Livonia Considers $150 Million Bond for New Police HQ and Fire Station Upgrades

Livonia, MI – In a city known for its quiet neighborhoods and strong community pride, a major proposal is stirring up conversation from Laurel Park Place to the trails of Rotary Park. Livonia’s leaders are considering a sweeping $150 million bond proposal to build a brand-new police headquarters and renovate all five of the city’s fire stations. The plan, which will go before voters in August 2025, isn’t just about bricks and mortar – it’s about the future of the community. City officials tout it as a once-in-a-generation investment that could improve public safety facilities and even pave the way for something Livonia has never had: a true downtown gathering place.

Residents are hearing a mix of voices on the issue – from firefighters and police officers describing cramped, aging buildings, to parents and real estate experts pondering how these upgrades might affect family life and property values. Below, we break down what this $150 million Livonia bond proposal entails, why it’s on the table now, and what it means for local families and the future of the city.

Why a $150M Public Safety Bond, and Why Now?

City officials say the bond is urgently needed to replace and repair outdated public safety facilities that no longer meet the community’s needs. Both Livonia’s main police station and its fire stations were built in the 1960s, and decades of service have taken their toll. Tours of the current police and fire headquarters reveal “aging, cramped facilities,” according to reports. Fire Chief Robert Jennison – who oversees Livonia’s five fire houses – put it bluntly:

“We have just been trying to pack more and more and more into the space that we’ve had for 50, 60 years,” said Fire Chief Robert Jennison. “And I can’t see where we can make it any more efficient than we have. We’re busting at the seams.”

Fire Stations: Busting at the Seams

For Livonia’s firefighters, the challenges are both practical and modern. Fire trucks have gotten larger over the years, but the old fire station garages haven’t – in some bays there’s barely an inch to spare when a ladder truck pulls in. Inside the stations, space is tight and the facilities were designed in an era when the department was smaller. Chief Jennison notes that the fire stations lack proper facilities for female firefighters (Livonia didn’t hire its first female firefighter until about 17 years ago) and don’t even have enough showers for a full crew to clean up at once after an emergency call. In a recent interview, Jennison summed up the situation as untenable: “We’re busting at the seams,” he said, emphasizing that they’ve squeezed everything they can out of the old buildings.

If the bond passes, the city plans to renovate and upgrade all five fire stations while keeping them at their current locations. These upgrades would modernize the firehouses with more space, updated equipment bays, and amenities to properly accommodate both male and female firefighters on duty. For local families, that could mean faster, more efficient emergency response and the peace of mind that Livonia’s first responders have a safe, up-to-date work environment. Fire Chief Jennison says his team has done all they can with the old buildings, and now it’s time for a change: “I can’t see where we can make it any more efficient… We’re busting at the seams.”

Police Headquarters: Outgrown and Outdated

Over at the Livonia Police Department, the story is similar. The current police headquarters on Farmington Road (south of Five Mile) is a patchwork of additions: one part of the building was originally a water department facility, and later expansions tried to bolt on space as the city grew. The result is a disjointed layout that Capt. Eric Marcotte of the Livonia PD says has basically been a matter of “just putting things where they fit” over the years. Important police functions are crammed into whatever corners were available.

For example, records for major cases – some of the most critical files – are stored in a “dingy” basement room with a crumbling ceiling and dangling electrical wires. Many officers don’t even have full-size lockers; while specialized units like SWAT have large lockers for gear, rank-and-file officers are left with narrow, school-style metal lockers barely sufficient for modern police equipment. The building’s infrastructure (from electrical to plumbing) struggles to keep up with today’s technology and demands.

Capt. Marcotte believes his fellow officers simply deserve better. “There just comes a point in time where the men and women that work here deserve better. They’re out there risking their lives; they’re out there for 12 hours a day,” said Capt. Eric Marcotte, emphasizing that Livonia’s police staff have been making do with subpar facilities for too long. The proposed bond would fund a new police headquarters nearly 68,000 square feet in size – a significant expansion from the current 55,000-square-foot complex. Plans call for building the new station just east of the current one at Five Mile and Farmington, keeping it centrally located. The design would be modern, efficient, and consolidated, with room for proper evidence storage, training, and technology to serve Livonia for decades to come.

