There just to honor my grandmother, and so she had a violet tree in front of her house years ago that ended up having to get to her down to make a ramp for my grandfather. We can go to the next slide. This is just another angle, just showing what that space looks like. We can go to the next slide. This is another angle just showing you what that that play area in the tree looks like, we can go to the next slide. So in terms of benefits, how does this project benefit me and the city of Highland Park? So again, family unity is a big one for me. Again, just having a space that my family can come back to to be able to have some of the same experiences that I did growing up, like I said, my between my cousins and my brother, my aunts, my uncles, we spent a lot of time at my grandmother's house growing up. If you look at this picture on the left, it's a lot of younger cousins that are growing up that, you know, a lot of them aren't even included in this photo, but just wanting to still have a space for them to be able to share some of the experiences that I had as a kid. Next benefit is around neighborhood enhancement. So I've read through all 127 pages of the Highland Park 2030 master plan, and this project, it meets a lot of the initiatives that you guys are looking to accomplish in that so enhancing empty parcels, generating tax revenue, to be able to fix some of the infrastructure issues in Highland Park, from lighting the water to internet, bringing or enhancing the perception of vibrancy in the neighborhood, which ultimately ends up attracting other developers to the area and people to the area. But again, I'm again, a big believer that the space that we're in impacts who we are and how we feel. One of the things when I was younger and even as an adult, that I used to like to do at my grandmother's house is looked through photo albums. And two things always stood out to me. There were a lot of trees in Highland Park, and the houses were very, very bright, so the streets were full. And you look at the neighborhood now, a lot of that's gone. So one of my clients, Mr. Smith, when I found out he lived in Highland Park, I told him, Hey, my grandmother used to live in Highland Park. And he said, Oh, yeah. What street? I said, Midland. And he said, Oh, they tore down all the houses on that block. And I said, Yeah, well, we're working on trying to get some of that, you know, clean back up and filled back in so it creates a space that's not empty. I mean, right now, those vacant lots aren't providing any value. I often tell my mom, hey, you need to get out in the neighborhood and walk. But she's afraid to get out and walk because there's a lot of stray dogs walking around in the neighborhood. So if you look back at those the images that are shared, there's a pathway in there where you know you can walk around. So neighborhood enhancement is one and then again, the impact to the city from a revenue perspective, right now. There's no tax revenue coming in from those property spaces, so that's increased tax revenue for you guys, and then also decreased maintenance. So my dad and my uncle in between the city coming out to manage the lawn. My dad and my uncle are often managing the lawn over there we can go to the next slide. So just in terms of funding, this will be a completely self funded project. I have the capital, Personal Capital, to get this project done. I'm a big hands on kind of girl, so I've done some kitchen renovations in the past, some bathroom renovations, some bedroom renovations, and I'm very much a when my parents paid for my parents to get their roof replaced, that was up on the roof with the contractors just making sure things got done the way I needed to get done. So a lot of this, I do plan on working on myself, but the funding is there to get the projects done. I do have established relationships with contractors and some of the larger construction management firms here, they work in Metro Detroit anyway, but I don't foresee having to tap into that. And then I've worked on some Habitat for Humanity rebuild greening of Detroit. So this is just, I'd like to do this stuff for fun. And a lot of times I can sign myself up for a project, and it's fun, but it's definitely work. We can go to the next slide. So if we have time, I have a 92nd video of a bedroom renovation I did for my grandmother when she went into the hospital. Just wanted to give her a peaceful space to be in when she came back home. So if we have time for it. I can. I don't mind sharing that
with you guys. We're stretching, but we're going to make it happen. Okay?
And this is the last part, and we'll open up the floor for questions. If you guys have it,
I did hear it. I can't see it.
Can? Can you press the expand button on the corner of the gray tab? Okay, stop sharing. We might have to turn the volume up a little bit. I
wanted to do a bedroom renovation for light brown. You can't really tell in this clip, but that included taking two by fours off the wall with paneling and walking protect. I wanted to do a bedroom renovation for my Grand Lodge. You can't really tell in this clip, but that included taking two by fours off the wall with paneling and walking protect pulling in the holes from the nails and sanding everything down. I really wanted to brighten up the space, so I went with a light green. When I got back to the bedroom, I could tell it was a little too green. I like it, but I said, What's going to show at this point? I can tell I wasn't feeling covered. It was just too green, but I said, I will see what it looks like in the morning. This is the next day. Wasn't filled in. I called my brother so he could see it. He didn't work anymore. So I decided to transition to a block of color, white at the top, but the Green was still too green. So I ended up back up loud or later, and this one was after three attempts, I was satisfied. I'm so grateful to my local because I was getting tired, so the room
started to come, went out to go shop for dinner. That's okay. I think we it's
very
exciting, and this is the big reveal. I didn't get a chance to stay in her floors, but I'll come back to bed. What happened?
So that connection was not alright. I feel like you guys got to see everything. So
let me do this. I'm a
permanent City Council. I only got 20 seconds that I just want to add to it. Okay? I think you're U of M training engineer trying to do a project outside, project like this in Highland Park. I think that's pretty awesome. This is the type of thing that will make other people driving through saying I want to invest here. It's very unique. And I can go on, but that's my two cent. I think it's a very unique project in and of itself, and that is not negating the family, your family connection to or in spite of it's on its own merit. It's a very interesting and innovative project, and I think it would bring some interest to that area, because there is nothing going on right, other than the people who are holding on, who are living there, but there's nothing of interest in the area. So I think that would be a tremendous benefit. I'm gonna turn it over to members of city council. We're about eight minutes past our seven o'clock mark. I forget 15 after will be an extreme, but I think I want to make sure and try and give everybody an opportunity to ask questions of our presenter here for the workshop. So I'll turn it on unless you have no questions. Is there? Are there any additional questions that members would have before this will come to us in a regular meeting. I got a few questions. Yes, ma'am, please go right ahead.
First question is, anybody can occupy this space? And is it open? 24/7,
so this will be for my family, yeah, so more of a private space so we can manage and take care of it.
So hopefully
I look at it correctly. Is there space on the side of your grandmother's house? Why across the street? Why not next to your grandmother's house?
So there is a space on one side. There's a abandoned four Plex on the other side. But again, my mom has been there for over eight years now, especially it's been, ooh, I think it's been a little over 12 years. So she's been there with my grandmother. But ideally, at some point I would like to create a driveway space there, because right now my mom, she still works, so she comes home it's late, her car is parked on the street, and just wanted to make sure she's got a safe space to be able to come into the house later at night. So
I really believe in working on what you already have. I say that to all the builders or all the people that come in, and I think working on getting the driveway, I can't tell you what you want to do first. I'm just saying I'm a big, big component already have first. Also show others. Hey, look, look at what we can do, or what can be done on spot. And normally we don't sell across the street. We sell next to the property that's there that we did come with a plan. So you were mentioning by having your family come back, why not be on two houses? Well, explain your back.
It is so that's it is so that will be permanent space for them to stay. But again, if you, if you go through the Highland Park 2030, Master Plan, which I know you guys see and talk through all the time, right well. So the point I'm getting at is that it's, it's the demand for housing, and Highland Park is pretty it's a low right now. So building two houses over there, that's, that's an option, but I do think that's something that would be better suited down the line. Want some of the infrastructure concerns in Highland Park address. Why
am I going to sit
there? Well, so, so some of the concerns are water. So again, this is a outdoor space for us to be able to fellowship and relax. So the water is not a huge concern. The electricity is not a big concern. That's I don't think the the the concerns that you would have with an outdoor usage space are a little different than what you would have from a housing standpoint. There are
some things in our books they say you would have an electric vehicle. You also have to have a water deal, you period, whether you want to add there, how you going to work. So there still is a water deal. And there's still a water deal, whether you have Granby or not. So again, where my standpoint is that and so CD administration, we need housing, right? You keep saying you want to bring them back and enjoy this space where, sorry for your loss, but to enjoy this space. What better way to enjoy the space than to live here. And you can still acquire other land after living here, but you also can improve where you are and also show people, Hey, this is what it looks like. This is what you can have here in Highland Park with all our other issues that we have. So those were not my biggest thing. We about the other two. It kind of looks to me like, right?
So
I think your design is very beautiful. It's actually something I would love to see in the city. My concern is the precedent that we were set with the individuality of it, if it was open to the public, I, I may be more on board and more willing, you know, but it's it's personal, it's private. And I, I'm worried about the floodgates that's going to open for other people who come in and say that they want something personal and private, and they want the city to give them land and do something personal and private. You know, I can see something like that in a number of areas. You know, it's in a big, a big chess board, absolutely beautiful. I love to play chess. I do too, you know, it's, you know, I can see it. I see the vision. I'm just worried about, we already have monstrosity on Avalon villages doing the exact same thing and and I'm just, I'm worried about what doors are going to open with the personal and the private part of it. If, if it was open to the public, I would be more amenable to it, okay, but it's just a little thought for you. Okay, okay,
additional questions, additional questions. Thank you so much. Miss Jackson, thank you. So we've asked all the questions that we would need before we would move forward with this. All questions have been answered. All right. Thank you so much. And with that, at 714, we will call the workshop meeting and join take a brief break before we start on next week. Thank you.
Give me a five minutes. Get
some water absolutely But
you. Oh,
check. Information, okay,
Do Eight
which That's what I
me lot of great
memory junior high school, Awesome.
What's your
Name? Man, You okay,
but
it. Okay, ladies, as soon as Mr. Al Sharpton walks back in, we're gonna Go, just gonna let it RIP.
You. That's pretty good this
Yeah, that's
pretty good, Yeah.
You, Miss man, you
Oh, just ready to strike this gavel.
Anything that'll keep my stomach
I'm going to ask a silly question in the midst of all these sniffles and cars, How's everybody feeling? I
hope you had a wonderful holiday, and forgive us these few minutes to try and accommodate we are all part time employees. All of us are committed to work during the day, so when we get in here just after work hours, we may require just a little bit more time to stretch out to be able to accommodate the citizens. We're not quite like the city of Detroit, being full time council people, not at all, none the least bit.
Still eating. No, I wish. No,
we did have to make another round of mac and cheese, though I'm just waiting on Miss del Shafi. It
is winter time.
Wow. Encourage a business to make brighten up their area for use a lot of happiness time.
Alright? Ladies gentlemen, if you would, good evening. Ladies and gentlemen, forget the late start. It is 7:22pm, and I'd like to welcome you to the city Island parks in person and virtual regular meeting scheduled for today, Monday, December 2, 2024 scheduled at 7pm we are slightly turning here today. Um, bypassing the opening ceremonies. Madam Deputy Clerk, if you would please call the roll for us. Councilman
Shafi, Councilwoman Martin, Councilwoman Manica here. Council proton Robinson, he's excused tonight. Council President Thomas, present.
So now we're going to move on to Item three on the agenda, which is the approval of tonight's agenda. Members of Council, you had an opportunity to review the agenda. The chair will pause and entertain a motion, motion to approve. Have a motion. Have a motion to approve the current agenda, by Councilman O'Keefe, seconded by Councilwoman Manica, seeing no hands, hearing no words. I know the center, if you will be kind enough to call the roll on item three,
Councilman Shafi Yes, Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council President Thomas, Yes.
Motion carries. Agenda is approved. So next item four is the approval of proposed minutes for the in person and virtual regular meeting held on November 18, 2024 City Council What's your pleasure?
Motion to approve
Second
I have a motion to approve by Councilman el Shafi seconded by Councilwoman Manica, to approve the minutes for the November 18 meeting. Seeing no hands, hearing no words. I ask for to call for the role on that item please.
Councilman Shafi Yes, Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes, Council President Thomas Yes.
