Smart Growth News

Michigan

Trust Fund to Give Old GM Sites a New Face

The Obama administration recently proposed a trust fund to clean up old General Motors sites left abandoned due to the company's bankruptcy last year. Manufacturing facilities and offices will be transformed into ''productive assets for your towns and communities,'' said the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers.

The trust fund will pay for nearly 90 GM properties in 14 states. Most of the sites are in Michigan. The total cost is expected to be more than $800 million.

The trust fund will supply jobs to local communities, at least in the short term. Long-term impacts will be seen as nearby property values increase and industrial sites are re-used. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm hopes the restructured sites will attract wind turbines and solar panel production facilities and other clean energy production facilities such as battery production.   5/18/2010

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/

Detroit Planning to Downsize

Detroit’s mayor and City Council are looking at downsizing the city ''in order to save it,'' and now they face the arduous task of prioritizing which neighborhoods should be saved at the expense of others. The city recently completed a survey of its 133 square miles and 350,000 parcels. The report is seen as a key tool in prioritizing viable neighborhoods and accelerating the clearance of blighted areas and the movement of residences out of these areas.

As noted in this article in The Detroit News, the City of Detroit was built to accommodate two million residents and could contain the cities of San Francisco, Boston and Manhattan combined within its boarders. The city currently is home to 900,000 people and declining, with large swaths of the city already abandoned. The issue of downsizing is politically sensitive in the city, with many residents uncertain who would decide which areas of the city were still viable and the methods the city government would use to force the relocation of residents. ''There is sometimes controversy if only a few areas are prioritized,'' said John T. Metzer, an urban planner who has taught at Michigan State University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Despite the controversy, many believe the city needs to take some kind of action to deal with the city’s problems. John George, who runs Motor City Blight Busters, said he believe it is ''time to get serious'' about downsizing the city. ''If you don't start somewhere, you will never finish,'' George said. ''It's so easy to stand at the side of the road and throw rocks at the parade.''   2/20/2010

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Farmland Preservation Helps Agriculture, Frees Funds for Urban Reinvestments

Although some real estate agents, home builders and others threatened Kent County commissioners with ''a political cost'' for approving preservation of 25,000 of the county’s 170,000 rural acres in years ahead, the program passed on a 13-6 vote last month. Despite ''cruel'' economic times and budgetary cuts, the Grand Rapids Press Editorial Board notes, commissioners set aside $275,000 in seed money for the program this year, expecting to leverage almost $4 million in matching grants from foundations and other groups, with about three dozen farms, which have already applied for aid, ready to keep a total of 3,000 acres undeveloped.

''This isn’t just a program for rural Kent County. It also helps Grand Rapids and other cities, which for too long have been hurt by systematic disinvestment,'' the editorial board points out. ''Farmland preservation can help direct smart growth to where expensive infrastructure, including water, sewer, road and services, already exists.''

Another big plus is job creation, the board says, citing a recent report from Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute. According to the report, West Michigan farming is a $2.4 billion business, providing 26,000 jobs and $579 million in labor income for Kent and seven nearby counties, with another 5 percent growth in sales expected to add 1,300 jobs, $120 million in agricultural output, and $5.2 million in tax revenue. ''Once the benefits of preservation start mounting,'' the editorial board concludes, ''many residents will stop asking 'why?' and start wondering, 'What took us so long?'''   1/3/2010

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/

Congress Approves Funding for Light Rail Project in Detroit

A consortium of public and private interests have come together to fund the creation of a 3.4-mile light rail line in downtown Detroit. Over the past year, millions of dollars have been donated to the project by private sources and Congress recently authorized federal funding to complete the project, according to this article in Thetransportpolitic.com. Is creating a public-private partnership like the one taking place in Detroit is the future of mass transit financing?

The group of non-profit and private investors, called M1 Rail, has contributed $125 million towards the project to build a light rail line down Woodward Avenue. The project is unique in that the city has consider the funds raised by this private group to be part of the local share required by transit projects to gain additional federal funding. Using federal funds will allow the project to be fully financed but the author notes: ''This sets an interesting precedent: private companies, in this case working with non-profit motivation, can attract federal funding for an extension of their project.''

The author further notes that, had M1 Rail simply donated the money to the City of Detroit, this question of having a private source of funding would be solved. However, given the state of the city’s government, it is likely M1 simply does not trust the city to use the funds wisely. As a result, any transit system constructed would likely be built and operated by M1 in the initial stages. The author wonders if this type of situation would encourage private interests to develop the initial stages of transit projects, then reap the benefits when the federal government stepped in to finish the project: ''Shouldn’t cities be the decision-makers when it comes to transportation investments, and if so, is there any role for private groups at all?''   12/21/2009

Resource(s): www.thetransportpolitic.com/

Revitalized European Cities Might Provide Answer to Detroit’s Recovery

The city of Detroit has become synonymous with the economic restructuring taking place in the United States, including deindustrialization, decentralization, and globalization. As a result, Detroit has entered into a half century period of protracted social and economic decline creating what many consider to be a ''dystopian disaster.'' Since 1950, no city has seen a larger population decline than Detroit, losing nearly half its population. The city is also now one of the most segregated and poorest metropolitan areas in the nation, with the central city 82 percent African American and unemployment near 28 percent. As this article in The New Republic notes, ''in [any] key measures of economic vitality in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan regions, Detroit finishes dead last.''

Although the situation in Detroit may seem grim, the New Republic notes that many European cities have suffered under the same circumstances and have recently come out ahead after the process of deindustrialization and economic collapse. Cities like Belfast, once an important industrial center in Northern Ireland, suffered not only economic decline but also religious violence. However, over the five years it has seen economic output increase 35 percent as the city has shifted to services, design and technology related jobs.

Turin, Italy, also provides an example of how Detroit might right itself. Once the car capital of Italy, automobiles accounting for 80 percent of the city’s industrial output, Turin fell on hard times as manufactures moved to Eastern Europe for cheaper labor. Turin’s population plummeted 30 percent in 25 years and went into deep debt. In 1993, the city elected a reformist mayor who outlined 84 actions Turin would take to spur development by 2014. The city recognized its tremendous asset of individuals with industrial design backgrounds and invested money in creating business incubators and research labs to take advantage of this potential. The plan worked and Turin has increased economic activity to the highest it had been in the last half century. The new economy was based around design of not just automobiles, but aerospace, cinematography, and textiles.

Bilbao in the Basque region of Spain also provides an excellent example of how a previously industrial city has managed to turn its economy around and build off a base of existing assets. The city and federal government of Spain invested heavily in retooling the infrastructure of Bilbao, a new metro system, airport, tram line, and sewer system all allowed the city to reinvent itself and open access to revitalizing the cities long neglected waterfront district. A Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim museum added a cultural relevance to the city and helped expand its potential role as a tourist destination.

The article notes that Detroit has, like many of these European cities, ''good bones,'' assets that have gone underutilized and have a high potential for redevelopment as tools for a new economy. New Federal investments in high speed rail and transit lines, along with changes in city land use policy toward a smart growth code, might help Detroit turn itself around. As the author notes, ''Detroit’s leaders must manage expectations. It took half a century for the city to get this low. It won’t turn around in a four-year political cycle… To allow Detroit to continue its march toward death would come at significant costs, both human and economic. For Detroit to die, especially in the face of such tested methods for saving cities, would be an American tragedy.''   12/9/2009

Resource(s): http://www.tnr.com/

Adrian, Michigan, Saves $1M By Turning Old Plant Into New Complex

Purchasing and renovating an existing facility for its parks and forestry building, rather than building a new facility, has proved a lucrative decision for Adrian, Michigan. The city bought a former manufacturing facility for about $500,000, added some $900,000 for renovations and created its new parks and forestry building, a complex ''more than three times as large as the previous facility.'' City Administrator Dane Nelson said, ''For the first time ever, we're able to get all our vehicles inside and keep them dry and heated a bit.''

The 33,000-square-foot building houses nine full-time and 14 seasonal Parks & Forestry employees, 14 trucks, three tractors and other equipment. Mark Gasche, director of parks and recreation, estimated that the city saved ''about $1 million compared to building a new facility.'' Adrian used ''money...from funds the city set aside and from a bond issue that is also paying for other municipal projects...including the relocation of city hall.''   11/4/2009

Resource(s): http://www.lenconnect.com/

Urban Farmers Grow Food in Detroit

To the average eye, Detroit looks like a ruined former automobile capital, dotted by abandoned homes, empty lots and bare factories. But to Cornelius Williams, Detroit is one gigantic farm.

Cornelius Williams comes from a long line of black farmers from southwest Michigan. He now teaches Detroit residents how to grow fruit and vegetables on vacant lots, and to make money from what they grow.

The G.R.O.W. Collaborative looks for Detroit residents already involved in urban gardening, and helps them buy vacant land. Up to 600 farmers have taken over empty lots. About a third of those are in the collaborative.   10/8/2009

Resource(s): http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/08/pm-detroit-market/

Remediating Blighted Properties: Genesee County Land Bank Shows How It's Done

Its socioeconomic drive winning it the 2007 Harvard University/Fannie Mae Foundation Innovations in American Government Award for Affordable Housing, the Genesee County Land Bank (Michigan), founded in 2002 and led ever since by County Treasurer Dan Kildee, has become an increasingly popular model for remediation of blight and abandoned properties ''at a time when most cities are dealing with more foreclosures,'' writes Detroit Free Press politics reporter Kathleen Grey, quoting Atlanta's Emory University Law Professor Frank Alexander, director of its Affordable Housing and Community Development project, who expects the recent federal Housing and Recovery Act to spur land banks nationwide.

''I imagine by the end of 2009,'' he said, ''we will easily see 100 to 200 local governments with land banks.''

The Genesee County Land Bank, the reporter writes, takes over properties seized by the county for unpaid property taxes, sells those in better shape, and invests the money in blighted areas of the county seat, Flint, its economy crippled by the domestic auto industry slide since the 1970s and its population down from 196,000 in 1960 to about 113,000 last year.

The bank has sold some 1,600 properties for $6.4 million so far, many to adjacent homeowners, and used the money to green vacant Flint lots, demolish some abandoned houses and reconstruct others, create pocket parks, and set incentives for downtown redevelopment projects.

One currently under way involves reclamation of the historic 250-room Durant Hotel, empty for more than 30 years, for 93 apartments, a ground-floor restaurant and bar.

''The land bank is changing the conditions and aesthetic in Flint,'' County Treasurer Kildee pointed out, happy for transformation of abandoned properties into community gardens and other assets.

According to a 2006 Michigan State University study, the reporter notes, all these city improvements boosted property values countywide by more than $100 million.

More on the Genesee County Land Bank at www.thelandbank.org. -- Detroit Free Press, USA Today   7/9/2009

Resource(s): www.freep.com/ ; www.usatoday.com/

''Drastic'' Measures May Be Necessary to Consolidate Flint

A prosperous city at completion of a 1965 master plan that projected growth from 200,000 to 350,000 people, old car-making Flint now has 110,000 residents, about a third impoverished, and is laying off police and firefighters, with public school closures likely to come next due to a $15 million budget deficit, and Acting Mayor Michael K. Brown talking about ''shutting down'' whole city quadrants at a Rotary Club lunch last month, reports New York Times writer David Streitfeld, to condense population, stores and services in the most viable of its 75 neighborhoods sprawled over 34 square miles.

''A lot of people remember the past, when we were a successful city that others looked to as a model, and they hope. But you can't base government policy on hope,'' stressed Flint City Council President Jim Ananich. ''We have to do something drastic.''

A drastic municipal contraction became workable in Michigan thanks to its recent law that let county land banks take over properties foreclosed for delinquent taxes, ''giving communities a powerful tool for change,'' the writer observes, mentioning Indianapolis, Indiana and Little Rock, Arkansas among other cities on the same track. ''Shrinkage is moving from idea to a fact,'' said University of California-Berkeley Shrinking Cities in A Global Perspective Program Director Karina Pallagst. ''There's finally the insight that some cities just don't have a choice.''

That what's Flint leaders have realized as they launched the 1965 plan update, the writer notes, with Genesee County Treasurer Dan Kildee, the local land bank chief executive and the top spokesman for the shrink-Flint movement, likely to play a crucial role when the time for decisions comes.

''Decline in Flint is like gravity, a fact of life,'' he told the writer. ''We need to control it instead of letting it control us.'' Showing the writer a block near downtown with a potential for renewal, he doesn't have much hope for another one further out with only a few houses left and an almost obliterated sidewalk.

He agrees that the remaining residents might prefer to have the sidewalks restored rather than leave for better and safer areas, but he thinks about broad community interests.

