Parking Is Hot Topic at Open Forum Event

Ferndale's wanted to know how downtown could improve. So, it asked.

The DDA held an open forum Wednesday in one of downtown's newest businesses, , to not only answer questions and talk about the DDA, but to hear from residents, said DDA Director Cristina Sheppard-Decius.

"I want to see that we're on the right track --that we're talking about the right things," she said. "We also want to get new ideas and a consensus what people are thinking."

The open forum was set up with five station and attendees were asked to go in order to each station. The stations included:

1. Who is the Ferndale DDA
2. What is tax increment financing and its importance
3. What is working and needs to work in downtown Ferndale
4. Share your ideas and dreams for Ferndale
5. Complete a DDA survey

The first two were informational stations and offered an opportunity to ask questions about the DDA itself. The last three stations gave attendees a chance to tell the DDA what works, what doesn't and what it the downtown needs.

Where's the parking?

"Parking, parking and parking," resident and President Ann Heler said. The fourth station gave attendees five circular, yellow stickers to put on a map that had various ideas such as public art and a parking structure.

Parking came up over and over again and it's something Sheppard-Decius said the DDA is working on.

At the Oct. 11 Ferndale City Council meeting, developer Robert Wolfson presented a proposal for a public-private partnership that would stack 80 apartment units on top of a 455-space parking structure. Wolfson built Ferndale's Lofts on 9 in 2009. The project would cost a minimum $7.7 million over the next 30 years to construct the parking garage. Wolfson would fund the construction of the apartment units.

The structure would cost at least $575,000 annually, part of which would be paid for by the DDA and potential Brownfield tax credits, Sheppard-Decius said. The rest of the money would ideally come out of the parking fund, she said.

Additionally, an estimated $170,000 would be collected from property taxes from the apartment structure.

Sheppard-Decius said that project is still in the works. "We're still progressing on this. We need to work on the details and bring it back to Council," she said.

The project has been stalled, she said, because of the uncertainty in Lansing regarding tax credits, such as the Brownfield Tax Incentive. She added that turnover in city government was also a factor.

In January, Mayor Dave Coulter was appointed after the former Mayor Craig Covey won his bid for Oakland County Commissioner. Interim City Manager Mark Wollenweber was hired in February after former City Manager Bob Bruner resigned to take over as city manager for Birmingham.

Sheppard-Decius, however, said the only way to fix Ferndale's parking problem is to build some type of structure. "We continue to work toward a structure," she said.

Ideas and dreams for downtown

Station Three offered an opportunity for attendees to write on notes and stick them on the various areas of Ferndale's DDA district. The DDA wanted to know what was working and what wasn't -- but also asked attendees to add a few ideas of their own.

Requests for a hotel showed up more than one time. Sticky notes had phrases such as: "Ferndale Inn/Hotel would help establish Ferndale as a tourist/destination spot!" And "Need a hotel." And "Needs a 20-25 room boutique hotel."

"(A hotel) has been on our wish list for a while now," Sheppard-Decius said. "There aren't a lot of choices in this region. There has been a void."

She also added that Ferndale hasn't really had the property available for a hotel. "Maybe when the economy turns we'll be able to work on it further," she said.

Other items that attendees largely supported was public art and creating a more cohesive feel.

"I'd like to see better crosswalks at Cambourne and Woodward," resident Nancy Kerr-Mueller said. "I have kids and it's a panic crossing there."

Her husband, Chris Mueller, said he'd like to see more cohesiveness between the downtown area on West Nine Mile and Woodward. "We need to unify downtown better," he said.

Both agreed that downtown is progressing in the direction they want.

"We moved here five years ago and thought it was vibrant and it's way more vibrant now than then," Nancy Kerr-Mueller said. "Imagine it five years from now?"