Redevelopment Authority a needed tool to help rebuild Michigan
Following Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority has played a major role in helping to rebuild the devastated city. The Authority has broad powers to purchase, develop, expropriate, and sell property in order to carry out community improvement projects and eliminate blight. Other cities including New York, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Boston and Pittsburgh have all used redevelopment authorities at various times to foster growth and reconstruction.
Michigan law gives Counties and the City of Detroit the option of creating Land Bank Authorities which have some of the powers of redevelopment authorities. Genesee County's Land Bank has been particularly noted for its success in finding new uses for tax-reverted properties. The City of Detroit and Wayne County have both created land banks for the disposition of tax reverted properties. Since the original Land Bank Fast Track Legislation was enacted in 2003 however, the scope of the problem faced by Wayne County and Detroit has increased dramatically.
Due to the large number of abandoned properties, brownfields, and vacant parcels that both jurisdictions now contain, the state should offer Detroit and Wayne County the option of forming a redevelopment authority with broader powers and funding potential than the existing land banks currently have. Additional powers might include the ability to participate in Neighborhood Enterprise Zones, to convert vacant space into urban farmland, to modify existing zoning ordinances, and to invest in infrastructure improvements such as landscaping, lighting, and sidewalks.
Additional funding might be obtained by allowing the authority to capture more of the tax revenue generated from putting properties back on the tax roles, to lengthen the period of tax capture beyond the five years currently allowed for land banks, or by creating an entirely new funding mechanism.
Demolishing abandoned buildings, consolidating vacant parcels, building affordable housing, creating green space, and luring new development are all means of eliminating blight and are necessary in order to turn Michigan around. A unified redevelopment authority given broad powers and funding would be a powerful rebuilding tool for Wayne County and Detroit.