FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The city of Farmington Hills is creating its first public art ordinance that would mandate public art be included in private development.
Picture this.
The public art requirement would not be applied to single-family developments, projects completely funded by nonprofits and certain affordable housing projects but would for multiple-family residential development.
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The city’s expectations for the public art include “high quality workmanship, appropriate scale, artistic diversity, placemaking, etc.,” and the art would have to be approved by the Farmington Area Arts Commission.
The public art would be required to be “in locations that are visible from public streets, rights-of-ways, parks, or plazas, taking into consideration the circulation patterns for vehicles and pedestrians on-site and on adjacent public streets and sidewalks.”
Coloring outside the lines.
The public art must also “bring diversity to the existing collection of public art in the City, in terms of media, artistic discipline, or artistic approach” and “reinforce the City’s placemaking goals by reflecting and promoting the City’s identity or the identity of individual neighborhoods or business districts within the City.”
Failure to include public art would result in a denial of a certificate of occupancy. If the private owner wants to replace the public art, they would have to give notice to the city and replace it with public art of equal or greater value.
Site design phase.
In addition, the city encourages the developer to bring along the designer or artist through the site design phase.
The city even has a definition of an “artist”: “Artist means an individual generally recognized by critics and peers as a professional practitioner of the visual arts, as judged by the quality of that professional practitioner’s body of work, educational background, experience, past public commissions, exhibition record, publications, receipt of honors and awards, training in the arts, and production of artwork.”
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Discussion on the public arts mandate will continue Aug. 21 at the planning commission meeting, Sept. 18 at a public hearing and Oct. 13 at the city council meeting.