Joining us for the planning and economic development standing committee on today, Thursday, May 21st, 2026.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the role?

Good morning.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero.

Present.

Council President Pro Tempore Coleman Young.

Thank you for putting that pro-tempore on there.

Here.

Madam Chair, we have quorum.

Thank you.

Having a quorum present.

We are now in session.

Good morning, colleagues.

Is there a motion on the minutes?

Motion.

There's a motion to approve the minutes.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

We are going to go into general public comment.

If there is anyone joining us in the committee of the whole or virtually who'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand.

Public comment will be cut off at 1010.

So you have three minutes to raise your hand virtually if you'd like to make a public comment.

Noting we have two hands raised by one person in the committee of the whole.

Good morning, Miss Great.

How many hands do we have raised virtually?

Good morning, madam chair.

We currently have 13 hands raised for virtual public comment.

All right, we're going to give everyone a minute and 30 seconds for general public comment.

We do have two public hearings and a discussion on the agenda.

If you will please set the clock, we'll get started with the gentleman here in the committee of the whole, Mr.

Smith.

Please assume your seat.

Good morning.

I want to say uh so my message is gonna be wholly directed to uh councilman President Pro Tim uh Coleman Young, who happens to be my neighbor.

So I am working to get Cronos concrete down zone and shut down.

I made a 15-minute video yesterday about the conditions.

People are dumping tires, dumping pallets, there's dust, they own a lot across the street.

This is a billionaire family.

There's crack sidewalk, people are living in deplorable conditions, and President Pro Tim, who is citywide, thinks he does not have to meet with constituents about this issue.

I've met with councilmember Johnson.

I've talked to councilwoman uh Gabriella Science Burrell's chief of staff.

We had a good conversation.

I'm also I've also met with Councilwoman Mary Waters.

Councilman Scott Benson declined my meeting.

So anybody who speaks after me, if whatever your issue is, let me know.

I will spend 30 seconds of my time every single day if you talk if you ask Coleman Young to meet with Detroit uh Ham Tramic Coalition and myself about Cronos Concrete.

I'm gonna use my time for you.

If you help me today and request this meeting, I'm going to be outside of his home tonight with a bullhorn.

I'm gonna go to the 7th precinct, let them know be out there too.

If you don't meet with your constituents and you think you can just give out spirit of Detroit awards, you think you can just do stuff for seniors and be nice.

You are mistaken.

District three needs your assistance.

You can laugh, you can smirk.

I'm gonna put this on social media.

You can laugh, you can smirk.

It's funny now, but I know I'm gonna bring my I'm gonna ask Toya Watts to come out with me.

I'm gonna ask Joanne Warker to come out with me.

I'm gonna ask Ruben Crawley to come out with me.

I'm gonna ask, I'm organized around you having this meeting with your constituents that you represent because you just think it's okay to give our spirit of Detroit awards.

Your daddy was a great man.

I don't know about you.

And hopefully we get some traction behind this.

We want to meet.

Thank you.

Discussion.

Uh pro Tim Young.

Usually I don't respond to this type of stuff.

And I think that it's unfortunate that I have to do this, but this is getting very dangerous because we're talking about being in front of people's houses and my family.

Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.

Whose houses and people's lives who could potentially be at risk.

Uh, is there a process that needs to take place for this type of stuff to make sure that to ensure the safety of people in the neighborhood in my family?

I'm very concerned.

I respect his right to protest.

I respect his right to say what he wants to say.

He has that right.

I'm not trying to take that away from him, but it usually I'm gonna say this, but in these dangerous times where we are having politicians being assassinated and being killed for what they believe and what they don't.

I think we need to be very careful about how we approach this.

This needs to be done in a very safe and effective manner.

If he wants to go out there in a bullhorn, that's his business.

But I want to make sure for the safety of the people in the neighborhood that live there and for the safety of my family and for the safety of the community, this needs to be done the right way.

And so I don't know this is the LPD, I don't know if this is the DPD, but we need to make sure that process is done appropriately, is done safely for everyone who's involved.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pro Tim, and I would certainly encourage you to have a direct conversation with EPU.

All right.

Um, I would like to note that the collection of general public comment has concluded.

And who is our first virtual caller?

Our first virtual caller is Owner Papa.

Owner Papa, you have one minute 30 seconds for general public comment.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

We can hear you.

Thank you.

Yes, the gentleman that just spoke, um, um representative or councilman young.

You have to understand that people, this is affecting their lives, and that young man is advocating for everybody in his neighborhood and for the citizens of the city of Detroit who are faced with um horrible um outcomes in terms of their environmental um exposure.

I I think that um what you do at that table has a direct result, um, impact on the people in the city, and and you all must realize that that um some of the things that you're doing um are unnecessary for the for the public.

You you're not addressing the issues that they're bringing to the table and a in a in a way that's speeded, and see now you're you're walking out, and that's another problem that I have with the city council.

You guys are up and down, up and down, leaving the table.

That is improper.

Uh, we we need to run a proper meeting.

You sit there, and if you need to leave, they will gavel you out and then gavel you back in.

That's not what's happening.

We're just people are just walking around and leaving.

You you you you guys are running uh uh a city that has a billions of dollars as their oh say what they talked about, they already approved it.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They've already approved everything, but anyway, um, just listen.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is William M.

Davis.

William M.

Davis, you have one minute, 30 seconds for general public comment.

Good morning.

Could I be heard?

Good morning, yes.

Okay, I'd like to start off by letting people who do not know that uh the Detroit bankruptcy was officially um discharged uh two days ago.

So perhaps that might give an opportunity for our deterrent lovely Detroit City Council to start doing a little bit more as it relates to the general fund retirees.

As you know, with the city chunk had two pension funds.

Uh the one that I'm proud of, which is generally older, blacker, browner, more females, and less white.

The other one is different.

The other one is treated much differently.

It's has more members on their pension board, they have more representations for retirees.

Um I won't go into all the other differences, but you know, more needs to be done to assist and help the general fund city chart retirees because we took a pension cut.

We lost all of our cost of living, and you know, we had major medical cuts, we had major uh annuity callback.

Um I know the it was a slight hold up on the discharge of the bankruptcy because one of my one of the general fund retirees had objected to the fact that we still have to pay an annuity call back.

So hopefully y'all move towards helping us more.

And also I enjoyed the meeting yesterday where y'all at least challenge some of the stuff that uh put a perspective um person who wants to take city money for nothing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Oh, before we go to the next caller, I'd like to call the 1015 public hearing to order and recess it to the call of the chair.

And who is our next virtual caller?

Our next caller is Marguerite Maddox and Scarlet.

Miss Marguerite Maddox and Scarlet.

Good morning.

You have the floor.

Thank you.

Um like many sure everybody here these young people because our live so I do not like it when people let.

I would like to make sure that everybody here these young people because they are out and the zone and our neighborhood for our lives so I do not like it when people threaten and the people live or the family lives and I would like to make a suggestion Please make what you might need to communicate with a comedy mad and chambers or in the coffee house with public because I do believe that we could uh come to a compromise when it comes to people dumping trash leaving it I had the opportunity to walk about my neighborhood there over my neighborhood and I wish I would aid the video tape it I cannot walk with my walk up pick up fresh um turn it fresh can I cannot do that but hopefully hopefully I will be able to but now we are to communicate with it with our being threatening and the shower issues which is um going uh we be um going hopefully hopefully we can uh be happy at the end of this year and with the house I would be making make it my puppy my puppy I have you later later this morning I'm done thank you thank you and Miss Maddox um if you'd like to share the area where you live with our office we can certainly look into the sidewalks as well as cleaning up um in that general area uh feel free to reach out to the office 313 224 4841 thank you before we proceed to the next caller I'd like to call the 1020 discussion to order and recess it to the call of the chair and Miss Great who do we have next our next caller is Nene's friend Nini's friend you have one minute thirty seconds for general public comment Nini's friend are you there Miss Great let's go to the next caller

And Ms.

Great, who do we have next?

Our next caller is Nini's friend.

Nini's friend, you have one minute 30 seconds for general public comment.

Nini's friend, are you there?

Ms.

Great, let's go to the next caller.

Our next caller is Betty A.

Varner.

Betty A.

Varner, you have a one minute, 30 seconds for general public comment.

Good morning to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

Barn, the president of DeSoda Elsworth Black Association, sharing information in regards to the organization, Wayne Metro.

They have a mobile unit called Wayne Metro on the go mobile unit.

They are looking for neighborhoods to go to to bring the services to the community.

If you uh know of a neighborhood or you want this mobile unit to come to your neighborhood, call 313-388-9799, 313-388-9799.

As for a Mr.

Mohammed Ottman, O T H N.

Or you can email Community Outreach at Wayne Metro.org.

Community outreach at Wayne Metro.org.

They have a survey they want you to fill out and they ask for zip codes where you would like the uh Wayne Metro on the go mobile unit to uh come to with their services.

Uh the number I gave out 313-388-9799.

That is the main number for Wayne Metro.

If you're a city resident, call that number and ask about the different programs and see if you qualify.

Thank you for this time.

God bless you all.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Legendary Detroiter.

Legendary Detroiter, you have one minute, 30 seconds for general public comment.

Legendary Detroiter, are you there?

All right, I understand we have you on three different lines.

So perhaps the next one is the right one.

Ms.

Great, let's go to the next caller.

Our next caller is Cindy Dara.

Cindy Dara, you have one minute, 30 seconds for general public comment.

I want you all to look at on point WBUR, their website, on point WBR.

It's a radio station, Megla Charcavati.

She uh had a show.

Uh and you can get it if you go right uh to their website and listen to it.

It's about the the uh data centers that they're trying to put in a high desert thing in Utah, and these people are fighting it.

Well, they're gonna have to get a referendum to stop it, but it pollutes there, it uses up their water, which they're already uh uh uh running out of water because it's and with the global warming, it's gonna be worse.

But it's a military uh is in on that.

So, like Carolyn Hughes says, if you put a data center here, you're making us a military target because that uh that does have a military aspect to it.

And there they even said the military will make some money off of this data center they're gonna put in.

It pollutes the air, it uses up the water.

It's gonna, it's real noisy where they've got them already.

That is a lot of energy, a lot of energy.

And it doesn't belong in an urban area, even if they say they're gonna pay the city some money to put in the money that you'll lose when people move out will be more than the money that you'll take.

And let's get a democracy.

Thank you.

The next caller, or before we proceed to the next caller, I'd like to call the 1025 public hearing to order and recess it to the call of the chair.

And who do we have next?

Our next caller is Blackbag.

Black bag.

You have one minute, 30 seconds for general public comment.

Yes, that's that's the number.

Okay, uh Letitia Johnson.

I'm on the phone with your office right now, talking to the person about the 32,000.

That's it was the cost for what was stripped off 1443 Spring Garden.

Now you sit next to a cheater, and you yourself are teethed in.

And Coleman is also cheated in by Dennis M.

Winfrey, the city clerk and the chairperson of the Detroit Election Commission, the one that's on Zoom on April 25th, 2024 at the spec at this election commission hearing, lying on public record.

She's a liar.

She did not send either of y'all.

The pioneers on the allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report done by her, even though she said it on April the 25th.

And then Gabriela.

Santiago Ramirez came on and said she read the report on May the 9th.

She didn't even have it.

Her office told me on the 20th before I brought it down to the Fred Durall's committee and gave it to Coleman Young's mother.

That y'all didn't have a report.

So she's a liar too.

And I'm black bagged and I'm telling the truth.

The next caller.

You matter.

You have one minute, 30 seconds for general public comment.

Good morning.

May I be heard?

Good morning, yes.

Okay.

Thank you for giving people time to uh get into the call.

Um so member Young, I would urge you to meet with the Detroit Ham Treatment Coalition about the pollution they're suffering.

I mean, duly noted you voted for the solar farms, allegedly to protect people's health, and yet these people are suffering horrible particulate matter, and you are a member at large, so I would ask that you please meet with them.

I would also ask that uh I would like to meet with you or members of your team and uh show you the images of the mowed over garbage.

You voted for North End Landing too, and their mowers are constantly mowing over garbage.

I got photos of that building, is still open to trespass that I showed you, Coleman.

So um, you know, why is it the environment matters sometimes and then other times it doesn't?

That's a problem.

So please meet with the Detroit Hemp Chairman Coalition.

Otherwise, I mean it's a bit hypocritical to say we care about people's ends.

That's why we're taking people's property for solar farms, but you won't meet with them.

So please do.

Uh interesting the net memo is confidential.

And uh member Johnson, I can tell you about the history of the community outreach ordinance.

That came because of me, but I requested something different, and that's all we got.

But I'll call your office and explain.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Cunningham.

Cunningham, you have one minute, 30 seconds for general public comment.

313 4449114.

3134, 9114.

31344 9114.

That number was made so you can remember it.

I'm currently taking a gentleman from downtown Detroit to uh Greenfield Village or the report.

Um, so I'll put over to the side of the road for safety purposes.

There's a DDOT meeting tonight.

Um I sent you a text message.

I'm not sure if you um did receive that, but everyone on the sound of my voice, if you'd like a flyer sent to you, just send me a text.

Um, and I will text it back to you, or you can Google it, or it's the Detroit Department of Transportation may input meeting.

And I'm asking supposed to continue to pray, praying on spirit, call on name out and atmosphere or mom showing reliance, and I'm gonna close out with prayer one three four four four nine one four again.

