Browse Collections

Bloomfield Blossoms: p. 32

Smith, Kay, 1925-

Bloomfield Township Public Library

Bloomfield Township (Mich.) -- History

Case, Homer

Dwellings -- Michigan -- Bloomfield Township -- History

GB01a018

part of 'Bloomfield Blossoms' by Kay Smith

text, image

jpeg

SUPERVISOR HOMER CASE TALKS ABOUT HIS TOWNSHIP "It's rather a pleasure to reminisce over the twenty years that I've worked for Bloomfield Township, and watched it grow from a rural farmland area to an urbanized community of more than 48,000 people. "Twenty years ago land developers paid approximately $1,000 per acre for land. Although the zoning laws in those days permitted one-half acre development per lot, land developers chose to plan two or three acre sites because the property was inexpensive. When they were required to pave roads, they reduced the size of lots to about one acre. When sewer and water were added, and the land began to cost ten thousand dollars per acre, they went to the smallest lots permitted under the ordinance- one half an acre. "The early subdivisions-Wards Acres, Bloomfield Village, Westchester Village-underwent difficult times during the Depression, but the land didn't revert back to acreage. Starting in the Fifties, the old farms were subdivided one by one, until today, in 1976, there are only a few undeveloped areas left, and only one or two small farms still exist.