Local parents like those on MetroDetroitMommy.com have noted that having a well-equipped, centrally located police and fire presence is a family issue, not just a city issue – it means quicker response times to neighborhoods and better overall safety for kids and seniors alike. In Livonia’s case, the public safety upgrades are being packaged with a broader vision of community improvement, which brings us to the next big goal: creating a true downtown Livonia.

More Than Buildings: A Vision for a Downtown Livonia

One of the most intriguing aspects of this $150 million proposal is that it’s not solely about police and fire stations – it’s part of a broader effort to transform Livonia’s Civic Center area (near Five Mile and Farmington) into a vibrant, downtown-style hub. For 75 years, Livonia has lacked a traditional downtown area. Unlike many Metro Detroit suburbs that grew up around a quaint Main Street or town square, Livonia developed as a spread-out “bedroom community,” known for quiet subdivisions and shopping plazas but no central gathering place. Residents often mention that while you can shop at Laurel Park Place or Costco, or take your kids to Rotary Park, there’s no walkable downtown to stroll on a Friday night, no central district for festivals or family outings.

City leaders want to change that. Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan and the Livonia City Council see the new police station and fire station upgrades as the first phase of a larger downtown development plan. Freeing up land on the 27-acre Civic Center campus (by replacing outdated buildings like the current City Hall, library, and police station) would allow the city to create a walkable district with a mix of public and private development. The Livonia Built proposal explicitly includes funding for a new library, a central park plaza, and public green spaces on this campus. It even sets aside money for a greenway trail to connect the Civic Center to Ford Field (a local park, not the Detroit stadium) and to Rotary Park and beyond, enhancing bike paths and walkability for residents.

“It became abundantly clear that if we’re going to redo this Civic Center campus…and emphasize public safety needs and City Hall needs, why are we leaving our library to sit there and be an issue for another council 10 years from now? We need to answer that today,” said Councilmember Rob Donovic, who chairs the council’s capital outlay and infrastructure committee. Donovic supports building a brand-new Livonia Civic Center Library as part of the project – noting that the current library, a beloved fixture near the Livonia Civic Center and Civic Center Library Park, is outdated. The library has strong programs to entice people to use it, but it’s lacking amenities a modern library needs, he explained, pointing out the lack of outlets for laptops and limited Wi-Fi in the old building. The vision is for a state-of-the-art library that can serve as a “civic living room” for Livonia families and seniors, anchoring the new downtown plaza.

Mayor Brosnan has been one of the plan’s biggest cheerleaders. At her State of the City address on April 9, 2025, she called the bond proposal “fair and effective” – a crucial step for Livonia’s future. Brosnan frames it as building more than just new facilities: “It’s a bond proposal that’s going to allow us to invest not just in building, but in belonging,” she said. That tagline – investing in belonging – speaks to the goal of fostering community connections. City officials imagine a future where young families stick around because there’s a cool downtown-style area to enjoy, where seniors and long-time residents have a central plaza to gather, and where Livonia’s identity evolves from just a quiet suburb to a buzzing community hub.

Of course, the downtown dream has skeptics. Livonia has tried before to spark a “downtown” – for instance, there were past ideas around Plymouth Road – but those never quite took off, partly due to lack of interest from private developers. “There is not an area big enough for a downtown,” observed Heather Douglass, a Livonia resident who in the past helped launch the Downtown Livonia Partnership to rally community support. Douglass and her group gathered nearly 2,000 signatures back in 2015 from residents who “want to see community gathering places” in the city. Despite the challenges, she remains hopeful and says they won’t stop pushing until the vision of a Livonia downtown becomes reality. The new Civic Center plan is the most concrete step toward that vision in years, effectively building the skeleton of a downtown (the public buildings and park space) in hopes that restaurants, cafes, housing, and shops will follow. Mayor Brosnan acknowledges one big hurdle: so far, private investors haven’t shown much interest in Livonia’s downtown development. But the hope is that by investing public dollars in a modern campus, the city can “entice private builders” to develop the housing, retail and entertainment that would flesh out a true downtown.