That number here, my shandala, I'm a son that my shand on my son dollar, my son that I'm sundown about shangwasa, yeah.

Yeah, my son yellow.

Cunningham and yes I did receive your message the next caller our next caller is Mr.

Foster Mr.

Foster you have one minute 30 seconds for general public comment uh good morning through the um chair um I want to say a quote from Roy T.

Bennett quote great leaders create more leaders not followers unquote and to that point when leaders focus on producing followers they inadvertently create bottlenecks because followers require direction for every step the leader's capacity dictates the limit of the entire organization's success.

In contrast, developing leaders create a multiplier effect.

When you empower others, you foster a culture of independence, psychological safety, and adaptability.

And to that point, I think empowerment was displayed yesterday in IOS.

I don't speak on the people per se, but the process, although the people played the role there in the process.

In the meeting yesterday, we were able to see council members articulate how taxpayer dollars went to hard plastic to restore it.

We were able to hear vendors articulate how passionate they were about their craft and their city, and more importantly, how they have progressed over the last 10 years.

And lastly, we heard from their chair and the other members floor ways to expand more opportunities to these people in this particular genre of people.

And so it's possible for council to play a more direct ball in our community and empower our community, right?

Empower our people.

And I just want to speak on that because I found it very admirable.

Thank you.

The next caller.

All right, let's come back.

I believe that is Ms.

Shay.

Who do we have next?

Adam Cher.

Our last caller just lowered their hand.

And is no longer on the call.

Okay, let's try Miss Shay or calling user one.

Hello, can you hear me?

Good morning, yes.

And thank you so much.

It was having a little bit of malfunction.

Umber Johnson.

Can you please help me to get an answer on what is city council going to do to stop it when we complain to council and to build in safety that we don't have to be retaliated against by any landlord, no matter the district.

When we complain of retaliatory eviction, not because you owe any money, solely because you complain to building and safety.

Are you aware that they want residents to sign agreements not to contact building and safety when it's clear that it's violations, pictures, videos, and audio?

Are you and member young aware of that?

And what can you do to enforce this from a city law point for all districts?

I appreciate you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Shea, for that information.

I am not personally aware of that.

I know we've had conversations in the past about retaliation, and we did um work with building safety and engineering to address it.

Any additional questions, comments?

Pro Tim Young.

See, I I'm assuming uh she's talking about um, I don't know who she's talking about, retaliation from she's talking about retaliation from B seed.

I would assume, or uh, she's talking about from landlords.

Um I would I I would assume that it would either be um, I don't know if it'd be the law, I think it'd be the law department that would deal with that from my understanding.

I don't know if B seed has a role in that at all.

I would think that that type of uh behavior would be dealt with the law department, so I would suggest that she contact them or contact my office at 224 4248, 2244248, 2244248 to be able to um get the information you need to be able to deal with that because that's serious, and we don't want that to happen.

We want people to be able to talk about the living conditions so we can prevent people from living in squalor and in dangerous situations.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional comments to our public commenters?

All right, seeing none, we are going to move back to the agenda, and I'd like to call back to order the 1015 public hearing.

The 1015 public hearing in you all are welcome to join us at the table is to amend chapter 50 of the 2019 Detroit City Code Zoning Article 17 zoning district maps by amending section 50-17-47, district map number 45 to revise the existing R2 two family residential district zoning classification to the B for General Business District zoning classification and with that colleagues.

Is there a motion to discuss line item five?

Motion motion discuss.

Thank you, Pro Tim.

Uh I will yield the floor to Mr.

Jeffrey.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you to this honorable committee.

Um, if my colleague or if uh the developer, Mr.

Kyle Morton could be allowed to share.

If you would please just raise your hand or so our team can identify that it's you who would like to share your screen.

And we have a number of uh people from uh city staff that we uh have with us today.

So through you, madam chair, if we can introduce ourselves.

My name is Kimani Jeffrey of the City Planning Commission, legislative policy division staff.

Here I have next to me.

Uh Kyle Morton uh with Asher Capital.

Hiram Jack.

Mr.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um, when you all speak, you can just touch the base of the microphone.

The light will turn green.

You don't have to hold it um to make sure that the general public can hear everyone, and you may proceed.

Through the chair to the honorable body, uh, as mine is high Osman Jobson Economy team.

Good morning, Edwina King, Planning and Development Department.

Morning.

Good morning, Greg Ruth's Planning and Development Department.

Good morning.

Good morning, Derek Head, D G C.

Morning.

Good morning, Brian Brian Bosper.

Uh Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

Good morning.

Jean Ballinger, Detroit Economic Growth Corp.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I believe that is everyone, Madam Chair.

Uh so what you have before you currently is a uh request for a rezoning amendment, a map amendment.

Um, but you're also going to hear multiple items that's coming before your honorable body this morning, uh, all related to this matter.

Uh so line item, I'll just note it right now.

Line item uh 9.5 is for master plan amendment as well, and then there's also other items.

Mr.

Jeffrey, before you proceed, yes, I do have a note here um for us to move line item 9.5 along with line item five.

So without objection, um I'd like to um make a or like to also discuss line item 9.5 that is associated with this public hearing.

You may proceed.

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh so I just want to note before we get into the presentation that as it relates to this rezoning request and the master plan amendment line line item 9.5.

Uh the city planning commission did um move to recommend approval of those items uh for the rezoning on March the 5th and for the master plan amendment on April the 16th.

Um you're gonna hear a lot about the proposal as we go into the slides, but I just wanted to make sure that I stayed stated that for the record.

So as we move forward in the presentation.

Um this is the site that we are uh currently that's under consideration for rezoning.

And it's generally bounded by, as you already stated, but just to uh reiterate this is generally bounded by uh McGraw Avenue 31st Street, L C04 freeway in the western uh dividing line of 35th Street and vacated portion of 35th Street uh between McGraw and S04 freeway.

So this is the land generally that we'll be discussing.

Uh as it pertains to the rezoning requests, this is the request.

Uh land that's currently zoned, R2 is proposed to be rezoned to M2 and B4.

Uh the green area, obviously.

Um, this is the area that's bounded uh generally by McGraw and 94 and 35th Street, uh, and then the property line of Tisson uh still on the on this on the west, or also 35th Street, the vacated portion of 35th Street on the west, um, that's proposed to be rezoned to M2, which is uh making way for light industrial, and then the area that's uh proposed for uh B4 is the area highlighted in orange.

Um, and you can see those boundaries generally bounded by um generally bounded by uh West Warren, um also um 30 the 30th Street on the east and then 94 on the west.

Um 94 on the south.

I do want to note that um originally this rezoning petition was quite larger, and the development team will go deeper into that, but it was changed as a result of community engagement.

So originally this entire the entirety of this rezoning request would have been all green, all proposed for M2.

But as a result of uh the lengthy engagement sessions that were held um since the last year, um this was changed to B4 and working with the community, also working with city staff and also working with the developer to um get that agreement to change that to B4 Um as hearing from the community, they wanted to see more commercial activity, more retail activity, and so that was a significant change as the building was also reduced in size and scope, as you'll hear more about to be able to facilitate that for future commercial development.

Then on the next slide, just want to note and I'll also ask my colleague uh Greg Moots if he has anything, but uh as it pertains to the master plan, uh typically if an area is not consistent, if the proposed zoning is not consistent with the master plan, the the master plan of policies lays out or the uh planning enabling that I should say lays out um procedures for master plan amendments, and so this master plan amendment line item 9.5 that you have before you that you took up for discussion as well, it is proposing to uh uh amend the master plan for what this area is to also facilitate the rezoning.

So the area would be changed to allow for light industrial and medium density residential.

So that's the proposed master plan change to allow for light industrial and medium density residential, and that is to facilitate the rezoning uh request that was just shown on the last slide.

With that being said, we can definitely answer more questions as it pertains to this.

Uh, I don't know if my colleague Mr.

Moots uh has any any further uh points on this as the plan and development is the petitioner for the master plan amendment.

So I would through you, Madam Chair, welcome him to chime in at this time.

Yes, good morning, if I may, through the chair.

Yes, Mr.

Moss.

Um just to clarify the the master plan boundaries are consistent with the rezoning boundaries.

So on that slide that Mr.

Jeffrey has up, the area on the left, the larger area that's designated to be um uh to become light industrial would correspond with the area being rezoned industrial, and then the smaller area on the east called subject area two is the area which is proposed to be rezoned to B4, and the master plan amendment to that would be um to commercial thoroughfare CT, which is consistent with the B4 zoning.

So just to clarify that the um the boundaries of these um do match the rezoning with the exception of a slight portion um on the E on the the north and the east, there were the master plan is already CT, even though the zoning doesn't, but these would just sync up the master plan bound the master plan and the zoning, but obviously for the same project, same intent and everything else.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Moots.

And through that, must uh after that, madam chair, we will uh shift to Mr.

Morton.

Sure, good morning.

Uh again, Kyle Morton uh with Ashley Capital.

Um so we've got a few additional slides, photos, and kind of talk about some of the the project evolution as well as the community engagement.

Um kind of outlined here, we'll talk about who Latimer Ashley uh development group is, a little bit about the project, uh the community engagement, then um we'll hold off on the Brownfield plan Brownfield plan piece, uh knowing that that's the following uh public hearing.

Um I'll just state by saying Latimer Ashley uh is a joint venture between the Latimer Group and Ashley Capitol.

Um I've got uh Hiram Jackson here um from the Latimer group, and I'll let Hiram uh introduce uh the members from the Latimer Group.

Good morning.

Oh morning.

I uh I'm the managing member of the Latimer Group.

The Latimer group consists of four primary principals who came together in the fall of 2020, originally under the leadership of uh the good Dr.

William Picard.

Uh he worked with the city and DEGC to identify this site as a campus of sort for uh Detroit based um logistics companies or light manufacturing.

Uh upon the death of Dr.

Picard, uh we looked to reimagine the site.

Also in the fall of 2020, we partnered with Ashley Capital because we felt that they were a local responsible developer that uh was committed to long-term projects and was a company that we could work with to uh develop a site in this particular community.

Uh Ashley Capital is one of the largest industrial developers in the country.

They have over 23 million square feet in the state of Michigan.

Uh and the four principals that are currently in the Latimer group, we all live in the city, we are our businesses are headquartered in the city, so we were looking for a partner that we felt would be as responsible as we are.

Uh the current partners in the Latimer group are myself, uh Carlo Walker Miller of the Walker Miller Energy Services, uh Dennis Archer Jr., who's the chairman of 1642 Ventures, uh, also a developer in a hospitality restaurant uh entrepreneur, and Sonia Mays, who's the CEO of Developed Detroit, one of the uh most active uh housing developers and commercial developers in Detroit.

Collectively, uh we have three 350 employees.

We're headquartered in Detroit, and we also all live in Detroit.

Uh Kyle Morton here, who's also with the ASCII Capital Group, uh, lives in Detroit.

And so um we are hoping to get your support for the redevelopment of a 400,000 square foot facility on this site.

Uh I'll let Mr.

Morton walk through the uh site statistics and the technical matters.

But uh thank you for having us this morning.

So uh through the chair.

So I I'll skip the kind of Ashley Capital side here.

I think Hiram covered that nicely.

Um the next slide is just the general project calendar.

Um, I think to show just basically from last September to today.

We've had extensive community engagement, but also have been in in front of public bodies numerous times um for public hearings.

So uh last two dates are the the uh at the bottom there um with the hope of getting the council a whole uh in early June.

So we thought uh don't need to exhaustively go through all these words, but just overall that this project has had some starts and stops dating back uh six or seven years ago.

Um really the the project took off in in 2023 when the state land bank provided uh site readiness uh dollars to the city, uh the 25 million dollar blight elimination grant, um, which some of those funds were used specifically for this site.

So last year uh the stormwater pipes uh and the water pipes that were in the footprint of the project uh were abandoned or rerouted.

So currently the the roads are barricaded off and there are no utilities um in the streets that uh Mr.

Jeffrey had mentioned earlier.

So there was a previous version of this project that um had a few non-owned lots.

Our development team has acquired all of those lots since then.

So in the entire footprint of the project, it's either um owned by the under letter of intent with the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority or it's owned by the development team.

Um and then I think the the real kickoff to this project was when we got uh a signed letter of intent from the Brownfield Authority in October.

So everything over the last uh six or seven months has really been focused on community engagement.

Um and we'll highlight some of the changes in the process as we go forward.

So again, as a high level, um the project is a 400,000 square foot uh M2 uh zone facility, so light industrial.

Um we're targeting a speculative construction, meaning we don't have a tenant identified right now.

Um and the hope is that uh going along the timeline that we're on, we would start construction in the spring.

Uh we've got some uh DT utilities to get out of the way should we get rezoning, um, and then the project would be completed in in early 2028.

Again, uh aerial just quickly describing where this project sits and kind of frames what uh Mr.

Jeffrey was explaining on the rezoning request.

So the the build proposed building is in the in the blue box.

Uh 31st Street is the eastern border of say the warehouse component of this project.

Um the southern border of the project is I-94.

To the west is the Tiss and Steel facility and the CSX rail line, but is the Livernoy uh and I-94 interchange, and then the northern boundary is McGraw.

It's a quick zoomed-in uh version of this.

So what we have is uh a cross-dock warehouse is what we call it.