Motion carries moving on to the next item on the agenda, which is an opportunity for the mayor to speak to council and to the citizens. Mayor McDonald do we have you available online? We'd like to address the audience this evening.
I'm here. Thank you, Council, President, and to the honorable body and the citizens of Highland Park. I'd like to say good evening. I'm a little under the weather, as you could hear it on my voice, but I definitely wanted to just address a few things. Um, first of all, I would like to acknowledge a birthday that we celebrated on November 20, for Miss Woodard, who lives on, who lives in Highland Park, and she's one of the oldest people that citizens in Highland Park, if not the oldest. She just turned 103 and so, yes, she's 103 years old and so and still vibrant, still active in her church and activities with her golden girls of Highland Park. And so we would just like to acknowledge her birthday, which happened on November 20. On a sad note, I would like to send our condolences to two seniors, family that passed away. One is on Monterey Street. Has been in Highland Park for a very long time. Her husband was a master gardener, also in the newspaper. He he did an article Miss Madison and so she passed away last week. And as well as Miss Hamilton, who is one of our active seniors in our programs, very, very much so and she passed away, wait the week before the end so for Miss Warford. Ernestine Warford, if you know her, please send your condolences and to Martha Madison and Paula Madison, please send their condolences for those who do know her, next Wednesday, I want to invite you out to my coffee and conversation. It'll be the last one of the year. I want to make sure that I have everybody's you know, questions. So when we come back in the beginning of next year, we can start talking about those things and looking more into how we can help move the city forward. Please take this is the time where you get to come and talk to the mayor and sit down and we have open dialect, open conversation. So I hope you show up. Um, I know I'm forgetting something, but right now I'm sorry my head is banging, so I am going to sign off for now. If you have any questions for me that you think of, you can always email me at G McDonald at Highland Park, mi gov, or called my assistance at 313-252-0050, extension, 240, and that's all I have right now. Council President, I appreciate your time.
Thank you very much, ma'am, okay,
we'll move on after that. We're going to move on to citizens participation, which is two minutes that we set aside for anyone in the audience to speak on the items that are on the agenda. Today's agenda. Items include a resolution to apply for a grant for mission, to renew our copy or release the approval of our schedule under the Community Development several resolutions to approve the sales for property. Do we have any citizens that want to speak on those individual agenda items? Okay, seeing no movement, we're going to move past citizens participation right into item five under the Administration. That first item is a resolution to submit an application for a mission to my neighborhood grant, 2.0 city council, what's your pleasure?
I move to approve the resolution to submit the application for MH, sorry. M S, H, D, A, Michigan neighborhood grant, 2.0
support with questions.
We have a motion on the floor to approve this resolution made by Councilman Manica, supported by Councilman al Shafi. He has questions. Mr. Al Shafi, the floor is yours? Uh,
is there somebody that can speak to this grant?
Yes, this is Burgess.
Mister Burgess, how are you today?
Just fine. Thank you. Alright. So
you got a couple of questions here for you. Um, this is our second time applying for this grant, right?
Yes,
okay, um, where is the report that we asked you for the last time that we applied? Council asked for a full report of how, of how last year's grant was spent, if we received what? And we have yet to receive that.
That is true. We're in the process of collecting from all the department heads. We've had a meeting with them, and they are to present all present grants that they are working on now. And it would be a continuing update that would be online so that council or anyone else can go in and take a look at them. Okay, okay, I think we are a couple of weeks away from that. Okay,
um, question, um, this grant is specifically and, you know, I have no problem with it, okay, but, but it's specifically designed for for for 55 year and older. I I would hope that you would take time out, if you could, and find grants that will include all of the residents of Highland Park, and not just our seniors. Our seniors need to help as well. But there are young families in this neighborhood who are trying to make their lives here in Highland Park, and they can use a little bit of assistance as well. And every grant that comes across this table is for so it is for people who are 55 years of age or older. I tell you, me myself, I'm only 50. You know, I'm not 55 and so I don't qualify for any of this, sir. So, so if that is a possibility, I want everybody to be included in anything and everything the Highland Park has to offer. And I just one demographic. You okay, yeah, is that possible to do? Yes,
it is. Yes. It is alright.
I like to see that as well. So having, having, having said that, I hope that the report from the last one comes at the same time that this comes, so we can be fully updated as to how this grant is being used, and who is receiving what, and where is everything going, cuz I have no idea as to how this grant is being spent at all.
Okay, alright, sure.
Right. Thank you so much there, mister Burgess, and you have a lovely evening. Council President, I yield back any
additional questions on this item five. A, no, um, Madam Deputy Clerk, would you please call the roll on item five A, the resolution to submit an application for the mister in my neighborhood, Grant, 2.0 Councilman
Shafi, yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica, yes. Council President Thomas Yes.
Motion carries moving on to Item five eight, a resolution to renew our
copier lease. Motion to approve.
I have a motion made by Councilman Shafi, seconded by you. Miss. Manica, yes, yes, questions, concerns, dissent, go ahead and call the roll on this one, if you
would, Councilman Shafi Yes, Councilwoman Martin Yes, Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President Thomas Yes. Motion carries,
moving on to item six for City Council. This is the approval of our 2025 schedule.
And I'll read this for the audience. This is our schedule that'll be posted if it's approved. All, all workshop and regular meetings of the Highland Park City Council are held on the first and third Monday of each month, at 530 and 7pm that needs to change, I think, respectively, unless otherwise posted. If a holiday falls on the scheduled date, the meeting will be held the following Tuesday, workshops and regular meetings for next year will be scheduled January, 21 February, 3, February 8. March, 3. March, 17, April, 7. April. 21 May, 5, May, 19. June, 2, June, 16, July, 7 and July. 21 August, 4 and 18th, September, 2 and 15th, October, 6 and 20th, November, 3 and November, 17, December, 1 and December, 15 of 2025, city council, what is your pleasure? You said that you wanted? What changed I would like? So the workshop is not included in the charter at all. It is an add on that is part of the last organizational meeting held by city council. We're still bound by those rules. We're still bound by those rules for this for this time and date, the 7pm time is historically been the same, but there's nothing in the charter that speaks to the workshop. I do think there is an enormous benefit to having a workshop on occasion, but to mandate it for 530 for all of us as part time employees, it puts an undue burden on us. I travel from down river to get here every day, and I don't know where you come from or what your responsibilities are after work, moving your children and your family around. And I think when we put it in writing? Things that are in writing are binding. I think the time frame for the workshop. We shouldn't have it here as 530 because I would never make a workshop just based on my schedule time at 6pm 6pm
that's what he wants.
Okay? So my question then, if we Okay, so if we do that, my first question is, well, I got my first question is one, how many, how many presentations are we going to have for workshops?
So,
so I think bound by time. Now I want to remind the members we voted as a as a council, this is a part of our agenda for 2024 that we will have at least one workshop meeting per month. And even though I voted no, I'm acquiescing, and I think we should absolutely have one. So if that means, as we did before, having people come back, or if the time allows, having an additional workshop, I think that's possible. I think for us to be able to digest the type of information that we get is always nutrient dense. I don't think we've ever had anybody come to a workshop that couldn't have just been a standalone for a workshop by themselves. So I think if we keep it to two items, I think that's a reasonable amount of time, assuming that we get 25 minutes or 20 minutes of presentation time and 10 minutes of conversation with those individuals. Okay, so my only recommendation, I mean, again, I'm not in a position to make a motion here. My only recommendation is that we change in writing at that workshop time be 6pm to accommodate the real life schedule of members of the city council. But the floor is open. I wanted to read that by the public, the floor is open for members to make a motion on the approval of the schedule with any modifications they feel they deem necessary. So I want
to make a motion to change to keep
the regular the regular meetings the same as the schedule of transit, workshop time.
We have a motion on the floor made by Councilwoman Martin to approve Second the scheduled meeting dates and to make a modification on the once a month workshop to 6pm instead of 530 and keep the standing meeting at 7pm respectively, unless otherwise posted. We have a second on the floor, yes, second with questions. Council President, we have a second from Councilman Shafi with questions. Mister Shafi, the
floor is yours, okay? So March 3 and march 17,
if we quickly look at the schedule here.
So So March 3 is falling on a Monday. March 17 is falling on Saint Patrick's Day. Is that a holiday that we observed?
No, no, no, bring
it right? It is an American holiday now, okay, okay, alright. And then, and then, and then the question for November and and the reason I bring up November is because of this year alone. You know, we canceled a council meeting in November because of the election and and this one is falling on the third of November and the 17th of November. Uh, but the election is on the fourth of of November. Is that going to be a problem for the
the clerk? There are no elections in Island Park next year.
Okay, okay, okay, so we're going to be good. Yes, okay, alright. I just thought I'd ask that's all good questions. That
was a good question. Yeah. Okay, so seeing, hearing no more voices. Council
President, yes, you said one meeting, are you going to indicate which one meeting? So
yeah, the body agreed that we would include that at our city council function. That is not a mandate for city councils that follow us. We had a motion made on the floor by two two members. It was a vote made in the motion carried that we will begin to have one workshop per month. Yes,
but are you going to do it on the first meeting, or this the first, the first or the third Monday? That's what I'm clarifying. And
you have to be honest with you, Madam Deputy Clerk, I don't think we, I don't think we would need to specify. Okay, we don't know. Okay, travel schedules. It could be a lot of different things.
Alright? Council President, Yep,
I got one more question. Go ahead. Okay, so our last meeting for this year is going to be on the 16th. Is that correct? Correct? Okay, so from the 16th to January 21 that's a big gap. Is there a reason or why we're skipping the sixth of January?
City Hall is closed. There will be noone here to prepare an agenda for the what would be the right?
I got you Okay? Is there a reason for that?
It's
City Hall is closed. Happens every year. So if we were to have a meeting on January 6, someone would have to be here. The departments would have to submit something by January, December 31 city hall is closed. December 30, 23rd until December 6. January 6, City Hall is closed for two weeks.
Okay, okay. All right, okay, perfect. All right, all right. Council President I'm good, alright, Madam Clerk, would
you please call the roll?
Councilman Shafi Yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President Thomas Yes.
Motion carries, moving on to item seven of the community development. We have 1234562, 123456, resolutions ahead of us. We're going to start with item A, that's a resolution to approve the corrected 2024 Highland Park building department. Fee Schedule,
I move to approve. Resolution to approve 2024 Highland Park building department. Fee Schedule,
second with questions. Go ahead. Mr.
Sharpe, got one thing as always,
these are a little bit low there, buddy. It's the same things as the last time. These a little
bit low. Um, so is this the last one that we're going to be doing for this year, or is there more to come?
So we would have been done, but it was two typos, okay? And the resolution is said planning department. This is for the building department, so that's correctness made, okay? And at the top of the actual fee schedule, the effective date was wrong. Okay, so those are the only two changes from the last meeting when it was approved. Okay,
all right. Council President, I yield back,
yes, ma'am, I think I don't know if it was answered, the fees, they will possibly still go up. So we may be looking at a new fee schedule. This is,
this is it? I Okay.
Seven a
councilman and Shafi Yes, Councilwoman Martin Yes, Councilwoman Manica Yes, Council President Thomas
yes, motion carries, we're going
to be all having suit before.
