This section headlines currents developments. It also contains articles and letters to the editor of area news publications. (Click here if you would like to know the words to the song playing in the background)
Check out the Resources section for technical handouts and mailings to area residents. The Open Letter to the General Motors Board of directors and the MDEQ denial letter are now available in the handouts section.
Click here for a Referendum Campaign Expense Summary
GM steps back from project plans -
November 2000
For a thumbnail outline of important developments see the summary on the timeline page.
News as of November 7th, 2000:
Robert Kanitz has won the post of Township Supervisor with 471 votes versus
388 votes cast for Sharon Jaworski. A total of 859 votes were made for the
Supervisor Race with Mr. Kanitz winning by a 55% to 45% margin.
Nancy Pilbeam ran unopposed with 603 votes to gain the position of Clerk.
Daryl Lukasik, also unopposed, brought in 579 votes to acquire the job of Treasurer.
Phil Bowerman was re-elected as a trustee with 577 votes and Olga Mancik received
515 votes to take over the remaining trustee position.
News as of November 2nd, 2000:
General Motors Corporation spokesperson, Gerald Holmes said
the company allowed options to expire on Wednesday November 1st on about 850 acres of
property that had been earmarked for the project. Click
here to see a list of recent newspaper articles.
Most recent news as of October 24th, 2000:
The Metro Times Magazine (www.metrotimes.com
) featured an article about the proposed GM railyard in the issue that came out today.
Click here to read a copy of the article on this site.
Most Recent News as of October 1st, 2000:
Representatives of Ann Arbor Railroad signed letters of intent
to exercise options on 9 properties within the proposed site. These properties
included homes and land of about 155 acres of the proposed 1,000 acre for the
development. Newpaper articles quote GM spokesperson Gerald Holmes as supporting the
move by the Railroad representatives. See recent articles
for details.
Most Recent News as of September 15th, 2000:
Milan Area Concerned Citizens have sent an Open Letter to the
Board of Directors of General Motors inquiring about the apparent plans for moving the
project forward against the wishes of the majority of Milan Township residents.
Most Recent News as of September 11th, 2000:
AAR Properties, on behalf of GM, continues to disregard the
will of the people. Railroad officials are proceeding with surveying work at the site.
Currently they are also working with state officials to remove this farmland from the
Farmland Preservation Act as they try to move forward with their plans against the wishes
of township and county residents.
AAR Properties and GM are clearly attempting to thwart the democratic process.
News as of August 8th, 2000:
A total of 536 voters came out to the polls for the Aug. 8th primary
election. The last primary election in the township had about 155 voters. (The
referendum tally in Feb was about 750)
Sharon Jaworski ran unopposed for supervisor with 290 votes as a democrat. Robert
Kanitz entered as a write in candidate for supervisor as a republican and drew 17 votes,
enough to be put on the ballot in November.
All candidates ran as democrats in the primary.
Clerk:
Treasurer:
Nancy Pilbeam - 242
Daryl
Lukasik - 236
Lynette Bordine - 217
Leanne Wessel -
222
Trustees: (2 seats)
Phillip Bowerman - 269 (incumbent)
Olga Mancik - 223
Trudy Broadhurst - 201
Arthur Rock - 179 (incumbent)
Referendum
Campaign Expenses Disclosed:
March 24, 2000 - Public campaign records show the Better
Milan Township Yes! committee spent $86,269.77 in an attempt to convince township
residents of the benefits of the proposed development. This included about $30,000
for staff costs, $24,000 for a promotional video and $7,500 for public relations
consultants.
In contrast, The Milan Area Concerned Citizens campaign expenses were reported at $1,512.09.
Notwithstanding being outspent 57 to 1 with the PR campaign of the developers and the threat of lawsuits that threatened to bankrupt Milan Township, the people voted not to rezone the land and denied the railyard development.
