970-1998 ...... 13 Table 2-D Age of Residential Units by Census Tract, 1990 ...... 15 Table 2-E Comparison of Public and Semi Public Lands, 1978 and 1997 ...... 24 Table 2-F Hazel Park Community Facilities ...... 25 Table 2-G Neighborhood Recreation Space Needs, Hazel Park ...... 27 Table 3-A Average Daily Traffic at Locations in Hazel Park, 1990-95 ...... 42 Table 3-B Street Classification in 1997, Hazel Park, Michigan ...... 43 Table 4-A Actual and Projected Population, 1950 to 2020, Hazel Park ...... 46 Table 4-B Age Group Distribution, Hazel Park 1990, 1997 & 2002 ...... 48 Table 4-C Population by Race and Ethnic Background Hazel Park, 1990, 1997 & 2002 . 50 Table 4-D Languages of Hazel Park Families, 1997 ...... 51 Table 4-E Educational Attainment of Hazel Park Residents Over Age 25 Compared with Surrounding Communities, 1990 ...... 52 Table 4-F Household Composition, Hazel Park Residents ...... 53 Table 4-G Household Size Distribution, Hazel Park, 1960-1990 ...... 54 Table 4-H Household Types and Relationships, 1990 ...... 54 Table 4-I Types of Households and Family Arrangements of Children, Hazel Park, 1997 ...... 55 Table 4-J Household Income Distribution and Median Income, Hazel Park, 1989, 1997, and 2002 ...... 57 Table 4-K Comparison of 1990 Demographic Data Hazel Park and Nearby Cities ...... 62 Table 4-L Summary of Demographic Findings and Conclusions ...... 65 Table 5-A Major Employers in Hazel Park, 1997-98 ...... 66 Table 5-B Occupation by Industry ...... 67 Table 5-C Downtown Market Demographic Summary ...... 71 Table 5-D Potential Retail Square Footage for the Downtown Hazel Park Market ...... 72 Table 5-E Eight Mile/Dequindre Market Demographic Summary ...... 75 Table 5-F Potential Retail Square Footage for the Eight Mile / Dequindre Market ...... 78 Table 5-G Hazel Park Racetrack Site Market Demographic Summary ...... 81
Hazel Park Master Plan iv March, 2000 Table of Contents
Table 5-H Potential Retail Square Footage for Hazel Park Racetrack Site Market ...... 84 Table 7-A Future Land Use Categories and Acreage ...... 93 Table 7-B Single Family Land Use Comparison of 1978 and 1999 Master Plans ...... 103 Table 8-A Future Land Use Categories and Acreage ...... 101 Table 8-C Multiple Residential Land Use Comparison of 1978 and 1999 Master Plans . 105 Table 8-D Industrial Land Use Comparison of 1978 and 1999 Master Plans ...... 108 Table 9-A Focus Area Proposed Projects & Implementation Strategy ...... 125
FIGURES
Figure 1 Population Estimates, 1980 - 2020 ...... 47 Figure 2 Median Household Income, 1989 ...... 56 Figure 3 Trend of Median Household Income in Hazel Park, 1980-2002 ...... 57 Figure 4 Occupation Distribution, 1990 ...... 58 Figure 5 Desired Single Family Attached Typology ...... 104 Figure 6 Desired Single Family Typology ...... 116
Hazel Park Master Plan v March, 2000 Introduction CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. History and Background
A Master Plan, as referenced in the Municipal Planning Act of Michigan (Public Act 285 of 1931, as amended), serves as a guide for the physical, cultural and social growth and development of a city. The purpose of a Master Plan is to identify problems and opportunities related to the development of the community. The public policies developed through this Master Plan will effect change to better meet the future needs of residents, businesses, and the City as a whole.
This Master Plan was undertaken for Hazel Park, a city located in the southeast corner of Oakland County, Michigan. Hazel Park is a stable community with many assets. Leaders in the community are proud of Hazel Park; yet there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to sustain and improve the quality of life City residents have come to expect.
The Master Plan provides community leaders with a written philosophy to deal with these issues. The Master Plan policies and future land use map will assist in substantive, well thought-out decisions which consider the long term implications of development in the City.
These community-wide implications may not be apparent to the individual property owner or citizen, but the impacts accumulate over time. For example, approval of an auto body shop adjacent to a residential neighborhood may seem like a minor issue, however, the cumulative impacts of these types of decisions affect the long- term quality of life in the City. A look around the City illustrates that once a land use decision is made, whether good or bad, it stays there for a very long time.
Hazel Park adopted a Land Use Plan in 1978. Although many of the policies and recommendations of that plan remain relevant, conditions, and trends have since changed.
The issues and concerns addressed by this Master Plan include the following:
• Protecting and improving residential neighborhoods.
• Maintaining the long term viability and appearance of commercial areas through code enforcement.
Hazel Park Master Plan -1- March, 2000 Introduction
• Providing a variety of housing alternatives for all residents.
• Reuse planning for the Hazel Park race track site, and other key sites in the City.
• Retrofitting of Hazel Park’s corridors: Dequindre, John R, Ten Mile Road, Nine Mile Road and Eight Mile Road
• Creating a long range plan for the City’s community facilities: City Hall, District Court, the library and other community facilities and open space.
• Creating a strong vision for the City of Hazel Park, together with a set of goals, objectives and strategies to realize that vision.
This Master Plan represents a considerable effort by the Hazel Park Planning Commission. The effort includes research, public meetings, joint meetings with the City Council, and reviews of draft information throughout the master planning process.
Public involvement was an important component of the planning process. All of the Planning Commission meetings were open to the public. The public was involved in a more formal manner at the public hearing required by state law. Public participation was especially crucial during the two visioning sessions held midway through the planning process.
B. What a Master Plan Is and Is Not
Many citizens and city officials alike do not fully understand exactly what a Master Plan consists of or what it actually does. It is often confused with other documents and regulations, especially the Zoning Ordinance. When reviewing this Plan, it is helpful to remember the following comparisons:
The Master Plan is:
• Prepared and adopted by the Planning Commission.
• A guide or “working blue-print” to future land use, traffic circulation, and community facilities decisions.
• A guide for the Planning Commission, City Council, and Board of Appeals on zoning decisions.
• Regional, in that it considers factors beyond the city limits.
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• Comprehensive, in that it considers all appropriate land uses for the City.
• An informational or “living” document for the City: census, population, income, community facilities, and other concerns.
The Master Plan is not:
• A law. It is a plan.
• A zoning map. It is a guide for future zoning decisions.
• A basis for property tax assessments.
• Inflexible. It can be amended as conditions change.
• Permanent. It should be reviewed periodically.
The Master Plan provides general direction on the City’s future development pattern. The plan also provides policies and actions for community leaders to consider in the future. Some of the Master Plan recommendations will be implemented through amendments to the Zoning Ordinance text and map. However, the Master Plan itself does not change the Zoning Ordinance nor the zoning of any property.
TABLE 1-A DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MASTER PLAN AND ZONING ORDINANCE MASTER PLAN ZONING ORDINANCE
Provides general policies for the City. (e.g. Sets forth zoning regulations - specific legal preserve the business district, protect natural requirements on uses permitted on each lot, features during development, etc.) setbacks from the street and property lines, height, signs, parking standards, etc.
Flexible, written to be able to respond to Rigid, requiring formal legislative amendment to changing conditions change
Provides data and analysis on the community, Deals only with parameters of physical socio-economic issues, goals, and potential development, administration and enforcement actions of the Zoning Ordinance and appeals/ variances
Adopted by the Planning Commission Adopted by the City Council
Changes can be made by the Planning Changes are made by City Council. Appeals Commission and variances are made by the Board of Appeals
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C. How to Use a Master Plan
The Master Plan is intended as a guide for City leaders in land use, development, zoning and capital improvement decisions. The Planning Commission, City Council, Downtown Development Authority, and all City departments should reference the Plan in the following circumstances:
• Reviewing development proposals. Check to see if the proposal meets the goals and objectives of the Master Plan.
• Reviewing rezoning requests. The criteria used in considering rezoning should include consistency with the future land use map and consistency with the Master Plan goals and objectives.
• Viewing changes in their long range context. While zoning is present day, the Master Plan is of a longer range. Thus, while an area on the future land use map may be designated for commercial use, actual zoning to commercial use may not be appropriate for five, ten or fifteen years.
• Considering amendments to the Zoning Ordinance text. The amendments should be evaluated as to their conformance to the future land use map and the Master Plan in order to realize its goals and objectives.
• Evaluating spending decisions on physical improvements. City leaders should consider the initial set of priorities listed in the Master Plan. A Capital Improvements Program should be thoroughly reviewed and updated every five (5) years and revised with individual projects annually.
• Reviewing variance requests and appeals. The Board of Appeals should check to see if the goals and objectives of the Master Plan would be significantly compromised by the granting of a variance or appeal.
• Maintaining the Master Plan. The Master Plan is intended to be a living document, not a shelf document. The Planning Commission should periodically review the Master Plan goals and objectives and the future land use map. Some communities require applicants whose project is inconsistent with their Master Plan to prepare an impact analysis demonstrating how the use is appropriate. Other communities amend their Master Plan if a conflicting rezoning is granted. Amendments should also be made as new data becomes available or public attitudes change.
• Educating and informing citizens, property owners, and developers about Hazel Park. Controversial land use, zoning, and development proposals can be time
Hazel Park Master Plan -4- March, 2000 Introduction
consuming and costly to a city such as Hazel Park. Many of these could be avoided, however, if everyone involved is aware of the content and designs of the Master Plan. Although a well designed Plan will not eliminate all costs, it can help steer development into appropriate areas and establish guidelines to minimize any negative aspects of development proposals. The more the public, property owners, and developers know about the Plan, the more smoothly a project will progress.
• Notifying other governmental agencies such as MDOT, the Oakland County Road Commission, and others about City plans. Governmental agencies must be familiar with the Master Plan. Developments in other cities and the plans of other agencies (such as MDOT) can have a significant impact on Hazel Park.
Hazel Park Master Plan -5- March, 2000 Existing Conditions and Trends CHAPTER II
EXISTING CONDITIONS AND TRENDS
The initial stage in developing a community plan is to inventory and analyze existing conditions and how the community evolved. Without understanding the past, community residents and leaders will have difficulty deciding the optimum path for the future. Existing conditions and trends, once identified, highlight issues of concern that must be alleviated or eliminated. The analysis of existing conditions and trends also points out opportunities for enhancing positive conditions and continuing favorable trends. This will facilitate the development of sound policies that will bring about a bright future for the community. Some of the questions that should be addressed in the analysis include, but are not limited to:
• Will these conditions and trends continue, and if so, for how long? • Will their impact be as great in the future, or will they subside? • Will new conditions or trends emerge that could have significant impact?
This chapter summarizes those conditions and trends which currently have, or are perceived to have, the most significant impact upon Hazel Park. These impacts are expected to continue into the future. How they are dealt with in the Plan could greatly influence the image of the City as the new millennium begins. Major areas of discussion in this chapter include the impact of regional trends and conditions upon Hazel Park, as well as Hazel Park’s influence upon the region; existing land uses and their pattern; environmental conditions; recreation and open space areas; housing quality; and community facilities.
A. Regional Analysis
The City of Hazel Park is located in the southeast corner of Oakland County immediately north of Wayne County and immediately west of Macomb County. Geographically, it could be considered the center of this significant tri-county area. The southern boundary is Eight Mile Road which Hazel Park shares with Detroit and the eastern boundary is Dequindre Road which it shares with Warren. The two neighboring Oakland County communities are Madison Heights with which Hazel Park shares its northern boundary at Ten Mile Road and Ferndale which shares Hazel Park’s west boundary. The west boundary is an irregular line along West End Avenue between Eight Mile Road and Woodward Heights which then jogs west to Lenox and north to Ten Mile Road. All of these neighboring cities, like Hazel Park, are mature communities that are at a crossroad in their lifespans. Therefore, it is important to generally examine the land uses along the borders as conflicting land uses can create negative impacts extending beyond municipal boundaries.
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The existing land use and the zoning designation was examined for each property in Hazel Park that abuts any of the four neighboring cities. Land uses were compared to the zoning designations and land uses of properties along the boundary with the adjacent city to identify potential land use conflicts. The commercial corridors along 10 Mile, 8 Mile and Dequindre Roads are of primary concern because improvement of these areas depends upon cooperative efforts among neighboring cities, counties, property owners, and businesses.
There appear to be no major land use conflicts between Hazel Park and the bordering communities. Much of the land along the north boundary of Hazel Park is zoned and used for industrial purposes. This is also the case in bordering Madison Heights. The major catalyst for continuing this land use trend is the presence of Interstate 696 which was constructed north of Ten Mile Road in the 1980s. This cross-town expressway which links easternmost Macomb County with westernmost Oakland County has spurred tremendous economic growth along its corridor.
The future of the Hazel Park Race Track, located at the intersection of Ten Mile and Dequindre, will significantly impact the future land use pattern in Hazel Park as well as Madison Heights and Warren to its east. The Warren side of Dequindre is zoned commercial and commercially developed. However, there are some vacant buildings and parcels, the future of which could be determined by redevelopment of the race track and the scattered industrial uses along the Hazel Park side of Dequindre.
The land along Eight Mile Road, the south boundary of Hazel Park, includes a mix of commercial and industrial uses of varying intensities. This is also true of the Detroit side of Eight Mile Road. The regional importance of Eight Mile Road and the condition of properties along this corridor has been recognized with the establishment of the Eight Mile Boulevard Association. This is an interjurisdictional effort among Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties and the municipalities along the corridor to implement a plan that will alter the deteriorating condition of the road and its north and south frontages. Beautification of the boulevard medians through well-designed landscaping, installation of community entry signage, road improvements and diligent maintenance of the improvements are some of the physical changes that the Eight Mile Boulevard Association has begun to implement.
The west boundary of Hazel Park is zoned for and developed with single family residential neighborhoods, as is the case with Ferndale, its neighbor to the west. Due to the fact that these residential areas are established, are in relatively good condition or are being upgraded, the west boundary is expected to remain essentially the same.
Conclusions: Hazel Park is strategically located at the intersection of southeast Oakland County, southwest Macomb County and northeast Detroit. Through this city’s involvement with 8 Mile Boulevard Association, its decisions regarding the future of the race track and other policies, Hazel Park has the opportunity to influence significant regional change.
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B. Existing Land Use Survey
1. Introduction and Methodology. The existing land use inventory is one of the most basic parts of a Comprehensive Development Plan and its purpose is two-fold. First, it presents a “snap shot” in time of how the land areas of the City are currently being used. Secondly, it is intended to demonstrate development and land use patterns throughout the City. These elements of the existing land use inventory provide a foundation from which recommendations and policies for future land use and development trends emerge.
The inventory involved a two (2) step process. The first step was to determine and define the different land use types, or categories, existing within the City of Hazel Park. The second was to survey each block of the City and classify the land use of each parcel of property according to the specified categories.
2. Land Use Categories. The land use categories used in the Hazel Park Future Land Use Plan prepared in 1978 were the basis for defining the categories that are used for this inventory. The previous land use categories were refined and expanded through a review of previous plans, existing data, aerial photographs, personal knowledge of the City, and a brief survey of major corridors. This review and research resulted in thirteen (13) land use categories. These categories encompass a broad range of uses within which specific uses have been generally categorized. A listing of the land use categories follows, along with a brief description and definition of each.
Residential Uses: Single Family Residential: This category includes lots or parcels of land containing one-family detached dwelling units.
Multiple-Family Residential: For the survey, multiple-family residential uses were defined as land containing any building with living quarters for two (2) or more families or individuals. No attempt was made to survey each structure to determine the exact number or condition of individual dwelling units.
Commercial and Industrial Uses: Local Commercial: These uses are defined as commercial activity that primarily serves the day-to-day needs of the residents of Hazel Park. This category is representative of small retail and service businesses serving the immediate neighborhood or limited clientele and area.
General Commercial: These uses are defined as commercial uses serving the entire community or broader region and are primarily located along major thoroughfares that draw from passing traffic. Properties in this category include shopping centers and other larger commercial operations.
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Heavy Commercial: This category refers to commercial uses of the greatest intensity whose operations may have a severe or significant impact upon adjacent residential uses due to high traffic, outdoor storage, aesthetics, environmental concerns and other conditions. Examples of uses in this category are gasoline stations, automotive repair shops, automotive sales, lumber yards, contractor equipment sales and rental, and commercial uses with outdoor storage.
Commercial Recreation: This category includes sports and other large recreational facilities that are privately owned with customers from the entire region and beyond. Examples of uses in this category include the race track.
Office: This category includes land used as professional offices, buildings housing the administrative functions of corporations and general purpose buildings that house a number of office users.
Industrial: Land used primarily for industry, such as manufacturing, processing, warehousing and storage, is included within this category.
Public & Institutional Uses: Public: Parcels, either improved and unimproved, which are held in the public interest and exempt for real taxation are included within this category. Government offices, public schools, utilities, and other facilities for the enjoyment of the general public are included in this category.
Semi-Public: This category includes all lands and buildings devoted to private schools, church complexes, hospitals, cemeteries, fraternal organizations, and other similar uses. These uses are usually open to the public but not owned by a governmental entity.
Parks and Recreation: This category includes publicly owned passive and active recreational facilities.
Off-Street Parking: Lots which are held in public ownership and used exclusively for parking are included within this category. These lots are usually not built to serve a particular site. Parcels which are used as parking lots for private developments, but are separated from that use by a street, right-of-way, or another parcel, and could be developed as a different and separate use, are also included within this category.
Vacant Areas: Vacant Land and Buildings: Unimproved parcels that are not being occupied by any of the above uses are in this category. These parcels are areas for potential future development. This category also includes buildings which are vacant, deteriorating, and appear to be abandoned.
3. Existing Land Use Analysis. In October, 1997 McKenna Associates, Inc., completed the inventory of existing land uses within Hazel Park. The inventory was conducted by
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a windshield survey from public rights-of-way. The result of that survey is the Existing Land Use Map (Map 2-A). The various land use categories are colorized, and each parcel has been colored to indicate its land use, as interpreted by McKenna Associates, Inc.
The acreage for each land use was quantified and is tabulated in Table 2-B along with the 1978 acreage for the respective land use category. Table 2-B also shows the change in acreage and the percent change in acreage during the past twenty years. This purpose of this comparison is to highlight those land uses that continue to be most prevalent as well as those that are on the wane as the turn of the century approaches. There are some differences between the land use categories used in 1978 and those defined for this plan. For comparison purposes, the 1978 categories are listed below along with the corresponding 1997 category. (Table 2-A)
As is the case with all mature southeast Oakland County communities, Hazel Park is virtually 100 percent developed. This was also true in 1978. Due to the mature development stage of the City there are few opportunities for development, but carefully considered redevelopment is the key to the City’s future. Therefore, the comparison assists in identifying trends which are expected to continue and, in conjunction with the Existing Land Use Map, appropriate parcels for redevelopment with those land uses may be identified.
TABLE 2-A COMPARISON OF LAND USE INVENTORY CATEGORIES 1978 Land Use Category 1997 Land Use Category Residential Uses Residential Uses • One & Two Family Residential • Single Family Residential • Multiple Residential • Multiple Residential (also 2-Family) Office Uses Office Uses Commercial Uses Commercial Uses • Convenience Commercial • Local Commercial • Comparison Commercial • General Commercial • General Commercial • Heavy Commercial • Commercial Recreation Industrial Uses Industrial Uses Public Uses Public Uses Parks & Recreation Semi-Public Semi-Public Parking Off-Street Parking Vacant Vacant
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TABLE 2-B EXISTING LAND USE 1978 and 1997 HAZEL PARK, MICHIGAN 1978 1978 1997 1997 1997 1978-97 Land Area % of Total Land Use Land % of Total Acres (Acres) Area Category Area Area Change (Acres) 645.2 40.9% Residential Total 867.69 47.4% 222.49 632.3 40.1% Single Family 830.67 45.4% 198.37 12.9 .8% Multiple Family 37.02 2.0% 24.12 8.5 0.5% Office 4.71 0.3% (3.79) 199.60 12.6% Commercial Total 205.39 11.2% 5.79 17.4 1.1% Local 27.95 1.5% 10.55 21.5 1.4% General 26.35 1.4% 4.85 160.7 10.2% Heavy 24.06 1.3% (136.6) wwCommercial Recreation 127.03 6.9% w 47.4 3.0% Industrial 42.73 2.3% (4.67) 112.8 7.2% Public Total 112.30 6.1% (0.5) Public 75.88 4.1% Parks/Recreation 36.42 2.0% 36.7 2.3% Semi-Public 24.63 1.3% (12.07) 12.5 0.8% Parking 7.20 0.4% (5.3) 25.3 1.6 Vacant 33.85 1.9% 8.55 487.8 31.0 Rights-of-Way 530.12 29.0% 52.68 1,575.8 100% Total Acreage 1,829.22 100.0% 253.4
Sources: McKenna and Associates, Inc. Land Use Survey, October, 1997; Parkins, Rogers & Associates, Inc. Land Use Survey, 1978.
Notes: w Included in 1978 Heavy Commercial Classification
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a. Residential. The predominant land use throughout the City is single-family residential which comprises 64 percent of the total acreage. However, within single family neighborhoods are numerous two-family structures which are scattered throughout many of the older residential areas. The City was incorporated in 1942 and, according to the 1990 Census, 3,400 of the 7,779 housing units in Hazel Park were built prior to 1950. The fact that 2,619 units, one-third of the total, were built before 1939 indicates that the housing stock is varied in style as well as condition.
The condition of the housing stock was analyzed in the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Study prepared by McKenna Associates, Inc. in 1993 and is summarized in a later chapter of this plan. However, for existing land use survey purposes, it is important to point out those areas in which two-family structures are located. The number of units in two-family structures is nearly 500 which is a relatively significant proportion of the single-family housing stock. Table 2-C displays the number of units in each structure type by census tract. The 1990 citywide totals by structure type illustrate that the single-family and two-family residential land use pattern was well-established by 1970 as the change in those totals was minimal during the two decades between the two censuses. Map 2-B identifies the location of 1990 census tracts in Hazel Park.
TABLE 2-C HOUSING UNITS BY STRUCTURE TYPE BY CENSUS TRACT, 1970 - 1990 1970 1 2 3-4 5-49 50+ Total Census DU/Bldg. DU/Bldg. DU/Bldg. DU/Bldg. DU/Bldg. DU Tract 1004 1,105 58 3 18 0 1,184 1005 1,875 45 59 113 115 2,207 1006 1,575 115 10 9 0 1,709 1007 1,916 208 34 36 0 2,254 City 6,471 486 106 176 115 7,354 Total 1990 1- 1- 2 3- 4 5- 49 50+ Other Total Census detached attached DU/Bldg. DU/Bldg. DU/Bldg. DU/Bldg. DU Tract 1750 1,158 15 47 0 222 58 4 1,504 1751 1,898 57 58 49 199 167 6 2,434 1752 1,563 23 84 4 5 0 12 1,691 1753 1,858 15 212 11 18 0 36 2,150 City 6,477 110 401 64 444 225 58 7,779 Total
Sources: US Bureau of Census, 1990; Housing Needs Study, Christopher Wzacny & Associates, 1978. Notes: DU/Bldg. = Dwelling units per building
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TABLE 2-D AGE OF RESIDENTIAL UNITS BY CENSUS TRACT, 1990 1990 Pre- 1940- 1950- 1960- 1970- 1980- 1985- 1989- 1990- 1990- 1997 Census 1940 1949 1959 1969 1979 1984 1988 3/90 1997 1997M Total Tract SFR FR Units 1750 375 318 586 66 133 23 0 3 1751 459 431 884 240 221 199 0 0 1752 298 337 761 230 43 22 0 0 1753 716 466 670 181 54 43 20 0 City Total 2,619 1,588 2,474 673 184 267 310 7,779 55 127 Demos 109 1997 Estimate 73 7,852
Sources: US Bureau of Census, 1990; SEMCOG Residential Building Permits, 1990-97.
Note: “Demos” indicates demolitions; SFR indicates Single Family residential units; MFR indicates Multi-Family residential units.
It should be noted that the 1990 Census counted duplexes and townhouses as single-family attached. Therefore, 401 units in two-family structures does not necessarily mean that there was a loss of 85 two-family structure units by 1990. These units are probably reflected in the 110 units in single-family attached structures. Table 2-D tabulates the age of housing by census tract through 1990 and total construction from the 1990 Census through 1997. Between 1990 and 1997, 55 single-family and 127 multi-family units were constructed according to SEMCOG Residential Building Permit reports. The 109 demolitions since 1990 result in a net total of 73 units indicating a current total of 7,852 housing units.
The single-family residential areas are fully developed with only a few scattered vacant lots for infill housing. Thus, significant numbers of new residential lots in Hazel Park will only result from rezoning vacant parcels or redeveloping non- residential parcels. Two-family structures are shown on the 1998 existing land use map as multiple-residential which also contributes to the differences between the 1978 and 1998 land use inventories. This is discussed further in the following narrative regarding multiple residential.
b. Multiple Residential. The 24 acre increase in land used for multiple residential development from 1978 to 1997 is not as great as it appears because the 37.02 acres of multiple residential property includes the many two-family structures scattered throughout single-family residential areas. The remaining multiple residential development is essentially the same as it was in 1978 including small apartment buildings and complexes with three units to 49 units along Woodward Heights and John R and the previously discussed duplexes in the neighborhoods.
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One large apartment complex is Hazelcrest Place, the 115-unit senior citizen apartment building and townhouses for families located west of John R and north of 9 Mile Road and financed by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) in the 1970s.
The most significant increase in multiple family acreage is in two large senior citizen apartment developments that were built in the 1990s. These are located on the north side of Woodward Heights, about one-quarter mile east of John R on land formerly vacant and owned by St. Mary Magdelene Church. Hazel Park Manor Co- operative Apartments, on the west portion of the site, was developed with the assistance of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 202 Program. Parkhaven Manor, on the east portion of the site, is a 125 unit retirement community that includes one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments and six two-bedroom / two-bathroom cottages. Parkhaven Manor was financed by MSHDA and 25 of the apartments are set-aside for low-income households.
