Saline Social District Proposal Fails To Pass

Saline will not be getting an additional social district. Councilor Camero-Sulak’s and Councilor Krause’s support for the proposal was not enough to withstand the no votes from the rest of the council.

“I’m disappointed. I thought that it would be another good reason to bring people to town,” Saline Main Street’s Jill Durnen said. “I know it’s a confusing concept, btu I really thought that we could’ve pushed it through and that it really could’ve worked out.”

The proposed district – from Saline Main Street to create an additional district where alcoholic beverages could be consumed on the street during certain hours while people shop or wait for a restaurant table – was intended to help restaurants and bars on the north side of Michigan Avenue in the same way that Umbrella Square has proven a success for eateries south of the main truck route. The fact that Michigan Avenue is so wide, and the division that it creates with its breadth and its heavy traffic, is what led to Saline Main Street proposing the district in the first place.

The social district model was created by the Michigan state government in response to the economic collapse that accompanied the Coronavirus pandemic. Other communities, like Milan and Dexter, have introduced versions of it, which create spaces on sidewalks or in public parks were adults can legally drink alcoholic beverages outside, in a similar way that Umbrella Square is set up; except this district would not designate specific areas for specific establishments.

“I think we’re losing people who are going to other communities, to their social districts, to check them out,” Councilor Kevin Camero-Sulak said.

But the same questions from Council about the safety and need for the district that have shadowed the long-delayed decision from the beginning still came up at the meeting. Saline Main Street says that the shop keepers along Saline’s main drag in general supported the social district proposal, even businesses that would not allow alcoholic beverages inside their premises.

The social district notably received support from Saline Police Chief Jarrod Hart, who told the Council time and time again over the summer that he was satisfied with the clear signage and zoning demarcations that the district would entail, and that he was confident that his department could maintain order within the district.

Part of the problem was the constantly shifting goal posts of the shape and scope of the district. Saline Main Street has been in constant dialogue with businesses owners, meaning that the map of where the quite-rigid zoning of where people participating in the district could and couldn’t be, kept changing. The

“I thought this was for helping the entire downtown, but this [current proposal] isn’t,” Mayor Pro Dean Tem Girbach said.

Now that the district has been rejected, Saline Main Street Director Holli Andrews told the Sun Times News that other priorities mean that she will have to abandon the attempt to create the district, to focus on other priorities for downtown businesses.

“We really need a community planning and economic development director. The decisions put forth in front of our City Council are too complex. They don’t have the expertise to understand what supports economic development, or connectivity,” Andrews said after the proposal was voted down. “When Mayor Pro Tem Girbach says we have a unique situation with Route 12, we do and it hurts business. It divides our downtown. We have been working since I got here diligently to override that divide. And now we’ve added the losses to the pandemic to that divide. … There are just some businesses that need us to get people over Route 12. I don’t think people will act irresponsibility with a social district and that we missed a good opportunity.”
Image Credit: City of Saline Twitter.