NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP-Plans were announced in November to sell one of the Detroit area's last state-owned mental health hospitals. The state will sell Northville Regional Psychiatric Center for around $65 million, as one of many steps being taken to head off a looming state budget deficit.

While some advocates for the mentally ill consider selling the nearly 500-acre hospital grounds a bad move, others who would like to see the property along the pricey Seven Mile corridor turned into apartments and office buildings, are thrilled. The land-poor community of Northville had already developed a land-use plan in anticipation of the hospital property going on the auction block.

Northville Hospital currently houses about 300 patients, down from 1,500 in the 1980s.