Few vacant parcels are appropriate for multiple residential development. Assembly of some vacant lots and parcels along John R north of 8 Mile Road may allow a small townhouse development or garden apartment buildings. A garden apartment development on the large vacant parcel on the south side of Felker across from Hazel Park High School could provide an attractive buffer between the School Service Center and the single family residential neighborhood to the east. Another opportunity would be as a part of a mixed-use redevelopment project for the race track property.
c. Office. Office uses occupy 4.71 acres or approximately 0.4 percent of Hazel Park’s total land area. This reflects a reduction of four acres of office development since 1978. The office buildings tend to be on small scattered sites along John R. Road and Nine Mile Road. Given the fact that Hazel Park has never had an office market identity, it is not likely that this will be a major land use element in the future. Apparently, there are enough small buildings available to meet the limited local office demand. Other nearby communities such as Warren, Royal Oak and Madison Heights already have established office markets. Therefore, Hazel Park would probably be more successful concentrating redevelopment and new development efforts on commercial uses that would be more community serving.
d. Commercial. Commercial land uses comprise 15.8 percent or 205.39 acres of the city’s land area and are located along the major thoroughfares. The characteristics of the types of commercial uses are described below:
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Local Commercial. Local Commercial is synonymous with the term Convenience Commercial used in the 1978 plan and includes 27.95 acres or 2 percent of the City’s total area. About 10 more acres than were used for local commercial in 1978.
Most of these stores and services are located along John R and Nine Mile as was the case in 1978. However, there has been some reuse of discontinued small industrial uses along Dequindre Road and Ten Mile Road for local commercial establishments.
General Commercial. This 1998 Land Use Category replaces the 1978 category referred to as Comparison Commercial and includes 26.35 acres or 2 percent of the total City acreage. The greatest concentration of general commercial is clustered around the intersection of John R and Nine Mile Roads just east of I-75. This area is also considered Downtown Hazel Park and has recently been improved with brick-paved sidewalks, landscaping and new lighting to establish this identity. The largest general commercial uses are the shopping center on the northwest corner of John R and Nine Mile Road and the hotel on the southeast corner of the same intersection. Although the commercial land use pattern has not changed since 1978, the face of the commercial areas is showing continued improvement largely due to the overall improvement in the local and regional economy and the focus of efforts by City officials.
Heavy Commercial. Heavy Commercial was referred to as General Commercial in the 1978 Plan. The decrease in acreage from 160.7 in 1978 to 24.06 in 1997 was due to the fact that the 127 acre race track was included in this category in the earlier plan. The 1978 Plan actually included 33 acres in this category indicating a loss of 9 acres in the heavy commercial. The probability that many of these types of uses were legal non-conforming uses implies that this decrease is a positive sign that blighting influences are gradually being eliminated.
e. Commercial Recreation. The only parcel included in Commercial Recreation is the 127.03 acre race track parcel. This category was used to reflect the unique nature of the race track. Although it is zoned industrial, the actual use is a combination of service, commercial, and entertainment. There has been discussion for many years about the future of the race track and the general consensus appears to be that the site is underutilized. The race track parcel provides an excellent, and the only real opportunity, for a flagship redevelopment project that could create a positive statement as an eastern gateway to Oakland County. Its location at the intersection of Dequindre and Ten Mile Roads is accessible to I-696 and I-75 and also convenient to Eight Mile Road and the Mound Road corridor in Warren, a major industrial area.
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f. Industrial. Industrial land uses are located along Eight Mile, Ten Mile Road, Dequindre Road and the industrial park developed with the assistance of an Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) in the middle 1980s directly south of the race track. Together these uses include 42.73 acres and account for approximately 3 percent of the City’s land use.
Older Industrial buildings are situated on small shallow parcels along the frontage of major streets. As was the case in the 1978 Plan, these older industrial properties adjacent to single family residential neighborhoods often have minimal off-street parking, inadequate loading areas, insufficient screening from residential and inadequate separation between service and residential traffic.
g. Public. Public land consists of a total 112.3 acres or slightly over 8 percent of the total land area. The total acreage in this category remains the same as it was in 1978. These land uses include both public facilities such as City Hall, schools and parks and other recreation areas. Public facilities occupy 75.88 acres strategically located throughout the City. The locations and types of facilities are discussed further in the Community Facilities section of this Plan.
h. Parks/Recreation. Parks and other recreation areas include 36.42 acres throughout the City. This category also includes open space because in a mature urban community like Hazel Park, open spaces are often found in the parks, school play areas and other public outdoor areas.
i. Semi-Public. The total acreage devoted to private schools, churches and other semi-public uses decreased from 36.7 in 1978 to 24.63 acres in this 1997 existing land use survey. The reason for this large decrease is the reuse of the large parcel on Woodward Heights for the multiple residential developments, Hazel Park Manor Co-operative Apartments and Parkhaven Manor, discussed previously.
j. Parking. The large difference in the parking category, a reduction from 12.5 acres in 1978 to 7.2 acres in 1997, apparently has more to do with definition than actual loss of parking. The 1978 Plan included parking lots behind commercial and industrial frontage on Eight Mile Road as Parking while this Plan focuses on municipal parking areas and those serving Downtown Hazel Park. The North John R Parking Study and the South John R Enhancement Plan prepared by McKenna Associates, Inc. in 1994 and 1996, respectively, for the City of Hazel Park Downtown Development Authority put forth numerous recommendations for more attractive and efficient parking areas in that major commercial corridor. Most of these recommendations were implemented in the streetscape improvement project through Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) funds (now TEA 21).
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k. Vacant Areas. There are very few vacant parcels in Hazel Park of any significant size. The 1978 Plan identified 25.3 acres of vacant land, while the 1997 existing land use survey identified 33.85 acres. The primary reason for this apparent increase in vacant land is that the 1997 survey also includes significant vacant and obsolete commercial and industrial buildings. The most obvious of these is the former Federal Department store building on Eight Mile at Dequindre Road.
Other vacant sites are scattered throughout the City as indicated on the Existing Land Use Map and, in most cases, will require assembly with adjacent parcels to cause any significant change. The race track is still in use as Commercial Recreation, however, as previously discussed this parcels offers great redevelopment opportunity due to its gateway location. The former Federal’s site could also provide a positive, attractive statement if a significant appropriate redevelopment project was constructed at this southeast Oakland County entry point.
C. Environmental Analysis and Evaluation
Federal environmental legislation enacted in the 1970s raised public awareness of the importance of environmental protection. Although many states, including Michigan, strengthened federal environmental laws with state laws and programs designed to correct environmental problems and prevent future contamination of air, land and water, trends during the 1980s reduced enforcement of these laws to a low priority. During the 1990s, environmental protection has resurfaced as a serious concern as we approach the new millennium. Therefore, a thorough community plan requires that the condition of the environment be considered in decisions regarding future land uses and to promote good stewardship of the land.
A concern for the environment applies to rural areas with an ample inventory of undeveloped land, as well as to fully developed cities such as Hazel Park. While the specific environmental issues may be different, their importance is equally as great. Environmental concerns can affect almost any development; therefore, they require serious consideration during the comprehensive development plan process.
Developed, urban areas have many similar environmental concerns. Common environmental problems in mature cities such as Hazel Park are soils contaminated by leaking underground storage tanks, most often at gasoline stations. Brownfields, or abandoned commercial and industrial sites with possible contamination, offer additional challenges for cities that must have these sites cleaned up before redevelopment. Noise pollution can also be a problem as excessive noise from freeways and industry can negatively impact quiet enjoyment of residential neighborhoods. A general review of environmental impacts in Hazel Park follows.
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1. Soil Contamination. According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) records and a report issued by the Oakland County Planning and Development Division, there are a few contaminated sites within the City which pose environmental problems. There are about ten sites in Hazel Park with leaking underground storage tanks and two sites that are potential candidates for environmental clean-up priority under Act 307.
a. Act 307 Sites: Michigan Public Act 307 provides for identification, risk assessment, evaluation of potentially contaminated sites and clean-up procedures for those that are contaminated. Sites are identified by concerned citizens, government agencies such as cities and county health departments, MDEQ staff, and others. Through this information network an Act 307 priority list was developed and is continuously updated. This list of potentially contaminated sites is used, in part, for state and federal funding recommendations to undertake remedial response activities when the parties responsible for the contamination are unwilling or unable to do so.
b. Leaking Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks have been widely used in commercial, industrial and residential areas. These steel tanks can store a variety of fluids. Petroleum is the most commonly stored product, however, acids and chemical wastes are also stored. Underground storage tank leaks result from corrosion in the steel. If the fluid leaks, it can contaminate both the soil and groundwater. Prevention of this problem is important because it is costly, financially and otherwise, to clean up contamination once it has impacted ground water supplies.
The City, in an effort to update and prioritize the Act 307 list and the Leaking Underground Storage Tank list, contracted with The Traverse Group, Environmental Consultants, to further assess the conditions and recommend sites for potential clean up. The preliminary findings of the study identified the following sites of greatest concern. However, the results are not final and the priority of each remains to be determined.
• Act 307 site on Eight Mile Road at Hughes, most recently used by Sam’s Auto Parts shop, was formerly used as a Shell Service station which left oil and transmission fluid behind.
• About 120 acres of Hazel Park Race Track which was used as a dump by Highland Park.
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• Six properties on John R; four properties near Nine Mile and John R; about twelve properties near Maple Lane and East Woodward Heights.
2. Brownfield Development Potential. Each of the sites identified in the study, has the potential, if necessary, to be cleaned up and redeveloped. The Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act (Public Act 381 of 1996) can provide assistance in this area. Although funding is limited, the legislation will reduce the remediation required for redevelopment to a level consistent with the intended reuse. Thus, contaminated industrial sites will not be required to be cleaned up to the extent required of residential sites. In some cases the contaminants must only be contained rather than totally removed. This will reduce the high costs associated with redeveloping these sites which has prevented reuse of most brownfield sites.
Act 381 authorizes municipalities to establish Brownfield Redevelopment Authorities to oversee the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties within their jurisdiction. Businesses which locate in a designated Brownfield Redevelopment Zone receive a single business tax credit allowing up to $1 million in savings. The increased property taxes generated from formerly unusable property that has been cleaned up for a new business can be reinvested into the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority. As a result, revenue will be available to clean up additional sites for redevelopment.
In June, 1998, the City Council voted to establish a Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, designating the entire City as a Brownfield Redevelopment Zone due to the scattered locations of the sites. This will allow the 13 member committee to select sites for clean-up on a project-by-project basis anywhere in the City.
3. Drainage Basins and Waterways. Stormwater runoff from roads and highways can be a significant problem in urban communities, particularly when they are near waterways or in a floodplain area. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began the stormwater permitting process in the early 1990s, and there is continued pressure for this program to be expanded to include the treatment of stormwater discharges, similar to that required for sanitary sewer effluent.
Although there are no significant waterways in Hazel Park and this does not appear to be a serious environmental concern to the City, an issue which affects Hazel Park and several other neighboring communities is described in the following narrative.
Hazel Park is one of 14 communities in the Twelve Towns Drainage District of the Southeastern Oakland County Sewage Disposal System. The Retention Treatment Facility that treats and retains their combined sewer overflow discharges into the Red Run Drain, a tributary of the Clinton River. The Clinton River, which flows into Lake St. Clair, has been identified as an Area of Concern as it is suspected of contributing to
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Lake St. Clair’s pollution problems. In 1996, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES) permit to the Oakland County Drain Commission. However, certain portions of the application were not acceptable to MDEQ and improvements to the system were required.
The Initial Improvements Project Draft NPDES Settlement Permit report was completed by Hubbell, Roth & Clark for the Oakland County Drain Commission (OCDC) in July, 1998. MDEQ and OCDC have reached consensus on the improvements required by the permit process that are detailed in the report.
As stated in the Executive Summary of the Report, “The proposed Initial Improvement Projects are designed to reduce the frequency and volume of combined sewer overflow discharge events; improve the treatment of combined sewer overflow through better settling and fine screening; improve disinfection; and reduce the likelihood of permit violations by removing storm water, sanitary and combined sewage from downstream of the settling, skimming, screening and disinfection operations.”
The report and accompanying documents have been submitted to the 14 communities, Macomb County and the City of Detroit. Their concurrence is required to prepare a Project Plan eligible for funding by a low interest State Revolving Loan Fund from MDEQ. The initial Improvements Project Estimated costs amount to $130 million which will be shared among the 14 communities, Oakland County, the Detroit Zoo, American Golf of Detroit and the State of Michigan. The costs were allocated according to percentages used to assess storm charges and annual costs of amortizing the State Revolving Fund Loan and the Revenue Bond. Hazel Park’s allocation percentage is 2.3055%, an estimated share of $2,997,000.
4. Noise. Industrial and commercial uses, freeways and the truck traffic they generate contribute to noise pollution in cities such as Hazel Park. Buffer zones (e.g., transitional zoning districts) and/or screening between these noise producing land uses and many residential neighborhoods are methods to reduce the impact of excessive noise. The primary noise pollutant in Hazel Park is I-75 which traverses the City from its southern boundary at Eight Mile Road east of John R. Road to the north boundary at Ten Mile Road west of John R Road. The areas where noise could be a problem are the residential neighborhood along the I-75 corridor, particularly, in the northwest area of Hazel Park where I-75 interchanges with I-696. Noise abatement is provided by the series of walls erected along I-75 and I-696.
5. Visual Aesthetics. Although most residential neighborhoods in Hazel Park include modest but well-maintained homes and tree-lined streets that create a pleasant visual image, there are neighborhoods that need improvement. The Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy prepared by McKenna Associates in June, 1994
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states that: “The Housing & Neighborhood Preservation Strategy for Hazel Park is designed to realize a Shared Vision of a community with identifiable, safe, and secure, tree-sheltered neighborhoods of predominantly single-family, owner-occupied, well- maintained homes with manicured green lawns.”
The result of this planning effort was the establishment of Hazel Park Neighborhood Initiatives, a non profit community organization established to carry out this objective in all of Hazel Park’s residential neighborhoods.
The commercial corridors, with the exception of the recent streetscape improvements along John R, are cluttered with signs and lack consistent, quality building design and landscaping. Adjoining, incompatible land uses present a problem for residential neighborhoods near commercial corridors. In some cases there is minimal screening of industrial and commercial sites and residential neighborhoods behind the commercial frontage. This situation is most prevalent along Eight Mile Road and Ten Mile Road. The City has continued its efforts to alleviate these problems through planning and implementation for individual commercial corridors and participation in regional efforts such as the Eight Mile Boulevard Association.
Conclusions. Hazel Park has relatively few potentially contaminated sites. Those that do exist tend to be small parcels that are current or former gas station sites with underground storage tanks. The City should use the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to seek funding for the priority sites. The City should also continue to improve its visual aesthetics and image. Landscaping and site design guidelines should be strictly enforced to ensure that commercial corridors are aesthetically pleasing. This will also help protect the residential neighborhoods from traffic noise and other negative impacts created by busy commercial sites and heavily traveled thoroughfares.
D. Community Facilities and Services
A primary purpose of municipal government is delivery of services designed for the health, safety and welfare of the local population. Some services are more efficiently delivered by the city or by quasi-public agencies such as churches, civic organizations, or health care providers. In some cases a partnership among public and private agencies is an effective vehicle for social service delivery.
The basic services and facilities that are expected to be provided in an urban municipality include: municipal administration; police and fire protection; streets, sidewalks and public works maintenance and improvements; parks and recreation; schools; health care facilities; libraries and museums; and religious institutions.
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The community facilities and services in Hazel Park were inventoried and are tabulated in Table 2-F. Map 2-C shows the location of these facilities and can be used to assess their adequacy in terms of location and accessibility to the resident population. The purpose of this discussion is to supplement the Existing Land Use Analysis with more detail on the specific uses included in the public and semi-public land uses. The findings will be used to form a basis for recommendations regarding additional facilities or improving existing facilities as needed.
This inventory groups community facilities into public facilities and semi-public facilities according to categories describing the type of service provided such as: parks & recreation; municipal facilities; libraries and museums; educational facilities; religious institutions; and service clubs and organizations.
The amount of land devoted to public and semi-public uses has not changed during the past two decades, except in the semi-public acreage which was formerly owned by St. Mary Magdalene Church and is now developed with Hazel Park Manor Co-operative Apartments and Parkhaven Manor Retirement Community. The 1978 Plan includes acres of land used for parks and recreation and for other public facilities, both of which have remained the same.
TABLE 2-E COMPARISON OF PUBLIC AND SEMI-PUBLIC LANDS 1978 AND 1997 Existing Land Use 1978 Acres % of Total 1997 Acres % of Total Total Public 112.8 7.2% 112.30 8.6% Public 75.88 5.8% Parks/Recreation 36.42 2.8% Semi-Public 36.7 2.3% 24.63 1.9% Source: McKenna and Associates, Inc. Land Use Survey, October 1997; Parkins, Rogers & Associates, Inc. Land Use Survey, 1978.
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TABLE 2-F HAZEL PARK COMMUNITY FACILITIES
Municipal Facilities Public Educational Facilities City Hall 1) Hazel Park High School Police Department 2) Beecher Middle School 43rd District Court 3) Webb Middle School (Ferndale) Department of Public Works/Dog Pound 4) Roosevelt Elementary School Fire Department 5) Longfellow Elementary School Public Library 6) Hoover Elementary School Viking Arena 7) Webster Elementary School Other Government Facilities 8) United Oaks Elementary School U. S. Post Office 9) Ford Elementary School 10) Clark Elementary School (Ferndale) 11) Edison Elementary School (Ferndale) Parks and Recreation Hazel Park Recreation Center Tot Lots 1) Karam Park Private Educational Facilities 2) Fuller St. Mary Magdalene School 3) Maxlow Calvary Baptist School 4) Madge 5) Tuski 6) Caledonia 7) Sylvester Neighborhood Parks 1) Felker Field 2) Kennedy Park Community Parks 1) Green Acres 2) McPherson/Scout
Note: Service clubs and organizations that include Hazel Park in their service areas but have no facility in Hazel Park include Chamber of Commerce (Madison Heights and Hazel Park), Democratic Club, Eastern Star (Ferndale), Fraternal Order of Police(Ferndale).
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1. Parks and Recreation. The City of Hazel Park provides a total of 36.4 acres of public parks and recreational areas. Included in this total are the following parks:
• Seven (7) tot lots (5.3 acres) that range in size from approximately one-half acre to 2.4 acres (Karam Park)
• Two (2) neighborhood parks, approximately 2 acres each, that total 4.6 acres
• Two (2) community parks that total 24.3 acres, Green Acres with 17.9 acres and McPherson/Scout with 6.4 acres.
The Recreation Board, the Planning Commission and the City Council adopted the Hazel Park Recreation Plan in 1994 and 1995. The Recreation Plan applied the National Recreation standards to determine the adequacy of recreation space for the population and found the following deficiencies:
TABLE 2-G NEIGHBORHOOD RECREATION SPACE NEEDS, HAZEL PARK Census 1990 Existing Space Acreage Tract Population Space Needs Deficiency (Acres)w (Acres)ww 1750 3,359 25.3 35.3 10.0 1751 6,131 21.0 64.4 43.4 1752 4,729 12.7 49.7 37.0 1753 5,832 21.1 61.2 40.1 Total 20,051 80.1 210.5 130.4 Source: Recreation Plan, 1995-2000, City of Hazel Park Notes: wIncludes elementary school open space wwStandard of 10.5 acres per 1,000 persons
Although the Plan recognized that a need exists for more recreation facilities, there is no vacant land available for park space acquisition. Therefore, the recommendation was to more intensively utilize the existing parks. Priority projects at the time included development of tot lots in the southern half of the City, construction of a picnic shelter/pavilion and public restrooms at McPherson/Scout Park and public restrooms at Karam Park and Felker Field. Sylvester Park has been added to the City’s tot lot inventory since the last recreation plan in response to the identified need.
The City is completing improvements to the tot lots in the south end. Two of the three proposed batting cages and pitching machines have been installed. The City received a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) grant to construct a pavilion and pathway in McPherson/Scout Park. Projects that the Recreation Department and the City wish to implement when funds are available include restrooms at Karam Park and Felker Field.
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2. Public Safety. The Police Department and the Fire Department are the public safety service providers and both departments are under the jurisdiction of the City Manager. The Police Department is located in the Municipal Center on the northeast corner of Nine Mile and John R Roads.
The Fire Department is located on the east side of Russell, in the block just south of Nine Mile Road. The facility also serves as the only fire station in the City. Fire insurance standards require that fire stations be within one and one-half miles of all points within its service area. The currrent central location meets those service standards.
Also related to Public Safety is the Hazel Park Division of the 43rd District Court. The court is currently located in City Hall. However, Judge Robert Turner of the Madison Heights Division of the 43rd District Court has proposed relocating the Hazel Park and the Ferndale Divisions to Madison Heights. The rationale for this proposal is that consolidating the three divisions in one facility will allow the court to share administrative costs and improve overall efficiency. The City of Madison Heights approved the proposal and agreed to expand the existing court building to accommodate the two divisions. The Cities of Hazel Park and Ferndale must also approve the proposal before it can be implemented. The two cities must weigh the costs such as additional travel time for police officers against the benefit of utilizing current court space for municipal administration.
3. Public Services. The Department of Public Works (DPW) is located at 24211 Couzens and is responsible for maintenance and improvement of city streets, sidewalks, utility lines and other public property and infrastructure. The facility includes the administrative offices of DPW, the DPW yard and garage, and the dog pound.
4. Municipal Administration and Library. City Hall is located at Nine Mile and John R and is occupied by most of the City administrative staff. The City Manager’s office, the Council Chambers and the Hazel Park Division of the 43rd District Court, along with the following Departments operate from City Hall: Accounting, Assessing, Building, City Clerk, Code Enforcement, Finance, Planning, Treasurer, and Water. The City has been considering building a new City Hall at a different location as it is not feasible to modernize and expand the building at its current location. The Hazel Park Memorial Library is located just east of City Hall on Nine Mile Road.
5. Education. The Hazel Park School District includes the entire City of Hazel Park and extends west to Hilton Road in Ferndale. The School District has no plans to close any schools and no new schools are proposed for construction. Three of the Hazel Park schools are in Ferndale: Edison Elementary School, Clark Elementary School and Webb Middle School. Students that live west of I-75 between Woodward Heights and Nine Mile road attend Clark Elementary School located south of Woodward Heights at Ferndale’s east city limit.
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Conclusions: Hazel Park should continue to seek funding opportunities for expanding and modernizing community facilities such as City Hall and the City’s parks and recreation facilities.
E. Utilities
Among the most basic and essential community services provided by a municipal government are its utilities. The City of Hazel Park maintains the water service, sanitary and storm sewer system within its jurisdiction. Semi-public agencies provide other utilities including electric service and maintenance by Detroit Edison and the natural gas service provider is Consumer Energy. Cable television service is provided through Media One Cable. A major concern of mature communities like Hazel Park is the age of the sewer system, water lines, and other utility systems. Since their construction in the early twentieth century, increased population and land use development have caused pressures beyond the capacity of some of these older systems.
The City has been working diligently to upgrade the water and sewer systems. The recent resurfacing of John R Road between Nine and Ten Mile Roads also included water main and storm sewer replacement. Nine Mile Road between Dequindre and West End has been resurfaced and water mains and sewers are being replaced in conjunction with that project. The Department of Public Works Director and Water Department Supervisor have identified about 15 areas in need of water main replacement throughout the City. These projects are expected to be carried out in the next five to ten years.
As described in the Environmental Analysis, a major issue facing Hazel Park is the proposed improvements to the Twelve Towns Drainage District of Southeastern Oakland Sewage Disposal System. The concern most directly involving Hazel Park is a location about 45 feet north of John R where a 72” sanitary sewer connects to the regional treatment facility. This sewer, which serves a 400 acre area in Hazel Park, and a 60” combined sewer serving 529 acres in Madison Heights, connect to the regional treatment facility downstream of the existing inlet structure. The inlet structure controls the flow into the Red Run Drain. To reduce the volume from overflows and improve the overflow water quality, the Plan recommends re-routing the combined sewer inlets upstream of the proposed inlet structure.
The existing utility systems in Hazel Park are shown on the following three maps: Water Lines (Map 2-D ); Major Sanitary and Combined Sewer Lines (Map 2-E); and Major Storm Sewer Lines (Map 2-F). Only eight inch or larger water mains and eighteen inch and larger storm and sanitary sewer lines are shown.
Conclusions: An important concern to the City of Hazel Park is continued maintenance of its utility lines. Although the city is fully developed, the age of the infrastructure requires careful monitoring of utility lines in need of replacement to bring capacity closer to today’s standards. Funding to assist in these capital improvements include bond issues and grants.
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The condition of housing is critical to the image and quality of urban life, particularly in a mature community such as Hazel Park. As discussed in the Existing Land Use section of this plan, most of the land in Hazel Park is residentially developed with few opportunities for new housing. The lack of vacant residential land, the age of the housing stock, and the impact that housing quality has on demographics, economic development, and other elements of a community require that the existing housing stock be consistently monitored for maintenance. Housing quality is essential to improving the City’s quality of life.
In 1993, McKenna Associates, Incorporated assisted the City in developing the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy. The plan involved assembling census information by block group to identify housing values, age and income levels in different areas of the City. These demographic and housing characteristics are discussed in the Socio-Economic Analysis of this plan.
The second component of the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy was the housing condition survey which is the focus of this narrative. A windshield survey of Hazel Park was conducted which evaluated the conditions of the single-family housing stock on a lot-by-lot basis. The houses were rated according to maintenance elements (i.e. roof, siding, windows, doors, foundation) visible from the street and classified in three categories - good, fair, and poor. Houses in good condition showed no deterioration or minimal repairs required. Fair condition indicated that two or more improvements were needed such as painting, roof repair, or window replacement. Houses in Poor condition were those with substantial deterioration and in need of major rehabilitation.
The lot-by-lot inventory was then translated into block-front ratings for the final analysis and targeting of rehabilitation project areas. Blocks in excellent condition had no houses in need of repair. Good condition meant that only one house was in fair condition. Fair condition meant that two to four houses in a block were rated fair or poor condition. Poor condition meant that five or more houses in a block were in fair or poor condition.
The majority of housing units in Hazel Park were classified as being in good condition. Only a few structures were rated as substantially deteriorated. The block groups with the largest number of houses in deteriorated condition are located just north of Eight Mile Road on the west side of I-75, designated as Project 1. Project 2 is located just north of Eight Mile Road west of John R. Project 3 is north of Nine Mile Road between Battelle and Hazelwood.
