Downtown Detroit Partnership I-375 Peer Review Report Offers Recommendations to Maximize the Project Opportunity

DETROIT – The Downtown Detroit Partnership (DDP) announced today the release of its I-375 Peer Review Report, which includes design evaluation and collaboration, construction mitigation, and opportunity assessment sections. Through a grant from the Kresge Foundation, the DDP worked alongside the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the City of Detroit over the past year to provide a balanced voice within the community and advocate for a truly reconnective design through the peer review and community feedback process.

“The I-375 Reconnecting Community project is more than a traditional infrastructure project. This is an opportunity to make a serious impact on the greater community,” said Eric B. Larson, Chief Executive Officer, Downtown Detroit Partnership. “The project can redefine mobility, rooted in a vision that responds to the weight of the past, the push of the present and the pull of the future.”

DDP conducted the peer review analysis of the design and engineering work done to-date in order to propose recommendations for design refinements, reveal opportunities for long-term reconnection and land development, and provide strategies for construction mitigation.

Input through the peer review process and community feedback resulted in significant improvements to the design since late 2023, such as:

• Better designed for pedestrians;
• Restoring the street grid;
• Land parcels that are more conducive to redevelopment that addresses past harms and spark economic growth and community gathering.

“Kresge supported the Peer Review process because Detroit has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reclaim and rebuild entire neighborhoods that were decimated 60 years ago by urban renewal,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program. “With encouragement to dream big, community members working in partnership with the civic, private and philanthropic sectors can model for the rest of the country a new way to approach major infrastructure projects that prioritize residents, small business and public spaces while acknowledging the history and harms of the past.”

Recommendations to continue to improve the project as the plan evolves include:

• Ensuring the design of the interchange is right by decreasing the size of its footprint to create more direct connections to destination, future developments and provide safe, walkable and bikeable connections between neighborhoods;
• Incorporating Reconnective, Reparative and Restorative (R3) outcomes in design, construction, future land use, development, and economic participation;
• Utilizing effective construction mitigation by building out a robust suite of economic mitigation strategies prior to construction;
• Designing the boulevard for people and vibrant street life.

“This project has the opportunity to usher in a new era for the city with improvements made to enhance the community. Detroiters can use the peer review as the City undertakes its Framework and Land Use planning process,” said James Fidler, Urban Evolution Strategist and Founder of City Form, Downtown Detroit Partnership. “As Detroit embarks on this endeavor, all project partners must be mindful to not repeat past mistakes but have the chance to rectify past harms and forge a new path that prioritizes community connection, inclusivity, and economic revitalization—making downtown Detroit a place for Detroiters and the region to live, work and play.

DDP assembled a team of consultants including Urban American City (urbanAC), specializing in urban design and planning; Toole Design Group, specializing in mobility and transportation, and HR&A Advisors, specializing in real estate and economic development to author the peer review.

If the public has questions related to the peer review or project they can email [email protected]. The full report is available at DowntownDetroit.org/I375.