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"Lies About Proposal B"

...and the Lying Builders Who Tell Them

October/November Issue, 2003

The sprawl developers have promised to spend whatever it takes to defeat the open space proposals on the November 4 ballot, and they’re already using the same tactics they used in 1998 to defeat that year’s county land-preservation plan. They’ve hired Marketing Resource Group, consultants to the tobacco and waste industry lobbies, and have begun spreading disinformation and confusion.

Here’s what they’re saying,
followed by the facts:

What They Say:
Thirty years is too long a time
for a millage.
The Facts: Thirty years may not be long enough. When open space is lost, it’s lost forever. Many publicly funded projects – including bridges, water systems, transit, buildings, and others – are paid off over 30 years or more. Open space can be preserved this way too, so that people who live then will help share the cost of saving land.

What They Say:
The greenbelt just subsidizes the townships, which pay nothing.
The Facts: Ann Arbor would only pay only about one-third of the cost of preserving land in the townships, with the rest of the money coming from local, state, federal, and private sources.

What They Say:
The program will make housing unaffordable in Ann Arbor.
The Facts: Housing is already expensive in the Ann Arbor area, but the cost of land is a minor factor in home prices. In fact, the home of one of the country’s most successful open space preservation programs – Lancaster County, Pennsylvania – has the least expensive housing in the state.

What They Say:
The program will just push sprawl further out from Ann Arbor.
The Facts: Sprawl has already spread far from Ann Arbor. The greenbelt will actually help guide development back inside Ann Arbor, where city officials are looking to encourage greater density, and to neighboring Ypsilanti, which is promoting redevelopment.

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