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These three neighborhoods identified by the survey as having signs of deterioration also fall into the lowest median household income range and have higher percentages of persons below poverty than the rest of the neighborhoods. Other characteristics that the project areas have in common are that 25 to 40 percent of the housing stock was built before 1940, owner occupancy in two of the three neighborhoods is less than 70 percent, and property values have been increasing at a lower rate than the rest of the City. Map 2-G shows the results of the Housing Condition Survey. Map 2-H shows the locations of the three project areas.
It is important to have quality housing for renters as well as owners and poorly maintained rental housing contributes significantly to neighborhood blight. One issue of concern is that duplexes are scattered throughout the single-family neighborhoods. Originally, duplexes tended to be owner-occupied and were built to provide individual housing units for extended families such as grandparents in one unit and an adult child and grandchildren in the other. However, as society became more mobile and fewer extended families were remaining in the same neighborhood, duplexes were more typically owned by absentee landlords.
An indication of the impact of interspersing duplexes with single-family residential is that over half of the two-family structures in Hazel Park are located in census tract 1753 in which project areas 1 and 2 are located. Although the 212 duplexes represent only a fraction of the 2,150 housing units in this census tract, when combined with the age of housing, the low-income of the residents, and other factors, this high concentration of rental housing should be avoided in future development.
In 1992, the City established a landlord licensing and rental housing inspection program. The procedure for administration of this program was defined in the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy. The initial step in implementing the program was to identify all of the single-family residential rental properties and notify the landlords that they are required to apply for a landlord license for each rental property. As a condition for obtaining a license, the property must be inspected by the City Code Enforcement Officer and all code violations should be identified and required to be corrected. Major code violations should be corrected within one year of the inspection and minor maintenance problems may be corrected within a longer time frame, such as two years. Landlord licenses must be renewed annually and the annual inspection is critical to the success of this code enforcement program. Only with diligence can the rental housing stock be maintained, allowing tenants to reside in decent, safe and sanitary housing.
In some cases, houses are so deteriorated that rehabilitation is not feasible and demolition of dilapidated houses is important to maintaining overall quality of the housing stock. By ridding the block of a blighted structure, a new house can be constructed to increase the value of neighboring properties as well as the lot on which it is built. For communities with fully developed residential areas like Hazel Park, infill housing along with housing rehabilitation are the only means of upgrading the quality of the housing stock. Since 1990 there have been over 100 residential demolitions in Hazel Park.
Hazel Park Master Plan -36- March, 2000 Existing Conditions and Trends
Housing and neighborhood development programs assist in the rehabilitation and acquisition of both owner-occupied and rental housing. The third component of the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy outlined various methods of implementation and financing than may be considered by the City and its residents. An important vehicle for implementing the Strategy was the establishment of the Hazel Park Neighborhood Initiatives Community Development Corporation to serve as a monitoring agency and funding conduit.
Home ownership programs are provided through financial institutions using conventional Mortgages with competitive interest rates, secondary market Mortgage instruments that require minimal or no downpayment and other programs provided by Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA). Some of the most noteworthy vehicles administered by MSHDA are tax credits for first-time home buyers, downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers, and lower-interest mortgages for new and existing houses. Home buyer clubs are used by some Community Development Corporations as a method to introduce renters to the responsibilities of home ownership and prepare them to become first-time home buyers.
Housing rehabilitation is the most effective means of maintaining the housing stock in an older community. For those homeowners that have limited incomes and lack ability to repair their houses, low-interest housing rehabilitation loans are available through MSHDA and also through the Oakland County Home Improvement Program available to communities in the Oakland County Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) consortium. The City also administers a Minor Home Repair Program using CDBG funds which assists eligible home owners in making minor or emergency repairs before the condition escalates to a major problem.
Community Development Corporations (CDC)s have been a successful tool in many cities for neighborhood revitalization. CDCs, with sufficient support and the assistance of local lenders and funding agencies, can provide all of the programs necessary to upgrade the housing stock.
The community-based nature of CDCs allows them to continually monitor progress and target areas in need of rehabilitation. Hazel Park Neighborhood Initiatives (HPNI) was established as a result of the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy (the “Strategy”). A visioning session was held to define its goals and objectives. The seven objectives that comprise the Strategy are as follows:
• Mobilize residents and private investment • Promote home ownership opportunities • Rehabilitate existing homes • Increase the quality of existing rental housing • Modernize owner - occupied housing • Create identifiable, safe and secure neighborhoods • Invest in infrastructure
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The primary actions that are intended to implement these objectives and ultimately maintain Hazel Park’s housing stock and attractive neighborhoods include the following:
• Organize community residents to address neighborhood concerns as they arise. • Enforce rental codes • Maintain and modernize owner-occupied homes • Establish an inspection ordinance • Maintain right-of-way grassy areas and sidewalks • Vacate alleys where ever possible and split the property between adjoining properties. • Create neighborhoods by encouraging residents to select a name for their immediate area, or by using a focal point as an identity for the area. • Target neighborhoods for revitalization
Conclusions: The City of Hazel Park was incorporated in 1942 and, according to the 1990 Census, 3,400 of the 7,779 housing units in Hazel Park were built prior to 1950. One third of the total housing units (2,619 units) were built before 1939. Due to the age of the housing stock and the fact that there is no available land for new development, maintenance of the existing residential areas is critical to the City. The City must continue to be diligent in building code enforcement, landlord licensing and encouraging housing rehabilitation programs throughout Hazel Park. Hazel Park Neighborhood Initiatives can be an effective tool for neighborhood revitalization and private sector firms and banks should be encouraged to assist the CDC in its efforts with funding and other resources.
Hazel Park Master Plan -38- March, 2000 Vehicular Transportation Evaluation CHAPTER III
VEHICULAR TRANSPORTATION EVALUATION
The City of Hazel Park is located at the geographic center of one of the most populated and industrialized metropolitan areas in the country. As noted in the regional analysis in Chapter II, Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties meet at the southeast corner of Hazel Park. This important regional location and the business and industry that occupy the region have greatly influenced the establishment of an efficient and extensive network of roads to accommodate the traffic it generates.
Hazel Park’s location has made it a good site for affordable housing for workers, convenient to the employment centers in any of the three counties. The City also is conveniently located for industrial and commercial traffic to transport goods to suppliers and distribution centers. Therefore, a major factor in the future of the city is the maintenance of its streets and the major thoroughfares.
The City’s streets were developed in a grid pattern of blocks and have remained the same for many years. Due to the age of the community and the established grid system there are few opportunities for modifying or changing the street pattern, nor is there a need for substantial change. The only area of significance likely to vary from the existing street system is the racetrack site, due to its large size and the many options for its redevelopment.
The east-west thoroughfares with the most significant impact on Hazel Park include Eight Mile, Nine Mile and Ten Mile Roads and Interstate 696 which is immediately north of the City limit. The north-south thoroughfares that influence the condition of the City include John R. and Dequindre Roads and Interstate 75. Some of the major issues which the City will need to address in the next five to ten years include the following:
• Maintaining the existing grid street system. • Finding alternative funding sources for street maintenance and improvement as Federal and State funds continue to decrease while cost continues to increase. • Alleviating traffic volumes on the major thoroughfares. • Avoiding using residential streets as through routes. • Increasing pressure for alternative transportation modes such as buses, bikeways, and sidewalks. • Enhancing the commercial corridors to maintain their viability.
The road network and associated concerns are described in this chapter.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 39 - March, 2000 Vehicular Transportation Evaluation A. National Functional Road Classification
The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), which was reauthorized in 1998 as TEA 21, has been the vehicle for the allocation of federal funds for transportation improvements. One of the requirements of the Act is for all states to adopt the national functional road classification system. The functional classification of the road system is directly related to allocation of federal funds. Interstates and major arterials, which are designed and constructed to carry greater volumes of traffic at higher rates of speed, have the highest priority and, as a result, receive a greater amount of funding than minor arterials and collectors. Minor arterials and collectors are designed for areas which carry lower volumes of traffic at reduced speeds such as residential neighborhoods. Map 3-A identifies roads in Hazel Park by their classification and provides the most recent 24 hour traffic volume counts.
1. Urban Interstates. Chrysler Freeway (I-75) is a six-lane divided urban interstate that runs north-south through Hazel Park. The purpose of urban interstate highways is to transport people and goods across the country. In Michigan, the point of entry for I-75 is Monroe County, the southernmost portion of the seven county Detroit metropolitan area. I-75 links Tampa, Florida with Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.
2. Urban Principal Arterials. Eight Mile Road and Dequindre Road are the Urban Principal Arterials that establish the south and east boundary of the City. Eight Mile Road is a state trunkline, also known as M-102. Dequindre Road defines the east county line of Oakland County and is under the jurisdiction of Macomb County Road Commission.
Eight Mile Road carries traffic along the southern border of several communities located directly north of the City of Detroit. The road’s right-of-way averages 204 feet in width and functions as an eight-lane divided highway with four travel lanes in each direction. Dequindre Road carries a large volume of traffic from Detroit through Hazel Park, Madison Heights, Troy and into northern Oakland County.
3. Urban Minor Arterials. John R. is the main north-south road and is classified an Urban Minor Arterial. Nine Mile is the major east-west road and is also classified an Urban Minor Arterial. The intersection of these two roads is the center of the City and divides it into four quadrants. Downtown Hazel Park surrounds this intersection and the City recently completed streetscape improvements on John R for a total cost of $322,692, nearly half ($311,692) of which was funded under ISTEA in 1993. Nine Mile resurfacing is in progress. Ten Mile Road, Woodward Heights, and the service drive for the Chrysler Freeway also are considered minor arterials. Woodward Heights, though it has characteristics of a collector street, has taken on the function of a minor arterial because it also provides a major east/west connection in addition to Nine Mile Road.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 40 - March, 2000 Vehicular Transportation Evaluation 4. Urban Collectors. Collector streets function by collecting traffic from local neighborhood streets and distributing it to the arterial road network. Given Hazel Park’s well developed grid road network, it has a large number of well-functioning collector streets. An example of a collector street is Meyers (8 ½ Mile Road) which extends east/west from Dequindre to the west city limit and provides overpasses across I-75. A north-south urban collector is Vassar which is approximately the midpoint between Dequindre and I-75 and extends from Ten Mile to Jarvis where it meets the south Hazel Park portion of I-75. Other less heavily traveled collectors cross Hazel Park’s neighborhoods in a grid fashion allowing a good distribution of traffic onto arterial roads.
Hazel Park’s arrangement of regular collector streets is very beneficial to the overall road network and ensures that no one road or neighborhood is overburdened with traffic. This type of network is lacking in most newer suburban communities because of the large number of dead-end cul-de-sac roads force all local traffic directly onto the arterial road.
B. Twenty-Four Hour Traffic Volumes
Map 3-A also shows the most recent traffic volumes on the major roads and Table 3-A tabulates the most recent 24 hour counts on major roads that traverse the City. The traffic counts conducted between 1990 and 1995 were obtained from Traffic Improvement Association (TIA). The traffic counts dated 1997 were obtained from Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). Traffic counts for local streets were not available as these are not typically conducted unless there is some special project in a particular area of the City.
TABLE 3-A AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC AT LOCATIONS IN HAZEL PARK, 1990-95 Jurisdiction Location Year Avg. Daily Traffic (24 Hour Count)w State of Michigan Interstate 75 NB&SB / 8 Mile to 9 Mile Roads 1992 202,000 State of Michigan Interstate 75 NB&SB/ 9 Mile Road to I-696 1992 212,000 State of Michigan Interstate 75 NB & SB/ 8 Mile to 9 Mile Roads 1995 228,000 State of Michigan Interstate 75 NB & SB/ 9 Mile Road to I-696 1995 239,000 State of Michigan Interstate 696 Service Drive EB (I-75 to Dequindre 1991 18,000 Road) State of Michigan Interstate 696 (East of I-75) 1995 168,000 State of Michigan Interstate 696 (I-75 toward Woodward) 1995 186,000 State of Michigan 8 Mile Road (M-102) / John R Road to West End 1990 62,600 Avenue State of Michigan 8 Mile Road (M-102)/Dequindre to John R Rds. 1990 53,800 State of Michigan 8 Mile Road (M-102)/ I-75 to Woodward 1995 63,000 State of Michigan 8 Mile Road (M-102)/ East of I-75 1995 65,000 Macomb County Dequindre Road/ 8 Mile to 9 Mile Roads 1997 28,000 Macomb County Dequindre Road/ 9 Mile to 10 Mile Roads 1995 26,137 Macomb County Dequindre Road / 8 Mile to 9 Mile Roads 1990 23,000
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Oakland County John R Road / 8 Mile to 9 Mile Roads 1995 18,550 Oakland County John R Road / 9 Mile to 10 Mile Roads 1995 24,252 Oakland County 10 Mile Road / John R Road to Couzens 1997 2,507 Oakland County 9 Mile Road /Dequindre to John R Roads) 1995 22,520 Oakland County 9 Mile Road /John R Road to Pilgrim Street) 1995 23,172 Sources: Traffic Improvement Association (TIA) counts dated 1990-95, May, 1998; Michigan Department of Transportation, 1997. Oakland County Road Commission, 1997. Note: WB indicates west bound, SB indicates south bound, EB indicates east bound. NB indicates north bound, w = vehicles per day.
C. Act 51 Road Funding
Michigan’s Public Act 51 of 1951, as amended, establishes the method for distribution of gasoline tax revenues to the State and among its municipalities. The State of Michigan retains a portion of these revenues which are allocated to Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) for maintenance and upgrading of the interstate highways and state trunklines within its jurisdiction. The amount of revenue that remains is allocated to local units of government throughout the state. The funding level to each municipality is determined by a set formula and, ultimately, depends on the length of roadway in each classification.
The classifications used by MDOT are State Trunkline, County Primary, Major Street and Local Street. Major streets are designed and constructed to carry greater volumes of traffic at higher rates of speed and receive a larger dollar-per-mile amount than local streets. Local streets typically serve residential areas, therefore, volumes and rates of speed are lower than major streets. Due to the less intense use of local streets, the dollar-per-mile funding level is less than major streets under local jurisdiction. Map 3-B identifies the streets in Hazel Park by classification. The City of Hazel Park includes 68.28 total roadway miles; Table 3-B tabulates the approximate length of miles in each category.
TABLE 3-B STREET CLASSIFICATIONS IN 1997, HAZEL PARK, MICHIGAN Type Of Street Road(s) 1998 Miles of Road State Trunkline 8 Mile Road (M-102) 1.28 County Primary Dequindre Road and 10 Mile Road 3.20 Major Streets 17.80 North-South John R, West End, Lenox, Highland, Battelle, Russell, Hughes, Vassar, Couzens, Vance, Merrill (8 Mile-Muir) East - West 9 Mile Road, Woodward Heights, Meyers (Highland-Russell), Muir (Merrill-Dequindre), Tucker (400 Ft.), Teller (Hughes-Vance), Local Streets All others 46.00 TOTAL 68.28 Source: City of Hazel Park Public Works Department, May, 1998.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 43 - March, 2000 Vehicular Transportation Evaluation D. Public Transit
The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) provides bus service through Hazel Park. Bus stops are provided along major streets on the bus routes approximately 2 blocks apart. The Dequindre Road (Smart Route 494) buses run north and south between 8 Mile and 10 Mile Roads in Hazel Park about 45 minutes apart. This route links with the 8 Mile Road Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) bus, and its terminus is 16 Mile Road. The John R Road (Route 495) buses run north and south between 8 Mile and 10 Mile Road 30 to 45 minutes apart, and its north terminus is Oakland Mall at 14 Mile Road. Route 495 also has limited service to 16 Mile Road to a senior citizens apartment building, Oakland Towers. The 9 Mile Road buses (Route 710) link Eastland in Harper Woods with Northland in Southfield and run (eastbound and westbound) about 45 minutes apart through the Macomb and Oakland County communities along 9 Mile Road. Eastbound and westbound Ten Mile Road bus service (Route 730) is provided hourly and links Eastland with Telegraph Road.
Conclusions: Hazel Park’s grid system of streets offers an efficient pattern for traffic movement both within the City and through it. In certain locations (based on other objectives of this Plan), it may be advisable to close streets or street ends to improve residential separation from non-residential use impacts or to create new land for development.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 45 - March, 2000 Socio - Economic Analysis and Projections CHAPTER IV
SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND PROJECTIONS
A key element to planning a city’s future land use, capital improvements, public services and public facility needs is a comprehensive analysis of demographic and socio-economic characteristics. This chapter includes discussions of population characteristics such as age distribution, racial and ethnic background, household and family composition. Economic factors considered in this chapter include income levels, employment of residents, economic conditions and housing issues. These data and trends identified in the respective analysis of each factor will provide a base from which to develop strategies to address the needs of Hazel Park’s residents and local economy.
A. Population and Housing Trends
When Hazel Park last adopted a land use plan in 1978, it had been nearly twenty years since the population had reached its peak. As was the case with many suburban communities bordering Detroit, the largest population growth in Hazel Park was between 1950 and 1960. During that decade the population increased 44 percent from 17,700 to 25,631. By 1970 the population level was beginning to decline and has continued to do so as shown in Table 4-A.
TABLE 4-A HAZEL PARK ACTUAL AND PROJECTED POPULATION, 1950 TO 2020 19501 19601 19701 19801 19901 20002 20102 20202 Population 17,700 25,631 23,784 20,914 20,051 19,532 19,007 19,525 # Change 7,931 -1,847 -2,870 -863 -519 -525 518 % Change* 44.81% -7.21% -12.07% -4.13% -2.59% -2.69% 2.73% Since 1960 # Change -4,717 - 5,580 -6,099 -6,624 -6,106 % Change -18.4% -21.7% -23.8 % -25.8% -23.8% Sources: 1) Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 2) Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) Small Area Forecast (SAF), 2000, 2010, 2020 Note: * Percent change is for most recent 10 year period. The major reason for the growth during the 1950s was the post-World War II “baby boom” along with the economic prosperity of those years. As families grew in size, parents sought homes that were larger and newer than those available in the City of Detroit. There was also a perception that more educational and occupational opportunities were available in the suburbs. Oakland County’s population increased by 74.3 percent during that period. Although Hazel Park’s growth was well below the Oakland County increase, it was more than other established cities bordering Detroit, such as Ferndale with a 1950 to 1960
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population growth of 5.6 percent. In Hazel Park’s case, the “baby boom” along with its proximity to the Mound Road industrial corridor in Detroit and Warren were both contributing factors in its growth. This observation will be discussed further in the sections addressing occupational and household Figure 1 characteristics. Population Estimates 1980-2020 The population started to 21,500 decline during the 1960s 21,000 and by 1970, Hazel Park had lost 1,847 people 20,500 amounting to a 7.2% 20,000 decrease. The decline 19,500 between 1970 and 1980 19,000 was over 12 percent. Therefore, the population 18,500 loss in the twenty years 18,000 between 1960 and 1980 1980 1990 1997 2000 2010 2020 was nearly half of the population growth during the 1950s decade. This is a fairly clear indication Source: SEMCOG Small Area Forecast of the impact of the “baby boom” generation on population levels. As the first wave of people born between 1945 and 1962 reached maturity, many moved to newer suburbs or out of state to seek educational and employment opportunities of their own. Those children of the 1950s growth were over 18 years of age in 1970 and many have been replaced by smaller young families and senior citizens.
The population decline has continued since 1980, but at a much lower rate. The 1990 population was 4 percent less than that of 1980 and, according to Southeast Michigan Council of Government’s (SEMCOG) Small Area Forecast (SAF), the population loss is expected to be about 2 percent per decade until 2020 when an increase of 2.75 percent is forecasted.
To corroborate SEMCOG’s forecast and provide a more current population estimate, National Decision Systems (NDS) provided 1997 estimates and a 2002 projection on many population and household characteristics. The NDS 1997 population estimate was 19,627 and the 2002 projection is 19,573. Both are remarkably consistent with SEMCOG’s 2000 forecast of 19,532. It is also interesting to note that in the 1978 Land Use Plan, the projected population at capacity was 21,800. This would represent an 11.6% increase over the 2020 forecast. The trend since 1980 indicates that the population is not likely to reach that level in the near future. However, if the few large parcels suitable for redevelopment
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include a significant number of non-age restricted housing units, it may be possible to achieve a population increase of that size.
Although the population has been declining, the number of housing units has remained fairly constant since 1980. Between 1970 and 1980 the number of housing units increased by 356 units from 7,354 to 7,710. Many of these new units were in senior citizens apartments and other multi-family housing to meet the growing demand to accommodate fewer persons per household and the aging population. During the 1980s, the number increased by only 69 units to 7,779 in 1990, reflecting the impact of the recession in the first part of that decade on residential construction. It is clear from the above findings that the 1960 population peak of 25,631 in Hazel Park will never be exceeded, but it is not expected to decline to the 1950 population size of 17,700 either.
Conclusion: The population decline in Hazel Park is a consequence of smaller household sizes, an aging population and the regional population shift to newer communities. Despite these conditions, it is expected that the population in mature communities like Hazel Park will level off in 2000 and begin to increase gradually, due to a nostalgic movement toward a more urban, less auto-dependent lifestyle and affordable home ownership.
B. Age, Sex, Race and Educational Background
The out-migration of many young adults, the provision of housing for senior citizens and the fewer number of children are factors which contribute to the declining population in Hazel Park. The median age of the population was 28.2 years and by 1990 it had risen to 30.8 years. According to National Decision Systems, the 1997 median age is an estimated 32.11 years and in 2002 it is projected to be 32.84. Table 4-B identifies the age group distribution in Hazel Park’s population as of 1990 along with 1997 estimates and 2002 projections.
TABLE 4-B AGE GROUP DISTRIBUTION, HAZEL PARK 1990, 1997 & 2002 1990 % of 1997 % of 1997-98 % of 2002 % of Total Total Total Total Population 20,051 19,627 16,423 19,573 Households (HH) 7,225 7,447 7,460 Persons / HH 2.72 2.63 2.62 5 Years & Under 2,113 10.53% 1,708 8.7% 1,665 10% 1,670 8.53% 6 to 17 Years 3,531 17.61% 3,914 19.94% 3,341 20% 3,924 20.05% 18 to 24Years 2,148 10.71% 1,686 8.59% NA NA 1,630 8.33% 25 to 44 Years 6,472 32.27% 5,439 32.80% NA NA 6,058 30.95% 45 to 64 Years 3,531 17.61% 3,495 17.81% NA NA 3,876 19.80% 65 Years & Over 2,256 11.25% 2,385 12.15% NA NA 2,415 12.34%
Source: National Decision Systems, 1997 and 97-98 HPSD: Hazel Park School District Census, March, 1998
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The 1997-98 Hazel Park School Census data was reviewed to supplement the census and National Decision Systems (NDS) data. In Table 4-B the School District count for children demonstrates the relative accuracy of the NDS estimate. Although the school district numbers are less than NDS, it is important to note that not all residents respond to the School Census survey. The difference of 3,204 between the total population estimates is evidence of the school district undercount. However, the percentages for the two age groups identified are approximately the same - about 10 percent for those 5 years and under and about 20 percent for those 6 to 17 years of age.
The aging population is also confirmed by the age group distributions of the past. According to the 1978 Land Use Plan, 42 percent of the 1960 population was age 19 and under and in 1970 this age group included 40 percent of the population. Although these figures included 18 and 19 year olds , the fact that the proportion of children had declined by 10 percent in two decades while it only declined 2 percent between 1960 and 1970 emphasizes the trend to have fewer children. This has been occurring since the “baby boom” generation reached child-bearing age and more lifestyle choices became acceptable during the 1970s. The “echo boom”, a national increase in number of children born between 1977 and 1984, is not strongly reflected in Hazel Park’s population. The dominant trend is the over-all aging of the population. The age 20-64 cohort was 53.5 percent in 1960 and declined to 52.6 percent of the 1970 population. During the two decades before the 1990 Census this proportion increased to 61 percent - a positive change of 10 percent which offsets the 10 percent fewer children. The aging of the population is expected to continue as indicated by the age group distribution estimated for 1997 and projected for 2002.
The 1990 population of 20,051 included 9,745 males and 10,306 females, about 48 percent and 52 percent, respectively. NDS indicates that these proportions are approximately the same for the 1997 estimated population of 19,627 people. The NDS data also estimates that 50.92 percent of the 15,221 adults in Hazel Park are married. The marital status of the other half of the adult population consists of 14.91 percent single males, 11.81 percent single females, 7.5 percent previously married males, and 14.87 percent previously married females.
Given the generally longer life span of women, the aging population in Hazel Park, and the fact that the percentage of previously married females is twice the proportion for their male counterparts, it is reasonable to assume that the higher proportion of females includes a significant number of elderly widows.
Conclusion: The age group distribution indicates that Hazel Park is losing many of its young people through out-migration and lower birth rates. Another factor may be the construction of additional housing units for the elderly. Although it is good to provide housing for people who wish to stay in their home community, it is also important to attract young families with children to maintain the stability of the City.
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Housing, education and recreation are areas that could be most effective if policies are adopted to target the market demands and needs of young families.
In recent years the racial and ethnic background of Hazel Park residents has become increasingly diverse. Historically, the City residents have been predominantly Caucasian and of European descent. Although this is still the case, as the 1990 Census found that 95.49% of the population was White, many people have immigrated to the United States from Asian and Middle East countries since the 1990 Census. While Asians are identified by the Census as a separate category, Middle Easterners are included under White, Non Hispanic. Table 4-C tabulates the racial and ethnic composition of the Hazel Park population in 1990, 1997 estimates and 2002 projections.
TABLE 4-C POPULATION BY RACE AND ETHNIC BACKGROUND HAZEL PARK, 1990, 1997 & 2002 1990 % of 1997 % of 1997-98 % of 2002 % of Total Total Total Total Population 20,051 19,627 14,329 19,573 White, Non Hispanic 19,147 95.5% 18,525 94.4% 13,113 91.5% 18,342 93.7% Black, Non Hispanic 72 0.36% 112 0.57% 196 1.37% 139 0.71% Asian or 280 1.40% 372 1.90% 235 1.64% 431 2.20% Pacific Islander American Indian, 274 1.37% 253 1.29% 620 4.33% 217 1.11% Eskimo or Aleut Hispanic 278 1.39% 365 1.86% 165 1.15% 444 2.27% Source: National Decision Systems, 1997; 1997 -98 Hazel Park School District Census, March, 1998 and 97-98 HPSD: Hazel Park School District Census, March, 1998
The Hazel Park School District Census is conducted every two years to gather information on a number of population characteristics. Some programs in particular such as the Native American program and the English as a Second Language program require updated information on the ethnic background of the population. As a result, the School Census includes estimates on the number of children and adults in the five major racial or ethnic categories in Table 4-C as well as the number of families who use languages other than English. This information is listed in Table 4-D.
