The region's planners hope to use the cool
$2.8 million awarded to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments
to unify transportation with sustainable housing and redevelopment.
Paul Tait, SEMCOG
executive director and an Ypsilanti resident, says the Sustainable
Communities grant will help in part because the region's older central
cities, including Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, are facing challenges with
declining property values and state revenue sharing.
"Communities
are all looking at 20-30 percent less revenues than they had just a few
years ago," he says. "At the same time, our older communities have
aging infrastructure -- roads, bridges, sewer and water systems -- that
are all getting older."
The grant will help communities look at
how they can be sustainable over the long haul, including better linking
workforce training to the business communities; redeveloping older
community assets, such as the Ypsilanti Ford plant; and looking at
housing, streets, green infrastructure, and energy efficiency. Also
necessary is taking a look at infrastructure -- those roads, bridges,
and water and sewer systems -- which is about to reach crisis status,
Tait says.
"Those are older systems, and if we can't find the
revenue to replace, repair, or rebuild them, our quality of life is
going to suffer," he says.
Conan Smith, executive director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance
and also a Washtenaw County commissioner and member of SEMCOG's
executive committee, adds that plans for the grant include more of a
physical connection between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, including growing
neighborhoods in the Washtenaw Avenue corridor and connecting those
places with the rest of the region.
The grants, from a
partnership between the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development, the US
Dept of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency, focus
on actually implementing plans, rather than just funding yet another
study. "We really want to make a difference as quickly as we can," Tait
says. "Just to do more plans to sit on a shelf doesn't make our region
and our communities more sustainable. We've got to make a difference."
Source: Paul Tait, executive director, SEMCOG; Conan Smith, executive committee member, SEMCOG
Writer: Kristin Lukowski
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