The Ile Camera
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New site eyed for engine plant
Trenton officials remain confident of Van Horn plan
By Craig Farrand, The News-Herald
PUBLISHED: March 2, 2007
VAN BUREN TWP. —DaimlerChrysler has taken what might be the first formal step toward replacing its aging Trenton Engine Plant with a new facility near Belleville.
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On Thursday, the Inland Lakes and Streams Division of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality heard public comment on a wetlands permit application for 300 acres at Belleville and Ecorse roads, just northeast of Willow Run Airport, in Van Buren Township.
The site is owned by Belleville-Ecorse LLC, which filed the permit and would transfer the property to Chrysler if all the permitting is approved by the DEQ.
Ironically, Trenton officials were aware of the scheduled hearing weeks ago and said later they didn't think it would have a direct impact on their on-going negotiations with the automaker to build a replacement plant in Trenton.
Instead, one source close to the situation said the hearing probably was a matter of the automaker exploring all possible options for a presentation to Chrysler officials.
In fact, since the engines expected to be built at the new facility — regardless of where it is located — are scheduled to debut in 2009, a decision for the plant could come as early as next month.
Although automaker officials were in attendance, none spoke at Thursday's hearing and DaimlerChrysler spokesman Curtrise Garner said later it was too early to say whether the new plant would bring jobs into the area.
"It is something that we are certainly looking into — in terms of jobs," Garner said. "But it's a big business case that we have to make with the state, local government and the United Auto Workers' union."
Garner couldn't comment on other proposed sites.
A new engine facility is expected to replace the historic Trenton Engine Plant and will build new V-6 engines — code-named "Phoenix" — for the next generation Chrysler models that will debut in 2009.
"As far as growth, the plant will build future engines on a flexible manufacturing line," Garner said.
The hearing came only weeks after DaimlerChrysler's executive board announced that the Chrysler unit's work force would see a reduction of 13,000 hourly and salaried workers in an effort to turn the sagging automaker back to profitability.
Of the approximately 9,000 hourly positions to be eliminated across the nation, none are expected to come from the Trenton facility, which currently builds 3.3-, 3.8- and 4.0-liter V-6 engines.
Sites considered
The Van Buren site is one of six properties the automaker listed as "finalists" on its application for its new V-6 engine plant. A total of 27 sites originally were considered, according to the application.
Surprisingly, Trenton is not listed in the application as a finalist.
Of the six sites listed, four are in Downriver communities — Brownstown, Romulus and Huron Township — and two are in Van Buren Township.
Five of the six sites were "rejected" on the application for various environmental and development reasons.
The six sites listed are:
•†Willow Run No. 1: Northwest of Ecorse and Beck Road intersection, Van Buren Township.
•†Willow Run No. 2: Northeast of Ecorse and Beck Road intersection, Van Buren Township.
•†Pinnacle Park: Southwest of Pennsylvania and Vining Road intersection, Huron Township.
•†Romulus: Northwest of Wayne and North Line Road intersection, Romulus.
•†Brownstown: Northwest of King and Telegraph intersection, Brownstown Township.
•†Will Carleton Road site: Northwest of Will Carleton and Romine Road intersection, Huron Township.
The Willow Run No. 2 site is the sole one under consideration.
The public hearing was a first step in gaining state approval to develop the Van Buren brownfield site. Of the 300-acre parcel, seven wetland areas totaling five acres would be filled to make room for the new manufacturing facility.
In addition, more than 2,500 feet of an existing drain would be filled in and replaced with a new 6,100-foot drain around the site.
Don Tilton is vice president of Ann Arbor-based Environmental Consulting & Technology Inc., which was hired by DaimlerChrysler to design the plan and submit the permit application. He attended the hearing.
Tilton previously worked on mitigating wetlands at the Crosswinds Marsh site in Sumpter Township.
"These kinds of projects have been very successful in the past," Tilton said.
If the project is approved, Tilton said he will oversee the wetland mitigation and rerouting a large segment of the county-designated Apple Run Drain and a smaller segment of the Horner Drain.
What happens next?
Should the developer win approval from the DEQ — following a 60-day public review process — the next steps would involve local site planning and engineering with Van Buren Township.
The entire planning process could take up to a year before a shovel is put in the ground.
For the time being, Van Buren officials can do little except be members of a DaimlerChrysler cheering section — which is exactly what they sounded like at Thursday's hearing.
