Depot Town apprehensive of YDDA merger

By Christine Laughren
Jun. 4, 2009    ·    4:03 p.m.

The Depot Town Downtown Development Authority shared its initial thoughts on the possibility of merging with the Ypsilanti DDA this morning.

The discussion came at a special DTDDA meeting at 8 a.m at the Freighthouse.

Depot Town DDA Board Chair Dave Wheeler was elected to sit on the DDA director interim search committee formed at Tuesday’s YDDA meeting. Mayor Paul Schreiber said several City Council members were in favor if merging the boards at Tuesday’s city meeting. He said after some consideration he is leaning toward having the boards come together, a decision ultimately decided by council.

“It may be rough at first but in the long-term I think it would be good for the community,” Schreiber said.

However, the majority of the DTDDA board voiced apprehension of a possible merge. Linda French, owner of Sidetrack, said Depot Town is on a different plain from Downtown and is worried Depot Town would get “swallowed up” with one board.

Sandee French, co-owner of Aubree’s, said she understands the logic of merging the boards but also said Downtown’s issues are different from Depot Town’s.

We wouldn’t get the representation that we need,” she said during the discussion. “Whoever was on that board that representing us would have a heck of a job trying to break through.

“It seems to me that bigger is not necessarily better,” she said.

Schreiber said if City Council did create one board it would most likely be composed of 12 members, one quarter or one third of which would be representation from Depot Town. He said his initial concern with conjoining the two entities was representation as well.

“What it really comes down to the mayor making the right appointments so you do feel like you are represented,” he said. “There are plenty of active people here that would be able to make their views known.

“And I think in some ways it would be good to have interaction at the board level between Downtown and Depot Town.”

The mayor pointed to parking disagreements between the two groups as an example of why one board would be beneficial to the city.

“Downtown said we’re putting parking meters in and Depot Town said we want free parking for two hours,” he said. “If we are going to have some type of parking strategy we need to figure out how to come to a consensus on that and one board with everybody sitting around the table would help with that immensely.”

The interim search committee, of which YDDA board members John Coleman, Darryl Daniels and Schreiber also sit on, met Wednesday.

Schreiber said the committee is leaning toward contracting a firm that would fulfill director duties while the YDDA and DTDDA search for a new director. He said the committee would create a request for proposals with a list of tasks, issues and what type of hours are expected.

“Then when we are looking for a permanent executive director we can use that information to help form the goals,” he said.

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