Okay, moving on to item 7b resolution, resolution, to sell vacant residential sideline at 354, Elmhurst to Geraldo Cruz Hernandez, the adjacent property owner at 354 Elmhurst, well,
I have a motion first, actually move the table items B through F. I'm gonna tell you why, because I feel like,
No, obviously, sir, we haven't, we haven't, we haven't brought
the motion on the floor yet. So that's,
I don't have to speak. Go
ahead. Miss panica Again,
I feel like we're not looking at everything, and I meant to bring it today. But there's a lot of ordinance, there's a lot of different things in a charter or that actually goes along with selling people lots. And I just feel how I feel. I want to see a project that says we're going to build houses. That's just me. Nobody has to feel the same way. But I need to see a project that says we're going to build houses. Maybe they're one of these. And I'm saying table it, because I'm not trying to say no right now to anyone about not giving them a lie, but right now, we need to work on whether or not that's just like the project the young lady brought up earlier, and that street is almost decimal, you know,
hold on a second. Miss, Miss Manica, we have, are you making a motion on the table? Let's get it out. He asked me, why? Yeah, let's So, let's So, let's get it out there. We have a motion on the floor to tables, item B through F under community development.
Yes.
So listen that the chair is going to offer a second so that we can bring this out on the floor, so none of this out on the floor as a person who offered a second. I have a to make about that, Miss Manica. And you know, you we you offline. Miss Manica and I talk about these things, probably more than anything, probably more than we talk about anything. And so Miss Manica, my feeling is this in the incubator stage, if we don't allow the people who are here, who have been here, an opportunity to plant something that's going to grow, if we don't allow the citizens that are here right now, we already know that the market competition for the real estate that we're talking about in the city of Highland Park will immediately be out of the reach of the people who live here. And so these are, these are small, if we were to and let me go, let me go so far as to show you finish why? But go ahead. No, I'm saying I and so that I'll say that, and I'll pause. I'm gonna let you're right, and I just want that's my piece. So let's go back and forth with this. Go ahead, man, let's go. Because let's, let's discuss this in public now so people can know what
we do. One everybody, some for a lot, hasn't been living here all this time. That's the first they they haven't been a residents of Holland Park or all this etcetera, for a long time. So when you say that, it won't become available to them, some of them wasn't residents. Anyway, in the beginning, they bought a property, and then they said they wanted a lot. They came into Highland Park. And I don't have a problem with that, because I need you here in your house, but I also need another house to create that revenue. I if you go back and even in Detroit, they're building houses along with building development. Now, either we going to just build developments and give people lots and and get the revenue from that. I don't know how that works. Everybody know how to do numbers. Let's do those numbers. Or are we going to put people here, bring people here and create revenue. Let's do those numbers, or bring the revenue of people being here as well as development. But also, if I bring some families here, then we need those other places, like schools, etcetera. We have a school board who's been trying to establish schools. But guess what? If there's no people here, then you have nobody going to those schools. Because technically I'm here and I'm I hate traveling to take my child my grandchildren to school. Most people here take their children to school somewhere else. I know that people live other places do not want to bring their kids to Highland Park to go to school, because if they did, we have schools. We do have charter schools. And I'm not banging on it. I'm just saying so I said table it, because I don't want to tell these people no right now, Imma give them an opportunity to still get that property if so did, but I'm asking administration to come up with some plans to I would like to see a resolution on, hey, we're getting ready to create 50 houses on on XYZ streets, because that is the only way you're going to get those things. The other project for the man with businesses or having food. If there's no people here who's coming to those things, it just doesn't make sense to me, until somebody can make that make sense. And it doesn't make sense in dollars, no, no way to me right now with water, the more people paying into water, the less it might not just drop 15, but it's going to drop some, because you have more people paying into it. You right now, we don't have people. We don't have people paying into it. I asked the young lady simply, why not build two houses? Bring those people here? Now you're creating revenue.
So, so here's my two cents. You theology finished? Yes, I so we do this a lot, and if I, if I'm outside, she'll pull up to the house, and we'll do this until I have to run inside. I, I, I recognize the value of what you're saying to take these items and table them. But let me also just take the opposing side of this. And it's only because it we are basic we, as she and I are both speaking from our own individual gut emotion and our experience. And you know, my experience over the last three to five years has been chasing down everything I can find out about real estate. I'm an investor in the city of Highland Park. When, when they when Remco was dumping houses I was buying, and I tried to get my whole family to move here. I moved here in 2000 and at one point I brought before I had kids, I had like, eight members of my family. I still have four members of my family that live in the city. I tried to get my whole family to move here, and they didn't want to move here because it wasn't any parks at the time. They weren't parks. They weren't the other amenities that make people want to move to the communities, and so I'm a believer in there has to be a catalyst. We have to encourage the early adopters. Now here's the hard facts about building a house with Spaniard. It's expensive. It's extremely expensive. You and I are both restoring 100 year old houses, and it's extremely expensive during the Hey, this is not I'm not spilling our tea. I'm just saying. We had a conversation last summer about Windows, just trying to find the windows that will be that will fit into our house, and the price it went from not, not the $100 Home Depot windows, we talking about $500 windows that would actually fit the house. And we laughed about it, because for us, you can't, you know, I own a bunch of property here, and I'm, I want to remodel a house to move my family in, and so it's going, I'm have to spend $200,000 of my own money in order to do that. And I already own the house. I already own the house. So the idea that building a house would be inexpensive, it's extremely expensive. And what, what? Live? No, no. But with Liberty, bank, with Chase, with any of these other well, all the CDFIs are going to say is, what is the catalytic activity that's happening in your town that will make us want to give you this money based on their belief that their return on investment, they can always repossess the house. That's not what the banks want to do. They want to be able to show successful developments people who can actually fund a development. So I just wrote a couple of things down while I was looking at this. As part of my homework, I had to find out that Detroit's housing revitalization took years. It was a Detroit 2020 plan. They started in 2001 so it took 20 years. Hands farms bought over 1000 parcels and put trees on them. They bought over 1000 parcels and put trees on them in Island View all across the east side where I'm from right now. And they took over those properties. They got rid of the blight and the old cars they own. And then the urban farmers that spread across the whole city of Detroit. These are people that went in and bought individual lots. They cleaned them up, they put gardens on them. And we said, what about green space? Well, the National Urban farming conference came to Detroit this year, and I helped to host it when I was executive director for USDA urban farming, and they were amazed at what we did with our open spaces. And if you look at all the fervor that's interest, the interest that's in Detroit, we're 143 square miles that used to be blighted, and now we have these dotted green spaces. If you drive down Grand River right at Warren, just a couple of pocket park turned into a whole neighborhood. If you look at what they did down at the train station, what they were doing in southwest Detroit, murals and pocket parks brought that money there. They brought that interest. There's Detroit. Well, we are Detroit. No, no, no, we are. You can't get your heart is a part of your body, or
just almost no, they're the same.
They're the same because there's plenty i
We can't have farms here. No offense to any farmer. I want a garden, but it's going to be in my backyard, okay? And no offense to that, though. But again, we we need to create a revenue. We need funding. We we need to create a revenue. Miss
manic, I'm going to show you something on the board. Yes, ma'am. I just
want to remind you, have you just entered into you with MEDC, I think there's one more for us. In January, they will start convening to pull their lots and our lots together to try to identify
areas where you have continuous
spaces to start building residential developments.
So I'm just reminding you, yes, ma'am, yes, and it's coming up.
So in a minute, you may want to be involved in
that committee. That's something that the community development will be, you know, coordinating, but that's the three, you know, we have over 1500
blocks. Yeah,
I think what you're saying is you want to see that, but, but you have voting for it.
Well, I get that, and I did. I just talked to CED. I said, Hey, we need to have a workshop meeting or something like, to that effect that we just had this conversation because we've given away lots. And guess what I see? All I see is people parking on their lots. All I see is, well, I don't know what happened to the garden. It's been a whole summer. I'm not sure, but if I have a property, and I'm sitting on this property, I gotta fix this property. And you talked about how we're fixing different properties, I know what it cost, so I'm not trying to get another one right now, even if I had the money, why would I want another one? And I haven't made this one look any better. Good. Automatically.
The good thing about this news MOU is that a lot of stuff sold by the land banks, people don't pay the taxes on they lose,
and then they go right back.
And it's hard to determine which lives are ours and which lives are theirs, right? So what's going to be good you're actually going to, you know, it seems like it's a long time coming, but you did approve bringing all these entities together who have all these lives so that they can start carving out some residential developments. And that was the whole point of having Misha and nbdc so that they can bring some funding, and they can bring some financing, and they can bring some for all some opportunities, for all these folks that want to, you know, for the developers that want to come in and, you know, and participate. So it's coming. You've approved it, but that's what you want to see. You want to see continuous parcels brought together. Now, what happened in Hamtramck was they had 400 bucks that they could never sell because of the old discrimination lawsuit when they build I 75 and tore down the black neighborhood and all that. And once that was settled, they finally released them, and the city started putting houses on those individual, 400 scattered lots. But here is a lot different, because you have, like you said, whole streets were on that whole street. The city doesn't own everything, so you're going to have an opportunity, and I'm sure you're going to be right there sitting at the table, bossing them around, because now you're going to have that you haven't had that opportunity until now, because the city, you have a city lot and then a state lot and a Wayne County lot, and so the city really couldn't do anything, but now you're going to have an opportunity to do
something this illustrate, I don't want it to be enough. I
agree. Yes, I
agree. I just don't want it. If they still want it in two months, it's still there, sell it to nobody
else. So, so, so the motion on the floor at a table. I supported it so that we could have a conversation. But I will tell you that every time we've done it before with other developers, and we pin up we when they, when people submit their application to make these purchases, I believe in my heart, I don't know, but I believe in my heart that they are doing this because time is of the essence for them. It does take a while for these applications to get to us. So let me just illustrate the fact that on the screen right now, I put it up here. The city of Highland Park right now holds 1458 parcels of land. Some of those have building. A majority of them don't. The Wayne County Land Bank has 314 parcels in our in our city, the state Land Bank Authority has 273 parcels. The Highland Park Highland Commission has 42 state of Michigan has another 39 and the Michigan land bank, fast trust, fast track has another the county of Wayne has another 26 so we're talking about 1000s of parcels. It would, it would. Nothing would please me more than to know that the 40 or 50 applications that have been in the system since before we became city council people allow people to actually take ownership of this property. There has to be an incentive for those of us who have stayed here during the worst of the times, they should be able to be early adopters. Is this just my gut feeling? They should be able to come in and buy early, and when it's not really early, it's before everybody else rushes in. Because that's that should be the benefit of staying and keeping the lights on many of the properties that we see. The truth of the matter is, these people have been maintaining them whether they had any plan to own them or not. They just couldn't take having the Blight next to them. And if I click this line right here, treasure the city of Highland Park, you can't see it really well on the screen, but that's all of the property that we own those little purple squares that lit up, that is all over the entire city. And my gut feeling is that if we make it possible for those people who have invested with through we're talking about sweat equity, who have invested in the city long before it was cool, and we give those people an opportunity to make an investment that is, we're preserving our cultural heritage, the culture of the city of Highland Park, if we, if we force everybody to go through the people have been here a long time, if we for them to go through a long, lengthy process before our process is even polished, I think it's, I think it's kind of cruel and unusual. I mean, we just got all the cylinders hitting now we I love Mr. Hinton, but we just got somebody who's in the building on a regular basis. We just got a planning group here that can handle this. And I would like to see the people who have been standing in line in the rain the longest get these pieces of property, because I believe that they're going to be here for the long haul. That's just my gut. All the people that have been here over the last 10 or 15 years buying property. And, you know, on our block alone in our quad, we got a ton of people that are moved into our quad that we see walking their babies and their dogs every day. And they're from Seattle, Connecticut, Philly. They're from Tennessee. They're not from, you know, they're not from they and our cousins either. So they're from out of town, and they have invested in the city for the same reason that these people who have been waiting the longest because they think it's a beautiful place to be. We're in the middle of everything. It's up on the hill, and I would like to see the people that have been waiting in line have an opportunity to fulfill their dreams. Because, I mean, we're the only shot they got. We're not Detroit. Let me clarify. They would never have a chance to fulfill these dreams in Detroit, the machine has already gobbled those people up, and the ordinance officers are writing 1015, 20, $30,000 tickets for urban farms. That's just my gut. I'd like to see these people while we're still in city council, I would like to see these people get hold of this land so that, because they're the, in my opinion, many of them are the true stewards. If you bought a house here and you bet, oh, Highland Park, when ain't nothing happened. Salute to you. Because I you know, a lot of people put money in 1015, years ago, and they still have not. If anything, we've lost money. All of us that put money in we've lost money in the meantime, and taxes are due and water is due. So ownership has its privileges, and I think we should bestow that privilege on the people who have invested in the city before the Greenway, you know, before the partnership. They know about the partnership. So that's just my gut, so my last words
on this, because I already know where I stand. So you use the the scenario of the people who lived here, out of all the people in this stack, how many of them
you don't have to say? Which one I would expand it out to say those who invested here? Okay, because don't, don't say who lives here. You're right. I would say those people who have invested before, it's been financially evident. It has not. It has yet to be financially advantageous for anybody to invest in the city of Highland Park in the last what I'm
just saying, your argument doesn't work that way. So I have people in this state, I stand corrected. It just moved to Highland Park this year, or just move, you know, this year, etc. And it's not correct.
