The City of Plymouth recently took fourteen dead trees out of the Main Street median between Ann Arbor Trail and Penniman Avenue. That stretch of boulevard frames the east side of Kellogg Park. On September 14 the Downtown Development Authority approved $12,750 for lighted holiday decorations to fill the empty space. They debut at the Main Street Boulevard Lighting and Salvation Army Red Kettle Kickoff on Friday, November 13.
The decorations are a stand-in. Downtown Plymouth is about to be rebuilt street by street under a plan called DTP Forward, and the first block on the schedule is two streets west of the park. That block is Harvey and Wing. So this holiday season, and probably several after it, will play out on the downtown everyone already knows, with temporary fixes covering the gaps.
What Fills the Median This Year
The median was already bare by late summer. The DDA's August 7 status update says the trees were gone and staff were looking at ways to light the median for the holidays. In September the board answered with the $12,750 decoration budget, which the city's October 2026 Plymouth Pulse newsletter describes as new lighted pieces for the season.
Neither the newsletter nor the DDA packet gives a removal date or a reason the trees died. The same August update also mentions more than a dozen street-tree removals, mostly on Forest Street, tied to disease or end of life. It doesn't connect that cause to the Main Street median.
The city also hasn't replanted, and that fits the larger plan. Any long-term choice about that stretch of Main Street belongs to DTP Forward, and the Kellogg Park segment is the part of the plan furthest from construction.
A New Crew on the Tree Lights
There is a second change, in who keeps the lights on. At its June 8 meeting the DDA learned that Holiday Light Express, its longtime holiday tree-light contractor, had closed. Staff asked three companies for quotes. J. Averie of Plymouth, English Gardens Landscape Company of Pontiac, and Serene Landscape Group of Plymouth were invited, and Serene chose not to quote.
J. Averie got the job. Its equipment charge was $500, compared with $2,309 from English Gardens, which needed aerial lift trucks and charged a fixed assessment fee. J. Averie also quoted a $75 hourly labor rate and said it could respond quickly after storms. The board approved it unanimously.
For anyone walking Kellogg Park in December, a local crew that can get there quickly after a storm matters more than the vendor's name. This is the first season with that crew.
Why the Rebuild Starts on Harvey and Wing
DTP Forward started in June 2025, with SmithGroup leading the design and public engagement. The team ran more than 16 engagement sessions, and a May 20 open house at the Plymouth Cultural Center drew more than 50 people. In June 2026 the DDA board unanimously accepted SmithGroup's final deliverables. Those included a phasing plan, a cost analysis, and a funding strategy.
The plan splits downtown into numbered sets. Set 2, which the plan calls the Western Edge, goes first. It covers Harvey South, Harvey Central, and Wing West. SmithGroup's April 13 concept presentation to the DDA proposes these changes:
- Harvey Street: resurfacing and narrowing, more parking on the east side, bumpouts with trees, and a mid-block crossing at Maple
- Wing West: more parking on the north side, wider sidewalks, trees and bumpouts, better crossings, and possible work on utility poles and telecom lines
The concept-level estimate for Set 2 is $3.34 million. That breaks down to $2.00 million for Harvey South, $230,000 for Harvey Central, and $1.11 million for Wing West.
SmithGroup recommended starting here because Set 2 lines up with infrastructure work the city already needs to do soon. May DDA minutes recommend that Set 2 begin while grant applications and planning get underway for the much larger Main and Kellogg core, which needs more lead time. The parking pieces show up in the DDA's own action plan too. DTP Forward adds on-street spaces on Harvey between Ann Arbor Trail and Wing, plus two stretches of Main Street.
Harvey and Ann Arbor Trail also became one of downtown's newest addresses this summer. Fourgrounds opened July 22 at 995 W. Ann Arbor Trail. It pairs a coffee shop with a WDIV Local 4 satellite newsroom, built by Graham Media Group with Great Lakes Coffee. Local 4's opening-day report places it at the corner of W. Ann Arbor Trail and S. Harvey Street. That's the north end of the Harvey stretch DTP Forward redesigns first.