For residents, especially younger families and professionals, the prospect of a lively downtown with walkable dining and entertainment is exciting. Metro Times-style observers note that Livonia’s population has been aging and declining in recent years. Census data shows 22.2% of Livonia’s population is 65 or older (as of 2023), up from 16.9% in 2010. Many of Livonia’s kids grow up and, as the city lamented in a recent newsletter, leave for communities with more to do. A downtown could help reverse that trend by attracting young people and new investment. As Councilmember Donovic put it, the city needs to “make itself more attractive to young people” to sustain Livonia for the next generation. The blend of public safety improvements with amenities like a new library, parks, and trails is aimed at making Livonia not just safer, but more livable and vibrant for families today and tomorrow.

Livonia’s August 2025 Vote: Understanding the Bond and Millage

All these plans hinge on one important thing: voter approval. Livonia residents will get to vote on the bond proposal in the August 5, 2025 election, which coincides with the city’s primary election. To pay back the $150 million in bonds, the City Council is proposing a 1.43 mill property tax increase. If that term is unfamiliar, here’s a quick Millage 101:

What’s a “mill”? It’s a unit of property tax. 1 mill equals $1 in tax for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value. (Taxable value is roughly half of market value for many Michigan homes, but it can vary.)
So 1.43 mills means homeowners pay $1.43 for every $1,000 of taxable value. In real dollars, for a house with a $100,000 taxable value (about a $200,000 market value), that works out to $143 per year in extra taxes. If your home’s taxable value is $150,000 (~$300,000 market value), the cost would be about $214 per year. Smaller homes or those owned for a long time (with lower taxable values) would pay less; larger or newer homes would pay more accordingly.
How long would the tax last? The bonds would be paid off over up to 25 years. So, residents would be paying the millage for a couple of decades, unless the city refinances or pays down debt early. In essence, it’s like a mortgage the community takes on to finance these big projects.

City Council is expected to finalize the exact ballot language – the wording of the proposal voters will see – at their April 28, 2025 meeting. The proposal will spell out that the city can borrow up to $150 million and that the money can only be used for the specified projects in the plan. According to city officials, those specific projects include:

Building a new Livonia police headquarters (with a parking structure) to replace the old station.
Renovating and upgrading all five Livonia fire stations (Stations 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6) in their current locations.
Building a new Civic Center Library, modern and accessible, to replace the aging Bennett Civic Center Library.
Creating a central park plaza and green space in the Civic Center campus for community events and relaxation.
Establishing a greenway trail that links the new campus to Rotary Park, Ford Field, and other local parks for walking and biking.
Demolishing outdated structures like the old police station, library, and City Hall to make way for new development, and making related improvements to the Civic Center campus infrastructure.

(Notably, a separate but related effort is already in motion to build a new City Hall with other funds – the bond we’re talking about here is focused on the police, fire, library, and park components of the Vision 21 Civic Center plan.)

For first-time homeowners or voters, the concept of a millage can be daunting. But Livonia’s administration has tried to make information accessible – they even created a Livonia Resident Tax Calculator on the city website to help people estimate their individual cost. The key thing to understand is that this is an investment into the city’s infrastructure. Supporters argue that just as you might take out a loan to renovate an old house (thereby raising its value), the city is asking to take out a loan – via bonds – to renovate our “house.” And that house is Livonia.

Community Voices: Support, Concerns, and What’s at Stake

Around Livonia, you’ll hear a range of opinions about the bond proposal. Public safety officials like Chief Jennison and Capt. Marcotte have been vocal in support, painting a vivid picture of why the upgrades are needed for them to do their jobs effectively. City Council members such as Rob Donovic also support the plan, highlighting the long-term benefits. “The buildings need to do their job… we need to make sure we’re doing a good, efficient job on something that’s going to last 100 years into our future,” Donovic said, stressing that any new construction should serve the city for generations. He also assures residents that the planning process has been transparent and responsible with taxpayer money so far. In other words, the city isn’t rushing this – there have been dozens of public meetings and years of studies leading up to this vote.

Mayor Brosnan, for her part, frames the choice as pivotal for Livonia’s trajectory. The city’s population isn’t growing like some of its neighbors; in fact, Livonia slightly shrank in the last census and is getting older on average. Brosnan sees the bond as a chance to “reverse this trend” of decline by investing in facilities that make Livonia attractive to young families and professionals looking for a vibrant community to call home. She often remarks that we must invest “not just in buildings, but in belonging” – creating places that bring people together. The Civic Center Library, for example, isn’t just a building full of books; it’s where toddlers gather for story time, students study, and seniors attend community events. Supporters say a new library and civic space would greatly enhance that sense of community.

