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Van Buren County commissioners back Brownfield plan for Hazen Street housing project, set public hearing
Summary
The county commission approved a recommendation from the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to support a $30.3 million housing project on Hazen Street and set a public hearing for April 10. The plan would use Act 381 tax-increment financing and increase the allowable interest rate in the BRA policy from 3% to 4.5% for this project.
Van Buren County commissioners voted to forward a recommendation from the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (BRA) approving a Brownfield Redevelopment Plan for a housing project on Hazen Street and set a public hearing on the plan for April 10 at 12:50 p.m.
The project developer plans a $30,300,000 development that includes 66 multifamily rental units and 52 single-family homes. Under the draft plan, local and state tax increment financing (TIF) captures would total about $9,900,000 (approximately $8.1 million local, $1.8 million state). County staff said, because of the project scale, the TIF payback period would likely be about 12 years though the state permits up to 30 years, and the BRA may capture additional local TIF for five extra years to generate roughly $3.2 million for county brownfield work.
County planning staff said the state revised brownfield law (Act 381) in fall 2023 to encourage housing: qualifying projects that reserve a share of units for households at specified percentages of area median income can now access housing-related TIF. Under the Hazen plan, 21% of the rental units — 14 of 66 units — would be income qualified at a designated AMI tier.
The BRA also asked the county to waive a 2016 BRA policy cap that limited developer financing interest to 3%, and instead allow a 4.5% maximum for this development. Staff explained that the change would not increase the developer’s total capped return (the plan retains a 20% investor return cap) but would allow the developer to be reimbursed a bit faster on the same capped total. That request drew questions about sequencing of reimbursements to the developer, the village and the BRA; staff said the order and amounts would be negotiated in a later development and reimbursement agreement.
Presentations also described right-of-way and infrastructure changes: the developer will construct water and sewer extensions and convey a portion of Hazen Drive to the Village of Paw Paw, which intends to accept the street and perform permanent improvements. The village council gave its unanimous support to the project at its meeting the night before, staff said.
The board approved placing the plan on the April 10 agenda for a formal public hearing and directed staff to send required 10-day notice to taxing units and other stakeholders. Staff said additional steps remain: the BRA must finalize the plan and the development and reimbursement agreement, and the plan will be submitted to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) for review; staff noted MSHDA has approved only a small number of housing-TIF projects so far.
The county also heard public comment from a Hazen Street resident who said the developer’s current plan differs from an earlier plan that received planning commission review and urged the county to slow the process so neighbors and the county could review long-range impacts.
The board’s action forwards the BRA recommendation to the required public hearing and starts the formal notification and review sequence; it does not finalize the development agreement or TIF reimbursement order.
