How do we get out of our own way?

A vacant block of commercial buildings at Joliet and Woodbridge St. in Mott Park.

When our city was originally built, there were countless small commercial buildings nestled into neighborhoods. Places where neighbors could easily walk to get milk or a few groceries or a newspaper. Places where Flint residents could affordably start a small business. From Civic Park to Circle Drive and Lippincott to Chevrolet Ave., small retail districts were a staple of Flint life.

Over the years as plants closed, malls opened in the suburbs, and people moved, many of these retail districts closed. Those are challenging and hard problems to solve. Yet sometimes we get in our own way as a city, and this small block is an example of how.

At the corner of Joliet and Woodbridge in Mott Park, this collection of buildings is currently zoned in a way that does not allow for any commercial uses. To put it plainly, we currently have rules that make it completely illegal to open a business here, even if you wanted to. While Flint updated its zoning in 2022 and removed many of the onerous rules that were imposed in the middle of the 20th century to make it harder to open small businesses, some still remain and this block is a key example. Unless someone is able to hire an attorney and work through variances, long hearings, and pay application fees, these buildings will never be allowed to have new businesses in them. Even if that zoning is changed, they would also be subject to large parking mandates that would require spaces off the street on their lot, even though many of these buildings cover 100% of the lot they sit on.

As we work to draw in new jobs and new entrepreneurs, or more importantly to make it easier for current residents to open their own businesses, City Hall should be a partner in that effort, not a barrier. Let’s legalize businesses in more places where they once existed, an action that can be done by the City Council working with the Planning Commission and the Mayor through the ordinance process. We need councilmembers focused on removing these barriers, and if you give me the opportunity to serve, I promise I will be.

Let’s make Flint an easy, welcoming place for people to realize their dreams, for the next generation of entrepreneurs to open great businesses, and we can start by changing the outdated rules that force too many of our buildings to stay vacant.