The largest racial or ethnic groups other than White in 1990 were Asian or Pacific Islander (1.4 percent), Hispanic (1.39%) and American Indian, Eskimo or Aleut (1.37 percent). The expectation that these groups will continue to grow is reflected in the 1997 NDS estimates and the 1997-98 School Census data shown in Table 4-C. However, there are discrepancies between the two sets of figures. The School Census indicates that there are fewer Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander people in Hazel Park as of 1997, while the NDS estimate shows a relatively large increase of nearly 100 people for both groups.
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The American Indian, Eskimo or Aleut population, in the School Census, is more than double the number estimated by NDS for 1997 as well as the 1990 Census. This may be due to a more relaxed definition of American Indian by the Census Bureau. Previously, a person had to be able to claim that at least one-quarter of their ancestry could be traced to a specific tribe. In recent years this has changed to allow those who could certify that any portion of their ancestry could be traced back to a specific tribe. Due to its large American-Indian population, Hazel Park Schools receive Federal funds for a Native American program.
TABLE 4-D LANGUAGES OF HAZEL PARK FAMILIES, 1997 Language Families Percent Language Families Percent Language Families Percent English 6,913 93.6% Arabic 57 0.8% Chinese 4 0.05% French 10 0.1% Chaldean 116 1.6% Filipino 90.1% German 32 0.4% Sub-Total 173 2.3% Japanese 2 0.02% Arab Italian 24 0.3% Laotian 80.1% Polish 63 0.8% Bulgarian 3 0.04% Hmong 15 0.2% (S. China) Greek 90.1%Romanian 90.1% Thailand 4 0.05% Russian 90.1%Albanian 1 0.01% Vietnamese 16 0.2% Sub-Total 147 2.0% Hungarian 4 0.05% Korean 4 0.05% Serbian 3 0.04% Assyrian 3 0.04% Spanish 57 0.8% Hebrew 2 0.02% Gujrati 3 0.04% (India) Sub-Total 22 0.3% Urdo 2 0.02% (Pakistan) All 7,387 100% Sub-Total 70 1.00% Families Asian/PI Source: Hazel Park School District Census, 1997-98. Note: Totals and percentages may not add due to rounding.
Table 4-D illustrates the most recent immigration to this country if it is assumed that a second language is more likely to be used in families with at least one person from another country. The Arab-American News estimates that there are at least 350,000 people of Arab descent in Southeast Michigan, about 35,000 of whom have moved to the area since the Persian Gulf War.
The largest concentration of Chaldeans (from Iraq) is in Detroit near 7 Mile Road east of Woodward. The largest ethnic group in Table 4-D is Arab with 173 families. If Detroiters move to the suburbs they tend to move directly north of their home neighborhoods. This is also the case with newcomers to the City and, as a result, many Chaldeans moved north to Southeast Oakland County. The 1990 Census reported 853 foreign born persons in Hazel Park. Table 4-D indicates that 474 families use a language other than English. The
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1990 average household size was 2.7, thus, it can be assumed that about 1,275 people, about 400 more than in 1990, are foreign-born.
Conclusion: Hazel Park’s population remains predominantly White, however, the School Census data and the NDS indicates that it is gradually beginning to diversify. Specific groups that are becoming more visible minorities are American Indians, Mid- Easterners, Asian or Pacific Islanders, Hispanic and African-Americans. The School District has successful Native American and English as a Second Language programs. The School District and City should work closely to encourage activities and programs that will promote interaction among the various ethnic and racial groups and a sense of community.
Table 4-E illustrates that the proportional education level achieved by Hazel Park residents over the age of 25 is significantly lower than that of neighboring communities and the overall Oakland County proportions. A major concern should be for the 40.4 percent who did not complete high school in a county with only 15.4% of the adult population with that disadvantage. This proportion is not only higher than the surrounding communities, but is also proportionally much higher than the overall proportion for the State. The proportion of high school graduates is approximately the same as the surrounding communities, but the proportion of those with some college and college graduates or higher is considerably lower than these percentages in surrounding communities, Oakland County and the State of Michigan.
TABLE 4-E EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF HAZEL PARK RESIDENTS OVER AGE 25 COMPARED WITH SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES, 1990 Less than High High School Some College College Grad School Diploma Graduate or Higher Hazel Park 40.4% 34.2% 20.4% 4.9% Madison Heights 27.6% 35.9% 25.5% 11.0% Ferndale 26.2% 33.3% 27.4% 13.0% Royal Oak 14.0% 28.1% 29.5% 28.4% Clawson 17.3% 36.1% 30.7% 15.8% Warren 28.3% 36.1% 25.3% 10.3%
Oakland County 15.4% 25.7% 28.7% 30.2% State of Michigan 23.2% 32.3% 27.1% 17.4% Source: Southeast Michigan Council of Governments Community Profiles, 1990.
Fortunately, young people of today recognize the importance of education and its necessity to competing in the job market. The 1990 Census indicated that 41.4% of the people between 18 and 24 years of age were enrolled in college. The 1997 School Census
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accounted for 3,713 children enrolled in grades K-12, representing 99 percent of the 3,733 school-age children in the School Census.
Conclusion: Policies and programs should be adopted to keep children in school and convey to them the importance of at least a high school education. The higher percentage of people enrolled in college and children in school indicates that education is increasingly important.
C. Household Composition
Along with the population decrease, the number of families and households in Hazel Park has been declining since 1970. It was noted in the 1978 Land Use Plan that Hazel Park was one of only two Oakland County communities that experienced a decrease in occupied housing units between 1970 and 1975. In 1970 there were 7,201 occupied dwelling units which decreased to 7,150 occupied units in 1975. However, the 1980 Census identified 7,289 households indicating that 88 units were provided in the late 1970s. Table 4-F shows the change in number of families, number of households and household size.
TABLE 4-F HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION, HAZEL PARK RESIDENTS 1970 1980 1970-80 1990 1980-90 Change Change Total Persons 23,784 20,914 -12.1% 20,051 -4.1% Total Families 6,271 5,623 -10.3% 4,247 -6.7% Average Family Size 3.70 3.21 -13.2% 3.1 -16.2% Total Households 7,201 7,289 1.2% 7,225 -0.9% Average Household Size 3.30 2.87 -13.0% 2.76 -16.4% Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1970, 1980 and 1990.
The number of families declined by 10.3 % between 1970 and 1980 while the number of households increased by 1.2%. These changes, along with the decline in average household size from 3.3 to 2.87 persons per household, highlight the increase in single person and unrelated individuals households. Table 4-G further illustrates the change in household size from 1960 to 1990.
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TABLE 4-G HOUSEHOLD SIZE DISTRIBUTION, HAZEL PARK, 1960-1990 Household Size 1960 % of Total 1970 % of Total 1990 % of Total 1 Person 568 7.9% 884 12.3% 1,664 23.0% 2 Persons 1,958 27.1% 2,030 28.2% 2,075 28.9% 3 Persons 1,336 18.5% 1,426 19.8% 1.357 18.9% 4 Persons 1,436 20.3% 1,261 17.5% 1164 16.0% 5 Persons 1,066 14.8% 766 10.6% 625 8.4% 6 Persons 431 6.0% 450 6.3% 219 2.9% 7+ Persons 796 5.5% 384 5.3% 121 1.9% Source: U. S. Census, 1960, 1970 and 1990.
The number of one person households doubled between 1970 and 1990, while the number of households with 6 or more people decreased by over 50 percent. In 1990 one half of the households in Hazel Park were occupied by one or two people. This was a significant change in household size from 1960 when over two thirds of the households included 3 or more occupants. Other factors that describe household composition are shown in Table 4-H, including types of families, non-family and single person households.
TABLE 4-H HOUSEHOLD TYPES AND RELATIONSHIPS, 1990 1990 Percent Total Households 7,284 100% Owner - occupied 5,164 71% Renter - occupied 2,120 29% Family Households 5,247 72% Married Couples 3,743 With Related Children 1,882 26% Without Related Children 1,861 25% Other Families with Children 1,504 Mother 1,132 15% Father 372 5% Non - Family Households 373 5% Female Householder 128 2% Male Householder 245 3% Single Person Households 1,664 23% Single Female 943 13% Single Male 721 10% Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1990.
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Hazel Park has a high level of owner-occupancy with 71 percent which is in large part due to the affordability of the typically smaller homes that attract smaller families and single people. This is reflected in the type of households shown in Table 4-H in which only 26 percent of the 7,284 households are married couples with children and another 20 percent are single parent households. Given the median age of the population, it is likely that many of the married couple families without children are “empty nesters” with adult children. The type of housing, is also reflected in the relatively high proportion of single person households (23 percent) which indicates that the size and affordability of the housing stock is appropriate for one-income households.
The Hazel Park School District Census conducted in 1997 gleaned more detailed information regarding types of families with children. Although not all households responded to the School Census questionnaire, the response rate was high enough to provide a relatively accurate picture of household tenure and family structure. As shown in Table 4-I, the 1997 School Census estimated 7,387 households in Hazel Park, 6,298 of which tenure was identified. These respondents households included 75 percent owner and 25 percent renter.
Family situation was identified for 5,041 children, 66 percent of whom are in married couple families. Ten percent of those children are with a natural parent and stepparent or with grandparents, indicating a large number of children in blended families or single parent families. One-third of the children are in single parent households (29 percent with single mothers and 4 percent with single fathers) and approximately 4 percent of the children live with another relative, a legal guardian, or with foster parents.
TABLE 4-I TYPES OF HOUSEHOLDS AND FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS OF CHILDREN, HAZEL PARK, 1997 1997 School Responses Percent of Census Responses Total Households 7,387 6,298 Owner - occupied 4,754 4,754 75% Renter - occupied 1,544 1,544 25% Other 169 N/A Not Identified 920 N/A Children in Type of Household 5,051 5,041 Children in Married Couple Families 3,340 66% Children with Both Parents 2,843 56% Children with Stepmother & Father 62 1% Children with Stepfather & Mother 387 8% Children with Grandparents 48 1%
Hazel Park Master Plan - 55- March, 2000 Socio - Economic Analysis and Projections Table 4-I (continued) 1997 School Responses Percent of Census Responses Children in Other Family Arrangements 1,701 34% Mother (1997: 3 Stepmothers) 1,462 29% Father (1997: 5 Stepfathers) 186 4% Grandmother, Sister, Aunt 37 1% Brother, Uncle 2 >1% Foster Home, Legal Guardian 14 >1% Not Identified 10 >1% Source: Hazel Park School District Census, 1997. Conclusion: The findings from the 1990 Census and the 1997 School Census indicate that Hazel Park includes a significant number of single parent households and one person households. This emphasizes the need to address the concerns associated with single parent households, such as adequate day care and housing rehabilitation assistance. The probability that many of the single person households and married couples without children are elderly or empty nesters is great. Therefore, the City should also adopt land use policies, recreational and educational programs to attract young married couples with children or those who plan to have children.
D. Income and Employment
Although Hazel Park is located in relatively affluent Oakland County, the median household income in 1989 was $26,615, considerably less than the County’s median income of $43,407. Table 4-J displays the income distributions and median household income for 1989, the 1997 estimate, and the projection for 2002. According to the 1990 Census nearly half (46.75 %) of the households in Hazel Park earned less than $25,000 in 1989 and only 16.62 percent of the households earned over $50,000.
Figure 2 Median Household Income, 1989 $40,000 $30,000 $20,000 $10,000 $0 Park Hazel Warren Clawson
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990
Hazel Park Master Plan - 56- March, 2000 Socio - Economic Analysis and Projections The 1997 Median Household Income estimated by NDS increased to $39,118 and the proportion of households earning over $50,000 increase to 38 percent. However, Oakland County Development and Planning Division’s estimated 1997 median household income was $30,669, nearly half of the Oakland County 1997 median household income of $57,360. Figure 2 below compares Hazel Park’s median household income with the median incomes of surrounding communities.
TABLE 4-J HOUSEHOLD INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND MEDIAN INCOME HAZEL PARK, 1989, 1997, AND 2002 Annual Household 1989 1989 1997 2002 Income Households Percent Percent Percent $150,000 or more 0 0% 1.06% 2.44% $100,000 to $149,999 54 0.75% 9.12% 14.64% $75,000 to $99,999 198 2.74% 7.92% 10.84% $50,000 to $74,999 949 13.13% 20.03% 22.43% $35,000 to $49,999 1,401 19.39% 16.36% 13.87% $25,000 to $34,999 1,245 17.23% 12.52% 10.00% $15,000 to $24,999 1,503 20.80% 14.38% 11.01% $5,000 to $14,999 1,531 21.19% 15.41% 12.31% Under $5,000 344 4.76% 3.21% 2.47% Total Households 7,225 7,477 7,460 Median Household Income $26,615 $39,118 $50,396 Source: U. S. Bureau of Census, 1990; National Decision Systems, 1997 and 2002.
The difference between the two Figure 3 estimates is significant Trend of Median Household Income in and their validity Hazel Park depends on the 1980-2002 methodology used by $60,000 the two data providers. $50,000 Therefore, other $40,000 factors should be $30,000 considered in $20,000 assessing the income $10,000 $0 levels relative to the 1980 1990 1997 2002 area in which the City is located. The 1990 Census indicated that Source: Southeast Michigan Council of Governments 759 households
Hazel Park Master Plan - 57- March, 2000 Socio - Economic Analysis and Projections received public assistance; 2,029 households received Social Security; and 1,341 households received retirement income amounting to a total of 4,129 or 57 percent of the households with these income sources. Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) estimated that 46.64 percent of the households in Hazel Park derive all or a portion of their income from Social Security or retirement. Given the aging of the population it may be assumed that the proportion of retirees will increase by 2002. The increasing proportion of households in the $50,000 and over category could result from a large proportion of automobile industry retirees with increasing pension funds and a larger number of two-income households. As of the 1990 Census, over half (55 percent) of the 5,247 families with workers had two or more workers in the household.
The decreasing proportion of households earning less than
Sales & Retail Manufacturing $15,000 is probably due to Technical & 10% 44% Administrative recent welfare reforms that Support have limited assistance to two 19% years and require recipients to seek employment and training. However, many of these former welfare recipients are employed in jobs that earn minimum wage Executive & Service Professional 16% or less. These additional 11% Figure 4 factors tend to support the Occupation Distribution, 1990 Oakland County 1997 estimate of $30,667. The Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 estimated 1997 median household incomes for all 61 Oakland County communities ranged from $20,242 in Royal Oak Township to $164,220 in the City of Bloomfield Hills. Pontiac has the second lowest median household income at $25,750. Hazel Park ranks third lowest in Oakland County which ranks as the nation’s third wealthiest county with a population over 1 million.
According to the 1990 Census, 8,493 Hazel Park residents over the age of 16 were employed. Approximately 11 percent were executives or professionals, 19 percent were in technical and administrative support occupations, 16 percent were employed in service occupations, and 10 percent were in sales and retail occupations. The remaining 44 percent were employed in manufacturing occupation. Therefore, nearly half of the labor force was employed in technical, service, and sales occupations which are not typically high salaried jobs. In fact, the average wage for those households with incomes from salary, many of which had two or more wage earners was $31,170 in 1970.
A further concern is the large proportion of City manufacturing workers as many industrial jobs have been lost due to high technology, plant closings and foreign countries. This is
Hazel Park Master Plan - 58- March, 2000 Socio - Economic Analysis and Projections reflected in the unemployment rate which has consistently been about double the Oakland County unemployment rate since 1993. From 1993 until 1997 the unemployment rate has been declining, however, in 1993 Hazel Park’s unemployment rate was over 12 percent while Oakland County’s unemployment rate was 6 percent. As of 1997, Hazel Park’s unemployment rate was 6.2% while Oakland County’s unemployment rate was 2.8 percent.
Conclusion: The data and estimates of income reflect the aging of the population in the significant proportion of households with retirement income. The income levels also reflect the shift toward lower paying occupations and the loss of many manufacturing jobs. The City’s unemployment rate is higher than that of the county- wide unemployment rate and income levels are lower than incomes county-wide. Income levels are, however, expected to increase. The City should adopt land use policies that will encourage better employment opportunities for residents and work with the School District to provide continuing education and employment training opportunities for residents. Another means of increasing income levels is to identify areas in which new, upgraded housing could be developed that will attract young families with greater earning potential.
E. Housing Characteristics
As described in the Existing Land Use section of this Plan, approximately one-third of the housing units in Hazel Park were built prior to 1950 and 6,681 of the 7,779 housing units (1990 Census) were built before 1960. Therefore, the housing stock brings with it the problems associated with its age and the age of the community brings a lack of available land suitable for new housing.
Hazel Park does offer a relatively well maintained housing stock at a price affordable to young families and other first-time homebuyers. In the Housing Quality section of this Plan, it was found that the majority of housing units in Hazel Park were in good condition and only a few structures were rated substantially deteriorated. This section will describe housing characteristics as related to the socio-economic profile of the City.
The 1990 median housing value in Hazel Park was $36,000, significantly less than the Oakland County median housing value of $95,400. The 1997 estimated average housing cost for Oakland County communities indicates that the cost of housing in Hazel Park continues to lag behind the County average. Average housing cost in 1997 was $54,408 in Hazel Park and $177,997 in Oakland County. As was the case with median household income, only Royal Oak Township at $42,280 and City of Pontiac at $52,679 had 1997 average housing costs less than Hazel Park. Thus, Hazel Park has third lowest average housing cost of all 61 Oakland County communities.
Recent residential sales listed in the Detroit Free Press were reviewed to determine if housing value is increasing in 1998. The April 26, 1998 issue listed 3 sales at $63,000,
Hazel Park Master Plan - 59- March, 2000 Socio - Economic Analysis and Projections $66,000 and $83,000. The July 19, and July 26 issues listed 9 sales ranging from $51,000 to $80,000 with an average of $64,922. On August 9 three sales were listed at $55,000, $70,000 and $60,000. Based upon these listings the 1998 average housing sale price is approximately $66,000 which indicates an increase of 21 percent over the 1997 average. Although this represents a very small sample of 1998 sales, it does indicates that Hazel Park housing is increasing in value.
The inexpensive housing stock is not necessarily a negative characteristic as there is a need for housing affordable to first-time buyers and others of modest means. The cost is also related to the size of the houses as well as the availability of homes for sale. Ten percent of the 7,779 housing units had more than 3 bedrooms and over half had less than three bedrooms. The lack of large homes is one reason for low housing value. Another reason is that Hazel Park residents tend to stay in their homes for many years, sometimes delaying renovations. The 1990 Census found that in 3,391 of the 7,284 occupied housing units the householder had moved into their homes before 1980.
The major benefit to the community of providing a large supply of modest affordable homes is that 5,164 of the 7,284 or 66 percent of the homes are owner-occupied. Furthermore, 64 percent of the owner-occupants pay less than 20 percent of their monthly income for housing cost. Only 594 (12 percent) pay more than 35 percent of their monthly income for housing cost.
Median monthly rent in 1990 was $457 which was fairly consistent with the Oakland County median rent of $495. As a result, renters tend to pay a larger portion of their monthly income for housing than owners. While 32 percent of renters paid less than 20 percent of their monthly income for gross rent, 33 percent of the renters paid more than 35 percent of their income to gross rent. Comparing this to the same factors for owners indicates that it is far more economical to be a homeowner rather than a renter in Hazel Park.
Conclusion: Hazel Park’s housing stock consists primarily of modest single-family houses with three bedrooms or less. One-third of the housing units were built before 1950 and, as of 1990, nearly half (46 percent) of the householders had lived in the same residence for at least 10 years. Although these characteristics indicate a relatively stable community, the age of the housing along with the aging of the population indicates a need to upgrade the housing stock. This can be done through housing rehabilitation assistance and aggressive building and zoning code enforcement. Another means of upgrading the housing stock is to identify areas in which larger homes could be developed to attract young families with good earning potential. This is a challenging task in a developed community, however, there may be opportunities for assembling larger lots in areas targeted for redevelopment.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 60- March, 2000 Socio - Economic Analysis and Projections F. Other Demographic Characteristics
There are some additional factors which provide more insight into a community’s profile. These are indicators of mobility including travel time to work, number of vehicles available in households and means of transportation to work. According to the 1990 Census, 35 percent of the 7,284 households had two vehicles and 15 percent had at least 3 vehicles. Ten percent of the households had no vehicle and 38 percent had one vehicle, probably due to the large proportion of single person households. Most (80%) of the 8,301 employed Hazel Park residents drive to work, 13 percent car pool to work and 3 percent walk to work. About one percent use public transportation or ride a motorcycle.
One determinant of where people work is the distance from home. The average travel time to work for Hazel Park residents is 19 minutes for the 80 percent with less than a half hour commute. About 18 percent are 30 to 60 minutes from work, 2.5 percent commute one hour or more and 1 percent work at home.
G. Comparison with Neighboring Communities
To fully understand the meaning of demographic information to a community’s image it is helpful to compare it with neighboring communities. Socio-economic data from the 1990 Census was gathered for other southeast Oakland County communities of Ferndale, Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Clawson, and Oak Park. The City of Warren in Macomb County, Hazel Park’s neighbor to the east, was also included in the comparative data. This comparative socio-economic profile is tabulated in Table 4-K on the following pages.
Hazel Park has the second smallest population of the seven communities with a 1990 population of 20,051. The smallest is Clawson with 13,784 people. At 2.75 persons per household, the average household size is the second highest after Oak Park with 2.8 persons per household. Median household income in 1989 was the lowest of all the neighboring communities at $26,615. As a result, Hazel Park had the highest percentage of households earning less than $25,000 and the lowest percentage of households earning $75,000 or more. The proportion of families in poverty was 23 percent in Hazel Park - nearly three times the average 8 percent for the comparative communities. The 1990 unemployment rate was nearly double the 6.61 percent average for the comparative communities at 11.34 percent in Hazel Park. Housing value at $36,000 was considerably less than the comparative community averages of $57,014.
Conclusion: The City should take steps to encourage more housing choices, particularly, larger homes to attract young families. The City should also work closely with the School District to encourage education beyond high school and provide continuing education and employment training.
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TABLE 4-K COMPARISON OF 1990 DEMOGRAPHIC DATA HAZEL PARK & NEARBY CITIES Madison CHARACTERISTIC Hazel Park Warren Ferndale Royal Oak Heights Clawson Oak Park AVERAGE
Total Population 20,051 144,864 25,026 65,493 32,916 13,074 30,462 47,423
Median Age 30.80 35.70 31.60 34.60 32.70 34.60 35.70 33.65
% Under 5 years of Age 8.81% 6.21% 8.40% 7.96% 8.60% 6.20% 8.24% 7.77%
% Under 18 Years of Age 28.28% 20.93% 25.87% 20.66% 24.00% 23.30% 28.22% 24.45%
% Over 65 Years of Age 11.26% 14.87% 12.16% 15.69% 11.60% 13.30% 12.78% 13.09%
Total Households 7,284 54,621 9.845 28,366 12,850 5,542 10,885 18,476
Average Household Size 2.75 2.65 2.54 2.31 2.50 2.50 2.80 2.58
Total Families 5,247 40,040 6,305 17,220 8,502 3,726 8,004 12,720
Married-Couple Families 1,980 31,746 4,488 13,865 6,589 3,018 5,853 9,648
Average Family Size 3.25 3.10 3.15 2.95 3.12 3.07 3.31 3.13
% High School Graduatea 34.21% 36.10% 26.24% 28.10% 35.90% 36.12% 27.07% 31.95%
% Bachelor’s Degreea 3.50% 7.20% 9.03% 19.70% 8.00% 26.60% 14.53% 12.65%
Civilian Labor Force 8,492 74,526 13,145 36,835 17,649 7,795 15,196 24,775
% Unemployed 11.34% 7.18% 6.29% 4.36% 6.80% 4.14% 6.17% 6.61%
Median Household Income $26,615 $35,980 $28,964 $36,835 $32 $36,532 $36,090 $33,253
% Less than $25,000 46.75% 33.04% 43.03% 29.11% 37.40% 30.70% 32.30% 36.04%
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Madison CHARACTERISTIC Hazel Park Warren Ferndale Royal Oak Heights Clawson Oak Park AVERAGE
% $75,000 or More 3.48% 9.78% 4.59% 9.77% 5.80% 7.60% 9.63% 17.01%
Median Family Income in 1989 $30,854 $41,504 $33,934 $44,446 $38,022 $43,487 $39,789 $38,862
% Less than $25,000 38.65% 23.99% 34.05% 16.62% 26.50% 18.00% 25.93% 26.25%
% $75,000 or More 3.40% 12.36% 5.97% 13.42% 8.70% 10.00% 11.43% 9.32%
Per Capita Income in 1989 $11,018 $15,224 $12,704 $18,065 $9,815 $15,892 $26,599 $15,663 % Families in Poverty 23.04% 5.09% 8.45% 2.94% 6.90% 1.90% 8.52% 8.12% % Persons in Poverty 14.15% 6.42% 10.58% 4.52% 8.30% 3.70% 10.78% 8.35%
Housing Units 7,779 56,189 10,207 29,163 13,220 5,647 11,296 19,071
Owner-Occupied Units % 66.4% 77.2% 65.7% 68% 67% 72% 78% 70.6%
Renter-Occupied Units % 27.3% 19.9% 30.8% 29% 29% 25% 20% 25.8%
Vacant Housing Units % 6.3% 2.8% 3.4% 2% 2% 1.8% 1% 2.75%
Median Housing Value $36,000 $69,000 $38,400 $75,600 $59,800 $72,300 $48,000 $57,014 Median Contract Rent $457 $436 $407 $465 $435 $453 $456 $432 Source: Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, 1996.
Footnotes: a. Highest education level attained
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H. Neighborhood Planning Needs Analysis
The most frequently occurring findings in the socio-economic data analysis presented in this chapter are: the need to attract younger, working families with children or those planning to have children; the need to provide a variety of housing alternatives; the need to maintain the housing stock and to identify opportunities to provide new, larger homes; and the need to encourage education and employment training to assist in better employment opportunities.
There is no single solution to these concerns. The City of Hazel Park must work with other agencies to review existing policies for effectiveness and draft new policies and programs to alleviate the problems identified through this planning effort. This Development Plan is designed to serve as a general guide to assist the City in its efforts to address the issues and seize opportunities for improvement. Major findings and recommendations are summarized below:
• Hazel Park must position itself to compete for the region’s diminishing number of young families.
