With only one dissenting vote, the Brighton City Council approved the bandshell and amphitheater site plan at Thursday night’s city council meeting. The plan involves construction of a bandshell – which will replace the aging gazebo – and a concrete amphitheater, which will replace the grassy, terraced area that serves as the current amphitheater.

The project will be paid for by the city’s Downtown Development Authority. City Manager Nate Geinzer tells WHMI the Mill Pond project has been highly charged, but he thinks the city has addressed those concerns with some changes from the earlier design.

Joyce Powers, who is a write-in candidate for city council in the November election, told council that one of her two main objections to the project is that four mature shade trees will be destroyed.

The city has responded that although two of the trees are oaks, two others are invasive locust trees. After a meeting in which citizens criticized the project, both for the destruction of the trees and the construction of concrete amphitheater seats and floors, architect Piet Lindhout modified the plan considerably.

Originally, five of the six trees were to be destroyed; he reduced that to four. Lindhout also changed several other aspects, including decreasing the amount of amphitheater space and altering the bandshell colors to more muted tones. Geinzer says bids will be let in January and construction on the project is to begin in early spring, with scheduled completion in September. (TT)