<< Back to Main Press Page

Ann Arbor News Wrong on Greenbelt

Land Preservation a
Huge Success Story

January 22, 2007

In 2003, when the Ann Arbor Parks and Greenbelt Program was unveiled, the story was big news. The Ann Arbor News ran dozens of stories, many of them splashed across the front page. Other news outlets also covered it prominently. The Ecology Center was one of the leaders of the campaigns to enact the program, and we were flooded with volunteers who wanted to help. There was an unprecedented high voter turnout that year, which observers thought was due to interest in the greenbelt millage.

It was not surprising that Ann Arbor was so passionate about the greenbelt. It had been more than 20 years since Washtenaw County leaders had issued the first formal warnings that the county's finest farmlands and natural areas were disappearing rapidly, and yet -- with only one exception, the natural areas program run by the county's parks department -- few resources had been committed to addressing the problem.

The Greenbelt Program held out the promise that the Ann Arbor area would be able to hold on to its best rural areas, and retain the high quality of life people love about this community.

After the election was over, though, the hard work of putting a new program together started, and the news coverage faded away. Over the last two years, the Ann Arbor News hasn't run any feature stories on the program. No News reporter has attended Greenbelt Advisory Commission meetings. Most of the paper's coverage has been buried on an inside section. Two major acquisitions hadn't even been reported.

So I was delighted to hear that the News was planning a feature story for last Sunday's paper.

Delighted, that is, until I saw it.

Despite devoting most of the front page and an inside page to his article, reporter Tom Gantert unfortunately missed the big story.

The Most Successful Period in
Land Preservation History

Simply said, the past 15 months have been the most successful period in land preservation history in Washtenaw County, for any community in Michigan, and possibly for any community in the Midwest.

Since November 2005, the Ann Arbor Greenbelt Program and sister programs run by Washtenaw County, several townships, and three land conservancies have collectively saved 1,143 acres of the best farmland and natural areas in the county, covering properties as diverse as Washtenaw County gets. For example, in the last year, a Superior Township natural area with rare and threatened plants, a Salem Township commodities farm, and a Webster Township specialty farm that sells beans and corn to the Ann Arbor market have all been permanently preserved.

Within the Greenbelt District, almost all of the properties are close to other protected properties, creating the cornerstone parcels for three beautiful agricultural preservation blocs of land to the west, north, and east of Ann Arbor. The preservation blocs follow the Greenbelt Commission's strategic plan to focus the City's limited funds on protecting farms in specific areas and natural areas along the Huron River.

Several more transactions are working their way through the application processes of the various programs, and more applications are expected. The breathtaking pace of land preservation is the big untold story in Washtenaw County these days. According to Richard Harlow, the State of Michigan's Farmland Preservation Program Manager, "it takes a long time to ramp up a development rights program. From a time standpoint, what the Greenbelt Program is doing is incredibly impressive."

One of the biggest pluses of Greenbelt Program is that it's launched additional land preservation programs. At the same time that City voters approved the Greenbelt millage, Ann Arbor Township voters approved their own land preservation millage. In 2004 and 2005, Scio and Webster Townships each approved their own millages, too. All three townships credited the Greenbelt Program with sparking their initiatives. Last year, the townships, the Washtenaw County Natural Areas Program, and three private land conservancies came together with the Greenbelt Program to jointly coordinate land preservation activities.

Is the Greenbelt Program Getting as Much
Money in Matching Funds as Possible?

Here are the facts:

Land values spiked in the Greenbelt region between 2003 and 2005. While values have flattened since, the total amount of acreage the City can save with millage dollars is lower than projected in the campaign. During the campaign, Greenbelt boosters estimated that the City could expect to raise at least 86 cents in matching funds for every dollar of City tax money spent on land preservation. So far, the City has raised 62% of its tax outlay from other sources for Greenbelt purchases. Why the difference?

Federal farmland preservation funds are lower than expected. Bush Administration budgets have shifted money to Iraq and other priorities. State farmland dollars are lower than expected, since the state fund receives money from farmers who exit the Public Act 116 preservation program, and the soft real estate market has discouraged them. Township preservation dollars are growing, but those programs are just beginning, so the City is just starting to tap these sources.

The Ann Arbor area is getting a remarkably high amount of what's available. In 2005 and 2006, Washtenaw County received 76% and 61%, respectively, of the total federal farmland preservation dollars awarded to the entire state of Michigan. I think that's due to the overwhelming support that people in the Ann Arbor area give to land preservation and environmental protection.

And even though the article missed the real story, I'm glad to see the Ann Arbor News covering land preservation and sprawl issues again. People in Washtenaw County care deeply about these matters, and Michigan community leaders are watching us closely. They know that, as the State's Farmland expert Rich Harlow says, "the Ann Arbor Greenbelt Program is light years ahead of others in Michigan." We'll make some mistakes along the way, but finally, after two decades of under-funded, intermittent efforts, Ann Arbor and the surrounding communities are making major strides to preserve our community's best rural lands.

>>>   Also see Ann Arbor Greenbelt Grows by 300 Acres

B A C K   T O   T O P