• A strict but fair building code enforcement program for all structures must be implemented.
• A commission on young families with the responsibility to encourage Hazel Park to attract and retain younger families should be considered by the Mayor and City Council.
• The City should continue to encourage development of housing alternatives for senior citizens and seek opportunities to provide larger, new housing for young families.
• Enhanced day care, recreational and educational opportunities should be considered as incentives to attract young families.
• A thorough site plan review process must be adhered to for all proposed developments, particularly for redevelopment and building addition projects.
• A comprehensive capital improvements program must be adopted and adequately funded by the City.
• Adoption of design guidelines and standards to assist in neighborhood revitalization must be considered.
• Increased attention must be focused upon the City’s overall appearance, especially at its entry points.
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TABLE 4-L SUMMARY OF DEMOGRAPHIC FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS FINDING CONCLUSION Population is decreasing %%% Need to attract young families with children Median age is increasing %%% Need to attract young families with children Housing stock is not diverse %%% Need to encourage variety of housing alternatives Significant proportion of incomes %%% Need to attract more working are from retirement sources families Household and family median Need to encourage employment incomes significantly less than %%% and training opportunities County median incomes Manufacturing employment is Need to attract more skilled work declining and retail sales %%% force and quality retail employment is increasing development Housing stock is aging %%% Need to encourage strict code enforcement and identify opportunities for new housing.
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CHAPTER V
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
The decisions made by Hazel Park through this Master Plan will not only affect the future land use of the City but its economic future as well. To understand the implications of these decisions for the local economy, the existing economic framework of the City must be analyzed. Hazel Park is a mature community which includes two commercial and two industrial corridors. Due to the age of the City and the fact that it is fully developed, the economic future will rely primarily on redevelopment opportunities. The purpose of this chapter is to identify areas that are at a crossroads in terms of determining appropriate development patterns. The choices made for these areas will, hopefully, determine the optimum economic future of Hazel Park.
A. Major Employers
An issue of concern for Hazel Park is the future of the manufacturing sector of the economy which has been in decline during the last two decades. The economic base of Hazel Park has traditionally been comprised of small, local businesses, many of which are proprietary industrial shops. Table 5-A identifies the major employers in Hazel Park along with the respective type of business and number of employees for each.
TABLE 5-A MAJOR EMPLOYERS IN HAZEL PARK, 1997-98 Firm Product / Service Number of Employees
Hazel Park School District Education 1,160
Hazel Park Race Track Horse Racing 475
A.G. Davis Gage & Engineering Co. Fixtures & Gages 130
Farmer Jack's Grocery Store 115
Craft Line, Inc. Engineering & Design 100
Arbor Drugs Store, Inc. Pharmacy & Variety Store 60
Meier Metal Service Centers, Inc. Distribution of Metal 60
Advanced Assembly, Inc. Metal Stamping & Assembly 50
Chemetco Electroplating 40
Hanson Painting & Manufacturing Metal Enameling & Coating 40 Source: Community Profile, Oakland County Development & Planning, 1998/99
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The largest employer is the Hazel Park School District with 1,160 teachers, administrators, and other personnel. This is typically the case in small cities in which the school administration building is located.
The next largest employer is the Hazel Park Race Track with 475 employees. This is cause for concern given its uncertain future. For many years the race track has been having financial difficulty and there have been proposals to demolish it and redevelop the site. This will be discussed further in a later section of this chapter.
Five of the ten major employers are manufacturing firms with 40 to 130 employees each. These five firms employ a total of 320 manufacturing workers. Farmer Jack's with 115 employees and Arbor Drugs with 60 employees are the largest retail employers. The only large technical firm is Craft Line, an engineering firm with 100 employees.
B. Occupation by Industry
As described in the Socio-Economic Analysis, nearly half (44 percent) of the Hazel Park labor force was employed in manufacturing occupations. This is a major consideration due to the continuous loss in manufacturing jobs as technology becomes more advanced. The 1990 and estimated 1995 distribution of occupations by industry for Hazel Park residents is shown in Table 5-B. The greatest decline in employment since 1990 has been in manufacturing which dropped from 20.23% to 13.23% of the labor force in 1995. This represents a loss of 267 jobs during those five years or 53 jobs per year. The majority of the labor force is employed in Service occupations (44.87%) and retail firms employ 20.30% of the labor force.
TABLE 5-B OCCUPATION BY INDUSTRY INDUSTRY 1990 Number 1990 Percent 1995 Number 1995 Percent of 1990-1995 Employed of Labor Employed Labor Force % Change Force
Agriculture, Natural 91 1.82% 93 2.01% 2.2% Resources
Manufacturing 1,012 20.23% 745 13.23% (26.38%)
Transportation, 131 2.62% 129 2.79% (1.53%) Communication, Utilities
Wholesale Trade 405 8.10% 432 9.33% 6.67%
Retail Trade 937 18.73% 940 20.30% 0.32%
Fire, Insurance, Real Estate 96 1.92% 64 1.38% (33.33%)
Services 2,195 43.89% 2,078 44.87% (5.33%)
Public Administration 136 2.72% 150 3.24% 10.29%
Total Jobs 5,003 4,631 (7.44%) Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1990.
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C. Major Commercial Areas and Corridors
The Downtown area at John R and Nine Mile Roads, and the John R corridor north of Hazelcrest Place are the major commercial areas in Hazel Park. Other significant commercial areas are along Eight Mile Road and along Dequindre Road which is a mix of small commercial and industrial shops. The Race Track is at the north boundary of Hazel Park's portion of the Dequindre commercial corridor. There is one industrial park in Hazel Park, Maple Lane Industrial Park with 20 acres which is zoned Light Manufacturing.
The limited amount of vacant land in Hazel Park and changes in the traditional employment profile of Hazel Park residents constrain the economic development options for the City. There is little reason to expect that any new large industrial plants will be built given the number of plant closings that have occurred in recent years. Furthermore, the few available redevelopment sites require substantial investment in demolition and site preparation and well-planned, viable reuse of these properties is the only way to justify the cost of redevelopment.
The areas with the greatest redevelopment potential include Downtown Hazel Park, the Hazel Park Race Track site at Ten Mile and Dequindre, and the Eight Mile and Dequindre commercial site. These three locations are major entry points to the City and their physical and aesthetic improvement will have the most significant impact on Hazel Park's image and economic future. Therefore, each of these “Gateway” sites is discussed individually in the following narratives. A specific geographic market was identified for each and the market demographics and market potential for retail use is briefly analyzed for the respective site.
1. Downtown Hazel Park (9 Mile and John R). Downtown Hazel Park includes the east and west frontages of John R between Felker and Pearl Streets and the north and south frontages of Nine Mile Road from Batelle to one block west of the I-75 west service drive. As is the case with most downtowns located in major retail trade regions, Hazel Park's Central Business District has been continually struggling to survive the challenges of regional malls and “big box” retailers. These challenges motivated the City to establish the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) in August, 1988. The DDA initiated a comprehensive planning program which identified issues and opportunities, recommended improvements and formulated implementation strategies. These findings and recommendations were articulated in the Downtown Urban Design Plan which was adopted on September 20, 1989 by the DDA.
The City and the DDA have been working diligently to implement the plan goals and objectives. Streetscape Improvements along John R from the Downtown area north to Ten Mile Road is the most visible evidence of the progress that has been made thus far.
The goals for revitalization stated in the Downtown Urban Design Plan are summarized below:
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ECONOMIC: ‚ Improve and maintain the vitality of the Downtown by providing a balanced mix of uses... consistent with market demands. AESTHETIC: ‚ Establish ... a unifying design...which accentuates its positive qualities...and reduces unattractive and blighting influences. CIRCULATION: ‚ Provide for efficient, convenient movement, parking, and access...which minimizes vehicular and pedestrian conflict and supplies appropriate amenities. FACILITIES AND SERVICES: ‚ Develop the Downtown as the major focus of community...providing ...cultural, recreational, civic and entertainment activities. ‚ Strengthen regulatory and enforcement measures...and provide adequate public improvements ... to stabilize the area and encourage private investment. BUILDING/SITE IMPROVEMENTS: ‚ Employ high level standards for site improvements of office and commercial properties to ... upgrade the quality of the Downtown area. LAND USE: ‚ Conserve and revitalize sound commercial areas by eliminating incompatible uses, consolidating parcels...,encourage appropriate development of vacant land parcels and redevelopment ... to more efficiently utilize land.
The downtown has an excellent location at the 9 Mile and I-75 interchange and potential to serve a regional market area. Opportunities for region-serving commercial development in the downtown are primarily oriented to such uses as office and hotel development. In reality, the retail segment of the downtown primarily serves a local retail market. Because of the lack of availability of large retail sites, this condition is expected to continue and this analysis has focused on the downtown’s local retail market potential.
The primary retail market for the downtown includes a one mile radius and the secondary market is a three mile radius which extends into Madison Heights, Ferndale, Warren, and northeast Detroit. Map 5-A identifies the primary and secondary market areas for Downtown Hazel Park. Socio-economic characteristics for the primary market area, the secondary market area and the total market are summarized in Table 5-C.
The primary market area, Hazel Park and the east portion of Ferndale to Hilton Road, includes an estimated 1997 population of 22,360 in 8,567 households. The population and the number of households are expected to be at approximately the same level in 2002, at 22,352 and 8,578, respectively. The secondary market area includes the south half of Madison Heights, the southwest portion of Warren, Pleasant Ridge, southeast Royal Oak, Ferndale west of Hilton, and the north portion of Detroit along the Woodward Corridor north of McNichols (Six Mile Road) and east to Mound Road.
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The secondary market area includes an estimated 1997 population of 146,702 in 58,902 households. The 2002 population is expected to decrease slightly to 142,265, however, the number of households will be approximately the same at 58,837. The total market area amounts to 171,059 in 67,469 households (1997 estimate). In 2002 the total market is projected to consist of 166,619 people in 67,415 households. About one quarter of the households in both the primary and secondary market areas are occupied by single people, while nearly half are married couple households. The remaining one quarter primarily include single parent households, other family households, and a small proportion of non-family or unrelated individuals households. The median age in the primary market is 31.96 and in the secondary market the median age is 34.5 years of age. This is due to the age of all of the cities and the increasingly large number of middle-aged people born during the baby boom years discussed in the Socio-Economic Analysis of the plan. Median household income is both areas is approximately $39,500.
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TABLE 5-C DOWNTOWN MARKET DEMOGRAPHIC SUMMARY Primary Market Secondary Market Total Market 1 Mile Radius 1.01-3 Mile Ring 3 Mile Radius
Persons Hsds Persons Hsds Persons Hsds
2002 Population 22,352 142,265 166,619
2002 Households 8,578 58,837 67,415
1997 Population 22,360 146,702 171,059
1997 Households 8,567 58,902 67,469
1990 Population 22,818 155,426 180,234
1990 Households 8,313 58,943 67,256
1990 Single Person Households 23.38% 27.03%
1990 Married Couple Households 50.98% 44.65%
1990 Other Family Households 20.15% 22.93%
1990 Non-Family Households 5.49% 5.38%
Households with Children 3,395 20,795
Married Couple Family 66.78% 59.84%
Single Parent Family 31.59% 39.00%
1997 Median Household Income $39,456 $39,351
1997 Median Age (Years) 31.96 34.5 Source: National Decision Systems Demographic Trend and Retail Trade Potential Reports, September, 1998. Note: Hsds equals Households
Table 5-D tabulates the 1997 Consumer Spending Patterns in the Downtown Market and a brief analysis follows.
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TABLE 5- D POTENTIAL RETAIL SQUARE FOOTAGE FOR THE DOWNTOWN HAZEL PARK MARKET RETAIL CATEGORY Sales Total Market Primary Market Secondary Market Sales/ Sales per SF= Supportable SF per SF 3 Mile Radius 1 Mile Radius 1.01-3 Mile Ring SF: Square Feet Total Sales Total Sales Total Sales
Apparel & Accessory Stores $201.17 $107,000,000 $18,000,000 $89,000,000 Supportable SF 531,888 sf 89,476 sf 442,411 sf
Auto & Home Supply Stores $145.43 $24,000,000 $3,000,000 $21,000,000
Supportable SF 165,027 sf 20,628 sf 144,399 sf
Drug & Proprietary Stores $241.00 $86,000,000 $12,000,000 $74,000,000
Supportable SF 356,846 sf 49,792 sf 307,053 sf
Eating & Drinking Places $172.15 $183,000,000 $26,000,000 $157,000,000
Supportable SF 1,063,335 sf 151,031 sf 911,995 sf
Food Stores $311.72 $244,000,000 $33,000,000 $211,000,000
Supportable SF 782,833 sf 105,864 sf 676,899 sf
Furniture & Home Furnishings $159.66 $62,000,000 $9,000,000 $53,000,000
Supportable SF 388,325 sf 56,369 sf 331,955 sf
Home Appliance, Radio & TV $174.66 $68,000,000 $11,000,000 $57,000,000
Supportable SF 389,327 sf 62,979 sf 326,348 sf
Gasoline Service Stations $339.01 $111,000,000 $15,000,000 $96,000,000
Supportable SF 327,433 sf 44,246 sf 283,177 sf
General Merchandise $100.36 $303,000,000 $13,000,000 $80,000,000
Supportable SF 3,019,131 sf 129,533 sf 797,130 sf
Department Stores $142.31 $280,000,000 $41,000,000 $239,000,000
Supportable SF 1,967,535 sf 288,103 sf 1,685,756 sf
Hardware Lumber & Garden Stores $121.06 $93,000,000 $13,000,000 $80,000,000
Supportable SF 768,214 sf 107,384 sf 660,829 sf
Automotive Dealers N/A $549,000,000 $83,000,000 $466,000,000
Total Retail Sales N/A $1,970,000,000 $287,000,000 $1,683,000,000 Sources: National Decision Systems Demographic Trend and Retail Trade Potential Reports, September, 1998. Sales per square foot: “Dollars & Cents of Shopping Centers, 1997; Urban Land Institute.
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2. Downtown Market Potential. The methodology used in estimating the market potential for the retail categories listed in Table 5-D consisted of dividing the total annual sales estimate for each retail category by the U. S. Median Sales per square foot estimated by Urban Land Institute's (ULI) “Dollars and Cents of Shopping Centers, 1997". This calculation results in an estimate of the square footage in each retail category that could be supported by the respective market. This estimate is referred to as “Supportable Square Feet.”
To determine which types of stores should be targeted for a business recruitment program the supportable square feet would be compared with an inventory of existing square footage by category within the market area. If the existing square footage is greater than the estimated supportable square feet, then the market theoretically could not support any further stores of the particular type. If the existing square footage is less than the supportable square feet, then the market could probably support additional stores in that category. This step is beyond the scope of this plan, however, the calculations in Table 5-4 are intended to be used as a starting point should the City or the DDA undertake such a study.
As an example Table 5-D indicates that the primary Downtown Hazel Park market in Hazel Park spends $12,000,000 in Drug and Proprietary Stores, for which ULI estimates $241 in sales per square foot (SF). This amounts to 49,792 supportable square feet. There are three major drugstores in the vicinity; Rite Aid on the southwest corner of Nine Mile and John R, CVS about one-quarter mile east of the Downtown and CVS about one-quarter mile north on John R Road. Assuming that each of these stores include about 15,000 square feet, the existing square footage amounts to 45,000 square feet. This would indicate that 4,792 additional square feet of drugstore space could be supported within that one mile radius. However, this is not enough sales potential to support another store. The DDA should not focus recruitment efforts on stores that could compete with existing businesses and produce an oversupply of drugstores. Rather, recruitment efforts should be targeted to those stores that are not well-represented in the existing inventory.
Types of establishments that could be considered for the shopping centers on the northwest and southeast corners of John R and Nine Mile Road could include restaurants, home appliances, apparel & accessory stores, hardware stores, and home furnishings stores. These types appear to be most under represented in the market areas. However, a full analysis is necessary to identify all stores of this types within the total market. Stores which appear to be adequately represented in the market area are drug stores, food stores, gasoline service stations and department stores. In identifying prospective Downtown tenants it is also important to consider the scale of the existing retail/service mix with the scale of a proposed new store. For instance, a “big box” retailer such as Circuit City may not be appropriate as the land is not available and, if it were, this could pose a threat to existing businesses.
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If the strategic location at Nine Mile and John R became available for commercial redevelopment, it will be important to the City's economic future to target recruitment efforts toward a business which will enhance the existing Downtown retail/service mix.
Warehouse Club Site Market Analysis. Although the Eight Mile/Dequindre area has presented numerous problems for the City due to the vacant Federal's Department Store (the Warehouse Club site), and poorly maintained industrial uses and marginal commercial businesses, this area could have a great impact on the City's economic future. Eight Mile and Dequindre is an important gateway to Hazel Park as it is the intersection of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. Furthermore, Eight Mile Road is a major thoroughfare connecting Detroit's east and west suburbs with average daily traffic counts of nearly 65,000 vehicles. Given the road and landscape improvements under construction this year, along with other improvement efforts spurred by the Eight Mile Boulevard Association (8MBA), the traffic counts are likely to increase. The visibility and regional location of this area indicates that it could potentially serve as a subregional center. Therefore, the primary market area for Warehouse Club site includes a three mile radius and the secondary market includes the remainder of a total five mile radius. Table 5-E tabulates the basic demographic data for the market area.
TABLE 5- E WAREHOUSE CLUB SITE MARKET DEMOGRAPHIC SUMMARY Primary Market Secondary Market Total Market 3 Mile Radius 3.01- 5 Mile Ring 5 Mile Radius
Persons Hsds Persons Hsds Person Hsds 2002 Population 157,576 281,059 440,637 2002 Households 61,561 116,709 178,270 1997 Population 161,675 293,467 457,139 1997 Households 61,871 117,379 179,250 1990 Population 171,165 318,974 492,129 2002 Households 62,941 120,598 183,539 1990 Single Person Households 23.38% 27.03% 1990 Married Couple Households 50.98% 44.65% 1990 Other Family Households 20.15% 22.93% 1990 Non-Family Households 5.49% 5.38% Households with Children 24,194 42,340 Married Couple Family 51.85% 50.07% Single Parent Family 46.88% 48.80% 1997 Median Household Income $34,024 $34,551 1997 Median Age 32.91 35.24 Source: National Decision Systems Demographic Trend and Retail Trade Potential Reports, September, 1998 Note: HSDS equals Households
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Map 5-B shows that communities within the primary market area include the southeast corner of Madison Heights, the southwest quadrant of Warren, the east sides of Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge and the northern part of Detroit between Livernois and Van Dyke Avenues. The secondary market extends into south Detroit to Grand Boulevard, and between Gratiot Avenue on the east and the John Lodge Expressway on the west. Other communities within the secondary market are the remainder of Madison Heights, Royal Oak, Ferndale and Warren. The 1997 estimated population in the primary market area was 161,675 people in 61,871 households. The secondary market has an estimated 1997 population of 293,467 in 117,379 households. This results in a total market of 457,139 people in 179,250 households. The 1997 median age in the primary market area was 32.91 years and in the secondary market it was a slightly older 35.24 years of age.
The population is expected to decline in 2002 to 157,576 in the primary market and to 281,059 in the secondary market amounting to a total population of 440,637. This represents a loss of approximately 16,000 residents within the five mile radius. The primary market is expected to lose 300 households and the secondary market is projected to lose about 600 households, thus, the projected number of households will be 178,270 in 2002 for the total market area. The 1990 Census indicated that approximately one-quarter of the occupied dwelling units were single person households, 50 percent were married couple households, 20 percent were other family households and the remainder were non-family households. Slightly over half of the households with children were married couple families and about 47 percent were single parent families. The 1997 median household income in 1997 was approximately $34,000 in both market areas.
The communities within the five mile radius are a diverse group, ranging from upper- income neighborhoods in the west portion of the Woodward corridor, such as Palmer Woods in Detroit, northwest Ferndale, Huntington Woods and Royal Oak to lower income neighborhoods in Hazel Park, Warren, Detroit and Madison Heights. The market is further diversified by the Eight Mile Road frontage which, given the right development, could attract commuters from the far east and far west sides of the Tri- County area.
Warehouse Club Site Market Potential. The same methodology as described in the Downtown market potential was used to estimate the market potential for each retail category shown in Table 5-F. The difference is that the market area is much larger than the Downtown. Therefore, when determining the existing square footage by category the inventory must be limited to stores that are more visible and estimates will be relied on more heavily than in the more limited Downtown Market.
As mentioned previously, the commercial properties on the north side of Eight Mile near Dequindre are marginal with the exception of Hazel Park Plaza, a relatively new neighborhood shopping center. A community shopping center at the southeast corner of Eight Mile and Dequindre Roads serves a large portion of the east side of Detroit.
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TABLE 5- F POTENTIAL RETAIL SQUARE FOOTAGE FOR THE WAREHOUSE CLUB SITE MARKET RETAIL CATEGORY Sales Total Market Primary Market Secondary Market Sales/ Sales per SF= Supportable SF per SF Total Sales Total Sales Total Sales
Apparel & Accessory Stores $201.17 $230,000,000 $83,000,000 $147,000,000
Supportable SF 1,143,311 sf 412,586 sq. ft. 730,725 sf
Auto & Home Supply Stores $145.43 $63,000,000 $22,000,000 $41,000,000
Supportable SF 433,585 sf 151,275 sf 281,923 sf
Drug & Proprietary Stores $241.00 $214,000,000 $75,000,000 $139,000,000
Supportable SF 887,966 sf 311,203 sf 576,763 sf
Eating & Drinking Places $172.15 $446,000,000 $157,000,000 $289,000,000
Supportable SF 2,590,763 sf 911,995 sf 1,678,768 sf
Food Stores $311.72 $612,000,000 $214,000,000 $398,000,000
Supportable SF 1,963,300 sf 686,513 sf 1,276,786 sf
Furniture & Home Furnishings $159.66 $136,000,000 $49,000,000 $87,000,000
Supportable SF 851,810 sf 306,902 sf 544,907 sf
Home Appliance, Radio & TV $174.66 $145,000,000 $53,000,000 $92,000,000
Supportable SF 830,184 sf 303,446 sf 528,008 sf
Gasoline Service Stations $339.01 $276,000,000 $97,000,000 $179,000,000
Supportable SF 814,135 sf 286,127 sf 528,008 sf
General Merchandise $100.36 $701,000,000 $251,000,000 $450,000,000
Supportable SF 6,984,854 sf 2,500,996 sf 4,483,858 sf
Department Stores $142.31 $646,000,000 $231,000,000 $415,000,000
Supportable SF 4,539,385 sf 1,623,216 sf 2,916,168 sf
Hardware Lumber & Garden Stores $121.06 $219,000,000 $78,000,000 $141,000,000
Supportable SF 1,809,020 sf 644,308 sf 1,164,711 sf
Automotive Dealers N/A $1,228,000,000 $443,000,000 $785,000,000
Total Retail Sales N/A $4,615,000,000 $1,645,000,000 $2,970,000,000 Sources: National Decision Systems Demographic Trend and Retail Trade Potential Reports, September, 1998. Sales per square foot: “Dollars & Cents of Shopping Centers, 1997; Urban Land Institute.
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Hazel Park Plaza consists of a mix of shops such as Subway, apparel stores, a nail salon and other small retail and service establishments. The vacant Federal's store (Warehouse Club site), along with adjacent vacant lots, present an excellent opportunity to expand the commercial frontage to the corner with an attractive new “Gateway” shopping center. Hazel Park Plaza is mid-block and stands out as the only new development on the block. The blight and marginal businesses that surround it detract from its otherwise attractive appearance. A concerted effort to acquire the available parcels between Hazel Park Plaza and Dequindre and assemble a parcel large enough to accommodate a shopping center would serve many purposes. It could provide an identifiable entry point to Hazel Park (perhaps naming the entire development Hazel Park Plaza), it would eliminate the existing blighted conditions, it would compliment the shopping center on the southeast corner of Eight Mile and Dequindre, and would provide a viable economic asset to the City's tax roll and labor force.
Table 5-F indicates that the primary market could support 686,513 square feet of food store space and the total market could support 1,963,300 square feet. An obvious absence from the area is a new, state-of-the art supermarket. It appears that an inventory of existing food store area within the five mile radius would support the conclusion that a supermarket anchor for this location would be successful. The success of the Kroger store which anchors the new shopping center on West Eight Mile Road in Royal Oak Township is a good example of the impact a large-scale new development can have on an area's image.
Other stores with insufficient availability might include Hardware, Lumber & Garden supplies (644,308 supportable sq. ft. in the primary market and 1,809,020 in the total market) and General Merchandise (6,984,854 supportable square feet in the total market). Although office supplies are not listed in Table 5-F, the lack of an office superstore on Eight Mile Road is noticeable. The growth of home-based businesses and the number of commuters that use Eight Mile Road as their east/west travel route suggest that Staples or Office Depot is worth considering as a viable anchor tenant.
5. Hazel Park Racetrack (Ten Mile/Dequindre) Market. The size, environmental conditions and location of the Hazel Park Race Track make this the most challenging of the three major redevelopment areas in terms of determining the “highest and best” reuse of the property. The 1978 Plan recommended that it be redeveloped into an industrial park. However, at that time, manufacturing facilities were believed to be the most labor-intensive, General Motors and Chrysler were building new plants, the Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) was a major “economic development tool”for which the City had applied, and the nation-wide economic recession had begun.
Current economic conditions are considerably different. With a healthy economy, fewer manufacturing jobs, the absence of UDAG and other federal funding programs, plant closings, more leisure time and growth in the retail and entertainment industries the
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choices are much broader than in 1978. The location of this site warrants a market area that is more regional in scope. Therefore, the primary market includes a five mile radius and the secondary market extends to a fifteen mile radius.
The demographic profile of the Hazel Park Race Track site market is shown in Table 5-G and Map 5-C identifies the geographic boundaries. The primary market area includes communities within a five mile radius, namely, part of Detroit north of Davison, Highland Park, Ferndale, Royal Oak, Royal Oak Township, Pleasant Ridge, Clawson, Madison Heights, Warren, and the south ends of Troy and Sterling Heights. The secondary market extends out fifteen miles to include the remainders of Troy, Sterling Heights, Detroit, and southeast Oakland County. Also included are the Grosse Pointes, Harper Woods, Eastpointe, Roseville, Fraser, St. Clair Shores, Clinton Township, and Mount Clemens.
