South Lyon.. What's all the hype about? (Detroit, Farmington Hills: crime, home)

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by DTWflyer

If people in Lyon Township want to limit development and sprawl they need to prevent the township from connecting to GLWA municipal water.

If they get hooked-up to the regional water system, its game-over.

(Silly people, the move to a more quasi-rural area and then complain about water from a well system)

Lyon Township looks at water options

I honestly don't know what the shock is all about all of the sudden. It was clear to me 5 years ago that Lyon Township would be fully developed within a decade.

[usroute10]

Originally Posted by coldjensens

turning a quaint rural community into rochester hills is not sensible change. Pretty soon all the mcmansions will be "dated" no one will want them and the mobs will move on the destroy the next quaint rural community.

this is the most profound point ever!!!!

[uchi90]

Originally Posted by usroute10

this is the most profound point ever!!!!

How is that profound? Rochester has been building up for what, 20 years, it's still a terrific place to live and getting better every year. People around d-town are remodeling, or tearing down and rebuilding homes like you see in B'ham. Northern tip of the R'Hills & Oakland Twp continues to flourish.

My point is I think you'll be holding your breath a long time waiting for South Lyon's eventual decline. I mean, how long does the average family stay in a home? South Lyon is a safe bet.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by uchi90

How is that profound? Rochester has been building up for what, 20 years, it's still a terrific place to live and getting better every year. People around d-town are remodeling, or tearing down and rebuilding homes like you see in B'ham. Northern tip of the R'Hills & Oakland Twp continues to flourish.

My point is I think you'll be holding your breath a long time waiting for South Lyon's eventual decline. I mean, how long does the average family stay in a home? South Lyon is a safe bet.

It is correct people will continue to flock to Lyon Township/South Lyon for a while. It is still trendy. However the decline of South Lyon, by my definition has already occurred. The quaint old fashioned small town is pretty much gone. It is filled with strip stores, chains, and too much traffic for its layout. People are demanding they tear out the park and put in an LA fitness so they do not have to drive to Novi to work out. Erwins Orchards will soon be yet another subdivision of hodge podge looking McMansions on tiny lots (assuming they find a new developer). They want starbucks and Walmart and Costco and Home Depot or Lowes or the one that starts with an M (well maybe not Walmart since there already is one in new Hudson). The hometown hardware stores' days are numbered. The local grocers are gone. There is no longer one doctor, one dentist and one high school, and one traffic light went out quite a while ago. E & R Saddlery - once the hotspot of business in town, is no longer even a memory for many residents. Browns Root beer closed. Some chain will take their place. Auto parts, quick pizza chains, Kroger, and the like are replacing or have replaced nearly all the small town business that once made South Lyon so quaint.

The more developers strive to provide the demands and the more the town and township give in, the further along the path to mundane sea of conformity the town and township go. Yes, it will be "new" and "nice" for a time, but it will soon be no different than any other soulless suburbia place - same stores and restaurants, same architecture, same housing options, same atmosphere, same traffic . . . . Soon, you will be able to take a sleeping person from Rochester Hills and put them in a house in Lyon Township and they will not have any idea where they are or even that they are in a different town.

To me the decline is losing what makes it special, not becoming a slum, or becoming a dated and therefore less desirable place for homes.

No I am not opposed to change, I am all for good change. I am opposed to taking a special place and making it mundane. That can be avoided and still have change/growth, but it must be done carefully and intentionally. Some communities have pulled it of to different levels of success. (Brighton did OK, Rochester City (not Hills) has done pretty well so far, Milford is hanging in there, South Lyon has failed. Novi failed, but they really had nothing to work with. Northville partly failed, partly held on. Plymouth has done OK with the exception of some major blunders. Tecumseh was doing well last I was there. New Hudson - failed, but had little to work with. Saline did OK with some big blunders like Plymouth. Romeo I think did well - still exploring Romeo). A few places have made themselves more special - Wyandotte; Maybe Royal Oak; Midtown).

[uchi90]

^ There's been a Starbucks, etc. at I-96 and Milford Rd. for at least 10 years. Technically New Hudson, I guess, but the strip it's in is called the Lyon's Center. Milford uses that Starbucks, and also has a Starbucks downtown, and their downtown is known as the most charming in western Oakland County.

[jenn342]

What's surprising to me is that South Lyon's downtown hasn't grown more along with the housing growth. Admittedly I haven't been there since we house-hunted there briefly a while back so things may have changed, but it surprised me that there weren't more restaurants, that the downtown was so limited/ offered so little compared to Milford, Northville, Plymouth etc. There's SO much new housing that I would've thought all that growth would demand more amenities overall - a new community center or library, more places to eat, etc. And it didn't seem like there was an influx of chain restaurants moving in or anything, so you'd think locally owned places would do well or more would open? It wasn't for us but I do understand the appeal.. new/newer houses and great schools for a much lower price than you'd find elsewhere.

