Consultants presenting to the Eastpointe City Planning Commission summarized results from a two-hour housing and land-use stakeholder workshop that emphasized housing diversity, increased homeownership and neighborhood-scale interventions to address blight and aging housing stock.

Workshop participants drafted a vision for a city with mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods, a diverse range of housing types and supports for affordability and homeownership that attract young professionals and families. Consultants said housing-character strengths included Eastpointe’s brick single-family homes, recent zoning updates allowing varied densities, corridor proximity and relative affordability.

Participants proposed a variety of strategies to address five priority questions (aging housing stock; attracting residents; decreasing vacancies; increasing homeownership; improving affordability). Suggested tools included homebuyer and rehabilitation education programs; low-interest rehab loans or revolving loan funds; tax incentives or other targeted incentives for renovation; down-payment or first-time homebuyer assistance; landlord incentives such as rent-to-own models; and targeted city purchase and restoration of severely blighted properties.

Consultants stressed that the items presented were workshop-generated ideas rather than formal recommendations. When asked whether the city or a third party would administer rental or down-payment assistance, consultants explained there are multiple possible program designs and funding sources (local, state, federal) and that legal and fiscal feasibility would be examined later in the planning process.

Commissioners raised outreach and venue questions; consultants said the boards from open houses will be circulated to schools for the final week of the survey and that they will schedule interviews to reach demographics not yet represented. Staff and commissioners also discussed the county land bank: commissioners noted a prior county land bank proposal was turned down and that the city is too small to run its own land bank, but county-level advocacy could be pursued.

Consultants said the housing inputs will be combined with quantitative analysis and survey results to develop implementation options as the master plan is drafted.