''Not everyone's going to win,'' he said. But now, everyone's losing. -- New York Times   4/21/2009

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

Mass Transit and Infrastructure Must Take Priority, Say Chronicle Editors

Disturbed by news that some states want to spend all or most money from President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus package on new roads -- Missouri, the full $750 million, with nothing for transit; Utah, 75 percent of its share; and Arizona too -- Muskegon Chronicle editors write they ''couldn't image anything more short-sighted and contrary to national interest,'' especially in this time of peak global oil production and American dependency on foreign supply.

''Now is the time -- in fact, it is past time -- to bite the bullet of energy independence, for this may be our last chance,'' they warn, pointing out that ''reliance on diminishing reserves of oil and gas had led America down the road to virtual bankruptcy'' and that staying the course means further risk.

''The current collapse of oil prices should fool no one,'' they write. ''We've been here before. When prices at the pump recede, so does any incentive to implement the new energy sources we must develop and use. When gas is cheap, the public invariably loses interest in developing mass transit systems for our cities and out-of-the-way communities.''

They expect the president-elect to ''show some determination here,'' but they worry about the Congress.

''With states facing such hard times, the pressure to fund new roads will be enormous. These projects will waste valuable time and money, speeding up the process of runaway sprawl that has been counter-productive in so many ways to the fabric of our society at all levels,'' the editors observe, adding, ''We need existing roads, bridges and infrastructure improvements. We need funding for passenger rail service to encourage Americans to use alternative means of transportation. We need research and funding grants to develop new energy sources. These cannot be thrown aside for new roads that no one needs.'' -- Muskegon Chronicle   1/7/2009

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/

Get Michigan Moving Coalition Will Promote Transit Expansion

To advance public policy and grassroots involvement for transit expansion, the Michigan Municipal League (MML), the Detroit Regional Chamber (DMC), and the metro area's Transit Riders United (TRU) advocacy group formed a Get Michigan Moving (GM-2) coalition, ready to launch an immediate campaign for bills to help communities establish transit systems and to secure financial support for Detroit's privately funded 3.4-mile light-rail loop project -- the former introduced by state Democratic Representative Marie Doningan, the latter sponsored by Republican Senator Jason Allen and Democratic Representative Burt Johnson.

Applauding the three as ''forward-thinking legislators who understand the many benefits of expanding public transit in Michigan,'' TRU Executive Director Megan Owens said they understand it ''will generate thousands of good jobs, help redevelop blighted urban areas, and give young, talented and creative Michigan college graduates a compelling reason not to leave the state.''

Echoing her words, DRC Senior Director of Government Relations Melissa Roy pointed out that in these hard times ''we really need to look at how we're going to rebuild our economy and one of the ways we can do that is by investing in our infrastructure'' and by making decisions ''based on the fact that we don't have a sufficient transit system in southeast Michigan.'' And MML Legislative Associate David Worthams stressed, ''We are asking the Legislature to give the business community and local governments the tools we need to help pay for transit systems. These tools will also provide sparks for private businesses to build and invest near transit stations.''

Representative Doningan's bill would create ''transit revitalization investment zones'' around transit stations, allowing the use of property tax revenue from commercial and residential growth in the zones to fund operation, maintenance or infrastructure improvement for the station and related facilities.

Senator Allen's and Representative Johnson's bill would generate additional funding for Detroit's light-rail loop between Hart Plaza and Grand Boulevard, without raising taxes. -- Get Michigan Moving   11/11/2008

Resource(s): www.getmichiganmoving.org/

Joint Planning Key to Maintaining Lake Charlevoix Water Quality

With their tourism-based economy largely dependent on Lake Charlevoix, both the county and the city of that name and the five coastal townships need joint planning to save the lake's long-term water quality from developmental impacts, said County Planner Larry Sullivan and City Planner Mike Spencer, commenting on nearly three years of work by the Charlevoix Area Multi-Jurisdictional Comprehensive Smart Growth Land Use Initiative to draw up uniform requirements for adequate building setbacks and shoreline vegetation strips, or greenbelts.

''By ensuring good standards for both of those, you will help minimize the potential nutrient flow into Lake Charlevoix and Lake Michigan,'' the county planner told Charlevoix Courier Editor Benjamin Gohs, adding that later the multi-jurisdictional smart-growth team will likely focus on ''farmland preservation, regulation of big box stores and a half dozen other things.''

His city counterpart expects no less.

''A collective, cooperative approach to this, with everyone involved, will do way more to protect water quality in Lake Charlevoix than just one jurisdiction,'' he wrote in an e-mail response to questions. ''What we do in the city affects the surrounding townships and vice versa.''

The overall planning priorities for all involved -- the Charlevoix county and city, and the townships of Charlevoix, Eveline, Hayes, Marion and Norwood, the editor observes, include protecting the environment, preserving aesthetics, ensuring economic development, improving traffic flow, and maintaining their ''small-town'' character. -- Charlevoix Courier   10/7/2008

Resource(s): www.charlevoixcourier.com/

Michigan Communities Working on Smart Growth at the Local Level

Since Michigan has no specific plan to combat sprawl, which draws financial resources from urban centers into the countryside, some communities across the state -- especially in fast growing counties west and north of Detroit -- are pursuing smart growth, land conservation and mass transit on their own, observes Michigan State University Planning and Zoning Center Director Mark Wyckoff, with Detroit Free Press writer Christy Arboscello mentioning Ann Arbor and its area townships, and municipalities in Oakland and Macomb counties.

The construction industry, says Michigan Association of Home Builders CEO Bob Filka, doesn't like restrictions that curb its reach into less expensive rural land, asserting its right to build everywhere as long as it obeys local zoning ordinances.

And with the housing market downturn, he adds, it's not the best time for talk about restriction enforcement, a concern experts consider understandable.

''When development is slow -- and it's downright anemic here,'' notes director Wyckoff, ''the last thing you want to talk about is regulation.''

Nevertheless, some developers help towns limit sprawl and keep residents while enticing new ones with combinations of condos, townhouses and commercial buildings.

''It's locating density in an attractive place where people want to live,'' points out Broomfield-based Robertson Brothers President Jim Clarke, who worked with developer Larry Cohen on the first phase of a $120 million mixed-use revitalization project in Wixom, some 25 miles northwest from central Detroit.

Unlike most suburban one-story development, the project includes two-story and three-story buildings, with parking on the rear streets.

''Wixom has all the governmental units and everything people need to stay right here,'' says Assistant City Manager Tony Nowicki. ''We have shopping, our government complex with a library, our city hall, and of course a post office -- a complete downtown.'' -- Detroit Free Press   3/14/2008

Resource(s): www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Editorial: Great Lakes States Need Joint Strategy to Transition from Industrial to ''Knowledge'' Economy

As the Washington-based Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program continues its 2005 multi-partner Great Lakes Economic Initiative (GLEI) to advance the region's transition from the industrial to the new knowledge economy, Detroit Free Press editorial page editor Ron Dzwonkowski points out in the wake of an unprecedented regional meeting of business leaders in Dearborn that their ''Big Ten'' states need a joint readjustment strategy like the one 13 Southern governors initiated in 1971 by forming the Southern Growth Policies Board in the university-dominated Research Triangle Park district of Durham, North Carolina.

Focused on research and practice for ''strengthening the South's economy and creating the highest possible quality of life,'' the editor reports, the nonprofit board helped government, academic and business leaders create policies and public-private partnerships turn ''the Old South, a rural, undereducated region with harsh racial history and a lazy reputation, into the booming New South,'' attracting scores of employers, boosting education, and fighting poverty.

''There is no reason why the Great Lakes Region, facing many of the same issues that confronted the South midway through the last century, could not embark on a similar regional strategy to reshape and remarket the region,'' he stresses. ''In fact, that may be the only way for this old, industrial area to ever shed its 'Rust Belt' moniker and avoid becoming America's economic backwater, a place where movie companies come to shoot stories requiring a post-apocalyptic landscape.''

Urging the move toward regionalism, the editor quotes Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program Deputy Director Amy Liu, a keynote speaker at the Dearborn meeting, held by the Detroit Regional Chamber.

''Innovation, infrastructure, human capital and quality places are the four things you leverage,'' she said. You build a strategy around them. Inherently, that's concentrated in your metropolitan areas.''

Read more at the following links: GLEI, Southern Growth Policies Board, and the Detroit Regional Chamber. -- Free Press   2/17/2008

Resource(s): www.freep.com/

Fannie Mae Foundation Recognizes City of Flint for Community Redevelopment, Affordable Housing Work

Empowered by Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm a week earlier to use some $20.6 million in state and local tax revenue for cleanup and reclamation of hundreds of blighted properties in Genesee County and the city of Flint, the Genesee County Land Bank Authority (GCLBA), created in 2002, has now won this year's $100,000 Fannie Mae Foundation Innovation Award in Affordable Housing for its exemplary community redevelopment and low-cost housing work.

''Genesee County successfully demonstrates that the creation of affordable residential areas serves as the catalyst for transforming declining communities into areas of growth and prosperity,'' stressed Fannie Mae Foundation Executive Director Peter Beard at the award event, held jointly with Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the school's Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation in Washington, D.C. ''The county's work revitalizing its community is not only inspirational, its work can serve to influence new practices in affordable housing throughout our country, especially in today's challenging housing markets.''

Applauding the county for ''creative partnerships'' to ensure community redevelopment and quality of life improvements, Kennedy School of Government's American Government Program Director Stephen Goldsmith also expressed hope that its example will spur similar efforts nationwide.

Grateful for the recognition, Genesee County Treasurer and GCLBA Chairman Dan Kildee said, ''We have already begun advising government officials in New Orleans, Baltimore and Cleveland and we look forward to the opportunity to encourage and support even more municipalities across the nation with our shared best practices.''

For details and 2008 award applications see www.innovationsaward.harvard.edu.   9/25/2007

Resource(s): www.businesswire.com/

Genesee County Set to Receive $20.6 Million for Brownfield Cleanup

Burdened with hundreds of abandoned sites and structures, Genesee County and its 15 communities are getting more than $20.6 million from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDE) for their cleanup and redevelopment -- the city of Flint alone expecting to begin lead and asbestos removal, and demolition and site preparation at some 704 tax-foreclosed homes and buildings, including two former hotels downtown.

''These properties have been a source of blight, and now they will be a source of hope and rebirth,'' said Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm, voicing a key urban revitalization and quality of life theme of her 2006 State of the State speech. ''The creation of dynamic residential and commercial centers will enhance the livability and walkability of neighborhoods, and make the area a more attractive place to shop, invest, live, work and play.''

Among other projects, Flint will renovate and convert the vacant Durant Hotel to 109 two-bedroom apartments above stores and offices, redevelop the former Berridge Hotel as 20 affordable housing units and commercial space, and turn the adjacent historic Tinlin Building into four apartments.

''These brownfield projects will give the local economy a shot in the arm by removing and replacing problem properties with attractive new developments,'' said MEDC President and CEO James C. Epolito. ''Genesee County is making good use of the brownfield incentives that the state makes available for precisely this purpose.''

MSHDA Executive Director Michael DeVos expressed satisfaction over joint work with MEDC on brownfield reclamation, stressing, ''This partnership goes a long way in not only helping revitalize traditional downtowns, but also in making our downtowns a more desirable place to live, work and invest.''

Genesee County Land Bank Authority (GCLBA) Chairman and County Treasurer Dan Kildee, whose staff will administer the urban revitalization funds, added, ''Our experience so far proves that demolishing dilapidated structures, greening vacant lots, and redeveloping targeted properties unlocks the value of surrounding properties and improves neighborhoods.'' -- Michigan Economic Development Corporation   9/18/2007

Resource(s): www.michigan.org/index.asp

Monroe County Adopts Farmland Preservation Ordinance

Launched by the Monroe County Community Foundation and Temperance-based Community College at their Land Use Summit in 2004, an intensive educational and public input process has resulted in the county's just-adopted Farmland Preservation Ordinance, with Planning Director Royce Maniko hailing it as ''one of many 'smart growth' tools'' jurisdictions can use to save agriculture and open space and to secure long-term rural land productivity and viability.

Drawn up by a task force under Planning Commission Chairwoman Mary Webb and former Cooperative Extension Director Dale Brose, after public workshops in each township and consultation with experts, reports Monroe News writer Stephanie Ariganello, the ordinance makes the county eligible for state Agricultural Preservation Fund grants to buy ''development rights easements'' from willing farmers from townships that join the program.

Since land for development usually goes for more than land for agriculture, the writer notes, farmers who retire or look for other income often feel they must take advantage of selling to developers.

Participation in the land preservation program relieves that financial pressure, with the county paying them the difference between land for agriculture and land for development and holding their development rights in trust.