We've got dock doors on the east and west sides of the building where you'd have uh trailer parking.

So the hope is that all of the truck traffic, we have enough uh space on site that we have no issues with anybody parking on the street, that everything would be self-contained in this facility, that we will absolutely not have trucks pulled up on McGraw or Warren waiting to get into the facility, that there's plenty of space on site, and then you have car parking on the north and south sides of the building.

It's a little hard to tell just given the scale of this, but the landscape berms meet all the new um uh ordinances that were passed, and then we have the big stormwater basin uh on the east side of the site.

Slightly updated version of an aerial uh that Mr.

Jeffrey had talked about, but this was taken in March just when the the um snow was off the ground.

But there are no structures left on site, so all it was probably a dozen or so um abandoned structures or previously occupied structures that have all been removed uh in the last few years.

So it's it's all vacant land.

We thought it'd be helpful just to show a representative image of what this looks like or proposed to look like from that same vantage point.

Just to quickly talk about some recent projects we always get asked what projects has Ashley Capital done recently, where can I go see a building that looks like this?

So a few of these municipalities, I think um Flint Highland Park, Hazel Park, Lavonia all provided letters of support which were provided in the packet, but um probably the closest building that was built, um very similar situation former residential land was in Highland Park at the lodge in Davidson that was uh spearheaded by uh Eric Means prior to his passing.

So Ashley Capital in a similar situation helped um partner with uh with a local developer and kind of the model that um the Latimer group and Hiram and I are working on again.

Don't need to specifically point out everything.

I thought this was just helpful.

Everyone always asked what's the inside of these buildings look like.

Um so we tried to kind of take a cross section and show that it's really a big open box.

What we do is build a very flexible generic um building, make a plan so that when we do identify a tenant, um it's very flexible for them for all their intended uses.

We always get asked the question in in these meetings who are your representative tenants.

So we put a uh a list of the tenants that we've had um in our portfolio in in Southeast Michigan.

So these are not small, these tend to not be smaller common mom and pop companies, these are larger uh Fortune 500, Fortune 50 companies.

Um they're they're good corporate citizens, they want to be they choose to be in Detroit, they want to be a part of the neighborhood.

Um the way we've structured our letter of intent is to make sure that Detroiters is specifically Detroiters and Detroiters in this neighborhood get preferential hiring and uh that these tenants are good long-term stewards for the neighborhood, both you know, landscaping, trucking, um, and that will those go in our leases.

We maintain as the owners actually the landscaping.

So we we stay actively involved in the process moving forward.

The big question kind of overarching this project is why industrial, why does the city need, you know, why is the city need industrial, why more industrial land?

Um so Ashley Capital solely does bulk warehouse logistics building.

So this is kind of right up our wheelhouse in terms of size and geography being Southeast Michigan.

In the last, let's call it since 2020, 2019.

Um we've seen about 16 competitive buildings that have been built in the city, and I also included uh the two in in Highland Park just for reference.

But those buildings are basically completely full.

There's a small portion of a building that's left in gateway.

So said another way, if a tenant were to show up, an automotive tenant, uh whoever it may be, show up to the city of Detroit right now.

There's no vacancy for that user.

On top of that, we're not aware of another building that's about to start construction.

So if a tenant were to show up, they would be doing exactly what we did, spending nine months to get to a point where you have zoning, they spend another nine months to get to a shovel in the ground, and then they spend another 18 months to build a facility.

No one's willing to wait that long.

It's almost like saying you're gonna move to, you know, a bad analogy, but you're gonna move to Detroit.

Um, and you there are no houses available, you got to wait and permit and design and build your own house, right?

So it's kind of the we're trying to collapse that time frame.

The competitive set is all focused in western Wayne County, largely, so out near the airport.

So any of these automotive requirements that would uh uh feed the local plants or um anybody who wants to service Detroit residents, uh deliveries there if they wanted immediate availability, they'd have to go out to the airport, and no, that's very far away on a on a relative basis.

So why this site specifically, what was very interesting to our team.

We're right next to it.

We have an industrial neighbor, we have two industrial neighbors to the west, Tiss and Steel and the former Coca-Cola building.

We're right along I-94, and we're right at the Livernoy Interchange, and there's also the 30th Street uh exit as well for automotive traffic.

So you have the ability to get a site that's large enough to accommodate a very large building, 400,000 feet, and you can minimize the impact of trucks running through any of the neighborhoods.

So there's land, there's industrial zone land.

Um it's either not in this size or it's not in a location that works for a project like this.

And then just geographically speaking, very close to the new bridge, very close to the Ford plant in Dearborn, and then uh both the uh factory zero and Stellantis Mack Avenue plant.

So a wide use of ranges would fit in the project like this.

From the jobs perspective, I think these are really slides that were provided by the DEGC from based on community feedback, but these are this are very representative projects from in the city for what those buildings look like and who the intended tenants uh or likely tenants would be.

So the Cadillac Stamping Plan, which ended up being Lear, the Kettering School, which was Dakota, um, and then AMC, uh, which ended up being General Motors.

So uh similar buildings, we're talking about um similar quality tenants, uh similar um targeted average wages.

I think all three of these were union scale wages.

The last piece we have is the community engagement.

Um so we've had over 15 uh let's say public meetings and community meetings over the last seven months at the council members' request.

Uh we agreed to six community meetings in our letter of intent.

So we held um five of those six in person at a church in Southwest.

Um we had or near the project site, the six actually was on um uh zoom due to snow.

Say the the first meeting or two that we had, we had very strong community feedback that made us change our plans.

I think we we understood loud and clear what was important um and we'll talk through on the the site plan changes.

The two letters of opposition that um were submitted were largely focused on the roads that had been vacated and the and the lack of communication and access going forward.

Um as we discussed, those changes happened prior to us, you know, really even being presented to the community and were approved through council.

Um not not kind of indirectly related to our project, but not part of uh our engagement, kind of uh predated us.

Always helpful to kind of show where we started when we first had conversations with the DGC.

Our early concept was on the on page left here.

Um the the DGC had shown us kind of land ownership maps, and we planned a very large building.

It was 550,000 feet.

Um the docks were facing north and south, the building orientation was different.

When we moved to uh page right, was the concept that we we really showed uh when we signed the letter of intent.

That building is uh about 15% bigger than where we are today.

The one on the left is about 30% bigger than where we are today.

I think that this one slide will show kind of the major changes and the major community feedback.

So all the roads were closed in the project footprint.

We heard that we needed to keep the Junction Avenue Bridge open.

Uh we needed a way for residents, um, people going to school, fire life safety to continue to cross over 94.

So that long red box um shows a new road that we're coordinating with DPW that will work for school buses, it'll have the new the the city bus is currently the DDO bus is currently um rerouted, it'll be returned to this area.

Um the building is smaller, it said it was it's about 20% smaller from the uh version that we had previously shown.

Uh we've added a pedestrian walkway.

That was a big thing from a community feedback on the west side of the site, and it was actually a great suggestion from our last community meeting that um we're gonna incorporate and honor the Kronk Gym on that walkway, and then the two bigger pieces were the um the creation of that three-acre B4 zone piece, which is on the east side of the site, uh, which really what we heard is grocery store.

Uh we want retail, we want a grocery store.

So the goal was to have zone land consolidated.

So if a grocery store, you know, Aldi, whoever it may be, shows up, they don't have to go through a rezoning process, and all the land's been assembled in one place.

And then we have a we bought purchase an old pharmacy building on West Warren that we're gonna use as our construction office, um, and we'll donate that to a uh community organization which will work um with the department of neighborhoods and the council office to make sure we identify the the correct party.

So um we're gonna upgrade the building, the roof, the windows, the bathrooms, just to make sure it's in great shape before we um uh pass it along.

Well, the last piece is those items we talked about.

We one of the main outstanding items from the community feedback was how does how do what you've promised?

How does that actually get into writing?

So um, I believe what was circulated as a um uh to this body was the revised letter of intent.

So all of these have been added to our letter of intent and will be formalized in the development agreement.

So if we were to change anything, we'd have to go back through the whole process uh to back out of those commitments.

So um those have been submitted in the letter of intent, and um our last kind of commitment to the uh to the community was once we have that draft of the development agreement, we'll make sure we're highlighting it and showing it back to them.

Hey, it it made it there, and this is what's going to be signed.

So understanding that trust goes so far, we wanted to make sure that's in writing.

The last piece is the truck routing map.

Um, we wanted to community feedback was very strong.

No truck south of 94.

That's really residential neighborhood.

Um so both from a signage and enforcement perspective, uh, that was incorporated into the project, as well as the the there's really four or five um residential streets north of the project that no truck traffic will go uh along those residential streets, that it's really a McGraw to Livernoy to 94.

Warren does have some arrows on here that is a city truck route, um, but we don't intend to have unless there's a local delivery that's specifically whoever the user may be uh that needs to get to a business.

Uh it's not intended to be a primary route.

The last three or four slides are just some uh aerials to renderings.

Um, this is the southwest corner of the site uh at 94 in the Tiss and Steel facility, representative image of what the building along with the redone road and the junction avenue overpass, and the pedestrian walkways on the west side uh of that image behind those uh trailers.

This is from the northeast corner of the site, and that's the large detention basin.

So that'll be a uh was uh was well received from the community giving some of the flooding issues in the neighborhood.

Um there's uh it's almost two million gallons of water that fit in this.

So and then from a street view perspective, this is where the the scale of the renderings and aerials are tough, but we tried to we have a a sizable berm and landscaping, obviously, is a pretty preliminary, but from um the building has been set back uh substantially further than um how we originally planned.

The berms are taller, so from a blocking cars and headlights uh and and that that was really our our intention is to make this feel like it fits um contextually better than when it was closer to the street.

So uh that's the the extent of our rezoning presentation.

Uh and I'll conclude there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional Madam Chair.

We can uh turn the floor back over to your honorable body at this time.

Thank you.

Um I will kick it off with a couple of questions.

So um I appreciate you noting the um amendments to the screening and buffering ordinance that now requires greater density and more mature trees and shrubs.

Um with that being said, I'm curious and and also want to commend you on the detention pond.

Um that is something that's very important to me uh as well as I'm sure all of my colleagues.

But can you um share?

I'm not sure if anyone knows how close the nearest residents are to the facility.

I saw some kind of natural um buffers, if you will, with the service drive uh and avenues through the chair, just gonna see if I can find an aerial that would it's a few hundred feet to the northwest of the building.

Uh so it at the at the bottom of the page um on this aerial, you can see that there is uh a few structures.

Um so if you imagine the the building being it's set back by about 200 feet from the right-of-way.

So let's say it's I'm I'm guessing it's 400 feet uh from the building to the north.

Okay.

All right, and I will um I'm sure my colleague will talk about community engagement with the general area, but hopefully more specifically the folks that are closest to the facility.

Uh the other question I had was um as it relates to the actual development.

Are you all planning to have multiple tenants there, similar to the old East Lamb site?

So the the anticipation is we we build the building flexible enough that you could accommodate four tenants if you think you just kind of cut it in in four corners.

Our hope is that this is for one tenant.

Uh I think what we've seen is the larger users who want to be in Detroit don't have the ability to find space here.

So we think it will skew larger, and hopefully it's just one tenant in the building.

But we made it so it's not functionally obsolete if somebody, you know, if somebody needs just 300,000 feet, we can still accommodate that and then have room for a smaller tenant.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Um I will turn the floor over to Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

Good to see you all.

I I do have a few questions.

Um, and just want to start off by saying that I am not a fan of rezoning from residential to industrial.

Um it goes against what I believe uh we should be building in our residential neighborhoods.

Uh the space that you are looking to rezone needs to be a community center.

Um, and that's what I hear our residents want more than anything else is just cleaner, safer residential neighborhoods.

I grew up in this neighborhood.

Um I grew up in uh right off of Tarnau and McGraw.

And um, I will say growing up in the neighborhood, it was not fine.

It felt pretty abandoned and forgotten.

I think a big part of it is the bankruptcy.

I think a big part of it is industry leaving and leaving us with abandoned buildings.

Uh so I was very honest with the developers and said you need extensive community engagements.

I believe the first offer was two or three meetings.

We pushed it to six, seven.

I think you guys extended it even more, so thank you for that.

Um and really I have final questions because I said that if you're able to do these meetings and if you're able to get a majority of my residents that support you, that I will listen to my residents and support you.

I think that we're at that place, but I have a few more questions just to feel more comfortable supporting this project.

Um, and quite frankly, the biggest reason why I support this project, why I feel comfortable supporting this project is the idea of good paying jobs coming to the neighborhood, and my residents being first to be paid these jobs.

So if you wouldn't mind sharing, I know we don't have the tenant just yet, uh, but what can we expect?

What kind of tenant, how many jobs are we are we looking to to have in the site.

Sure, through the chair.

So the what what we have in the letter of intent is is 400 jobs.

So the anticipation and and that's what the best we can do not having a tenant identified is we're extrapolating off two things.

The the successes of the similar projects in the city of Detroit, and I think Luxwall in Southwest Detroit is a similar type uh that would have been a perfect user for this site.

Uh timing just didn't allow it.

Um, and then also the projects that we have that are are in close proximity.

So I think um uh when we were in Hazel Hazel Park, we did the three buildings at the uh former Hazel Park racetrack, and a large number of those uh tenants are GM suppliers or Stellantis suppliers who could not find space in the city of Detroit but wanted to be here.

