Royal Oak’s Centennial Commons and Farmington Hills’ Hawk Among Finalists for Statewide Award

(MML, June 29, 2022)

Farmington Hills, Royal Oak, MI – The four finalists have been announced to compete for the statewide Community Excellence Award (CEA)—the most prestigious Michigan Municipal League community honor.

The communities that have advanced are Cassopolis, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, and Traverse City.

Preliminary voting to determine this year’s four finalists was done by a small voting board. These top four projects will go on to compete at the League’s Convention, where they will present their projects on the main stage and market their projects at designated CEA finalist booths. This year’s Convention is taking place in Muskegon October 19-21. Convention attendees will vote for their favorite project, with the project winning the most votes awarded the official Community Excellence Award during the closing general session.

“We would like to thank everyone who submitted their projects this year,” said Barb Ziarko, the President of the League’s Board of Trustees. “These community projects are vital to creating thriving communities for Michiganders. We are very excited to learn more about the finalists’ projects at this year’s Convention.”

Since 2007, the CEA has been the League’s most prestigious community award. It’s also affectionately called “The Race for the Cup” because the winning community gets a large trophy and bragging rights for the year. The 2021 winner was Reimagining, Reinventing, and Renewing Auburn Road which was submitted by Rochester Hills. View all past winners here.

Here is a look at the projects (click on each project title for additional details):

• Cassopolis – Imagine Cass Project Village of Cassopolis: Small, Rural, and Exceptional
• Farmington Hills – City of Farmington Hills Community Center – The Hawk
• Royal Oak – Centennial Commons: Reimagining a Parking Lot into a Green Gathering Space
• Traverse City – Traverse City Boardman Lake Loop Trail

This year’s competition had 14 total entries and all were award worthy. The League would like to thank and recognize all the projects that were entered this year: Birmingham, Caro, Ferndale, Grand Rapids, Ironwood, Meridian Township, Pentwater, Southfield, Tawas City, and Vassar.

To learn more about the other projects submitted this year, see the League’s past press release about all of the 2022 entries.

For additional information contact the League’s Matt Bach, Assistant Director of Strategic Communications, at (734) 669-6317 and mbach@mml.org.