DownRiver Waterfront Conservancy: The next step — Market Insights
The DownRiver Waterfront Conservancy works to bring together business, community, and environmental interests to support sustainable economic development on our waterfront.
TRENTON, Mich. – Sept. 9, 2020 – PRLog — The zoning and the redevelopment of the defunct McLouth steel site, now owned by MSC Land/Crown, is one the most talked about properties in the last decade downriver. When you talk with people about what has happened with the site in the past three or four years, you get as many opinions as there are people. The one thing that just about everyone agrees on, is that having buildings come down on the site, is the best thing to happen on the property in the past twenty years. However, when you ask what kind of redevelopment should go on the property, this is where consensus ends. Some people want parks with public access, and some want condos with offices, shops, restaurants. Some just want good paying jobs and an employer that contributes to the city’s declining tax base. We all have the best interest of our community at heart.
The site was a working steel mill some twenty plus years ago bringing good jobs and a strong tax base to support city services and a well-regarded school system until the day it closed. The bad news is that it brought blight, pollution and contamination that typically accompanied along with heavy industrial uses of that era. The site was owned by several companies after the McLouth steel closing, and all tried to reuse the facility in various ways. There was even a plan for a mixed-use development which included offices, condos, and inland marina but unfortunately, developers were not able to get the project off the ground do to environmental and economic challanges.
The agreement to sell the property included several key contractual provisions that established how the site was to be cleaned up, specific uses and non-permitted uses by MSC. The site was also approved by the federal government to designate it as a Super Fund sites and added to the National Priority List (NPL) so that future federal funds might be allocated to do additional clean-up following an extensive EPA study.
So, where does the DownRiver Waterfront Conservancy stand on this issue? Well, probably the best way to articulate our goal is to share our mission statement.
“The DownRiver Waterfront Conservancy works to bring together business, community, and environmental interests to support sustainable economic development on our waterfront.”
Our goal is to bring together diverse interest toward the common goal of creating a better economic, environmental, and sustainable future for all Downriver.
The DownRiver Waterfront Conservancy, Paul Frost: Chairperson
The DownRiver Waterfront Conservancy is a non-profit organization formed by a group of concerned downriver residences, to help bring about sustainable economic redevelopment of our waterfront. Our goal is to create awareness and facilitate proactive conversation in order to create positive outcomes and desirable development on our waterfront. For more information, visit our website at http://www.downriverwc.com .