News as of February 22nd, 2000:
By a 54% to 46% margin, the voters overturned the Board decision to rezone
the 1,000 acres proposed for development. The vote results were 403 No votes to 350
Yes votes. . In spite of a six week long intensive public relations
campaign by the developer, Township voters said no to the rezoning. The opposition
to the rezoning was a grass roots effort by area residents.
News as of February 15th, 2000:
Michigan Land Use Institute has prepared a Fiscal Analysis of the proposed
project. It finds "the proposed development will provide virtually no tax
benefits to Milan Township". Milan Area Concerned Citizens' Attorney Bruce
Laidlaw has prepard a legal opinion finding that the impact fee agreement between the
developer and Milan Township will likely be unenforceable. In addition, Michigan law
does not allow a community to link a rezoning decision with any kind of contract or
financial agreement. For the Fiscal Analysis and the Legal Opinion click here.
News as of January 30th, 2000:
School tax revenues from project clarified by Milan Superintendent of
Schools, Dennis McComb on January 19th. See the Milan Area Concerned Citizens
January 30, 2000 mailing for clarification of tax revenues that are estimated as a result
of the proposed project. Click here to view a PDF of the
January 30th mailing.
News as of January 10th, 2000:
The Board voted on Dec. 8th to hold the
rezoning referendum election on February 22nd along with the Republican presidential primary. 540 signatures of Milan Township registered
voters were submitted to the Township Clerk, Emily Bowerman on November 16th. The signatures were verified and
certified allowing the vote to be scheduled.
News as of Oct 24th, 1999:
The Milan Township Board met on Wednesday October 13th at 7:00 p.m. at the
Milan Middle School and voted 3-2 to rezone the proposed area for the railyard from
agricultural to industrial. They also voted 3-2 to approve the Special Use
Conditions prepared by the Planning Commission. This gives the residents an
opportunity to petition for a referendum. About 250 area residents attended the
meeting with hopes of encouraging the Board to vote No.
SEMCOG Study delivered October 13, 1999
The Milan Township Board received final drafts of the SEMCOG Regional Impact
Study at their meeting on October 13th but did not address the study during the meeting.
SEMCOG (South East Michigan Council on Governments) met on Oct 13th and delivered
the results of their regional impact study of the proposed project. There were many
items of concern in the report regarding the impacts of this project, focused mostly on
local impacts the project will have.
News as of August 11th Meeting:
About 150 area residents came to attend the monthly Township Board meeting,
many interested in discussing the proposed industrial complex rezoning. The meeting
was held at the Milan Township Hall which was a small meeting space for those in
attendence. To accomodate the large crowd, the meeting was moved outside for the
portion of the meeting devoted to discussion of the new vehicle redistribution center.
The Township Board met on August 11th and voted to request a region impact study to be done by SEMCOG . The Board also voted to delay decision making on the project for at least 30 days, possibly 60 days to include time for the SEMCOG study results to come in.
On July 14th, the Monroe County Planning Commssion voted not to recommend both the Master Plan revision and the Proposed Rezoning for the rail yard project to the Milan Township Board. The vote on both issues was 6 -1.
News as of June 21, 1999 vote of Milan Township Planning Commission:
The Milan Township Planning Commission held a working session and heard public comments on Monday June 21. The planning commission voted 4 to 0 with one abstention to recommend changes to the master plan and voted 3-2 to recommend rezoning of 900+ acres of agricultural land to industrial use to the the Milan Township Board of Trustees and the Monroe County Planning Commission.
The overwhelming majority of public comment to date has been in opposition to the rail yard project. No public comments were made during the session that supported the project except comments from those affiliated with the Ann Arbor Railroad. Towards the end of this 3 hour public hearing, it was made clear that it was not the role of the Planning Commission to weigh public opinion.
At the meeting on June 14th, the Milan Township Planning Commission and Board of Trustees heard public comment from area residents for over 5 hours on three separate public hearing issues. About 250 people attended and voiced their concerns for the proposed Master Plan amendment, Rezoning request and Special Use application. An overwhelming majority in attendance opposed the rail yard project.