I would still consider, that's my, you know, I would still consider them early, early investors, you can
say, with the table, and we can talk about it later, or we can go through each one. It's totally up to you. Yes, I do the table somewhere, it's open to whatever you
guys. So, all right, we have a motion on the floor. I did. I said that we could discuss it. I sure did. I did it so that we could discuss it. Because I think, I think this conversation, we could do a whole workshop on this where we just talk to five of us, and we might walk away no closer to agreeing, but at least we have this conversation in a public forum so that everybody's point of view can be brought to bear. It doesn't matter if you live in the most disheveled hobble in the city of Highland Park right now there's somebody calling your phone and texting you, asking you to buy it. That's true. They want it from you. So that says being three square miles in between the University of Detroit and Palmer Park, being wedged between the golf course and the Harmon Kiefer development that's coming and the Joe Louis Greenway makes it's like Jed Clampett. He was just hunting some rabbits, and he shot in the ground and up black gold. Our houses are the black gold. So the people who have been willing to take a risk before they knew it was going to be like this, and my gut is that we should at least let those people have an opportunity to acquire the land that they've been stewarding and then benefit as it improves. That's just my gut. I'm calling for the vote. Yes, ma'am. We're going to call for the vote. Do we have a motion on the floor to table items for under Community and Economic Development? Item seven, we have a motion on the floor from Councilman Manica to table items B through F, until further notice, I offer support to bring it out on the floor, and I'll be I'll be pleased if you'll go ahead and call the roll.
Councilman Shafiq, no to table. Councilman Councilwoman Martin No. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President Thomas, no
to table. You know, I love you.
And so moving on under community, community development, we're moving on to Item b, resolution to sell the vacant residential sideline at 354, Elm host to Geraldo Cruz Hernandez, the adjacent property owner at 34354,
correction, 350,
Elmhurst. Okay, 350, Elmhurst. Typo included so City Council. What's your pleasure on item 7b you? Are you going to lead the motion? Oh,
the motion to sell the faith. Vacant residential lot at 354 Amherst with Jason parkee owner at 350 on first Gerardo Cruz
Fernandez, that's
correct. Yep. Questions. So
chair will offer support. Go right ahead. Miss Martin, the floor is yours?
Good afternoon, good evening. Um, first question,
how long have you
two years? And then
I went by the total you live in, right? Yeah, 350 and then the one that's fixed in is that's
353 54 Yes, that's
a lot next to
that. It has to be like 356
because I've noticed that you're the way you're coming into the property be one from the alley. Yes, you're going into after 54 but you grab into 56
I think 56 Yeah, get into 354
but you're not asking for 356
either, correct? No, not yet. That's maybe I'm planning to buy it too, but not right now.
Okay, and then you're also coming from Elmhurst, and you're driving into what's next to 356
Yeah, I got I go in like from the alley. I can go in from the alley to my house too, but since I'm building a garden there, that's why I want to buy that 354 so I can go from the alley to my house and so that way my kids can play like they have the lab. So somebody else's purchase 356 you would be driving into their lives. No, I can. I can go in from, like, from 354, from where the alley, or I can go from that, well, that's, I'm going to put a gate there so I can go in too. So you got a gate, it's
already 50 years, right? Yes, it's
partially,
it's partially fenced in. Yeah,
it's fenced in at the alley, and then it's fenced in on the side of that. You're not able to come in that 358, going from into 356 he's going through the album into 356 to get into 354 because 354
is already fixed. No, there's no cars, no cart. Oh, the cart. There's
like a little, there's this little, like horse, like Tiger thing.
Oh, yeah, that's my Yeah.
I'll put it up on the screen for you. There's
that car, yeah, that's what it looks like. It had an eagle. But then there's something else on this that
I don't know. I don't know if it's
got scrap metals or something in there. Who's the on
Well, right now, there's nothing like that right now, put grass, new grass there, like all you see, there is NaVi grass. There's nothing, no metal, no nothing. So there, it's nothing there. That was like year ago, I
saw you, Mr. Shafi, yeah, yeah,
clear, all go back to that. Yeah, clear, all that. So there's no scrub mirror, no nothing that.
This is just old. Yeah, in
the front of Elmhurst,
there's like, little, it's like, like, little cedar bushes knee high. And there's on that tree, that first tree that you see at Elmhurst, there's like,
a little, yeah, that's higher swing,
yeah. And
then in the middle of 356 when you see all that green lot?
There's also another cart that it looks like. I
don't know what happened. Looks like it might have, like, wood or
so it's a lot of drywall and everything like that. But it's kind of looks similar to that, because there's something else that, whatever's laying flat there's that still there. That's kind of similar.
Is that stuff there no
Google Maps in the last six months, in the fact he's
got like this, this Ramada, almost. And so he drives his truck right there.
But like I said, he's pulling into 356 just to get into 354
so he's he's gotta go through the grass. He's either gotta go through the grass from young person, or he's gotta go through the alley into the grass to get into his property,
because he started off and saw,
yes, sir, Mister Sharpton, you can wait. Um,
okay, so, so clearly, it's an old, old picture, because we were there earlier today. Yeah, um, the front of Elmhurst is Cinder blocked off, and this guy planes on him. There's entire fence around him. It's got pavers in the back. He's built like a, like a car port in the back of the house. So wouldn't carport in the back of the house. My question is, and you know already I am about to say it, how long Mr. Hernandez, have you been squatting on this land before you came to council and asked to purchase it? How long did you operate on that? Because this land looks like it's been well lived for, for, for quite some time. I mean, and nothing here is new, you know. So you can tell by the pictures here. Now, this is what we seen today in the pictures. Well, tell by the pictures. Yeah, when I was well used, how long have you been occupying this land? Church? Yeah,
I think that when I apply, it was like four months ago, and that's when I started building that I put a new grass and all that stuff so, and then plants and trees, like you set up on side of the fence. I put trees so they can do better, because there was like that, like, you see right there, there was nothing. So, okay, so
the carport is attached as on your current property, right?
Yeah, right, yeah.
It's attached in the back property at the back, yeah. Okay, okay. So, so, Mister Hernandez, I got a I got a pet peeve, and those who know me in the city know exactly how I feel about people occupying city owned property before they purchase it. The reason I say that is because if something happens to you, if you're injured, if somebody else is injured, the city's liability insurance kicked into play, and we have to pay for it. That's why I tell everybody who wants to purchase a lot, don't do anything on it. Don't occupy it until you have it, because if something happens on that land, we're on the hook for it. Okay? Now I have said this over the last two years. I don't think there's a person in here who has not heard me express that concern, okay, but for some reason, everybody in this city seems to want to do what they want to do, and I'm the only one that's Poe in the line, and I'm not a fan. Okay, there's a lot here. This land has been well lived. It's well used. You have pavers in the back. You paved the ground for your cars to drive on. The plants that you planted are very beautiful. This lot has been well used, okay? And again, I I'm concerned about what Miss Martin said about how you're coming in and out of this lot. I'll tell you, because if somebody buys a lot next to you, how you going to get in and out their lot if they decide that they don't want you driving across their lot?
No, I can. Well, I can come in from the alley to my house, like I can if they buy before me, I can go like, I can put a gate, like, where the car. Cars are like, in the back. Okay, hire a quick paper so there's I can go in like, from right there. Okay,
okay. So, so look at I want to emphasize to everybody. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this for for the 1,000th time. I hope everybody is listening to me. Do not occupy. I repeat, do not occupy city owned property before you purchase it. Do not do this. Okay, this is a bad move. You put the city at jeopardy and liability when you do this. Okay? You wait until you purchase the land, you have the land, and then you may do as you see fit on the land after that.
So okay, so let me tell you one thing last year, I think it was around this time I used to park in the front and I think somebody tried to break it in, and they broke the windows. That's why I did this, so I can park in the back,
so I'm with Mr. Shopping. But because right now, and I don't want to prolong this so we can call for vote after that, unless somebody else have something. But what goes on is that I already see five different ordinance. Are you prepared to pay all those ordinance or did you even know that those orders said, Did you think that you could just put those there? Yeah, regardless to the fact that somebody tried to break your window, you saying that you decided to put, would you say papers or whatever. There carport, the whole shebanga bag. There is a ordinance or a building fee, or fees for everything that we've named so far. Uh huh, see, look at your face. And so it also is a waterbeat attached to that land. There's also taxes attached to that land. So there's a lot, and that's what I keep saying that the residents don't understand, is that when you're asking for a lot, it comes with some other stuff. It's not just, we just give you a lot, and hey, there you go, and you get to pay $2 you know, for you, what? No, there's a water bill. And everybody complains about the water bills. And I don't have a house on this property, we hear that so much that people don't have property or a Coronavirus or a house on this property. So why should I have to pay a water bill? No, there's a water bill. There's extra property tax. You want to put a fence, there's a fee you want to put papers, there's a fee you want to put a driveway, there's a fee you want to put up that. There's a fee. We just been in such a desolate state that people don't know that. So you come here and you decide y'all want to do X, Y and Z, and so now, because we're coming down the block, let me get this property. And that's where, mister, she come in. Oh, you've already been using the property. If we never came down the block, you'll never be here is somebody occupying the unit vaccine? No,
yes. And then when did you put
the it was the middle of this year. The middle
of this year, yeah. And then, when did somebody breakfast last year
call for the vote. Yes, ma'am, Madam Clerk, would
you please call the roll on item seven?
Councilman Shafi, no Councilwoman. Martin, no Councilwoman. Manica, no. Council President, Thomas, no. Sorry, sir,
I would suggest that you work with the CD director, maybe an opportunity have a conversation again. Okay. Thank you very much. Moving on to item 7c resolution to sell the vacant residential side lot and 171 Luis the Highland Park Property Group LLC, the adjacent property owner, and 167 Luis City Council. What's your pleasure?
Is red can Almas here. Yeah, perfect. Okay.
Motion to approve with questions.
Have a motion on the floor to approve item 7c resolution and salivation, vacant residential sideline at 171 Louise, a motion was made by Councilman el shapi. Do we have a second chair wall for a second.
Questions concerned,
sir, how long have you owned the property?
Just bought the property,
I tell you. How long ago was that from
the Highland Park auction?
This was one of the properties I No, the 167 Louise is the one he owns. Is that one that we we sold in auction?
