REBRANDING WATERFORD TWP -

"The Heart of Oakland"

(The Center of Everything)

For far too long, Waterford has not adequately managed its Brand Image and Zoning Plan. With very disjointed geographic features and transit routes, the Township consigned to have all its eggs in one basket with "the Mall." That was quite enough to support the urban sprawl and lackluster discipline for "land reverence" and management for a good deal of time. As a growing community with the second covered Mall in the nation, Waterford was the place to be right here dead center Oakland County.

With the cyclical recession and new challenges in the new growing global economy, "The Big Three" were finding new focus. New evaluations were coming down the pipe regarding the value of our work and the compensation of workers living in "bedroom communities" like Waterford.

Corporations were fighting to compete in the global marketplace. Instead of giving shared interest in ownership, seemed to rather put an eye on factories in surrounding cities for cost-cutting measures to maintain high profits.

"The Mall" (under new ownership as the "Summit Place Mall") found a decline in the 1990s as GM and other manufacturers were major employers for our tax base and now laying off many Waterford and surrounding community members and shutting down plants. We were fighting cyclical recessions and economic attrition, and new competition from countries like China.

The new Great Lakes Crossing was landing with considerable fanfare and large splash, with a national advertising campaign just miles from older outdated Malls and retail that just seemed the better solution for many customers interested in "what's new." It was just the evolution exposing the weakness of Brick and Mortar super-retail facilities, but for now, it was well within driving distance, and many of the smaller, less flashy malls found failure and closed down as well.

With the immediate loss of jobs and central commerce interest, Waterford found a rapid decline of population and unique amenity business that was just ancillary support fare for shoppers and more for practical needs and lacked draw for outside dollars into the Waterford Economy. This evolution has continued through today from a buying population of 110,000 into a spiraling decline of just over 70,000, not the spending audience we use to boast for outside investors looks like declining trends we can't seem to stop - not a 'growth trend' that excites investors.

This domino effect transferred adversely into a negative School population, and education funding suffered the same attrition. It was attacked by outside interests for privatization lobbies like the Devos Family now attacking Public Education on the National Level. Funding for public education has not recovered since and now runs at 58% of recommended funding presented in the Headlee Amendment recommendations.

Waterford, a "town" with "township revenue sharing" for schooling, was left a community with no Main Street, no "City Tax" policies on "profits," and little "Destination Commerce" to inspire expansion and growing value in the tax base. The commerce left was not unified, had no continuity of idea, and was scattered in patches with no real "Park and Walk" commerce identity or feeling of tradition, purpose, identity, or "experiential value."

We are now "corner convenience store" Urban Sprawl and ancillary retail amenities with lackluster convenience store draw. Our money has left our town to be spent elsewhere, in places providing more options, with many more choices, in condensed areas that identify and "central commerce."

We have no "Central Identity" and no Identifiable Cultural Center. We were left with little Entertainment and "out-of the box" Restaurants; Waterford was no longer a "date" night town where you could find amenities in one place ...we had lost the "Experience" factor.

The 'Shining City on the Hill' of the '80s has burned out. No amount of 'utilitarian' commerce developed would cut through the urban sprawl without a significant overhaul and strict zoning discipline and Land Reverence towards a specific area ideal ...this didn't happen. Waterford began to see band-Aid Politics take over to try to create lackluster tax base expansion.

The Urban Sprawl continued, and the lack of discipline on the Board was not enough to draw outside dollars into Waterford anymore, so we saw our town change. Without a vast overhaul, the problem was expanding with 'more of the same.'

No one had nerve enough to rip the band-aid off or take a chance on drawing a picture large enough to look like vision (to take that leap.)

...until now, not in years, not until Matthew K. McClure and with support of various members that ran in 2020, we have experienced a new and serious examination of what it might take to construct new policy to counter mistakes made by Board after Board and through decades of elections.

Waterford is now defined as "a Bedroom Community" with corner stores without a designated "Destination." We have created lackluster retail that lowers property values and shrinks our tax base in the long run, and we have watched this death spiral for years. We now do not have the needed tax investments to maintain a proper municipal staff or investors that help foundational fund ideas for real growth. We lack the means for modern updates, utilities, upgrade transit, and maintain quality cultural lively-hoods that the people could be proud enough to invest in.

Through mismanagement from Leasing agents to overconfident Board Members thinking in short-arc "election year cycles" for re-election - Waterford is trapped in a slow decline, facing the next great recessions, having gained nothing at all in the good times. We have forgotten to prime the pump to secure ourselves from getting up after being knocked down again. The next recession will be devastating to our town. We are ill-prepared to get back up for a very long time - we lack resilient commerce.