But I'd also disagree that Novi has failed (outstanding schools, safe, great diverse community, good variety of housing stock, nice parks, all the 'amenities' you'd need.. definitely lacks charm, and has a lot of traffic, but that isn't unique).

[snoopygirlmi]

In the end, not everyone who moves to Lyon is looking for the rural experience. We bought a house as close to the Pontiac Trail/downtown area as we could get because a lot of the areas around here can feel really isolated. That's not what we were looking for.

It really isn't the place for you, if you aren't willing to wait for some of the amenities to be built. However, needs are going to end up taking over the need for nostalgia in the near future. I mean, it's really just dumb that people are freaking out about having *another* gas station on 10 Mile because once you leave Novi - there really aren't any gas stations on 10 mile and it's just stupid that there isn't a gas station between Pontiac Trail and the Novi border going West.

And 10 mile is always congested at peak times.

It took me awhile to get used to the fact that driving 15-20 minutes to the stores I like/prefer was going to be the norm. Cuz I got really spoiled living in Canton.


After spending nearly 15 years in more centralized and developed parts of the city, I grew to love the choices that came with living in a larger area.

Now - I'm not too impressed that there's an overpriced Busch's and an overpriced Kroger on Pontiac Trail and that I have to drive a ways to get to a Meijer. I'm thankful I found Fresh Thyme, but that gets to be a haul as well. However, that is the best place I've found for fruits and veggies and meat in the area. (As Nino's doesn't have a store out here. And I was a regular at Nino's in St. Clair Shores and Troy for years.)

It just what it is.

[snoopygirlmi]

Originally Posted by jenn342

What's surprising to me is that South Lyon's downtown hasn't grown more along with the housing growth. Admittedly I haven't been there since we house-hunted there briefly a while back so things may have changed, but it surprised me that there weren't more restaurants, that the downtown was so limited/ offered so little compared to Milford, Northville, Plymouth etc. There's SO much new housing that I would've thought all that growth would demand more amenities overall - a new community center or library, more places to eat, etc. And it didn't seem like there was an influx of chain restaurants moving in or anything, so you'd think locally owned places would do well or more would open? It wasn't for us but I do understand the appeal.. new/newer houses and great schools for a much lower price than you'd find elsewhere.

But I'd also disagree that Novi has failed (outstanding schools, safe, great diverse community, good variety of housing stock, nice parks, all the 'amenities' you'd need.. definitely lacks charm, and has a lot of traffic, but that isn't unique).

That's the thing that gets me all the time.

People here really are skeptical about change and "new". They are excited that the area is growing, but it's really hard to get people to accept that change is going to come with the growth.

The library measure failed because it was "too big" and "too much money."

Some want both a library and a community center. Some just want one or the other.

And everyone has ideas about the order in which these things should happen and how they should happen.

A lot of people want to keep it a small town, but they are building like they want to be an full fledged suburb.

Something's going to have to give. The area is having an identity crisis.

I mean, the City of South Lyon had to lift its ban on food trucks so they could have food trucks at one of their festivals.

This is the kind of mentality that keeps the area stuck.

[DTWflyer]

The problem is people moving somewhere and wanting to change it versus moving somewhere for the status-quo.

That and the whole big builder/developer/real-estate industrial-military complex.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by jenn342

But I'd also disagree that Novi has failed (outstanding schools, safe, great diverse community, good variety of housing stock, nice parks, all the 'amenities' you'd need.. definitely lacks charm, and has a lot of traffic, but that isn't unique).

Again what I sadi was those places failed to preserve what made them unique and special, not that they have failed as an extension of mass suburbia. Novi has done very well at that. However, as I said, Novi never had very much to work with (a general market, a camera store and maybe four other places, and a lot of farms. Perhaps it never had any chance to become anything more than an extension of the mass of suburbia sprawling out of Detroit. South Lyon, Northille, and some others had a chance and met that opportunity with varying degrees of success (or complete failure in the case of South Lyon). South Lyon has not failed as a temporarily trendy suburb. It failed to preserve what made it unique and special and different than other mass suburbia places. Other places have done a better job - Northville, Saline, Milford, Brighton (somewhat), even Farmington Hills.South Lyon and Lyon Township have been more "Hail developers - welcome. Bring us tax dollars and do anything you want. You don't live here or care about anything but the profit margins, but have at it. We just want to expand our budget and feel more important." That is where they "failed" and how other communities "failed before them. No real planning or control, just hodge podge development. Keep the developers happy and keep them coming for as long as possible, for soon they will move on to Milford and Brighton or Salem, or Saline or Plymouth. No question Lyon township has become the next Novi and will eventually become the next Farmington Hills or West Bloomfield. Nice enough, but dated and nothing special really. They could have been a special place more like Northville Plymouth, Saline, Dexter, Milford etc. But they failed.

Novi never had much chance as noted, but they also failed to develop a plan early on that woudl make Novi a special place. It is special if you like shopping malls. But the mass of subdivisions? nope not really different than any of a dozen other places with good schools and loads of McMansions.