In undertaking research for the DDA in Northville, Michigan, Beckett and Raeder performed a spatial analysis of businesses and their hours of operation within the City’s DDA district. First, an inventory of the types of business establishments in downtown Northville was produced. The map shows a vibrant mix of retail, restaurant, and office establishments throughout the downtown and particularly along Northville’s Main Street. As shown in the resultant map, restaurant uses cluster on Main street between Church and Center streets while institutional uses remain relatively dispersed on the periphery of downtown.

The GIS team also created a heat map of hours of operation at varying times of day and on all days of the week for businesses within the DDA boundary. This visualization further illustrates the clustering of restaurant and retail establishments on Center Street north of Main Street and on Main Street between Center and Church streets. The map also highlights the density of activity on Friday afternoons between 3 pm and 7 pm within Northville’s downtown district. As locals had previously vocalized a need for expanded store hours throughout the downtown, and this desire was confirmed through multiple community engagement efforts, the DDA was particularly interested in gaining some perspective regarding overall hours of operation. Along with the downtown business inventory, store hours were spatially recorded and analyzed to produce maps showcasing the activity.