So now that everyone has had a chance to view the Lake Michigan Gateway Strategy, I am going to tell you why I support it, and why you should be excited about it as well. #1 First and foremost, this is the most complete plan to date for the northern end of Michigan City. Lets not kid ourselves, if we ever wanted to rename this town, we could renamed it Studyville. We all have seen tons of studies done all over the place. This one covers more area and detail than any of the previous ones combined. #2 This study is different for one massive reason. Actually about 20 million reasons. $20 million is how much redevelopment money will be dedicated to this plan over the next three years. The rest of the studies all have one big thing in common. Nothing was really done to follow up on those projects. If it is accepted as proposed by the City Council, this plan will have the advantage of actually being funded. (Now before anyone goes into a meltdown over spending the money on anything else, this is the part where I say that these are development funds, and can only be earmarked for very specific things to do with infrastructure improvements. This money is for things like the Michigan Blvd project, fire stations, sewer projects, street projects etc. This money cant go for schools, as the schools are a separate government entity. It cant go to day to day operations of the City.) #3 The most important thing for my two cents, if successful, this project could represent the largest expansion of the property tax base in my lifetime. There are plans for lots of mixed development private investments to follow all of the infrastructure changes. Just as an example, if MC can attract $100 million to add to the net assessed value of the north end, that will add at the very least $1 million annually to the property tax roles of Michigan City (and that is if every thing is a first house, and not commercial property) according to the states 1/2/3 property tax laws. It isnt too crazy to think that as much as a billion dollars worth of NAV could be added if the full plan comes to fruition when you look at all of the space that could be turned into condos, apartments, and businesses. If that happens, that is at least an extra $10 million a year in tax base growth, which goes a long way to making up the gaps in funding we are seeing from other sources.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 16:16:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015