And that's a perfect example.

So 400 is big, and we basically it's one job per thousand square feet of the building.

So that's kind of the how we're anticipating.

Um so hopefully it's more, as you see on some of the other examples.

Um Lear has a higher number, but um that's what we have.

And and then the letter of intent also has the commitments um for Detroiters first, and we'll be outlined further and kind of expanded on the development agreement.

Thank you.

I guess to to that point, Detroiters first, residents first.

Um, what is the percentage of Detroiters for the jobs that you currently have that are in the city?

So through the chair, we we don't own a building in the city of Detroit, so we we I we don't have a um uh I don't think I'm able to answer that question then.

Through the chair, so you don't know what the tenants currently have that are in Detroit, how many Detroiters they hire.

You just mentioned Lear.

Would you happen to know?

Sorry, misunderstood the question.

I think no worries.

So I I I think this chart again was provided by, and I know uh Jean and Derek from the DGC are on, but um this was their slide, so speaking a little for them, but this outlines the total number of jobs the last time they were able to collect it and what the Detroit resident base was.

So it looks like it's just over uh maybe that's 50 to 60 percent.

Thank you.

I also can't see so so far away, so thank you for bringing up that percentage.

I was I was looking to see how many Detroiters your tenants are currently hiring, if it's more than 50 to 60 percent.

Thank you for that.

If you wouldn't mind also sharing, what is the range of pay um that employees can expect in these in these light industrial sites?

So I would defer to the DGC specifically to those.

Those are those buildings were developed by other people, so I don't have direct um uh through the chair.

I don't know if uh it's appropriate to uh talk to Derek or Jean who her here for the answer to that.

Whomever can respond.

Through the chair, those are um union scale jobs.

I don't have the exact dollar fig figure, but whatever is set forth with the UAW through the chair, thank you to whoever can confirm then, and I'm I know I'm asking and repeating, but trying to put these on the record and make sure that I'm asking these questions, so then we can expect these jobs to be union jobs.

Through the chair, that is the expectation, and based on our other three projects, um that is the result of those developments as well.

Okay, thank you.

Oh right.

I guess then um last final questions for me is we went a little bit into why the sites um and I guess if you wouldn't mind again, why in this residential neighborhood?

Detroit is so massive, we already have a lot of space.

Why didn't we choose another space?

Why are we choosing this site in the residential neighborhood instead of other places in the city?

There's a through the chair, there's a few things that that played into this, right?

So one that this was a targeted site by the DEGC and got appropriated funds from the state through the city to this site.

So um when we stepped in um and started looking at acquiring those last few parcels, the money had already been allocated and spent on the site.

This was not um the development team coming in, buying up land and then trying to convince the city to do a project there.

It was targeted by the city, um, and we were willing to be proactive and work with the city uh to make sure that that we delivered the project that they were looking for.

Um but kind of that's overarching strategy, um kind of history of it, specifically site-wise, it's the size and it's the proximity to the highway.

Right.

You you could f there's industrial zone land that's a little bit smaller that might be further up Livernoy, that's um more in the middle of a neighborhood, that's more causing uh more truck impacts to roads, that this is right at the highway uh interchange and is next to existing rail and industrial.

So it seemed to match up both from size, city's desires, um, and and just general location.

So um we've looked at um so I I joined Ashley Capital seven years ago, and uh Hiram mentioned I live in the city.

Well, we've been the largest developer in the region, and we have never built a project in the city of Detroit.

So I've I've been focused trying to find a project here.

It's hard.

Um the the three or four sites we mentioned are really the the sites that were available that these projects don't have homes, so it takes a little creativity, and you know I I we are not in the business of going for rezoning of residential land either, but it really matched the opportunity that was presented to us.

Okay, thank you for that.

And again, I know you've mentioned this, but I need to ask the questions.

And I will say being so close to residents, um, having the plan to mitigate traffic and and trucks, and I actually really love the idea of people being able to walk to work, being able to bust to work.

Um, and and if it's a safe industrial area, um, then we can be working together.

Uh last question, um, just to make it perfectly plain, there will be no detention centers centers or data centers that would be built on this site, correct?

Through the chair, correct.

All right, thank you.

There's a lot of fear and that going on right now, so just gotta make sure that we ask the question.

Um, thank you, madam chair.

That is it for me.

Um, wonder if there's gonna be anyone for public comments to have any questions or um comments, but for now, thank you.

And thank you all so much.

I really do appreciate um your patience with us, your ability to go through the process with residents.

I always think it ends up being better for you.

It ends up being better for the city.

Um, and I think this is another example of that.

So thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

And member Santiago Romero, to your point, I was actually going to ask if they had considered the shoemaker site, but it's half the size of this.

Um, yeah, because it already is uh industrial zone land as well.

Um very quick question.

Um, who actually oversees implementation of the items in the letter of intent through the chair, I just the implementation would be in our agreement, our development agreement, the development team's development agreement is with the DEGC.

So all right, thank you.

Uh Pro Tim.

Thank you, ma'am, Chair.

Um, hello, good to see you on here.

Uh I I just want uh most of the questions I had were answered uh in this report.

Um, I had questions about zoning and spot zoning.

I think you pretty much already took care of that for me.

I just wanted to ask you, I don't think this is for uh Mr.

Jeffries or anybody.

Excellent presentation, by the way.

Hi, my man, man.

Always good to see you.

We go back like you we go back like four class of the cat late, man.

Always good to see you, my man.

But uh, I just wanted to ask uh anybody from DEGC have we done an analysis of what this would do in terms of increasing the property values in the neighborhood?

Do we have that numbers?

Uh through the chair, we were asked that in one of the community meetings, and we actually saw that in the past when things like this happened, it actually increased the property values in those in those neighborhoods and also stimulated additional growth.

So that was an excellent question.

Thank you.

No, that's excellent.

And um, have we done any analysis in terms of I think it's called the social give me a second here?

I'm trying to remember exactly what it is called.

Well, you will is it called the social trust indicator?

It represents community stability.

Because I really think this would be a tremendous opportunity because you have jobs, you have opportunities, you have people who live in the area, so you have people who could be able to walk to their job, walk back to their job.

I think this is something the property value is an increase, services would increase, taxes would increase.

Well, well, Libra Cities, tax revenue, not tax excuse.

Like up, tax revenue, not taxes, tax revenue would increase.

So I think this could be a real good opportunity for a neighborhood stabilizer, but also I just want to know just from the community standpoint what this project would represent from a social trust indicator standpoint.

Uh through the chair to Pro Tim Young.

As as Kyle indicated, there were 15 community meetings.

And over that time, there was a great deal of trust that was endeared between the developer and the community.

Uh six of those meetings were initiated by council member Santiago Romero.

Okay.

As Councilmember Santiago Romero indicated, the first people who will have an opportunity to obtain those jobs will be people in the neighborhood.

So that accomplishes all those goals that you stated.

But was there an actual was there what I'm what I'm asking for?

Was there an actual analysis?

There, there's metrics for these things.

Was there a projection?

Was there an estimate?

Can you um quantitatively break that down for me or no?

Well, well, Mr.

Chair, well, through the chair to Councilmember Young.

We we haven't narrowed down those specifics.

That's fine.

But we certainly will have those once once a particular tenant is identified and those numbers are coming, but I can assure you that those metrics would be positive.

All right, well, let me be clear.

I'm I'm not trying to play, I'm not trying to play gotcha.

Okay, I'm I'm the supporter of this.

I'm not I'm not saying this to try to trap trap anybody or trick anybody.

I'm saying this because this is the type of stuff I'm gonna have to answer when I go to my community meetings.

When I go talk to people, they're gonna ask me directly.

They just want the straight dope.

What is how is this going to improve their lives and the value of what they're doing?

And this is gonna be one of the questions that's gonna go to the heart of that.

And so I'm not saying you have to have this now, and I understand some of this stuff, you know, you have you might have to like contract out for it because it's not necessarily things that you normally do or talk about.

I understand your mission, so I'm not trying to get anybody in trouble here.

I'm just trying to make this as easy as I possibly can to do my job, and to make sure that I can convince to the community why this is important and what the benefit of this is.

Because I can know off the top of my head what this is and why you should vote for it.

But if I have those actual metrics, it helps me because therefore it's not just me saying it verbally.

You know what I mean?

There's actually been measured and it's actually broken down as what it is.

Now, if it rejections are right, good, if they're wrong, I gotta live with that.

That's the job.

But I need to at least have that so when I go out the public, I can do it.

That that's what I'm trying to get at, though.

Uh through through the chair uh to council member, council pro tem young.

We have some estimates based on the size of the particular facility and the number of jobs of the impacts that we projected for the particular neighborhood, say in regard to property values and those things.

We don't have those right now, but we certainly will ensure that you will have those numbers.

All right.

Excellent.

Oh, I I think that's a real good thing.

Um, do we have an understanding of how much this represents in terms of wages overall?

Basically, uh through the chair to council pro tem young.

The estimates that we've saw before were somewhere in the neighborhood of 15, 58,000 per year for these jobs.

What's that?

What's that total?

What's the total number?

Give me the give me the large number.

Yeah, through the chair, that I think it'd be 2.3 million.

2.3 million your wages total.

I mean, the mad math is not my strong suit, so but I just want to make sure when I'm talking to people that that I get this right.

Okay.

Has there been an analysis in terms of spinoff jobs potentially?

My math is awful and I forgot a decimal place.

It's 23 million.

Oh, okay, okay.

Okay, let's make sure.

Let's make sure.

23 million.

Excellent.

Even better.

So have there been an analysis of spin-off jobs at all that that would benefit from this small businesses, you know, the butcher the baker, candlestick maker.

Uniform shop.

Through the chair, we certainly we certainly could take a second look and come out with some metrics and take a look at similar types of jobs and and what that spin-off was, and we certainly would share that with you.

I just think it'd be tremendous, you know, for the people who are who are working that area, you know, they get off work, they go to eat lunch, you know, they go to the store, you know, they go shop, you know what I'm saying?

You know, you know, they they go to little convenience stores, or you know, what I like to do sometimes, you know, go to a little liquor store, get you some hot Cheetos or whatever, and you know, it's all right there.

You know what I mean?

It's a pretend this opportunity for them to be there to shop to spend their money and do what they want to do economically.

I think it's a real good base that we could have.

You know, now I think that in terms of um remember Santiago Romero is saying, I don't think this should be the only way in which we do this.

You know, I think there's parklands, other such things we could do for the neighborhood as a whole, but I think for this particular project, the way that it is and how it's done, I think this is a tremendous opportunity.

So those are just some things that you know I I would suggest that you um look into and uh just so just so I could go when I go out there talk to my constituents, I could be able to have those numbers and have that because otherwise what I'm doing is basically just going through my progressions or using artificial intelligence that I usually use to be able to come up with these numbers and say that.

But it's nice to have it from the city, so when I can know that those that those numbers match, so we're on the same page, but also just so you can put that out there so people can see it, because not everybody's gonna have the same access to information that I have, and it's always nice to have people, especially from the DEGC, you know, be able to put those numbers out there.

So otherwise, that is all the questions that I have.

Uh mayor chair, I am in full support.

Look forward to voting for this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now turn to public comment regarding the public hearing.

If there is anyone who'd like to make a pop a public comment regarding the rezoning for the site, please raise your hand.

Please raise your hand, whether in person or virtually going once, going twice, going three times.

The collection of public comment has concluded.

Ms.

Great, how many hands do we have raised?

Madam Chair, there were nine hands raised when you cut off public comment.

All right, we're gonna give everyone one minute, 30 seconds for a public comment regarding the public hearing.

Who do we have first?

Our first caller is Black Bag.

Black bag, you have one minute, 30 seconds for public comment regarding the public hearing, noting that not one council member is involved in this project.

Yeah, I understand and I understand why completely that you shouldn't be involved in this project.

No other project, and that is because of what our previously stated on comments.

Now, in regards to this project, this particular project, I've been noticing that these developers come with these plans before the city council committees, and then it gets passed on to uh forum session for approval.

Well, the council president needs to really understand this clearly.

I know about the 30-year plan to turn Detroit into a non-majority black city on an international border.

I found out about it 18 years ago.

Black Bay.

Please be sure your comments are specific to the public hearing.

No need to mute me.

And the reason I was trying to give okay, in regards to this plan.

Now, this plan coincides with what I know to be, and I found out about 18 years ago.

And this particular project is I'm exemplary of what I've been saying about the plan to turn Detroit into a non-majority black city on an international border.

And my words are coming true.

Governor Zrace, Duggan is out the race.

Thank you so much.

It's all gonna come true.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Sherry.

Sherry, you have one minute, 30 seconds for public comment regarding the public hearing.

Ah, thank you for allowing me to speak.

Um, I was a part of six the last sixth engagement meetings.

Um, and our group had put together uh, we don't call it CBA because of that threshold.

Uh so we call it the voluntary agreement.

We had some really great ideals that did not make it.

Um, but throughout this hearing, we've heard, I've heard extensive community engagement.

And our community bought made aware of the fact of what closing down junction, uh, the quality of life and um safety issues that needed to be addressed.

And I was really surprised that with the extensive engagement of the city that they didn't recognize that or feel the need to talk to the community back in 2019 when all this was going on because a lot of things could have been avoided, but um, we're not gonna go over all that, and I just want to say when you have uh extensive impact to a community, that dollar amount should be considered in terms of the threshold.

