This will be kinda long winded. I lived in Novi for 20 years. Here's some background you should know about.
That is definitely an unused well pit. As someone posted before, they typically put them underground so that they dont freeze in the winter. In SE lower MI there were a lot of these. But heres a couple of good (and not so good) things to be aware of since youre looking at buying this house.
The water table in Novi is VERY high. Flooded basements are not uncommon and most houses have a sump pump. A lot of the wells are/were shallow wells when they were drilled since you didnt have to go far to get water. However that was before we had a lot of water testing and who knows what people drank in their water.
Orchard Hills Elementary used to be on well water I know, I went there. I drank it. The water was downright awful. There were days where it was yellow, brown or gray. All that land around there behind the school was apple orchards, and they ran up to about Novi road and 10 Mile and Im sure you can guess what was sprayed at some time there. The school is on city water now, but man it was gross.
There used to be a landfill on Meadowbrook back behind Holy Family. If you do some googleing, there were issues back in the early 80s with seepage of waste that oozing out of the ground during high rains. I have no idea where this stands but just be aware. Found this that might be of interest to you.
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www.cityofnovi.org/resou ··· ions.pdfAlso there used to be an Amoco station at the NE corner of Grand River and Novi road that had some big issues with leaking gas storage tanks in the 80s/90s. They did remediation, but again just be aware. Water table around there had problems too. The soil is alkaline around there so add high water, and you get all sorts of corrosion on underground storage tanks
So if youre going to use it to water your lawn that should be fine. But regardless of that I would pay special attention to all the fine print on your FEMA flood impact statement, as well as the environmental impact report when you go to buy the house. Remember, Novi was NOTHING until the early 1970s when 275 was built and the mall went in. In the early 70s Grand River, Haggerty, and Novi Road were the only paved roads. Most people off the main roads heated with oil or coal until Consumers power ran gas out there, so you might have an underground tank somewhere.