Week 2: What is Detroit Future City?

To understand what the Detroit Future City implementation office does, we have to understand how DFC came to be, and what the office is trying to implement.

Detroit Future City is a relatively new organization – it’s about two years old. The Detroit Future Strategic Framework was released in January 2013, as a framework and shared vision for the future of Detroit. Resulting from the Detroit Works Project, the Strategic Framework grew out of 30,000 conversations, 163,000 connections with people, and 70,000 survey responses. This incredibly detailed report envisions seven primary employment districts, along with several secondary districts, in which to focus growth, employment, and population. This requires a 50 year vision – and will always need people focused and committed to a shared vision.

The Strategic Framework is split into six chapters. The core planning elements – economic growth, land use, city systems, neighborhoods, and land and building assets – constitute the first five chapters of the framework, while the last involves civic engagement. Aside from the primary employment districts, the heart of the Strategic Framework is its 50-year land use vision. This involves transforming Detroit’s abundant land from being seen as a liability to an asset.

The backbone of this land use vision will be vast open space system in Detroit. That’s where a lot of the work of the implementation office comes in. The office is relatively small – only about ten people – but there are a plethora of ongoing initiatives. Among the projects I will be involved with are a green calculator, a real, solidified open space plan for the city, and the DFC field guide to working with lots.

The green calculator will be an open-source tool that is specific to land in Detroit, and anyone will be able to use it. Taking cues from existing green infrastructure and vacant land calculators, DFC’s green calculator will be the only one to work specifically for Detroit. Developers, community development organizations, and even passionate residents will be able to utilize the green calculator to analyze vacant land and determine how they should develop the land.

The open space network is an on-going project that involves building coalitions with other community organizations. Unlike other cities, Detroit has no land use regulations, so implementing a shared land use vision is difficult. Further complicating matters, is the lack of any mention of open space in the city’s Master Plan of Policies. As a result, grassroots organizing and coalition building is the way to advance a unified plan of open space.

Finally, Detroit Future City will be releasing a field guide for vacant lots. It will be printed and published online for anyone to use. For some inspiration and examples, the team at the implementation office is writing several “local examples” of green infrastructure projects already built and successful. In reality, these examples will range from the city, state, and national examples. Altogether, the field guide will be a great tool for residents and community organizations to stay engaged and shape their community how they imagine.

Throughout the summer, I may also work on a few random projects and help out at some events. But my main projects are the green calculator, open space network, and field guide. Through my work, I will be doing a small part toward helping residents, DFC, and the community make progress toward the Framework’s shared land use vision.