This week in the notebook:
- Land bank negotiations hit a wall
- Side-lot sales a sore spot
- African restaurant buys land for growth
- NFL Draft closes downtown streets
- Detroit ID program is coming back
Welcome back to the notebook. I’m still Malachi Barrett.
The City Council isn’t ready to renew its partnership with the Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) amid concerns about residents having access to property.
Council members voted 5-3 to send the memorandum of understanding back to a committee for discussion, which is a step backward in the approval process.
The land bank has been operating without a formal agreement since December 2023. Council Members Scott Benson, Fred Durhal III and President Pro Tem James Tate objected to further delaying the agreement.
Council Member Mary Waters was the strongest voice for holding off and asked the council’s Legislative Policy Division to study whether voters could dissolve the land bank through a ballot initiative.
Waters argued the land bank hasn’t given residents a fair shot to buy properties that are sold off to developers. She said “safeguards” should be added to keep residents in those homes.
“I want to remind us, we don’t need the land bank’s permission,” Waters said. “If we want to change this memorandum of understanding, we can do so.”
The occupied buyback program creates a path to homeownership for Detroiters living in land bank-owned properties. This can happen when residents are victims of fraud or didn’t leave after losing a house to foreclosure.
Tammy Daniels, CEO of the land bank, said 1,100 families became homeowners through the program. But she acknowledged not everyone is eligible.
“The land bank is routinely the bad guy,” Daniels said. “I get it. We own 25% of the property in the city, and our goal is to dispose of that property, but we’ve been charged to dispose of it with a purpose: To return it to productive use, not just to sell it to anyone.“
India McSwain lives in a land bank-owned home in the MorningSide neighborhood with seven children. McSwain said a man posing as the owner “sold” her the house in 2009. She didn’t learn the deal was illegitimate until three years later.
McSwain applied for the land bank’s occupied buyback program in 2017 but couldn’t provide the necessary documents. She called in to Tuesday’s meeting asking for another chance to buy the home.
Daniels said the home is not habitable, but the land bank isn’t trying to remove McSwain and her children.
Daniels said the land bank partnered with the city’s Housing and Revitalization Department to help rehome people living in unsafe land bank properties. The department is canvassing occupied land bank homes to connect residents to resources.
“A lot of issues surround the condition of property,” Daniels said. “Land bank homes are not homes you can move into. It takes the average person two years to make it through compliance.”
If approved, the new agreement would define the scope of land bank services through the end of 2026.
The land bank receives a $11 million subsidy from the city of Detroit. It operates as a separate agency but Mayor Mike Duggan selects four of five members on the land bank’s Board of Directors.
The first agreement was signed in 2014 and updated in 2015. It was further amended in 2020.
What page are we on?
Today’s notebook describes the April 2 formal session.
Dig into the agenda, read Detroit Documenter notes or watch the recording for more details.
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Side lot struggles
Council President Mary Sheffield raised another issue with the land bank. She said longtime residents struggle to buy side lots they’ve been maintaining for years.
“That just bothers me to my core,” Sheffield said. “If a resident can show they’ve been taking care of that lot, they’ve lived at this property for years, why are they being denied access to purchase a lot next to them? This happens often.”
Side lots can be purchased by adjacent homeowners owners for $100. Neighborhood lots can be purchased for $250 by homeowners who live within 500 feet.
Side lots that go unsold for 180 days become a neighborhood lot, giving more people a chance to buy them.
Sheffield tried to add requirements to create more transparency around land being held for development, but said her request was rejected.
“Residents should have access to create generational wealth through property and buying land, not just developers,” Sheffield said. “We’re seeing huge swaths of land being held for planning purposes.”
The land bank owns 70,200 properties as of the latest quarterly update. The vast majority (90%) is vacant land.
More than half of the vacant parcels aren’t available for sale. The land bank had 4,000 side lots and 22,130 neighborhood lots for sale out of roughly 62,500 vacant parcels as of the latest update.
Daniels said other eligibility issues could prevent someone from purchasing a side lot, but not because it’s being held for development.
Daniels said the land bank works with the city to pull side lots out of larger development projects and sell them to residents.
“I’ve just never seen that happen,” Sheffield said.
Waters said she knows a woman who tried to buy a side lot but later found it was purchased by Hantz Farms. The real estate organization amassed a large collection of vacant land that has largely remained undeveloped.
Senegalese restaurant expanding
Maty’s Africa Restaurant is planning to expand on property purchased from the city.
Named after Chef Amady Gueye’s wife, inspiration and cooking partner Maty, the family-run Senegalese restaurant has been building a reputation.
The restaurant has been featured on several best-of lists by Detroit publications.
Popular dishes include the chicken yassa, a marinated and stuffed whole chicken served with caramelized onion sauce, as well as fried plantains, saucy grilled fish or fried red snapper and egg rolls. Lots of customer reviews recommend the lamb.
It opened in 2017 on a commercial strip of Grand River in northwest Detroit.
The restaurant purchased an adjacent lot at 21607 W Grand River for $36,000.
NFL Draft street closures
Major downtown streets will be closed to traffic this month to aid setup of the NFL Draft.
The first phase of street closures started March 29 and will continue through May 7, largely concentrated around the draft theater.
I built this interactive map to show the phases of road closures, public entrances and an estimation of where fencing will prevent pedestrian access.
Take a look at an even more detailed map here.
More information was released Tuesday about free events residents can participate in during the three-day draft from April 25-27.
Draft Day in the D festivities will take place in various parks and public spaces, including:
- Capitol Park, Beacon Park, Paradise Valley Beatrice Buck Park, Grand Circus Park and a Woodward Avenue between State Street and Witherell Street
Attendees can keep up with the draft on 20-foot video walls throughout the parks.
Live music, art installations, alcoholic beverages and 35 food trucks and 45 retail vendors will be featured.
City ID program set for comeback
Detroit hired a company to restart its municipal ID card system nearly two years after it was shut down due to data privacy concerns.
California-based Omicron Technology Solution, LLC was hired for $87,000. It’s also the vendor for municipal ID systems in Wayne, Washtenaw, and Kalamazoo counties.
Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero said residents are excited to move forward after addressing issues raised by the council’s Immigration Task Force.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misstated the subsidy figure for the land bank.