''It's been clear from the beginning of the process that preserving Monroe County's rural heritage is a priority for the vast majority of county residents,'' said Chairwoman Webb. ''The ordinance is a first step toward protecting our farmland and open space for the benefit of future generations.'' -- Monroe News   9/3/2007

Resource(s): www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Grand Traverse Bay Region Targeted for Citizen-Powered Land Use and Transportation Study

Instrumental in shaping long-term growth-management plans -- with implementable transportation options based on public input -- in metro Portland (Oregon), Salt Lake City (Utah) and Austin (Texas), Fregonese and Calthorpe Associates co-founder John Fregonese is ready for the same task in the Grand Traverse Bay region, as part of a consultant group under a just-signed $1.3 million, two-year contract with its intergovernmental TC-TALUS planning agency and the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The goal, reports Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) associate editor Carolyn Kelly, is to ''generate a clear, new plan for future land use and transportation, involving at least five counties around Grand Traverse Bay,'' which will ''motivate a large group of government officials, civic leaders, and everyday citizens to make sure that their townships, villages, counties, and cities promptly translate those plans into genuine action.''

Crucial for public input at the ''visioning sessions'' will be John Fregonese's natural ability to communicate while illustrating his stories ''about how today's choices build tomorrow's reality with rich, powerful computer graphics and mapping technologies that many have compared favorably to video games.''

That's what ''sets him apart,'' said Congress for New Urbanism President and CEO John Norquist. ''He gets people to think that density is not bad, which is a remarkable accomplishment.''

In the 1970s, when he started, John Fregonese told the writer, ''planning was all about accommodating autos and making sure you had the right parking spaces'' at the new malls, but it was also when the environment became an issue.

''There was an interest in the effects of urbanization on the environment and energy consumption, and out of it evolved a new American vision of a community that's more than a mall or subdivision,'' he pointed out. ''Many people think they need a whole community, one that's linked to nature and society.''

Asked by the MLUI writer about how he inspires public support and regional cooperation, he emphasized the importance of addressing local concerns and focusing on common advantages.

''Most people don't think of building new roads in daily life, they think of congestion and loss of quality of life in their community, and they often have solutions they've heard of that they think might work,'' he said. ''The other thing is to use techniques and media that match people's level of interest. Maybe 1 percent will read a long report, but lots of people will read a colorful newsletter, watch news, or even attend a lecture.''

As to local governments, he continued, ''they are going to be driven by self interest.''

Even if cities know that their development practices are harmful to a region, they ''won't stop if they're the only ones that are going to stop,'' he observed. ''I think cooperation between governments requires a well-defined problem and well-defined solutions that cities feel are not too intrusive and that will benefit their citizens.''

Characterizing his firm's work, he said, ''Our approach is really one that starts with a fundamental sense of local values. We try to develop holistic solutions that are sustainable, that won't just solve a particular road problem, but will give communities what they need to move to the 21st century in a sustainable way while they retain what they really value about the region.'' -- Great Lakes Bulletin News Service   7/11/2007

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Grand Rapids to Focus on Urban Mobility in Next Phase of City's Revitalization

Having spurred Grand Rapids' transformation from an industrial into a knowledge-based economic center through public and private investment of some $2.7 billion in housing, parks, stores, offices, high-tech labs and medical facilities, writes Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) water and smart growth expert Andy Guy, city, business and civic leaders realize that further revitalization depends on better urban mobility, with the region's transit agency voting to accelerate a city streetcar study, ask voters for a property tax increase to boost bus service, and seek federal funds for a proposed rapid bus system.

''The successful cities across the United States are at the forefront of mass transit innovation,'' pointed out Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce President Jeanne Englehart after a recent visit of a high-power fact-finding group in Portland, Oregon, where a revived streetcar stimulated nearly $3 billion of investment over 10 years in transit-oriented development downtown.

''We all came back pretty excited about what we saw,'' said Chamber Chairman Bing Goei, with Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell describing everybody as ''enthusiastic and impressed,'' and Grand Valley Metropolitan Council Executive Director Don Stypula calling the streetcar ''remarkably convenient.''

And convenience, accessibility, cost-effectiveness, time efficiency and related quality-of-life ingredients have become crucial for knowledge company executives and employees ''in choosing where to do business and where to live,'' the MLUI writer observes, quoting Right Place Program Vice President Rick Chapla.

''Business leaders used to ask about tax incentives and land cost. They still do,'' he said. ''But today there's another, increasingly important question. Now they want to know about traffic congestion, mass transit service, and other options for getting around beyond the automobile.''

Once looking mostly to the suburbs and the countryside, developers are responding to the new public demand and snatching the many tax and density incentives for urban mixed-use projects along and near transit.

''Wherever the track goes down becomes ground zero for massive development,'' said former Grand Rapids Mayor John Logie about Portland. ''But private investment ripples about four blocks away on either side of the streetcar line.''

The proposed $69 million Grand Rapids line, the writer reports, would run 2.4 miles through the central city, linking a convention center, an arena, numerous bars and clubs, new hotels and residential complexes, and other business district destinations.

The $33.6 million rapid bus system, with a 9.8- mile dedicated lane and about 19 stops, would carry riders between major downtown hubs and the Health Hill district, while the prospective property tax increase, put on the May ballot, would pay for extended bus service hours, higher frequency on some routes and other improvements. -- Michigan Land-Use Institute   2/17/2007

Resource(s): www.mlui.org

Hillsdale County Leaders Told Cooperation Is Key to Smart Growth

Brought together by the Hillsdale County Chamber of Commerce at its ''Demonstrating Leadership'' presentation, reports Hillsdale Daily News writer Tanya Wilt, the area's officials and business owners learned that the key to its economic and environmental success is multi-level and multi-jurisdictional cooperation on smart growth.

''Change is imperative,'' said subdivision developer-consultant Gil White, both he and the other two presenters -- land-use consultant Keith Charters and CMS/Consumers Energy former director Greg Northrup -- pointing out that the usual development approach threatens depletion of open space and natural resources, while administrative and procedural fragmentation discourages potential business.

County Commissioner Ken Lautzenheiser and Chamber President-Executive Director Karri Doty stressed similar points.

''We have to reduce turf wars and get rid of the mythical lines that define authority,'' the commissioner said. ''We need to start thinking in a different mind-set.''

Noting that her chamber's ''Building Competitive Communities'' flyer urges officials to align county and municipal master plans, restructure priorities, conserve natural resources and avoid service duplication in the region, director Doty said communities should work together to amend ordinances that may impede growth and to streamline the business permit process with one-stop paperwork. -- Daily News   2/8/2007

Resource(s): www.hillsdale.net/

Writer Touches on Community Needs, Health and Transportation Aspects in Commentary Supporting Neighborhood Schools

''Neighborhood schools, like most public institutions, exude a special kind of gravity, one that anchors people in place, helps determine patterns of daily life, and influences the ecosystem of cities and neighborhoods,'' observes Traverse City freelance writer Lori Hall Steele in the Michigan Land Use Institute web bulletin, pointing out that ''closing nearby older schools and opening faraway new ones facilitates more sprawl, and all that comes with it.''

The society needs ''new-millennium problem solving skills that not only balance budgets but also figure out how to live in a truly civilized manner,'' she writes, which means ''respecting our communities, preserving our history, and enabling children to walk to where they're going, instead just reading about benefits of exercise in school.''

She focuses on her own city. Facing budget shortages, ''a natural lull in enrollment'' and a loss of students to charter schools over the past several years, Traverse City Public School District officials shuttered three elementary schools, most recently Oak Park, where 72 percent of children arrived on foot. Now they may close others, including the 1920-era, three-story Central Grade School, so important to the city's core neighborhood and newly expanded with Montessori classrooms, but thought perhaps too costly to renovate for long term needs. Alternatively, they may turn it into an all-Montessori or all-specialty school, because of the lower administrative costs of running such a program in one place.

Neither alternative is optimal or sufficiently flexible. Instead of locking up or bulldozing the building, it's better to close off a floor or lease it for a private day care or other service, and instead of concentrating Montessori students in one school, it would have been better to locate part of that increasingly popular program in Oak Park Elementary to keep it open. With all Montessori or any special program students from throughout the town driven by parents to Central, and its more than 650 other students bused to farther locations, congestion would worsen everywhere.

''Instead of so sharply separating the use of different buildings and creating so much unnecessary traffic, let's integrate by taking the classrooms to where the children actually live,'' the writer appeals to officials, noting that a renovated Central would last longer than other schools because of its ''fortress-like structural soundness.'' It would also keep accommodating two to three times more children than other schools considered for renovation, with most of the students walking or being bused from nearby neighborhoods.

''Taking service to the children, rather than making them come to get it, is not only a choice against sprawl,'' she stresses, ''it also sends a message about the role of our public institutions: They are here to serve us, the public, not vice versa.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   10/11/2006

Resource(s): http://mlui.org/index.asp

It Was a Long Road for Michigan's School-Siting Reform Legislation, But Backers Pleased that Communities Are Talking About School Development and Land Use

The long-overdue shift away from sprawl in key land-use practices such as school siting demands persistence, patience and broad cooperation, observes Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) State Policy Director Charlene Crowell, detailing a three-year fight to help Michigan communities revive older neighborhood schools and build new ones in or near their centers.

Inspired by the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council's recommendations from August 2003, buttressed by the February 2004 special MLUI report, Hard Lessons: Causes and Consequences of Michigan's School Construction Boom, she writes, state Republican Representative Phil LaJoy, a former township official, proposed school-siting legislation in March 2004, but it took another two sessions and significant reduction of its scope to pass the bill as Public Act 276 of 2006 in June. Signed by Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm on July 7, the law took effect immediately.

''I had a lot of resistance to it,'' recalled Representative LaJoy. ''Twenty-eight school superintendents, school boards; I spent a lot of time meeting with people. What happened is that through all the discussion everybody gave a little, and things happened.''

A diplomatic comment, but the bill's advocates had to give more. Originally, Director Crowell writes, the bill required zoning officials to review and assess plans ''before any school in any city, village, or township'' could build new premises or expand a building or athletic facility by more than 20 percent, with final decisions remaining with the state superintendent. As enacted, the bill requires school boards to communicate with local planning officials, but covers only high school expansion of 20 percent or more and only in townships.

''It is not as strong as we wanted,'' admitted Michigan Township Association legislative liaison David Bertram, whose group has recently honored Representative LaJoy as its Legislator of the Year. ''It's probably a quarter of a loaf. But we believe it's a start that takes us in the right direction.''

The representative and former MLUI expert Mac McClelland, who led its Hard Lessons research, agree. ''We needed a start, a beginning,'' said the former, with the latter noting that the bill ''begins a necessary discussion between the relationship of school development and land use'' and that until now school officials had no obligation to discuss the matter with local planners.

The next steps to direct ''public school construction back towards established neighborhoods remain unclear,'' writes Director Crowell, citing Hard Lessons findings that homeowners and businesses must pay increasing property taxes to fund new schools in outer areas, along with additional municipal services for the sprawling development that follows.

Since 1994 Proposal A cut property taxes in half, spurring district requests for new taxes ''to build trophy schools,'' Michigan public school construction debt has ''ballooned from $4 billion to more than $12 billion,'' with 278 older schools closed and more than 500 new ones opened. The related outflow from cities, backed by the ''school choice'' policy, is shifting the urban tax base to suburban districts, with ''$7,200 in state funds attached to each youngster.''

In a recent three-year period, the Lansing School District has lost $42 million in state money as its students moved to new high schools outside the city and service extension ''has helped transform the farm fields it cuts through into new subdivisions, she reports, once again quoting Mac McClelland. ''High schools represent a shocking example of public investment going awry,'' the expert said. ''The schools are so big, the land needs so vast, and facilities so elaborate that 160 acres are not uncommon. It's hard, if not impossible, to find that much land in a developed community.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   9/9/2006

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Newspaper Stresses Need for Ypsilanti to Continue Funding Public Transit Despite Budget Crunch

Its budget hurt by a decline in manufacturing and a loss of revenue due to sprawl, Ypsilanti, just southeast of Ann Arbor, must make tough fiscal choices, but eliminating funds for Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) bus service, on which many residents depend, should be off the table, write Ypsilanti Eastern Echo editors, stressing that ''public transit encourages the type of smart growth that leads to increased employment, increased investments and a sense of civic commitment and community.''

By axing AATA funding, the editors note, ''Ypsilanti has gone beyond trimming the fat and into lopping off fingers and toes.''

On the other hand, a recent ''Keep Ypsi Rollin''' movement, to amend the city charter and fund the bus lines indefinitely, overlooks the fact that Ypsilanti is at its tax millage limit and that a bus funding mandate would force it to cut spending elsewhere.

