Horses may help add rural flavor
May 9, 2007
By this time next year, horses may be roaming downtown Highland Township.
A group of residents and officials are working on a plan to revamp the Highland Station district that might include a way for people to enter downtown by horseback. The vision also includes restaurants and other businesses, which will be able to operate once the township installs sewers in 2008.
The downtown area thrived through the 1950s with pickle factories, feed stores, a dance hall, shops and a hotel. Fires destroyed several buildings that were never rebuilt, and that is one reason the area began to struggle, said Jill Bahm, executive director of the Highland Township Downtown Development Authority. The pickle factories closed and the railroad no longer stopped in town, she said.
But the plan is expected to breathe new life into Highland Station, with the hopes of making it a place for the community to shop, dine and get access to Highland State Recreation Area via walking paths and horse trails. The idea is for the downtown area to have a rural feel -- more Franklin than Birmingham, Bahm said.
"We want to make the area a place our residents can use and enjoy without making any drastic changes," Bahm said. "But we also want to attract outsiders to the community with amenities that will help sustain the community."
In other words, township officials have the big picture down but are still working on the details, Bahm said.
Beth Corwin, the township's planning and development director, said the downtown's master plan is split into three stages: discovery, which officials are in now; a design workshop, and the creation of a design document, or master plan. She said the ultimate approval of the master plan lies with the DDA.
Bahm said officials and residents have a vision for Highland Station to remain a quaint little hamlet with a rural flair.
"We don't want it to be formal or artificial," she said. "And we don't need to have two Milfords just down the road from one another."
Contact KORIE WILKINS at 248-351-5186 or kwilkins@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
