Detroit City Stadium Benefits Agreement Approved by Neighborhood Council

The Detroit City Football Club has forged an agreement with an advisory council as one of the last steps to secure $88 million in tax breaks for a new stadium, housing and a parking deck in Southwest Detroit.

The Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) approved the agreement, which calls for safety measures, $17 an hour stadium jobs and $1.2 million over 12 years for home repairs and cultural offerings in the area around the stadium. In all, dozens of requests were agreed to by team owners.

The Detroit City Council will vote on the agreement and once approved by that body it then it becomes official. If the tax breaks are approved, the team will not get them until the development project on Michigan Avenue near 20^th Street is completed.

“It was not hard to get where we landed,” said Danny Patton, an alternate member of the NAC. “There was no shortage of passion.”

The NAC was not able to secure daycare for stadium workers or a $1 surcharge on every ticket for home repairs in the area. They also could not persuade the team to pay up front the money for repairs and cultural offerings.

Sean Mann, cofounder of the team and the team spokesman, said the funds for home repairs and cultural offerings could not be offered up front due to the difficulties of getting the project built. 

There are no direct public funds being used for the project and there needs to be a cushion for inevitable cost overruns, Mann said. The club also will pay property taxes once the project is completed.

“This is an incredibly capital heavy project,” Mann said. “This is not an easy town to do a development in. We can’t do more (funding for repairs) up front.”

Parking likely will be an issue. The city requires 2,500 parking spots for games or other events at venues the size of the proposed 15,000 seat venue. Mann said he has obtained at least that many spots.

Neighbors said that is not enough parking for the large number of fans that will descend upon the stadium on game days or other events. The agreement does not force the team to add significantly more parking spots. But the team will offer an incentive for fans to carpool, bike or walk to the stadium.

Sheila Cockrel is a member of the NAC and a former member of the Detroit City Council. She also served on a NAC for the Michigan Central project. She said the team may be biting off more than it can chew. She voted against the agreement.

“The proposal is unrealistic,” she said.

In a statement, Cockrel said resident concerns about parking were not given adequate attention.

“The current parking proposal is unrealistic and fails to reflect Corktown’s congestion …” she said. “Residents have repeatedly voiced this – and their experiences deserve more acknowledgement.”

The NAC met during September and October to hammer out the agreement. In addition to their weekly meetings, members met in the community and sought input from people living in the areas around the proposed project.

Aaron Goodman of the city’s Planning and Development Department conducted the weekly NAC meetings. He praised the job done by the NAC and the long hours invested in getting an agreement drafted. The NAC members conducted more than 300 additional hours of meetings outside of their weekly sessions.

“You took a parttime job you maybe didn’t want,” he said to the NAC members at their last meeting. “You did a wonderful job.”

The Detroit City Council can approve the agreement outright or demand changes. The NAC is part of the city’s Community Benefits Ordinance that requires the establishment of such a group if a developer is seeking to build a project and obtain more than $1 million in tax breaks.

Patton said the agreement calls for studies of traffic safety, parking and related issues once the stadium is completed. He said you cannot put a dollar figure on the impact of looking at how things shake out once the project is completed.

“To me, that gets lost in the shuffle,” he said. “It is going to be important.”