I know there is a thread on this somewhere but I couldn't find it. So I'm a bit curious to see what people are thinking about these large scale blight clearing projects and ownership of the parcels. We have Bill Pulte clearing large swaths of land for reclamation; Dan Gilbert is working on a board to determine appropriation of demolition funds that should clear a considerable amount of land; now Hantz has finally gotten the go ahead to move ahead with his large scale plans to clear 1500 parcels and convert them to a tree farm/urban farm.

This plan seems to have caught the most flack, with a lot of the attention going toward the "one person shouldn't own that much land" argument. I'd think people would be more concerned with Dan Gilbert owning millions of feet of prime real estate in downtown than someone owning 1500 parcels pf land outside of downtown. It seems like he has a viable plan for the otherwise trashed property. Why so much controversy over what he does with the land? I understand there will be those opposed to urban farming and would like to see a different use of the land. But it's not as if anyone else was banging down the door to redevelop that land into housing or office space. It's property back on the tax rolls.

I'm interested to hear comments on this project from people.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2.../BIZ/310180088