Residents Pack Eastpointe Forum to Oppose Proposed 9 Mile ‘Road Diet’

Eastpointe City held a public forum focused on a proposed change to 9 Mile Road that would reduce a seven-block stretch from five lanes to three, drawing more than an hour of public comment on safety, businesses and emergency response.

Interim City Manager Elkidoom opened the session by saying the meeting was a public forum solely to gather resident and business input on the proposed road diet and that written comments would be accepted through Friday at 12 p.m. Elkidoom said, “What we're here to talk about tonight... is the proposed change to 9 Mile Road from 5 lanes to 3 lanes between Tuscany and Kelly Road.”

Bridal Kern, the city's consulting engineer with Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick, presented the design option for the road diet. Kern said the change would narrow the section from Schroeder to Kelly to a single through lane in each direction plus a center turn lane, move bus stops outside travel lanes, eliminate duplicate driveways for multi-access businesses and create about 11 feet of additional green space on each side for potential future improvements. Kern said the section east of Kelly to I‑94 would remain two lanes each way with a center median island. Kern summarized the project funding and schedule: the city received an earmark of $4,380,000; the three‑lane option's estimated cost is about $5,300,000, with remaining costs to come from Act 51 major road funds (gas-tax allocations). Kern said a…