A look inside: the Northville Government

A few nights ago I attended a City meeting for the Historic District Commission. The main topic of the meeting was to decide if the house next door to ours that is being build should be allowed to have a horseshoe driveway. The reason that they might not be allowed is because they are in the Historic District of Northville, and by some it is not considered historic.

The first person who talked at the meeting (a concerned citizen) wanted to let people know that his opinion was that the Historic District Commission was not tight enough about their rules. He told us that his neighbor had had an ordinance about fencing changed just for him. He talked about another house where some people moved in and put up a fence, saying that it was an existing fence. The neighbors of that house said that there had never been a fence there. The City just watched and didn't do anything about it.

The first person on the agenda was not there, so they moved to the next people.

The first person to talk to the HDC (Historic District Commission) was there to present a sample of a fence that they wanted to put up in their yard. It was completely black and made of Aluminum. The gate on the fence would look exactly like a continuation of the rest of the fence.

She also wanted to re-build part of her porch and porch stairs. They would be an exact duplicate except that part would be made of Trex, not wood, because it weathers better. They would also be on a concrete pad instead of dirt so that it would be more durable.

The HDC accepted her plan and she will be allowed to re-build.

The next person to talk to the HDC wanted to install a new roof on his garage and house. He needed to because the ceilings were gone on his second floor. Everything would look exactly the same on his house except for a new roof.

The HDC accepted his plan and told him that he could do either black or charcoal, as those are the colors his neighbors have.

The next people were our new neighbors who want the horseshoe drive. The first thing they presented were new paint colors for their house. Then the builder came forward to talk about the drive.

He said that he talked to the Building Inspector and was led to believe that there was no ordinance about a driveway. He said that he decided to come before the HDC anyway to make sure it was okay with them. That was interesting because I was told that he was going to pour the driveway and a lady on our street, who is on the HDC, came over and told him that he needed to come before the HDC with his new plan.

The builder told us that a horseshoe driveway would be good for safety because otherwise the house owners would have to back out of their driveway onto the street, and the street can be fairly busy. He also said that many houses to the south of this house (along the same street) have horseshoe driveways. Interestingly, nobody could really list any that were, except for a few that were on corners (which is a different story) or some that had horseshoe drives that went behind the houses.

We were also told that the driveway is completely ready to pour. He was going to pour it but he needed to go before the HDC.

The lady who was from the City told us that the Building Inspector had asked her to look at ordinances. She found one that said that the HDC has the right to regulate any changes to the exterior of a house in the Historic District.

The builder replied to this that the HDC does not regulate landscaping, and a driveway is landscaping. A man on the HDC agreed to this.

The homeowners also want permission to raise a retaining wall on the side of their house. The retaining wall would be completely made of stone. The homeowners and builder gave the HDC some copies of the siteplan to look over.

Next the builder pointed out that they are asking for a horseshoe drive, not a circle drive. He listed a few houses in the Historic District that have horseshoe drives. Someone on the HDC said that they didn't know of any that did. It turned out that the ones in the Historic District are on corners, which is different because they don't have two curb cuts on the same road.

One of the people on the HDC said that they were concerned about the subdivision look with a horseshoe drive in the front yard. The builder said that they will put in lots of landscaping and bushes to make it blend in.

Someone asked the homeowner how many cars they plan to have parked in the driveway. They said one or two at one time.

Another question arose: would the horseshoe drive be a parking pad? If it is, then it would not be allowed in the set back from the road. The homeowner came forward and said that after hours of Googling he could not find anywhere that a horseshoe driveway is a parking pad. He also pointed out that the HDC's job is not to make sure that houses match all the other houses exactly, they just need to make sure they "harmonize" with other houses on the street.

One of the members of the HDC said that he would feel better if they could hide the horseshoe drive with landscaping or pave it with brick or stone. The builder said that they could cut the size to 10', so it would be smaller and harder to see. They also agreed to hide it with landscaping as best they could.

Then they had a time where the public could give opinions on this decision. One man and his wife stood up. They thought that it was a relatively narrow lot for a horseshoe drive and it was like a parking pad. They also pointed out that another house as refused a horseshoe drive because they were too close to an intersection, and this would be right at an intersection. They made it known that lots of people back onto this street, despite the traffic. Plus, the current homeowners might move, and who knows what the new owners would do with the landscaping.

Another man stood to give his opinion. He didn't like the fact that there would be two curb cuts. He didn't think that would flow with the rhythm of the street, and he thinks it will be unsafe and a difficulty with traffic.

The HDC and the homeowners agreed that the drive would be reduced to 10' across and they would mask it with landscaping (and bring in a landscaping plan.) 4 members of the HDC were in favor and 1 was opposed.

My opinion was that they should not be allowed to have the horseshoe drive. I agree that it is the subdivision look, and I don't want that for my street. I guess they will put in bushes and try to cover the drive, but you will still see a bunch of cars in front of the house, and now that they let one person do it, what if more people want to?

Thanks for reading my article/opinion about this meeting. If you have any comments, or opinions you would like to share, feel free to leave them as comments. Thanks, and have a great day!

Molly