The 1997 estimated population in the primary market includes 415,936 people in 167,046 households. The 1997 secondary market estimate is 2,117,803 people in 827,763 occupied dwelling units, amounting to a total 1997 market area with 2,535,736 residents in 994,810 households. The 2002 projection population and number of households indicates that both are expected to decline in the primary market area. However, the secondary market 2002 projection indicates a large increase in number of households to 844,133, yet a population decline to 2,103,012. This is clearly a continuation of the trend toward smaller household sizes due to aging “baby boomers” and larger proportion of single person households.
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TABLE 5-G HAZEL PARK RACETRACK SITE MARKET DEMOGRAPHIC SUMMARY Primary Market Secondary Market Total Market 5 Mile Radius 5.01 to 15 Mile 15 Mile Radius Radius
Persons Hsds Persons Hsds Persons Hsds
2002 Population 402,973 2,103,012 2,507,987 Households 166,804 844,133 1,110,93
1997 Population 415,936 2,117,803 2,535,736
Households 167,047 827,763 994,810
1990 Population 440,876 2,143,596 2,586,462
Households 167,507 804,247 971,754
1990 Single Person 26.99% 26.82% Households
1990 Married Couple 44.85% 46.53%
1990 Other Family 23.20% 22.14% Households
1990 Non-Family 4.96% 4.50% Households
Households with Children 58,195 287,500 345,695
Married Couple Family 58.93% 60.62%
Single Parent Family 39.93% 38.53%
1997 Median Household $39,860 $43,722 Income
1997 Median Age 35.19 35.59 Source: National Decision Systems Demographic Trend and Retail Trade Potential Reports, September, 1998
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The 1997 median age in both the primary and secondary markets was 35 years. The 1997 median household income was an estimated $39,860 in the primary market and $43,722 in the secondary market, indicating a generally, middle-income market. The 1990 Census identified about 26 percent of the households in the total market area as single-person households and about 45 percent as married couple households. The remaining one-quarter included about 23 percent other family households and 5 percent non-family households. The primary market consisted of 58,195 households with children and, in the secondary market, there were 287,500 households with children. In both the primary and secondary markets about 60 percent were married couple families, and nearly 40 percent were single-parent families.
The communities within the fifteen mile radius are the most diverse as the market includes the most affluent Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe Shores, one of the lowest income suburbs, Highland Park, and every socio-economic group in between. Therefore, the use that is selected for the Race Track site must be one that will attract a diverse group and will benefit more from its central regional location and expressway access than the income-levels of its market.
6. Hazel Park Race Track Site Market Potential. Table 5-H estimates the supportable retail square footage at Ten Mile and Dequindre in the same manner as was applied to the Downtown and Eight Mile/Dequindre market areas. Within the total market area there are a number of super regional malls including Oakland Mall, Northland, Eastland, Somerset, Lakeside, Fairlane, and Twelve Oaks. Some of these malls and several other regional malls such as Universal City, and the shopping centers clustered near Oakland Mall are within the primary five mile radius market area. Therefore, it appears that a large portion of the supportable square footage in Table 5-H already exists. Further retail uses at this location may serve only to compete with well-established malls and existing downtown areas, including Hazel Park's own downtown.
It may be possible to use a portion of the site to expand the relatively new neighborhood shopping center on Dequindre to include additional personal services, restaurants or convenience stores. However, the bulk of the site should be used for a mixed use development that will take full advantage of the accessible regional location.
The recently opened Viking Arena could be the catalyst for a major commercial recreation complex on the site. The growing popularity of hockey and figure skating throughout the region and the undersupply of ice rinks available to skaters indicates a strong demand for this type of facility. The ice rink could be complemented with other recreational facilities such as a golf driving range, a health and fitness center, baseball diamonds for amateur leagues similar to Softball City (Detroit) or Liberty Park (Sterling Heights) or soccer fields. Other potential retail tenants may include sports oriented big- box retailers such as Dick’s, Gander Mountain, or REI. The existing industrial could be expanded and still be compatible with a commercial recreation complex.
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TABLE 5-H POTENTIAL RETAIL SQUARE FOOTAGE FOR HAZEL PARK RACETRACK SITE MARKET RETAIL CATEGORY Sales Total Market Primary Secondary Market Sales/ Sales per SF= Supportable SF per SF Total Sales Market Sales Total Sales
Apparel & Accessory Stores $201.17 $1,039,000,000 $242,000,000 $1,067,000,000
Supportable SF 5,164,786 sf 1,202,963 sf 5,303,971 sf
Auto & Home Supply Stores $145.43 $353,000,000 $60,000,000 $293,000,000
Supportable SF 2,427,285 sf 412,570 sf 2,014,715 sf
Drug & Proprietary Stores $241.00 $1,211,000,000 $210,000,000 $1,001,000,000
Supportable SF 5,024,890 sf 871,369 sf 4,153,527 sf
Eating & Drinking Places $172.15 $2,535,000,000 $439,000,000 $2,096,000,000
Supportable SF 14,725,530 sf 2,550,102 sf 12,175,428 sf
Food Stores $311.72 $3,473,000,000 $597,000,000 $2,876,000,000
Supportable SF 11,141,090 sf 1,915,180 sf 9,226,229 sf
Furniture & Home Furnishings $159.66 $807,000,000 $148,000,000 $659,000,000
Supportable SF 5,054,490 sf 926,969 sf 4,127,521 sf
Home Appliance, Radio & TV $174.66 $839,000,000 $156,000,000 $683,000,000
Supportable SF 4,803,618 sf 893,164 sf 3,910,455 sf
Gasoline Service Stations $339.01 $1,565,000,000 $271,000,000 $1,294,000,000
Supportable SF 4,616,383 sf 799,386 sf 3,816,997 sf
General Merchandise $100.36 $4,061,000,000 $728,000,000 $3,333,000,000
Supportable SF 40,464,328 sf 7,253,886 sf 33,210,442 sf
Department Stores $142.31 $3,723,000,000 $669,000,000 $3,054,000,000
Supportable SF 26,161,197 sf 4,701,005 sf 21,460,193 sf
Hardware Lumber & Garden Stores $121.06 $1,273,000,000 $225,000,000 $1,048,000,000
Supportable SF 10,515,447 sf 1,858,583 sf 8,656,864 sf
Automotive Dealers N/A $7,166,000,000 $1,304,000,000 $5,862,000,000
Total Retail Sales N/A $26,528,000,000 $4,717,000,000 $21,811,000,000 Sources: National Decision Systems Demographic Trend and Retail Trade Potential Reports, September, 1998. Sales per square foot: “Dollars & Cents of Shopping Centers, 1997; Urban Land Institute.
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A portion of the site could also be considered for a relocated Civic Center. This could fit in well with the ice rink and, simultaneously, provide a welcoming, identifiable entry to Hazel Park. Furthermore, the close proximity of the City's Department of Public Works yard and the Hazel Park School District Administration Building could make administrative functions in the City more efficient. Relocating the civic center from its downtown location would also provide a site for a new commercial development, such as an office building to expand the downtown property tax base.
The site presents a tremendous opportunity for the City to create a major northeast entry point to complement a redeveloped southeast entry point. The ice rink could serve as a catalyst and would continue the historic recreational use tradition of the site. Whatever development is chosen for the site should be well-planned and include strictly enforced landscape and design guidelines to produce a unique, attractive gateway to Hazel Park and Oakland County.
7. Summary of Economic Issues and Opportunities. In conclusion, Hazel Park has a limited amount of vacant land, yet the few areas proposed for redevelopment present exciting and challenging opportunities. The southeast gateway to the City at Dequindre and Eight Mile Road is also the point at which Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties intersect. The vacant Warehouse Club could be demolished and assembled with adjacent vacant parcels for development. The presence of Hazel Park Plaza, which is mid-block, creates an opportunity to expand the new retail to Dequindre with a shopping center by also acquiring the underutilized existing commercial properties. Implementing such a redevelopment plan to coincide with the Eight Mile Road landscape and street improvements could create an impressive new identity for Hazel Park and Eight Mile Road.
The northeast entry to the City at Dequindre and Ten Mile Road is the most challenging of the redevelopment opportunities as there are many more options for reuse of the Race Track site. Full advantage must be taken of the central location and convenient expressway access to create a viable regional development that will contribute significantly to the local economy. The site is zoned industrial and proposed for industrial reuse, however, the new sports arena could be the start of a major mixed use development anchored with commercial recreation facilities. The site is large enough to accommodate expansion of the neighborhood retail center on Dequindre with destination retail, while orienting the recreational use or uses toward the Ten Mile and Dequindre intersection. The existing light industrial park south of the existing Race Track could be expanded behind the commercial recreation frontage along Ten Mile Road.
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The Downtown area has no vacant land available, however, progress has been made in improving its image with a new streetscape and building rehabilitation and maintenance. The John R/Nine Mile Road intersection is anchored by shopping centers on the northwest and southeast corners, Quality Inn on the southwest corner, and City Hall on the northeast corner. The public improvements will assist greatly in attracting viable retail tenants to the shopping centers and continued maintenance and upgrades of existing buildings will be critical to improving the area image. If City Hall is relocated and its current site becomes available for redevelopment, this will present an excellent opportunity to enhance Downtown Hazel Park. It may be worth considering a mid-rise building on that corner to complement the multi-storied hotel on the opposite corner. This could provide a larger scale image and balance to the hotel and Hazelcrest Place, the mid-rise senior citizen apartment building at the north end of the Downtown boundary.
Hazel Park Master Plan -86 - March, 2000 Visioning Sessions CHAPTER VI
VISIONING SESSIONS
The effectiveness of a community plan depends greatly on the endorsement by the community at large. Although the State of Michigan enabling legislation requires a public hearing prior to adoption by the Planning Commission, oftentimes this is too late in the planning process to gain any meaningful input from the residents and the local business community. The Planning Process has evolved to include citizen participation as an integral part of plan development. Reaching consensus among those most affected by the plan during the process insures that the plan will be adopted and results in greater likelihood of plan implementation. Citizen input beyond the required public hearing can be obtained in several ways. The approach used in preparing this plan were community “visioning” sessions, a popular and effective method.
A. Visioning Sessions
Two visioning sessions were conducted to involve the citizens of Hazel Park in planning the future course of their City and to reach consensus on the most critical factors in realizing their vision. The first session, held on October 29, 1998, was attended by a “leadership” group including members of the City Council, Planning Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, and Downtown Development Authority. Also present were the City Manager, the Community Development Director, other City staff and McKenna staff to assist as facilitators. The second session was held on February 25, 1999. This session was widely advertised and opened to the general public. The session was attended by a broader cross section of the community, including residents, land owners and businesses representatives in addition to elected officials and members of boards and commissions.
In both sessions, participants were presented with a report on the progress of the Master Plan including background information on existing conditions, demographic and economic trends, and preliminary conclusions. The purpose of the plan and the importance of their participation in the planning process was explained to guide them in their group discussions. The results of each session are described below.
1. Visioning Session One. During the Session One Topic Groups: first session in October 1998, ‚ Downtown and Major Corridors participants were organized into four ‚ Dequindre and Eight Mile Road groups. Each group was assigned a ‚ Hazel Park Race Track focus area as listed to the right. ‚ Residential Neighborhoods.
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2. Session One Individual Group Results. Discussion groups were instructed to “brainstorm” city-wide strengths (prouds) and weaknesses (sorries), visions for the future Hazel Park, and ideas on how to improve the conditions in each of their assigned topics. The groups then set priorities and developed consensus on their “prouds and sorries”, visions for the City and recommendations for improving conditions in the issue assigned to them. Consensus was reached in each of the small groups by voting on the importance of suggestions offered by individual group members. The final task for each group was to address their respective areas of concern and how to improve them. Allowing the small groups to focus on a particular topic brought out many creative suggestions as shown below.
a. Downtown and Major Corridors: Participants in this group agreed Pursuit of the following projects and that Downtown should be kept improvements will produce a better pedestrian friendly and vacant retail Hazel Park by the year 2020: spaces should be occupied before ‚ attract major retail or light building new retail space. There manufacturing to Eight Mile; was also consensus on a need for ‚ increase the tax base; strict zoning ordinance enforcement, ‚ provide better parking for redevelopment of the service drive businesses; and a new bridge across I-75. ‚ facilitate office building development; Business establishments that ‚ build a new City Hall; should not be encouraged included ‚ demolish dilapidated and drug stores, party stores and gas substandard housing and rebuild stations. This group also residential neighborhoods; recommended that the height of ‚ develop new single family homes; new buildings in the City should be and limited to five (5) stories. Although ‚ add cul-de-sacs to neighborhoods most agreed that City Hall should be adjacent to industrial and commercial relocated from its downtown areas to limit commercial traffic. location, some felt it should be moved out of the B-3 District entirely and others felt it should be kept in the B-3 or somewhere near its current location. The outcome of their discussion was that by working in a cooperative effort among residents, businesses and city government, these efforts would create a cleaner city, thereby attracting new businesses and ultimately producing a larger tax base. The group’s vision is summarized in the text box on this page.
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b. Race Track: This group recommended that the site be An ideal Hazel Park in 2020 will be an redeveloped into an upscale, mixed- attractive community with: use complex including ‚ well-maintained public and private condominiums, hotels, and quality properties; recreation and entertainment ‚ many housing choices for residents establishments. Qualities important including upscale housing. to its success will be a distinctive improvement of the existing housing design and the ability to generate stock and higher housing values; and revenue. The group’s vision of the ‚ better, bigger and more retail. community’s future is summarized in the text box to the right.
c. Residential Neighborhoods: Participants recommended that Twenty years from now Hazel Park will residential lots be at least 45 to 50 have: feet wide and that this could be ‚ good infrastructure with a pedestrian achieved by acquiring adjacent 30 - friendly central business district; foot lots, demolishing existing ‚ completely renovated housing stock substandard houses, and combining on reassembled lots 45 to 50 feet the two lots. Owner occupancy and wide between Eight and Nine Mile rehabilitation of vacant houses Roads east and west of I-75; could be accomplished by strictly ‚ a new municipal center; enforcing building maintenance ‚ affordable condominiums and codes and charging a higher rental townhouses; housing fee to absentee landlords. ‚ major entertainment complex Providing higher quality new and in- integrated with the Racetrack; fill housing, condominiums and ‚ abundance of greenspace with larger houses by attracting housing beautifully landscaped, well developers and ensuring building maintained parks; and code enforcement were ‚ high level of community participation emphasized. This group’s vision is and access to educational summarized to the right. opportunities.
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d. Dequindre and Eight Mile Roads: Participants recognized that before Hazel Park in 2020 will have a much this major intersection could be improved image due to: redeveloped the area must be ‚ higher quality housing and cleared of vacant and marginal neighborhood with better schools, commercial buildings, including the new recreation center and no poor adult bookstore. Another obstacle quality rental housing; to redevelopment is that the asking ‚ improved building facades and price for available properties is far sidewalks in commercial areas; and too high. Once these obstacles are ‚ redeveloped commercial and removed the area fronting George industrial strips such as the East Nine Street could be cleared and Mile area. redeveloped with new housing and the Eight Mile frontage should include a large commercial development. Some suggestions included Home Depot or a marketplace similar to Detroit's Eastern Market. The group’s vision of Hazel Park’s future is Session One Final Priorities: summarized in the first text box on ‚ Redeveloped neighborhoods with this page. larger, more diverse and up-scale housing. (25 considered this very 3. Visioning Session One Final important) Priorities. At the end of the visioning ‚ Redevelopment of the race track into session, each of the four groups a mixed - use development. appointed a spokesperson to report (24 considered this very important) their conclusions to the full assembly. ‚ Development of a “smart” city with Visioning session one final results is technologically advanced summarized to the right along with the infrastructure. number of participants that ranked it (14 considered this very important) most important: ‚ Redesign of I-75 as an underground with landscaped parks at street level.
(14 considered this very important) ‚ Place greater emphasis on attracting industries and trade schools to improve the local labor force. (14 considered this very important) ‚ Implement a comprehensive streetscape program and enhance major intersections with “gateway” improvements such as a large mall at John R and 8 Mile Roads. (5 considered this very important)
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4. Visioning Session Two Final Priorities. Because participants in the Session Two Final Priorities second visioning session were not ‚ Redeveloped neighborhoods with necessarily familiar with specific areas larger, more diverse sized homes (16 or issues in the City, groups were not considered this very important) assigned specific focus areas. Instead, ‚ I-75 Underground - Parks, etc. on top groups were assigned the task to (14 considered this very important) generally brainstorm issues and ‚ Race track site redeveloped (14 priorities for the City. The second considered this very important) session confirmed many of the visions ‚ Have a smart city with technologically of the first session, but with slightly good infrastructure and a trade different priorities and a few additional school (14 considered this very ideas, as summarized on this page. important) ‚ Greater emphasis on attracting industries (14 considered this very important) ‚ Race track turned into mixed-use development (i.e., city within a city) (10 considered this very important) ‚ New, larger up-scale housing (9 considered this very important) ‚ Comprehensive streetscape program (4 considered this very important) ‚ John R/8 Mile large shopping mall (1 considered this very important)
Hazel Park Master Plan -91- March, 2000 Goals and Objectives CHAPTER VII
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The analysis of existing conditions, the visioning sessions, discussions with the Planning Commission and other community leaders, lead to the formulation of goals and objectives for this Master Plan. These terms are defined as follows:
• A goal is a broad policy description of community desires for the future, a long-term end toward which programs or activities are directed.
• Objectives are specific measurable intermediate ends that are achievable and make progress toward achieving a goal.
Another exercise which assists in goal-setting is a review of the previously adopted goals and objectives from the previously adopted Land Use Plan which was adopted in 1978. Given the time frame of twenty years that was used in the visioning sessions, it was interesting to compare what is considered important today to the important issues twenty years ago. Table 7-A lists the 1978 goals. The goals that arose from this current planning effort are listed below and each will be addressed in the context of the objectives proposed to achieve the respective goal.
• Upgrade the neighborhoods with recreational amenities, and a diverse housing stock with new and rehabilitated residential choices for current and future Hazel Park residents.
• Redevelop commercial corridors and gateways to the City with appropriately sited and attractively designed retail, service, entertainment and office establishments to augment the tax base.
• Improve existing industrial areas with landscape buffers from less intense adjacent land uses and provide areas for future industrial firms that are adequately removed from residential neighborhoods.
• Maintain an efficient traffic circulation pattern that will provide safety for vehicles and pedestrians and accessibility throughout the City.
• Provide and maintain community facilities that will best serve the needs of Hazel Park residents of all ages.
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Table 7-A Goals from 1978 Hazel Park Plan Element Goal
Land Use The City officials and people of Hazel Park desire to achieve a City providing the optimum in quality of life for City residents. Land Development activities will be encouraged which will expand economic, social and cultural potentials; Improve the environment; safeguard and enhance the well-being of the underprivileged; and provide equal opportunity for all. City government will work as a team with private industry and citizens towards this goal by providing leadership, initiative, professional skills and financial investment.
Housing Neighborhood The people of Hazel Park should have the right to choose housing evidencing a variety in design and cost, of sound construction, and located in neighborhoods providing optimum residential amenities and desirable population service facilities. City government will continue its comprehensive program of long range master planning followed by short range neighborhood project planning, backed by capital improvement programming, to help in the development and redevelopment of neighborhoods towards this goal.
Economic Development The supply of business facilities, including office and commercial should correspond closely with the demand for such facilities, with the people offered a variety in selection, and the business enterprises so located and grouped as to provide efficiency in operation yet not detract from surrounding residential area. City government will determine areas suitable for various types of business expansion and aid in their development or redevelopment through programs and activities aimed at improving the economic potential and physical pattern of business space and areas around it.
Industrial Development As a key employer and tax contributor, industry should have the opportunity to function and expand in Hazel Park in areas that evidence modern amenities for industrial operation and industrial areas that evidence modern amenities for industrial operation and industrial areas should be so located and designed as to allow accessibility yet not detract from nearby residential areas. City government will continue its efforts to find and prepare land for industrial development in Hazel Park in areas suitable for its effective operation.
Community Facilities The people of Hazel Park should have available for use public and semi- public areas offering a variety of opportunities for human fulfillment in locations appropriate for their development and utilization. City government will continue its activities to ascertain from the people their public and semi-public needs and desires, find locations appropriate for such area and effectuate their development.
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Although the 1978 Goals are considerably longer than the proposed 1998-99 Goals, they are essentially the same. Current residents feel just as strongly as the 1978 residents that attractive residential areas, adequate community services and well-defined commercial and industrial areas are essential to the city’s quality of life.
The proposed Master Plan goals are reiterated according to the appropriate issue in the remainder of this chapter along with objectives designed to achieve the respective goal.
Residential
Goal:
Upgrade the neighborhoods with recreational amenities, and a diverse housing stock with new and rehabilitated residential choices for current and future Hazel Park residents.
Objectives:
1. Redevelop substandard residential areas with larger, upscale housing through acquisition of adjacent 30 foot lots, demolition of existing structures and assembling lots with 45 to 50 foot minimum width.
2. Encourage a balance of housing types which will meet the needs of all, while preserving existing small town character and viable neighborhoods.
3. Target code enforcement and rehabilitation efforts into neighborhoods that will produce the optimum return on investment.
4. Facilitate the development of condominiums, townhouses and affordable housing to increase home-ownership opportunities for first-time home buyers.
5. Implement an effective rental housing licensing program with annual inspections, applying incentives to encourage owner-occupied rental housing.
6. Protect residential areas from encroachment of non-residential uses and commercial traffic.
7. Improve the quality of life for residents by providing attractive neighborhood amenities such as tot lots, requiring tree-planting and landscaping of rights-of-way, and encouraging quality housing design and construction.
8. Select a two or three block area with a disproportionately high number of substandard and dilapidated houses and implement a demonstration project to develop a comprehensive neighborhood upgrade program.
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9. Provide landscaping and screening to buffer existing residential areas from adjacent industrial or commercial areas.
10. Establish relationships with community development funding agencies such as Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB), Michigan Housing Trusts and Bank Community Development Corporations to participate in neighborhood improvement programs.
Commercial and Office Uses
Goal
Redevelop commercial corridors and gateways to the City with appropriately sited and attractively designed retail, service, entertainment and office establishments to augment the tax base.
Objectives
1. Design an Urban Entertainment District to provide commercial recreation establishments such as movie theaters, roller-blade rink, restaurants, hotel and other activities to complement the Race Track and Viking Arena and establish a “gateway” image at the Ten Mile and Dequindre entry point.
2. Design a strategy to acquire adjacent vacant parcels and buildings on Eight Mile at Dequindre for land assembly and seek proposals to develop a mixed-use or commercial complex that will create a “gateway” image at that southeast entry point to Hazel Park.
3. Maintain high standards for design of office and retail sites such as buffering, landscaping, attractive signage, and safe, efficient traffic circulation, including accommodation of pedestrians.
4. Continue Downtown streetscape improvements along Nine Mile Road and on all commercial corridors throughout the City.
5. Design and implement a facade improvement program that Downtown Hazel Park landlords can use as a marketing tool to assist in leasing vacant storefronts.
6. Participate with neighboring DDAs in seeking assistance from Oakland County’s newly established recruitment program initiated by a coalition of Southeast Oakland County communities for their downtown revitalization efforts.
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7. Pursue opportunities to provide additional parking for commercial areas along John R, Eight Mile, Nine Mile and Ten Mile Roads and insist on attractive parking lots with landscaping, good traffic circulation and parking spaces that are adequate in size and number.
8. Investigate the market potential of office development in Hazel Park and identify which locations may be appropriate, if any.
9. Focus recruitment efforts on firms that will enhance the existing retail/service mix and minimize efforts to recruit drug stores, party stores and others that are in abundance.
Industrial
Goal:
Improve existing industrial areas with landscape buffers from less intense adjacent land uses and provide areas for future industrial firms that are adequately removed from residential neighborhoods.
Objectives
1. Investigate the re-use potential of obsolete industrial buildings on Dequindre, and pursue opportunities for land assembly or re-use by a firm with good market potential.
2. Seek out small industrial firms with relocation or expansion plans and focus recruitment efforts on those appropriate in size and operations to Hazel Park.
3. Encourage owners of industrial property abutting residential neighborhoods to improve their appearance and provide buffering and screening to protect the residential properties.
4. Locate new industrial facilities at a sufficient distance from residential areas.
Transportation
Goal:
Maintain an efficient traffic circulation pattern that will provide safety for vehicles and pedestrians and accessibility throughout the City.
1. Maintain sidewalks and repair as necessary to foster a pedestrian-friendly environment, particularly Downtown.
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2. Require raised curb, knee-walls, or other barriers between parking lots and sidewalks to alleviate pedestrian and vehicular traffic conflicts.
3. Work in a co-operative effort with MDOT to provide a new bridge across I-75 and to provide landscaped green spaces on freeway overpasses similar to those over I-696.
4. Seek Transportation Enhancement funding to develop bike trails linked with bike trails in neighboring cities as part of a regional non-motorized transportation system.
Community Facilities
Goal:
Provide and maintain community facilities that will best serve the needs of Hazel Park residents of all ages.
Objectives:
1. Relocate Civic Center to a site which can accommodate a larger, well-designed City Hall and other municipal buildings that present a positive image of Hazel Park.
2. Identify neighborhoods with insufficient play space and provide neighborhood parks and playground equipment where necessary.
3. Require community open-space and/or tot lot area in new or redeveloped residential neighborhoods.
4. Continue to seek opportunities to share facilities with other public and quasi-public agencies, such as the school district, through joint operating agreements, lease agreements, or cooperative development efforts.
5. Prepare a comprehensive Capital Improvement Plan for long-range and short range facility needs of all City Departments to prioritize public works projects and monitor the implementation progress by updating the plan annually.
6. Maintain the quality of the Public Safety Department through community relations, crime prevention,, and fire safety educational programs, thereby, creating a sense of security for the residents and businesses.
7. Prepare a City-wide tree planting and tree management program and seek funding for implementation from the Urban Forestry Program administered by Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
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8. Replace aging infrastructure as necessary, with technologically advanced, state-of-the- art infrastructure and materials.
Conclusions: Although it has been 20 years since the last Plan, the values and issues of concern have remained consistent. The vision statement for 20 years hence foresees a stable community with upgraded neighborhoods, varied housing stock with choices for residents at all income levels. This illustrates the adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Given that the overall goals and objectives are as important today as in 1978, it seems appropriate to strive to achieve these goals using strategies that reflect changes in technology and planning philosophy.
