The Ypsilanti City Council gave the green light to further plans to redevelop the city's Water Street area, a 38-acre site formerly the home of the Detroit United Railway storage yard.
At its Dec. 9, 2025, meeting, the council approved the creation of a community ad hoc committee to aid the redevelopment process and solicit resident input. The council also approved a timeline for the project, which is set to begin with a community participation meeting on Jan. 21, 2026.
Cleanup of the Water Street site is nearing completion after the area was previously contaminated with lead and polychlorinated biphenyls. Now banned, PCB is a toxic and carcinogenic chemical compound that was once used in industrial and other products.
"We are in the process of finishing up the remediation of PCBs in the DUR Storage Yard on Water Street, given that milestone, both our consultants AKT Peerless and Carlisle Wortman and Associates along with City staff believe we are at a good moment to release a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the development of Water Street," said the resolution.
The timeline states that the RFQ will be released in August 2026, and interested developers will have a chance to walk through the site. The ad hoc committee will meet with potential development firms before bringing a recommendation to the council in the fall of 2026.
During the public comments section of the meeting, some community members expressed the need for community feedback and participation in the Water Street redevelopment.
"It's really important to be transparent and participatory, and while there is, of course, a timely component to redevelopment, that still must incorporate community engagement and the participatory process," Colton Ray said. Ray, a public commenter at the meeting, is an Ypsilanti resident and Eastern Michigan University student.
Another public commenter, Peter Church, said the council should take more time to consider the resolution before debating it.
Through community engagement sessions in 2025, the city compiled a list of residents' hopes, fears, wants and needs for the space, which can be viewed on the city website.
Interested parties in the community can attend the community participation meeting in January, as well as apply to join the ad hoc citizens committee. Committee members will be selected and approved by the council, said the resolution.
