Chelsea Council Continues Residential Developments

By Matt Rosentreter

City Council entered into an agreement with the developers of the Rockwell building and approved two ordinances regarding tax abatement of the Manchester Rd. property at their Sept. 15 meeting, continuing the city’s growth goals outlined in its Master Plan.

Both developments will focus on affordable/workforce housing, a need emphasized by some at recent city council meetings. According to Paul Montagno, only 12% of Chelsea’s workforce lives in the city.

“When employees can live where they work, this lessens traffic congestion, reduces time lost to commuting, and increases the likelihood that these community members will spend their time and money frequenting businesses, facilities, and amenities within the City,” Chelsea’s Master Plan states.

Rockwell Building

To address these concerns, Council has moved forward with the two housing projects in the city. The first is the Rockwell building, located at 301 N. East St., which was recently purchased by Michigan Community Capital (MCC), a non-profit that works to build and provide affordable housing in the state. At the July 1 Council meeting, Marilyn Chrumka, Vice President of Development at MCC, stated the goal of this development would be to house “working, middle-class people.”

City Council unanimously passed an agreement to allow MCC to use the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s (EGLE) grant awarded to Lofts at Rockwell LLC before the company left the project.

“Under a Lofts at Rockwell LLC, the city was granted a $475,000 Brownfield Grant for environmental remediation on this property,” Montagno said. “We’ve previously entered into an agreement with the earlier developers to perform this work on behalf of the city through this grant agreement.”

The grant is to be used to handle any environmental contamination on the property.

Manchester Rd. Property

The 1155 Old Manchester Rd. property was purchased by Spire Development in a unanimous city council vote at their June 28 meeting. Since the agreement, city council has brought forward two ordinances that would allow for Spire’s affordable housing plans to continue. Instead of traditional property taxes, Spire Development will instead pay through a pilot, which is calculated as a percentage of the rents paid on the property.

Sean McMickle, Vice President of Spire Developments, explained the reasoning behind Spire’s support of these ordinances at Council’s Sept. 2 meeting.

“If we are charging affordable rents where we have a statutory limit in the charge, it’s tied to the median income of the county,” McMickle said. “Yet, we’re building an extremely high-quality, lead zero-energy development. And so, if it were subject to ad valorem property taxes with restricted rents, it wouldn’t be able to cover that amount.”

McMickle stated that without the ordinances, the project would not be viable in the long-term.

Ordinance 189 and Ordinance 190, both regarding the pilot plan for the Manchester Rd. property, were passed unanimously at Council’s Sept. 15 meeting.