Um, Mister Clyburn could tell you, you said you purchased this, yes, at the auction. Just a second.
Let's see if we agree. Can see it.
How long ago was that auction?
I believe, in September, October. Okay.
What are your plans for the lot, sir, there's
a fence around right now. I'm going to move the fence all the way close to the sidewalk, and just make it a whole big corner, fenced around and, you know, rehab, rehab the house
you were you remember this Property Council President, it used to be a beautiful house to stand on the corner. It used to be beautiful houses.
Yeah, I'm pulling it up right now. I'm looking, I'm trying to get them both pulled
up, yeah, they tore it down. They couldn't get nobody to buy it, so they tore down. I
wish I knew that. Hey, buddy. Hey,
everybody's putting
that up. Sounds like the property is on the corner, and then your
house is the next that is correct.
I see if we can get a better look at it.
So this is the whole corner. This thing is just jumping around because there are trees in the way it may obscure the view. Yeah, this is probably the best that I could do. Let me try one more thing. Yeah,
that's the lot right there. There we go. And here's the house.
So the lot is, oh, this. So this is a legit side lot. I look at it from another angle. I
That's a lot with the weeds. This is it. Okay,
so you're going to fence it in. Yes,
where's Carlton? Oh,
can you see it? He said that he bought this house in auction. Is this one houses we sold in auction? How long ago was that? Mr. Clyburn?
August.
I So
you've had possession since August. Have you done anything in a way of improving this house? Because I went by today, the the front porch stairs are completely caved in, uh, the support being that's, that's, that's holding up the porch in the middle, it's cracked and it's about to break down. Um, I don't see much work done on this house. Well,
we've done everything inside. We got two dumpsters out of it already. Okay? Our next step is doing the whole front. Okay? We got two dumpsters out so far. Okay,
okay, so,
so I will say this is they do have other properties that they've rehabbed, and they've always done it to completion.
So the work you see as an example, I can look at
181 Rhode Island, 17, Colorado, yep. Yep, that's 181 okay.
I know this house. I drove by it today. Okay,
still looks the same Council President, yeah, no, this
is not, this doesn't even, it's not even the same house. It's, it's, it's, I don't want to be too it's drop dead glass. I mean,
Colorado, some of the properties on McLean and some other properties today, yeah,
empty for you when I no and you wouldn't even recognize they wouldn't. They wouldn't even classify as fraternal twins if you saw them. It's, it's a beautiful remodel. It's a beautiful remodel. It just is
so um, so, sir, um, is there a reason for the rush to purchase this lot before you finish the house? I
just wanted to finish it all one time. There's the back, there's a garage that's down, and I gotta clean all that up.
You know, I hear that a lot, but, but you do it on a second. I do. I hear that a lot, but, but council president, and then is has spoke very highly of, you know, say, but I hear that a lot, that people say that they just want to do everything at one time. And then we come back a year or two later, and it looks exactly the same, sure, I believe. Okay, so, so, so maybe that's a line that people may not want to use in the future. Okay, um, you haven't touched a lot, so that's a plus.
So I work on 189 or 181 and I know what it looks like on the inside. I know what you did on the outside, so I know that all the particulars. But there's another house in the middle of Rhode Island that you own as well, right? Or is it your brother or somebody else, I don't know. It's in the middle,
oh, Rhode Island, 129, Rhode Island, and that's not mine. Okay, that's my partner, and we're not we're not together. So I'm
with Mr. Shafi a little bit on this, like, what is the rush you on the corner? Is nobody else on the other side of you?
And so no other competition is
see. We're looking to see the progress on the other house, yeah. And this time you guys are not ready, because I'm aware of the other houses you have in Highland Park, yeah. And you are selling this one. I don't know how that was doing. What you're asking
for. I could go ahead and fix the whole front of you one then we'll come back. Please.
No problem.
I will feel better with that. So having,
we have a motion on the floor made by Councilman El shapi, supported by the Chair Mr. Shopping, would you with to like to withdraw your motion? Yes, yes.
Council President, I like to, I like to withdraw my motion, and motion to table this item
chair withdraws the support. We have a motion on the floor to table, Item 7c made by Councilman el Shafi, who offered the support, and supported by Councilman Manica. We'll table this item until
you come back in and show us a little bit of progress totally, probably next year,
we'll just table the item How about you just table? Yeah, so we have a motion on the floor to table item seven. See, we'll go ahead and call the roll on table. Item 7c. Your Car. Be so kind to call the Roman deputy clerk. Councilman
Shafi, yes, the table. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President Thomas, yes.
The table. Thank you sir for your patience. Thank you. Moving on to Item 70, thanks, a resolution to sell to vacant residential sideline. And 98 Tennyson to Jalen Smith here at dancing the adjacent property owners and 100 tennis City Council What's your pleasure,
Alright, Mister Smith and Miss Darcy here,
yes, yes,
perfect.
Can we get a motion?
I love when people show up.
Motion to approve. With questions,
we have a motion to approve the sale of the adjacent side lot at 98 Tennyson, made by Councilman shopping support is offered by Councilwoman Manica. The floor is open for your questions.
How you doing? Um,
how long do we go with this property? Mr. Smith,
we bought it off auction. The same time we bought it. We got the D in September. I was one of the ones that kept asking about it, so to start the construction of the house, okay. No, no, September, we got the D, yeah. September 24 Okay,
alright. So you don't live in this house. Mature and investor of it,
right? I
would say yes, we plan on living in it. Okay,
okay, okay, so, um,
council always, well, this council, I don't, I don't know about the previous ones, but, but we like to do our due diligence. And we drove by the property today. We're going to need you to secure that property. Okay, the windows are out. The it's only, it's only, it's only one piece of wood on the front door. All the side windows are out. All the back windows are out. I don't know what's going on there, but I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you. Um, I'm rescind my motion to approve, and I'm going to make a motion to to table this item as well. I need you to secure that property and and show us a little bit of improvement before we vote on this item. Improve? Yeah, I need, I need a little bit more of improvement from you. I I need you to secure it and at least make it look presentable. Okay, okay, because right now it looks like in the bed and home that's open. Can
I explain? So right now, me and Shakira are in the process of closing, which we end up spending $10,000 of our own personal money and just doing the demo of it. It was the summertime, so we didn't see a need to do like the closing. The, what am I trying to say? The what you said was just securing the property, right so then, so like, right now we're doing the closing, but I just told her, actually, on the ride here, that I'm reading the board because it's cold and, yeah, it's raining through the the roof. So I want to
and the benefit of that, you're so close to your neighbors, if somebody homeless trying to stay warm. You know, light sapphire starts a fire burns you down. It'll burn the whole block down. Right, okay? Cuz all it's going to do is just jump from house fast. Okay, you know, I'm saying so not going to say no to you, but I am going to motion to table and you come back to us with a little bit more improvement and show us that you've secured the property and made it look present.
So just boarding it up, yes, okay,
yes. Boarding up, clean it up, straighten out the front, you know, you know, cut down the bushes. Let us know that some effort is being made on the property.
Okay? On the outside. Yes. Okay,
okay, alright. So for the point of order we had,
can I say another thing too? Just a second. We got, I
gotta do my business here. Madam Clerk, we had a motion on the floor made by Councilman Shafi for the approval of the resolution supported by Councilman Manica. He has rescinded that motion. Yes, I did. He rescinded that motion. And Miss Manica, was with your support, now they're making a motion to table this item until further notice, until further notice, to give the property owners an opportunity to make improvements on their property. That is the motion that's currently on the floor right now. Yes, sir. So now conver Yes, yes, the conversation can continue. I just wanted to make sure that we entered that into the record. Okay, the gentleman Sure. Go ahead answer.
Um, I wanted to say something to you. Um, I agree with you said. Um, the process that I had to do to buy this house was was exhausting. Um, I tried to buy my aunt's house on Tennyson, and she wouldn't sell it to me. And then I look on property taxes, and then she doesn't pay her property taxes, so she's going to lose the house. Um, houses are falling apart. People buy houses and just sit on them, and then they end up just tearing them down. So I agree with you saying on the skepticism of selling lots or whatever, you know, to people, because people won't do anything to them, really. And you know, everything just sits there, and then it goes back to the city, and then you losing money, pretty much, because you're paying the taxes. So I just want to say I appreciate what you're saying, and I understand, especially me, being so young, being Shakira could have went anywhere else, especially because we just graduated from college, and I just being that this has been my home forever. I wanted to come back and give back to my community. So thank you again, and
thank you appreciate that. Okay,
so we're going to call, we have a motion on the floor to table this item until further notice, we can call a roll on item 7d resolution, the Tabling of resolution to sell the vacant residential lot at 98 tennis if you call the
roll. Councilman Shafi yes to table. Councilwoman Martin No. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President Thomas yes to table.
And I will also ask that you come and check with CD and see if there's any resources to help you to get your roof done. And Mr. Shock,
we're in the process of closing right now. We've closed Holly at the end of December, so things are happening. Okay, great.
Good to hear. Moving on to item 7e resolution to sell the vacant residential lot at 191 Winona to Sandra Lewis, the adjacent property owner, and 187 will know the city council. What's your pleasure
is Miss Lewis here, motion to approve support.
We have a motion to approve the sale made by Councilman El shapi, supported by Councilwoman Martin. Do
we get to see floor is open? Come on, can
I see that?
Members of Council, the floor is open for you who have questions concerns.
Okay, Council President, we went by this property today. The house is well maintained. The property is clean. The lot is cut. She hasn't built anything on it. She I tell you, she is not occupying it. I am sufficiently satisfied that that she will do as she has promised to do, and that is, she wanted to add yard to her property so that her kids can have a place to play. Her backyard is almost non existent, okay. So, so yeah, my my motion to approve, stands, questions,
concerned. Would you call the roll on item 70?
Councilman a Shafi, yes. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica Yes. Council President Thomas, Yes.
Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. You got a lot today, yes, ma'am. Moving on to item 7f resolution, to sell to vacant residential side lots at 126, and 130, Kindle to the Holy Ghost temple, Church of God in Christ. City
Council, what's your pleasure on item 7f
Council, I got questions on this one here, this last one, it's a little bit puzzling. Can
you pull that one up too, or keep that
me and Miss meneka, got questions for this one?
Yep. So can we come on, let's bring it out. Let's get a motion for it, and let's
Okay. Motion to approve with questions. Motion
on the floor for mister oshape to approve with questions. We have support. Chair wall for support to bring it on the floor. Floor is open, sir.
Um, where are you based?
809. Oakman Boulevard. Okay,
you're on Oakman a boulevard. Is there a reason why you're buying buying property on Kindle.
It's directly behind our church,
and here we are on the overhead.
What's the purpose of the lots? Ma'am, one
would be for parking and then a green space for community events.
Are they both, like, right behind your church? Like, right across Valley?
Yes. Okay. Oh,
I remember this. I certainly remember this. Yep, their church has they were here. They were here a couple months ago. They have absolutely no Park. We tabled it. This might have been during Mr. Hinton's time. There is no parking. There
is parking. No open, though, right? Their face is open, right? But I
know what it is they have there is they're right next to,
yeah, the complex,
yeah, they like, this is like a 30 some eye units here. So this is the, if I'm not mistaken,
is that Highland Park? This is Highland Park? Yes, it is.
This is right down the street from Miss nandyz, right? So am I? Am I correct in that this is your church here?
Yes, that's correct. The red, the red roof, oh, and then the black building that's next to it those two,
this is your church, correct, yeah. So this is behind your building, correct, direct, okay, so you are buying this lot and that lot
correct, okay, so Ma'am not read a
little bit. Okay,
that's one of the
okay. So question, correct,
where the two trees are? I'm sorry, not the red dot. Okay.
