SEMCOG and MDOT officials present plans to widen and improve often-congested stretches of I-94 and I-75 in the Detroit area in a June 20, 2013 meeting.

DETROIT, MI -- Delegates of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments voted Thursday to approve a long-term regional transportation plan that includes widening and improving I-94 in Detroit and I-75 in Oakland County.

Elements of the plan were protested by a crowd of activists who said service drives will dig into neighborhoods, hinder pedestrian and bike routes and wipe out institutions including a historic music studio and a charter school.

Detroit City Councilman Gary Brown proposed sending the two highway widening elements back to an advisory committee, but his motion was rejected and the group approved the full plan by a weighted vote of 1,293 to 357.

The plan as a whole outlines long-term regional spending of $50 billion in federal and state transportation funds.

The I-94 expansion from six lanes to eight will cost about $2.7 billion in federal and state bond funds, including bridge work and reconstruction of the M-10 and I-75 interchanges, according to the plan.

Adding a lane to I-75 between 8 Mile Road and M-59 in Oakland County, along with interchange improvements, will cost $1.3 billion in federal funds.

(View the full 2040 Regional Transportation Plan for Southeast Michigan here.)

SEMCOG Executive Director Paul Tait said removing the two items could have threatened the process of implementing the entire plan, which has been in the works for years and involves critical repairs to roads and bridges that are outdated and could become dangerous.

"It would have put the whole plan in jeopardy," he said.

He said that because most of the concerns raised by residents involve the design of service drives rather than the actual highway lanes, there's still room for dialogue before they're built.

"I think there's a lot that can be done to mitigate the adverse impacts," he said.

Michigan Department of Transportation officials said the highway improvements are critical to freight traffic, which they expect to grow with the construction of a new bridge to Canada.

But Hannah Kelley was distraught after the meeting.

The 26-year-old an University of Michigan urban planning student who lives in Detroit's New Center neighborhood believes the highway improvements could have been designed more creatively to avoid wiping out cultural institutions.

She had asked SEMCOG during the meeting to nix the projects in part to protect United Sound Systems studio on 2nd Avenue and Antoinette Street, reading a long list of iconic musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, the MC5 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers who have recorded there.

"Don't keep destroying our cultural fixtures," Kelley said after the vote. "Are we not learning from our past? Look at Hastings Street."

Hastings Street was part of the Black Bottom-Paradise Valley neighborhood, a historic African American cultural hub that had worldwide influence on music. It was demolished in the 1950s to make room for I-75.

The memory of its destruction is brought up in many Detroit discussions on infrastructure, assets, culture and race.

Kelley and other activists called the projects boondoggles that threaten pedestrian bridges, bike paths and a charter school while undermining a push for public transit development.

MDOT officials said the overall plan was designed to support public transit and that there will be accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Washtenaw County board Chariman Conan Smith, a member of the newly formed Regional Transit Authority, said the highway plan could have been better aligned with public transportation interests.

"They can be more synergistically supportive of each other," he said.

He said removing the widening elements from the highway improvement plan would have saved about $600 million that could have been used for other area road improvements.

But he believes Thursday's vote doesn't end discussions on making changes to the plan.

Todd Scott of the Detroit Greenways Coalition wasn't as optimistic.

He believes sending bicyclists to highway service drives will be an inconvenient and dangerous replacement for current bike routes, and that planned bridge demolitions will be damaging to the city's growing greenway system.

"This has serious damage to those who are walking and biking," he said.

He was unimpressed by promises of continued dialogue before construction begins.

"It's easy to blow people off by saying 'It's not here yet. Don't worry. It's not here yet.' Then they'll tell you it's too late," Scott said.

Follow Khalil AlHajal on Twitter @DetroitKhalil or on Facebook at Detroit Khalil. He can be reached at kalhajal@mlive.com or 313-643-0527.