September 2014 Newsletter D4 and Community Partner News Update on Land Transfer for New International Trade Crossing On Monday, September 8th, the Detroit City Council convened a special hearing to discuss the proposed land transfer and sale of 301 city-owned properties needed for the new NITC plaza. The state has offered the city $1.4 million in addition to being willing to sign a Neighborhood Development Agreement (NDA) that outlines how the two entities will work together on the bridge and future development projects. Representatives from MDOT and the governors office answered challenges from council members, primarily Benson, Castaneda-Lopez and Sheffield who 1) questioned how the value was determined and 2) why many of the benefits the community was seeking were not included in the agreement. D4 staff Kris and Jeff both gave comments supporting the SW Community Benefits Coalition platform. Council voted to bring the land transfer/NDA to a vote the next day at the regularly scheduled council meeting. At that meeting, all nine council members voted to reject the states offer. Council Council approved an alternative plan during a special hearing on Monday, September 15th which will be submitted to the Michigan Emergency Loan Board for approval. The plan includes the creation of a community advisory group and a provision that 50% of the land sale will be designated to address community needs. The Loan Board will be considering both the plan submitted by the Emergency manager and City Council, and we have no timeline for when that decision will be made. Epic Struggle Continues for Future of Michigan State Fairgrounds Site The future of the currently vacant Michigan State Fairgrounds site (which includes 157 acres of developable land at the regional nexus of three counties in Southeast Michigan) remains unclear despite a recent flurry of announcements regarding the transfer of ownership of the land to Magic Plus. Throughout this tumultuous period for the property, which began when then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm cut off funding for the state fair in 2009, a stalwart group of residents from a wide array of communities have been monitoring proposed development plans to ensure that the best interests of residents are protected. As far back as 1998, various development interests have set their sights on portions of the State Fairground site. One such proposal, an automobile racetrack project by developer Joe Nederlander, mobilized community opposition objecting to the noise and traffic pollution that would have been created by the development. This formal organization, Inter-county Citizens Achieving Regional Excellence (ICARE), was comprised of residents from Detroit, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Huntington Woods, Pleasant Ridge and Royal Oak, These dedicated citizens worked together, wrote letters, solicited petitions, and challenged lawmakers to bring a democratic process and community standards to the development of the State Fairgrounds. Because of their efforts, the community prevailed and the project was rescinded. ICARE was recognized by then Detroit Council Council and received the Spirit of Detroit award in 2000. Fast forward to 2008. In the States effort to put the State Fairground site into productive use, developers Marvin Beatty, Joel Ferguson and Magic Plus LLC, were selected to create a redevelopment plan for the entire site. Those plans, shared with the public in 2012, failed to meet public expectations and spurred residents to create an alternative vision for the State Fairgrounds. Some of the ICARE members remained interested in the fairgrounds development and have coalesced with others to form the State Fairgrounds Development Coalition (SFDC), an ad-hoc organization of individuals, businesses, representatives of community organizations and from various municipalities. The coalition was founded on the right of the community to have significant input on how the fairgrounds should or should not be developed. One of their overarching goals is to keep Michigan State Fairgrounds site as an asset and jewel for the city, region and State. Members of the SFDC bring critical energy, skills and expertise to the coalition and have developing a polished visual presentation of an alternative concept called Michigan Energy, Technology, Agriculture Exposition or META Expo. With the META Expo as a foundation, the State Fairgrounds Development Coalition seeks to expand the possibilities and conversation about placemaking, transit-oriented development and bringing family-sustaining, new economy jobs to Detroit. Beyond concept development, the State Fairgrounds Development Coalition membership has the talent and training to help the developer bring a robust plan to fruition. The SFDC currently counts among its members, architects, urbanists, realtors and neighborhood leaders from noteworthy groups like Greenacres Woodward Civic Association, University Commons, Woodward Avenue Action Association, Park District, and the Eight Mile Boulevard Association. In addition, they are expanding their coalition to include even more impacted neighbors and other community stakeholders interested in the project. Community Benefited Related News Community Benefit Ordinance (CBA) Update or and the beat goes on As the D4 team sat in the gallery during the session of the Detroit City Council Planning and Economic Development Committee on Thursday, September 4th, Jeff recalled the comical image of a child incessantly asking his father during a long time trip, Are we there yet? Sitting with other advocates in the audience, representing a diverse coalition supporting equitable development in Detroit, we were hoping that the CBA ordinance would be an agenda item for the committees session. To our dismay, it was not brought up for discussion. Instead Mark Toaz, from the citys Legislative Policy Division (LPD), provided an update to the Planning and Economic Development Committee regarding the work of the CBA expanded work group, and the projected timeline for next steps in CBA ordinance legislative process. Mr. Toaz explained that on Wednesday, September 10, 2014, the CBA expanded work group will convene one more meeting with the business community to gather their input on the CBA ordinance draft (there have been two community meetings and one business community meeting to date). Following, on Thursday, September 11th, LPD