Kellogg Park Is the Expensive Part, and the Later One
The streets around Kellogg Park are where the plan gets ambitious. The April concept proposes narrowing Main Street at Kellogg from four lanes to three. It adds a curbless street that can serve as event space, a shared-use path on the east side, on-street parking, intersection upgrades, a median island with a clock and crossing, and security measures. Penniman at Kellogg would also go curbless, with wider sidewalks, gathering spaces, bollards, and protected planters. Union would get a raised, curbless intersection north of Ann Arbor Trail connecting the two halves of Kellogg Park.
The concept estimates put the two phases far apart in cost.
| DTP Forward phase | Streets covered | Concept estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Set 2, Western Edge | Harvey South, Harvey Central, Wing West | $3.34 million |
| Set 1, Main & Kellogg Core | Main, Penniman, Union and Ann Arbor Trail around Kellogg Park | $19.38 million |
| All six sets combined | Downtown DDA district | about $40 million |
May DDA minutes call the set estimates conservative. They include design, engineering, contingency, and construction. The minutes also flag 3 percent annual escalation as a factor for long-term projects. SmithGroup's April costing leaves out major stormwater work, major utility replacement, and environmental remediation. The DDA's August implementation memo rounds Set 1 to about $20 million and says it isn't expected to be built for several years.
The Kellogg Park design also isn't settled. When the board accepted the plan in June, Director Salloum raised safety concerns about the Main Street shared-use path and suggested piloting lane reductions and parking changes first. Director Elliott asked about public feedback on curbless streets. Director Perry pushed for a walk-your-bike policy inside Kellogg Park, and most of the board agreed. SmithGroup and DDA Director Plymale confirmed that the plan can still be adjusted. The street details above all come from the April concept deck and could change before anything is engineered.
Money is the other unknown. In August the DDA board authorized hiring professional grant writers for state and federal applications. City and DDA staff have also met with SEMCOG and MDOT to look for funding.
The Season That Plays Out on Today's Streets
None of this touches the next four months. The farmers market at The Gathering, Kellogg Park, and the Main Street boulevard all keep their current layout through winter. The calendar below comes from the city's October newsletter and the Plymouth Community Chamber of Commerce event listings.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, Oct. 18, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Pumpkin Palooza | Downtown Plymouth |
| Saturday, Oct. 24 | Last Plymouth Community Farmers Market of the season | The Gathering |
| Sunday, Oct. 25, noon to 4 p.m. | Old Village Association Halloween | Downtown Plymouth |
| Saturday, Oct. 31 | Outdoor dining season ends; trick-or-treating 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. | Downtown |
| Through Monday, Nov. 2 | Scarecrows in the Park, open 24/7 | Kellogg Park |
| Thursday, Nov. 12, 4 to 8 p.m. | Ladies Holiday Shopping Night | Downtown and Old Village |
| Friday, Nov. 13 | Main Street Boulevard Lighting and Salvation Army Red Kettle Kickoff | Main Street median |
| Nov. 27 through Jan. 4 | Walk of Trees; decorating begins Nov. 20 | Kellogg Park |
| Feb. 5 to 7, 2027 | 45th Plymouth Ice Festival, per vendor application | Around Kellogg Park |
Participating shops listed for Ladies Holiday Shopping Night include Home Sweet Home, Kemnitz Fine Candies, Sideways, and The Hidden Stem. The Ice Festival dates come from the festival's commercial vendor application on Eventeny, which lists free admission. As of this writing, the festival's own homepage hasn't posted 2027 dates.
The Next Decision Is This Month
The newsletter expects the DDA and City Commission to approve engineering and design for the first phase of Western Edge/Set 2 later in October. Construction on Harvey and Wing is expected to start in spring 2027. The DDA posts updates in a video series on its YouTube channel, youtube.com/@DowntownPlymouth. Full project documents are on downtownplymouth.org.
If you own a home within walking distance of Harvey, Wing, or Kellogg Park, a spring 2027 construction start could overlap the busiest stretch of a listing calendar. Gardner & Gesch tracks DTP Forward agendas meeting by meeting. We can lay out how the Western Edge schedule lines up with your timing, and build a launch that features the downtown buyers are walking to. Sell with Us.
