By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
With a 4-3 vote, Orion Township Trustees passed a development plan and tax increment financing plan that would widen Brown Rd. and enhance Baldwin Rd. to begin as soon as next spring.
The plan, recommended to trustees by the township’s Corridor Improvement Authority Board, would utilize about $8 million in tax captures to fund the two main projects. Tax captures would be collected from the CIA district, extending from the Joslyn and Brown Rd. intersection to Baldwin Rd. just north of Gregory Rd. The CIA would capture half of all incremental tax increases from the base year beginning in 2016.
Clerk Penny Shults, Trustee John Steimel and Treasurer Mark Thurber voted against the plan after the public hearing held Monday evening.
With the township’s approval of the CIA development plan, local taxing authorities affected by the tax capture district, including Oakland Community College, Oakland County, Orion Township, the Orion Township Public Library, NOTA, County Parks and Metro Parks, have 60 days to opt out of the district.
Supervisor Chris Barnett said Orion Township was exempt from the opt-out.
Township consultant Gary Roberts from Strategic Communications Solutions helped devise the $8 million plan based on the current and future opportunities for development in the district.
“The CIA board selected these areas for the potential of their improvement and the potential to attract developers to re-purpose this land,” he said. “It is not a zoning change proposal or land use change proposal of any kind, nor is it a tax increase for anyone.”
Barnett said the township is taking a very conservative approach by only collecting half of the tax increment increases.
“I’m really excited we are moving forward with the CIA. It’s a great economic tool we can use to make a lasting impact on Brown and Baldwin roads, without costing the taxpayers any money,” he said.
The first priority is to widen Brown Rd. to five lanes, including two through lanes east and west and one turning lane in the center, which is key to attract new developers, Barnett and Roberts said. Estimated costs for the Brown Rd. segment are $5 million.
The second priority is to beautify Baldwin Rd., which will tie in to the Road Commission for Oakland County’s project to widen Baldwin to four lanes in 2017. Included in the RCOC project is the replacement of all traffic lights with roundabouts.
Beautifying the streetscape portion of Baldwin is budgeted at about $2.2 million, and includes enhancing pedestrian walkways, improved lighting, pocket parks, and more, which will be approved at a later time.
A handful of residents spoke at the public hearing, highlighting their issues with increased traffic and the ongoing construction that will occur over the next couple of years.
“I hear this plan, it looks great, but the one thing you haven’t considered are the people that live in that neighborhood,” Orion Township resident Gary Martlin, who lives on Georgia Dr.. said. “If you come on my street at 5 p.m. in the afternoon and try and get out, it’s very difficult.”
“It’d like to know the sequence. Do we generate the funds first, and then widen the roads, or are we fronting the money first with debt?” township resident Thomas Sanna, who lives off Orbit Rd., asked.
Barnett said there are three options.
The township could bond for it, he said, transfer the money from a different township fund, or borrow the money from Oakland County.
In other words, the general fund would pay the debt back until the CIA can catch up, and then the CIA would pay back the general fund.
This is why Shults, who had approved the CIA district and plan all along, changed her mind Monday night.
“There was no debt repayment plan. I needed to know, and the public needs to know, if we’re going to be using their tax dollars to pay for the CIA debt service. It needs to be spelled out clearly, and it was not,” she said, adding that she loves the CIA as an economic development tool.
CIA Board member Dan Dewey confronted Shults during the board meeting for changing her mind at the last second, seconded by Barnett.
“It’s extremely dissapointing that the clerk who is on record stating it’s a great plan, even at last night’s meeting, voted against it,” Barnett said. “It was made clear several times that we weren’t discussing the financing of the plan. That will come next and will be discussed by the township board. We are following the statute to a ‘T’. You can’t be on both sides of an issue.”
Barnett said Dewey said it best.
“It was a sucker punch to the detriment of the community.”