NOVI, Mich.-Brianna Austin, a 19-year-old Novi resident, didn’t pull punches in her assessment of downtown Novi.
“I honestly feel like Novi doesn’t really have a downtown,” Austin said. “It’s mainly just expensive restaurants and regular stores.”
When it comes to the state of the community of Novi’s downtown area, city officials also aren’t shy about speaking the truth regarding its presence, or lack thereof.
“We have been struggling with trying to get downtown, at least in a historical definition, kicking in Novi for a while,” said Kelly Breen, a Novi city council member since November 2017. “Cities like Northville and Plymouth are not that much older than us, but their downtown areas sort of sprang up around the areas where they had originally built by the Rouge River, while Novi came around later and we didn’t really have that historical construct to build up around and we were more spread out.”
As a town made up largely of different subdivisions both young and old located across a little over 30 square miles, spread out could be a fitting description for Novi as a whole. This brings up the question if a town like Novi that’s so spread out was ever meant to have a downtown in the first place.
“The city never started out on that premise of having a main downtown,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Dave Staudt. “It’s a township that started small but encompasses a large area, and being more built up around retail centers like Twelve Oaks Mall makes having a traditional downtown pretty much nonexistent.”
While a traditional downtown style area may never be in the cards, City Council Member Laura Casey said what is thought of a downtown area may not fit everyone’s definition of the term.
“I would guess people think of the downtown as primary gathering points, and what I think we’ve done over time is build multiple main gathering points,” said Casey. “We have places like the Novi Civic Center where events are held and have kept making improvements to the north side of town, specifically in places like Lakeshore where people can gather.”
Casey also stated that she, as well as other members of the Novi City Council, aren’t always looking to try and compare with communities like Northville and Plymouth that have traditional downtown areas.
“We may look at certain practices and initiatives that other communities take and look at what might fit us from that, but the downtown aspect isn’t something we always go to,” Casey said.
One initiative that all council members can agree on is that the addition of more walkable areas is a big key for improvement in Novi.
“What we really want to have is a nice walkable urban area rather than old buildings next to each other,” Staudt said.
“We talk a lot about walkability,” Casey said. Not having enough walkways makes it harder for people to get to each other, which is why we have bought different lots and acreage to build parks and get those closer to people.”
Actions like these could serve the town in enhancing its already large community, and while Novi may never have a true downtown area, but Staudt said that isn’t what necessarily matters.
“Other cities are great, but that’s not where I want to live,” Staudt said. “People come here because it’s a safe community and we have a very diverse community and that means people want different things. It’s not good or bad, it’s just different.”