VBT DDA to prepare grant for pedestrian walk

The Van Buren Township Downtown Development Authority, at its March 22 regular meeting, unanimously approved having Wade Trim engineers prepare a grant application for funds for a pedestrian bridge over I-94 along Belleville Road.
The Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments’ grant deadline is May 2 and so the DDA directed Wade Trim to prepare the TAP Grant application and bring it to the DDA’s April 26 meeting for a final decision on whether it should be submitted.
“Don’t apply if you don’t want to do the project,” said Dave Nummer of Wade Trim. “You don’t want to win a grant and turn it down. It’s the last grant you’ll get.”
DDA member Ron Blank had misgivings about the project, estimated at $2 million in total cost.
The grant request would probably be for $300,000-$400,000, with 60-70% matching funds from the DDA.
He said he would have felt better about the bridge if more DDA members were at the meeting to discuss the details. Five of 11 members were absent. He also wanted input from the township’s public safety department.
Blank said the cost is a phenomenal amount of money, but he doesn’t want to feel guilty about people being in danger while walking or biking over the freeway on Belleville Road.
“I want to be able to say to people out on the street: I made an informed decision,” Blank said.
Supervisor Linda Combs and former Supervisor Helen Foster, both DDA members, said they supported the pedestrian bridge for safety reasons and also because the DDA is working on walkability within the district.
At the March 22 meeting, Dave Nummer, Matt Stacey, and traffic engineer Lori Pawlik, all of Wade Trim, presented a 20-page feasibility study, a draft report, on a proposed pedestrian bridge over I-94 on the east side of Belleville Road.
Using various methods they suggested 32 people a day on average use the bridge either on foot or on bicycles. Stacey said that is expected to rise to just shy of 80 a day by pedestrians and bicycles after the bridge is built.
“If we build it, they will come,” predicted DDA chairman Craig Atchinson.
Stacey said Michigan’s Iron Belle Trail is a set of two trails, one for hiking and one for walking, that will span the state from Belle Isle State Park in Detroit to Ironwood in the Upper Peninsula. The hiking trail will be routed through Van Buren Township and the city of Belleville. Two options for the route are currently being considered: Either via Huron River Drive/Columbia Avenue or via Denton Road. Either option will bring non-motorized travel through VBT and the city of Belleville, he said.
“A pedestrian bridge is a potential opportunity to provide a connection from commercial area north of I-94 on Belleville Road and south to the Iron Belle Trail,” the report said.
The report showed three pedestrian and three bicycle injury accidents over ten years, 2006-2015, in the area from Harmony Lane to the I-94 North Service Drive.
“The number of people is not important for the grant,” Pawlik said. “It’s the safety issue.”
Chairman Atchinson said the pedestrian bridge over I-94 at Quirk Road was built in the late 1980s. That bridge is just a half mile west of the proposed new bridge.
Foster said that bridge was built because “children were killed.”
The study shows people are not walking west to cross the freeway safely with that bridge and take the most direct route for them by walking along the edge of Belleville Road, a dangerous path.
Blank said they need a fuller board at the next meeting to make this important decision. And, it would be nice to hear what residents think of the project.
In other business at the 74-minute meeting on March 22 the DDA:
• Approved advertising for a request for proposals for Architectural Design and Construction Management Services for the DDA PlaceMaking Initiative on property owned by the DDA at 10101 and 10151 Belleville Road. The property was originally purchased in 1900 by Herbert and Rose Harris, some of the early African American settlers in VBT. Two structures will be removed, re-side two structures and renovate three structures. It is intended the main structure can be used to hold DDA meetings and provide DDA office area. The work is intended to preserve some of the township heritage and be a place for enjoyment of the general public;
• Approved joining the International Council of Shopping Centers at a cost of $100 per year;
• Heard Executive Director Susan Ireland report that all the Belleville Road streetlights had been repaired and seem to be working properly. (A few days later a vehicle knocked down a lightpole and damaged the fence near Harmony Lane.); and
• Heard Assistant Director Lisa Lothringer say that they will meet March 23 to select sculptures to lease for a year along Belleville Road in conjunction with the Belleville DDA’s project. She said sculptures will be put at the triangle at Quirk Road, near McDonald’s/Taco Bell, near Walgreen’s, and at Belle Tire.