Community Letter
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To: The Honorable Mayor Theresa Rich and Farmington Hills City Council
Subject: Location of Future Senior Citizen Center
Many senior citizens currently using the Costick Center continue to raise concerns regarding the mayor and city council’s proposed location for a new senior center at the location of the Hawk. 95% of seniors in the listening sessions stated they want to remain at the current Costick Center location. There has been no opposition to the current location. The SFC survey established that the Costick site was the preferred location. Seniors have emailed, called, met with council, and testified at council meetings voicing their preference, but to no avail. Some reasons for this preference include:
Safety
Seniors have made it clear that they do not want to deal with the traffic congestion in the Orchard Lake/696/12 Mile area. In 2025, there were 65 accidents with 16 people injured at 12 Mile and Orchard Lake. There were 0 accidents on 11 Mile. Additionally, placing a senior center immediately adjacent to a freeway creates a high-risk environment for respiratory, cardiovascular, and cognitive health, requiring significant, specialized mitigation efforts such as noise abatement and high-quality filtration.
Room for Expansion
Based on the 2025 census, 47% of Farmington Hills’ population is 50 or better and that population is only expected to grow. Any new senior center must be able to expand to accommodate this growth. The Hawk grounds are not well suited to accommodate future expansion.
Parking and Accessibility
There will be future expansion of activities as well as potential banquet facilities at the Hawk. Adding a senior facility, which is also used for voting, blood drives, a warming center, shredding, hazardous waste recycling and water disbursement can bring lines of cars, which will only bring more congestion to an already busy location. There are SMART buses, day trips, and daily car loading for Meals on Wheels. Extra road space will be needed for all of this. Seniors often move slowly with canes, walkers, and wheelchairs being used. Any additional parking required for new Hawk activities must not be allowed to encroach on parking allocated for the new senior center.
Fiscal Responsibility
There is no detailed cost benefit analysis proving the Hawk is a better financial decision than building a new center on flat land near the current location. Many expenses have not been taken into consideration such as a very long, lit road and its maintenance, a new parking lot, noise abatement and a high-quality filtration system. There is also a cost for grading the land and the cost of a $250,000 study to see if it is even feasible. Potential maintenance synergies have been cited by the city but with no detailed cost justification. There has been no cost-benefit analysis justifying the high cost of adding a second floor just for the sake of advertising or any analysis of facts on what a company would pay. Online research indicates a billboard on 696 in Farmington Hills only costs $24k to $48k per year. A quick objective drive by on I-696 demonstrated the Hawk building is not visible from I-696. Trees would have to be removed at an expense, which would make noise concerns even worse. If the senior center stays at its current location, much of the land it sits on could still be sold to generate tax revenue. It is also an easy build on flat land. There could also be a partnership with Rose.
Communication and Transparency
There needs to be direct two-way communication between city council and the senior community to make sure proposals are viable and acceptable to the senior community before they become reality. Council continues to work with consultants but has yet to engage an expert on aging and senior facilities. The Farmington Press observed that residents were reeling from the council’s decision to build at the Hawk.
Additionally, the confusion at the November 24th city council meeting when Jon Aldred made his motion to only consider the Hawk location, was obvious. This appeared to be a pre-planned motion that blindsided some on council as well as the public. City council’s own council meetings during the June 23rd special study session showed that council clearly understood the drawbacks related to the Hawk location at that time.
Seniors are adamant that a proposed new senior center be located in an area that is safe and accessible to the city’s large and growing population of senior citizens. It is rare when you have study sessions and council meetings and the people affected agree with virtually no opposition. Farmington Hills’ senior citizens have made it clear they want to stay at the Costick Center location. Council’s decisions can affect nearly half of the Farmington Hills population who have been taxpayers for decades (in some cases 40-50 years) and continue to vote at a substantially higher rate than the rest of the population.
Sincerely,
Printed Name
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Signature & City You Live In