A note for help and support from Kathy Makino, the one renovated 9 of the apartment buildings in Palmer Park (2 are completed and the rest are underway). Hi All, I am asking for your help with a project I am working on to get (3) buildings demolished in the Palmer Park community. First the motel on Woodward and Merton which I think I have under control and have all the approvals in necessary to accomplish this. The second more crucial building is the building located at the corner of Third and McNichols which is presently burned out, vacant , and a very serious safety concern for the neighborhood. This building I will be going before the historic commission on September 11 at 5:30 in the auditorium at the City County Building. Last month they tabled the approval of this structure with serious hesitation because of the local historic district ( which I am the one who petitioned to have designated ). They are saying that this is a contributing building to the district and that it will in fact have an adverse effect by tearing the building down to create a park like entrance along with some parking on the vacant lot located on the Southeast corner of Third and Merton. We have a beautiful site plan including brick paver walkways ( utilizing the brick from the building), benches, trees, landscaping, a sign welcoming you to the historic Palmer Park Apartment District along with wrought iron fencing and brick pillars. I am asking for your help in two ways. First if you can come to the meeting to show your support of demolishing this dangerous building and second if you could write a brief note that I can send on to the City for them to package and send to the State Historic Preservation Office for their final approval. The third building is located at 250 Merton and this building has had a fire in the first floor. This is probably the most difficult of the approval process because it is structurally sound . My thoughts are that this building is really functionally obsolete....it is mad up of 29 units which are all very small. It needs a significant amount of renovation and reconfiguration to bring it back and my fear is that it will not be able to be completed for years. It is ideally located adjacent to the Lodge and across from the La Vogue which would allow for secure gated parking for those buildings along with a pocket park to just simply decrease the overall building density in that area. This argument will be much more difficult but if you could help by writing a letter saying how important secure parking is to rebuilding a viable community I would truly appreciate it. I am running out of time to accomplish these important steps to the rebirth of this beautiful neighborhood.... anything you can do help would again be truly appreciated. Please address all comments to the City of Detroit Historic Commission and send them to me and I will package them for the City. Thank you in advance for all of your support of our efforts! Please feel free to call me if you have any questions .... my cell 734-905-8323.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 14:31:00 +0000