DETROIT, MI The city is offering vacant hotels in orlando with slide pools lots at $200 a piece to neighboring home owners in the area of the proposed Hantz tree farming project on the city s east side. In anticipation of selling up to1,956 city-owned lots to Hantz Woodlands at $300 each, Detroit s Planning and Development Department sent letters hotels in orlando with slide pools to 108 residents who own homes adjacent to 118 of those properties, offering them first opportunity to purchase. In many cases, people have been occupying those lots for a long time, department Director Rob Anderson told City Council s Planning and Economic Development Committee on Thursday. Council is being asked to authorize the sale, though hotels in orlando with slide pools the residents will have until Jan. 10 to notify the city of any interest in neighboring lots, which would be withdrawn from the Hantz deal. John Hantz, a Detroit resident who runs a Southfield-based network of financial services businesses, is behind the plan to buy the vacant land for about $600,000 and plant hardwood trees and conifers in a lumber business that supporters say would create jobs and clean up eyesores. He developed a 3-acre Hantz Farms test project that was received hotels in orlando with slide pools well among neighbors earlier this year.
The process of buying a much larger swath of property has been slow and the proposal at times raised the ire of some residents who called the deal a land grab. But City Council is now officially being asked to authorize hotels in orlando with slide pools the sale. We have 48,000 parcels in the city city-owned property. So to be able to transfer 1,900 of those is great, Irvin Corley, Jr., Director of city Council s Fiscal Analysis Division, told the committee Thursday. I guess my concern is, because we have such a large amount of land that we are looking to transfer to Hantz Farms, why isn t there a development agreement that s driving this? But I m happy that we have someone who s willing to purchase up to 2,000 lots and pay taxes on them.
Council Member Saunteel Jenkins said the city s law department encouraged a purchase agreement rather than development agreement, and the committee postponed the matter another week in pursuit of a legal explanation for that recommendation. In addition to removing from the deal any lots that neighbors ask to buy, about 10 acres of land near Kercheval and McClellan streets once set aside for a retail development will also have to be addressed before any sale. City Planning Commission Deputy Director Rory Bolger said the retail development plan was part of a 1980s urban renewal plan, but never became reality. He recommended hotels in orlando with slide pools for legal considerations that the land be removed from the proposal until the renewal plan is repealed hotels in orlando with slide pools or revised, a process that could take months.
Detroit City Council tabled discussion over the proposed sale of an enormous plot of city-owned land to the Hantz Farms development company at a marathon pre-Thanksgiving council session Tuesday, finally allowing for a public hearing on the controversial urban agriculture deal. If approved, the purchase of roughly 140 acres of land on the city s east side by financial services hotels in orlando with slide pools magnate John Hantz would be the largest such deal in Detroit s history . The proposed hotels in orlando with slide pools area lies roughly between Van Dyke and St. Jean Street and Jefferson and Mack Avenue. Through a subdivision of his company called Hantz Woodlands, the businessman is seeking to transform the area into a mixed hardwoods timber farm, pending the approval of a new city urban agriculture ordinance. He has also indicated a willingness to purchase and maintain the land, simply in order to make the area more livable.
Under the proposed hotels in orlando with slide pools agreement, the city is offering hotels in orlando with slide pools to sell the land to Hantz Woodlands at slightly over 8 cents per square foot, provided they maintain the land, demolish a number of derelict buildings and plant 15,000 trees. hotels in orlando with slide pools Although councilmembers Saunteel Jenkins, Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and Gary Brown pushed for an immediate vote, the body as a whole eventually decided to postpone further discussion hotels in orlando with slide pools until a special Dec. 11 council session, allowing time for a public hearing on the matter. No regular public council meetings are scheduled from Nov. 21 to Jan. 7 due to a holiday recess. Tuesday s meeting also included contentious debates over a $300,000 city contract with the law firm Miller Canfield and the future of the city s water department . It attracted throngs of Detroiters interested sharing their thoughts with council. Although many were turned away at the door, a sizable crowd lingered outside council chambers over an hour after the start of the meeting, chanting to be let in. Chastised by Councilwoman Joann Watson and members of the public for not holding the meeting in the auditorium, Council hotels in orlando with slide pools President Charles Pugh said that room was booked though he later confessed he was also concerned about avoiding interruptions.
