The City of Plymouth is disbanding its Downtown Revitalization Committee.
Mayor Mark Senter announced the change to the Common Council Monday, “I have been talking to the president the last couple weeks, President Dave Morrow. We decided that rather than be redundant, we’re going to turn everything over to Discover Plymouth, which would be the Main Street organization.”
The mayor says the committee has served its purpose. “We started in early 2010, and it was more of a think tank than any committee or board or commission that we have here,” Senter said. “But a lot of good things have come out of that committee the last six years, including River Park Square. The thoughts of doing something down there were in the works for a long, long time. I know the Revitalization Committee was a big part of that.”
But one project planned for Downtown Plymouth continued to draw opposition from one council member Monday. Gary Cook cast the lone dissenting vote for the creation of a fund for a TIF district being established for the South Gateway apartment project. The $11.5-million project calls for the construction of a 60-unit apartment complex on the south bank of the Yellow River, east of Michigan Street. It will be funded in part by $1.4 million from the Regional Cities Initiative, as well as $1.5 million appropriated by the city.
South Gateway and similar housing projects were a highlight of the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation’s annual report, delivered to the council Monday. Cook told MCEDC President and CEO Jerry Chavez that he initially supported the project but reconsidered after hearing concerns from several constituents. “We as a city were asked to put forward a lot of money for this project, and yet I don’t even know who the developer is,” Cook said. “If the developer walked through that door, I wouldn’t know who they were. Never met him. So how are we to want to jump on board, so to speak, and get the ball rolling?”
Chavez responded that time was of the essence, in order to organize the maximum amount of funding for the project. “We’ll have plenty of time to mold this clay that we call South Gate,” he said. “We’ll have plenty of time to say what color it is, how many rooms does it have, what is the price point. We were in an effort to try to get this into a situation where we could bring additional dollars to the table, we had to find somebody.” Chavez added that the project has been under consideration for many years, but action was needed to move it ahead.
