McKenna Associates

The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded Buena Vista Township a $500,000 grant for streetscape and sidewalk infrastructure for its planned Buena Vista Town Center development.

The grant, announced Thursday, was one of $363 million in grants awarded nationally for innovative transportation projects.

The Town Center development will sit at the old Fort Saginaw Mall plaza at East Holland and South Outer Drive in the township. The last mall store closed in 2004, and the township obtained the property in 2008."

"Buena Vista has struggled for too long with the blight at the old Fort Saginaw Mall property," said township supervisor Dwayne Parker. "But Buena Vista is on the road to revitalization. We have prepared the property for redevelopment, crafted a vision and gameplan for new stores, offices and community facilities, and engineered plans for infrastructure upgrades." Complete story...

McKenna Associates, a Northville design firm, was awarded Michigan’s highest honor in community planning.

McKenna Executive Vice President John R. Jackson said, “Grosse Pointe is proof that communities can turn setbacks, even a devastating one like the loss of an anchor store, into opportunity with great results.”

As part of the program, McKenna conducted a market study to provide the city with an updated view of which type of businesses would do best in Grosse Pointe. Following the study McKenna led Grosse Pointe through the process of writing a new master plan.

The Michigan Association of Planning presented McKenna and the City its “Excellence Award for Implementation” for the “Downtown Grosse Pointe Revitalization Program” at a ceremony Oct. 19 in Grand Rapids.

WESTLAND, MI — The council recently approved a contract with McKenna Associates Inc. of Northville for professional services including inspections, enforcement and plan review of codes for electrical, mechanical, building, plumbing, the City’s Residential Rental Housing Inspection Program, Home Certification Program and Community Development Block Grant Program.

"It will all be done through scheduling, we will have access to nine inspectors and more could be added as the volume increases when the economy does better,” said Wild. “We were trying to cover it with two or three inspectors."

Michigan's largest community planning and design firm, McKenna Associates has promoted Ann Arbor native Sarah Traxler to director of Community Development.

"Sarah Traxler is the force behind major successful redevelopment projects that are changing the future of communities by replacing blight and obsolescence with hope and opportunity," said Phillip C. McKenna, president and owner of McKenna Associates. "Her work in Saginaw and Wayne County has mad Sarah one of the state's preeminent community development specialists, with a gift for navigating the sometimes complex world of state and federal programs to ensure communities see maximum value for their citizens."

GROSSE POINTE, MI — Anyone looking for proof that the loss of a major downtown tenant is a survivable event, need only look as far as Grosse Pointe where public officials and planners were forced to confront head-on the loss of Jacobson's Department Store that for generations anchored the retail district and helped shape the very identity of Grosse Pointe's downtown.

The progressive strategy they followed in the wake of the closure not only put Grosse Pointe on course for a new era of success, but provides a model for other Michigan cities lookin to not only survive, but thrive after the loss of a major downtown business. Complete story...

STREETSBORO, OH — For years, residents and officials have bemoaned the loack of a coherent downtown and consistency in development practices along Route 14.

But ruled guiding its development would change under new zoning regulations being considered this year. New rules governing signs, landscaping, building architecture and materials are intended to make development more predictable, attractive and consistent, according to city leaders.

HARBOR BEACH, MI — Several residents and business owners turned out Thursday to brainstorm ideas for the city’s future. The day-long planning event took place at Harbor Beach City Hall and was geared to help city planners collect input for the city’s 20-year master plan. Business owners met with representatives frorn McKenna Associates early Thursday uftemoon to discuss their ideas for zoning and future businesses in the city. At 6:30 p.m., residents and business owners were invited back for a community planning session, during which McKenna Associates collected ideas to use when creating the master plan.

Amy Chesnut, senior principal planner for McKenna Associates, said community input is vital to creating a plan that is relevant to residents’ needs and desires. McKenna, based in Northville, was hired by the city to help create the master plan. Complete story...

AVON LAKE, OH — A wireless tower will not be built behind the Learwood Square Shopping Plaza in Avon Lake ... at least not yet.

City Council voted against the pole, 5-1, at last night’s meeting, with the lone supporter being Ward 4 Councilman David Kos. Council’s vote was met with applause by tower dissenters.

Clear Wire Wireless wanted to build a 150-foot Wi-Fi tower behind the Learwood Plaza to increase Internet coverage in that area of town. However, the proposal came under scrutiny when Harbor Court and Meadow Vistas residents questioned the validity and safety of the pole. Currently, Meadow Vistas is zoned commercial.

City Council hired consultant McKenna Associates to research whether a pole was needed in that area, and McKenna came back with the result that it is not warranted. Complete story...

The problem is that the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 limits how towns can regulate cell phone carriers and the companies that build their towers. Still, there are things municipalities can - and should - do. To respond to concerns of citizens objecting to proposed new facilities, towns need to pass carefully crafted legislation. The goal is to make the carriers prove need and to encourage collocation: placing new transmitters on existing towers, instead of erecting new ones. And towns need to get expert advice on how the 1996 act affects them. Southold and Hempstead, for example, are doing just that. Complete story...

The insurance company that paid out more than $100,000 to Howell Public Schools after a cell phone tower caught fire in 2007 has filed a civil suit claiming negligence on the part of the company that owns the tower and the company that manufactured the tower.

A SET SEG, a Lansing-based company that insures the Howell district and more than 400 other Michigan school systems, in June liled a complaint against Massachusetts-based American Towers Inc. and Commstructures Inc. of Florida, alleging the fire and subsequent damage were a result of negligence of the defendants. Howell Public Schools is not a party to the suit. Complete story...

The new ordinance, which would be written with assistance from the city's planning consulting firm, McKenna Associates, would allow the city to better manage wireless carrier requests for cell tower permits, regulate tower locations and heights, negotiate tower lease rates, and protect the safety and character of the city. Complete story...

McKenna Associates was chosen by the Township Board in August to help write the plan. "It's going to be the center of what happens in Pittsfield Township from here on forward" Township Supervisor Mandy Grewal said. Complete story...

Phillip C. McKenna, CEO of McKenna Associates Inc., has been named 2007 Outstanding Professional Planner by the Michigan Association of Planning. In announcing the decision, the association's awards committee cited McKenna's decades of work shaping Michigan communities into vital, interesting and attractive places to live, work and do business. Complete story...

McKenna Associates: Inspired by Architecture, Collaboration Where are the cool places to work in Southeast Michigan? All over, as it turns out. They're also cool for many reasons. Sometimes the location itself is cool — an Albert Kahn-designed building in Northville with a working waterwheel.

Sometime's its the perks – free lunches, trips and flat-screen TVs in the office. And sometimes it's the comraderie –in-house basketball tournaments, picnics and other social events.

Read what makes McKenna a cool place to work.