Southgate City Council
Theresa Lannen
(734) 285-0111

You can email me at:
tlannen@ci.southgate.mi.us

Theresa Lannen is serving her second term on Southgate City Council.   Born and raised Downriver, she moved to Southgate after living in east Dearborn for the quiet “semi-rural” atmosphere found in her neighborhood, along with being closer to work, church and family.

 Theresa has worked at Wyandotte Hospital the past 12 years as a Biomedical Technician.  “My job basically consists of troubleshooting, calibrating and repairing medical devices and systems.”

   “Although my career and schooling have been technical in nature; electronics, robotics, and biomedical, I am also an artist, a gardener and mom to one daughter, Hope, who is now grown and lives out of state.   My life experiences give me a rather unique perspective on quality of life issues.

“I initially ran for city council because I felt city officials as a whole were not taking to heart not only my concerns, but others throughout the city.  

“I have a passion for increasing and improving green spaces and our commercial districts.  We need to focus on preserving or rapidly dwindling open land while re-developing and re-using our vacant buildings.” 


“These are the issues I am most committed to:

  • Residential input impacting Council decisions, as we work to find common ground that we can all walk away from, satisfied.
  • Promoting openness in the way the City conducts business
  • Addressing the issue of vacant buildings and restoration of our existing business districts. We should be encouraging the rehab and creative re-use of our older buildings as we aim to preserve our rapidly dwindling open spaces.
  • The federal EPA has a plan for helping cities maintain greenspace called, “Smart Growth”, and “Low Impact Development” It is available on their website www.epa.gov .   I would love to see these standards adopted here in Southgate so we can balance quality of life with development concerns.
  • Upholding our existing ordinances, including the Woodlands Ordinance.
  • Making our parks more user-friendly by using input from local residents on what they want, like walking paths, more benches, restrooms…
  • Supporting issues dealing with the family and sanctity of life.

I am honored to serve in Southgate - it is my goal to be an advocate for the residents as we work on building this community together.