Flint Futures: Alternative Futures for Brownfield Redevelopment in Flint, MI

Abstract

Our project addresses social, economic, and ecological factors on a former automotive manufacturing site in downtown Flint, along the banks of the concrete channelized Flint River, where 130 acres of contaminated vacant lots perpetuate a dead zone at the heart of a formerly vibrant city. Using a normative scenarios approach and through participation with community stakeholders, two scenarios were developed for the site, based on different assumptions about development pressures, site contamination, remediation strategies, ecological improvements, and circulation patterns. Each of the two scenarios led to two, phased alternative futures looking out to 2040. Scenario 1, Flint’s Urban Riverfront, develops the site in ten years through a holistic remediation strategy to allow for quicker and more development of the site, in response to Flint’s assumed growth, creating a revitalized urban corridor focused on an ecologically-improved riverfront. Scenario 2, Flint River State Park, utilizes phytoremediation to clean the site over a twenty five year period of time, assuming Flint stabilizes, and later transitions into a State Park focused on ecological restoration and recreational amenity. Our alternative futures focus on ecological restoration of the Flint River, connecting open space and habitat nodes, brownfield remediation, sustainable stormwater management, mixed-use redevelopment, and the application of Low Impact Development practices on a contaminated site.