Hazel Park Master Plan -98- March, 2000 Future Land Use and Focus Areas CHAPTER VIII
FUTURE LAND USE AND FOCUS AREAS
A. Summary of Conclusions
! Hazel Park is a mature community with little vacant land available for new development. However, its central location and excellent access to employment and service centers throughout the region present opportunities to redevelop obsolete areas and expand and enhance existing neighborhoods.
! The City should continue diligent building and zoning code enforcement to alleviate negative impacts on viable residential, commercial and industrial areas and eliminate land use conflicts.
! Although there is limited vacant land available for new development, the City should continually seek opportunities to identify and assemble redevelopment areas for housing and commercial enterprises that will attract young families and employees with good earning potential.
! Maintenance and enhancement of existing residential areas and improvement of the City's image in its commercial and industrial areas are imperative to the future of Hazel Park. Focus areas were established to develop implementation and enhancement techniques that could be applied to other areas of the City. The emphasis is on image improvement in these areas that will carry through the rest of the City and have optimum impact. These focus areas include the following:
Hazel Park Racetrack at 10 Mile and Dequindre is the major northeast entry to the City and presents both great potential and difficult redevelopment issues. This plan calls for the creation of an Urban Entertainment District for this area, a concept already initiated with the Viking Arena. All Residential Neighborhoods in the City rank high in priority and the plan calls of comprehensive measures to address their revitalization. A pilot revitalization program is recommended for an area to be selected in the future. Eight Mile and Dequindre is the major southeast entry to the City and the point at which Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties meet. The vacant commercial properties and marginal businesses that exist at that location make it the most visibly deteriorated part of the City. Assembly of vacant commercial frontage with lots to the north would increase the depth of the area to create an attractive development serving as a “Gateway”.
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Commercial Corridors include John R Road, Nine Mile Road, (the Downtown Area and extensions thereof),Eight Mile Road, Ten Mile Road and Dequindre Road (City Boundary Corridors). Visual improvement of the Corridors is vital. Streetscape improvements to John R. Road in the downtown and north of Nine Mile Road serves as an example to emulate along other corridors in the City.
! The City is fully developed however, the aging infrastructure must be carefully monitored to replace utility lines and other infrastructure as needed to upgrade capacity to modern standards.
! Hazel Park is deficient in neighborhood parks and vacant land is a scarce resource. The City should incorporate provision of neighborhood parks and playgrounds into neighborhood revitalization plans in order to attract younger residents to Hazel Park.
! The primary focus for all City community facilities and streets should be improvement of existing facilities, landscape and streetscape improvements, on-going maintenance, and identification of potential sites for future community facilities as needed.
! The following guiding principles were developed to assist in reaching future land use and zoning decisions that will be consistent with the recommendations of this planning effort.
Continue to enhance the Downtown Area and expand its image improvements along the adjacent Nine Mile Road and John R Road Corridors. Reduce land use conflicts between adjoining non-residential and residential areas through landscape buffers, zoning changes and effective site plan design standards. Upgrade neighborhoods with larger homes and a variety of housing types to attract younger residents with higher income and earning potential. Provide adequate recreation and community facilities throughout the City to foster a sense of community and encourage social interaction among residents in an increasingly diverse City. Identify and enhance gateways to the City. Target neighborhood revitalization efforts to specific areas in which improvements will have the most visual impact. Consider how site plan review, rezoning requests and variances will impact the surrounding area and the image of the City of Hazel Park. Promote the concept of an Urban Entertainment district to redevelop the Race Track Focus Area.
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The Master Plan for Hazel Park is the culmination of the existing conditions analysis, the inventory of existing resources and constraints, and the goal-setting process. The Plan is a framework which provides a guide to the development of future land use and traffic circulation patterns that will implement the Vision developed through the Planning Process. The operative terms are “framework” and “guide” as the Plan must also be flexible and allow the City to respond to changing needs and unforeseen economic and market realities. The Plan is described in the three major sections described below:
1. Future Land Use Plan. This section includes a map showing the future land use of the City including, not only traditional land use categories, but special redevelopment areas that will require amendments to the Zoning Ordinance. New categories that will necessitate new zoning districts include the two new mixed-use categories and possibly the attached single family category. Also, existing districts should be updated to reflect design and redevelopment objectives, such as the need to encourage redevelopment of single family neighborhoods with larger lots and larger homes to diversify the housing stock. Table 8-A lists the future land use categories and the acreage devoted to each category:
TABLE 8-A FUTURE LAND USE CATEGORIES AND ACREAGE Future Land Use Acres % of Total Category Acres Single Family Residential 749 57.6% Single Family Attached 19 1.5% Multiple Family Residential 17 1.3% Central Business District 19 1.5% General Commercial 51 3.9% Corridor Business 35 2.7% Industrial 45.0 3.4% Mixed Use 146 11.2% Semi-Public 17 1.3% Public 121 9.3% Parking 82 6.3% TOTAL 1,301 100.0%
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2. Focus Area Recommendations. This section includes specific recommendations for the four focus areas: Hazel Park Racetrack; Residential Neighborhoods; Eight Mile at Dequindre; and the Downtown and Major Corridors along John R, Nine Mile, Dequindre, and Ten Mile Roads.
3. Roads, Utilities and Community Facilities Recommendations. The street pattern will remain essentially the same, however, redevelopment projects will necessitate some modifications and extensions. This section will summarize potential modifications described for the Focus Areas and recommend locations for streetscape and landscape treatments to improve the City's image. This section will also identify locations where utilities may need attention over the next five years due to age of the infrastructure or redevelopment plans. Areas with expansion potential for parks and recreation facilities and other municipal facilities will be pointed out as well. B. Future Land Use Plan
1. Single Family Residential. Enhancing single family neighborhoods was one of the highest priorities identified during the planning process. The vision for the neighborhoods remains essentially the same as stated in the Housing & Neighborhood Preservation Strategy adopted in June, 1994:
“The Housing & Neighborhood Preservation Strategy for Hazel Park is designed to realize a Shared Vision of a community with identifiable, safe, and secure, tree-sheltered neighborhoods of predominantly single-family, owner-occupied, well maintained homes with manicured green lawns.”
Major concerns regarding the single family neighborhoods were, and remain, the small lot and structure areas, encroachment of commercial parking into neighborhoods, duplexes and rental housing in single family areas, and an increasing number of vacant or poorly maintained houses. The 1999 future land use plan reflects these concerns by expanding the single family residential areas throughout the City beyond what was proposed in the 1978. For example, the 1978 future land use plan proposed multiple residential south of Nine Mile Road along both sides of the I-75 Corridor and north of Woodward Heights along the east service drive. A two-block area west of Dequindre from Milton to Evelyn was also planned multiple residential. The fact that these areas remain single family 20 years later indicates that they are likely to remain single family.
Table 8-B compares the single family data in the 1978 Master Plan to this plan. The total single family acreage was expected to decline to approximately one-third of the total acreage in the 1978 plan. According to the survey prepared for this plan, single family residential accounts for over ½ of the City's land use. The amount of single family residential land use is not projected to change significantly by this current plan update.
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TABLE 7-B SINGLE FAMILY LAND USE COMPARISON OF 1978 AND 2000 MASTER PLANS Single Family Percent of Total Acres Acres Total Acres in City1
1978 Existing Land Use 632 40.1% 1,576
1978 Future Land Use Plan-2000 504 32.0% 1,576
1997 Existing Land Use 831 63.8% 1,301
Future Land Use Plan-2020 749 57.6% 1,301
Sources: McKenna & Associates, Land Use Survey, Oct., 1997. Land Use Plan, Parkins, Rogers & Associates May, 1978. Notes: The difference between the total acres in the 1978 and 1997 data is due to more accurate measuring through the use of computer maps in the 2000 Master Plan. Given the large difference in total acreage, it is also likely that the 1978 data included public roads in the total acreage, which is excluded in the 2000 data.
The recent trend has been toward promoting home-ownership and, in order to do so, the City must have a more varied housing stock. Many Hazel Park subdivisions consist of 30 foot lots and combining these into larger lots is difficult in a mature city. However, by acquiring adjacent vacant lots and houses, demolishing substandard houses, and combining lots to create minimum widths of 45 to 50 feet or greater, the City can begin to expand and diversify the housing stock. This strategy will be detailed in the Residential Focus Area section of this chapter.
2. Single Family Attached. A special single family category is created to provide for owner-occupied row or town home style housing in areas of the City that are currently developed with obsolete multiple family housing. One area targeted for this category is located at the eastern end of Woodward Heights on the south side of the road across from the race track area. This area is developed with multiple family rental housing that is over 30 years in age and rapidly approaching obsolescence. This area is recommended for redevelopment with attached single family row or town home development. Other locations, such as along I-75, are also designated.
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Such new development is recommended to conform to typologies for row house development as provided in The Lexicon of the New Urbanism, 1999 illustrated to the right. In this illustration, the hatched area represents the building footprint with the living space in the front and the garage space at the rear. This configuration can be modified to include the garage at the rear ground floor of the unit, and town home units can also be stacked to achieve higher densities and provide for additional open space. Examples of such developments can be found in recent successful town home developments near the downtown areas of the City of Royal Oak, Michigan and Dearborn, Michigan.
3. Multiple Family Residential. This Plan considers multiple family residential uses to include structures with two or more dwelling units. The Future Land Use Plan does not plan any significant additional multiple family residential use beyond areas that are currently developed with multiple family housing. Additionally, as mentioned above, a large area of obsolete multiple family housing at the eastern end of Woodward Heights is recommended to be redeveloped for attached single family housing. The intent of the Plan is to Figure 5 Desired Single Family limit multiple family residential structures within single-family Attached Typology residential areas and contain these uses along major streets where such housing currently exists.
It is anticipated that the current supply of multiple family residential use in the City is sufficient to meet current and projected needs for this land use. Given that the City’s population is currently in a stable phase with only very slow growth projected, additional multiple family residential land use is not anticipated to be needed. Projected residential needs are for principally single family residential use to meet the needs of existing families. As existing families mature and incomes increase, larger homes will be needed and the provision of such housing is a priority of this plan.
Table 8-C shows the multiple residential acreage and percentages from the 1978 existing land use survey and land use plan compared to the existing and future multiple land use acreage in the 1999 Master Plan. The increase in multiple residential acreage proposed in the 1978 Plan reflects a time when there was more funding for low-to- moderate income rental housing and a movement toward developing condominiums. The reality of the current housing market demands less multiple residential as more financing tools are available for home-ownership. Also, the housing needs, as identified in this plan, emphasize diversification and upgrading the single family housing stock.
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TABLE 8-C MULTIPLE RESIDENTIAL LAND USE COMPARISON OF 1978 AND 2000 MASTER PLANS Multiple Percent Total Acres Residential of Total in City1 Acres Acres
1978 Existing Land Use 13 0.8% 1,576
1978 Future Land Use Plan-2000 64 4.1% 1,576
1997 Existing Land Use 37 2.8% 1,301
Future Land Use Plan-2020 17 1.3% 1,301
Sources: McKenna & Associates, Land Use Survey, Oct., 1997. 1978 Land Use Plan, Parkins, Rogers, & Associates, May, 1978. Note:The difference between the total acres in the 1978 and 1997 data is due to more accurate measuring through the use of computer maps in the 2000 Master Plan. Given the large difference in total acreage, it is also likely that the 1978 data included public roads in the total acreage, which is excluded in the 2000 data.
4. Central Business District. The CBD boundaries corresponds to the traditional boundaries of the City’s downtown which extended from the east side of I-75 to the eastern frontage of Nine Mile Road and north to approximately Felker Street. This area currently falls under Central Business District zoning and is intended to accommodate a broad variety of retail, service, and other commercial uses that currently exist in the downtown. Likely businesses include specialty shops, personal services, entertainment uses, and convenience shops. The CBD also is intended to be a multi-use area and may include, office, residential and institutional uses that meet specific design criteria. While such uses are allowed, the intent is for the CBD to remain principally a retail and service district with pedestrian traffic. Residential uses must only be permitted on upper floors of buildings with ground floor commercial uses.
Emphasis should be placed on strengthening existing businesses, assuring adequate parking and providing for pedestrian circulation which is more common in the CBD than other commercial areas. Intensive commercial uses such as automobile service or repair are not intended to be allowed in the CBD.
5. Local Business. The Future Land Use Plan identifies most of the John R and Nine Mile road corridors within this category. B-1 or B-2 districts are the appropriate zoning districts for these areas. Sites which are more prone to cause incompatibilities with adjacent residential neighborhoods should be kept out of the B-1, Community Business district. The B-1 district is more restrictive than the B-2, General Business district and thus is more likely to be compatible with neighborhoods. Additional measures aimed at business development in these areas are discussed in the Focus Area section of this chapter.
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6. Mixed-Use /Entertainment. The new Mixed-Use/Entertainment category is intended to guide the redevelopment of the race track area. Mixed-Use/Entertainment envisions an area that could develop into a cohesive mix of complementary entertainment facilities and planned residential neighborhoods. Rather than assuming that the race track will close as was projected by the 1978 Plan, this Future Land Use Plan provides a concept that expands the area's historic commercial recreation character to one that could co-exist with the race track if it is to remain at that location. Thus, the Mixed- Use/Entertainment category offers flexibility to the City, the race track owners and future developers. The concept is discussed further in the Race Track Focus Area section of this chapter.
The City believes that the $9.7 million sports arena (Viking Arena), completed in the fall of 1999 on a seven-acre parcel on Woodward Heights, is the cornerstone in developing the Race Track area into an entertainment complex that could include a multiplex movie theater, a soccer field and other indoor recreational facilities.
7. Office. Hazel Park is currently not part of a significant, established office market, which limits opportunities for such development. Offices that exist in the City are primarily bank branches, and small medical, dental, insurance or other professional offices occupied by entrepreneurs that live in or near the community. These types of establishments serve another useful purpose in that they provide a good buffer zone between residential areas and more intense commercial uses or major thoroughfares. They typically do not generate much traffic and are designed to be consistent with nearby residential areas. The Future Land Use Plan does not extend office areas beyond the areas in which they currently exist interspersed with commercial frontage in Downtown Hazel Park and the major corridors. Certain office uses may also be appropriate in the Downtown and Mixed-Use/Entertainment areas. The Focus Area sections of this chapter address offices as they relate to the respective focus area plan.
8. Corridor Business. This new future land use category, Corridor Business, is applied to a section of Eight Mile Road between I-75 and John R, the corner of Eight Mile and Dequindre and the Dequindre Road frontage from Eight Mile to Woodward Heights. Each area has a slightly different potential type and mixture of uses as described below.
a. Dequindre Road Corridor. The Dequidre Road frontage is characterized by a mixture of industrial and commercial uses. Redevelopment with of these areas with limited light industrial/warehouse and commercial uses is intended by the Corridor Business category, but with an emphasis on commercial use. More specific recommendations to encourage the redevelopment of this area is provided in the focus area recommendations in this section and the implementation section of the Plan.
To facilitate redevelopment along the Dequindre corridor this plan supports closing a portion of every other local street that intersects with Dequindre. This measure accomplishes two objectives: First, it increases the potential corridor building area,
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and second, it reduces the exposure of the neighborhood to non-residential traffic. The shallow depth of the corridor frontage is an impediment for contemporary uses that demand larger building footprints and larger parking lots, and the close proximity of homes makes it desirable to reduce impacts through whatever means necessary to address neighborhood concerns.
b. Corner of Eight Mile and Dequindre: As discussed in other sections of the Plan, this area presents a unique and difficult redevelopment challenge. Given its corner location on a major regional arterial road, the site may have potential for regional or sub-regional commercial use. However, an existing business in the area makes it an undesirable location for most retailers, and, as pointed out in the market analysis in this Plan, the magnitude of the unserved regional retail market is limited. Other options for redevelopment of this site should not, therefore, be eliminated. Such options may include business-to-business services found in an intensive commercial district, or, possibly even distribution uses that do not strictly fall within one of the City’s commercial zoning districts and that may require light industrial zoning.
c. Eight Mile Road Corridor: This area, though separated from the Dequindre corner site described above, presents similar redevelopment issues. This area also may have sub-regional commercial potential because of its location, but this potential is further limited because of the lack of visibility and access resulting from the I-75 overpass and the shallow depth of parcels. For these reasons, the potential for redevelopment with more intensive business to business service uses should not be eliminated.
9. Industrial. Technological and economic change during the past two decades has resulted in a decline of manufacturing jobs and traditional industrial uses. The Future Land Use Plan does not expand industrial areas beyond what now exist in the Maple Lane Industrial Park, along Nine Mile Road east of the downtown area, and along Ten Mile Road west of the race track. This is a departure from 1978 Land Use Plan as illustrated in Table 8-D.
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TABLE 8-D INDUSTRIAL LAND USE COMPARISON OF 1978 AND 2000 MASTER PLANS Industrial Percent of Total Acres Acres Total in City1
1978 Existing Land Use 47 3.0% 1,576
1978 Future Land Use Plan-2000 184 11.7% 1,576
1997 Existing Land Use 43 3.3% 1,301
Future Land Use Plan-2020 45 3.4% 1,301
Sources: McKenna & Associates, Land Use Survey, Oct., 1997. 1978 Land Use Plan, Parkins, Rogers, & Associates, May, 1978 Notes:1The difference between the total acres in the 1978 and 1997 data is due to more accurate measuring through the use of computer maps in the 2000 Master Plan. Given the large difference in total acreage, it is also likely that the 1978 data included public roads in the total acreage, which is excluded in the 2000 data.
The primary reason for the difference between the 1978 future land use plan and the current Future Land Use Plan update is the change in the anticipated use of the race track site. When the 1978 plan was prepared, the City had obtained an Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) for an industrial park near the race track. The prevailing economic development strategy of the day was to increase manufacturing jobs and the future of the race track was questionable. The expansion of the planned industrial park into the adjacent race track area was proposed in the 1978 plan. With the documented shift away from manufacturing jobs, the 127-acre race track and surrounding area is designated as Mixed-Use/Entertainment by the Future Land Use Plan update.
10. Public and Parks/Recreation. The Future Land Use Plan indicates separate Public and Parks/Recreation categories in contrast to the 1978 Plan which combined these categories. Public uses include municipal offices, Department of Public Works facilities, the Fire Station, the library and public schools. Parks and Recreation include both indoor and outdoor public recreation facilities.
From time to time, relocation of the municipal offices to an area which would allow expansion has been considered. Relocation of the current City Hall remains an option and is indicated on the Future Land Use Plan. The Plan designates the current City Hall site as a potential commercial site, but with continued public use until relocation occurs. A potential relocation site has been identified in the northwest portion of the City off of I-75 on a site presently occupied by a church. The church is considering relocation, which would make their present site available for public use.
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Other potential easily accessible and visible locations for the civic center exist and should not be eliminated from consideration as such opportunities become available. Public facilities are expected to remain essentially where they are today. The City should continue to seek locations for neighborhood parks and require park/open space in new residential developments or redevelopments.
11. Semi-Public. Semi-public uses, including churches, private schools and fraternal organizations, are expected to remain in the same areas in which they currently exist. The primary difference between the acreage of semi-public land between 1978 and 1999 is due to the development of land formerly owned by St. Mary Magdalene Church and School into an apartment complex for senior citizens. This area was shown as Semi-Public in the 1978 Plan and is now shown in the Future Land Use Plan as Multiple Residential. It is not anticipated that additional semi-public uses will be developed in Hazel Park and no further decrease is expected, therefore, the Future Land Use Plan reflects Semi-Public Areas essentially as they are on the Existing Land Use Map.
12. Parking. Planned parking areas continue to be recommended to provide buffers between commercial corridors and adjacent residential uses. Those in the Downtown Area are intended to reduce pedestrian/vehicular traffic conflicts. The main concern regarding parking areas is to provide for masonry screening walls and landscape treatments.
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C. Focus Areas
Map 8-B, Focus Areas, identifies general locations of focus areas where improvement and redevelopment efforts of the City should be concentrated. The strategies for individual focus areas are described in the following sections.
1. Downtown and Major Corridors. Downtown Hazel Park is the center of the City due to its excellent regional location with high visibility and excellent access from I-75. The existing shopping centers on diagonal corners of the John R and Nine Mile Roads intersection, and the hotel, the library and City Hall on the other two corners are the core of the Downtown. From this core, the City has been implementing streetscape improvements, parking and lighting improvements which have extended north and south of the Downtown along the John R Corridor.
The Downtown Development Authority (DDA), in cooperation with the City and Downtown businesses should continue to maintain and enhance the Downtown streetscape. The importance of building and zoning code enforcement, public safety and overall maintenance of the Central Business District cannot be overemphasized. These are the issues over which the City has control and can demonstrate its commitment to the Downtown area.
Recruitment of particular business types is more difficult to control and has been a challenge for most small city downtowns. Instead of trying to compete with the malls and big box retailers, the local character of the Downtown Area should be strengthened with specialty shops, restaurants and other small shops. Landlords should be encouraged to lease storefronts to businesses that will complement the existing mix and appear to have good potential. In response to a request from several southeast Oakland County communities, the County created a position for a Downtown Business Recruitment Representative. The City should encourage Downtown property owners to seek assistance from this office as vacancies occur.
There has been concern about the City Hall and the inability to expand it at its current location. There have been discussions to relocate City Hall out of the Downtown area and make the site available for commercial redevelopment. An additional option to consider is expansion of the City Hall combined with commercial development at the current location by redeveloping the site with a taller structure. Such a proposal would be consistent with the scale of existing mid-rise development at Nine Mile and John R. Also, a new city hall at the current location would be a significant and visible public investment in the Downtown area and improve the local identity.
The land use guidelines stated in the 1989 Downtown Development Plan are worth restating as they may be key to strengthening the Downtown and improving the image of the City.
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• Encourage merchants to cooperate in setting store hours; undertaking promotional activities; devising and implementing strategies for guiding the retail mix; and encouraging more innovative and aggressive retailing.
• Encourage the expansion of retail shops and services, restaurants and entertainment attractions. Give special priority to encouraging new higher density development to locate downtown.
• Consider the incorporation of new mid/high-rise housing into the downtown.
• Promote a balanced mix of office uses and visitor attractions to complement downtown retail and neighboring residential development and to create a diverse center of urban activity.
• Evaluate the opportunity to create a central open space or activity center in the downtown.
a. North John R Corridor. The primary concern for the North John R Corridor is to retain local businesses and continue to strengthen the viability of the area. Recent streetscape improvements have enhanced the area and the City should continue to seek opportunities to provide parking areas, landscape treatments and potential areas for business expansion in the corridor. By maintaining the visual link with the downtown commercial area, a cohesive image of the John R Corridor can be strengthened.
b. South John R Corridor. As described in the 1996 South John R Enhancement Plan, there are three distinct sectors of this corridor. Unlike the North John R Corridor, the South John R Corridor is separated from the Downtown by the I-75 interchange and the commercial uses are different. While planned to remain commercial, image improvements such as landscaping, decorative screen walls and signage to identify the area are proposed. Closing select commercial street ends and enhanced parking lot screening are suggested here to reduce conflicts with adjacent residential neighborhoods.
The south sector of South John R is the oldest part of the corridor and has redevelopment potential. It is also planned to remain commercial and improvements are needed to improve visibility, upgrade the image and increase safety for the area. For instance, a south “gateway” feature at the John R. intersection at Eight Mile Road should be developed with attractive signage and lighting to complement the Eight Mile Road Boulevard Association activities. Land assembly opportunities should be sought to provide locations for new business and expansion of existing businesses.
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c. Ten Mile Road Corridor. Ten Mile Road, east of John R is planned to remain industrial. Continued industrial use is consistent with other development along the I-696 corridor in nearby communities due to the excellent regional access I-696 provides. As the planned Mixed-Use/Entertainment District develops, landscape treatments and enhancements should be carried through the Ten Mile Road Corridor to strengthen the City's improved image. Continued efforts should be directed or improving the interface between industrial uses and the residential properties south of them.
d. Nine Mile Road Corridor. East of the Downtown, Nine Mile Road is planned to remain predominantly commercial. Streetscape improvements extended along the commercial segment of the corridor will enhance its image and link it to the Central Business District. If a new civic center was designed on the present site to create a more urban image, the adjacent commercial on Nine Mile could benefit from and expand on that image. The industrial area should be maintained at the east end of the Nine Mile Road Corridor as it is consistent with the character of portions of Dequindre Road.
Nine Mile Road west of the Downtown is separated from it by I-75. Improved pedestrian access across the I-75 overpass would assist in linking the west end of the corridor with Hazel Park. Some type of signage and landscaping as a minor gateway could be provided at the west end of the City to distinguish the entry point from the Ferndale segment of Nine Mile Road.
e. Dequindre Road Corridor. North of Nine Mile, the Dequindre Road frontage is primarily developed with commercial and the City should enhance that land use pattern in the area. Opportunities should be sought to provide parking lots to serve the commercial frontage that are adequately screened from adjacent residential areas. Design guidelines for parking lots should also require adequate setbacks from Dequindre Road and result in a landscaped greenbelt along the corridor. Perhaps a corridor landscape design plan could be developed and implemented in a cooperative effort with the City of Warren to create an attractive county line from Eight Mile to Ten Mile Roads. This could serve also as a linkage between the Mixed- Use/Entertainment District and the Eight Mile and Dequindre Focus Area emphasizing the north and south gateways.
f. Eight Mile Road Corridor. A major component of the plan for the Eight Mile Road Corridor is to increase the area and depth of parcels to improve their industrial or commercial potential. This will allow for parking areas and a landscape buffer to protect and strengthen residential areas north of the frontage. Closing of Muir Street could be considered in conjunction with significant development proposals. Most of the frontage is planned for corridor business or industrial use which will increase the potential reuse of vacant properties beyond traditional retail or highway commercial. Viable light industrial uses can co-exist with commercial and a more cohesive corridor can emerge with sufficient parcel depth, attractive landscaping, quality site design standards, signage and lighting. The City should remain involved with the Eight Mile Boulevard Association and seek opportunities to coordinate
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redevelopment plans with regional planning and design proposals for the Eight Mile Road Corridor.
