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February 26, 2006EditorialAllen's involvement raises new deck issuesRevelations that state Sen. Jason Allen intervened to block a local developer's proposal for a west side parking deck must absolutely halt for now any further consideration of a competing plan by developer Michael Uzelac.City commission plans to vote on Uzelac's proposal Monday night must be shelved until a host of questions about the proposals - ones revealed in a Record-Eagle story today and old ones never addressed by the city - are resolved. They include: - Why the city manager and the executive director of the Downtown Development Authority did not inform city commissioners that there was a competing parking deck plan that would save the city an estimted $2-$3 million. - Why Allen intervened in the process and on what authority did he advise the DDA to urge developer Gerald Snowden to withdraw his proposal. - Whether the Snowden deal is better for the city, which planned to spend up to $16 million to build a four-story parking deck as part of an eight-story project proposed by Uzelac. - Allen's links to Uzelac. As reported by the Record-Eagle today, Allen accepted at least $32,000 in campaign contributions from Uzelac associates, including $20,000 from Louis P. Ferris, Jr. of Ann Arbor, who with Uzelac started Federated Properties, and more than $10,000 from James L. Wilson of Grosse Pointe Farms, with Uzelac an investor in a Petoskey development. Uzelac has credited Allen with being the "guy that originally introduced me to Traverse City" and said "He is the real reason that I am there." Two Federated Properties projects - one in Rogers City and the Uzelac project here - have between them received more than $5.6 million in Michigan Economic Development Corp. brownfield tax credits. - Why the Uzelac proposal is being fast-tracked by the DDA and the city. Uzelac has yet to produce key documents requested by the city and the city has said it can't find the tax revenue to pay off the $16 million in bonds it will cost to build the Uzelac deck. A better question, perhaps, is why this project is still being considered at all, let alone set for a Monday night vote. The fact that the existence of the Snowden plan did not surface until the 11th hour is absolutely unacceptable. This is information city residents and the city commission should have had weeks ago; if it had been up to those in charge, it would never have surfaced. Snowden on Saturday said he delivered a letter to Downtown Development Authority executive director Bryan Crough in January outlining a plan for a 500-space parking deck as part of a mixed-use development at Hall and Front streets. His plan would have cost the city an estimated $2-$3 million less than Uzelac's. Snowden said he withdrew the letter the "very next day" but would not say why. Also Saturday, however, Allen admitted that he told Crough that Snowden should take back his offer. "It is my understanding that I made the suggestion that it be withdrawn," Allen told the Record-Eagle. But the Snowden plan was never shown to city commissioners, even though city manager Richard Lewis was aware of it. Months ago Snowden had submitted plans for a development along the Boardman River that may or may not include a parking deck. Despite the fact that Lewis and Crough both knew the plan existed, they never told city officials. It is well past time that this process, which has been shrouded in unanswered questions from the beginning, be aired out, starting Monday. It is also well past time for quiescent city commissioners, who have been all but invisible so far, stand up and do their jobs and ask some tough questions. Residents expect answers, and now.
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