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Pontiac residents offered two recurring questions during Wednesday evening’s Shores on Crystal Lake town hall.
How much did SK Investments Group pay for the 34 acres? Why can’t they build single family homes there?
City and company officials repeated the answers about the proposed development on Crystal Lake, which is just east of Bagley Street and south of Orchard Lake Road in Pontiac. Melanie Rutherford, District 1 city councilwoman, pressed Joe Brown, SK Investments Group vice-president of development on the property price.
Brown initially demurred on the purchase price, then said he’d gotten a message during the meeting that the company paid close to $3 million for the property and has since put in close to $3 million more.
He gave money as the reason single-home properties wouldn’t make sense on the peninsula, which in the past has hosted military barracks during World War II then an apartment complex that was eventually torn down to make way for Lakeside Homes, a 1951 housing project that featured streets names for Pontiac’s prominent Black citizens. Lakeside housed generations of families before being torn down in the 1990s. The land has been vacant since, only used periodically for illegal dumping.
Pontiac resident Jessie Stephens remembers every iteration of the last 80 years, when the land had mobile homes and military barracks, and of the two separate apartment complexes that once stood there. In each case the developments were considered “upscale” but the apartment complexes became neglected and were eventually torn down.
She believes another densely populated apartment complex will do no good for the peninsula or Pontiac.
“We need some homes over there,” she told The Oakland Press, adding that residents have consistently opposed high-density housing on the peninsula.
Irene Wright, a 47-year Pontiac resident, wants city officials to ensure that newcomers will pay the city’s 1% income tax on residents.
Mayor Tim Greimel said city officials would be verifying residency. The amount of taxes the city can collect could be affected if SK Investments applies for brownfield tax credits, which must be approved by city council. He said the city will ensure the company commits to supporting the community in other ways if tax credits are approved.
Cheryl Dove, a Pontiac native, said the city’s southside residents need to protect their interests and assets including land that can be developed.
District 1 already has the public golf course, M1 Concourse, a tennis court and United Wholesale Mortgage, Dove said, and “we don’t want to get inundated” with more large developments.
Pontiac native Tim O’Brien is the professional engineer and licensed builder working with SK Investments on the project. He said he found the town hall “very useful,” and got the sense that people are open to a new development.
He said single-family homes just aren’t feasible on the site, because the sales prices would be too high.
Deputy Mayor Khalfani Stephens said multi-unit buildings will help the developer reduce costs.
City officials are pursuing a grant to study Crystal Lake’s water quality and determine how to remediate any issues, Stephens said. Wednesday’s crowd at the Bowens Center learned there are no current plans to drain the lake, either to refill it with fresh water or to see if rumors about what may be on the lake bed are true.
Among the biggest rumors dispelled during Wednesday’s meeting was talk that the proposed community would be a gated community with no public access to the lake and that residents wouldn’t be tax-paying residents. Brown and others made it clear there would be no gate, and at least one public road would bring visitors directly to the lake’s shoreline.
SK Investments has an option to buy more land, but no decision has been made, according to company and city officials
Rutherford said she wants to give the people of her district “a place at the table” so their concerns are both heard and addressed. At the same time, she said, “I don’t want developers to get so afraid to come here.”
She also wants to quickly quash any rumors by getting facts. Among the facts is the documented housing shortage coupled with affordability issues, including people living check-to-check, she said.. As a renter herself, Rutherford said she’s paying $1,285 a month to rent a two-bedroom house with utilities increasing her monthly costs to close to $1,800. The current estimated rent range for The Shores at Crystal Lake starts at $1,200 to $1,300 for a one bedroom, rising to between $2,000 and $2,500 for a three-bedroom unit.
“My goal is that they come down just a little on the price,” she said. “Everything is negotiable.”
The next town hall date has yet to be announced, Greimel said, but he strongly encouraged people to make their thoughts and opinions known at town halls or during public comment times at upcoming city meetings. Rutherford also invited people who want to know more about The Shores at Crystal Lake proposal to her next District 1 meeting, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 30, at The Alley Cat Cafe, 31 N. Saginaw St. in Pontiac.
The next city council meeting is 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, and the next planning commission meeting is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4. Both meetings will be at Pontiac City Hall, 47450 Woodward Ave. in Pontiac.
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