Update: Grosse Pointe Park got in touch with MLive about the planters, stating they're part of a beautification effort. Their response has been inserted into the story.

GROSSE POINTE PARK, MI - The disputed sheds were shifted, a plaza added and now about 15 massive planters have been placed at the intersection of Kercheval Avenue and Alter Road on the Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park border as part of a beautification effort.

Grosse Pointe Park City Manager Dale Krajniak said Tuesday afternoon that the plants and planters were aesthetic improvements to the market area.

"Basically it's simply beautifying that little block area," he said. "We're expanding our market. We made sure we left all pedestrian vehicular access readily available, so everyone should find it suitable...It screens off the parking lot next door to that's adjacent to the market area, and we hope to expand our saturday offerings."

Since last year, the intersection has changed drastically. It's been filed down to a one-way point of entry into Grosse Pointe Park from Detroit, which empties into a tight roundabout.

Grosse Pointe Park Mayor Pro Tem Greg Theokas said in December that the city planned to have a "European-themed" plaza would allow one lane of traffic on Kercheval Avenue between the two cities at the intersection.

That was after the cities made an agreement to remove -- or move -- the market that effectively blocked off Detroit, impeding eastbound traffic on Kercheval Avenue into Grosse Pointe Park.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's spokesman John Roach said he wasn't aware of the new planters, but if they don't block access to Grosse Pointe Park, then the planters shouldn't be an issue.

The nearly five-foot-tall planters Tuesday were being filled by a landscaping company with rocks, soil and trees. They were too heavy to move by hand, arranged along the Grosse Pointe Park border in a straight line.

Several smaller planters were being placed, too.

They were big enough that two landscaping workers could sit inside the planter to arrange the trees.

Nacy Pacitto, a 64-year-old Detroit resident who works in Grosse Pointe Park, said she was sick of seeing the Kercheval Avenue intersection changed.

She's lived in Detroit for 33 years.

Even if it's not some sort of border dispute or effort to keep Detroiters out of Grosse Pointe Park, the intersection is a traffic hazard.

Pacitto said she's seen multiple accidents at the intersection since the one-way entrance was added and the roundabout implemented. She's often worried her car will get hit, as she parks close to the intersection for work.

"This is a very unsafe access," she said. "It's very, very unsafe...The whole thing has just been a fiasco from the very beginning."

Pacitto called the farmer's market and plaza a "no-man's zone."

She said while she understands that panhandlers and beggars would frequent the area around Kercheval, changing the intersection wasn't the best solution.

"It's not my city." Pacitto said of Grosse Pointe Park. "It deserves a nice business district...It's not fair. I don't know where to turn...I don't want to see racism, I don't want to see anything happen to those businesses (in Grosse Pointe Park) because people get angry."

Last year, Pacitto said she felt a lot of tension on the border.

She said she hopes both cities find a better solution, that what looks like a barricade is sending the wrong message.

Per an agreement signed in August, both cities agreed to multiple terms so that the intersection at Kercheval Avenue and Alter Road would be opened back up.

For Detroit, this included removing blighted properties along the border. Grosse Pointe Park was to remove the three-shed farmer's market as a result.

The market was shifted to the right, and the street opened back up.

Pacitto said that well before the farmer's market, snow was plowed up against the intersection with Detroit, though. It's been a problem for a while.

Said the two mayors last year when the Kercheval agreement was reached:

"We are very excited about our new partnership, which will improve the area and benefit residents in both Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park," Mayor Mike Duggan said in August. "It became clear during this process that we all share the common goal of creating a safe and attractive environment that links our communities in a neighborly way. This agreement will help accomplish that."

Said Mayor Pro Tem Gregory Theokas in August: "I am truly impressed with the effort demonstrated by Mayor Duggan, Butch Hollowell & their team, along with our own administrative officers to facilitate a Joint Master Plan for the entire East side that includes the length of Alter Road from Jefferson to Mack Avenue. This collaborative effort will result in our creating a seamless transition between Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park."

Ian Thibodeau is the business and development reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. He can be reached at ithibode@mlive.com, or follow him on Twitter.