''Transportation is a core service,'' the editors write, ''but funding it must not come at the expense of other core services.'' Instead, they conclude, the movement should direct its skills and talents ''toward solutions that will help in the long term, like the establishment of regional transportation authorities, an increase in state funding and working to minimize the antagonism so often found in local politics.'' -- Eastern Echo   5/16/2006

Resource(s): www.easternecho.com/

Revised Brownfield Law Expands Single Business Tax Credit to Help Michigan Communities Reuse Small Vacant Sites

Focused not so long ago on reclamation of large postindustrial tracts in Detroit and other metro areas, Michigan revised its brownfield law in early April to facilitate reuse of small vacant sites anywhere, expanding the Single Business Tax credit -- which may equal 10 percent of a developer's investment, up to $1 million -- to projects worth $2 million or less and easing transfer of such credits to banks or other entities.

Previously, reports Pontiac Oakland Press writer Doug Menze, the state provided such funding to 15 projects a year, all in the $10-million-or-more category, including three jumbo projects of more than $100 million each, while projects of $10 million or less had a total credit cap of $30 million. Small developers had to ''compete against large projects,'' but were often unable to afford expert help for navigating the rules, said Southfield-based Plante & Moran's Real Estate & Construction Group partner Gordon Goldie, citing their frequent complaints about not getting a fair share.

With demands for brownfield credits up across the board, noted Michigan Economic Development Corp. finance vice president Mark Morante, the new law makes Single Business Tax credits available to 17 large projects a year, including two instead of three jumbo ones, and increases total credit funds for projects of $10 million or less to $40 million, with $10 million earmarked for those of $2 million and below.

Multi-phase brownfield developers can also claim partial credit now upon completion of each phase. But lawmakers may eliminate the Single Business Tax in 2008, the writer observes, and what would happen to brownfield credits then is an open question. -- Oakland Press   4/28/2006

Resource(s): www.theoaklandpress.com/

Residents of Lansing Neighborhood Ecstatic Over Plans to Replace 4.3-Acre Eyesore with Affordable Homes

It may not be much in comparison to the need, but residents of one south Lansing neighborhood were ecstatic about a new plan to replace a local 4.3-acre eyesore with a $3 million project of 18 single-family housing units in the $120,000-$200,000 price range, while East Lansing leaders voiced similar appreciation of a newly received $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant loan guarantee to provide a number of affordable homes for low-to-moderate-income families.

The owner of the south Lansing parcel, Thomas Wilson, has sought its development since 1987, while it kept turning into an illegal trash dump, reports Lansing State Journal writer Tom Lambert, noting that the Lansing Economic Development Corp. recently asked the City Council for approval of a brownfield redevelopment plan to help with cleanup and housing construction.

As to East Lansing affordable housing, City Manager Ted Staton said the loan guarantee will secure financing for a project in a northeastern neighborhood, where the city wants to acquire an entire block, relocate residents, improve infrastructure, demolish rundown buildings and build 21 single-family homes, 12 duplexes and triplexes, and six townhouses, all within walking distance of schools. -- Lansing State Journal   4/27/2006

Resource(s): www.lsj.com/

Michigan Suburbs Alliance Certifies Five Detroit Municipalities as ''Redevelopment Ready Communities''

Having worked over the past year in the Michigan Suburbs Alliance (MSA) pilot program to bolster their economic competitiveness by streamlining and ensuring the predictability of their redevelopment processes, five Detroit area municipalities -- Eastpointe, Hazel Park, River Rouge, Southfield and Ypsilanti -- received MSA's certification as the first Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC), becoming eligible for free technical assistance from professional planning consultants.

''Urban redevelopment is challenging enough without the added burden of complications at the municipal level,'' said MSA Executive Director Conan Smith in a press release. ''By prioritizing early public engagement, comprehensive planning and a streamlined review process, RRC cities can compete with anyone for development dollars.''

Implementing guidelines from the RRC Best Practices compendium, its new version just released, and earning RRC certificates, municipalities are signaling to the industry that their development rules and standards are written, deliberate and constant.

''Time is a nonrenewable asset; the need for speedy handling of redevelopment projects increases as the complexity of the projects increases,'' noted Burton-Katzman Development Vice President Bren Buckley. ''Redevelopment Ready Communities acknowledge this fact and treat developers accordingly.''

And businessman and River Rouge Mayor Michael Bowlder added: ''The RRC program has taken my approach of running a city like a business to a new level. It has helped us make River Rouge a one-stop shopping outlet for developers, and as a result we have gained new investment and new jobs.''   3/8/2006

Resource(s): www.michigansuburbsalliance.org

Construction Slowdown in Detroit's Outer Suburbs Offers Chance to Bring Smart Growth Message to Rural Communities

When the economy staggered, interest rates rose and consumer confidence dropped last year, the decade-long construction boom across the outer Metro Detroit suburbs also lost steam, which took a bite from local tax revenues and even forced Livingston County and Macomb Township to lay off some workers, but on the flip side it made anti-sprawl activists and urban officials hopeful for a better regional growth pattern, reports Detroit News writer Joe Menard, quoting Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) expert Andy Guy, who says of rural area sprawl, ''It's a pattern of development Michigan can't afford anymore.''

Michigan Association of Home Builders executive vice president for government relations Lee Schwartz expects an economic upturn to bring many developers back to the countryside, a view shared by Clinton River Watershed Council stewardship director Tracie Beasley, who sees the current home construction slowdown as ''an opportunity to do more education.''

That's what MLUI has been doing for several years, with Andy Guy telling the writer that rapid development on the outskirts gobbles farmland, harms the environment, speeds up runoff and erosion, worsens water quality and takes resources away from older communities.

Fernadale City Manager Thomas Barwin believes the rural development slowdown opens reinvestment opportunities for his first-ring suburb just nine miles northwest of central Detroit and for other overlooked neighborhoods.

''I think there's a silver lining in all this,'' he observes, noting that the higher gas prices also make buyers hesitate about homes on urban fringes. ''People want to figure out how to live more efficiently,'' he adds. ''There's a movement back to mature communities.'' -- Detroit News   3/6/2006

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Plans for Traverse City Subdivision Run Contrary to Smart Growth Principles

Traverse City may strive for smart growth, but its ''newest stepchild development,'' the hotly contested Incochee Woods subdivision of some 70 large-lot homes in Garfield Township on the city's west side, is definitely dumb growth, ''an excellent case study on how not to plan and develop a project,'' writes Traverse City Record-Eagle business editor Bill O'Brien, concerned that it will funnel traffic to residential streets, and even more that ''the whole mess could be repeated on border properties around the city.''

He points out that neighborhood leaders lacked a coherent approach to the project, that township officials, ''who seem allergic to working with the city on joint development matters'' torpedoed annexation, that City Commissioner Ted Lockwood participated in the debate despite his obvious conflict of interest and acted ''more like a developer advocate ... than an open-minded public official,'' and that city planning and legal staff wasn't adequately prepared for the task.

What's more, experts from the regional land-use New Design for Growth group never saw the subdivision plans, some city officials were more sympathetic to the developer's ''property rights'' than to taxpayers' interests, and city commissioners who had run on promises to protect neighborhoods kept mostly silent, except for first-term Commissioner Matthew Schmidt.

Noting that large-lot, limited-access projects with no street grid to disperse traffic ''have undermined the region's land-use patterns for decades,'' the editor observes that another cookie-cutter subdivision ''doesn't qualify as 'smart growth','' because its location ''next to a real neighborhood doesn't make it any better.'' -- Record-Eagle   2/12/2006

Resource(s): www.record-eagle.com/

Stormwater Ponds, Cluster Housing Advised to Halt Norton Shores' Unsustainable Growth

Almost doubling a state land consumption rate -- already eight times faster than population growth -- the small city of Norton Shores, just south of Muskegon at Lake Michigan, will lose all nearby open space by 2040 unless it adopts smart growth, warned Grand Valley State University's Annis Water Resource Institute Director Alan Steinman, telling the City Council and the Planning Commission to induce change by offering developers incentive-based programs and stressing cost benefits of cluster housing, shorter roads and utility lines, and reduced runoff.

In a presentation arranged by new council member Annoesjka Steinman, his wife who also heads the Mona Lake Watershed Council, reports Muskegon Chronicle correspondent Nancy Stier, director Steinman pointed out that developers can save hundreds of thousands of dollars on stormwater ponds, while helping cut lake pollution, if they leave substantial natural vegetation and wetlands intact and minimize hard surfaces and lawns.

Pavement and lawns are especially harmful at and near shorelines, since rain washes oil, fertilizer and other pollutants directly into the water, he said, advising officials to protect green corridors and wildlife habitat between the city and the lakeshore with conservation zoning. -- Chronicle   1/25/2006

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/muchronicle/

Report: Action Needed Now to Minimize Storm Water Runoff, Maintain Michigan's Wildlife Habitat

Likely to pave over another four million acres by 2040, which would almost triple its developed acreage, Michigan must move against drinking water contamination, wildlife habitat degradation and sewage overflows, warns a study by the Public Interest Research Group In Michigan (PIRGIM) and the national American Rivers group -- the first scientific probe of links between suburban sprawl and storm water runoff, which singles out Macomb County, just north of Detroit and west of Lake St. Clair, as an area of special concern due to its rapid growth.

Four of the county's communities -- Macomb, Shelby and Chesterfield townships, and Sterling Heights -- led the state in numbers of single-family building permits last year, reports Macomb Daily writer Chad Selweski, quoting PIRGIM Director Mike Shriberg, who promises to lobby the county's communities for enactment of ''no net-runoff'' project requirements.

''Right now, there is zero incentive for developers to care about storm water,'' the director said. ''So this is the role for the local government, to create these ordinances.''

Macomb Township Supervisor John Brennan didn't think any community would adopt additional regulations based on one study. ''That would involve a lot of costs, not only for developers but also for the communities,'' he said, worried about the enforcement prospects. ''These things could be nightmares.''

But director Shriberg pointed out that ''low-impact'' development is increasingly advantageous in the long run, because it uses green space, vegetation, rock gardens, rain barrels and absorbent surface materials, and subsequently frees taxpayers from wasting money on construction and expansion of costly storm trains.

''Instead of treating storm water as a waste that needs to be disposed of quickly from roads and rooftops and parking lots,'' he stressed, ''this report shows that you can capture and keep storm water on site.'' -- Macomb Daily   11/15/2005

Resource(s): www.macombdaily.com/

Technical Assistance Program Eases Redevelopment Barriers for Detroit's Inner Suburbs and Older Neighborhoods

As they strive to regain economic competitiveness and quality of life, Metro Detroit's inner suburbs and older neighborhoods can now qualify for technical assistance from the Ferndale-based Michigan Suburbs Alliance, a group of 24 cities in the state's southeast region, under its just-launched Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC) Certification Program, designed to remove redevelopment barriers and facilitate innovative government-developer cooperation.

Made possible through grants from the W.K. Kellog and C.S. Mott Foundations, the Downriver Community Conference, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the assistance program involves Wayne State University's Geography and Planning Department, the Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates consulting firm, and many municipal, state, federal and private urban planners and practitioners with diversified expertise.

The program, outlined on its web site, ''offers numerous advantages to both cities and investors,'' including model ''templates of ordinances, zoning processes, marketing, site information, and vacant property cataloguing,'' which will be available for download.

For details contact RRC Project Manager Melanie Brown at (248) 546-2380 or melanie@michigansuburbsalliance.org   9/9/2005

Resource(s): www.redevelopmentready.com

Group Seeks Ballot Decision for One-Time Tax to Create Legal Defense Fund Against Unwanted Projects

In the nation's first community advance from just raising money for legal defense against big-boxes to actually volunteering to be taxed for that purpose, the 300-member Citizens for Orderly Growth in Independence Township in rural northern Oakland County urged officials to put its proposed one-time special half-mill tax on the November ballot, a decision delayed by township trustees till September 6, but the prospective Wal-Mart-anchored-shopping-center and convention-complex developer has already taken notice and proposed instead mostly single-family homes, condos and restaurants for the 70-acre site.

''Wal-Mart is not happening. No big-box is happening on that property at all,'' promised Township Supervisor Dave Wagner at a crowded township board meeting, announcing a deal he brokered with Orco Investment. ''It's an entirely different proposal.''

But Citizens for Orderly Growth leaders, including attorney and former planning commissioner Neil Wallace, reports Detroit News writer Jennifer Chambers, suspect Orco will revert to its big-box center proposal if officials won't give it whatever it may want. They feel angry that officials delayed their decision on the ballot proposal -- supported by 1,093 petition signatures -- which seeks voter approval for the special half-mill tax to collect $750,000 for defense against potential suits by developers looking to skirt the township's master plan or build unwanted projects.