On the other side, some residents have sticker shock at the $150 million price tag. Livonia is a traditionally frugal, family-oriented city, and any tax increase – even one that breaks down to roughly $12 a month for a $200,000 home – gets scrutinized. Longtime homeowners, especially seniors on fixed incomes, worry about higher taxes. “I’m all for safety, but I’ve also lived here 50 years and don’t want to be taxed out of my home,” one resident remarked at a local meeting (a sentiment that’s been echoed on community Facebook groups and in letters to the editor). Others question the downtown aspect: Will a new park and library really spur private investment? They recall earlier efforts that fizzled and wonder if this plan will be different.

City officials respond that doing nothing will cost even more in the long run. The maintenance costs on the old buildings keep rising – a recent estimate found over $97 million in needed repairs if the city simply tried to patch up existing facilities, and that price tag climbs each year. Rather than pour money into band-aids, the bond would allow Livonia to start fresh with efficient, low-maintenance buildings. There’s also an economic argument: modernizing the city could stabilize or even boost property values. Real estate experts note that nearby communities with attractive downtowns and updated infrastructure tend to see stronger home values and more interest from buyers. “It’s about future-proofing the city,” as one local Metro Detroit realtor put it. A more walkable, amenity-rich Livonia could draw new homebuyers and businesses, keeping the housing market healthy. In essence, the bond is pitched as a way to protect Livonians’ biggest investment – their homes – by investing in the community around them.

A Neighborly Reminder: Get Informed and Involved

As this Livonia bond proposal heads toward the ballot, it carries big implications for daily life in the city. If you’re a Livonia resident – whether you live in the historic Rosedale Gardens area, near the bustling Seven Mile shopping corridor, or in the quiet subdivisions by Rotary Park – you have a stake in this decision. It’s not just about a new police station or nicer fire stations; it’s about what kind of community Livonia will be in the coming decades.

Here are a few ways to stay engaged and make a thoughtful decision:

Learn More: Explore the city’s official information page and FAQ for the “Livonia Built” bond proposal. The site offers details on each project, renderings of the proposed Civic Center, and even a tax calculator to personalize the cost.
See it Firsthand: Take a drive by the Livonia Civic Center Library and City Hall campus at Five Mile and Farmington. Imagine what a new library, park, and public safety building could look like there. (You might even drop into the library – feel how it’s a bit dated? – and envision the improvements a new facility could bring.)
Attend the Meetings: Consider attending the Livonia City Council meeting on April 28, 2025, when officials will be discussing and finalizing the bond proposal language. It’s a great opportunity to hear directly from city leaders (and sometimes neighbors voice their opinions during the comment period). If you miss that, look out for town halls or info sessions the city may hold before the August vote.
Talk to Your Neighbors: This issue affects everyone – from young couples thinking of raising kids here, to retirees who rely on nearby emergency services. Strike up a conversation at the Livonia Civic Park Senior Center, or while watching your kid’s soccer game at Rotary Park. You might be surprised by the perspectives you hear, and you can share what you’ve learned as well.
Consult a Local Expert: If you’re curious how the bond might impact property values or your taxes long-term, reach out to a Metro Detroit real estate expert or financial advisor who knows the local market. They can provide insight into the potential return on investment of community improvements, and advise on any concerns you have as a homeowner.

Finally, remember that voting is the ultimate civic duty. Come August 5, 2025, Livonia residents will have the chance to shape the city’s direction. Whether you’re eager to see a new downtown development in Livonia or just want to ensure police and fire crews have the facilities they need, your vote is your voice. As a community, Livonians have always cared about family, safety, and quality of life. This proposal ties all three together in a big way.

“Together, we build tomorrow,” as the city’s slogan goes. Now it’s up to Livonians to decide what kind of tomorrow they want to build. Stay informed, stay involved, and make your voice heard – at City Hall, at the library, and at the ballot box.

Local Call to Action: Mark your calendar for the upcoming meetings and the August vote. In the meantime, take a stroll through the Civic Center area, check out the plans on the city’s website, or chat with a local realtor about the changes. Livonia’s story is still being written, and you can help write the next chapter. Whether it’s through voting, volunteering, or simply sharing information with friends and neighbors, now is the time to shape the future of our hometown. Let’s make sure Livonia remains a wonderful place to live – and grows even better for the next generation.