So if you don't meet the threshold, you look at the impact to the community when you start cutting off routes to schools, routes to health and safety, uh concerns that that shouldn't be weighed in.

So a commute extensive community engagement should have extended.

Thank you.

The next caller.

The next caller is you matter.

You matter, you have one minute, 30 seconds for public comment.

Good morning, Matt Beheard.

Good morning, yes.

Well, I fully agree with that.

Last caller, I don't think that's done enough to consider the impacts on the local residents.

And member Young, I'm really disappointed here.

Why will you not respect member Gabby talking about her own district?

And I also would like to express concern about Sonia Mays being involved in because what about the rodent migration that will happen from that area?

That's clear as day.

We still have ground hog migration problems in the lower north end due to the construction of the Detroit People's Food Co-op, which I'm pretty sure Sonia Mays was involved.

I've been asking for assistance from them for years, thus far to no avail.

So that's another thing that's gonna happen.

They're clearly rodents under all that land over there that and and they'll even go, they'll go a long ways because they're gonna have to go somewhere.

So member young, really I mean, what's the point of having district systems when the other members won't listen to the council member in that district, not that they always represent very well Mary Sheffield in North End Landing, uh letting the nearby people get trampled?

Um so you can unmute her so she can wrap up her comment.

Yeah, thank you.

What was that all about?

The rodent migration is real.

This is all relevant.

Like really, some people got a problem with the first amendment here, and these things are real.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Yes, um, I've been listening to everything and uh I blew up near that area to so I know a little bit more about the area and my big shirt is how much a glare of gonna be coming through it and it's gonna be a phone of the members of City Council with with the conception and community big commodity beer later and that shabba I gonna have to be begun over in that area too because I remember they used to be a big feeling and the old punk what we can share and I tell them the hell yeah, yeah on my bike and shake someone my glow in that one avenue and the noise and my suggestion is that the work and the best got can be we read it again if I am I am again out of the project yes and for it yes but it is community that leaves that area right now because we we need to figure out a way to be uh our

Because we need to figure out away.

Our again.

Oh death then.

Hey.

Let me know.

Okay.

Shut up.

Oh.

I'm gang.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Mr.

Foster.

Mr.

Foster, you have one minute, 30 seconds for public comment regarding the public hearing.

Oh good afternoon.

Just very briefly.

I want to just first state that this area southwest have always been a stigmatized and exploited area.

So even though it's a good idea you bring in the industry or whatever, it's not um an equal advantage to the millions and billions of dollars that they're going to be producing there.

Right.

So my question is, even along those fence lines, the city has a great need for day workers, people that's not going traditionally get jobs.

I would like to see these industries put fun into the side for nonprofits.

Allow these communities and our disadvantaged to at least clean up the trash that may be along the fence lines when the wind blows and these big industries have they cause a lot of um stuff that gets human later.

And so instead of doing these things yourself, oh I would want them to use the same funding and allow our local communities and members to do these jobs.

The people that you ordinarily ignore or walk past, give them opportunities, uh create a place for day workers and funding for them and allow them to be able to go home every day or wherever they go feeling some sense of work for something that they earned.

Right.

You guys make too much money coming to here in that particular area once again, it has been stigmatized and exploited for decades.

Right.

We're gonna start changing these trends and hold these big thank you.

The next caller.

Yes, and I agree with all the callers before me.

Um I think there's should be a little more community engagement before we decide this.

I know you've already written a resolution to accept it, but I think that the community needs to weigh in more on what they want in their neighborhood.

Um I would like to ask um what is light industrial?

What is that?

And um uh the can we as residents know where the master plan is?

Uh Miss Walwork asks all the time about master plan, and now 9.5 is saying that you have a master plan and you want to change the policies.

I'm not sure what that means.

And I wanted to ask, um, is is a solar farm considered uh light industrial and all of the jobs should go to the people in the city of Detroit, not necessarily, you know, people just in that district.

And did I see that the um 25 million dollars was spent blight funding for this?

Um I would like to know how the trees and the how the buildings were removed.

Um, how did that happen?

Um, and and how and who paid for the removal of the buildings and I mean, yes, the buildings that were there, the the buildings that were vacant, who paid for that and how did that happen, and um what constraints do you have on what you can put in the building to make sure that it cons coincides with uh what the people in the neighborhood uh want to see.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is William M.

Davis.

William M.

Davis, you have one minute, 30 seconds for public comment regarding the public hearing.

Uh good afternoon.

Can I be heard?

Good afternoon, yes.

Okay, I was pleasantly surprised because I was concerned about um truck traffic.

I was concerned about possibly uh having um storm flow going into 94 as it has happened in the past.

Um I still think that perhaps they need to have more um stormwater uh retention than what they are proposing.

I still think it's gonna be noise.

I still think it's gonna be some issues as relates to some of the neighbors, but uh I'm pleased to hear that they did have multiple uh community meetings.

Uh I think we need to make sure everyone that do anything like this have multiple community meetings, and I think we need to make sure there's some strong language to make sure that this site doesn't possibly come by ice facility.

We need to make sure because sometimes some of the stuff they use are like factories and warehouses or what have you that are deplorable to have humans staying there.

So we need to make sure there's some strong language to make sure that it's limited its possible usage in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Jordan Wilkinson.

Jordan Wilkinson, you have one minute, 30 seconds for public comment regarding the public hearing.

Public hearing.

All right, thank you so much.

So for one, I'll probably am going to keep it brief.

I'm also here on other business.

Um I'm speaking personally for myself.

I just want to thank everybody for their, you know, listening to the community.

I want to acknowledge counselor, councilwoman Ramirez's concerns about Dettisoners, especially especially because there's a growing problem with those, where not only does it take up all of the electricity that the city may have, it also can contaminate the water.

And there's a lot of people who don't have access to a lot of things in the city as is already.

And I just appreciate those concerns.

I appreciate the attention that's being paid because out in Utah right now, a lot of that is being ignored in their building in many ways, despite you know public disinterest in it, and it actually being requested not to be there.

So I'll just appreciate that acknowledgement.

I also appreciate the concerns about the ice facilities.

I agree with everything everybody has said.

Um and that's pretty much it as far as what I needed to say, and under a minute and 30 seconds.

Thank you.

The next caller, Madam Chair, our last caller is Thiara Pugh, noting that there were four hands raised after you cut off public comment.

Caller, you have one minute, 30 seconds for public comment regarding the public hearing.

I just had a few questions on behalf of um, we do have uh church that is right there on the corner.

And so I just had a few questions about the um, first of all, it's a great opportunity for the residents in the area, but how is the uh property value going to be impacted?

And did we have any um I don't know if I missed this information in the presentation?

Any precautions for the pedestrians and child safety in the area?

And then my um my other question is after it's approved, what are some safety guard rails that the city council will have to uphold the promises or the I guess the um the agreements that um Ashley Capitol and um that they're that they're stating if it's gonna be light industrial, how do you prevent it from becoming something else?

And if so, how do what does the residents do after it's been approved to uh to go back to the drawing board, go back to the table?

Um, if if the language has changed.

And then the last question that I had and now um yield would be um how would the property be maintained long term in the community, and if they're going to be doing uh different things to beautify and to keep the roads, um maintain the roads because the trucks will damage the road.

Thank you.

All right, that now concludes public comment regarding the public hearing.

And I did hear several questions.

Um who'd like to get started in responses?

Through the chair, I'm happy to try to take a I wrote some notes here.

So I I think there was uh some comments on the community engagement side of things, and I think some general frustration with the communication of the road closures.

I would say our development team was surprised too.

Uh uh, we didn't know the roads were getting barricaded and uh prior to when that actually happened.

So that was done by the city.

Um so can understand the community's frustration, and I think uh almost kind of set us up for failure when we walked into the first meeting, and that wasn't something we were in control of.

So we we completely understand um and uh um I think that's uh I can leave it there.

Um from a uh sidewalks and accessibility perspective.

Uh I heard a comment regarding that.

So everything both on the you know, we're we're gonna have to redo most of these sidewalks around the entire exterior of the project, uh, but also uh interior sidewalks and walkways, and also making sure all the doorways and exits are ADA accessible.

So definitely been a focus on and uh got comments from the community engagement uh regarding that.

That's also for Junction Avenue uh bridge, uh the new 31st Street and service drive extension, as well as that uh pedestrian walkway on the west side of the site.

There was a question regarding what how why do we call this light industrial?

So I think this answers uh some of the safety guard rail question uh from the last caller.

So we're going for an M2 zoning classification.

So there's certain uses that are allowed within an M2 zoning classification.

Um if we were to uh say this wanted to be uh incinerator, right?

We'd have to come all the way back through this process um and seek an M4 zoning or an M and it's something substantial in a change.

So there's not this isn't a um something we can just change in the modification of a development agreement.

It would have the same public comment periods.

There's no intention for that.

The reason we have M2 is it's a what they call transitional industrial, it's a light industrial, so it's meant to be uses that are in closer proximity to residential.

So that's specifically why this classification was searched for.

Um we wouldn't be able to do heavy automotive assembly plant smokestacks, uh heavy pressing, uh loud noisy operations like that.

The buildings that I referenced that had been uh removed from the site that that was on developer controlled land, uh, we paid to demolish those properties and they were permitted through the city and backfilled appropriately.

Um that was not something that was handled through the city dollars, to my understanding.

The 25 million dollars of funding that we referenced was land from the state that went to the city, and I believe about 10 or 15 percent of that overall.

So let's I don't have the specific number, we weren't privy to that.

Let's say it was two or three million dollars that was allocated by the city in DGC that was used to this specific site, and that was for utility work.

Um I think the last was pedestrian and child safety.

Uh so w on our on the concept drawing, we have a crosswalk that's on the west side of the site that's specifically there because that was uh of a concern to the residents of the northwest corner, making sure that there was a designated crosswalk that was more mid-block than going over to Warren and 31st Street.

So, but everything will have all new sidewalks.

If you're if you go down this area, the there really aren't sidewalks.

A lot of them are missing, uh, they're in disrepair outside of just the immediate uh area at the at the crosswalk.

So I think that's a big focus for us in making sure we work with um uh DPW on that was part of our pre-planned review that we uh identified those, and I think the pedestrian walkway on the west side is exactly what we're looking for from a landscaping perspective to be a safe place to walk.

Um that's not up against uh a busy road.

So I think uh unless I missed one, um, I believe those are the questions I had.

Any additional responses through the chair.

Oh, Mr.

Jeffrey, I would like for I and I can't see that.

Sorry, Mr.

Hayet.

Um, so if whomever is sharing the screen, if you can remove the presentation, then I'll be able to see everyone on the screen.

Uh Mr.

Jeffrey, did you want to respond to um what's allowed in an M two?

I think zone.

Yeah.

Thank you, uh Madam Chair.

I was just going to um expand upon what um Kyle mentioned that uh light industrial essentially is low intensity, uh allows low intensity uses.

Um so when it comes to manufacturing, things like warehousing assembly, packaging, but is meant to uh minimize the impacts on adjacent neighbors in the surrounding community.

So it only allows for those types of developments and buildings that are minimal impacts when it impactful when it comes to um uh industrial uses, um, and also has requirements to protect residents from undesirable environmental influences.

So generally speaking, that's what uh the master plan is allowing for the light industrial uh future land use designation and then the M2 uh restricted industrial district zoning classification coincide together to keep those impacts minimal.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Moots Yes, um good morning again.

There was a question about um the master plan and its availability as it is being amended today.

The master plan is available on the planning and development department's website is probably the easiest way to find it.

Um and on that and on our page, there's a link to the master plan, and then that can be either viewed or downloaded.

Uh it's a pretty large document.

So, you know, so the paper version isn't very convenient, but it is available um for viewing or download on our department's website under the master plan link.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hayett.

Thank you, madam chair.

That was the issue raised by owner Papa.

I believe that's Miss Carolyn Hughes.

She was concerned about the initial hires only coming from the neighborhood.

Even though we indicated that that will be Detroiters who will be the initial hires.

So it will not be restricted to just people in the neighborhood.

So I just wanted to just clarify that point.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I have a couple of additional questions that were noted.

Um does anyone know are there railroad tracks in this vicinity?

Through the chair, they're just on the west side.

So the western neighbor of this site is the TISS and Steel facility.

There is a rail line just to the west of it.

It terminates right when it crosses 94.

So it anything south of 94 is no longer there.

We've been working with the city and CSX to see if we can remove that at grade crossing because it doesn't go any further.

Uh, but I think that'll be a longer term kind of project to do.

And um, how about bus stops?

Are there bus stops near the facility?

So through the chair.

So the the bus uh the Claremont bus route used to run uh if you're going southbound, used to run Warren and then turn down junction and go over I-94.

Given the streets are currently closed, uh the bus has been rerouted to go Livernoy and then come back through the neighborhood south of 94.

We've been coordinating with D dot to both bring the bus line back to the new roads uh for the project, but also make sure we have a new ADA accessible sheltered bus station that's in the area, so for the employees.

So working on both those items.

All right, thank you.

Colleagues, I don't believe I missed anything.

Any additional questions, comments, or concerns?

If not, is there a motion?

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just briefly, um, there was a question on property values, and this question also came up during our community meetings.

If that can be answered, please.

Sir, through the chair, I think the DGC uh members had addressed that a little bit earlier.

So I missed it.