According to Supervisor Wagner, the township budget includes $250,000 for such defense and any additional costs would have to be paid from the general fund. With $750,000 coming from the special tax, the township could fight longer, even if some thought a protracted legal action would be futile because developers have much more money.

A Detroit News editorial took that line, advising officials against the ballot and noting that even with the tax ''the township can never hope to raise enough money to compete with retailers'' and should depend on its zoning laws to manage development.

Still, attorney Wallace, who helped fight similar projects in the 1970s, said, ''It's really a way to stand up to bullies. We recognize they have rights as land owners, but we have rights as a community, too. We just think you don't need to have regional development every (highway) exit.''

Resident Robert Ferer, a GM engineer who daily drives congested I-75, flanked all along by development, added, ''We aren't saying we don't want these types of stores to shop in. We have them five miles down I-75.'' -- Detroit News   8/18/2005

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/index.htm

Great Lakes Face New Health Challenge: Development

As some threats to the Great Lakes have lessened, relentless development increasingly negates the gains, with more houses, roads and cars each year hitting the basin's U.S. side hardest, especially northwestern Michigan vacation land, where most areas recorded from 15 to more than 25 percent population growth between 1990 and 2004, states The Detroit News in a comprehensive multi-section special report, finding that scientists, environmentalists and many residents worry, yet few communities can or want to curb development, because in a region ''battered by a changing economy, building things has remained a consistent economic bright spot.''

A result of over two months of investigation by reporters and writers Brad Heath, Deb Price and Gene Schabath, who interviewed more than 200 scientists, officials, fishermen and residents and reviewed scores of studies, audits, demographic databases, pollution inventories and other sources, the report warns that with current growth patterns, Michigan building and road acreage will have tripled between 1980 and 2040, much of it in the largely open and fragile areas near the lakes.

''Development is one of the largest threats to the region as a whole and the ongoing health of the Great Lakes,'' said Sierra Club's Great Lakes Program Director Emily Green, citing impervious surface expansion, contaminated storm water runoff, drained or bulldozed wetlands, and stone and concrete-hardened shorelines.

''It's like the death of 1,000 cuts,'' observed Traverse City activist Ken Smith, whose volunteer environmental group have worked and sometimes successfully sued since the early 1990s to block or modify bad projects on the city's rural and forested outskirts, now a maze of gas stations, restaurants and houses. ''It looks the same as anywhere else,'' he said dejectedly, ''It's the sprawling of America, right here in the vacation land of the Midwest.''

Traverse City home builder Bill Clous paid a total of $215,000 to settle two cases of soil erosion violation in a nearby town, but declined an interview, with his lawyer resenting ''(t)he misconception that he went in and slashed the earth.'' With the battle still going on, Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council Executive Director Gail Gruenwald sounds resigned. ''It's going to get built,'' she said, ''and all the pollution from it's going to get forced into the bay.''

In Peninsula Township on an 18-mile hilly strip jutting into Grand Traverse Bay, residents decided to spend almost $30 million on development rights for thousands of acres of cherry orchards and vineyards, to keep the peninsula much as it was 30 years ago.

''If we hadn't done this, it would be a line of subdivisions, just coming north up the road,'' pointed out Town Supervisor Rob Manigold. ''You should be able to come back in 100 years and it's going to look the same.'' -- The Detroit News   8/14/2005

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Michigan Appeals Court Rules Against Oakland County's Plan for Regional Transit Authority

Vetoed by former Republican Governor John Engler in 2003, legislation to create the Detroit Area Regional Transit Authority (DARTA) inspired Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and other regional leaders ''to do it on their own,'' but in a strange turn of events this effort was challenged by Detroit transit workers and the Michigan Appeals Court just ruled it illegal due to the lack of state approval, summarizes The Daily Oakland Press, stating the court ''wrongly caved to union demands.''

The decision, the daily opines, ''will make the region, including Oakland County, an even tougher sell to potential employers and investors'' and obstruct plans to ''unify various regional transit services in the interest of efficiency and effectiveness.''

Attributing Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's ''timid written statement that he 'remains committed' to the DARTA goals'' to his reelection fight ''in a city in which organized labor obviously knows how to use its clout,'' the Oakland County daily applauds the quick criticism of the court decision by County Executive Patterson as showing ''who speaks for the region politically.''

The executive, the daily continues, immediately outlined the steps now necessary ''if southeast Michigan is ever to have a financially efficient and user-friendly mass transit system,'' knowing that the needs of the young, the old, the poor, the disabled and others dependent on transit can be met only ''if the governor and legislator act.''

Thus, the daily criticizes Senate Republican Majority Leader Ken Sikkema for his rushed remark that it was not for the state to do ''what the county boards wouldn't do.'' The senator should realize, the daily says, that ''a major reason the state exists is to compensate for local fickleness when one community threatens to cause economic damage far beyond local borders.'' -- The Daily Oakland Press   7/8/2005

Resource(s): www.theoaklandpress.com/

Make Urban Areas Livable to Handle Sprawl, Michigan Editorial Urges

''Best way to handle sprawl is to make urban areas livable,'' says a headline of The Daily Oakland Press' opinion about the causes of residential shifts in many urban areas from big to smaller cities and semi-rural areas in the past four years -- shifts also found by the U.S. Census in Oakland County, whose population grew by 1.6 percent to 1,194,000-plus, but whose older southeastern cities lost residents while newer northwestern cities and townships gained between 4 and 10 percent.

A ''particularly dramatic example of that sort of population shift,'' the daily notes, is southeast Michigan, where Detroit slid form its 1950 population peak of some 2 million to 900,200 now, losing its status as the nation's 10th largest city to San Jose in Silicon Valley and an enormous amount of wealth in home, business and other value to the suburbs.

''It was not so much the lure of new homes that emptied Detroit as it was the belief of residents that the city had become intolerable,'' the daily opines, linking the post-1973 exodus to an earlier federal court order for ''the busing of children to schools outside their own Detroit neighborhoods,'' with the decline in property values aggravating the trend.

In Oakland County, the daily continues, the situation isn't bad and the recent population shift reflects mostly demographic preferences. Many families without youngsters prefer the older urban areas, but families with children ''tend to seek the newer, better-equipped school districts,'' while increased incomes often spur a wider move toward larger homes found mostly in newer communities.

''The soundest public policy is not to try to ban sprawl, but to encourage the refurbishing of established neighborhoods while making sure development at the edges is sound,'' the daily opines. ''This means such things as public improvements in place before, not after, buildings go up, and the preservation of open space through 'cluster' zoning.'' -- The Daily Oakland Press   7/5/2005

Resource(s): www.theoaklandpress.com/

Huron River Watershed Threatened by Rise in Sprawl, Surface Stormwater Runoff

Saved from industrial and septic discharges after 1965 through the Huron River Watershed Council, this scenic southeastern Michigan river is now becoming increasingly polluted from impervious-surface stormwater runoff, said Council Executive Director Laura Rubin as she and Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) Deputy Director Keith Schneider warned against perpetuation of car-dependent sprawl, stressing the need for higher densities, transit use and smart growth.

''It used to be factories and lack of regulation,'' said director Rubin, opening the recent State of the Huron conference at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. ''Now we look around and the culprit is us.''

The Huron River Watershed, notes Ann Arbor News reporter Geoff Larcom, extends over 910 square miles in Oakland, Livingston, Washtenaw, Wayne and Monroe counties, accommodating a half-million people and providing drinking water to more than 120,000, including 85 percent of Ann Arbor residents.

According to Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) data cited by director Rubin, development will eat up 40 percent of the region's remaining open space by 2010. To reduce such a loss and to preempt ''sprawl without growth,'' which exacerbates racial and economic segregation, said MLUI deputy director Schneider in his keynote speech, the region needs urban reinvestment ''to build our communities from within.''

Noting that the number of southeastern Michigan residents has grown only by 100,000 since 1970, but the number of vehicles by 1.6 million, the speaker pointed to a new public move toward transit in several areas across the country. Specifically, he applauded Grand Rapids, Chicago and Denver voters for their approval of new transit-expansion funds last November, emphasizing the measures' strong support from liberals and conservatives alike. -- Ann Arbor News   5/7/2005

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/aanews/

Vienna Township Cites Master Plan in Rejection of Rural Rezoning for Wal-Mart

To thunderous applause from the audience, the Vienna Township Planning Commission voted 3-2 against rezoning 80 mostly rural and wooded acres just a mile west of Clio for a proposed Wal-Mart big box, with Vice Chairman Ben Ranger telling Vienna Town Square Corporation representative Mike Motte that the proposal ''doesn't fit the master plan.''

The representative, reports Flint Journal writer Art Bukowski, argued the Wal-Mart would create jobs and add about $400,000 a year to local tax revenue, noting that the company is working with the Genesee County Road Commission on traffic studies, to prevent congestion.

But most residents remained unpersuaded. ''It's not about the money,'' said Clio resident Todd Bixby, ''its about the community -- family-owned businesses have supported Vienna Township and Clio for a long time.''

Among those worried about environmental problems, light and noise pollution, and increased traffic was nearby Edgerton Elementary School teacher Kim McGillis, who said, ''I don't want that for my children or in my neighborhood.''

The company's representative asked the commission to consider rezoning at least about 30 acres, but commissioners didn't think they had the authority to deviate from the original 80-acre request. -- Flint Journal   4/12/2005

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/fljournal/

Conference on Urban Restoration Draws Full House; Land Banks, Revitalizing Older Places Called Key to Michigan's Future

Burdened with the worst kind of sprawl, driven by city abandonment rather than population growth, Michigan -- like other area states -- can regain economic competitiveness only ''through the revitalization of its older places,'' stressed Brookings Institution vice president and Metropolitan Policy Program director Bruce Katz, while Smart Growth America executive director Don Chen applauded the unique Genesee County Land Bank, which takes land for delinquent taxes and makes it productive again, saying such land banks ''may be one of the brightest opportunities for revitalizing cities we've seen in a decade.''

Both experts addressed some 160 officials and activists at a national University of Michigan-Flint conference on urban restoration and land banks, sponsored by Smart Growth America, the Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation and CEOS for Cities, reports Flint Journal writer Marjory Rymer, noting that the subject drew such interest that another 100 were not able to register.

They all wanted or came to learn, including Little Rock, Ark., administrator Ward Hanna, who said his city tried but failed to create a land bank more than a decade ago, and is now ''looking for best practices'' for reuse of its 7,000 vacant homes.

In a post-conference editorial, The Flint Journal observes that although southeast Michigan development ''is eight times faster than what population growth requires,'' which burdens taxpayers with the cost of new infrastructure and services, while shortchanging cities, some developers ''and township officials who see themselves with a winning hand'' deny the impact of sprawl on the state as a whole. And even if the Genesee County Land Bank, created mainly thanks to county Treasurer Daniel T. Kildee, is doing the right thing, ''that effort is more than countered by the chewing up of farm fields for subdivisions and other development,'' the editorial says, hoping that the experts' urban revitalization appeals won't fall on deaf ears. -- Flint Journal   4/11/2005

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/fljournal/

''Jobs Today'' Initiative Targets Job Creation, Infrastructure and City Improvement Projects for Michigan

Firm in her belief that the state needs ''a robust business climate and a spectacular quality of life'' to generate jobs and be ''an economic powerhouse in the 21st century,'' Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm listed in her State of the State speech the many steps taken last year toward these goals, proud that Michigan moved to preserve more than 271,000 acres of hunting, fishing and vacation land in its Upper Peninsula for public access, launched 19 ''Cool Cities'' projects to revitalize downtowns and neighborhoods, and slashed business red tape, becoming ''the fastest permitting state in the nation.''

Last October, with jobs at stake, she said, ''we approved a General Motor plant in Flint in just 21 days ... not 20 weeks or nearly 20 months like before ... just 21 days.'' Building upon this reform, the governor announced ''a Jobs Today initiative that will create 36,000 jobs in the next three years by fast-forwarding $800 million worth of state infrastructure improvement projects, creating new tools to spark city development, and giving school districts a new way to upgrade their buildings without raising taxes.''

