RE: [CPEO-BIF] Novel "Brownfields" designation in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan

[Evans Paull <epaull@nemw.org>]

I'm going to come to the defense of the liberal definition of a
brownfields site in Michigan.  I have cited Michigan's Brownfields
Redevelopment Authorities (BRA) as a model for State-assisted TIF
financing for brownfields http://www.nemw.org/ER%20W07-TIF.pdf .  And I
continue to believe that other states should emulate this model.

There have been a number of Michigan BRA projects that have been called
into question because the TIF benefit exceeds the remediation costs,
sometimes by many multiples.  Scandalous?  Not really - we all know that
brownfields projects typically have other non-cleanup-cost impediments.
When I worked in Baltimore, I did an analysis of the incentives we used
to close gaps on brownfields projects and the non-brownfields sources
exceeded the brownfields sources (site testing and remediation) by about
5 to 1.  The difference is that in Michigan they can use one source (BRA
- TIF) to cover a variety of gaps; whereas in Baltimore we had to cobble
together a variety of sources.  Brownfields projects and greyfields
projects get blurred here, but does it really matter?  We're still
getting smart growth, jobs within existing communities, and retooling
"Obsolete properties" (the justification for the brownfields
designation, in this instance.)

Are Michigan communities giving away too much?  There's no way to know
without a rigorous but-for analysis.  But at least there is nothing
automatic about the tax breaks in Michigan's BRA-TIF model.  You have to
assume that localities are sufficiently motivated to protect local
revenues, which is another reason that TIF is a great tool for
brownfields - it's inherently conservative, while, at the same time,
it's potentially lucrative enough to close pretty big gaps. 

Evans Paull, Senior Policy Analyst
Northeast Midwest Institute
50 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-464-4004
202-329-4282 (cell)
epaull@nemw.org
www.nemw.org 
http://www.nemw.org/brownfields.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: brownfields-bounces@list.cpeo.org
[mailto:brownfields-bounces@list.cpeo.org] On Behalf Of Lenny Siegel
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 1:50 PM
To: Brownfields Internet Forum
Subject: [CPEO-BIF] Novel "Brownfields" designation in Mt. Pleasant,
Michigan

[Apparently, in Michigan a Brownfield is any site that a developer wants

a subsidy for, even if it isn't likely to be contaminated. - Ls]

Mission Street apartments to be rebuilt


By MARK RANZENBERGER
Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun
June 28, 2007

The old Western Islands apartment complex in Mt. Pleasant will be the 
latest student apartment complex to be torn down and replaced with 
fewer, but newer apartments.

The complex, in the 1500 block of South Mission Street, is owned by RCS 
Equities, a company connected to United Investments, the largest student

landlord in the Mt. Pleasant area. The complex dates back to the 1960s.

City commissioners this week, on a 5-2 vote, approved declaring the 
project a brownfield redevelopment project, allowing the owner to gain a

tax break for redeveloping the project. The decades-old complex does not

appear to be contaminated; instead, it qualified as a brownfield by 
being declared "functionally obsolete" by the city assessor.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.themorningsun.com/stories/062807/loc_mission.shtml

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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