The South Lyon Farmers & Artisans Market was supposed to run through October this year. It shut down in early August instead. WXYZ reported on August 7, 2026 that organizers called it a hard decision and said the orange cones on Lafayette were "just part of the problem." Low vendor and shopper turnout and the Pontiac Trail construction both played a part, and vendors were offered refunds or credit toward next season.
The downtown events calendar still lists October market Saturdays. Those dates are out of date.
Downtown hasn't closed. The shops and restaurants are open, and the sidewalks are still walkable. What has changed is how you get in. Until the Road Commission for Oakland County finishes in mid-November, downtown South Lyon works from its side streets and back lots, and Lafayette Street is mostly something you drive past.
Lafayette Lost Its Curb, and the Back Lots Took Over
RCOC's May 15 release covers the stretch of Pontiac Trail and Lafayette Street from 9 Mile to the CSX tracks just north of 10 Mile. It bans on-street parking there for the length of the project, and it says businesses stay open with sidewalk and storefront access maintained. The Downtown South Lyon construction page says the same thing.
Without curb parking on the main street, the DDA's public parking map matters more than usual. It shows public lots off six streets:
- Whipple
- Wells
- W. Lake
- Liberty
- Warren
- Washington
The same map shows on-street spaces on Detroit, E. Lake, Elm, W. McHattie, E. McHattie and Reynold Sweet Parkway. N. and S. Lafayette appear in that on-street column too, but the construction ban covers them until the work is done.
This makes downtown more of a walking trip than it usually is. Park on Liberty or Warren, walk a block, and you're in the core. The map doesn't say how full any lot gets, so nobody can tell you which one will have space on a Friday night. The point is that the parking is spread across six streets.
The Road Is the Lid on a Drain Project
The work is taking the whole season because the repaving is the smaller part of it. RCOC describes the roughly $11 million project as a fix for "decades-old flooding problems." It's paid for with federal funds plus money from RCOC, the City of South Lyon and Oakland County general government through the Tri-Party Program.
The main work items show where the time goes:
- Rebuilding the drain system between the Yerkes Drain and Detroit Street to reduce flooding.
- Installing a new storm sewer from the Yerkes Drain south to University Avenue.
- Rebuilding the road surface that the sewer work tears up, plus the stretch from south of Dorothy Street to the Yerkes Drain.
- Milling and repaving the sections the sewer work doesn't touch.
- Upgrading crosswalks to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, and replacing curbs and gutters where needed.
RCOC's October 2 status sheet adds two items at the south end that affect daily driving. It extends the southbound right-turn lane on Pontiac Trail north of 9 Mile and adds an eastbound right-turn lane on 9 Mile at Pontiac Trail. The contractor is DiPonio Contracting. Work started May 11, and the sheet still shows mid-November for completion.
One part of the project won't be finished this year. New traffic signals at the Pontiac Trail and Lafayette intersections with Reynold Sweet Parkway, McHattie Street, and 10 Mile and Lake Street are scheduled for 2027. When the barrels come down in November, those three intersections will still be getting their signal work.
Getting In From the North Side Is the Hard Part
Southbound traffic is the easy direction. Pontiac Trail stays open southbound from the CSX tracks to 9 Mile, apart from some short closures RCOC said it would announce in advance. Northbound drivers have been on a detour since May 18. It loops 9 Mile to Griswold to 10 Mile to Martindale to 11 Mile, then back to Pontiac Trail.
The latest phase started September 21 and closes two more pieces:
- 10 Mile, west half at Pontiac Trail: closed. The detour runs 10 Mile to Rushton to 9 Mile to Griswold, then back to 10 Mile. RCOC expects it to stay in place through late October.
- 10 Mile, east of Pontiac Trail: open, but westbound drivers can only turn south onto Pontiac Trail.
- Northbound Pontiac Trail, Liberty Street to the CSX tracks: closed as part of the same phase.