The governor urged lawmakers to act on this initiative ''as if your job depends on it,'' specifying: ''We will speed up the repair of roads and bridges. We'll turn brownfield sites into useful development in our cities. We'll invest to build affordable housing for families and seniors in Grand Rapids, Detroit and cities across our state. We'll modernize schools for our kids and fix deteriorating campus buildings for our college students.'' -- Michigan Office of the Governor   2/9/2005

Resource(s): www.michigan.gov/gov/

Report: Massive Public Spending Feeds the Sprawl Machine

''Sprawl cannot exist without massive public spending for roads, water, sewers, public buildings, and business development,'' asserts the Follow the Money: Uncovering and Reforming Michigan's Sprawl Subsidies report by the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Michigan, whose researchers worked a year on this first-ever exhaustive documentation of the state's sprawl-inducing ''taxpayer-supported grants, subsidies, tax abatements and incentives, loans, bonds, and direct outlays.''

Produced by MLUI Deputy Director Keith Schneider, Operations Manager Mac McClelland, Grand Rapids Project Director Andy Guy and UCP Transportation Project Coordinator Kevin Wisselink, the report shows how the state's deeply rooted habit of ''intense, taxpayer-financed intrusions into the market have distorted the landscape, ruined central cities, harmed the environment, and reduced the quality of life.''

Collateral damages of sprawl -- urban decay, environmental degradation, transit deficiency and many others -- affect everybody, they write, while creating particular hardships for people with disabilities, rarely able to find affordable housing, reach jobs and move with relative safety from rampant traffic anywhere but in central cities.

As one of the most distressing examples of official favors for the wealthier newer suburbs at the expense of the impoverished urban cores, the researchers cite distributions from the state Transportation Economic Development Fund. Since 1988, the fund has poured 78 percent of its $382 million into new suburbs and rural areas, giving the meager remainder to core communities.

A statistical breakdown detail shows that the 11-year-old upscale suburb Auburn Hills, population 20,000, received $1,250 per resident for street improvements, new roads, a bicycle path and other amenities, while the old cities of Pontiac and Detroit, with populations of 66,000 and 920,000, got just $303 and $25 per resident, respectively.

The researchers report that the trend was confronted only recently. Prompted by Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm's economic development strategy and increased public pressure for change, they write, the Republican-led legislature made ''some progress in enacting Smart Growth measures.''

Based on recommendations by the bi-partisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council in summer 2003, the governor's two executive orders and 17 state bills in the next four months, followed by 10 more bills last year, finally initiated a gradual shift in urban, environmental and transportation policies. Aiming for a long-overdue balance between inducing jobs, investment and housing in the outer suburbs and revitalizing cities, those measures helped, enabled and encouraged communities to pursue redevelopment, mixed uses, land protection, transit options and other smart growth goals.

But much more must be done, the researchers say, urging the state to take ten multi-pronged, often overlapping and mutually reinforcing actions. The state should

1. establish state land use goals and spending priorities that would help cities while conserving farmland and countryside;
2. establish economic incentives for local governments to spur regional planning and cooperation on proper development and capital expenditures;
3. authorize local governments to require ''concurrency,'' or adequate roads, sewers and other infrastructure for new development;
4. point state financing for schools and other public facilities to urbanized areas whenever possible, with incentives for public school construction, renovation and athletic-facility share programs in neighborhoods and town centers;
5. reward local governments for capital spending in line with state land use goals, set urban investment boundaries to limit costly infrastructure extension, levy development impact fees in outside areas, direct sewer and water investments away from sprawl locations, and require regional decisions for large projects;
6. establish Commerce Centers in communities that strive for mixed use, density, transit and open space protection, facilitating their redevelopment through priority access to state and federal aid, development tools and economic funds, while mandating quick local decisions on public and private investments consistent with the state land use goals;
7. expand market-rate and affordable housing opportunities through a state trust fund for urban mixed-income rental and ownership projects;
8. respect community character by fixing roads before building ones and adopting a citizen-guided ''context-sensitive design'' process that complements local master plans and promotes safe and innovative road, transit, bicycling and pedestrian-friendly solutions;
9. improve public transit and other transportation alternatives through full constitutionally allowed funding, encourage student biking and walking through ''Safe Routes to School'' programs, and invest in pedestrian-friendly development near transit; and
10. support entrepreneurial farm and food system development, especially small to medium-sized operations, through business and technical training and assistance, economic aid and a state food policy council.

See the full Follow the Money report at the resource link below. -- Michigan Land Use Institute   1/17/2005

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Hudsonville Selected as Partner in Ottawa County's Urban S.G. Demonstration Project

While state officials and lawmakers are waging a clearly partisan-tug-of war over bipartisan recommendations by Governor Jennifer Granholm's Michigan Land Use Leadership Council last year, many local jurisdictions are launching their own anti-sprawl programs, including mostly rural Ottawa County, which just selected Hudsonville as a partner in its Urban Smart Growth Demonstration Project.

Chosen from among four vying municipalities, Hudsonville, a growing town of some 7,200 just off I-196 and intersected by parallel Route 21 -- both linking metro Grand Rapids with Holland at Lake Michigan -- was already preparing to update its five-year-old land-use plan, reports Holland Sentinel writer John Charles Robbins, quoting its planning director and zoning administrator Dan Strikwerda, who says, ''We are very excited and it's perfect timing.''

Eager for downtown revitalization and hopeful that the majority of residents at a special town hearing will approve the partnership with the county, he describes the master plan's update as the first step in the joint $125,000 smart-growth demonstration project. Next will come a review of zoning rules, followed by ordinance amendments to encourage ''smart'' development within the town boundary. -- Holland Sentinel   9/8/2004

Resource(s): www.thehollandsentinel.net/

Michigan Voters Show Solid Support for Transit -- Will Legislators Follow Suit?

Although the bipartisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council urged the legislature last August to provide full and permanent funds for local transit and two months later Democratic Senator Burt Leland sponsored a bill to make it a state law, Republican legislative leaders are trying to dilute or eliminate such funding -- a move pointedly countered this August 3rd in 13 demographically diverse counties across the state, where voters approved either extensions or increases of property taxes for their bus systems.

The 13 measures, writes the Michigan Land Use Institute's Transportation Project director Charlene Crowell on its web page, passed by a landslide margin of 21 percent on average, while a similar measure failed only in Manistee County, by just a 10 percent margin. ''Public transportation is valued and people are willing to step to the plate and fund their share at the local level,'' says Michigan Public Transit Association executive director, former state Democratic legislator Clark Harder. ''It is critically important that the Legislature step up and maintain the state's fair share as well.''

The writer addresses the voters' message directly to Senate Appropriations Committee and Sub-Committee for Transportation Appropriations Republican Chairwoman Shirley Johnson. Two of her bills, the writer notes, would eliminate a state guarantee or goal for funding of local transit systems and bar them from administering ride-share programs; two others, co-sponsored by the entire Senate Republican Caucus, would divest the Michigan Department of Transportation of the final decision power on its five-year spending plans by transferring it to lawmakers, which observers call ''a direct attack on the transportation department's policy and budgeting authority.''

Strongly critical of the senator's bills, such influential organizations as the Michigan Public Transit Association, the Michigan Municipal League, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, and the Michigan Transportation and Land Use Coalition see the pro-transit votes in 13 counties as a political boon for their efforts to uphold state transit funding.

United Cerebral Palsy Michigan transportation expert Kevin Wisselink says, ''Now that the people of Michigan have shown overwhelming support for public transportation, it is time for the Michigan Legislature to do its part -- move forward, not backward, on funding.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   8/18/2004

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/index.asp

Detroit Region Moves to Improve and Rebuild City from Within

After five decades of building highways and suburban cul-de-sacs and losing the urban middle class to the increasingly expensive but also increasingly clogged and troubled outer areas, writes Michigan Land Use Institute deputy director and journalist Keith Schneider, many people in Detroit and its suburbs ''have looked hard at this uncivilized civilization'' and moved in their own ways to bring the city back, among them Corktown Citizens District Council administrator, engineer and writer Kelli Kavanaugh.

Having made ''a carefully considered social statement'' by staying in the city and choosing its oldest neighborhood after earning her degree in 1999, Kelli Kavanaugh was one of the first in the growing ranks of ''agile, tough, reform-minded, and resilient young adults, white and black, who are living and working in Detroit,'' and helping good things to happen. With this help, the writer observes, ''Detroit may very well be at the vanguard of a new and uniquely efficient design for urban redevelopment that relies on economic and cultural diversity to generate jobs, safe neighborhoods, excellent public schools, and all the other civic equipment needed by a world-class community.''

Schneider cites examples. Detroit is implementing a $1.4 billion public school construction program; its 3,395 housing permits last year leave other big cities behind; the River Rouge cleanup is the largest watershed improvement project nationwide; the $60 million Max M. Fisher Music Center opened last year; General Motors spent $500 million to renovate and set up headquarters in the Renaissance Center; a new Compuware headquarters brought 4,000 workers downtown; public and private groups are funding a $200 million park along the Detroit River; young local architects are envisioning the nation's largest neighborhood reconstruction, which would involve 1,200 acres of housing and business on Detroit's far east side; and the old Tiger Stadium's closure freed several parking lots for redevelopment and prompted wider building renovation and adaptation for mixed use.

That's where Kelli Kavanaugh lives, works and makes a difference. She was instrumental in designing and getting funded traditional streetlights along 14 area blocks, and a concrete-and-brick sidewalk for two blocks now and for another four in a couple of years, as part of a $7.6 million street improvement project.

''My organization is doing what it can,'' she says. ''We don't write businesses checks. We do build sidewalks. The idea is to make it more pleasant for businesses to locate here and to thank those that have been here all along.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   6/22/2004

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

West Michigan Officials Urged to Scrap Zoning Restrictions That Promote Sprawl

To meet the increased demand for old-style neighborhoods where everything is in easy walking distance, West Michigan officials must scrap zoning restrictions that have promoted sprawl and car-dependency since the 1950s and embrace New Urbanism, said Congress for New Urbanism President, former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist at the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council's annual Growing Cities Conference in Grand Rapids, noting, ''You don't need to have a huge public investment. In Milwaukee, we just changed the codes and property values started to rebound.''

Council Planning Director Andy Bowman pointed out that some of the region's communities have already moved toward New Urbanism with individual projects and measures. He mentioned Rapid City's Celebration Cinema complex, mixed-use downtown projects, the imminent rewrite of zoning codes, and five miles to the southeast, Kentwood's subdivision of Bailey's Grove, but stressed, ''We need to see more of it on a larger scale.''

During the conference, reports Grand Rapids Press writer Rick Wilson, the council also presented its Metropolitan Blueprint Award to Millennium Park, for its example of regional leadership and a broad range of facilities, and to the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, for its promotion of environmentally conscious business practices. -- Grand Rapids Press   6/11/2004

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/grpress/

New Land-Use Director to Help Create Master Plan for Otsego County

Having merged the planning and zoning and building departments into a new land use services department last year, the Otsego County Board of Commissioners is now putting it in charge of land-use attorney Richard Edmonds, whose Municipal Zoning and Consulting Services firm has since 1996 helped eight townships in Newaygo and Ottawa counties pursue smart growth.

With input from a just-concluded series of six public workshops on growth prospects, reports Traverse City Record-Eagle writer Dan Sanderson, Otsego officials expect the new land-use director to help them devise a master plan, along with open space and farmland preservation ordinances, to manage future development, stem urban blight and keep the county attractive to tourists.

During his consulting years, director Edmonds said, he worked with townships to ensure balanced growth by letting farmers sell land to builders, but clustering development. ''You've got to make it profitable for everyone,'' he pointed out, ''otherwise you're not going to get anything to work.'' -- Record Eagle   6/3/2004

Resource(s): www.record-eagle.com/index.htm

Local Group Opposes Rochester Hills Mixed-Use Complex

Although the Rochester Hills City Council gave initial approval to a planned $70 million mixed-use complex of 300 housing units and some commercial space on 28 acres near a key intersection and planner Derek Delacourt pointed out that ''(t)hese kinds of developments help create a walkable atmosphere and provide the residents with small-scale retail,'' local homeowners argue they moved to Rochester Hills -- about 20 miles north of central Detroit -- to escape congestion and oppose the City Place project for its density and the prospective impact on traffic.

The project would include lofts and condominiums above ground-floor retail, along with townhouses in a $200,000-$350,000 price range, reports Detroit News writer Oralander Brand-Williams, quoting longtime residents Tracy Fraccarolli, who complains, ''There will be over 300 families packed into 28 acres,'' and the nearby intersection is already overcrowded and ranks among Oakland County's top 10 for accidents.

A Gilbert & Vennettili partner, developer Bill Gilbert, says his project was already delayed as he tried to address all local concerns, because, ''That's what we do as developers.'' But the neighborhood's Residential Vision Committee is still planning to fight the project at the city council's further public hearings. -- Detroit News   5/26/2004

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/oakland/index.htm

Hoping to Curb Sprawl, Advisory Committee Urges Cooperation Among School Districts for Macomb County School Improvement Plans

Although Michigan school districts can build where they please regardless of local growth plans, a broad-based advisory committee on the Macomb Intermediate School District initiated a possible landmark change, stating in its five-year draft plan for school improvements in Macomb County -- in the northeast quadrant of metro Detroit -- that they should cooperate closely with one another and other jurisdictions, in a common effort to curtail sprawl.

