[CPEO-BIF] Recycling auto plants

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

AUTO CRISIS FALLOUT: Empty factories

Michigan cities scramble to recycle auto plants

Louis Aguilar
The Detroit News (MI)
June 22, 2009

Plans by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC to shutter Michigan 
auto plants will dump 25 million square feet of industrial land onto a 
struggling commercial real estate market and have sparked a race against 
time in communities unsure what to do with vast, vacant sites.

In addition to the loss of an estimated 10,000 factory jobs in the next 
two years, the host communities will lose millions in property taxes 
they can sorely afford to forfeit: GM already has taken steps to slash 
as much as 80 percent of its tax liability in some municipalities.

"If you look at the history of closed plants, it's not encouraging" said 
Kim Hill, director of the Automotive Communities Program at the Center 
for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. "They are unique facilities. I 
can't give you percentages of closed plants that get reopened, but in 
the past, it's been small."

...

For the entire article, see 
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090622/AUTO01/906220310/Michigan-cities-scramble-to-recycle-auto-plants

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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



_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org