Wayne County approves 2025 CDBG-DR action plan; public comment period continues through June 16

The Wayne County Commission approved the 2025 Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) action plan and authorized submission to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

County staff told commissioners the plan is a high-level "bucket" blueprint for projects tied to the 2023 storm and that the county is working on data collection and project-level detail while accepting public comment until June 16. Staff said the HUD submission deadline is June 20.

Betsy Valazola, Community Development Division Director, said the plan includes a previously approved $3.5 million administrative portion and is part of a larger allocation staff referenced as $70,000,000. She said the public hearing the department held the day before helped staff refine priorities and identify mitigation needs after repeated flooding events in recent years. Valazola stated, "these dollars are tied back to the storm in 2023, specifically."

Commissioners and counsel discussed how the county will manage plan edits and program design while meeting HUD timelines. Commission counsel Felicia Johnson asked whether changes referenced during the meeting would be made after commission approval; staff described how they will post a separate document responding to public comments and make clerical edits to the draft action plan. Staff said any substantial amendments — defined by department staff as changes exceeding 10% of the award, the deletion or addition of activities, or substantial changes to eligibility — would be submitted to HUD and returned to the commission for approval.

Staff also described a hybrid approach for awarding projects: smaller subrecipient awards and some contracts may be delegated for administrative handling, while larger multifamily housing or major program awards will use RFPs and underwriting and return to the commission for final approval.

A recording of the public hearing and the draft action plan will be posted on the Engage Wayne County website at https://engage.waynecountymi.gov/cdbgdr-grant and staff said they will continue to upload updates throughout the six-year grant period. The commission voted to approve the action plan; staff said substantial amendments will come back to the full commission and all amendments will be posted online for transparency.

Ending: The commission approved the plan and staff will submit it to HUD, continue data collection, and post public-comment responses and any future amendments to the project website.