The committee included state lawmakers; county, municipal and utility officials; school superintendents; parents; and executives of the area's largest companies, Ford and General Motors, reports Detroit News writer Mike Wowk, quoting Macomb Intermediate School District assistant superintendent Gayle Green, who said, ''We want to make sure we don't necessarily take a traditional approach toward the need for new facilities.''

Specifically, the writer notes, the draft plan tells Macomb school districts to assess and disseminate growth data by partnering with the respective county commissions on road and sewer plans and demographic forecasts; to keep in touch with state and county agencies, utility providers and municipalities; to study demographics for potential student population shifts; and to create a leadership team for monitoring and reacting to the county growth fluctuations. -- Detroit News   5/9/2004

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/index.htm

What Are the Roadblocks to Smart Growth? Michigan Researchers Want to Know

Alarmed by studies showing state land ''being consumed about eight times faster than population growth,'' Michigan State University's Travel, Tourism and Recreation Resource Center and Planning and Zoning Center Inc. of Lansing are launching a research project entitled ''Overcoming Impediments to Smart Growth: Finding Ways for Land Development Professionals to Help Achieve Sustainability.''

Funded by the W. K. Kellog Foundation's People and Land Program, project researchers will poll professionals in six land use and development fields -- civil engineering, surveying, architecture, landscaping, planning and law -- to document smart growth impediments they face and solutions they need for implementation of guidelines from the 2003 report by the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council.

The council, says the university's press release, advises a focus on walkable neighborhoods and mixed uses; development in present communities to preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and key environmental areas; community attractiveness, distinctiveness and a strong sense of place; predictability, cost-effectiveness and fairness of development decisions; community and stakeholder cooperation; provision of transportation options; and creation of varied housing opportunities and choices.   4/27/2004

Resource(s): www.msu.edu/

''Cool Cities'' Program Resonates With Michigan's Young Workers Hoping for Affordable Housing, Walkable Communities

While Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm drew crowds at forums around the state, promoting her ''cool cities'' program to revitalize urban areas, create high-tech jobs and reverse the flight of young well-educated workers, some 13,000 state residents, from 18 to 35 years of age, entered a poll on her Web site, expressing their hopes for affordable housing and family-oriented walkable neighborhoods, job opportunities and solid public schools, better local stores and services, scenic beauty and a sense of community.

''I was surprised by the great emphasis on the long term,'' the governor said after a forum at Grand Valley State University. ''Young people, even those who are single, have focused on where they want to live when they have a family.''

With Michigan losing more than 42,000 people between 1995 and 2000, and 188,000 manufacturing jobs since 1999, reports Detroit News writer Mark Hornbeck, the governor took a page from the book ''The Rise of the Creative Class,'' by Carnegie Melon University Professor Richard Florida, offering $100,000 state ''catalyst grants'' to the 12 cities that devise the best ''cool cities'' projects to attract young designers, engineers and other Internet-economy entrepreneurs.

Like everything everywhere, her idea has critics, especially in the Republican-dominated state legislature, the writer notes, quoting Republican Senator Michelle McManus, who says, ''instead of socially engineered coolness, what entrepreneurs truly need is the ability to get their business up and running without unnecessary government interference.''

Similarly, New York-based conservative Manhattan Institute senior fellow Steven Malanga criticized Professor Florida's book in an article entitled ''The Course of the Creative Class'' -- ''Far from being economic powerhouses, several of the cities the professor identifies as creative-age winners have chronically underperformed the American economy.''

Wayne State student council president Mohammed Luwemba, 23, adds, ''All we have is $1 million lofts being built and $700,000 condos. But those aren't for people who live here. We need affordable housing.'' -- Detroit News   4/21/2004

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/index.htm

MLI Study: Renovating Neighborhood Schools Is Better Investment Than Building New Ones

Alarmed by a resource disparity between core cities and adjacent suburbs, also reflected in sprawl-inducive school construction on the outskirts while urban core schools can hardly maintain their old buildings, Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell called for ''a strong legislative process that sends down mandates,'' and Grand Rapids school superintendent Bert Bleke stressed the need for joint city-suburban efforts to balance the situation, both commenting on a new Michigan Land Use Institute study, ''Hard Lessons: The real costs of Michigan's school construction boom.''

The study found, reports Grand Rapids Press Steven Harmon, that school construction is pushing up both residential and commercial property taxes, ''tripling related debt from $4 billion to $12 billion'' in the last ten years; that although the school-age population has grown by just 4.5 percent since 1996, districts built some 500 schools and closed 278; and that in each case the cost of construction exceeded the cost of possible renovation.

The study offers state lawmakers a 10-point plan, saying it would not only save taxpayers significant money, but also ''enhance the integrity of existing neighborhoods and improve Michigan's economic competitiveness by encouraging the renovation of older buildings and construction on new buildings closer to town.''

Paraphrasing its key recommendations, the writer notes that lawmakers should make school renovation and construction in older neighborhoods the first two priorities; require districts to locate new schools in areas with infrastructure already present or planned and financed; and provide more financial incentives to upgrade schools in urban districts. -- Grand Rapids Press   2/26/2004

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/

Detroit's Eastside Redevelopment to Focus on Rehabilitation and Revitalization, Not Displacement

With Detroit's ''biggest building boom in 50 years'' spurred by 782 permits for new construction and more than 6,000 permits for home or business renovation last year, and with 4,400 housing starts underway right now, Democratic Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick announced in his State of the City speech another major historic transformation project -- ''top to bottom'' redevelopment of the city's 1,200-acre eastside section as a mixed-use, mixed-income, infill-type neighborhood, which will offer between 3,000 and 4,000 new or renovated homes.

Assigned to ''a blue-chip team of two national companies and two local developers'' -- Kimbal Hill Homes of Chicago; American City Vista, led by former HUD secretary Henry Cisneros; and local Phoenix Communities and nonprofit U-SNAP-BAC -- the project will focus ''on rehabilitation and revitalization, not on displacement,'' the mayor stressed, noting that the city will forgo eminent domain or condemnation and instead ''work with residents to fix up their homes as we fill the vacant lots between them.''

The city want the developers to build not just houses, but a community, ''a mix of retail, housing, churches, recreational facilities, public spaces and perhaps even schools,'' along with ''a range of housing options from market rate to affordable,'' and with various designs, including townhouses, attached units and rentals, ''all of the highest quality.''

Next, the mayor highlighted the city's brownfield reuse program, under which the Redevelopment Authority approved 64 projects ''totaling $1.4 billion in private investment,'' including a mix of uses, and promising 8,000 new jobs and 1,600 housing units upon completion; a $100 million overhaul of the Lower Woodward corridor; downtown revitalization and the area's new attractiveness to corporate tenants and workers; and the imminent construction of Riverwalk and a bike path around Chene Park.

''If we are going to thrive as a city, we must be a healthy city,'' not one rated by Men's Fitness magazine as the nation's ''fattest,'' he continued, announcing his ''Movement for Life'' initiative, ''to motivate and inform our citizens about health and wellness and to promote healthy lifestyles.''

Calling for regional cooperation, the mayor initiated ''the formation of a Tri-County Mayors' Conference to meet quarterly to work on issues of common interest to southeast Michigan.'' Pointing out that many parents are ''still voting with their feet'' on city schools and that ''enrollment is still dropping,'' he urged joint city, state and parental efforts to fix ''our public school system.''   2/24/2004

Resource(s): www.ci.detroit.mi.us/

Gov. Granholm Shifts Michigan's Brownfield Redevelopment Program to Focus on City Cores

Under her new ''cool cities'' initiative to transform older urban areas into ''economic powerhouses,'' whose vibrant downtowns will attract business and young professionals, Governor Jennifer Granholm shifted the brownfield redevelopment program away from suburban bedroom communities to city cores, and its administration from the Treasury Department to the Michigan Economic Development Corp., which just awarded the first of this year's $30 million in tax credits almost exclusively to urban site cleanups.

Previously, reports Detroit News writer Jennifer Brooks, brownfield developers were getting these credits on ''a first-come, first-served basis,'' but with the money tight and the applicant list long, the state will now favor projects that spur urban redevelopment, boost downtowns, preserve and create jobs, reuse blighted buildings, and are already backed by local funds or tax breaks.

''We've only got $30 million in credits to give out, and if we approve these big projects in the suburbs,'' said Michigan Economic Development Corp. senior vice president Jeffrey Kaczmarek, ''we'll have nothing left for small projects in Hamtrack, Detroit(or) Hazel Park.'' This doesn't mollify suburban bedroom community officials, the writer notes. With Canton Township's first brownfield redevelopment application just rejected, Supervisor Thomas Yack scoffed, ''Somehow, our residents aren't as equal as other residents.''

To familiarize officials with the ''cool cities'' concept and the new brownfield money distribution criteria, the Economic Development Corp. held a series of seminars across the state, the last one, February 18 in Lansing, featuring national expert and author, Dr. Richard Florida. -- Detroit News   2/18/2004

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Oakland County Transit Advocates Create Nonprofit Transport Authority for Pontiac/Highland Township

With Metro Detroit road congestion increasingly worse and with the 2001 proposal to coordinate transit services through the new Detroit Area Regional Transportation Authority (DARTA) -- vetoed by former Republican Governor John Engler, but revived by Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm last May -- still tied up in court, Oakland County's transit advocates created their nonprofit Freedom Road Transportation Authority, hoping to put a few shuttle buses on M-59 between the county complex in Pontiac and Highland Township some 14 miles west, to improve residents' access to jobs, shops and services.

In contrast to similar transportation services that metro communities usually limit to seniors and the disabled within given boundaries, the Auburn Hills-based market-driven Freedom Road would serve the general public across jurisdictional lines, reports Detroit News writer Amy Lee, quoting activist Steve Hill, who says, ''We're trying to build an organization from the ground up because there's pent-up demand for transportation in this area.''

Hill and his colleagues expect to avoid ''the political mud-slinging'' that plagued the DARTA proposal, since their bus transit would do without tax money, relying on grants, membership fees and sales of bus-carried advertisements. Highland, Waterford and White Lake township leaders confirm their need for transit, but the writer notes that all three townships have skipped the opportunity to bring in the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) bus service, which costs an owner of a $150,000 home in participant communities about $45 a year. -- Detroit News   2/9/2004

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/metro/index.htm

Gov. Granholm Sees Michigan's ''Cool Cities'' as Crucial to State's Economic Success

Totally focused on ''attracting and keeping businesses that create good jobs'' and can make Michigan ''the economic powerhouse state of the 21st century,'' Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm said in her State of the State speech, ''We will be the most nimble and business-sensitive state in the nation -- without sacrificing our environment,'' while giving young engineers and technology workers what they want -- ''hot jobs in cool cities.''

Pointing out that the state already improved more than 2,000 miles of roads by fixing the worst first, and helped create or retain some 43,000 jobs and attract over $2 billion in new automotive investment, the governor applauded those local governments that ''have torn up the turf mentality and replaced it with creativity and collaboration,'' but said she wouldn't be doing her job if she ''did not force'' upon the legislature and Washington the question ''How can a state so reliant on manufacturing compete with countries paying (workers) $1.57 an hour or with countries offering no benefits, no labor and no environmental standards?''

Crucial for the state's economic success will be cities, the governor stressed, envisioning ''strong regional economies anchored by cool cities'' which attract ''young workers and businesses that rely on their talents.'' Pleased that ''a bottom-up movement'' to stimulate the rise of such cities already helped nearly 80 communities create ''local commissions on cool,'' which are planning ''everything from bike paths to bookstores to attract more people and new businesses,'' the governor said, ''Government can't create cool, but we can and will target existing resources to support these local efforts to create vibrant cities, centers of commerce -- as recommended by the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council.''

For example, she continued, the Michigan State Housing Authority (MSHDA) ''will pilot in 12 cities an offer of incentives and financing to create unique downtown developments where loft housing, art galleries and technology start-ups can all share the same historic brick building,'' and the Department of History, Arts and Libraries ''will target arts and cultural grants toward main street revitalization in those cities.'' But to truly expand the economy, business and jobs, ''we must also focus on improving our quality of life,'' that is on education, health care and the environment, the governor announced, pledging continuation of bipartisan efforts ''to recapture Michigan's national leadership in preserving and protecting our natural resources,'' and reminding lawmakers that ''three of Michigan's top industries -- agriculture, tourism and timber -- depend wholly on a sustainable environment for their very existence.''