So question, why does this resolution say? Resolution to sell three vacant residential lots at 126 and 130 Kindle to Holy Ghost temple, Church of God in Christ. I only see two here. I i don't see three, and they're both on Kindle.
I don't know.
I So,
so, so you know, you guys are aware of the can of worms, right? So,
what does it say? Three, forgive me for interrupting. Yeah,
it says, he says, right on the front of this resolution, it says resolution to sell three vacant residential lots at 126 and 130 Kindle to Holy Ghost temple, Church of God in Christ, says three, but it's only two, though, our
request has been for two. Okay,
okay, so I want to before y'all vote, I want to remind y'all of something. The first year of this council on Louise Blue House wanted to lot across the alley from them. We told them that was not adjacent. Okay, okay, so, so if we open this door after we told one person, no, what do we say?
So adjacent, okay,
and you can buy property. It's just market. So if people on the please want to come in as a non adjacent property owner
that they could resubmit their application that
has not been our understanding, that hold a second. Hold a second. That has not been our understanding. The last two years we've been here, the last two years we've been here, the word of the day has been adjacent. Adjacent means next to you, either to the right of you or to the left of you. We have denied a lot of people who wanted, lots across valley, a lot of people that come here and ask for that. So we run into a problem
here, because nothing to do with you. Ma'am, so we're on the Detroit Highland Park border, correct? And
130 Kindle is not coming up. 126 Kindle is, you see that line that goes through there?
Okay, there it is. I just wait for it to come up. I couldn't get any data on it. Now it's showing up in the corner here. If you see 130 Kindle, thank
you. Pull up. If you pull up Google Earth, they're literally They're right behind the line. The marker is there. And then there are two fire hydrants, side by side, each other. I found that funny, two fire hydrants. That's how you know you're on the border once Detroit. One
is Highland Park, yeah. And they go in this green, this little gray area right here. So, okay, well, to be honest with you, adjacent, if we just going to play with the English, English language, Jason means across from. We're next to, so it is across from, and therefore next to the church is just at the rear of the structure, okay? It is, if we, if you're the attorney,
I think where you've got contiguous property lines, and do property lines touching, I think that could be determined as adjacent, okay, it can be interpreted that way.
And then, okay, so, so Council President, let's do this here. Yeah, I need a thorough legal opinion from the attorney as to what can the worms this is going to open up for. Cuz we had denied a lot of people who came in here and asked for lots across the alley. We denied a lot.
Has it been for the same reasons? Yes,
sir. It was same reasons. It wasn't. It wasn't a lack on the part of the No, sir. Same reason, traditional stuff. Yeah. It wasn't
lack like we saw this evening. We saw people who had done some right outside the boundaries of what we
right. So, you know, I don't want to say no to the church. So I'm going to do this here. I'ma withdraw my motion
to approve chair withdrawal support. Okay? And I'm
going to ask that this item be tabled until legal gets back to us and lets us know what can the worms we're about to walk into
and to that. I know that question in May, at first, I know what you're asking, but in legal framework, it, it is kind of ambiguous, like, what, what our risk could be, you know, we don't really know, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's kind of Yeah, please,
yeah, period. Okay, so
right, sell. You got the privy to sell anybody?
Okay, okay, so if we do this, then we need to go back and correct the mistakes of the other ones that we deny. It
hasn't been denied. Because, okay, so that was,
yeah, it was before you got it, okay, okay, so, so would it be work? Why don't we do that two minutes?
Why don't we, I mean, yeah, self out, yeah, knock yourself out. Okay, so
there was a motion, go
back through the minutes. Second, I'll go back to my council package. I got every single one. No, I'll go back to the council package. And what we denied, we need to correct, and we want to go down the path, but I would like to hear from legal first. So our motion today, okay, we
got we do have go ahead, Miss sun, so that
is fine, and I agree. And we do need to go back, not for that purpose in itself, but just to see where we are with what we've approved and who've done what. Because again, just like we told the young man, and it was unfortunate is that I came up with five different violations right then, and so most people don't know what, what they're getting into, or what goes along with it, and then the interpretation is where we're finding our issues. Mm, hmm, about the ordinance, because mister clarborn is saying, okay, we can do adjacent. And mister Thomas is saying adjacent is in the back. But when we started out, no, but Jason was not anything behind you in a way, I read it, it doesn't read that way that you can adjacent aside on on adjacent side lots, not adjacent back or front lot. But here's the other thing, here's the other thing that you're going to run into. If one of those is actually Detroit, then you have to purchase that lot from Detroit. They're not, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, so just, hear me, if that's the case, then you have to purchase one from them. In that case, you would have a adjacent side lot. Here's the other thing, we can sell lots, but there has to be a development plan for the lot, a development plan which is actually okay, not the intake form, so everybody else has brought no so again, that's why we need to have that conversation with legal, because my interpretation, because she's interpretation by burns. Interpretation says something altogether different. Can
I speak to Mr. Client again, we're
going to call for vote, but I just wanted to, can
I say something though?
Yes, ma'am, please.
We started this process in 2022 in August of last year, we were told to get a development plan. No, you had a development intake form. No, we were told to get a development plan. Okay, a site plan. Is that correct?
Yes, ma'am, it is because I remember it.
That's my understanding. Okay,
alright, I'm sorry we went through that process. We have that we were told to also get a survey. We went through that process. Obviously, we were told incorrect, no, no,
no, I don't see that. Maybe I don't see it. You see a survey in here, development planning. So ma'am,
allow me to to emphasize this, in 2022 none of us were here. Oh, and I know he was right, because he tried, everybody's new here. So what we're trying to do, the last two years, we've had several people come before us to get lots across the alley from you. We clearly told them, No, our understanding was that adjacent was to the left and to the right, right next to you. That's my understanding of adjacent, and that's what we were told. Now that standard, for some reason, has changed. Okay, so we're just trying to assess with legal you know, what can the worms that we're going to open up here? And if there is going to be a can of worms, we need to go back over the last two years. And those people that we denied, we need to approve. If we approve yours, we need to have their lots as well too. So so what I'm going to do is I have every council package that will never give it to me. Imma go do it, and we're going to find out exactly what's going on with wait on legal to talk to us and tell us the pool parameters, and then we'll have you come back to us.
Okay, and can I say this? Before I even pursue this, I looked up what adjacent meant to regarding properties, and my understanding was the same as the president of the council, that's
three different
and I understand that there's some things that go along with
saying, with and so it's not on you if we don't sit down and go through those things and be clear on what Our ordinance are, that's that's another reason why. Yeah, you Yes,
people don't understand and know that that's all so that's it. But what we're tabling it's because
we don't want to say That's right. We're going to call the vote to table, Item 7f. Take the roll on that please. Councilman
Shafi, yes, to tape. Councilwoman Martin Yes. Councilwoman Manica. Council President Thomas, no.
Okay,
so my question to you all is, I'm assuming, once the attorney gets his decision, he will contact mister Clyburn, and Mister Clyburn will contact me,
Yes. Ma'am, yes, yes. Ma'am,
thank you, yes. Ma'am,
thank y'all. Have a lovely evening.
I just want to add a little bit something on behalf of the church. We're a small church,
Mm, hmm.
We've invested in this project, doing what we was advised to do two years ago, almost $7,000 just to get what we need to do the community, to be there in the community. And I myself over the community projects, and we do a lot in that community, those people next door, the NSO building across the street, Carver, elementary school, George Washington. George Washington. Carver, I just called it Carver. Um,
we house.
We have clothing giveaways, and we do a lot, and we try to do it in that little bitty space that we have if you roll pass and you saw that little bitty parking area in the front of the church. So when you all are doing that, can you just keep in mind yes, ma'am, the work that we put in in the community say no, so okay, and I appreciate that, not the direct No. I want
to move into citizens comments so that I can give you a if you wanted to make an additional comment. I want to do it under the appropriate framework, because I don't want to be okay. My clock on you. I want you to be able to just got
you express yourself. Okay.
Thank okay. So we have concluded all of the items on our agenda for this evening. We'll move into the citizens participation section. If they're citizens who had comments that they wanted to make. I want to put two minutes up for you. I'll start the clock once you state your name.
Janet spite white, good evening all. I'm just trying to get an understanding, because I've been coming through these meetings, as you all know, faithfully. I've seen so much when it comes to this. And they call them side lights in the charter. Norma Lewis, the Councilwoman, I think she was one that's created the sideline charted language. And believe me, I went through a lot getting mine. And it's, you know, when people live here for years with the sideline looking terrible, and they may touch it, as you guys don't want them to, but they gotta live there. And they may cut the grass, because the grass don't get cut by the city, you know. And these people have to live like this for a long time before the city sells the lot, and that's tax money that we losing. But you guys don't sell it a lot fast. I don't know why it took me seven years. I want nobody to think that everybody's gonna go through seven years, but it took me seven years of coming to this microphone, and that's not fair for the city to lose that kind of money. Okay, but I'm just saying that for a person that lives next door to a lot, if they can't cut the grass, because the city's not what harm is that, because I, I've been there, I've been through there, you know, trying to, you know, I want to look presentable. I want my where I live, you know. And you guys saying, you know, you could, you know, get hurt or whatever, but you know, that's a process, that if you don't live like that, you wouldn't know, you know, how tall the grass may grow, and it's something that speaks of side lots, you know. And it's a difference between buying property. I'm talking about side lots, and the side lots are the ones that so the people can extend like the person bought their backyards. It was, it was some kind of guidelines that they used to go through them. I've heard them. I sat here and heard the guidelines gardens, or what have you. That's it, okay, but I'm just saying the sideline thing. There's a charter that speaks on this.
Thank you
famous for Good evening. My
name is Renee Ford. I live on West Bula Vista. I am in agreements with City Council tonight. I appreciate you tabling some of these lots because a couple of what I understood and been mistaken. You have a house, you're not even taking care of the house. What makes you think you're going to take care of life? And I'm in agreement with Smith white, there's a side lot next to me. I've been trying to get that house down for 20 years, and I took care of because I had young kids, and I don't like rats and rolling. But the person that has the lot in between the lot that I'm trying to buy from the land bank, they only didn't do nothing with it, so I took on cutting the grass, not to the church I'm going to speak on that one. They do a lot, and I do mean a lot for the community, because as a parent that didn't have a job, they clothing and my family so and I and I understand what you're saying. It's across the alley or whatever. In my opinion, sometimes we have to be we have to think about who we're giving to, because they definitely give back to the community. So I would appreciate if the lawyers and whoever else would look into that, not in March. So these people can get this lot because they do something. I mean, basically every month they do a lot for the community. So please consider giving that lot to the church.
Anyone else, anyone else want to come back up? Anyone else have anything else they want to share?
Council? President, yes, ma'am,
I would like to speak please.
Alright. Hold on
a second we have the young lady.
No, I was just coming back because so that way I can have my full two minutes. Well, no, I just wanted you all to really reconsider because, like my passion outside of my regular job is community work, and that's what clothing giveaways. Up until the pandemic, I tried to do it twice a year. But once the pandemic hit, we all know, you know, had to kind of scale back. But even after that, we still try to do a little something, and had to do a different order because of the ordinances of masking up and all of that. So I just want you all to really take into consideration to do this, because it's it's deeper than just a parking lot. That's a bigger space and opportunity for us to actually do what we need to do. And like I said, we we've been over there, what, 60 something years, and the community knows us like they look out for the church when they see us. I've never been one to look down on people, because we all have had those moments in life where we need, uh, I call it a helping hand. So
that's all. I just want Charles
up and down opening on the street. And it's difficult because you have the building apartment complex next door, because the residents parked there. So if we have special services and stuff, it's like people are almost at Hamilton. And it's if it's dark, it's not a lot of lighting on Oakland, so it's kind of unsafe. So it would be a big help for us to be able to get those back lots and make it nice. I mean, we look we keep our grass cut, we keep it nice. We plant flowers, so you don't got to wrap ass and look at no Riff Raff and all of that good stuff. So I just wanted to speak on behalf of my church. Alright, thank you. Thank
you. Thank you.
