The committee convened on Thursday, September 18, 2025, at approximately 10:00 AM under Chair James Tate. The meeting included general public comment, three public hearings on tax abatement requests, and consideration of numerous unfinished and new business items. Key decisions included advancing two Neighborhood Enterprise Zone (NEZ) district requests for 60-day gestation, approving a Commercial Rehabilitation Exemption Certificate, and denying a rezoning request while directing the applicant to pursue permitted uses under existing zoning.
General Public Comments (15 speakers, 1.5 minutes each):
Public Comments on Line Item 5 (NEZ for 663 Prentice):
Public Comments on Line Item 6 (NEZ for 12th and Forest):
Public Comments on Line Item 7 (Commercial rehab for Epic Health):
Line Item 5 – NEZ District Request for 663 Prentice Street (Midtown Detroit PropCo LLC):
Line Item 6 – NEZ District Request for 12th and Forest (XYZ Development):
Line Item 7 – Commercial Rehabilitation Exemption Certificate for 4306-4340 E. Davison (Epic Health):
Line Item 8.5 – Rezoning Request (4213 & 4225 W. Davison, Tina Castleberry):
Other Business Items:
Welcome to the planning and economic development standing committee for today, Thursday, September 18th, 2025. Madam Clerk, good morning. Please call the role. Council President Pro Tim James Tate. Councilmember Fred Durha Third. Councilmember Letitia Johnson. Johnson indicates on her way as well, having some traffic issues and vehicle challenges and things like that. Which does not stop us from opening for public comment, though. We shall do that at this moment. We shall now call for public comment. If there's anyone who would like to provide public comment to this committee, please raise your hand now. See one. I didn't ask you to come up. Just raise your hand and said one, two, three, four. Anybody else? I see four hands in the committee of the whole. I see four. All right. How many have do we have online, Miss Caprice? Good morning. We have 14 hands online. Fourteen hands online. All right, so we're gonna give today we do have public hearings. They are back, everybody. So we're gonna give everyone a minute and a half for general public comment. And we're gonna start with the folks who are in the committee of the whole. For those who raise your hand, I saw four hands. That's all I saw. One, two, three, and I saw a fourth one over there. All right, so you all we've got three seats up front. Um, and you'll be guided to where they are, pointing them out. One, two, three. You're gonna have a microphone in front of you. It's currently going to be red. You're gonna push a bottom at the button at the bottom of the mic when it turns green. Speak. The floor is yours. Good morning, sir. All right. And please keep your eyes on the clock because I gotta give everybody a minute to have the same amount of time. That is what I must do by open meetings actually rules. And I'll start uh to my far left. We'll start with Miss Castleberry. Floor is yours, ma'am. Good morning. Good morning, Tina Castleberry, owner of the garden block. I just want to say um, with much discussion this week. Um, I think we've come to a resolution. Um, but my final comments would be I think it's very tragic to both my city and suburb, advocate gardeners, um, if it's not a gardening center. And that's all I have to say.