Walls and Steps for Sloped Lots
Hills are what set Northville apart, and they are what most of the hardscape work here is about. A retaining wall turns a slope you cannot use into a level patio or a terraced planting bed. Steps set into the grade make a steep side yard walkable. On older city lots, the original walls are often dry-laid stone or timber that has started to lean after decades of frost.
Every wall here has to deal with water coming downhill. On clay, that means drainage stone and a perforated drain pipe behind the wall, a compacted base below it, and a plan for where the water goes once it gets to the bottom. Taller walls need engineering, and a wall close to a property line affects your neighbor too, so it is worth checking with the city or township before the design is final.
Working in the Historic District
If your home is inside the City of Northville’s Historic District, exterior changes go through the Historic District Commission. The commission reviews changes to the site and landscape as well as to buildings, and it issues Certificates of Appropriateness for work such as new fences, citing the district’s design standards for landscaping, fences, materials and color. It meets on the third Wednesday of the month.
In practice that means a new front walk, a fence, a wall or a significant change to the front yard should be planned with the commission’s schedule in mind. Materials that suit an older house, such as brick, natural stone and simple iron or wood fencing, are also the ones that look right on those streets.
Northville Township Back Yards
Out in the township the lots are larger and the homes newer, and the work looks more like it does in Novi: a builder deck or slab ready to be replaced with a paver patio, a fire pit area, and plantings that need a refresh. Some of these lots slope toward a pond, wetland or wooded edge at the back, so the grading and drainage get planned together with the patio.
City Leaf Collection and Brush Pickup
The City of Northville collects leaves each fall from the street along the curb. The program usually runs from late October into early December, on a schedule posted each fall. You can rake leaves into the street the weekend before your scheduled pickup, which is the only time of year the city allows material in the street. Keep grass and twigs out of the piles and do not rake leaves into a ditch. Leaves that fall early can go out in compost bags on trash day.
The city also chips branches every Monday, year-round. Stack them neatly behind the curb, between the street and the sidewalk, with the cut ends facing the street, up to 6 feet long and 6 inches in diameter. Roots, stumps, dirt and lumber are not accepted. Northville Township residents should check the township’s own trash and yard waste service, which runs separately.
