Berrien County holds public hearing on Watervliet housing brownfield plan

Berrien County paused its meeting to hold a public hearing on a proposed brownfield plan that would support construction of 19 single-family homes in the city of Watervliet, county community development director Dan Fetti said at the hearing.

The plan, drafted by Michigan Growth Advisors and proposed by developer Allen Edwin Homes, would redevelop a roughly 7.5-acre parcel east of M-140 near Red Arrow Highway. The project calls for 19 homes — 15 to be sold at market rate and four to be rented to households at or below 120 percent of area median income for 10 years — with an estimated total investment of about $12.6 million. Construction is likely to begin this fall and the developer estimated completion by 2027, Fetti said.

The county hearing focused on technical requirements under changes to the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act adopted in 2023, which made certain housing activities eligible for tax-increment financing (TIF). Fetti described how the amended law allows TIF to reimburse infrastructure and a so-called rent-loss subsidy that covers the difference between market rents and rents affordable to income-qualified households.

Fetti said the plan’s eligible…