Okay, Miss McDonald. I wanted to address that, that person that was in the room.
Oh, that's fine, no problem. Um, I want to address selling lots and property. I do agree that property should be sold to people who take care of their properties, or trying to do something with their properties, or at least try to enhance their properties. I agree what I want you to know and what I want the citizens to know, that every lot that we hang on is a bill for the citizen. People don't understand that every lot that we own is a bill for the citizens, the storm water runoff, the citizens are paying for that in their taxes. So if we're selling lots so that that storm water runoff can come off of our bill. That's less money for for us to have to pay. Secondly, as far as building a house, yes, we all would love to see those houses back. But unfortunately, unless somebody just got $100,000 $150,000 laying around, which I don't know too many people here that do that want to drop houses in, because if they would, they would have done it. We have over 1400 lots now. We do have sections that we have looked into, with the MOU and between the state, the county and the city to develop with large numbers of property, and those are what we'll be working on. But when you're talking about a house, if you look at your street and you've seen these lots sitting there for the last 20 years, and no one has decided they want to put a house there no one it would be like the council president said, another 10 years before somebody do that. And at that point, the 10 years of citizens paying for water extra because it comes it's being paid for with their tax dollars. Tax dollars will continue now. Someone want to purchase that lot. They might want to sell their lot themselves afterwards, but we will get taxes and a water bill paid. So I just want to throw that out there so the citizens understand that the ramifications of holding on to these properties that are not in in the ramp of big developments together. That's all I have to say. You guys have a good evening too.
You too.
Alright. I have another person here, probably looking online to see buddy online with a hand raised. I
just wanted to make a quick comment along. Say your name.
Sorry about that. Oh, that's fine. So, Ma'am,
your name is Jackson, so go right ahead.
Yes. Um, my name is alasha Jackson, again, coming back up from a presentation made earlier, I kind of wanted to just chime in on the last note that was made. So what the two lots that I presented about earlier? I would love to be able to put housing on there, to have, I mean, I have a lot of family members that are in need of housing, you know, newer housing, you know, they've got growing families, and I would love to build a house there, unfortunately, right now. So again, even in that 2030, Master Plan housing, the demand for housing in Highland Park isn't high. When you look at again, the investment to build a house, whether that's 100,000 whether it's 400,000 you I'm looking at who's going to be coming to Highland Park, who's who's going to want to live in some of these neighborhoods right now, and so just as they are, I mean, we talk about the school district. Yes, having people in the community helps you to be able to fill in the school district. You have people who can support that school district, who can fill fill in, and you've got enrollment at the schools. But right now, it's who's going to come into Highland Park. I mean, and this is not to say it's just something to think about who's going to come into Highland Park right now, where the school district isn't really present outside of the private schools. So I've sat in a couple of meetings with the Michigan Main Street program, and they talk about some of the ways that even Detroit and some other neighborhoods have started their revitalization process, and it starts with the downtown area. So whether that's up and down Woodward or up and down Hamilton, but bringing whether it's parks, whether it's recreation, the gentleman that spoke earlier about the food trucks bringing businesses here that helps to build the the interest in coming to Highland Park to live. So I just wanted to share again. I These lots across the street from my grandmother's house, so sat vacant for again, over 15 years, and I would rather see something positive happen with them, somebody who's going to execute on these properties. There's a four Plex next door to my grandmother's house. That's that somebody bought it two years ago during the auction, and it's that for years. Okay, so yes, that's all I wish. Alright,
thank you.
I have anybody online, so I think, sir, you can close this
up. I know you have probably tired of hearing about the church. I know this is not something that you My name is Patrick Forge. I'm the assistant pastor of the church, and I know that you guys can't just say, okay, yeah, I can do it so, but what I'm I'm explaining to you, we've been there for about 65 years, and we had a lot before they built that the property next door, we had that lot, and we maintain that lot over 30 years. When they came in, they didn't have to do anything as far as digging up or cutting down trees or anything like that, because we maintained that lot. And this is the reason that we moved from parking to no parking, and that's why we inquired for the build of two properties in back of the church. And we did get the What is they saying? Next Door, next door to the church, but, but then we came, we came to you guys, and you guys told us what to do, and we went forth with those things to do. And then once we got the survey, and we spent a lot of money on the survey and everything like that. Let you know that we are very interested in the property. And then we were told that we did it backwards. So what we're seeing is we've already put the money in, so we're already there. So we thank you guys for your time, and we just wanted to let you know that it's something that we're not trying to just get it, just to have it. We need it. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir.
Alright, we'll move into Council affairs
with, I don't have any hands up online, no hands from the panelists. So we'll move into Council affairs, starting first with the councilman from the third district.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I just want to quickly touch on a few things. You know, I have been living in cities that have been deprived for a long time, and it's about design. It's called the bleed. They bleed. They make the neighborhood so disgusting and so unwanted till they get to buy it dirt cheap. I disagree with the statement that who's going to buy it? Dan Gilbert is here. He owns everything from tuxedo and Hamilton all the way up to Glendale. Is his for sure. Okay, okay, there are people coming into this neighborhood on a daily basis. I have a young lady now. Mind you, I live on pilgrim and Hamilton, so I'm on the porter side of the city. I got a little white lady that lives on my block who just moved in from Bloomfield Hills. Now, why would she come from Bloomfield Hill? She said, because she could get the house for the same size that she got out in Bloomfield Hills for a fraction of what she paid. I have Hispanics in my neighborhood, in which I'm happy to have I have people moving in in the worst parts of the city on a daily basis. They're here, they're coming. And you know why they're here? Because they know what's coming. These are people who follow the money. So don't be deluded in the least to think that housing here is low and nobody wants to be here. If you look around, you'll see your neighborhood changing on a daily basis. Okay, even on this side of town here, the average house, if it's fixed up beautiful on this side of town. I just saw one sale on, on, on, on Massachusetts, gold brick, Black Rod, iron, fenced around and closed in beautifully. They sold that house over $350,000 Yeah, right here in Highland Park. So don't tell me that demand is low, don't tell me it doesn't exist. What I'm trying to do is make sure that as it grows, you survive. That's the whole objective. Because what happens when the property tax goes up? You if you don't have enough money, you get pushed out. And we all know how that goes. I know you've all been to communities that have switched overnight. Okay, we've even seen them here in the city of Detroit. The council president said we are Detroit and we are we're in the heart of Detroit. Look what happened to downtown. Look what happened to Midtown. Look what happened to court town. Look what happened to Cass corridor. I remember when I used to drive through Cass corridor. I used to lock my damn doors. I don't have to do that. No more cast corridor is beautiful. Have you seen it? They pushed everybody and everything that they did not desire out, and the same thing will happen here, if we're not careful. You worried about being here. You worry about your homes. Allow us to drop our guard. It will go faster than you think. I mean, it was on the road before we got here, in case some of you forgot. It was on the direct path of everybody being a body here. Okay, but this council has worked diligently and hard, and we have made careful steps, careful, very careful. If we seem like we're nitpicking, that's our job. That's what we supposed to do for you. We supposed to nitpick and make sure that we making sound decisions for your best interests. Everybody say, Oh, just approve it. Shut up and approve it. No, not while I'm sitting here, we have to be careful here, ladies and gentlemen, we are on the precipice of this city being turned around overnight, and we have to ensure that we are here to see it and enjoy it. I've been looking at Beirut for 20 years after you fix it, don't tell me. I gotta get out of here, right? I'm not going anywhere. Okay? And having said that, mister bosnick, have you got the information for me that I asked about the possible protections of long term residents who have owned their houses for five years or more, about capping their property taxes?
Yes, we did have a email communication regarding that and putting together a presentation regarding development for the entire council. Okay, we had communications on that today, as a matter of fact, and that was one of the things that I want to make sure to address, is your concern about as if there is increased development and potential effects on the property taxes as a current citizen. So that's that's something that we talked about, actually, as a matter of fact, today we had email exchanges about that we're probably going to have. We may have a few meetings before we have the presentation, but it would be in some sort of like study session, and then, since there's one, only one meeting in January, we're looking at maybe a February, but there may be, like, other meetings, part of that, because Council President indicated he wants to make sure that we kind of front load the council's questions so we know what council wants us to present. I know that's the question that's the most pressing need to use. We've talked about it before, but I believe there's going to be solicitation of other questions regarding development from council so we can address those when we have our our study session. Okay, so I guess the short answer is yes, okay, perfect.