Two smaller items are also worth knowing about. The City scheduled a southbound Pontiac Trail lane closure between Liberty and Elm Place for 8 p.m. on October 2 to fix a water-line leak, and its notice doesn't say when the repair would be finished. Farther south in Lyon Township, Pulte Homes is paving a gravel section of 9 Mile from just east of Addison Boulevard to Briar Meadow Drive. That stretch is closed through late October, with a detour via Griswold, 10 Mile and Currie. That's a different part of 9 Mile from the one the northbound detour uses, but it's close enough to mix up on a quick look at the map.
Back in March, before the closures started, resident Kathy Sulisz told WXYZ she expected to use 11 Mile and Milford roads to get around.
What Merchants Said Before the Cones Went Up
The best-known interviews with downtown business owners were done before the northbound closure started, so they show what owners expected. They don't measure what actually happened.
Austin White, who owns South Lyon Cycle, told WXYZ in March that he expected the sidewalks to stay usable. His worry was making it easy for customers to get downtown. Chrystal Russell, co-owner of Java House Cafe, said the work wouldn't block her business directly. She was concerned that customers living on the construction side of town might stop coming.
By early May, a few more owners had weighed in. Sommer Krause, who works at the South Lyon Hotel, expected a tough stretch but thought people would keep coming in for food and cocktails. Tanya Nevitt, owner of Venue South Lyon and co-owner of Venue Next Door, worried that people would assume downtown was closed. She said her businesses would spread the word about where to find them and where to park.
Maple House had the hardest timing. It opened at 127 E. Lake Street on April 29, less than three weeks before northbound Lafayette closed. Co-owner Monica Gojcaj told WXYZ the timing was unfortunate. She also said the restaurant had a packed house the Wednesday before the interview and that she was grateful customers could still get there. Since Maple House is on E. Lake, the W. Lake and Wells lots are an easy walk.
The City's plan, as WXYZ reported it, was to keep people informed, add more events, and keep sidewalks and businesses open. Losing the farmers market showed that a regular downtown fixture can go away even when the sidewalk in front of it stays open.
The Calendar Between Now and Mid-November
Some fall plans also depend on the construction schedule and on what's happening nearby in New Hudson.
| Date | What | Where it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Through Oct. 12 | McMunn to Dixboro bike trail closed for asphalt replacement, along the stretch next to Michigan Seamless Tube & Pipe | Weekend rides and walks |
| Oct. 1 to 31 | Scarecrows on the Grand, with displays and community voting | Downtown New Hudson |
| Oct. 9, 6 to 9 p.m. | Ghosts on the Grand walking history tour | Starts at Inspiration Park, 56730 Grand River Ave. |
| Late October | Expected reopening of 10 Mile west of Pontiac Trail | North-side commutes |
| Mid-November | Expected completion of the Pontiac Trail and Lafayette rebuild | Curb parking returns downtown |
| Dec. 12, 3 to 6:30 p.m. | Lighting Up the Grand, with Santa and a tree lighting | Downtown New Hudson |
A note on the trail closure: the City's notice gives September 29 as the start date in its headline and September 28 in the body. Both say it ends October 12. The New Hudson events give people a reason to go out along Grand River while South Lyon's own downtown is harder to reach. The South Lyon Area Historical Society still lists its 2026 Christmas at the Village date as TBD.
One more downtown project is in the works. In June, the DDA announced Lafayette Park, a new gathering space at McHattie Street and Pontiac Trail. It's funded in part by Oakland County Parks and a Main Street Oakland County ARPA grant, and construction was scheduled to start in late July. We haven't found any public update confirming that construction started, so for now it's still a planned project. It sits on the same corner that's due for new signals in 2027.
Six weeks of side-street parking is worth getting to know, because the lots on Liberty, Warren and Wells will still be there after the barrels come down. If you'd like to talk about how the rebuild, the new drainage, or the 2027 signal work might affect a particular property near Lafayette, Anthony Maisano knows these blocks well. Schedule a strategy call and we'll go through it street by street.
