Survey Results by Location

"No corporate executive is gonna throw a nice company in a brownfield. You know, you can get [a small business] to go over there and create 5 jobs. You are not gonna get somebody that's proud of their corporation, who has 250 employees, wants a nice corporate environment and a nice corporate office, they're not gonna do brownfield. ... Here, land's not rare, it is not expensive....I can go out to Texas Township and buy all the acreage I want for $6000 an acre, and I could buy hundreds of acres." -Developer

"I think the brownfields are really important part of the economic development, particularly in the Edison Neighborhood, we have some very large sites. ... It's going to take so much resources, so much time and energy to clean up some of that. And it's not going to be done overnight and even a couple of years but I think we need to start beginning to look at the long term and what can these places be used for. I think there's so much potential there." -A Neighbor

Citizens Speak

"I worry tremendously that for every three story building that goes up in Portage or in Kalamazoo Township, that kills that many floors of a sky scraper in downtown Kalamazoo that will never be used again." -A Neighbor

"We're redeveloping our brownfields and that's a real positive, so I think we're making headway. There are some that have to be dragged along, you know, but I think for the most part, I think the neighborhoods have really supported the community this past year in going in that direction, seeing the importance of it." -A Neighbor

"I guess my concern is that, yes, we have a non-motorized transportation plan, but that doesn't take into account the urban sprawl. I mean, yes, it will look at what we will do with the roads we build, but we need to look, I think, at the overall picture. Do we need to put the building where it's proposed? Why can't we redevelop other buildings? I think look more at brownfield redevelopment, and try and work with the communities we have than creating new communities." -Alternative Transportation Advocate

"We need to make sure that we use those brownfield sites of the city first, before we go, and I don't care if it's tillable land or not tillable land. Before we tear something else up, and pollute something else, let's pollute what we've already polluted." -Small Town Resident