Okay. And I just, I want to say one last thing about development. Okay, so I know that the rumor is going around that people are saying they're scared to come to the city of Highland Park because Council says no to everything. I want you to understand the young man that was here today from rebound, very impressed, very pleased. All of his T's are crossed, all of his eyes were dotted. I was extremely impressed. That's how you deliver development to this council. We want a full understanding. We want to know that we're making sound decisions for the welfare and the betterment of this community. I mean, we could say yes to any the element that comes through here, but then I'm pretty sure that you guys would drum aside of here so fast I I wouldn't be able to say a blueberry pancake before you talk to me out on the top of my head. Okay, so all we ask is that everybody who comes here to the city comes here with a thorough plan they follow what what needs to be done, make it clear to the council and to this community. We don't want no projects. We don't want no no, no, no shipping containers. These things don't fit in this historical community. We want houses. We want development. We want places where we can go and eat, places where we can go and be entertained, places that we can go and be social. We want Highland Park to thrive, and the only way that's going to happen is by us being very careful about the development that we bring into this city. So again, if we're nitpicking, I'm sorry, but that is my job. Okay, if you don't want me to do my job, I tell you all the time, you are the residents I work for you, you are more than happy to replace me with somebody else, if you feel I'm not doing my job, but as long as I'm sitting here, I'm going to Nick pick the hell out of everything, and I thank you. You have a lovely evening. HP,
thank you moving on to Okay,
alright. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for being here, the ones who stayed and the ones who showed up. I appreciate that so much. So I'm just going to piggyback on a couple of things that, you know, district three said, and district one, I agree. I would love to see more houses. You know, there's Highland Park is changing. You know, it's not even just seeing some of the renovations that's been going on where I live, new roofs have been happening across the way. I mean, from Woodward, there's a lot of businesses that are coming in, different food, different you know, people who have called me and told me they want to buy a house, or they wanting to rent a house. A lot of that is going on. There's a lot of people wanting to come to Highland Park. Just, I think the Dollar General, the bus stop right there, that's changed. That's not even the same. It's well lit. You know, there's lighting that's coming to Highland Park. A lot of things are well lit. I know what's that property on? Was it second? Is it? Is it Benjamin? Is it Benjamin Manor that's well lit. They're doing some new things over there. So there's been a lot of renovation going on. Even the bank over there, the one bank that's in Highland Park is it, called the Detroit credit union. They've done some renovations in there. Imma say this, the fact that that Joe Louis Greenway is causing a lot of change in Highland Park already. So I disagree with anybody who says that, oh, there's low housing. A lot of people don't want to come here. They're not looking for houses. I totally disagree with that. I will say a lot of things that I've heard is when they go into that buy doc or Woodward, people are like, what's going on in Highland Park? What are they doing? I get phone calls, you know, your city council, what are they doing in Highland Park that that buy doc, based on their get got it covered. What's going on there? Highland Park is not having the same face that it used to. There's been a lot of changes going on. So I agree with Manica. I would love to see a lot more houses, you know, people coming in, even if it's renting houses, even to rent, you still need houses here. Ain't nobody just want to rent and sit on the lot. They're going to want to rent in a house or apartment, duplex, whatever. So yes, I am excited about the change, and I'm just like Manica, I would love to see more houses coming in that's going to bring more revenue to Highland Park. And I yield back, I go ahead and give it to man
again. Thank you. Thank you everyone. I'm going to stand on my my convictions, and that is, we need people. People we need, actually, we need families. We need families with children. That's who's going to be in the parks, that's going to that's who's going to create the schools. It's not going to be you, it's not going to be going folks, it's going to be the need for a school, because there will be children here. But again, if you can't create a house, you can't build a house, then there's nowhere to put them. The other thing is, when you say that someone do not have the money to build a house, you're limiting them. Because if I will go and purchase a house, the gentleman that was here the house, he said he fixed, he's selling it for $189,000 now do I feel like it cost that much? Maybe not, because I live in that area. Maybe I think it's not enough. You know, it just depends on who goes and look at it. I've talked to some people who look at two houses in Highland Park, and when you think about it, it depends on what they're looking for and what they want to spend their money on. Some people say I live in an old house and fix it up, or I live in an old house that's been fixed up. Some people want a brand new house. They want brand new they want stainless steel. And it don't matter where you put the house, as long as you put what I want inside the house. How I know because I talk to somebody who stays in the meantime, who's not looking for a house. I showed them another house I thought was much bigger, you know. And then they showed me another house. I'm going, you want to stay there, over there, I gotta get a place for you. They was like, No, it's got stainless steel stuff in it, you know. So they were excited. I'm making light of it, but that's the truth. So if I'm gonna buy a house for 109 189 200,000 300,000 300,000 I can view me one too, and there's so many ways to build a house. So I also said earlier in our meeting that I asked to have a conversation with our CED and administration so that we can talk about some of the things that we're having issues with when we come before you guys, so that maybe we can eliminate those things, and also maybe I can bring, we can bring some of the things to the table. Modular housing is available. They they put your house together and bring it here, you know. So there's a lot of options out there. We just gotta start to think about them and look at them. And then we also have to talk to you guys who live in those areas and say, What do you want? Because if I look at the ordinance and in the Charter, which I did this week, when you also building houses, you gotta look at what's around. You can't just build you can't just put a my mobile home right here, and it's all brick houses. That's not gonna fly, right? So there are ordinance that we have to sit down with and say, Is it 1999 or have we moved up to 2024 in this case, we're going into 25 that's that's kind of I just wanted to, I heard everybody's opinion on what I said, so I wanted to come back, because if you're going to give me a good argument, then I need to see the other side of the argument. If I don't pay 189 I can build a house for 189 Okay, so let, let's not say what we can't do, and let's not let's start going out and getting those things. Let's go talk to those people, whether it's for Ilitch, etcetera. Let's go talk to those people and start making it happen here, because it's going to happen here. I just have some information, though, that I wanted to give out solidarity. I was trying to find it. They're having their snicker ball, sneaker ball coming up, and it's a fundraiser. Sorry, I don't have all that information. I'm sorry. Oh, also positively, HP, it's our Christmas tree time. December 7. That's this weekend at three to six um. December 14, there is a coke giveaway. I'm sorry, this is second Ebenezer church. They doing a coke giveaway from 10 to four. That's December 14, December 3, 10am to 4pm new Mount Moriah, which is Baptist Church. 13100, woodwork is doing a community resource fair. So that's where you come and you sit with Wayne Metro and whoever else, and talk about your utility bills. Can I get some help? The number is 31338897, 1338897, I got 9797, here. But I think you can also call 3889799, to make you appointment. Or you can go walk in on that day right here. It says December 3, which is in the middle of the week. It does happen sometime they will come in the middle of the week. So if somebody can make it at 10, it's from 10 to four, December 8. That's just another one. If you blue and white family out there, it's blue and white service at that same church at 11am Avalon village, keep keep people warm dry. That's from November to January. And you could deliver stuff like coats, gloves, etc, whatever warm blankets, things that even homeless people need when it gets cold. If you ever did that, I've done that go out on a day that it's for homeless, and I was so surprised when I did that work. Of the items that you actually should be given to the homeless, other than coats. So don't just think they need coats and gloves and stuff that women need items too. Keep that in mind, alright, um, and that's 40 Avalon Street at the homework houses where you can drop off those items, CP, or coffee. $18 an hour. Somebody need a job, $18 an hour. Send your resume. Two Martell, M, A, R, T, E, L, L, at, Sepia, coffee, c, p, s, spell, S, E, p, i, a, coffee, and then so C, O, F, F, E, E, P, R, O, J, E, C, t.com, Cp of coffee project.com so that's send your resume for $18 an hour to Martell at sepia coffee project.com Last but not least, Florence, Ames, Temple number 17, that's the Elks. Ah, on on Manchester, 50, East Manchester. They're doing their breakfast with the Santa. That's for children 12 and under. It's free from 10 to 1pm but you need to call and and so they can get an idea of who's coming contact number 31367557556755755,
I just wanted to make sure. I'm sure I forgot somebody's announcements. I apologize, but please take a look at if all those events happening give go to have some fun. Love you guys. Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am. I'm trying to be super quick. I took a bunch of notes. Um, first, you know, I disagree that change is coming quickly. I disagree that change is coming. I disagree that change is coming quickly. I'm just saying with with the group, it's definitely coming, but it's not coming quickly. I'm gonna go ahead and do my I didn't, I didn't do so I bought my house here in we closed in August of 2000 we moved in our house in October of the year 2000 and I had the highest comp in the city of Highland Park for about 12 years in the year 2000 I overpaid for my house. Paid about $115,000 for my house. I own it. I own it. I paid it off. I was fortunate, but for at least 15 years, I couldn't get a home improvement on my house. I had to put a $15,000 roof on it. That money came out of our pocket. I had to put a new furnace in there. $6,500 that came out of my pocket. I have a 3000 square foot, 110 year old house, and I could not get a whole improvement loan in the city of Highland Park. Yeah. So this is the reason why I would disagree with some of my colleagues. There's such a thing as a carrying cost. A very smart person explained to me what carrying cost is, and the reason why I'm bringing it up is I'm also an investor here I own a city block in the city of Highland Park. It was a great idea back in 2019 before I became an elected official, and I watched one of my mentors and a friend just cut the ribbon on Higginbotham school in the city of Detroit. And I own a school, and I am like Mr. Harris. I'm a graduate of the capital impact equitable development initiative. He is from cohort three. I'm from cohort six. And the reason why he is so polished and so professional is because, as an individual, he's an architect. He has years of experience in that industry, but he also was a cohort member for a equitable design development initiative where the powers that be, all the banking institutions, recognize that we are not represented in the development framework. If you go 100% of the developers in the United States of America, probably less than 2% of them are African American, maybe point 07 are women, black women. Okay, so if the national development community recognizes that we are not present in the discussion to build single family houses, to build commercial stores, to be to build large buildings, we have to accept the fact that as a community as it relates to development, we are in a deficit. We are not a large percentage of people who have the capacity to develop it's not about drive it's about the individual capacity. So when I look at a church who just wants to get a couple of parking lots, and they don't know if they're ever going to get them, but they pay for a survey with the hopes that this survey will be a part of that package and allow them to get it. And they paid a designer for a development plan. They already have invested $7,000 and the property that I own in the city of Highland Park, which won't be developed for a couple more years, I'm 10s of 1000s of dollars in the hole already on the hope that property that I already own. It's mine already. I'm 10s of 1000s of dollars in the hole for a project that I might not break ground on for another two or three years. Everybody has seen the cartoon where they have the ants and the grasshoppers. You have children. There's a parable in there. Oh, African parable, it's not until the little ants get the move and collecting food that the grasshoppers even take notice. And so we look at, who are we giving this property to? We are giving food to the ants. We're giving food to the ants, and if we don't, I wrote this down, and I wanted to make sure, who are we giving property to? In most cases, poor people. And when I say poor people speaking to somebody who's had a six figure income, that ain't a whole lot of money in today's dollars. It is not, not for a family of five. It's just not the median income in America is $54,000 a year, and most people in Highland Park are 50% of the area media of the median income in America, but the AMI for Wayne County is $94,000 so we are giving crumbs to the ants. Dan Gilbert is not going to be affected by what we're doing right now. He has the power of eminent domain to say to the city, you have a $60 million overhead. Okay, there you go. Can we just, can I? Can I get on with my business? Now none of us have that power. The zoning ordinance has been made available to members of city council since I first sat in this chair. I've been a chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals since they reinstituted that all the information is available about the number of parking the type of structures that can be built, the setbacks, historical representations that need to be there. They're there, but I just want us to be keep in mind that if we don't so change is definitely coming. It's coming. Everybody knows it, but I just told you I bought my house for a set price, and when I went to look to get, you know, an estimate on my house is damn near double what I paid for it. So I know that my children, who live with me now could not buy my house. My daughter's graduating from college, she couldn't buy my house. And most of the millennials that want to buy a home in Highland Park, they're never going to be able to purchase a house anyplace else. I'm from the East Side. My whole neighborhood is gone. It is gone. The street names are still there, but it's gone, except for those people who are allowed to purchase the little bits and pieces of the community. That's all the character that is left of the area that I have so many fond memories of as a child. And if we don't give these people, these locals, people who are investing now, because it ain't got hot yet, you'll know it's hot when they're knocking on your door instead of sending you a text message. And if you're a property owner, there's not been a day a week a month, that's I have five phones in my name because of my family, everybody gets a text message or a phone call. Would you like to sell your house? Yeah, they call you while you working. If we don't give these people, these locals, who have made the sacrifice to decide to, as the lady said, invest in an area where nobody wants to build. And if you ask the developers in the area, they will tell you, sure, it's a great idea. But why would I invest money here when I can go around the corner on Midland, and I can see Midland looking the way to do just going up and down Winona, and it's quiet over here, there are people that will want to build on Winona. Winona is a little rough, so ain't no houses on and it's a beautiful homes there. But if you go four streets over to Ferran and McLean, you can get a $300,000 home sold. But those people who want to get those lots on the corner of Winona and McLean, down by the by Oakland, we should let those people get those properties, because they made an investment. They made a sweat equity investment, they will never have another opportunity in their history, just like all of us who own houses in Highland Park now, you'll never have another opportunity to do this now. So if you got a lot, if you wanted a few people in the city who did get a lot, you understand that it completely changed the character of your property. That's my alarm for me to shut up. But so if we don't give these people an opportunity members of city council, we may be the gatekeepers. I don't want to be no gatekeeper. I'm a fence jumper. Actually, I don't want to be a gatekeeper. I definitely don't want to gatekeeper these people. We're not there yet. The demand is not there, and as hard as it is for us who own property now to renew our property, there is no money, and we have to stop saying that there is it's not like. They're not like blessings. Blessings can rain down on you. There is no money. I'm telling you, with three and a half acres of land here, there is no money, people tell you, I will wait to see what is popping. They saying stuff like, Where's your little pocket parks, and where's your community gardens, and where's the investment from nonprofits to small people. That's what makes court town so interesting today, because that's all it used to be, is pocket parks and gardens. That's what makes southwest Detroit so interesting today, because that's all it used to be, is pocket parks and gardens. That's what makes brush park my fraternity house was over there, and I went to Wayne State when it went. It wasn't Midtown. Okay. I went to Wayne State 1989 You could go down a brush Park, and you could find you a burnt out, literally. I recently, burnt.
