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From left, Montcalm Economic Development Corp. Senior Community Planner Julia Turnbull, MEDC Senior Community Development Manager Sue DeVries, Greenville Mayor Jeff Scoby, City Councilperson Larry Moss, Assistant City Manger Heather Feazel, City Manager George Bosanic, Councilperson Claude Johnson, Councilperson Jim Barrus and MEDC Senior Redevelopment Services Director Daniel Leonard pose for a photo after the MEDC representatives celebrated the city for becoming a certified Redevelopment Ready Community during Thursday’s Coalition of Greater Greenville meeting. — DN Photo | Cory Smith
GREENVILLE — Following work that spans back eight years, city officials are celebrating recognition as a certified Redevelopment Ready Community by the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
During Thursday’s meeting of the Coalition of Greater Greenville, hosted by the Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce, representatives from the MEDC delivered a presentation in which they celebrated the city’s achievement of reaching certified status.
The RRC program is a voluntary initiative by the MEDC to help communities in Michigan become more attractive for investment and economic development.
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Communities designated as certified by the MEDC have worked to streamline their development processes, making it easier to attract and retain businesses by meeting a standard of community and economic development best practices.
RRC certification signifies that a community has implemented comprehensive planning, transparent zoning and efficient development approval processes.
In 2022, Greenville was among the first communities in Michigan to receive the “essential” designation and now joins 84 communities in being certified.
While Greenville reached its certification status in June, City Manager George Bosanic said he wanted to celebrate the accomplishment during COGG’s first meeting of the 2025-2026 season.
“We wanted to celebrate this at COGG because when this group first started in the 90s, the core tenants were communication, collaboration, coming together and communicating and those are the same tenants as the MEDC,” he said. “This group was formed to have discussions on how to streamline things, to make things more efficient in the community. So I thought it was kind of fitting to invite the MEDC here today to celebrate this. I wanted them to see all of you, because this is what we do in Greenville. COGG is very unique and it’s still going strong today. That’s because everybody here cares about each other, and we do things together.”
Bosanic said the city would not have achieved its certified status were it not for the work of Assistant City Manager Heather Feazel, who began working on the process shortly after she was hired as an administrative assistant.
“I also want to give a shoutout to Heather,” Bosanic said. “This has been her baby for eight years, to accomplish this. Without her, we’d likely still be at it.”
In recognizing the city’s achievement, MEDC Senior Community Planner Julia Turnbull said in addition to Greenville being better prepared on its own to handle inquiries from prospective businesses and industrial clients, it can now tap into additional resources at the MEDC.
“Anyone looking to potentially do a project in Greenville, from the smallest site plan to larger projects, you want a predictable experience for those who are coming in, that they know what’s going on with clear information online,” she said. “You want no barriers for those who might be emerging as a developer.”
Turnbull said additional benefits of being RRC certified include featuring a locally driven, streamlined development review process, ongoing technical assistance and support from the RRC team, access to technical assistance match funding, being well positioned for community-driven development and access to the Redevelopment Services Team.
MEDC Senior Redevelopment Services Director Daniel Leonard also applauded Greenville’s accomplishment.
“The communities that choose to embark on this volunteer program, it’s no small lift,” he said. “These are communities that wanted to invest in themselves, and we wanted to invest in them too.”
Having received a tour of Greenville from Bosanic, Leonard said he sees a bright future for the city.
“I think there’s a lot of momentum here you’ve already generated, but additional resources we can bring to give another push,” he said. “We have relationships that we’ve developed statewide and we then try to reach out to different contractors, different investment teams, on a much more macro scale. We’re trying to position you for a pipeline of new projects to come, looking for different ways we can jumpstart Greenville.
This is one more of those boxes you can check that will put you ahead of other communities,” he continued. “That will align you not only with our tools on a regular basis, but hopefully in the future, other agencies such as MDOT, EGLE and the DNR will look to this designation as one of those things that separates you from the rest of the pack.”
