Voters gave the green light during Tuesday's primary to new lights in downtown Farmington.
The Farmington Streetscape Improvement proposal calls for rebuilding Grand River Avenue between Farmington Road and Warner Street. That stretch of road will receive the lion's share of upgrades, except for a boulevard set to be developed on Grove Street between Grand River and Orchard Street.
The $3.2 million project will expand the sidewalk area and add bump outs around parallel parking spaces, while installing new sidewalks, crosswalks, benches, bike racks, trashcans and decorative streetlights.
The idea is to make downtown, particularly Grand River Avenue, friendlier for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians as well as more aesthetically pleasing. Local leaders hope this will help encourage vibrancy and increased business investment in downtown.
Work is expected to begin next spring and finish up by the fall. The project will be done in three phases, which will allow Grand River to be open during construction.
While voters were kind to Farmington's plans for downtown they weren't so nice on the other side of 275 in Belleville, where a downtown streetscape proposal was voted down.
Belleville's project called for tearing up its Main Street and replacing everything with new infrastructure, such as new water mains, concrete street, brick paver sidewalks, trees, decorative lighting and fancy fencing.
The $5.8 million project would have encompassed Main between Huron River Drive and Lake Bridge, along with South Street up until the railroad tracks. All in all, seven city blocks would have received a makeover.
Source: Vincent Pastue, city manager for Farmington and the city of Belleville
Writer: Jon Zemke
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