CALLAWAY CONFLICT: Residents unite to fight Blight, oppose Callaway County/Fulton EEZ

Columbia's newspapers look the other way while another blight  fight rages next door

 

COLUMBIA, 3/30/13 (Beat Byte) -- Taking a cue from Columbia -- and the Columbia Heart Beat -- residents of Fulton and Callaway County have mounted opposition to an EEZ/Blight proposal from that area's version of REDI, the Fulton Area Development Corporation.  Their effort joins communities around the nation fighting blight decrees and the spectre of eminent domain they raise.

"Your work on EEZ has been very helpful to me and others who are opposing the EEZ being proposed in Callaway County," Fulton resident Beverly Martin told the Heart Beat. 

 

The same issues that defeated Blight/EEZ in Columbia and Boone County are front and center in the Fulton fight, including use of outdated census data, a problem revealed by Mizzou statistician Tracy Greever-Rice that REDI directors refused to recognize.  

Like the Rolla fight before it, the two local newspapers and local television stations in Columbia are not reporting the Callaway conflict.    Instead, the Trib and the Missourian have preferred a different story line:  that only Columbia -- with its "engaged citizens," in the words of Mayor Bob McDavid -- has fought the tax incentive, property-blighting plan. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth.   These stories -- mostly from the Fulton Sun -- describe the ongoing Fulton/Callaway fight.

Property rights group formed in opposition to EEZ

A Callaway County Property Rights Coalition has been organized to oppose any proposed Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ) in Callaway County.

 

Original EEZ map scrapped; new proposal delayed by state

Bruce Hackmann, president of the Fulton Area Development Corporation (FADC), said the map proposed last November was based on the 2000 census and no longer is eligible because 2010 census data must now be used.

 

FADC suspends EEZ proposal
The Fulton Area Development Corporation (FADC) has decided to suspend its application for an Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ) in Callaway County.

Opposition develops to planned enterprise zone
Opposition has developed to a proposal by the Fulton Area Development Corporation to designate about 20 percent of Callaway County as an Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ).