3 days ago
Some Zeeland neighbors want to block Mead Johnson expansion
ZEELAND, Mich. (WOOD) — While some property owners have gotten more than $1 million from Mead Johnson for land that the company needs to expand on East Main Street, Margie and Earl Klein aren't selling.
Some neighbors say they hope the holdouts will help block the expansion, which they fear will destroy their neighborhood.
The Kleins have lived since 1973 in their home about 150 yards west of the baby formula plant — at the heart of the company's controversial expansion plans. They raised two kids there. Her parents lived there in the 1920s.
'We still walk on the hardwood floors that my parents did,' Margie Klein said on Friday.
In January, she answered a knock on her door. It was a stranger from Mead Johnson.
'He sat down on our couch and said, 'We want your property.' 'Really?' 'And all of this on both sides of you, and we want everything on Washington Avenue, also,'' she recalled.
Mead Johnson, now owned by a United Kingdom-based company, says it needs to modernize. Its $836 million plan calls for an expansion that would mean leveling several homes on the north side of East Main Street, including the Kleins'.
The company, which makes Enfamil, released renderings at a meeting this week. The plan requires the city to rezone some of the land from residential to industrial. A hearing is scheduled before the city's Planning Commission Thursday.
The company is the third-biggest taxpayer in Zeeland and employs 500 people.
'Mead Johnson Nutrition takes pride in our deep roots in the Zeeland community where we have been producing some of the nation's most trusted baby formula products for more than 100 years,' the company said in a statement released on Friday. 'This investment in modernizing our operations in Zeeland reflects our commitment to sustained job creation and economic growth here in our local community, while also ensuring we maintain industry-leading quality standards and remain a trusted partner in pediatric nutrition.'
'Mead Johnson is important to the community, we want to keep them here,' City Manager Timothy Klunder said. 'We certainly don't want to see a desire where they would have to leave, but we also want then to do it in the right way.'
Neighbors have planted signs and launched a website in opposition.
Already, the company has bought out most of the Kleins' closest neighbors: One said he sold his home for $600,000 and must be out by July 31. Property records show the company paid $1.5 million for a house and barn a few doors away with an assessed value of less than $300,000. Two properties around the corner went for a combined $3.7 million — about 10 times their assessed value.
The Kleins won't say exactly how much Mead Johnson has offered. It's somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million.
'We love our place, but we don't want to sell to Mead Johnson because they are pushy and demanding,' Klein said.
Asked if she was holding out for more money, she responded: 'Oh heavens, no.'
'This has nothing to do with the money,' she continued. 'It's the whole principle of the thing. We have lived here for decades. We are so involved in the city of Zeeland, chamber of commerce back in the day. We love this town.'
Jonathan Funckes lives on the south side of East Main Street. His home would face the expanded factory.
'I'll be looking at Industrial 2 (zoning),' he said. 'When we bought this, this was all residential.'
When Funckes moved in 16 years ago, he said, the neighborhood was mostly rentals, some marred by graffiti.
'We've all in the last dozen years really improved it and brought the neighborhood up and are doing things to improve and make it look better, only to have the city just destroy our property values,' he said.
Some neighbors said they fear city leaders have already decided.
'Why would you purchase these (properties) way above tax-assessed values if you didn't have some sort of promise?' Sue VandenBeldt, who lives a few doors away. 'My concern is that the city has sold our neighborhood out. I think my big concern is that we've lost trust in our officials we elected.'
As for Jonathan Funckes, 'We're going to be fighting it, but at this point I'm preparing to sell, because I've had enough.'
Perhaps, he said, the best hope is the Kleins not selling.
'That's the only saving grace at this point,' he said.
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