Okay.

I think we can provide uh I tried to make our presentation smaller than the I believe your your office has seen the 95 slides we had for the community engagement.

So there's a few that the DGC polled specifically relating to the projects we referenced, LIAR Cadillac stamping, and kind of we don't have the best housing data, but we we tried the best to graph and show the housing appreciation in those neighborhoods.

So uh we'll be able to provide that uh after the meeting.

Thank you.

Apologies that I missed that, and just again for the record, uh, and you mentioned it's regarding signage of uh street closures, but you are coordinating with DPW, correct?

Moving forward on this project for signage on traffic changes and any changes to routes.

Through the chair, correct.

There's will be no changes from now through construction, it's the reopening of the roads and the and the new roads, and that's being handled through DPW.

And then last for me, Madam Chair, there was mention of the emergency routes.

Um is this going to be the junction street or which routes is going to be the emergency routes for DPW?

I mean, not DPW for DPD, DFD, EMS.

Which route will they will be able to access?

Through the chair, the the intention is to have the new 31st street that goes to the service drive and over junction.

I would say that's I I'll defer to the individual departments on on their routes, but that will be a secondary access outside of just using Livernoy.

The challenge is 30 30th Street turns one way on the south side of the highway.

So providing another two-way access over junction.

So I think it depends on which department, you know, which which response and which direction they're coming from.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I believe we are discussing both the uh this public hearing and line item 9.5.

And 9.5.

So I uh would like to make a motion to send to formal session the recommendation to approve our public hearing and line item 9.5.

There is a motion to send both line item five, the public hearing, as well as line item 9.5 to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Any objections?

Hearing none, those actions shall be taken.

That now closes out our 1015 public hearing.

Thank you.

And we are going to move very quickly into uh the 1020 discussion.

I'd like to call that to order.

If there are any Michigan taxing jurisdictions to discuss the brownfield plan for junction the junction mcgraw redevelopment project, please present yourself.

Please raise your hand.

Go on once.

Going twice.

Going three times.

Seeing no one here for that discussion, I'd like to close out the 1020 discussion and call back to order the 1025 public hearing.

The 1025 public hearing is the new Brownfield plan of the City of Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority for Junction McGraw redevelopment.

All those that are joining us, please introduce yourself for the record.

We'll start first with those in person.

Good morning again.

Uh Kyle Morton from Ashley Capital, part of the Latimer Ashley Development Team.

Morning.

Hiram Jackson, managing member Lattimer Group.

Morning.

Good morning, as mod is hog Osman Jobs and Economy Team.

Morning, Ken.

All right, we will shift to everyone who's joining us virtually.

Mr.

Brockcliffe LPD.

Good morning.

Brian Bosper, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, and the Detroit Brownfield Bedevelment Authority.

Edwina King, Planning and Development Department.

Derek, DEGC.

All right.

Thank you all so much.

Who is going to kick off the presentation?

Noting that it is the same project we just heard.

So if we can abbreviate this presentation, we would appreciate it.

Madam Chair.

And there we go.

That the PowerPoint is up.

And it is abbreviated presentation.

So I first wanted to uh discuss what is a brownfield plan and uh how does the tax incentive work.

Uh so if you could flip to the next uh slide, please uh in the next one.

And Mr.

Vosberg, if you can speak up a tad bit or media services can turn the volume up just slightly.

Sure, I will speak up.

Hopefully, this is better.

Yes, thank you.

All right.

Great.

Uh so first I wanted to explain how does a Brownfield plan in this tax incentive work.

Uh Brownfield plan works uh using tax increment financing or TIFF to reimburse developers for costs that they have to pay for uh to redevelop land and properties that would otherwise that they wouldn't otherwise have to pay if they were to develop at an undeveloped site, say on the edge of the suburbs.

Uh TIFF is used to help level the playing field and encourage the redevelopment of contaminated, blighted, obsolete in historic properties in the city.

Uh it's simplest.

TIFF works by freezing taxes at the current undeveloped value of the property.

You'll see that in the dark uh dark blue or dark purple bars, uh depending on uh how it looks on your screen here.

Uh and then uh the so the base taxes continue to be received by all taxing jurisdictions and governments.

Uh what happens then is as the property increases in value due to the redevelopment and the construction of the new building.

Uh the developer captures a portion of that.

You'll see in the yellow bars here uh to reimburse them for costs that they have to pay for up front with their own funds, uh costs related to environmental cleanup, demolition, obsolete utilities, and other similar costs.

Once the eligible costs are reimbursed to the developer, uh, in this case, and it's projected to be year 30.

Uh, the plan sunsets or ends, and then in year 31, uh all taxing jurisdictions receive uh the full increase then in the val in the um of the property.

Uh so you can see here there's a sizable increase from on the left side of today's taxes paid.

It's a very small amount of money.

Uh, and then on the far right, uh it is in millions of dollars in taxes that are uh will be paid annually in property taxes.

Uh so that is the uh the how TIFF works.

Next, I'll go on to the specifics of this project.

If you could go to the next slide.

Uh so just to be clear, um, the properties included in this brownfield plan are just the ones uh outlined on this slide here.

Uh it's 145 parcels.

It doesn't include the the parcels that were part of the commercial development.

Uh, those are out not in the Brownfield plan.

And uh again, Latimer Ashley is the developer, and also will hold the Brownfield plan for this property for these 145 parcels.

Uh we uh know where it's at, it's been talked about extensively.

Um the development again for the 62 million dollar development.

Uh they're requesting approximately 18.5 million dollars in brownfield uh eligible activities, which include environmental testing and investigation, uh environmental cleanup, lead and asbestos abatement, demolition costs, infrastructure improvements uh to the both cities uh infrastructure as well as uh site preparation work uh and then the implementation of the brownfield and work plans as well as an request for interest on that.

Uh estimating that the project would start in no less than 18 months of approval and be completed within three years.

Again, the developer uh has to fund all of these costs upfront with their own money, uh, and then the Brownfield Authority would reimburse uh over 30 years only after the developer successfully completed the project.

Uh the Brownfield Authority did hold a public hearing in the neighborhood on this project on Wednesday, April 15th of this year at St.

Stephen AMA Church.

Uh, in the meeting minutes from that uh meeting were included in city council's uh packet.

And so that concludes my presentation uh to this honorable body.

Thank you.

Who do we have next?

Through the chair, I I think we just had a few quick comments.

I think we've talked about the project at length in the last hearing.

Um just as a um kind of an overall contextual comment that we've mentioned to the to the neighborhood is we this is really not um you know when you look at industrial sites, you look at redevelopment sites.

This is not a concern from an environmental perspective largely.

It's more of a geotechnical concern.

We've got all the old streets that are still there, all the old utilities, all the old alleyways, and we had over a hundred houses that were here.

So a lot of these were um uh over time.

Uh we found through test pits and some preliminary testing that we're gonna have to excavate a lot of basements and and old foundations.

So that's what the plan is is largely going after.

It's not a you know large environmental concern, and I think um that uh a bunch of the neighbors were happy to hear that that we're not uh chasing large levels of contamination um uh specifically.

So thank you.

Good morning or good afternoon.

Um interest of time, I'll abbreviate my presentation.

Um, but you have before you the Latimer Ashley Group, um, which is a project developer and the prospective owner of the property.

The developer plans to construct a light industrial building, which we leased by a third-party tenant.

The project um area consists of 145 parcels that are owned by various entities, which include the land bank, Detroit Economic Development Authority, the City of Detroit, and Junction McGraw LLC, which is an affiliate of the developer.

The properties owned by the public entities will be transferred to the DBRA, who shall enter into the agreement with the developer for the purchase and development of the property of the 145 parcels in the plan, 103 of them are currently owned by the land bank that has been determined to qualify as blighted by the city planning commission.

The property is located in the Chassis Codden neighborhood.

Additionally, the property is considered eligible property because it was previously utilized as for industrial industrial residential industrial public and commercial purposes.

And it is located within the city of Detroit.

And the properties have been determined to be blighted.

The eligible activities that the developer intends to conduct include baseline environmental assessment act.

Attorney Barclay.

No, you you weren't muted the entire time.

Just the last one or two sentences.

Okay, well, I'll go back.

The property is considered eligible property because it has been utilized for residential, industrial, and public and commercial purposes.

Um to the blighted property will create a captuble taxable value of that property.

The eligible activities include baseline environmental assessment activities, do care activities, demolition lead and asbestos abatement, infrastructure improvements and site preparation and the implementation of a brownfield plan.

And or the eligible activities are solely financed by the developer.

The um DBRA will reimburse the developer for the cost of approved eligible activities, but only from the tax increment revenues generated and captured from the property.

The construction is scheduled to begin in spring of 2027 and it's estimated to be completed within three years.

The estimated capital investment for this project is approximately 62 million.

The developer will it is requesting an 18.5 TIF reimbursement with the overall value of the plan estimated at two 22.8 million dollars, which includes local brownfield costs, and that concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Any additional presentations?

All right.

Seeing none, I will um go to public comment, but if I can ask Mr.

Morton, if you can just address, I know you talked about um some basements that are still in the ground that need to be removed.

Um during the previous public hearing, there was a question about rodent migration.

Um anticipating that might happen uh during this uh the work that's involved in this particular public hearing.

Can you share how you plan to address that?

Sure.

So the the all of the all the site, all the basements have been either filled in, so it it we basically just see a grassy field right now from our perspective.

We we've got over 100 former houses.

We don't really know it's not like we've gone lot by lot, all hundred lots to figure out what's there from a rodent migration perspective.

We largely see issues when it's related to piping um uh through sewer pipes.

So those sewer pipes have been bulkheaded, um, and uh that were part of the work that was done on behalf of the city with the state money.

So those sewer lines are blocked off outside of the one that's on 32nd Street, which is a large main that's deep in the ground.

We don't anticipate um having uh rodents um from the dirt that we're moving.

Um that that's we don't we don't see that often on our projects.

Okay, all right, thank you.

We are going to move into public comment regarding the brown field public hearing.

If you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand.

Please raise your hand, whether in person or virtually going once, going twice, going three times.

The collection of public comment has now concluded.

Ms.

Great, how many hands do we have raised?

Good afternoon.

There are seven hands raised for virtual public comment.

All right, noting this is the same project.

We're going to give everyone one minute for public comment regarding the public hearing.

Who do we have first?

Our first caller is Cindy Dara.

Cindy Dara, you have one minute for public comment regarding the public hearing.

Yeah, uh the Brownfield Act was modified, I think uh uh Dog and helped do that.

And 2017, well, you guys like it because you get more state money, I guess.

But the thing is, uh when you say that uh this is blighted land, well, Joanne Warwick already taught you about what the law was written in perfectly to say that anything that was uh land bank ever had is blighted forever.

So that's that's ridiculous, sir.

Uh you gotta ask more questions, more detailed questions, and um I I just think uh how about the dirty dirt?

And they said they filled in the basements.

Did they take the brick out or the foundation out or just fill them in?

Because I always thought you should use those basements to take the water and make uh uh cisterns for organic farming and take the storm water into the basements.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Moto G Power 5G 2024.

Caller, you have one minute for public comment regarding the public hearing caller Moto G, are you there?

Let's come back to this caller.

Our next caller is owner papa.

Owner Papa, you have one minute for public comment.

Well, good afternoon, and through the chair, Mabby Heard.

Yes.

Uh TIFFs.

TIFFS are used generally in urban areas where you have mostly black people.

I don't think that it works.

I wanted to ask the DEGC.

Are they the ones who get the increase in the taxes?

Does it go to them or does it go to our general fund?

Um, if it goes to our general fund, that's a that's a better uh use of our tax dollars since you're going to use our tax dollars to support this project.

Um that is about all I have to say, but I think we need a moratorium on all brownfield redevelopments uh until we can get the dirty dirt that has been um placed upon the citizens in the city, all over the city.

I think we should moratorium all redevelopment brownfields.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Blackbag.

Black bag, you have one minute for public comment regarding the public hearing.

There needs to be a moratorium or needs uh brownfield developments here in the city of Detroit.

It needs to be also um the city of Detroit residents, citizens and taxpayers need to be informed, fully informed about what's going on with these cheated in public officials.

Now the redevelopment, the brownfield development project is a primary example.

What's been going on in Detroit for the last 25 or 26 years?

I found out about it 18 years ago.

And now I'm gonna go out publicly with what I know to be true, fact, and actual here in the city of Detroit.

Thank you.

The next caller.

You have the floor regarding the public hearing.

And the uh the me.

Oh the um that room being down.

I'm getting thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is you matter.

You matter.

You have one minute for public comment.

Good afternoon, may I be heard?

Afternoon, yes.

Yeah.

Um, well, that was a totally inadequate response about rodent migration.

The Detroit People's Food Co-op site is way smaller, and there was rodent migration, so you should not accept that from them.

Also, what Cindy Dara is correct.

We need a common definition about blight.

This city uses blight as an excuse for so many things.

And you know, uh, and it's true under state law, there's a per se definition of what a blighted property is.

MCL 213.238 little E is an elephant, little F is in Frank.

Little E is any property that's ever been tax reverted in the past owned by the city, county, or state is blighted per se.

A subsequent sale will not take it out of blighted status.

Same thing for any land bank properties, but gee, when you were talking about the solar farms, didn't tell us that was the blight definition you were gonna use.

That's not the blight definition.

