Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 55

I 1 jsiJ Sunday, June 15, 1980, Lansing, Michigan WiJ VULI V.i.i En 1 i INDUSTRIAL Hope Highway cvy this section I ILLUSTRATED 7 Z4o below City of SSS Lansing Artwork by GEORGE RORICK Delta Township retains large blocks of agricultural land although residential and industrial acreage has vastly increased the imit for future Sky's Township has all elements for expansion GM PARTS PLANT "41 DOUGLAS 1 A II -Mt-HopeHwyt t-fljjf 2X i 1 ii II D.E.I.R.JT L--. -i I tl: GRAND TRUNK GM DIESEL MEIJER R.R. YARD ENGINE PLANT "V' FACILITY 1 f- CENTER mmm: SS I 1 ZX" 7 -J -X 4 I COCA-COLA yyY Crf IA PLANT MHlett fyy A 0) 1 ERICKSON 1 POWER Cg' 4 STATION n1 IIS (1 Citv of LYLE BROWN Trustee PHILIP CHISHOLM Planning chairman MARK GRAHAM Planning director Lansing rr TRUCKING FIRMS, I FLINT PIPE AND WELL I i i Jolly Rd. Delta's major industrial area lies south of 1-496 By CLARENCE CHIEN Staff Writer Delta Township's growth from a rural community to a self-reliant, balanced municipality won't stop if township officials have their way. But there are going to be some slow times as the economy winds its way through the current recession and as the township gradually becomes able to provide the services necessary for expansion.

KEY ELEMENTS that will figure in the township's growth, officials say, are planning, plenty of development land still available under current zoning, extension of utilities to unserved areas, road improvements, and a continued pro-business attitude towards new industrial and commercial projects "deemed to have a public purpose." New growth in residential, industrial and commercial areas will add to the township's rapidly expanding economic base, currently at $278.9 million state equalized value, up from $99.4 million in 1970 and $21.4 million in 1960. The 1980 total includes single-family subdivisions and multiple-housing units, a two-mile strip of convenience stores and restaurants, a large regional shopping mall and smaller neighborhood shopping centers, office buildings, and the start of an industrial and transportation center. INDUSTRIAL AND commercial construction projects are blooming, adding new names to Delta's tax rolls day by day. Along West Saginaw Highway, Delta's "main drag," two savings and loan associations, Great Lakes Federal and First Federal of Detroit, are constructing offices. First Federal has already set up a temporary office in a double-wide trailer.

Continued on page E-2 19 Win itrnrnui-rnifn'-mrr nrnn ifit.riimiian'ijfrfrtvi Elmwood Park, a recent addition to housing How Delta grew he alfalfa ber? emem was harvested there Delta in profile Delta Charter Township was founded in 1835 as Grand River City, the second community in Eaton County. Its first resident was Erastus Ingersoll. It was chartered in 1970. Population: est. 27,000 1 1,000 in 1967) Area: 24 square miles State Equalized Value: $278.4 million ($53.6 million in 1967) Per capita income: $5,711 (1975) Land Use by parcels (1967 figures in parentheses): Agricultural 195 (283); commercial 354 (130); industrial 109 (25); residential 6,656 Tax rate: 5 miles plus Vi mill special interest.

"juay" At the beginning of 1980, estimates on Delta's population were varied. In addition to the opening of numerous apartment and condominium complexes, there had also been a steady increase in single family dwellings. In fact, a total of 3,734 living units had been constructed in the five years since the 1970 census more than 2,000 of them multiple dwellings. IF ONLY A conservative three-persons-per-living unit factor is used, a total close to 28,600 would be possible although most estimates were closer to 27,000. What made it all happen? And why in Delta Township? The reasons are varied, but mostly it appears in retrospect the Delta boom happened because of Delta's wide, open spaces and the nearness of the area to Lansing, which was then literally bulging at the seams.

There are other reasons, of course. But the No. 1 attraction of Delta Township in the building of Lansing's environs in the years immediately after World War II was all that space. At first, the big buildup was barely noticeable. A handful of new homes would crop up here and there and would quickly be occupied.

Soon, others in the same area would appear, and finally the spaces in between would fill in. most of them occupied by young middle class families just getting a start on owning their own homes. In many cases, they did some or all of the construction work them-: selves and wondered how they would pay the $300 or so annual property taxes. Concluded on page E-3 4 By DICK FRAZIER Staff Writer The hazy glow in the east over the Lansing horizon was forming an orange-red background for the brighter fireball which would peek over the trees of Delta Township in a few minutes and illuminate what used to be a sleepy suburban scene. But West Saginaw Delta's main drag was anything but sleepy.

During a single cycle of the traffic light at Harriett-Robins Road, four lumbering trash compactors from as many hauling firms, their steel bellies already crammed with the leavings of last night's fast-food meals, swung out onto the five-lane thoroughfare from different stops and headed west. IT WAS almost as if one of them had broadcast a CB message: "Hey, guys, there's better pickings at the Mall." There's nothing particularly significant in a convoy of trash-hauling trucks except that, to a long-time resident who recalls hunting pheasants a block or so from the same intersection and photographing deer and whistling swans near there within the past 15 years, it's a little difficult to believe what's happened to Delta since 1960. Folks who don't live there must have even more trouble trying to understand the rapid changes that have transformed the former bedroom settlement with its wide ranges of farmland and wooded areas into one of Michigan's richest non-city communities, with acres and acres of blacktopped parking lots and dozens of multi-level apartment complexes. IN 1940, AT the beginning of World War II, there were 2,618 residents living in Delta. Ten years later, that figure had swelled to 4,131.

It nearly doubled in the '50s, reaching 7,627 and oldtime residents were starting to wonder "When will it end?" They hadn't seen anything yet. From 1960 to 1970, the Delta population leaped to 17,396 and was still growing so rapidly that the township had to apply for a special mid-decade census in 1975 to get its fair share of state sales tax rebate and liquor licenses, which are allotted on a population basis. The 1975 official U. S. Census Bureau count showed Delt had just over 21,000 persons.

tfi3 insfi STOCK LISTINGS. Pages E-4, E-5. BUSINESS CIRCUIT. Page EL. vr a- THE HOME.

Page E-6. PEOPLE in Business. Page E-6. LEXICON of a loser. Louis Rukeyser, 5 Staff Photo by MORRIS INGELLS Oldsmobile is constructing diesel engine plant in industrial area FAST-THINKING adults get school aid.

Bryant liiinn, page E-8..