Planning: 2009 - 2021
The City has a solid history of planning since 2009, when a new Master Plan reimagined the Southfield Road Corridor and a new city center. Planning efforts since that time have focused on supporting residential neighborhoods, improving mobility around the city, and spurring economic development in the corridor. The most recent plan, adopted in 2021, is summarized below. Following that summary is a short review of the previous plans and how they have continued to refine the vision for the city.
2021 Comprehensive Plan
Lathrup Village Planning Commission adopted the updated 2021 Comprehensive Plan at their July 20, 2021 meeting and has already begun to implement several goals and objectives. In the Fall of 2025, the Planning Commission began the process to re-examine the comprehensive plan to ensure the community's vision, and goals for achieving that vision, are still relevant.
Plan Summary: The 2021 Comprehensive Plan for Lathrup Village serves as a strategic roadmap for the city’s long-term development and community preservation. The document analyzes demographic trends, such as an aging population and high educational attainment, to address future housing and economic needs. Key initiatives focus on transforming the Southfield Road corridor into a walkable Village Center while improving multi-modal transportation and pedestrian safety. The plan emphasizes environmental resiliency through watershed protection and disaster preparedness to ensure the city can withstand modern challenges. Additionally, it highlights the importance of neighborhood connectivity and the adaptive reuse of historic sites like the Annie Lathrup School. Ultimately, these guidelines aim to foster a vibrant, sustainable environment that attracts new residents while supporting the current population.
2009 to present
The following summary outlines how key themes were carried forward and modified from the 2009 Master Plan through the 2014 Update and into the 2021 Comprehensive Plan.
Housing and Neighborhood Preservation
The plans evolved from focusing on maintaining the historic status quo to proactively managing an aging population's needs.
- 2009 Master Plan: Prioritized maintaining the 1920s Garden City character and recommended a property maintenance program to manage blight.
- 2014 Update: Updated demographics with 2010 Census data, highlighting a significant increase in the senior population. A 2013 Market Study was added, identifying a specific need for 75–210 senior housing units and medical office space to allow residents to "age in place".
- 2021 Comprehensive Plan: Shifted to a broader "Neighborhoods" concept, dividing the city into five distinct units to improve civic engagement and communication. It also emphasized attainable housing, noting that over half of Lathrup Village households spend more than 45% of their income on the combined costs of housing and transportation.
The Village Center and Commercial Revitalization
The central theme across all three plans is the transition from a "suburban strip" commercial model along Southfield Road to a high-density, mixed-use Village Center.
- 2009 Master Plan: Established the core concept of a Village Center bounded by the California Drive octagon, proposing a departure from sprawling commercial development in favor of compact "nodes". It recommended increasing building heights to four stories to create a "downtown" feel.
- 2014 Update: Refined the vision with specific design imagery developed in 2012 through resident and property owner feedback. It reported the completion of critical Zoning Ordinance revisions that replaced six suburban-style districts with five new mixed-use zones to legally facilitate this redevelopment.
- 2021 Comprehensive Plan: Reaffirmed the Village Center as the city's "authentic positive identity". It further refined the concept by integrating specific Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) preferred designs, such as a narrower median and specific pedestrian crossings to better unite the east and west sides of the city.
Transportation and Walkability
While the 2009 plan identified the physical barriers created by I-696 and Southfield Road, subsequent plans significantly expanded the technical strategies for overcoming them.
- 2009 Master Plan: Focused on basic walkability, paving residential streets, and the need for traffic calming to protect neighborhoods from cut-through traffic.
- 2014 Update: Formally integrated the 2010 Complete Streets Plan and the 2010 Access Management Plan. It shifted focus toward a multi-modal network that specifically serves bicyclists, pedestrians, and those with disabilities.
- 2021 Comprehensive Plan: Moved from planning to detailed implementation for "missing links" in the non-motorized network. It introduced specific proposals for HAWK signals (Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons) and identified the need to upgrade deficient bus stops—most of which were currently just unpaved patches over drainage culverts.
Introduction of New Themes: Resiliency and Sustainability
The 2021 Comprehensive Plan introduced a major new theme not present in the earlier documents: Resiliency & Sustainability. Unlike previous plans that viewed environmental issues primarily through landscaping or tree preservation, the 2021 plan addresses climate change directly. It identifies flooding from heavy rain events as a critical threat and proposes converting "outmoded ditch-based drainage" into an asset through bioswales and rain gardens. It also accounts for the socio-economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the need for flexible land use (like co-working spaces) and emergency response plans.
2021 Recreation Plan
2021-2025 Lathrup Village Recreation Plan
