The firm's Ford Motor Land Development Co. received approval from the city's Planning Commission March 4 to rezone the land from industrial to commercial and multifamily residential zoning, said Angie Kozleski, communications manager for the land firm. She said 58 acres of the property would be used for townhomes or apartments. The other portion of the land will be commercial.
"We have no set plans for the land yet," Kozleski told GlobeSt.com. The plant opened in 1965, Kozleski said. The empty property next to it at Allen between Center and King roads has been unused, and the company decided to put something on it. The commercial land is along Allen Road. "We're always looking at future uses for surplus property," she said. "The city expressed a need for more residential."
Specifically, the city asked for more seniors housing. Kozleski said she couldn't promise anything, but the company would try to honor the request.
The Ford land division is already unloading property in Shelby Township. The site is the former Packard Proving Grounds along Van Dyke Road. Ford sold 175 acres of the 337-acre property to Grand Sakwa Properties, which would like to build more than 750 homes on the site.
The property had been Ford's test track for cars and airplanes for many years. Visteon, the former parts arm of Ford, still has a plant on the property. A plan for a 700,000-sf U.S. Postal Service distribution facility on the test track site was shot down by resident outcry in 1998.
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