Lenawee County board votes to not accept industrial proposals for Tecumseh Products site

ADRIAN — A split Lenawee County Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to not accept industrial proposals for the Tecumseh Products Co. site.

The decision came on a 5-4 vote after Commissioner David Stimpson, R-Tecumseh, asked to give the Tecumseh community some clarity on what the county intends to do with the property. The county bought the 50-acre parcel in October 2021 with the intention of building a large recreation complex to attract youth sports tournaments as well as house the Tecumseh Senior Center and lease space to businesses. Opposition to the plan led the county to abandon it in spring 2022.

Stimpson was joined by Commissioners Dawn Bales, R-Madison Twp., K.Z. Bolton, D-Adrian, Terry Collins, R-Adrian, and Ralph Tillotson, R-Adrian Twp., in voting for his motion to maintain the property's current status with no industrial development. Commissioners Nancy Jenkins-Arno, R-Clayton, Dustin Krasny, R-Cambridge Twp., Kevin Martis, R-Riga Twp., and Jim Van Doren, R-Tipton, voted against it.

This past August, an entrepreneur pitched an idea of placing a steel tubing business there, but the county never received a firm offer, Stimpson said.

"It created a lot of problems," Stimpson said, adding that he's had to address rumors about what the county plans to do with the site and those rumors harm other potential development.

He said the owners of the block across Patterson Street who are planning an $8 million residential and commercial development are concerned about the prospects of the county's land being developed as an industrial site.

The Products ceased operations at the site in 2008, but it had been moving work to other plants for years. The property has changed hands a couple of times since then with different owners having different plans that never panned out. It has only been in recent years that most of the buildings on the site have been torn down.

While it doesn't own the land, the Products is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up contamination that has been found on the site.

The city of Tecumseh has developed a new master plan for the Evans Street corridor with input from about 1,000 individuals that designates the Products site primarily for commercial development rather than industrial, Stimpson said, noting that the city has an industrial park and a business and technology campus where it is directing those kinds of businesses.

Stimpson recommended letting the Products continue its work to remediate contamination on the site, while the county can seek out grants for blight elimination, handle day-to-day management of blight elimination work, and maintain the property until it is ready to sell. When the property is cleaned up, it will be more valuable, particularly for commercial use, he said.

"I would really like to see the county take that leadership role and do that for the community of Tecumseh," Stimpson said. "That's something that I think is imperative to the overall relationship between the city and the county and the overall relationship of how we handle county matters going forward."

Martis said he's heard there is another party that is interested in the property. He, Krasny and Jenkins-Arno argued that the county shouldn't limit itself in who it can sell to, and that the city's zoning regulations will determine what can be built there. They and Jenkins-Arno also said the county should be looking to put the property back on the tax rolls as soon as possible.

"I certainly don't want to argue with (Tecumseh) about their land use plans," Martis said. "…On the other hand, the negotiation with respect to land use is between the buyer and the jurisdiction in which they are buying. We are not here to enforce Tecumseh's zoning ordinance. They have full power and authority to do that."

The property is currently zoned for industrial development.

Some blight remediation grants are tied to certain kinds of development, Martis said, and the county could be limiting what it is eligible for by saying it will only consider certain types of potential developers.

"I don't see why we would tie our hands for any potential offers," Krasny said. "Later on down the line, if there was an opportunity we would, I believe, as a full board meet and vote on any sort of direction we would hold."

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The property is a long way from being sold, Tillotson said, though he's heard people suggest the county sell it for between $200,000 to $2 million. The county paid $2.3 million for it. He said the last appraisal of the property he saw "wasn't worth the paper it was written on."

The county received an appraisal of $810,000 "as is" for the land and remaining buildings last year. The appraisal compared the property to other industrial sites.

Tillotson said he wants any offer to have proper financial backing.

"As we move down the road, let's be business-like," he said. When the time comes, the county should work with a professional to sell the property rather than having people approach individual commissioners to express their interest.

"As long as we got a grant that's working to clean that place up, to me it only makes sense that you ride that grant," Tillotson said. "If the grant amounts to anything at all, it's certainly going to make it worth more money."

Collins said he was concerned about how other communities might view the county government if it considered an industrial development in a place where it wasn't wanted. He also cautioned that there are some investors who will buy property only to sit on it and not do anything with it for years in anticipation of selling it for a large gain sometime in the future. He recommended helping Tecumseh's beautification efforts "by hanging onto that property until we can make a positive move."

Bolton said the county is best suited to own the property and continue with the cleanup process, and she would listen to what Tecumseh city officials say they would support on that site.

What to do with the property is a multifaceted problem, Van Doren said. The county wants to work with its neighbors, but it is county property and the rest of the county outside of Tecumseh may have other ideas for the future of the property and the county shouldn't keep itself from considering proposals for its redevelopment.

Van Doren made a motion to form a subcommittee to meet with Tecumseh officials about the future of the property. That passed unanimously. The subcommittee will be Van Doren, Stimpson, Collins as the Ways and Means committee chair and Physical Resources committee vice chair, Krasny as the Physical Resources chair, and county administrator Kim Murphy and any staff members she wants to include.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County won't accept industrial proposals for Products site