It seems they're using here, but you should not accept that response about the rodent migration.

Thank you.

The next caller.

Our next caller is Tierra Pew.

Tierra Pew, you have one minute for a public comment.

I just had a few questions um regarding the tax incentive.

What um is the residents um do they get a tax incentive just like the developer?

And also with the developer developers, are they required to give a few proposals as they are cleaning up the areas around where they're they're limited to how much they can get from TIFF?

Um where is the money coming from?

Is it coming from if it's coming from taxpayers?

Do the the do the residents get anything in return for allowing the developers to come in the neighborhood?

Um, and if are they doing any community uh neighborly incentives or grants or anything to beautify residents' homes, and now yield.

Thank you.

The next caller, Madam Chair, we're going back to Moto G Power 5G 2024, noting there was one hand raised after you have public comment.

Caller, you have one minute for public comment, are you there going once going twice?

Going three times, Moto G, are you there?

All right, Moto G.

If you'd like to make a public comment regarding the public hearing, please contact the clerk's office to put your comment on record.

And it looks like we had another hand that was raised prior to me cutting off public comment, Miss Etheline Carroll.

Miss Gray.

Miss Etheline Carol, you have one minute for public comment.

Are you there?

All right, if you'd like to make a pump a public comment regarding the public hearing, please contact the clerk's office for it to be put on record.

That now concludes public comment regarding this public hearing.

And who would like to respond to the questions?

Madam Chair, I uh I can start.

I think a lot of the questions were questions at the Brownfield Authority that we can answer, uh, and then we'll uh turn it over to others if there's additional items left uh unanswered.

Um there was uh I heard questions about uh what is the blight definition that's being used uh for this project.

Uh the blight definition being used is under Act 381 of 1996 as amended, which is the Brownfield Act.

Um, and in the Act, uh it does allow for properties that are currently owned by uh not only a land bank but also any uh municipal ownership uh that came to the the city's ownership uh through uh tax foreclosure or through um other you know actions such as blight tickets and that those sorts of things uh to be uh qualified as blighted.

Uh so that's how those the properties for this uh Brownfield plan have been qualified.

Either they are blighted through those uh those ways or they are uh adjacent and contiguous to uh blighted properties.

Um through the Act 31, it does also allow for properties that have buried subsurface debris.

Uh so again, the the buried uh building foundations that were not uh removed back when the home was demolished.

Uh we do know that those uh conditions are present um uh as well uh through there.

So there's multiple ways of uh that this property qualifies as blighted.

Uh I did hear questions about uh the TIFF and where does the TIFF come from and and who pays that.

Um so uh those were uh understandable questions uh about that.

Uh so the way that this works is only the properties that will be owned by Ashley Latimer, the developer, uh, will have TIFF captured from them.

So uh if the neighboring residents will not be uh having their property taxes captured uh for this, it's only the developer's property that has TIFF and captured from it, and then it's only the property taxes uh that uh have the TIFF capture.

So the income taxes and any other taxes paid uh by the developer and by the the workers and businesses there, uh those are not impacted.

It's only the property taxes uh and it's uh it's not just the city's ink property taxes, it's also um county uh taxes, metro parks, uh all other eligible taxing jurisdictions uh are have those uh taxes captured.

Um I did hear a question about uh dirt and uh the uh how that will be handled.

Um so through the uh projects that are brownfield plans, um the Brownfield authority, uh we review uh all of the soil uh that is hauled off uh from the site.

We review it uh not only to ensure that the quantities uh hauled off the site uh match the trucks uh that you know the truck tickets uh that uh have them and also make sure that those uh truck trucks uh disposed of the soil at proper locations.

So if there's contaminated soil, uh we ensure that all of the soil that's uh contaminated goes to the correct type of landfill.

Uh and then if it's not contaminated soil, uh we also make sure that that goes to the proper location, that it's not being dumped at inappropriate uh locations.

Uh and then uh and that happens before any TIFF uh funds are dispersed, all of uh those items are uh reviewed.

We also make sure that if there's any environmental reporting uh that's required as part of that, uh as required by state and or city or federal laws.

Uh we also ensure that the proper environmental uh reports have been completed and have been filed with the appropriate agencies.

Um I believe that those are all of the items I could see.

Oh, I'm I'm sorry, uh Ms.

Dara had a question about uh that in 2017 the Brownfield Act was amended to allow for additional tax captures.

Uh that I believe that Ms.

Darr was referring to the transformational brownfield program.

Uh so this is not a transformational brownfield.

Uh this is a I guess what we term a traditional uh brownfield plan.

So it only involves property taxes.

It does not involve uh sales tax or any of the other types of captures that happen in transformational plans.

With that, uh I believe I've answered all the questions I'm able to answer.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Through the chair, I think there were two other items.

It was the the basement backfilling and then uh the road in question, not attempting to be evasive on the rodent thing, just not something we've had experience with on similar projects in the area.

I I would say there are two things.

The neighbors in the neighborhood, they they either have my email, they have my cell phone number, um, uh the people who live close to the project, but we also set up a dedicated um we'll have a project superintendent, someone on site.

So if we actually if we have a specific concern to this specific site, um there'll be a contact to make sure that we can address it.

If it's if whether we have to get a trapper or something that came from our site, we'll make sure we address that.

So um hard hard to solve a problem.

I don't know if we're gonna have, but we want to make sure we're responsive if there is a problem.

And then the there was a question about the basements.

So wanted to just differentiate that there were I believe six or seven structures that the development team purchased.

Um those structures were demolished.

Um the basements were excavated and removed, you know, foundations, and they were backfilled under, I believe it's B seed was uh supervision from the open hole inspections.

The concern is the other hundred and twenty, hundred and twenty-five former houses that over the last 50 to 60 years, we don't have great records of what happened.

Um so we're just gonna have to when we start construction, it's kind of um just gonna have to go see what we we find when we start working on the site.

And part of the plan is to make sure that whatever we find we do handle it appropriately from a contamination perspective or a structural perspective.

So it's a little bit of a hard um guessing and see what we find.

Um, but that's why the brownfield plan is so important.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Vosberg, the there was one resident who inquired about um them being able to get incentives.

Can you speak to that?

Yes, thank you.

Um, madam chair for that reminding me of that question.

Um so this uh brownfield plan does not um apply again to the neighbors.

Um so if neighboring residents wanted to qualify try to uh see if their property would qualify.

Um I guess the the uh requirement would be that uh would have to be under the uh probably the affordable housing aspect of brownfield TIFF.

Um and then there would you we would have to review um the investment level to see if it would result in you know a sizable amount of uh TIFF being created or tax increment finance being created?

Um but um you know that's that's a uh tough bar.

Uh if an individual you know property owner was trying to do that, that would be a lot of work, but it is possible uh to do that.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any additional questions, comments, concerns seeing none.

Is there a motion on line item seven?

Motion is there a motion to approve line item seven?

Motion to approve line item seven.

There's a motion to send line item seven, the brownfield plan for the junction McGraw redevelopment to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

That now closes out our 1025 public hearing.

Thank you.

And we have 30 minutes.

Without objection, I'd like to combine line items 8.1 and 8.2.

Line item 8.1 is status of council member Letitia Johnson submit a memorandum relative to a request for policy framework to refine the city's nuisance abatement property seizure and condemnation processes.

And line item 8.2 is the property sale of 196 vine wood.

Colleagues, there's a request for a two-week bring back for both line items.

Is there a motion?

Motion motion to bring back in two weeks.

There's a motion to bring line items 8.1 and 8.2 back in two weeks.

Hearing no objections, those actions shall be taken.

Line item 8.3 is property sale at 1755 14th Street.

Is there a motion to send line item 8.3 to formal with a recommendation to approve?

Uh discussion.

Discussion.

Line item 8.3 Pro Tim.

Yes.

Um, do we have anybody who can speak to what exactly this property is going to be used for?

I know it's in connection with the Michigan uh central station.

And I I I just had some questions.

Is this about the new uh trade proposals that they're proposing to be able to bring back?

Is this about um innovation and technology?

Just kind of curious.

And I believe we have Beth Cometz that is joining us for line item 8.3 as well as John Trung.

Ms.

Good morning.

Can I be heard?

Uh we can hear you and now we can see you.

Good morning.

Hello, good morning.

Thank you.

Um, as I was joining, I think I might have missed a portion of the question.

I did hear member Coleman Young ask about innovation and trains.

Did I miss any other parts of the question?

Pro Tim Young?

Thank you, madam much here.

I just want to know what is this project about?

What is what is this uh what what is this doing?

Is this is this involving um the rebuilding of the train station?

Is this further for innovation and development?

Uh I am a proud sponsor of the uh Transitation Innovation Zone Ordinance.

Would there be uh other businesses that would be connected with that at all that would run through this?

I just want to know what exactly uh is is this about?

I know that you already have um Alphabet, which is the parent company of Google that's there, and um they uh have a coding uh program for people that want to learn skills of that nature.

Uh is this workforce development related?

Just kind of tell me what this is and what it's for.

Understood.

Thank you for the question through the chair.

Um, this particular piece of property is located directly to the south of what we refer to as the new lab um building or the book depository building where we have our hard tech incubator startup.

So this is directly related to our innovation work.

Um the other work that you've um referenced, uh member young is also still active.

Um, but the the site behind the new lab building was formally owned by the Foreman brothers and used entirely for semi-truck storage and maintenance.

You may remember driving up 14th, and there would be uh dozens of tractors and trailers sort of just lined up on the site.

The Foreman Brothers group decided to sell their property and approached us.

We engaged in conversations with them to buy their part their parcels.

The majority of the site was owned by Foreman Brothers with a single small parcel belonging to PDD.

And in the process of talking to the Foreman brothers, we realized we could use the site both for near-term and long-term development.

So near term, we like the idea of the removal of the truck storage so close to our innovation district and could see an immediate benefit for the neighborhood and for our project to have the site cleared of that use and then repairs made to the site, both in terms of um removal of weeds and debris and making the state just generally cleaner and better for the area, and then near term, we're looking into potentially the summer, seeing if we can put some food trucks on the site to increase the food offerings in the area, but long term we see this as a development site to support the innovation district and the um hard tech startups coming out of the new lab building.

That's what we see as ultimate use for the site, which is zoned M3 in um alignment with the new lab building.

Excellent.

Okay, thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

That is my question.

And that looks like something very exciting.

I look forward to seeing that.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am chair.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Colleagues, is there a motion to send line item 8.3 to formal with a recommendation to approve?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Line item 8.4 property sale at 8107 Michigan Avenue.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss?

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to send line item 8.4 to formal with recommendation to approve.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Line item 8.3 status of the city planning commission request of the Great Lakes Water Authority to rezone land located at 700 Connor Street, as well as properties on Navajo.

Colleagues, is there a motion to bring line item 8.5 back in two weeks?

We still have a number of conversations taking place.

Motion to bring back 8.5 in two weeks.

There's a motion to bring line item 8.5 back in two weeks.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Line item 8.6 is the status of council member Mary Waters.

Submitting memorandum relative to a request for DLBA documentation regarding the nuisance abatement program.

That information has been received.

Is there a motion to receive and file line item 8.6?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Line item 8.7 status of council member Mary Waters.

Submit a memorandum relative to questions on issues impacting Detroit Housing.

More specifically regarding the Leland Real Token and Mart Martin Luther King Park.

There's a request to bring line item 8.7 back in three weeks.

Is there a motion?

Motion to bring 8.7 back in three weeks.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Line item 8.8 status of council member Letitia Johnson submitted memorandum requesting report on the community outreach ordinance.

Is there a motion to bring line item 8.8 back in three weeks?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

We shall now move on to new business and line item 9.1.

Line item 9.1 is contract number 6006185-A2.

This is 100% ARPA funding.

Amendment number two to provide an extension of time, increase of funds, and to update terms and conditions for estate planning.

Title Clearance and Related Legal Services.

Contractor Neighborhood Legal Services Michigan.

Contract increase amount $50,000.

Colleagues, is there a motion to approve or discuss?

Motion to approve line 9.1.

There's a motion to approve line item 9.1 and send to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Line item 9.2 is contract number 6007514-A1.

100% CDBG funding.

Amendment number one to provide an increase of funds and extension of time to facilitate the down payment assistance.

To scattered site single family houses and to coordinate a down payment assistance match.

Contractor, CHN Housing Partners, Contract period.

We recently received a correction letter.

The contract period should be through June 30th, 2027.

Contract increase amount 250,000.

Colleagues, is there a motion to send line item 9.2 to formal with a recommendation to approve as amended?

Motion to approve.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

And Madam Clerk will make sure you've received the correction letter as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Line item 9.3 is contract number 600752.

100% city funding.

City slash grant funding to provide tenant support for residents of affordable developments in Detroit around transitions in housing status.

Contractor United Community Housing Coalition.

We also received a correction letter for line item 9.3 and the contract period would be through June 30th, 2027.

Total contract amount 100,000.

Colleagues, there is a request for a two-week bring back on line item 9.3, and I'm hoping that the administration will correct the contract deadline.

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Line item 9.4 is a resolution.

Reprogramming amendment to the community development block grant.

Annual action plan for fiscal year 2025-2026.

Colleagues, is there a motion to discuss line item 9.4?

Discussion.

Discussion.

We have several people queued up to join us.

Ms.

Terry Daniels, Nicole Wise, and Warren Duncan.

Good afternoon.

