Kuiken Feels She'll Bring a 'Valuable Skill Set' to Farmington Council

Kristin Kuiken feels "plugged in" to Farmington – enough so that she's one of nine people running for three city council seats Nov. 8.

A former member of the Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), Kuiken has been a Farmington resident almost 10 years. She and her husband, James, lived first in in Farmington Hills, before moving to Farmington.

"I came to the downtown to do all my gift shopping," she said. "We discovered the (Theater). It was just this nice downtown feel."

When the time came to buy a house, they chose one on Glenview Court, because of the winding streets and trees in the neighborhood, and its proximity to downtown Farmington. The couple soon became involved in the community; James Kuiken served on the board for five years, and Kristin Kuiken was appointed to the ZBA in 2006 and planning commission in 2007.

"I talked to (councilmember) JoAnne (McShane)," Kristin Kuiken said. "She's always good at recruiting people."

A background in environmental engineering also drove her interest in serving on the planning commission. She is familiar with the redevelopment of brownfield or contaminated properties, building decommissioning and demolition.

"It matched up pretty well with my skills as an environmental engineer," she said, adding she also sold residential real estate for a year. Now an at-home mom of two children, she feels she can make the larger commitment of being a council member.

"I've thought about it over the years, knowing the election was coming this year," she said. "I feel like I'm fairly plugged in with what's going on in the city ... I felt like I had time, and I could bring a valuable skill set to council."

Kuiken said she is an organized person, who has a talent for getting people together around the completion of a project. As a real estate broker, she also had to bring people together to come to an agreement that would benefit both sides and accomplish a greater goal.

"I think I have strong leadership skills and abilities," she said. "I can work with a lot of different types of people. I think that's one of the strongest skills I can bring to the table."

While the city has made great progress with the streetscape, facade improvements and the creation of , Kuiken said, she remains concerned about the empty storefronts in downtown Farmington. In addition, she said, "There are a lot of outdated strip malls ... I think those can be redeveloped or repurposed."

That would also increase tax revenues, as opposed to raising the millage rate, she said. Kuiken said she would oppose a millage increase, because "what concerns me is that when times turn around, you're sitting there with a really high millage rate. I think we have to be creative and develop other ways to generate the tax revenues we need as a city."

She'd also like to see improvements to areas of the city that weren't touched by the downtown streetscape and are looking "dated". She favors using a combination of incentives and – if necessary – penalties for owners who aren't maintaining their commercial properties.

While times are tough, Kuiken believes the city should be meeting with developers to look at the issues that stand in the way of development and redevelopment, and "what we can do to overcome them." While it's not easy to find people who are willing to invest, she said, "we can do things to make sure we're ready to go when the economy does recover."