Apartment building rezoning plan in Birmingham fails

BIRMINGHAM, Mich.It has been an ongoing three-year battle over how to or whether to change up Birmingham's zoning ordinances, and the ground zero property in the battle is 404 Park Street in the city's little San Francisco district.

That lot used to have a single family home, but it's been a vacant piece of land for years. A developer wants to put an apartment building on the lot.

It started at 16 apartments and is now down to four. Universally, the people in the neighborhood didn't want it.

"We are neighborhood and we would like to stay intact," said Brad Host, who owns the home next door to the proposed apartment building site.

The city did opt to change its zoning ordinances and went through more than ten properties to change zoning. Most were not contested, but a handful were, including the Park Street lot.

By a vote of 3-3 by the Birmingham City Commission, the apartment building plan failed. It was a victory for the neighbors.


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