Troy officials are trying to fill in the remaining holes in the Big Beaver Road area, which includes Somerset Collection and high-rise buildings.Troy explores new revenues
As city officials try to bring in tax dollars, citizens are growing leery of their ideas.
Michael Silverstein and his son Eric, 12, chat at their home in Troy. Silverstein supported the proposal for a minor-league baseball stadium, but Troy officials rejected it.
Jim Savage and his grandson Alexander, 13, walk after school. Savage rejects the notion that Troy must keep growing.
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TROY -- Woods, tranquility and room to roam are what attracted Jim and Betty Savage to Troy nearly 30 years ago, before the Somerset Collection and a glistening array of high-rise buildings transformed Big Beaver from a rugged, two-lane road into the city's Golden Corridor.
"When we first moved here, we could travel anywhere in Troy in 10 minutes," said Savage, 74. "Now it takes that long just to get out of our street onto Rochester Road because of all the traffic. It's horrible."
Now Troy, with 86,000 residents, is running out of space and residents are growing more vocal about how the city fills in its remaining gaps. They're leery of glitzy, large-scale projects such as a minor-league baseball stadium and the problems they could bring.
Others, including the mayor, say the city must continue to capture new tax dollars to help maintain its high level of services and avoid the problem of dwindling revenue that has plagued older, built-out suburbs. The dispute has played very publicly in City Council meetings that routinely go past midnight.
"To be quite frank, I don't think I've seen a community this divided in a long time," said City Councilman Martin F. Howrylak, 30, who will be on the council until 2007. "If one side doesn't want to work together, there's not a whole lot more you can do other than keep sending out olive branches."
In addition, the city also is aging -- it turns 50 this year -- and is developing cracks in its shiny veneer. Experts say if a decision isn't made soon about the direction Troy should take, the city will be headed for trouble.
"The different facets of our community need to get together toward a common objective," City Manager John Szerlag said. "I recognize we have a challenge to meet our status as a premier community. But we are now an aging community, and if we don't decide where we want to go, we will fall into an angle of repose right into blight."
Much of the controversy has been focused on the 150 acres on the Civic Center property on Big Beaver, between Crooks and Livernois roads. The property houses City Hall, public library, courthouse, community center and several other buildings; about 80 acres could be redeveloped.
Only 7 acres were being recommended by developers for the minor-league stadium, which ultimately was voted down by the City Council. It wasn't the first time plans for the property were shot down.
• In 2000-01, the City Council directed staff to develop two contracts, 1 acre each for a children's museum and an IMAX theater, on that site, said Doug Smith of the city's real estate office.
"We signed contracts for both of them, but when Mayor (Matt) Pryor came in, council decided to break both contracts," he said.
• The next proposal was a convention/conference center that would take about 7 or 8 acres. But voters in April 2004 defeated the proposal by a 4-1 margin. Residents expressed concerns about a private enterprise making money off a public property, and cited traffic concerns.
• The minor-league baseball stadium was voted down last month. Some residents said a look at neighboring communities was all they needed to see that the stadium wasn't a good idea. Sterling Heights residents who live near the Freedom Hill Amphitheater have battled the city for years over noise and traffic concerns.
Richard "Red" Hughes, 77, who has lived in Troy since 1948, opposed the stadium from the beginning, mainly because of what he saw in other cities.
"We never wanted a Freedom Hill in Troy," he said. "In Sterling Heights, the residents now have problems with traffic, noise, everything. If we had approved the stadium, we could have had concerts like that, overflowing with traffic and noise. I'm just glad it wasn't approved."
Dick Minnick, president of the Westwood Park Homeowners Association, would have taken the council to court if it had approved the stadium.
"We were ready to sue," said Minnick, whose subdivision is about 1,000 feet north of the proposed stadium site. "We were interviewing attorneys in anticipation of a fight."
But not everybody in Troy was against the proposal.
Kathy Gelement, 41, said the city lost a good opportunity.
"The city looked a gift horse in the mouth, looked away and lost out," said Gelement, who attended several stadium-related council meetings with her husband, James.
"I thought it would be great for our youth. Now some other city will benefit from it."
Last February, a 13-person task force commissioned by the city recommended a plan that included a winter activities area, amphitheater, public art, a maze and a fountain plaza.
The plan was presented to the council, accepted, and then nothing happened, according to longtime resident Mary Ann Bernardi, who was on the task force.
"The mayor thanked us for our work, and then nothing was ever done about it," she said.
Mayor Louise Schilling was among the three council members who voted for the stadium. Her disappointment in its defeat still rang in her recent state of the city address.
"Some in our community would have you believe that standing still, running in place or treading water is the right motion for Troy. I am not one of those people," Schilling said. "I believe we must create our future. First we must protect the integrity of our neighborhoods, but we also have to make Troy a community that businesses will invest in."
But Jim Savage, who attends numerous council meetings, and recently was among the majority of residents against the minor-league stadium, rejects the notion that Troy must keep growing.
"I'm not anti-growth, but the way the city is promoting development has interfered with the residents' way of life," he said. "People moved into areas with woods, and now they're being built up with high-density offices or housing."
Kurt Metzger, director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University, says Troy has some built-in safeguards that will help it avoid the pitfalls of dwindling tax dollars that have plagued older, inner-ring suburbs.
"Troy doesn't suffer from the same kind of issues that many other built-out suburbs have, such as a diminishing income," he said. "They've got the Big Beaver corridor, Somerset Collection and other attractions."
Mark Miller of the city's planning committee said the city is in discussions with five consulting teams who are being asked to submit papers for the Big Beaver corridor revitalization study. The long-term goal is to add housing so people can work, live, shop and dine all in the same area.
"It is basically the Downtown Development Authority area west of Coolidge to Rochester Road," Miller said. "It may be expanded -- we haven't signed any contracts yet."
Miller said the study will cost about $100,000.
That does not make Dick Minnick happy.
"It's tax money," he said. "It's our money, but they can't afford to put money into parkland. It seems that this study is more about making the Big Beaver corridor pretty by putting in more flowers."
You can reach Shawn D. Lewis at (248) 647-8825 or slewis@detnews.com.
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