Wyandotte Downtown Development Authority Director Joe Gruber (left) explains the American Rescue Plan Act funding for the city’s downtown infrastructure project during the Jan. 9 city council meeting.
Alleys, parking lots, underground utilities on to-do list
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – The Downtown Development Authority will use American Rescue Plan Act money for a $13.3 million downtown infrastructure project, DDA Director Joe Gruber said at the Jan. 9 City Council meeting.
“This is exciting news,” he said.
The long-term capital improvement and downtown infrastructure plan will reconstruct and resurface all primary alleyways and parking lots, all of which are in need of repair.
The project will create a network of greenways and thoroughfares, and will beautify the parking lots, public spaces and pocket parks.
All telephone poles and overhead utility lines in the downtown Central Business District will be reconfigured to run underground.
Placemaking, the construction of public amenities, will include bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
In addition, façade improvement options will be available for nearby commercial and residential properties.
In November 2022, the Wayne County Commission allocated $3.95 million of Wayne County’s second batch of ARPA money to support the $13.3 million downtown infrastructure project.
Gruber said Wayne County made the decision to allocate all of its ARPA money to its communities and asked the communities to come up with eligible projects.
“They asked for their best, most transformative economic development projects,” he said. “We worked with the department heads throughout the city of Wyandotte, including Municipal Services, Public Services, Police, the Downtown Development Authority and Recreation, and we submitted between 12 and 14 different projects.”
Gruber said Wayne County identified the downtown infrastructure project as its highest priority.
“It is a project that envisions reconstructing all of downtown’s alleyways, removing all of the overhead utility lines, resurfacing the alleyways and parking lots in concrete, and creating more of an interconnected network of trailways, greenways,” he said. “Something that suits the business community downtown – garbage trucks, delivery trucks – but also something that suits pedestrians and bicycles.”
In July 2022, the DDA was awarded a $1 million place-based Infrastructure Grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Revitalization and Placemaking program.
The remaining $8.35 million will come from DDA revenue bonds, backed by the city of Wyandotte; a 2-mils levy on DDA district property; a special assessment district on commercial property owners; and Brownfield Tax Increment Financing from Federal Building Redevelopment and the Downtown East Alleyway Project, which will be $2.6 million over 30 years, pending state approval of the capture for state tax purposes.
The DDA also hopes to get grant funding from the Ralph Wilson Jr. Foundation, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments and the Michigan Department of Transportation.
The DDA director will manage the project with the city administrator, city engineer, the general manager of Municipal Services, the superintendent of Public Services and the city attorney.
“It’s a modernization project, a beautification project, it’s an infrastructure project, and the county seems very supportive of that,” Gruber said. “There is a lot of federal funding out there, and I think it is our job as a community to try to get our hands on as much of that as possible, and we are grateful for the opportunity.”