DETROIT ‒ Detroit officials are studying whether it makes sense to shut water service and relocate residents in parts of this sprawling and often vacant city, a top city official told Bridge Magazine.

Seven years after a disastrous series of public meetings about then-Mayor Dave Bing’s plan to downsize Detroit, city officials are amid a $57 million, five-year analysis of the water and sewer system.

The study is intended to help prioritize repairs, but water officials acknowledge the findings may help determine whether the city should offer to pay to move residents out of abandoned neighborhoods and shut water lines.

“Areas that are so sparsely populated, perhaps the neighborhood should be shut down and just move people out? We think so,” Gary Brown, director of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, told Bridge.

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