Please introduce yourself on the for the record.

Hi, good afternoon, Madam Chair.

Uh Nicole Wise with the Office of Development and Grants.

All right, thank you for joining us.

Um, can you share why we are moving money from the down payment assistance program and what program the reprogramming will support?

Absolutely.

If I uh madam chair, if we could have uh Kyle Ofori also promoted, and I believe we have uh chief of development and investment, uh Rebecca Lab on as well to answer that question.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, Rebecca Labove, uh Housing and Revitalization.

Could you please repeat the question as I was trying to sure?

And I believe I see Warren Duncan, California.

Will you all please introduce yourselves for the record?

I'm Warren Duncan, director of reporting and compliance for the Office of Development and Grants.

The Chair Kyle O'Fori.

Director of Preservation and Asset Management with the Housing and Revitalization Department.

All right, thank you all for joining us.

Um, my question is if someone can share why we're moving money from the down payment assistance program and what program will the reprogramming of these dollars support for the chair.

I will take that.

So all of the funds that we're looking at reprogramming are already held for the scatter site sales program that we discussed in item 9.2.

The funds are currently on three different line items, and the purpose of the reprogramming is to move them to one line item to make the invoicing easier going forward.

Got it.

All right, thank you.

Colleagues, any additional questions, Madam Chair, Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you.

So then just for clarity.

Um this includes uh down payment assistance, and then are we still utilizing the rehab single unit program?

Is that still being funded as well?

Through the chair.

I'll begin with this.

The when this program was being set up towards the when the program was being conceived of towards the end of last year, we had a couple of different possibilities of what we would fund.

Originally there was a possibility of funding home repair as well as um as well as home buyer assistance.

Similar to what was done on the previous ARPA funded scatter site contract that our department ran.

Allocated to put them just towards home buyer assistance.

And so since the contract was created, and since it's initial allocation amount, all of those funds have been intended to go to provide uh to provide home buyer assistance for the residents who are poor for the residents and portfolios who are participating in the program.

Please let me know if I can clarify anything else.

Yes, I may need to buffer.

No, thank you.

Through the chair, so just to be very clear, that program is now being discontinued, and we are investing in homeownership.

There's no through the chair.

Throughout the life of this particular contract, this contract has only been for home buyer assistance.

Okay.

The program that supported home repairs is being completed.

There was an ARPA funded contract, and all the home repair work was completed by the end of December.

So the ARPA contract that funded that work is winding down.

We'll be receiving the final invoice in the next few weeks here.

But the remaining CDBG funded work is solely for home buyer assistance.

If I may add we had identified a much greater need for the home buyer assistance, um towards the the cost of purchasing for residents, and so in order for us to help some of the residents purchase, we needed to have more funds available for the home buyer assistance, which is why we shifted them.

Um part of why we shifted them solely into that category.

Thank you.

And through the chair, so just in what was shared, we used ARPA funding to support home repairs.

We're using CDBG to support homeownership through the chair.

Correct.

ARPA supported both both of those functions, and CDBG is only the um home buyer assistance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

So in regards to that point, we have perhaps an opportunity to reallocate a small amount of ARPA funding.

Um, and I don't recall whether or not there was an opportunity to provide some additional funds to the home repair side um of this program.

I'll just call it one program.

Um but do you all know if we were able to reallocate some ARPA funds to assist with home repair if we might be able to get it done by the end of this year?

So to the chair, there is always a need for repair.

You know, I don't think we would have trouble finding repair needs at some of these homes, but from a contracting perspective, the expiration of the ARPA contract may not allow for that.

Um so that's something that we would need to um discuss with OCP and with the contractor um just to know if that would be logistically feasible.

Okay, all right, thank you.

If you all can start having that conversation, I know um I believe we are due to get um some reallocation reallocation of funds within the next month.

Um so if you all can identify within that time whether or not it's feasible, it would be great for us to know.

Yes, okay, I see Hidna.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional pro Tim Young?

Thank you.

Um, Madam Chair.

Uh, I just wanted to ask to whomever this concerns the administration, I'm wanted to ask.

Um I'm looking at this list, and I was wondering is there an opportunity for us possibly be able to reprogram some of these funds to neighborhood opportunity funds or not funds through the through the chair.

Um this particular reprogramming is solely meant to allow us to continue to do the work we are currently doing with the scatter site homeownership.

Okay.

Um anything that went to NOF, I would certainly hope came from a different area so that we can continue the scatter site work.

Okay, but perhaps someone else could speak on it.

Okay, and that's excellent.

And I also wanted to ask you this, and you don't have to answer this right away, but it but do we have like a measurement in terms of what these programs do in terms of attacking the housing crisis in the city of Detroit?

Is there a goal that we're trying to reach overall?

And then how closer do these programs get us to that goal from an individual program standpoint and as a collective?

Because I think that's nice for people to be able to understand and see that metric.

That we're not just out here just voting this stuff out, that we're not just out here just being a rubber stand.

There is a goal and a mission there with precision with this, and so we need to be able to one be able to put this down in metrics-wise.

So I'm talking about quantum or quantitatively.

We need to be able to find what that number is you're trying to reach.

I know the the mayor talked about I think a thousand houses.

I you know, I think that she's trying to build, but how close are we to being able to house people in the city of Detroit where we can end or see the other side at least or mitigate the crisis that we have?

And then it what these projects have bit by bit by bit.

I know the best way to eat an elephant is bite by bite.

So if that's basically what you're doing here, I just want people to be able to understand the end game of what you're doing in how you're doing this, and not just in terms of housing, but also in terms of homeless as well, and how you're reducing that crisis.

I know this is a lot of hard work what you're doing.

This is not easy stuff that you're doing.

People need to be aware that there is a mission that we're doing bit by bit by bit with the ARPA dollars with the taxpayer funds that we're doing towards that goal.

Do you have that?

Do you have it a four-year or a five-year plan to achieve that?

What does that look like?

How close and how far are we numerically and percentage-wise?

Um, if I if I may, through the chair.

So we um are always working with our programs towards our overarching goals on construction and preservation of affordable housing.

And the goals that we have within the 2025 affordable housing strategy are 3,000 new units and 10,000 preserved.

Um, we did meet our previous goals under the 2018 housing strategy, and we've sort of re-upped them and increased our goal for new new unit production.

Um, we are on track within our five-year plan for hitting both of those goals.

The scatter site units, um, the low-income housing tax credit units that are eligible for sale are a really special population of our existing affordable housing.

So it's part of our preservation work is that we want to see the rental units uh reinvested in.

And so when the sales happen, it allows more dollars to go in towards you know, reinvesting in the rental homes.

So it achieves two outcomes.

It creates home ownership for those who are able to purchase, and it also helps to stabilize the rental portfolios.

And so there are um several hundred of these homes.

There's a kind of a niche population of homes in the city of Detroit that are eligible for this type of program, and we are making progress um towards selling many of those homes and over the last um six years and in a number of different programs funded with with C DBG at one time and then ARPA and CDBG again.

Um we've gotten about 80 homes sold through those programs, and so we're just continuing to push um dollars for for those residents who are um in these units that are low-income housing rentals but are eligible for sale, and we just want to see that the the owners of the rental housing are delivering on on the promise to sell them, and we are making really good progress um towards those.

No, I think that's excellent, but uh but listen to what you just said.

You just said that this is a special population.

What is that population?

Is it workforce development?

Is it extreme low income?

How much of this is going to be able to address that special population that you're talking about?

What is that number that is currently?

What do you need to reduce it and how and how how close are you to doing it in the whole in the aggregate?

Do you know how many years it's gonna take over time?

Do you know what the impact is individually?

Um, do you know about your your total factor of production?

So the amount of um efficiency in terms of how you're being able to produce these households.

Uh, you know what I mean?

Do you know in terms of um the uh God, I guess well, these are apartments, so it probably go to the landlord, but the uh tax revenue per acre that these would generate the neighborhood stabilization that potentially could take place in terms of projection.

I'm not saying you have to have all this now, but what I'm saying is is this is what what you are talking about is so incredibly vital to a lot of people in the city of Detroit who are left behind, and what you are doing is providing people with housing and op now.

Now I'm gonna say this, I don't mean to be I told you so, guy.

But if you did the 3D printer stuff that I talked about, we might be in a little bit of a different situation than we are.

I'm just saying I'm not blaming anybody, I'm just saying.

But but however, I don't want to cry over spill milk, but I think that what you're doing is so incredibly vital.

And if people just understand what that is, what that looks like, what the percentage of that is, and how close you are, even if it's nowhere near where you want to be now, you know what I'm saying?

Over time, it's going to be better because that's all this is it's snapshots in time.

What we are now is not what we're gonna be next year or the year after that, or the year after that.

But we are going, we are having constant progression towards that goal, and then we can just have a quantitative uh measurement of what that is and what that looks like, and everybody can be able to see that on a dashboard.

You know, I now I think blockchain will be better because it's it's immutable, you can't change it, but you know, that's but but again, that's artificial intelligence.

We're not gonna talk about that right now.

So once we get to that goal, I think it'd be a lot better off for a lot of people.

I it definitely would make it easier for me to do my job.

So that I mean, I know that was kind of a rant, but I just wanted to say, you know, I think what you're talking about is so important, and we can just have some sort of metrics on what you're doing and how close you are to hitting your goals.

I really appreciate it.

And it doesn't have to be you know monthly, it could be bi-weekly or bi-monthly or whatever, but just reports showing what those numbers are and how close you are to meeting them, and how close we are also to reducing the vacancy rate that these projects represent as well.

I think that'd be better off in the long term.

Thank you.

All right.

Any reflection from anyone other than Miss Labov who's driving uh through the chair?

Oh I just wanted to address uh Pro Tem's original first question around uh NOF.

I just wanted to lift up that these uh this reprogramming is specific to community development block grant dollars, uh, and there is a cap on our public services, um, which NOF is so there would not be an opportunity for uh reprogramming these funds into a public service.

Madam President, Madam Chair, I'm sorry, can I just say something quick?

So you're saying we reached a cap, right?

That would just AM.

Uh yes, through the chair, yes, uh, pro tem.

So we um we use our CDBG funds annually.

Uh we max out that cap annually with uh NOF and our homelessness uh contracts.

And we maxed out.

Yes.

Okay, just want to make sure.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Colleagues, is there a motion to send line item 9.4 to formal with recommendation to approve?

Motion is informal.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Noting we have already addressed, oh, thank you all.

We have already addressed line item 9.5.

Without objection, I'd like to combine line items 9.6 and 9.7.

Line item 9.6 is a request to approve the assignment and amendment of a neighborhood enterprise zone certificate agreement requested by downtown Detroit owner LLC and affecting property located at 1501 Washington Boulevard.

Line item 9.7 is a request to approve the assignment of a commercial rehabilitation exempt exemption certificate for a petition requested by downtown Detroit owner LLC affecting property located at 1501 Washington Boulevard.

Colleagues, there was an associated item in the budget finance and audit standing committee yesterday.

Um that was brought back in two weeks.

I'm not sure if you all have any questions that you'd like to address today, um, noting that we are just two minutes away from one p.m.

Is there if not, is there a motion to bring these two line items back in two weeks?

Motion right back.

There's a motion to bring line items 9.6 and 9.7 back in two weeks.

Hearing no objections, those action shall be taken.

Line item 9.8 submitting report relative to the Detroit Land Bank Authority nuisance abatement program.

Is there a motion to receive and file line item 9.8?

Discussion.

Uh discussion.

Member Santiago Romero.

I just want to ask um I believe that we have not received it.

So just uh an ask that it be submitted to myself and my team.

If it has been received, if that can just be sent over again.

Um, Santiago Romero, it was sent over, it was sent to um council members and their chiefs.

It is a privileged and confidential memo.

Okay.

Um so we can just forward it to you, make sure you have it.

Me too.

Okay.

We can receive and file 9.8.

There's a motion to receive and file line item 9.8.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Line item 9.9.

Submitting resolution authorization for the property sale by Detroit Land Bank Authority Genesis Harbor of Opportunities Proming Excellence.

Genesis Hope.

Development, this is for properties on bills.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss?

Approve with discussion.

There's a motion to approve line item 9.9 with discussion.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um just have a quick question.

It's noted that the homes here are going to be sold at uh anywhere from 350 to 450,000, but that we're targeting affordability at 60% AMI.

Just want to ask if this is 60%.

Um, and if it's not how we intend to make it more affordable.

Member Santiago Romero, I'll I'll attempt to tackle the question.

Um, Genesis Hope is going through uh the process to create a formalized community land trust.

Okay.

Uh so presumably they will receive some um public funding to support the cost to develop that will give them the ability to sell the properties at 60 percent AMI.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just wanting to ask about that gap.

Um I have no further questions.

Thank you.

Is there a motion on line item nine point nine?

There was to approve.

Oh, sorry.

There was a motion to approve line item nine point nine.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Line item nine point nine shall be sent to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Line item nine point ten is a request for a report on industrial zone land.

Is there a motion to refer line line item nine point ten to CPC and bring back in three weeks?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

And line item nine point nine, member council member Denzel Anton McCampbell submitting memorandum relative to legal questions regarding public acquisition of 400 Bagley Street.

Is there a motion to resent refer this item to law and bring back in two weeks?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Colleagues, is there a motion to suspend member reports?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

And if there's nothing further to come before this committee, we shall stand adjourned.