$75M state grant to help clean up dirty sites in Rochester Hills

ROCHESTER HILLS — The city of Rochester Hills was awarded $75 million from the state to clean up contaminated sites in the community over the next three years.

“That was probably the biggest win in the history of the city, in terms of receiving a grant,” Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett said. “We worked extremely hard to get those monies to come back to the city of Rochester Hills.”

The city, Barnett explained, has quite a few former landfills — including along School Road, Dequindre, Hamlin and more. A priority, he said, is the 100-acre Madison Park property, located across from Innovation Hills.

“These properties aren’t developed … because they are nasty, dirty sites — and this money is going to go to clean those sites, and, at some point, get them ready for some kind of redevelopment, something that would create jobs and add to the tax base,” said Barnett.

Barnett said the funding is a win for the environment, with cleaner sites; a win for residents, with new job opportunities; and a win for the city, with an increased tax base from the investment.

Tom Wackerman, the city’s environmental consultant from ASTI Environmental, said there’s two areas in the city currently covered by the grant and the team is discussing with EGLE expanding that into other city-owned properties.

“Those two areas include 102 parcels, 679 acres, 11 former landfills and a Superfund site, so it’s quite a big undertaking. It’s bigger than, I think, anything EGLE has ever done before — certainly in terms of their grant program, but also in terms of the area that’s being covered. We have $75 million, and of that, $74.25 million is available for us to spend, because the rest goes to EGLE for their administrative costs.”

The city is partnering with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, which must approve all reimbursement activities.

“They are really the experts, so they are going to be heavily involved in making sure the dollars are appropriately spent. … All of the really technical cleanup, all the aspects of making it safer and meeting all of the environmental standards that need to be met will be overseen by EGLE,” noted Barnett.

Rochester Hills City Planner Sara Roediger said she’s been working with Wackerman to figure out how to begin distributing the funds.

“He knows what we need to do to maximize our cleanup efforts and maximize dollars,” said Roediger.

Wackerman said the team has been extremely busy.

“This was only authorized on Aug. 22 by the Legislature, and it was signed by the mayor on Sept. 29 — that’s lightning speed to get $75 million,” he said.

Since then, the team has held four workshops to develop policies, procedures and ranking criteria.

“We now have a full set of documents. We’re ready to get this process started,” Wackerman said. “Those documents include general policies and procedures for getting the grant. They include a grant application and the application form. They include a ranking criteria once the application comes in, and they include a subgrant agreement — a very important part of all this, in that anybody who’s applying for money needs to have an agreement with the city to make sure they comply with both the city’s requirements and EGLE’s requirements and that they do what they’re told and what they said they were going to do.”

The city’s team developed four objectives when considering properties to allocate funding.

“The first is to provide substantive improvements in reducing historical threats to public health or the environment — that’s the No. 1 and first reason that we’re doing this. No. 2 is to provide a potential beneficial effect in the area that would not have occurred without the incentives. No. 3, to incorporate a preference for source control, active remediation or mitigation beyond what is required for due-care obligations. And No. 4, be consistent with the city’s intended uses, as defined in the city’s master plan, zoning requirements, and as deemed appropriate to ensure a desirable and cohesive development within the surrounding community.”

The information went live for applicants Jan. 2, and all activities have to be done by July 15, 2027, in order to comply with the state grant, which ends Sept. 30, 2027.

City Council Vice President David Walker said the task is unprecedented.

“The size and magnitude of what we’re about to embark on has never been done before, and it’s really an overwhelming task,” he said.

The team plans to provide monthly progress reports to the city, quarterly financial and progress reports to EGLE, and quarterly updates to the City Council along the way.

“The cool thing about this is all the monies have to be spent in three years, so this money is going to be deployed and we’re going to get a lot of dirty sites cleaned up in the city — and that’s an absolutely transformational opportunity for Rochester Hills,” said Barnett.

“When we’re done with this, we will have an environmentally cleaner city than we did going into it, and that is a huge win on behalf of the city,” City Council President Ryan Deel added.

For more information, call the city of Rochester Hills at (248) 656-4600.