On the "green zone" redevelopment plan slated for Saginaw, Cindy Winland, a Saginaw County Brownfield Authority coordinator, told the Saginaw City Councilthat the city is one of eight recipients targeted for EPA assistance.
 
While Saginaw won't receive funds, the community will receive "brains" in the form of EPA advisers, she said.
Winland said EPA official will travel to Saginaw to help developers initiate a 10-year plan to transform a blighted corner of the city near the former First Ward into a "Green Zone," featuring trees and plants in place of a housing zone once dedicated largely to General Motors workers.

The federal grant is aimed at helping with "infrastructure constraints, protect water quality, set development standards and create options for housing and transportation," an EPA statement reads.

"This fits right in with (the 10-year) plan," said Odail Thorns, Saginaw's development director. Thorns' department and the Saginaw County Land Bank Authority share responsibility for a $17.4 million federal blight fight program aimed at reducing housing eyesores in three Saginaw neighborhoods including the northeast district.

Winland said EPA officials chose Saginaw as a recipient of the redevelopment assistance in part because of its detailed Saginaw Area Geographic Information System Authority department, which maps the region's properties and includes hundreds of other elements such as billing history and zoning status.
She called the GIS department "one of the best in the state."

Winland said she plans to continue working with EPA officials as they decide who to send and when to send them.
The other communities receiving assistance include Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Salt Lake City; Wheat Ridge, Colo.; Concord, N.H.; Cumberland and Cobb counties in Georgia; and a statewide project in Rhode Island.