will meet internally with City Council staff to continue modifying the draft ordinance based on input from the expanded work group. On Thursday, October 3rd, the Planning and Economic Development Committee will invite all council members to attend their meeting where the revised draft will be discussed. They will be asked to weigh in on the ordinance, and create a final draft. If all goes well, a final draft will then be approved by the Planning and Economic Development Committee and moved back to the full Council to set a public hearing date. Following the hearing, it will go back to full Council for a vote. Optimistically speaking, Mr. Toaz remarked that we could be at the public hearing phase by November 2014. He lauded the deliberative and inclusive process Council gathered input from multiple constituencies to inform and improve this critical legislation. Council Member Leland commented that this is how legislation got passed in Lansing during his time there, and hes encouraging more utilization of that collaborative process by lawmakers in the City. This was supported during Public Comment. September 4th was a reminder that the legislative process is long and often moves along in fits and starts. As it pertains to the CBA ordinance, we may not be there yet, but the finish line is in sight. We may have arrived Thursday morning with over-excited expectation, but we left with greater clarity on the direction of the process and continued optimism that we will prevail. Inclusionary Housing/Zoning: A Tool to Bring Affordable Housing to Detroit City of Detroit Council Member Mary Sheffield has contacted Doing Development Differently in metro Detroit (D4) about her interest in sponsoring legislation focused on inclusionary housing. We have conducted preliminary research for her office looking at best practice components of inclusionary housing ordinances and zoning from across the country. In addition, D4 will be convening a working group of local housing experts to build on this research and to provide input. Briefly, interest in inclusionary housing accelerated during the early 2000s, as home prices rose rapidly around the country and many families found themselves priced out from both the home-buyer and rental markets. In response, there are now a total of approximately 400 mandatory inclusionary policies in 17 states and the District of Columbia, and voluntary policies in several others. Of note, Michigan has not passed inclusionary housing legislation although Sen. Coleman Young proposed a bill in 2011/2012 that did move out of committee. Inclusionary housing policies require or encourage developers to include a small percentage of homes/rental units for low- or moderate-income households in otherwise market-rate developments. Most inclusionary policies are implemented through a combination of mandatory zoning codes accompanied by various forms of regulatory relief to help offset the development costs when units are affordably priced. Other policies are voluntary, relying instead on incentives such as density bonuses. In both instances, inclusionary housing policies seek to create diverse neighborhoods and broaden the array of affordable housing options available to low- and moderate-income households. Inclusionary zoning (IZ) typically requires a given share of new construction be set aside for individuals with low to moderate incomes and involve placing deed restrictions on 10%-30% of new or rehabilitated houses or apartments in order to make the cost of the housing affordable to lower-income households. Often in exchange for constructing or rehabbing affordable housing units, developers receive regulatory flexibility such as expedited permitting, reduced permit fees, increased allowable densities, reduced parking requirements, relaxed development standards (i.e., reduced setbacks, narrower street widths). Cities may also provide one or more financial incentives or cost offsets to developers such as below-market rate construction loans or land write-downs (selling publicly-owned land for reduced price) or tax-exempt mortgage financing for low- and moderate-income homebuyers. In practice, inclusionary zoning is a land use policy as much as it is an affordable housing regulatory policy. The advantage of inclusionary zoning is its flexibility because it can be applied locally and does not require significant state or federal intervention. D4 looks forward to working with Council Member Sheffields office and our housing expert partners as we seek to ensure mixed-income housing is available throughout all of the Citys neighborhoods. Updates on West Grand Boulevard Collaborative Community Coalition (WGBC3) D4 continues to be at the negotiating table when WGBC3 meets with Henry Ford Health System (HFHS), Kirco Mannix (developer), and Cardinal Health (facility operator) regarding a $27+ million medical distribution site being constructed in their community. To date, the biweekly meetings have been quite productive as issues around environmental mitigation, truck routes and others have been addressed to everyones satisfaction. One of the outcomes from the meetings is Kircos commitment to work with Sobriety House to hire local residents to help with landscaping and trash removal on the site. This will hopefully be the beginning for a local hire jobs partnership strategy that trains residents for not only possible positions with Cardinal Health when the facility opens in the spring, 2015 but also jobs within HFHS. WGBC3 has just discovered that as nonprofit organization, they can become an Endorsement Partner with the Detroit Land Bank on a housing program to move individuals and families into land bank-owned houses. The collaborative will pursue that opportunity and D4 is ready to assist them in these efforts as well. In This Issue Update on Land Transfer for New International Trade Crossing Epic Struggle Continues for Future of Michigan State Fairgrounds Site Community Benefit Ordinance (CBA) Update or and the beat goes on Inclusionary Housing/Zoning: A Tool to Bring Affordable Housing to Detroit Updates on West Grand Boulevard Collaborative Community Coalition (WGBC3) 2014 Doing Development Differently in Metro Detroit (D4) (313) 870.7577 - kristinemiranne.d4@gmail or maryking.d4@gmail 4750 Woodward Ave., Suite 401 Detroit, MI 48201 Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:55:49 +0000
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