2. Dequindre and Eight Mile Roads. The intersection of Dequindre and Eight Mile Roads is a significant entry to Hazel Park, designated a major gateway. This location has the unique distinction of being the meeting point of the boundaries of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties, the three most populated counties in Southeast Michigan. Therefore, it is critical to redevelop this southeast corner of the City into a viable land use that makes a positive visual statement of the City. Vacant land north and west of the existing small commercial uses on that corner present an opportunity to assemble a large parcel. The larger scale, Corridor Business classification is proposed for this site as a “Gateway” project to redefine the City's image, assist in redefining the image of Eight Mile Road and the regional significance of the location. The plan also anticipates closing Muir Street and creating a system of internal access drives and combined parking behind the business frontage to provide a linkage between redeveloped commercial from Dequindre to I-75, in addition to providing a buffer zone for adjacent residential.
3. Mixed-Use/Entertainment (Race Track) Area. This concept is intended to complement the traditional commercial recreation or entertainment use of the area by facilitating the development of a planned area with a strong identity. Rather than eliminating the race track as was proposed in the 1978 Land Use Plan with the industrial designation of the area, the focus in this plan is to allow for uses that can co- exist with the race track if it is to remain.
Implementation of the plan has begun with the substantial public investment in the Ice arena on Woodward Heights. This provides a recreational anchor to the southwest corner of the area that opens up the area to further development as a complex of movie theaters, restaurants, and other indoor recreation or entertainment facilities. This type of development can complement the existing industrial park quite well and, with appropriate establishments and carefully designed landscaping and signage, a significantly improved image of the City as a regional entertainment destination could emerge.
4. Residential Neighborhoods. Although a specific site was not selected for implementation of the Residential Neighborhoods Focus Area Plan, the plan proposes this concept as one which could be applied anywhere in the City where a significant number of vacant lots and/or dilapidated houses exist to warrant redevelopment. The intent is to create a pilot project in an area small enough to permit an economically feasible redevelopment, yet large enough to make a strong visual impact.
The Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy prepared in 1994 identified the southwest portion of the City as the area with the greatest concentration of housing in poor condition. Two of the three proposed target areas were just north of Eight Mile Road west of I-75. The fact that these areas were targeted does not necessarily require that they be used for the pilot program proposed in this Plan. The City should carefully
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select an area that is not an isolated pocket of poverty. The project area should be near an area that is improving in value due to housing rehabilitation or in-fill construction.
It is recommended, although not essential, that the project area include a minimum of four City blocks with vacant lots and houses that could be acquired to assemble larger parcels. The project area could be designated as a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone (NEZ) to provide a tax incentive to attract prospective developers of an upgraded single- family residential neighborhood. The substandard houses would be demolished and lots would be reconfigured from 30 foot widths to a minimum of 45 or 60 feet.
Specific design criteria should be developed to create a variety of houses with three to four bedrooms. The target market would be young, middle-income families and designed to accommodate the preferences demanded by that market such as two bathrooms, a first floor half bath, fireplace, central air conditioning, formal dining room, family room, full basement, two car garage and quality construction.
As part of a pilot redevelopment project, the City also should seek sites for parks and open space, particularly if located in the south end of the City which is public deficient in recreation space. A new neighborhood park could be provided adjacent to the new residential development and then used as a focal point around which future redeveloped neighborhoods could emerge.
Additionally, techniques for single family lot layout as provided in The Lexicon of the New Urbanism, 1999 illustrated on this page, should be followed in any redevelopment project. These typologies allow efficient use of a 50 to 60 foot wide lot and maintain the traditional neighborhood character found in Hazel Park’s existing neighborhoods. The most important feature of this layout is the placement of the garage at the rear of the lot accessed by either a side driveway or an alley. These arrangements also permit a flexible side yard setbacks to maximize utilization of the lot. In these examples, the hatched area in front represents the living space and the rear hatched box represents the garage.
The Hazel Park Neighborhood Initiatives (HPNI), Inc. which was established as a result of the Housing and Figure 6 Neighborhood Preservation Strategy, is one vehicle Desired Single Family Typologies which could be used in implementing the Residential Focus Area Plan. The City Council and the Planning Commission should work closely with HPNI and housing market experts to develop sound design guidelines that will result in a marketable, upgraded neighborhood that can be implemented in other areas in need of redevelopment.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 116 - March, 2000 Future Land Use and Focus Areas D. Thoroughfare Plan The principal objective of a thoroughfare or road plan is to develop and maintain a system of trafficways integrated with all other elements of the Master Plan. Since Hazel Park is fully developed and the majority of the circulation system is established emphasis in this Plan is placed on maximizing the efficiency of existing roadways and developing solutions for existing traffic problems. 1. Planned Road Classifications: The major thoroughfares and local streets within the City provide for through traffic, access for abutting uses, and collection and dispersal of traffic from residential neighborhoods. Maps 3-A, Functional Classification, and 3-B, Existing Road Classification, classify all roads in a hierarchy system which recognizes the capacities and functions of each road. These classifications should guide future improvements to the City road system as well as site plan review decisions of individual development proposals. These road classifications are described below, along with Plan recommendations for improvements. a. Trunklines and Primary Roads. The major function of primary roads is to provide intra-county continuity and to feed regional freeways. These roads in Hazel Park are Eight Mile Road (M-102), Dequindre Road and Ten Mile Road. These roads are under the jurisdiction of the County Road Commission, the Macomb County Road Commission, and the Michigan Department of Transportation. I-75 and I-696 are included within this category. b. Local Major Streets. The major function of local major streets is to provide transportation between Hazel Park and adjacent communities and to feed the trunklines and primary roads. Major changes to the primary and major local streets in Hazel Park are not planned. For purposes of this plan, local major streets are John R Road, Nine Mile Road, Lennox Road, and the North and South I-75 Service Drives. c. Local Collector Streets. Collector streets provide for adequate traffic movement between thoroughfares and local streets to provide direct access to abutting property. Because traffic volumes along these streets are higher relative to local minor streets, homes should be set back from the right-of-way. Clear motorist vision is also important Ongoing maintenance and repair of these streets should receive priority over local minor streets. Because collector streets have high visibility and are often entrance ways to neighborhoods, property owners should be encouraged to maintain and upgrade the appearance of their properties. Collector streets are designated as West End, Ford, Highland, Caledonia, Russell, Hughes (Eight Mile to Woodward Heights), Merrill, Vassar (Woodward Heights to Ten Mile), Vance (Nine Mile to Woodward Heights), Battelle, Palmer, Pilgrim, Felker, Breckenridge, and Tucker. d. Local Minor Streets. Local minor streets (all other remaining streets) provide access from abutting properties to collector streets and thoroughfares. Regular street maintenance and timely snow removal enhances the livability of homes along these streets. Urban trees along these streets and all streets throughout the City should be protected.
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2. Other Improvements to Streets and Roads. To improve traffic flow along these roads, the City should work toward refining use of traffic control devices, traffic enforcement, and developing sign control and regulations which assure adequate clear vision for motorists. Also, regulations requiring adequate parking and loading facilities on individual sites will reduce conflicting vehicular movements with public rights-of-way.
The road system for Hazel Park is already constructed and there is little to no room for additional streets, street widenings, or construction of alternate routes. Therefore, the Thoroughfare Plan does not focus on these items which are usually included in plans for communities where such expansions are possible. What this Plan does focus on are those characteristics which can be changed or enhanced to improve the transportation system in Hazel Park. Among these characteristics are street closures/vacations, resurfacing and reconstruction, as well as appearance and aesthetics aspects.
Selective closure of streets, alleys and portions of streets should be considered by the City if this action would further the goals of this Plan. Muir Street, from Dequindre to West End, has already been vacated between Merrill and Dequindre, allowing for the large Warehouse Club site. Similar closure of this road, particularly west of I-75, could create increased parcel depths having Eight Mile Road frontage, and facilitate reinvestment and modernization of these sites to contemporary standards.
Other east-west local streets could be considered for closure at Dequindre to minimize nonresidential traffic on these residential streets and to allow expansion of the Corridor Business uses fronting Dequindre. It is recommended that alternate streets remain open so as to not unreasonably impact the convenience of access for residential properties.
Felker Street at Dequindre is another location which has been suggested for closure (between Dequindre and Melville). Because Felker is a collector street, the impacts of rerouting its traffic should be carefully studied before acting on this proposal. Other traffic-calming techniques such as a one way closure or narrowing might also be effective in addressing local concerns.
3. Appearance of Public Rights-of-Way. The Thoroughfare Plan also deals with the appearance and aesthetics along Hazel Park’s major commercial corridors and gateways. These gateways are shown on the Future Land Use Plan, Map 8-A. Gateways should be improved to make a positive visual statement about Hazel Park, with elements like the following: landscaping, both on private lots and within rights-of- way; site layout and orientation; site access (both vehicular and pedestrian); architectural design standards and regulations; sign controls; and utilities. Amendments to the Zoning Ordinance should be made to incorporate the concepts of these plans.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 118 - March, 2000 Future Land Use and Focus Areas E. Community Facilities Plan
Map 8-A, Future Land Use Plan, shows the existing sites within Hazel Park where community facilities are located. As with the Future Land Use Plan, the Community Facilities Plan will not vary significantly from what currently exists. Due to the nearly built- out nature of the City, these uses should continue in their existing locations for the near future. Some will require expansion, others complete relocation, and other will likely see a proposal for a change to another use. After the 2000 U.S. Census may be an opportune time to revisit the Community Facilities Plan that could give a more realistic view of the facilities improvements needs. This data could then be incorporated into an updated Capital Improvements Program.
1. Expansion of Semi-Public Uses. There will be pressures upon some of these facilities to expand where there is little to no available space. Again, as with the Future Land Use Plan, screening and buffering measures must be taken to limit or eliminate any negative aspects of an expansion of a community facility upon the adjacent neighborhoods. This will especially apply to churches that desire to expand and new buildings that are planned for construction on the same site. There are not many large, vacant sites for these uses to relocate, and there are not many vacant areas next to them for expansion space. Therefore they will need to expand or rebuild on their existing site.
2. Existing Municipal Facilities. The City must take steps to make sure City Hall, the library, parks, and recreational facilities are built and/or expanded pursuant to the recommendations and strategies of this Plan; such uses should be designed and constructed to be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. Efforts should be made to make certain these expansions or new buildings are architecturally compatible with the surrounding properties, are pedestrian-friendly and do not have an over- reliance upon automobile traffic, do not unreasonably protrude into adjacent neighborhoods, and are in keeping with the design and character of the City.
The section on Community Facilities in Chapter 2 indicates a possible need for redevelopment or relocation of the existing City Hall complex. Should the City desire to expand or replace City Hall on another site, efforts should be made to keep a civic presence within the downtown area. This could apply to the Library, Police and Fire Departments or other facility. Potential opportunities should be evaluated as they present themselves.
3. Reuse of Sites. The City can also expect to see proposals for a complete change in use of some existing community facilities, especially school buildings which may no longer be necessary. Since most of these sites are located within residential neighborhoods, new uses must be scrutinized to minimize or eliminate any negative impacts. Such changes in use should be of similar character of other community facilities, such as day care centers, low impact community centers, facilities for cultural or fine arts activities, low to medium density residential uses, or parks and recreational facilities. Commercial, warehousing, and office uses should be discouraged for these sites unless specific design guidelines and standards can be met or exceeded.
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4. Parks and Open Spaces. A key element in promoting Hazel Park as an attractive community in which to live will be to enhance the parks and recreation areas. Opportunities to improve parks include good design, additional tree plantings, quality landscaping, and choice of construction materials which are in keeping with the character of adjacent neighborhoods. Lighting, signage, and pedestrian walkways should serve to integrate parks into the overall fabric of the community. It is also important that existing facilities and parking areas be properly maintained to avoid negative visual impacts.
This Plan emphasizes the importance of maximizing the use of existing parks and other open spaces. It will be very important that the City continue to work cooperatively with the schools and other institutions to provide adequate recreation for local residents, including possible joint use of school and other quasi-public spaces.
There is also a need for the expansion of parks and recreational areas throughout Hazel Park. Some areas, especially the neighborhoods south of Nine Mile Road, west of I-75, have a deficient amount of park and recreation space.
The City should continue to seek locations for neighborhood parks and recreation facilities. The Recreation Plan is due for updating within the next year and should include specific locations for such facilities. Specific plans for new facilities in existing parks should also be identified to allow for funding opportunities from Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) as they become available.
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1. Reconstruction and Maintenance of Public Utilities. As with the thoroughfare system and community facilities, the overall design, capacity, and structure of Hazel Park’s utility systems should not change significantly within the next few years. Specific recommendations for utility improvements are beyond the scope of this Plan. However, the importance of continuing to monitor the condition of aging infrastructure must be emphasized. This should be an ongoing process with specific locations identified in the City’s annual capital improvements program and coordinated with other projects such as street reconstructions. The focus on public utilities should be continued maintenance and improvement, such as main replacements where necessary. Before undertaking redevelopment plans, the condition of utility lines in nearby areas should be thoroughly evaluated to insure that they are adequately sized and in good repair. Such considerations are often key to the success and feasibility of a redevelopment project.
2. Private Utilities. The City’s private utility systems, however, have the potential for significant changes. These systems can include, but are not limited to : electricity; natural gas; cable television; telephone; and wireless communications. The most beneficial change to these systems would be their change from above-ground to underground systems. The negative visual impacts from the above-ground utility systems, especially the electrical power transmission lines, could be improved or eliminated by converting these utilities to underground systems. The City will need to work closely with the private utility companies to accomplish this task.
3. Telecommunications. The City also stands to see significant changes in the area of wireless communications. With rapidly expanding markets and increasing deregulation, Hazel Park can expect to see more and more requests for siting wireless communication facilities within the City. Most of these will be in the form of wireless communication support structures, or towers. Such facilities should be sited within areas that will reduce or eliminate any negative impacts upon residential neighborhoods, commercial districts, or other aesthetically sensitive areas. Of particular importance in a mature small lot community like Hazel Park is designating areas well suited for wireless communication facilities. Efforts should be made to update zoning ordinance provisions specifically designed for such facilities.
Hazel Park Master Plan - 121 - March, 2000 Implementation Strategy CHAPTER IX
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
A. Introduction
Hazel Park has an opportunity to build on its assets, add to its tax base and shape the City into a better place to live by adding services and amenities for its citizens that have not been available before. The Planning Commission must not simply adopt this Master Plan but also adopt an attitude that follows through on the Plan’s recommendations as its first priority. By making the Plan a living document, by maintaining a momentum, it becomes the guide to direct change for the better.
Any and all of the recommendations of the Plan require a commitment by the City Council, the administrative staff and the citizens of Hazel Park. So often ideas that sound good when first spoken, when first presented at a public hearing, or when discussed at a community visioning session become forgotten when competing with everyday business City.
The fundamentals of City government are generally well understood by all. The Master Plan, once integrated into the process, should raise this understanding by holding out the opportunities for community improvement. In addition it becomes the guide for zoning decisions, capital improvements, redevelopment of obsolete and deteriorated areas, and directing public expenditures to maximize long term benefit.
Much of this Plan is a compilation of old, but still valid, ideas, and short range dreams with a basic theme of preservation of existing values and investment. What else should a Master Plan represent for a community that is fully built? The Plan preserves and enhances the basic values and development pattern found today.
B. Basic Implementation Measures
! Revisit, with financial backing, the recommendations of the City’s Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy prepared in June, 1994.
! Pursue the redevelopment of areas of blighted housing as identified herein.
! Continue active code enforcement.
! Support an annual street tree planting program that re-plants, where appropriate, all City streets.
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! Inventory the condition of the City’s water and sewer lines, curbs, streets and sidewalks. Begin an analysis of cost of repair and replacement and financing methods.
! Identify potential future sites for new community facilities, such as: City Hall, Police Station, Hazel Park’s branch of 45th District Court, and library.
! Identify all neighborhood park and playground improvement needs and include them in the updated Recreation Plan to facilitate potential funding from Michigan Department of Natural Resources Land and other sources.
! Conduct comprehensive Zoning Ordinance review upon adoption of the Master Plan to insure consistency and provide for new concepts.
! Review other codes including those impacting existing structures, junk cars, grass and weeds, trash accumulation, illegal home businesses, oversized vehicles in residential areas and other nuisance abatement codes.
! The Master Plan should be continually reviewed and updated as conditions change and opportunities arise.
! Annually, the Planning Commission should meet for the purpose of reviewing the prior year’s accomplishments and set goals for the coming year. The City Council, Downtown Development Authority, Parks and Recreation Board, key administrative personnel and other involved parties should be invited.
! Building facade and site design standards should be developed and adopted by the Planning Commission. While some may be only voluntary, it provides the developer with direction regarding community expectations.
! Consider the adoption of a capital improvements program on an annual basis. With the support of the City Manager’s office and the administration the Planning Commission could initiate this as a part of its legal responsibilities and recommend the expenditures and priorities to City Council.
! Municipal promotion will be essential to effect a positive City image and carry out the recommendations of the downtown and commercial corridors focus areas. The City newsletter and promotional events are good steps in this direction.
C. Focus Areas
! Each of the several focus areas have been described earlier in the Future Land Use and Focus Areas chapter. As shown in Table 9-A, each requires considerable effort, staffing and financial support, but, when taken together, become the main objectives of the Master Plan.
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D. Focus Area Strategies
1. Residential Neighborhoods Strategy. The 1994 Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Strategy prepared by McKenna & Associates, Inc. for Hazel Park recommended that a broad-based nonprofit community development corporation (CDC) established. As proposed, the CDC would meet the Community Housing Development Organization (CHODO) criteria for board composition to enable its eligibility for HOME Program funding under the National Affordable Housing Act. The Hazel Park Neighborhood Initiative (HPNI) was designed to be the vehicle for implementing the recommendations put forth in the Housing and Neighborhood Strategy. In order to implement this Master Plan, one recommendation is to support the HPNI as established and publicize its existence heavily to encourage community-wide support and participation.
a. Housing Rehabilitation. Targeted housing rehabilitation is a priority in order to revitalize Hazel Park neighborhoods in need of public intervention.
b. Rental Housing Inspection. A rental housing inspection program is one technique to deal with the decline in housing quality. Without it landlords will provide less than the minimum maintenance which brings down neighborhood quality.
c. Tree Maintenance Program. Trees are a tremendous asset to neighborhood quality and their maintenance is critical to providing beauty to the City's local streets. Trees help clean the air, provide shade in summer and add considerable value to the community. A tree maintenance program includes periodic trimming, removal of dead, dying and dangerous trees and the regular replanting of recommended species of street trees.
d. Code Update. Updating codes is a City housekeeping task. An existing structures maintenance code should be considered. Using a model provided by a national organization, with modifications for local conditions, the code becomes the primary reference for residential code enforcement.
e. New Construction Program. A new construction program to provide in-fill housing in those neighborhoods with a number of vacant lots and/or dilapidated structures will require an especially active role on the part of the City. Two housing types are recommended for consideration: a scattered site single family within a three to four block area, and single family attached designed as owner-occupied townhouses or row houses.
In order to upgrade selected neighborhoods, new detached single family homes must be constructed on lots with a minimum of 45 feet in width and 30 percent lot
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TABLE 9-A FOCUS AREA PROPOSED PROJECTS & IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY Focus Area Project Responsible Agencies Funding Sources Residential Targeted Housing Rehabilitation Community Development, County; MSHDA; Neighborhoods Building, HPNI FHA203k New Construction Program Community Development, FHLB-CIP&AHP; Building Private Sector Rental Housing Inspection Building City; County CDBG; FHA203k Expand Parks and Open Space Parks & Recreation, DNR; General Public Service, Fund Community Development Tree Maintenance Program Public Services, Parks & DNR; General Recreation, DNR Fund Update Codes Building, Administration General Fund Downtown Complete Streetscape Planning, Public Services MDOT; DDA-TIF Recruitment & Retention DDA, Planning General Fund Commercial Code Enforcement Planning, Building General Fund Corridors Parking Lots for Corridors Planning, Public Services Special Assessment Streetscape Improvements Planning, Public Services Special Assessment 8 Mile/ Acquire Blighted Buildings & Planning & DDA, City DDA, Dequindre Vacant Lots for Land Assembly Administration, Building, Private Sector Council Private Sector Facilitate “Gateway Planning, Administration; General Fund; Development” Council Private Sector Race Track Create Mixed-Use Entertainment Planning, Administration General Fund District Identify Recruit Potential Commercial Recreation Businesses Prepare & Implement Concept Planning, Council, CDBG Plan Administration Notes: DDA = Downtown Development Authority HPNI = Hazel Park Neighborhood Initiative MSHDA = Michigan State Housing Development Agency FHA = Farmers Home Administration FHLB = Federal Housing Lending Bank DNR = Michigan Department of Natural Resources CDBG = Community Development Block Grant
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coverage. Targeting those neighborhoods that have developed with 30 foot width lots, vacant adjacent lots are combined into buildable lots of 60 feet, if two are combined and two lots 45 foot width if three are combined. In no case should lots of less than 45 feet be considered for new construction. Lot layout design standards for redevelopment of single family areas are provided in the future land use section of this plan.
Where larger parcels can be assembled, such as eight to ten adjacent lots creating parcels of 240 to 300 feet in width, single family attached development becomes more feasible. These need not be rental units; rather, ownership should be considered and even required. Moderate density should be strictly regulated to avoid the appearance of overcrowding and unduly stressing streets and utilities. Furthermore, townhouses should be designed so that there is some uniqueness about each home, such as color, building material or architectural variation, to enhance the marketing of the homes for purchase. One area targeted for such attached single family development is located on at the eastern end of Woodward Heights. Row house design standards are recommended in the future land use section of this plan
f. Expand Parks and Open Space. Hazel Park is a fully built out community and unlikely to expand its park land to any appreciable degree without considerable expense and dislocation of residents. A close analysis of user needs may go a long way toward maximizing the space that is available. One way to begin redefining park facilities and open space may be to select an area for the residential new construction pilot program with an existing undersized park and combining one or two adjacent lots to expand its size. The new construction project could include the park's development as an element of this pilot project and include it in the next Recreation Plan to gain access to Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) funding.
2. Downtown Strategy.
a. Streetscape Improvements. The Downtown Development Authority has made considerable progress with the streetscape improvements along the John R frontage north and south of Nine Mile Road. The continuance and completion of the streetscape program along Nine Mile Road will enhance the appearance and impact the marketplace by further defining the downtown. This will tend to boost the likelihood of attracting new and viable retail tenants. Funding is the sole obstacle, but several sources have been recommended.
b. Recruitment and Retention. The recruitment and retention program is key to meeting community goals and reshaping its downtown area as well as the other
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commercial corridors. Left to chance, the areas will likely remain with an unacceptable degree of vacancy and incompatible uses. This task is often the responsibility of the Downtown Development Authority.
3. Commercial Corridors Strategy.
a. Parking Lots for Corridors. The Land Use Plan recommends the development of off-street parking lots to the rear of developed commercial corridors. In most cases this requires the acquisition and demolition of existing single family homes. Thus careful siting of the parking lots is necessary to avoid encroachment into the adjoining neighborhood. Careful review of plans by the Planning Commission to require attractive screening walls, dumpster enclosures, access control and avoidance of lighting spill over is required. A review of the Zoning Ordinance underway will assure that these requirements are met.
b. Code Enforcement Procedures. Regular code enforcement in these areas is important to alleviate some of the problems from older existing commercial areas that were developed without adequate site standards. Assigning code enforcement officers to inspect these areas on a regular basis and give them the authority to demand compliance and to follow-up on violators is critical to the success of such a program.
4. Eight Mile/Dequindre Strategy.
a. Facilitate “Gateway Development”. A part of the vision for the future Hazel Park is the assembly and redevelopment of the Eight Mile/Dequindre area. This is a possible dream that can become reality with the right push and support of community leaders. This could become an entry or gateway project with the Eight Mile Road exposure, easy access to I-75 and its crossroads position where Oakland, Wayne and Macomb County meet.
Attracting a developer to sponsor a redevelopment effort is much like the proverbial chicken and egg - which come first? In this case Hazel Park, through its DDA, has committed financial support. The developer will follow, but first the preparatory steps of drawing up a plan, identifying the financial resources, adoption of a redevelopment scheme and strategy is necessary.
The Eight Mile Boulevard Association (8MBA) hired a consultant to do initial investigation on potential redevelopment sites along Eight Mile. After a review of potential redevelopment sites along Eight Mile Boulevard, the 8MBA designated the Eight Mile/Dequindre area as a pilot project with significant impact.
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Stressing the regional accessibility and high visibility of this intersection, not only due to its I-75 access, but as the point at which Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne County meet, could make it an excellent candidate for a “Gateway” redevelopment project. This may also provide broader-based support for a TEA21 application, Urban Land Assembly Loan, and other financing mechanisms that are directed toward projects with regional impact.
5. Race Track Area Strategy.
a. Establish Urban Entertainment District. The Race Track Area strategy is similar to that of Eight Mile/Dequindre, though less complicated due to the large amount of available vacant land under single ownership. The establishment of an urban entertainment district has been recommended in the Master Plan. The intent of this District is to place, in the area of the race track, complementary facilities that together create a commercial recreation center. Short term, assumes that the race track will remain open, while positioning the site for possible future more intensive alternatives. Thus, the framework to create a visible “Gateway” development with a commercial recreation theme is in place.
Future indoor recreational uses could include a movie theatre, bowling alley, active recreation centers, health club, golf driving range, tennis and / or racquetball clubs, micro-brewery or brew your own beer establishment, and other similar facilities. Preparation of a concept schematic plan for the area is recommended, identifying land parcels and potential site users to be included with a promotional package. The package could then be distributed prospective developers/investors in the commercial entertainment/recreation business. An appropriate mixed use zoning district has been adopted in anticipation of these recommendations.
6. Conclusions. In summary, the City should prepare concept plans (as appropriate), and identify specific potential investors, developers and organizations to enlist their support in each of the appropriate Focus Areas. All of these Focus Area Plans can only be implemented with broad-based community support and by beginning with a visible project that will act as a catalyst for further improvements.
Hazel Park Master Plan -128- March, 2000 Planning Consultant
McKenna Associates, Incorporated Community Planning # Urban Design 32605 West Twelve Mile Road, Suite 165 Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334 (248) 553-0290
Phillip C. McKenna, AICP, PCP ...... President Sara J. Hodges, AICP ...... Project Director Gary N. Wilson, AICP...... Project Manager Scott R. Benson...... Project Assistant Angela Witkowski ...... Project Consultant Mario Ortega...... GIS Analysis Sabah Aboody Keer ...... Maps and Graphics John Otwell ...... Maps and Graphics Sara Lapshan ...... Text Production Kacy Smith...... Text Production