[CPEO-BIF] Residents vote down city brownfield redevelopment authority

["Hersh, Robert" <hersh@WPI.EDU>]

Residents turn out to get brownfield zone voted down

Grandhaven Tribune
BY ELIZABETH COUNCIL
4/17/07

FERRYSBURG, Michigan ? In a rare turn of events, many guests to Monday
night's Ferrysburg City Council meeting could not find an empty chair to sit
in.

The meeting was heated, emotional and packed full of concerned ? and
sometimes angry ? residents who feared their neighborhood would be turned
into a Brownfield Redevelopment Zone if the City Council approved
establishing a Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

Residents in the affected neighborhoods spent the day Monday encouraging each
other to attend that night's council meeting and to voice their concerns at a
public hearing for adoption of a city brownfield authority.

The state Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act of 1996 allows Michigan
municipalities to establish authorities to identify and plan for reuse of
brownfield properties for economic development.

According to the city's attorney, George Bauer, brownfield properties are
considered to be potentially contaminated and in need of environmental
testing and clean up before they can be developed to "create a property that
is more valuable."

Bauer said establishing an authority would allow the city to identify and
plan for reuse of a property, and then use tax increment financing to capture
property taxes to reimburse the developer's expenses for testing and cleanup
activities.

Bauer briefed the crowd on what the law says about establishing a brownfield
authority, as well as why the city was considering the measure.

A "real incentive to developers is the tax increment financing," said Bauer.
"The city wants to be competitive with other cities (for development). ...
The way you do that is by adopting a brownfield authority."

Council members said no developer has yet approached the city about any
contaminated properties for development purposes, and that by adopting an
authority the city is not making an opinion that properties within the
designated zone are necessarily contaminated.

Chamber of Commerce Grand Haven President Joy Gaasch called the brownfield
plan simply a "tool in the toolbox for economic development."

"Ferrysburg doesn't have that many (potentially contaminated) sites, but
there are a few that could use an economic boost," Gaasch told council
members.

"I've had a real problem with (establishing an authority) from the get-go,"
Mayor Ray Tejchma said before the hearing began. "I have a real problem with
including residential neighborhoods," he added before the crowd applauded
him.

The idea of creating a brownfield zone within a "bedroom community" did not
sit well with residents at the meeting. Several residents stood at the podium
to express their anger that the City Council would establish a brownfield
zone in a residential area that shows no sign of contamination.

Barbara Johnson, a former Ferrysburg mayor, told the council that adopting an
authority would mean they "arbitrarily decided that old-town Ferrysburg
properties have been obsolete."

"These are our homes, gentlemen," she said in her emotional statement. "We do
not want them taken ... in the name of progress."

Some residents expressed concern that establishing a brownfield authority
would give the city more room to exercise its eminent domain rights. However,
according to Bauer and Gaasch, last November's ballot initiative to amend the
state's constitution regarding how and when municipalities can exercise
eminent domain rights prevents the city from using it to take over property
that is in a brownfield zone.

Other residents were outraged by the possibility that their properties'
values could diminish, should they be included in a brownfield zone.

For the entire story, see:
http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/288678410071370.bsp

Bob Hersh
CPEO
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