Yesterday, the Wayne County Circuit Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order halting the City of Detroit sale of the State Fairgrounds 142-acre parcel of land.
The suit was filed in Wayne County Circuit Court by State Fairgrounds Development Coalition, Frank Hammer, and Karen Hammer. A hearing on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction is scheduled for November 9, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge, Honorable Sheila Ann Gibson.
“The stakes are too high, especially with environmental and health impacts, for Plaintiffs to be deprived of their opportunity to receive benefits and a means to hold the developer, Amazon, and other corporations that stand to profit accountable under the Community Benefits Ordinance (CBO),” said Tonya Myers Phillips, Director of Partnerships and Development at the Sugar Law Center.
“Detroiters were entitled by the Detroit CBO to a Community Benefits Agreement. We will continue that fight, and look forward to the hearing on November 9th,” says Frank Hammer, Co-Chair of State Fairgrounds Development Coalition.
Upon review by an independent appraiser, it appears the City of Detroit has improperly added and conflated a reimbursement by the developer for the City’s contractual obligation to build a transit center with the fair market value of the land. The valuation of the land and the construction of the transit center are separate and distinct transactions and should not be conflated to evade the Community Benefits Ordinance.
The lawsuit includes allegations that the City of Detroit did not comply with Detroit’s Community Engagement Ordinance. The City of Detroit did not provide the statutorily required notice of a proposed amendment to the City Master Plan. The City of Detroit did not provide proper notice of when it would vote on selling the largest parcel of contiguous public land in the City.
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