Surrounding communities all took advantage of our large population and buying power and set-sights on our highly trained teachers and whittle away at the remaining equity left - but we are still fighting because we are fighters. We are not done yet, and this is where the potential lies - in the 72,000 people here. This is the Ace in the hole - we still have populations and intellect to draw upon.

Waterford has sat dormant for a while, too long. We are overdue for the cyclical rise and fall and rise again, with other surrounding communities already being built up to capacity needed for their own need. It leaves us with the opportunity to cash in on our own. There is one place still left with a large population that is not serving its own needs well or needed capacity, and in this, Matt McClure sees the real potential and the ability to sell these points to investors.

Matt believes that the cycle has come around again, and he can see that many other people in power see this. And like many of the significant redevelopment stories you hear of the Modern Renaissance, Matt can feel this cycle headed our way - he can feel it in his blood.

It's Waterford's turn, and he has been preparing for this for decades. He is the right candidate with the right vision at the right time and place. Matt has the plan that has been waiting in the queue. He's ready to hit the ground running, and with that, Matt is prepared to demonstrate this outward. Matt McClure is prepared to reach out and seek investment. The current membership has failed to demonstrate our assets and their ability to do so.

It's time to rebrand an image that has been tarnished and get back to our roots. Waterford used to be a territory larger than Oakland County, and there was "Intent for Waterford" to be the very center of all of this. There is evidence of this all around us and in its history. Waterford is 'dead center' and was always meant to be "THE HEART OF OAKLAND" Waterford was meant to be "The Center of Everything," - It was by historical design.

Matt plans to take advantage of the world-renown brand strength of Oakland and make a claim to what Waterford was, is, and should be. Waterford is in what Matt sees as its "Second Adolescence," having lost its central identity in The Mall and Waterford needs to figure out "what it is going to be when it grows up again." Though that sounds a bit derogatory, it's not at all.

Matt realizes that this is perfect; we get to learn from everyone's mistakes and successes and sit down with 72,000 people to get this done right. No town gets this chance. The growth is always based on the historical reference of what a town was built around. We are not built around anything - WE get to pick and choose from all the best features.

WE GET TO DESIGN A COMPLETELY NEW MASTER PLAN FROM SCRATCH - it's time for the old concept of 'Urban Sprawl' to be erased. We need vision and, central identity, and discipline to design.

Matt knows we need a new sense of "reverence," for land that has not been observed for generations. Matt knows we need to set down failed concepts of life and let be and this 'scatteed rice at a wedding' patchwork of mismatched commerce. We need to make calculated decisions about what we are to be and what improved the quality of life for everyone.

We need to end band-aid reactive policy made to get us by for the moment and make real commitments to ideas we can all get behind and thrive within.

We need to redefine what it is to be "Headed to Waterford" with new, innovative, Modern "Destination" Commerce that is far more thought-out, designs that are adhered to, and not planned over backroom handshakes. We need to eliminate the foggy opaque representation of projects are being worked on that result in confusion and lackluster, short-lived retail.

IT IS TIME WE DEMONSTRATE OUTWARD that we have a plan to move Waterford forward, past this malaise, and into the future to leapfrog the regional competition by building new conduits between "The People and the Process." and to create a new sense of "Community in Unison."

It's time we create a town from all the best ideas, all at once, that is far more than just a transactional retail process of park and bag and drive-away commerce. It's time for a Public Mandate that everyone can get behind and work on together rallying non-elected leadership.

It's time for Waterford to invest more to garner more investors in ideas based on communal "experiences for all the senses" as the days of Brick and Mortar "Retail" are over. Waterford needs to invest in "Destination Experiences" that have "Retail as the Result" and not the errand you have to run to get "back to your lives."

[ Waterford needs to become your way of living. ]

"Old Retail" can not compete with the new trends of digital online shopping when we try to "compete as retail" being "something that takes time away from life." Matt knows that all the surrounding municipalities that pilfered our pockets for years did not get it this right, and it will indeed fail. Matt smells blood in the water, and that blood is opportunity.

Matt sees the opportunity to get this right and the means to TAKE THOSE LOST DOLLARS BACK ...with interest beating them at what they did as a "temporary solution."

Matt knows that with our "clean slate" opportunity, Waterford can get this just right and be the new envied place for innovative ideas and new Mecca for Pilot-Programs for Oakland County. Matt intends to set "Watertucky" put out to sea and build a new strong branded image link directly to Oakland County Brand Strength as "the Heart of Oakland," and the "Center of Everything." Matt sees a new branding campaign run by our large student body leadership and our school right here in our town.

It's time we bury the old hat, bury the hatchet, and leave "the way we always did it" in the past and strap on a new suit and earn a new right to be looked at in a better light and this new definition of what we are capable of will be synonymous with the name "Waterford ...The Heart of Oakland"

Matt K. McClure