| By Neil Johnson, reporter/anchor, WCLO Radio |

Details are scant, but the city of Janesville has announced it intends to buy the idled, 250-acre General Motors site.

The city announced in a press release today that it’s readying a relocation order, which it says is a first step to an “18-month-long” process to buy out the property, which has sat idle since 2009, when GM shuttered operations at its auto plant.

The move comes after the city earlier this month discussed a property acquisition in the city’s TIF 42, which includes the entire former General Motors plant and the adjacent JATCO auto haul-away yard.

Both sites are cleared of former auto-building operations, and have been owned by St. Louis-based Commercial Development Company since late 2017.

City manager Kevin Lahner said in a news release today the plan would put the city in control of its future on the south side.

“These are vital next steps to revitalize the former GM area, a major hub of our community. This is an opportunity to continue to rebuild our legacy,” he wrote. “The benefits of this step allow us to control our destiny, access to other funding sources, and build a vision together. Collectively, we can create a site that is ready to market, develop, see additional investments in the surrounding areas, and ultimately improve the quality of life.”

Details of the planned acquisition haven’t been revealed, although Kevin Lahner planned to drop more details on a local radio talk show on Wednesday morning.

One city council member declined comment to WCLO Radio News this morning, saying they weren’t sure whether the plan had been released publicly.

The city’s economic development office also did not immediately respond to WCLO on inquiries on the emerging plan.

Commercial Development had undertaken a years-long, multimillion-dollar demolition and cleanup of more than 2-million square feet of former auto plant property, some of which had operated on the site for almost a century. The DNR has laid out an environmental closure letter on the property, but that report identifies some spots that are considered environmental liabilities.

Commercial Development has brought forth speculative plans to turn part of the former GM site into an intermodal rail yard, a move the company and city officials say would alleviate some shipping bottlenecks in the city of Chicago and throughout the Midwest.

But so far, no major plans to launch redevelopment at the site have emerged publicly, even though the city and Commercial Development had ballyhooed the site as the “Centennial Business Park.”

The city designated the site as a Tax Increment Financing District last year, a legal framework that would allow redevelopment to be bankrolled through new tax value that redevelopment would create.

Acquisition of the property would make the site geared similar to other undeveloped land the city holds as business or industrial park properties.

City economic development officials have said for years the site has large-scale rail infrastructure, which would gear the site for rail use. But those same officials have said it’s unlikely that any redevelopment of the site would happen in a massive, fell swoop.

Use plans for the property show a variety of potential uses linked to light industry, although parts of the property have options for residential re-development.

Commercial Development has attempted a few times in the past five years to sell the property off, including at auction. It’s not clear what arrangement the city would use to procure a property that’s got environmental liabilities.

Now, the site stands bare and fenced off.