There were spirited debates at Wednesday night’s Historic District Commission meeting, as two new developments were up for approval. The commission voted to approve both of them, so we’ll hear more on each of these soon.

First was another development in Brush Park. This one is .95 acres bordered by Winder, I-75 Service Drive, Brush, and Beaubien. It will add 287 new residential units, plus commercial spaces. They are of varying heights and widths and they look fairly similar to the City Modern development. They’ll also have a small pocket park, carriage houses, and interesting live/work units. Hamilton Anderson Associates has been working on this for a while and meeting with the Brush Park CDC. No timeline right now, but these are moving forward. (We'll get renderings soon).

The second, and much more spirited discussion revolved around a development of row houses on Coe and Van Dyke in West Village. These lots have been empty for years, have seen different proposals for years, and it finally looks like these will move forward. The debate wasn’t over the development itself, as residents would like to see something on the lots. Residents wanted more communication in the process, which was noted. The look was too modern for many, and some residents would like to see more brick. Comments ranged from full approval to "Appropriate for Midtown or Royal Oak, but not West Village," to "At least it’s not shipping containers." Ground could break as early as November.

The Coe Development is a partnership between Christian Hurttienne Architects, the developer Woodborn Partners, and it’s the first development spearheaded by Invest Detroit, to align with their initiative to invest in the Villages, Southwest Detroit, and the Livernois /6 Mile corridor. There will be eight row houses, each three-bedrooms with a one-car garage (seen above). The corner commercial building will have 1,500 square feet of retail space.

We’ll let you know more as we hear more.