Cherry Hill Village in Canton (Detroit, Dearborn: apartments, foreclosure, lofts)
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Is anyone familiar with Cherry Hill Village in Canton?
I heard that this was planned to be a great community, but that the businesses there all died off and the buildings for them are just being converted to apartments. It sounds like the city and developer have abandoned the area.
It was a bizarre quasi-new urban community built in the middle of nowhere. Literally, it was in the middle of farms and fields on the outskirts of Canton. I drove through it after it was first built, and thought, WTF is this! I think Canton was always secretly jealous of Plymouth's downtown, which is quaint, historic, and walkable, and it thought that it could emulate it. Well, it didn't work out. I don't know why developers think they can reinvent the wheel. The whole point of living in a walkable community is access and proximity to other people and amenities. That's how all towns and cities started. You can't just build a compound in the middle of nowhere and expect people to enjoy feeling cut off and isolated. It's like the clash of two polar opposites. Attracting people to the "rural downtown" that was Cherry Hill Village was like trying to force the positive and negative sides of two magnets together.
It was lovely but I haven't heard much of it in the past couple of years. I really think it was in too strange of a location and also I don't think this region is ready for New Urbanism. New Urbanism works, just not here.
The only New Urbanism I can think of off the top of my head that's been popular around here are some residential developments in the New Haven area built in the style (but with few of the amenities New Urbanism comes with like convenient shopping) to take advantage of cheap land by shrinking lot sizes. These houses are not holding their values either, as the New Haven school district is held in low esteem and the area is foreclosure central. There are some in Chesterfield Township as well, along Interstate 94 at 24 Mile. Cute houses, but goofy location with a mile walk to the nearest store. There was also a subdivision in Monroe built this way but I haven't driven by there in a while and it was actually built in an established neighborhood.
P.S. Want to see another partly failed SE MI New Urbanism experiment? It's in Shelby Township, on a street called Lakeside North...there's a row of live/works and the area never took off. I think it would have done okay had the economy and credit market held out a little while longer.
It was lovely but I haven't heard much of it in the past couple of years. I really think it was in too strange of a location and also I don't think this region is ready for New Urbanism. New Urbanism works, just not here.
The only New Urbanism I can think of off the top of my head that's been popular around here are some residential developments in the New Haven area built in the style (but with few of the amenities New Urbanism comes with like convenient shopping) to take advantage of cheap land by shrinking lot sizes. These houses are not holding their values either, as the New Haven school district is held in low esteem and the area is foreclosure central. There are some in Chesterfield Township as well, along Interstate 94 at 24 Mile. Cute houses, but goofy location with a mile walk to the nearest store. There was also a subdivision in Monroe built this way but I haven't driven by there in a while and it was actually built in an established neighborhood.
P.S. Want to see another partly failed SE MI New Urbanism experiment? It's in Shelby Township, on a street called Lakeside North...there's a row of live/works and the area never took off. I think it would have done okay had the economy and credit market held out a little while longer.
I like the idea of new urbanism, but in reality, it doesn't make any flippin sense. We have a major urban city core (Detroit) that could accommodate a hundred thousand new residents, plus a bunch of smaller urban centers like Royal Oak, Ferndale, Dearborn, Birmingham, etc. etc. etc. These urban environments are superior to anything that could be replicated by the hand of a developer. They have historic charm, established retail, businesses in walking distance, a variety or housing styles. And, they are usually located near big amenities and connected to infrastructure.
Canton and Shelby Township are the least urban places in Metro Detroit: Sprawly sprawl suburbs with no identifiable purpose other than serving as bedroom communities for employment hubs like Detroit and Southfield. I don't know what kind of drugs the developers behind these "new urban villages" were smoking when they had the bright idea to create urban communities in these cities. It makes no sense whatsoever, which is exactly why they failed miserably.
Lofts built in downtown Detroit = automatic success. Lofts built in Royal Oak = automatic success. Lofts built in Bham = automatic success. Demand in these urban environments outstrips supply at the present date. There is like a full mile of GORGEOUS urban environment ripe for development along the Detroit Riverwalk. You could throw up complete garbage and people would live there. Sometimes I think this region has lost its flippin mind.... "Let's build urban lofts in rural CANTON! and SHELBY TWP!" Wow. FAIL.
Is anyone familiar with Cherry Hill Village in Canton?
I heard that this was planned to be a great community, but that the businesses there all died off and the buildings for them are just being converted to apartments. It sounds like the city and developer have abandoned the area.
If anyone has any insight let me know!
This is mostly true. The area is not run down, but it seems many of the businesses are closing. The houses are well kept. This area was not a true small town in the sense that there was no grocery store, department store, etc within walking distance of homes.
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