Sterling Heights city officials have contracted with a Taylor-based engineering and planning consulting firm to help guide them through a massive $1 billion redevelopment of the Lakeside Mall property.

The City Council earlier this month accepted a proposal by Wade Trim & Associates for professional project management services relating to the Lakeside Town Center. For the first year, the firm will be paid $286,000, which officials said the city will be reimbursed through a Brownfield Redevelopment-Tax Increment Financing plan and various fees paid by the property owner.

City officials say the move will ease some of the work at City Hall, which has to juggle oversight for numerous other ongoing projects along with the Lakeside Town Center.

“The reality is Sterling Heights is devoting as many resources as we can to build out the biggest project in the city’s history,” said City Manager Mark Vanderpool.

He said a “robust” team of officials meets on a weekly, and often daily, basis.

Erik Skurda, the city’s purchasing manager, called the demands to provide expedited reviews and approvals by the council, boards and commissions, planning, engineering, building services, public works and the fire department “daunting.”

“In order to prevent the progress on this critically important project from being compromised, city administration is proposing that the city contract with a professional consulting firm that has the experience and personnel to effectively manage this project,” Skurda wrote in a memo to the City Council.

Wade Trim will act as engineering and planning consultants for the Lakeside project.

The company, founded in 1926, offers civil engineering, planning, surveying, operations, landscape architecture, and environmental science services, per Wade Trim’s website.

According to council documents, the firm will be tasked with developing a project management plan that will include a scope statement, master project schedule, and plans dealing with budget, safety, resources, communication and other details.

Skurda, the city’s purchasing manager, said Sterling Heights “cannot successfully manage a five-year project of this magnitude without strong project management and personnel.”

“There simply is no current internal capacity or skill set that will allow the city to perform this scope of services on its own,” he wrote, adding Wade Trim’s management team has managed many development projects of comparable size and complexity to the creation of the Lakeside Town Center.

The council voted 6-1 in favor of the move, with Councilman Michael Radtke Jr. casting the lone dissenting vote.

Radtke said he was concerned it would lead to the city creating a “fast track” using the Brownfield-TIF to circumvent the normal city processes to approve the various requirements for the Lakeside project. He fears that Lionheart Capital, a Miami-based real estate development that owns the property, might face the normal bureaucracy for a project of its size.

The mall closed on July 1 after 47 years as a shopping and social attraction.

Officials plan to launch a redevelopment that will transform the area on Hall Road and Schoenherr Road into a new neighborhood consisting of homes, parks, shops, restaurants, and other community venues in the coming years.