Developers Belted In Ann Arbor

Voters easily pass an initiative to establish a greenbelt tax around the city.

1 minute read

November 7, 2003, 12:00 PM PST

By David Gest


"By a 2-to-1 margin, [Ann Arbor voters] approved a tax to pay for buying land outside the city limits...The greenbelt millage -- which replaces an expiring tax that acquired parkland inside the city -- is expected to raise $84 million over 30 years and $1.9 million in its very first year. Two-thirds of that will be used to buy land or to buy the development rights to existing farm land...The Ann Arbor tax lobbed a direct hit at real estate developers, who had mounted an expensive campaign to defeat the proposal...[the millage] won't seize property from legal owners. It respects property rights -- and the need for people to have forests and cornfields and parks around them."

Thanks to David Gest

Thursday, November 6, 2003 in The Detroit News

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