Three Meetings This Week Seen Key to Economic Development, Jobs in Bay
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Cliff Van Dyke, of the Bay County Growth Alliance, talks about the development of Valley Center Technology Park at the Bay City Rotary Club recently.
Bangor DDA officials say the Bay City Mall would not have happened without the infrastructure provided through DDA tax increment financing.
This may be the week that was for economic development in Bay County.
One major advocate for progress, Cliff Van Dyke, wonders aloud why Bay County government would fund economic development on one hand and consider stifling the growth of downtown development authorities on the other hand.
"Why pay for consultants to tell us how to market the county when we don't have adequate, developed places for companies to locate?" he asks.
Monday and Tuesday threemeetings are scheduled that could help determine whether the county moves ahead, or remains lagging woefully behind, on economic development.
A county adhoc committee mulling added control of downtown development authorities meets Monday with Van Dyke, Bay County Growth Alliance executive. That night a public hearing is scheduled at the Monitor Township hall on a proposal to expand Monitor DDA and allow more development in the Valley Center Technology Park.
If the County Commission's planning committee on Tuesday acts to stifle the Monitor DDA by insisting that it settle its tax issues with the state before proceeding with expansion, the end of progress as
represented by the Valley Tech Park may be at hand, says Van Dyke. "We just won't be able to expand the park and offer any more job opportunities here in the immediate future because we don't know when these issues will be resolved," he said.
A proposal to assert more county control over DDAs by Commissioner Michael Lutz is on the table at the committee meeting. If money is at the nub of the question, very little is at stake, according to Van Dyke. Valley Center, through the Monitor DDA, "captures" about $180,000 in property taxes including about $52,000 of county taxes, he said. The DDA operates on a budget of about $135,000, he said. If the county puts the clamps on Valley Center development, it would only gain the $52,000, he said, while hampering any future growth.
"That's only about one job, if you take into consideration the fringes," he said.
The major issue in the request to expand the Monitor DDA from about 220 acres to about 400 acres involves extension of the DDA tax capture authority for an additional 20 years beyond 2010. Van Dyke says the big picture involves whether the county is willing to move ahead, or whether growth is to be restricted.
"If we're going to stop growth of DDAs, why do any economic development at all?" he asks.
"Nothing comes easy in this community," he commented, adding: "It's already a difficult process to do projects that seem to make sense; I know the reasons but I don't know the solution."
Van Dyke says that the essence of economic development isbeing ready when the company that wants to build or expand comes calling. "Right now they can't find parcels of 20 to 40 acres; 10-12 acres are the most that's available. If they can't find usable property here, maybe they will find a place in Saginaw orMidland and we lose the project's terrific potential for Bay City," he said. "If we don't have available sites, we're really out of luck. Having sites ready for construction makes us more competitive with the rest of the country."
Valley Center is the only fully equipped certified business park in the area, except for the Bridgeview park in Zilwaukee, he said. Also, it is at the hub of the transportation network in the area. That gives us an advantage in luring firms that want to locate here.
Van Dyke says the main opposition to the expansion of Valley Center comes from "a tiny group in Monitor Township that doesn't like traffic, growth, buildings and, they say, noise -- although there is no perceptible noise from any of thebusinesses there. The main noise is from traffic going and coming to Delta College."
Time and uncertainty are the biggest enemies of development, Van Dyke says. "We need to encourage pro growth and pro jobs; everyone from the President, toGov. Granholm to County Executive Tom Hickner is talking about the job situation."
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