[CPEO-BIF] "From Contamination to Community Investment" - Michigan's Brownfields program

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

From Contamination to Community Investment

by Natalie Burg
Concentrate Media
October 30, 2013

There's nothing quite like climbing westward over the Broadway St.  
bridge and  approaching the entrance to Kerrytown. Though it's a dash  
of daily romance for many Ann Arborites, the idyll has long been  
tarnished by a rather homely property at the edge of the quaint  
neighborhood. For thirty years, as Kerrytown has flourished around  
it, the thin, triangular parcel of land between Broadway and N.  
Division has sat empty, save a small, boarded up structure.

With downtown property values at a premium - especially in Kerrytown  
- the question of how a vacant lot could have sat undeveloped for so  
long is a good one, and the answer has something to do with that sad- 
looking building. It was a former gas station.

...

"The whole intention of the brownfield legislation is to level the  
playing field between greenfield development and brownfield  
development," says Voght. "It's more efficient, and it's a cheaper  
cost to the community in the long run to develop site that are  
already in an urbanized area. It's smart growth."

...

For the entire article, see
http://concentratemedia.com/features/upsideofbrownfieldprojects0259.aspx

--

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

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