Despite the challenges surrounding the project, Bryce Kelley, Van Buren's director of planning and economic development, said it's a "very viable plan."
"The fact that (DaimlerChrysler) is considering the township is phenomenal," he said, "so we're honored and we're lucky. And, we're working hard to make it happen.
According to the permit application, the search criteria used by Chrysler (although the car company is not named) included "land characteristics, environmental, governmental, infrastructure and transportation considerations."
The application went on to say, however, that "(n)ot all criteria were weighted evenly."
Instead, "addressing the functional and economic needs of the manufacturing facility, the amount of continuous developable space, allowing for a contiguous facility footprint and proximity to a railroad line functioned as key selection criteria."
Downriver's reaction
News that Daimler-Chrysler might build its new engine plant outside the Downriver area didn't catch every local official by surprise: In his State of the City address earlier this month, Trenton Mayor Gerald Brown confirmed that his city's biggest competition was Van Buren Township.
"It's 30 percent sure that it would come to Trenton and 70 percent sure that it wouldn't," he said at the time.
From the beginning, Trenton officials have been negotiating with the automaker to build the new facility next to the existing plant on Van Horn Road.
Originally, Chrysler had asked the city to close Van Horn Road indefinitely to make room for a 980,000-square-foot expansion of the current Trenton Engine Plant. That expansion would have eliminated nearby soccer fields and taken up half of the existing parking lot.
That plan was overwhelmingly opposed by Grosse Ile residents who use the road to access their island community. But Trenton officials continued negotiations.
The original plan, for example, called for a 1.2 million-square-foot expansion of the facility, but was scaled back to accommodate the city's situation, Brown said.
Workers hear rumors
For UAW workers, the news is a mixed bag.
"Every time we turn around, Daimler is making a decision," said Monroe resident Debbie Hanning, who has been working at the Trenton facility for 22 years.
"We've got a really good group of people (here). We've been put up against plants all over the world and we stand up."
But when asked about Chrysler staying in Trenton, she wasn't optimistic: "I don't think it's gonna happen."
Instead, Hanning believes the company is going to build a new plant elsewhere, possibly in Dundee, where a Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance plant already has been built.
"I think it's going to Dundee," she said, adding that she believes a lot of Trenton workers would relocate to Dundee, including her and her family.
For Gary Weber of Brownstown, the news has been plain confusing.
"There are so many engine plant rumors going around," he said.
"We heard that it will be built on the corner of Allen and Van Horn Road; then we heard about it going down by the quarry.
"Then we heard the possibility that it will to go Willow Run."
Brownstown option
As it turned out, while negotiations continued with Trenton, behind-the-scenes steps were being taken by the automaker to explore other parcels that could house the new state-of-the-art engine plant — including a 400-acre site in Brownstown Township.
In fact, some officials saw the Brownstown site — on the west side of Telegraph Road between Sibley and King — as the best choice to keep the automaker Downriver, if it couldn't expand in Trenton.
Of the 400 acres in Brownstown, which is owned by Downriver industrialist Leonard Fritz, 130 acres would have been developed for the new Chrysler factory, with 20 acres being filled in to create the plant's construction site.
In the application, the Brownstown site was rejected primarily because of the potential impact on the unique "lake-plain prairie" grasslands found on the 400 acres.
This type of prairie is considered a rarity by state environmentalists, and is listed as such by the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.
However, a source close to the issue said the construction of a manufacturing plant on the site would not only leave the prairie alone, but would actually ensure its long-term protection.
According to the source, who asked not to be identified so as not to jeopardize the township's relationship with Chrysler, the development eventually could have led to the township taking ownership of the prairie and protecting it "for generations."
The fact is, the source said, locating the plant in Brownstown "did not have the impact on the environment they were claiming."
"Only 72 percent of the Van Buren site will be preserved," the source said, "but in Brownstown, 84 percent would have been preserved — even though more acreage would actually have been filled in."
The township's long-term concern is that if the Brownstown site remains undeveloped or encourages more dense development, the prairie's future would be jeopardized.
Comments on the application can be sent to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Land and Water Manage-ment Division, 27700 Donald Court, Warren, MI 48092-2793.
Correspondence must include reference permit application No. 07-82-0012-P.
For more information, call 1-586-753-3700.
Contributing to this report were Austen Smith, an editor for Heritage Newspapers, and Sean Dalton, a staff writer for The News-Herald News-papers.
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