Nearly all the citizens present were against the deal. In their comments they voiced concerns about a perceived lack of transparency around the deal and that Hantz was given preferential treatment because of his wealth. I m very concerned by the precedent this sets, said Detroiter Shane Bernardo. Members of Hantz Woodlands have been able to circumvent the process that many others of our city have to follow. The scale of this land grab should be of some concern to everyone in this room. At the request of council s Planning and Economic Development Committee, which moved the measure forward last week, the deal was rewritten hotels in orlando with slide pools from a simple purchase hotels in orlando with slide pools agreement hotels in orlando with slide pools to a development agreement for Tuesday s meeting. A reverter clause was also added allowing the city to back out if certain terms were not followed. Nevertheless, many council members had qualms about the deal and the perceived rush by the Bing administration to move ahead with approving it. When asked about the plan s urgency, Robert Anderson, Director hotels in orlando with slide pools of the City s Planning and Development Department, told council that developers hotels in orlando with slide pools wanted to move on the deal before the end of the year so they wouldn t miss out on tree planting season. Councilman Kwame Kenyatta hotels in orlando with slide pools strongly opposed the measure, indicating that he felt the city would be selling itself short with the deal. This city is pregnant with progress. This city is pregnant with a future, he said. It seems like we re the only ones who don t see that. Council hotels in orlando with slide pools President Charles Pugh and fellow councilman James Tate were somewhat hotels in orlando with slide pools supportive of the deal, but each expressed reservations. hotels in orlando with slide pools Pugh said he was concerned about a provision that would give Hantz Farms an opportunity to add additional properties around the development area. Tate felt there needed to be a public hearing to listen to the concerns of people in the affected hotels in orlando with slide pools area. Members of the council also raised questions about low agricultural hotels in orlando with slide pools tax rates and a two-year limit on the agreement s reverter clause. Some also felt the vote should wait until after a Dec. 6 public hearing hotels in orlando with slide pools on an urban agriculture ordinance that might affect Hantz Woodlands ability hotels in orlando with slide pools to commercially harvest lumber.
Although Councilman Cockrel was unsuccessful in his effort to bring the agreement up for an immediate vote, he voiced concern about the impact that the debate around it might have on other potential investors. The one thing that been kind of frankly distressing about a lot the dialogue surrounding this [is] it almost has this class warfare aspect to it, he said. The reality is, if we really truly do want to redevelop this city and move it forward, don t we want to also welcome people who have more than a few bucks in their wallet hotels in orlando with slide pools into the city?
Environmentalists have grown used to thinking of urban agriculture as something that occurs on pinched vacant lots in former industrial towns. But as farms of 20 acres or more start appearing in more cities, their owners are reworking the definition of "urban farm," and causing some agtivists to question whether bigger really is better. In San Diego, there's the 140-acre Suzie's Farm . In Albuquerque, there is 40-acre Skarsgard Farms . Not only are both located within the city limits, they both grew more than $1 million in organic produce this season. The success of such farms, combined with urban agriculture's broad appeal, hotels in orlando with slide pools is inspiring city officials to consider dedicating hotels in orlando with slide pools large chunks of vacant land to farming. In San Francisco, redevelopment plans for the former Navy base on Treasure Island include an "urban agriculture park" of more than 20 acres, according to Michael Tymoff, the project director. In Cleveland, a 26-acre farming district has taken root where houses once stood. In Kansas City, Mo., leaders are considering turning a 420-acre former prison , or some portion thereof, into a farm. "We believe that there is room for both food system-related uses as well as more 'traditional' types of development" at the site, says Gerald Williams, a planner with the City of Kansas City. Depending on how much land Williams and his colleagues ultimately dedicate to agriculture, they may be building the biggest urban farm in the country.
The average hotels in orlando with slide pools American farm covers 418 acres, far more than the largest of its city counterparts. Yet the expanding footprint of farms in the urban core underscores people's interest in the aesthetic of farming, as well as the rising market for local products and the abundance hotels in orlando with slide pools of vacant urban land. Detroit's Hantz Farms is still a modest operation, but its outsized ambition has created a controversy hotels in orlando with slide pools of equal proportions. Businessman hotels in orlando with slide pools John Hantz originally proposed a for-profit urban farm of 10,000 acres . But local outcry about the plan — including its size and Hantz's low-ball offer for the land — forced him to downsize to a still-expansive 200 acres, which will be planted as a tree farm. The project's website proclaims it both "the world's largest urban farm" and "Detroit's saving grace."
The Hantz controversy highlights hotels in orlando with slide pools one of the most vexing questions about urban agriculture: How much land should cities properly devote to farming? City halls nationwide find t
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