View more Michigan Municipal League photos of the enLiVen Lathrup Village PlacePlans project on flickr.
enLiVen Lathrup Village
The attractive historic homes that make up Lathrup Village’s intimate neighborhoods stand in stark contrast to Southfield Road—a major suburban highway that slices the community in half, lined primarily with unremarkable convenience retail and office strips. While the city has updated its master plan and zoning ordinance to support the creation of a “village center†that re-establishes a sense of place appropriate to the historic small-town feel of the residential neighborhoods, it also understands the importance of leading the way with the properties that the city owns.
This PlacePlan provides a conceptual plan for the public green spaces that run parallel to Southfield Road, behind the city hall and privately-owned historic school, showing how this park land can be enhanced to best serve its role as the emotional center of the community. Developed through a series of public workshops, the concept builds on what works while seeking to better serve activities like the summer concert series and farmers market, which are popular in spite of the space rather than because of it.
The process also included a collaboration with the state’s Redevelopment Ready Communities program to identify options for the aging city hall building facing Southfield Road. This evaluation led the city to discussions with the owners of the Annie Lathrup School, to consider how an adaptive reuse of that property might include relocated city facilities.
This report includes the concept plan for the green spaces, the findings from the RRC consultant team, and recommendations for implementation opportunities and policy actions that can support these visions. While the full vision is likely to take several years to achieve, and the details will evolve as the city moves forward, the League and MSU provide the following as a short-term strategy for Lathrup Village to pursue in 2016.
In the news!
Community gets first glance at new City Hall plans – CandGnews.com, July 22, 2015
Residents gather to share opinions on new City Hall – CandGnews.com, April 3, 2015
Lathrup Village selected for PlacePlans project – CandGnews.com, Feb. 11, 2015
Lathrup Village among seven communities selected for PlacePlans Work – Miplace.org, Feb. 6, 2015
Lathrup Village Selected for PlacePlans Work – Michigan Municipal League Press Release, Feb. 5, 2015