Especially proud of last year's progress ''both to reopen the environmental protection process to our citizens and to protect our Michigan land, the governor emphasized that the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council's recommendations are already being implemented through new laws that let adjacent communities plan together for growth, facilitate faster neighborhood takeover of vacant sites and buildings for redevelopment, and provide city residents with powerful tools ''to tackle head on the blight and decay in their communities.''

Gov. Granholm also reported saving more than 6,000 acres of sand dunes, woods and open fields along the northern Lake Michigan, ''the largest one-time farmland preservation ever in the Midwest,'' called for a bill ''to control the tide of trash'' pushed by international trade into Michigan, and urged lawmakers to do ''as much to reclaim our role as the country's leader in water preservation as we have done in ensuring our role as protectors of the land,'' specifically, to pass her newly introduced Water Legacy Act ''to protect our waters from unfettered withdrawals.''   1/27/2004

Resource(s): www.michigan.gov/

New Statewide Poll Reveals Strong Support for Smart Growth in Michigan

Smart growth is on the rise in Michigan, with a new statewide poll by Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies showing that 84 percent back priority funding for older infrastructure rather than ''encouraging new growth in the countryside,'' while 80 percent see the need for more mixed-use pedestrian-friendly communities and also reject the notion that ''Michigan cities are deteriorating and cannot be improved regardless of how money might be spent.'' Presented by Wayne Professor Lyke Thompson at the Southeast Michigan Summit on Regional Redevelopment last month, reports Michigan Land Use Institute policy specialist Charlene Crowell, the poll found majority support not only for farmland and open space protection, advocated by Democratic and Republican politicians alike, but also for the still controversial tax-base sharing, growth boundaries and new shopping-center limits.

The need for strong state redevelopment efforts, the writer notes, was highlighted by Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SMCOG) executive director Paul Tait in the ''Fiscal Capacity of Southeast Michigan Communities: Taxable Value and its Implications'' report, which documented a huge disparity in local taxable values. Bloomfield Hills tops the list at $165,794 in taxable value per person, and Detroit and Highland Park stay at the bottom, with $7,573 and $7,012 per person, respectively.

Other urban and inner ring communities, often predominantly African-American, the writer observes, are hit by sharp losses in taxable land values because of the continuous migration to ''the exurbs.'' Public Sector Consultants senior vice president Bill Rustem, whose firm helped the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council formulate its August recommendations, said, ''We segregate racially and economically -- that isn't mixed use. We've got to understand here in Michigan that we have all got to work together. We need to integrate our governmental decisions, not rip them apart.''   11/10/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/index.asp

Regional Planning, Tax Incentives Key to Solving Detroit's Sprawl Dilemma

If metro Detroit wants to avoid even more sprawl and traffic congestion, it must plan regionally, locate jobs and homes close together, and invest in mass transit, said Chicago Metropolis 2020 policy director Charles J. Wheelan, sharing his region's growth-management experience with several hundred participants of the 17th annual University of Michigan/Urban Land Institute Real Estate Forum in Bloomfield Hills and stressing, ''So much of it comes down to tax policy. You've got to have incentives to encourage development in places it makes sense.'' Although Chicago has better public transit than Detroit, ''where the love affair with the automobile -- fed by the power of the automakers -- is in full bloom,'' reports Daily Oakland Press writer Doug Henze, the Chicago Metropolis business-led group, formed in 1999 to promote orderly growth, found that regional planning by its six counties could help them absorb another 1.6 million residents and 1 million cars by 2030, while saving 301 square miles from development, about $3.7 billion in water, sewer and street costs, and 155 hours of annual travel time for the average resident. But fostering planning cooperation isn't easy, the speaker said, ''because of suspicion between the city and suburbs.'' Governor Jennifer Granholm's Michigan Land Use Leadership Council, which issued its ''controversial land-use report'' last August, may face a similar problem, the writer notes, quoting Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who told the forum, ''I don't want to surrender control to a group or a region.'' -- Daily Oakland Press   11/6/2003

Resource(s): www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=982

Michigan Towns Score Smart Growth Victories at Polls

A day after Governor Jennifer Granholm praised the Grand Rapids area as a model of cross-jurisdictional cooperation, voters in this and five nearby cities substantiated her trust by approving a property tax increase for regional bus transit upgrades by 66 to 34 percent, while some hundred miles away, Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor Township scored similar Smart Growth wins, one by an over 66 percent approval for a 30-year extension of the current property tax to create an 8,000-acre greenbelt, the other by a 75 percent vote for a higher property tax, also to preserve rural land. The measures will cost an owner of a $200,000 home about $95 a year in the Grand Rapids area, and about $70 in the Ann Arbor area, reports Michigan Land Use Institute deputy director Keith Schneider. Proponents of both measures found, he writes, that ''even in an era when voters apparently favor lower taxes and wringing more out of government for less, residents nevertheless energetically supported new taxpayer investments in public projects they viewed as improving the economy and quality of life.'' In his initial review of election results elsewhere, the writer finds a similar Smart Growth trend in many other parts of the country.   11/5/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/index.asp

Gov. Granholm Urges Michigan's Local Officials to Cooperate on New Land Use Goals

''Turfism is an anachronism,'' Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm told a largely Republican and conservative audience of some 500 local officials, business leaders and civic activists in Grand Rapids, announcing her priorities for implementation of the anti-sprawl, urban renewal and transportation measures recommended in August by the bipartisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council, and urging all 1,800 jurisdictions across the state to follow the Grand Rapids area example to ''step out, reach beyond jurisdictional lines'' and change ''the crazy way land is used and consumed in Michigan.'' Listing her priorities, writes Michigan Land Use Institute deputy director Keith Schneider, the governor pledged to work with residents and lawmakers on statewide land use goals; locate new state offices and buildings downtown and in other city areas; help urban redevelopment through faster sales of tax-delinquent properties; advance the ''fix-it-first'' road construction policy; minimize road and related construction impact on neighborhoods and ecologically-fragile areas through more comprehensive assessment of project design, context and location; seek legislative support for revitalization of cities, downtown areas and older suburbs with ''commerce centers;'' and direct the Department of Environmental Quality to determine which of its programs produce sprawl and which save land. All this, together with five other priorities she will negotiate with lawmakers, the writer stresses, comprise ''the most comprehensive list of land use policy reform advocated by a Michigan governor since the mid-1970s.''   11/4/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/index.asp

Proposed Ann Arbor Greenbelt Headed for November Ballot

As Washtenaw County suburban development gobbles 4,000 acres a year, mostly east, north and west of Ann Arbor, the Democratic mayor of this one of just two Michigan cities that gained residents in the 1990s, former Realtor John Heiftie, and a ''remarkably diverse coalition of untraditional allies'' are seeking voter approval for a 30-year extension of the city half-mil property tax -- which would raise $100 million, including area matching and federal conservation funds -- to fund purchases of development rights and protect the city with an 8,000-acre greenbelt, but this Proposal B on the November 4 ballot, reports Michigan Land Use Institute managing editor Jim Dulzo, may be buried by home builders under ''a landslide of negative advertising.'' Countering arguments that the proposed program, under which farmers would get about $12,000 per acre to stay in business, could help improve the city's quality of life and protect the Huron River watershed, opponents call it a waste of taxpayer money, which would harm residential growth, the local economy and ''the American Dream of homeownership.'' The county chapter of the Michigan Home Builders Association, the writer reports, reactivated the Washtenow Citizens for Responsible Growth (WCRG) group that helped defeat a similar countywide millage proposal in 1998, with local builders' public affairs director Jeff Fisher saying in August, ''We spent $400,000 defeating this ballot last time. We'll spend another $400,000 this time. We'll spend $800,000.'' Much of it coming from outside the county, the writer notes. Still, Wexford Development Group CEO Craig Welch had a hard time professing his concern about affordable housing at a debate attended by hundreds of residents, as Mayor Hejftie said at the podium that ''that folks like Alber Berriz here, the chief executive of McKinley and Associates, a card-carrying Republican, is up here with me'' because he and other business leaders ''understand what it means to attract the top professionals in the world to come and work in Ann Arbor.'' In addition, Berriz, also the chairman of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, observed that Welch is currently building 27 million-dollar homes and challenged him to join the alliance and raise $400,000 for its affordable housing, promising to do the same. Proposal B campaign co-director Doug Cowherd told the writer that the greenbelt millage would protect just three percent of county land, which would affect neither home prices nor classroom densities, stressing, ''We are shifting development from remote sites without infrastructure to places that already have paved roads and services.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   10/22/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

State Reps Challenging Expansion of Michigan's River Protection Laws

True to Governor Jennifer Granholm's 2002 electoral pledge to have the 1970 Natural River Act regional zoning safeguards against riverbank development protect more than 16 of the most beautiful wild rivers saved so far, the Department of Natural Resources capped a long series of supportive public hearings by expanding the act's protections over the Pine and Upper Mainstee rivers in northern Michigan last month, a decision quickly challenged by House Republican Speaker Rick Johnson and his other area colleagues, who ran through the chamber two bills decried by many as undercutting the whole act and creating a precedent for other environmental rollbacks. House Bill 4641, which would let counties and towns along rivers taken under protection after 2002 ''rescind the designation by a majority vote'' four years later, writes Michigan Land Use Institute expert Andy Guy, won a 66-44 approval mostly along party lines. House Bill 4642, which would shift the act's designation authority from the Department of Natural Resources to its citizen oversight Natural Resources Commission, passed unanimously, a change less risky since most residents across the state, along with the press, strongly back the Natural River Act. In a Detroit News Web site poll, the writer notes, more than 80 percent of the answers went against letting localities shun its protections. A Detroit Free Press editorial told Speaker Johnson that his concern about private property rights notwithstanding, ''ownership does not equate to unfettered use, and the natural value of water property ranks as a top priority here in Michigan.'' A Traverse City Record Eagle called the speaker's move a ''fit of pique'' and urged him ''to catch up with his constituents.'' With Governor Granholm resolved to resist House Republicans' challenge to the river protection act, the writer places hope for averting a major confrontation in Senate Republicans, especially Majority Leader Ron Sikkema, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee chairwoman Patricia Birkholz and Senator Michelle McManus. Noting their support for better environmental protection for the Great Lakes, he quotes Senator McManus, who said, ''We'll wait in the Senate until it gets to us. I've already talked to Senator Birkholz and she'll be having some hearings on these bills.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   10/1/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Michigan Mayors Cite Need for Regional Cooperation, Tax Policy Changes to Break Sprawl Cycle

Caught ''in a vicious circle of urban sprawl'' -- where local governments dependent on property taxes must chase new development to handle costs due to the previous phase -- Southeast Michigan should launch regional cooperation recommended by Governor Jennifer Granholm's bipartisan Land Use Leadership Council, while the governor and the legislature should revamp state tax policies ''that reward outward expansion while squeezing the viability out of established cities'' and change infrastructure funding ''that reacts to unplanned development rather than shaping the direction of growth,'' write three local leaders on the editorial page of The Detroit Free Press. Citing a study by the South Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), Michigan Suburbs Alliance Chairman, Taylor Mayor Gregory E. Pitoniak, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence and Warren Mayor Mark Steenbergh point out that the Headlee Amendment and Proposal A restrict property tax increases on existing development, but don't cover new construction, which gives outer communities in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties a ''powerful incentive'' to develop their open land, while older urban areas with land shortages can't attract investment and hold onto the middle class. The former expanded their tax base by 56 percent over the past decade; the latter, only by six percent. Other findings also ''make it clear that southeast Michigan can ill afford to continue its outward expansion,'' the three mayors write, noting that the region will be $30 billion short of meeting its road and transit needs in the next 25 years, and another $25 billion of funds to upgrade the aged sewer system. The mayors see the council's recommendations as an opportunity to ''create a virtuous circle'' in which regional cooperation ''is rewarded by a growing vitality in our urban and suburban communities, and the entire region benefits from growth that is efficient and sustainable.'' -- The Detroit Free Press   9/24/2003

Resource(s): www.freep.com/

State Sprawl Assessment Report Called ''Deeply Flawed'' by Michigan Think Tank

Troubled that ''development is being demonized for every ill, from drug abuse to obesity,'' the director of science, environment and technology director for the free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Diane Katz, called the ''anti-sprawl'' report issued last month by Governor Jennifer Granholm's Land Use Leadership Council ''deeply flawed,'' telling a Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce audience that before the first meeting, the council ''was tutored on 10 'smart growth' commandments upon which to base its policy recommendations'' and that ''diverse opinions weren't as welcome as some members had hoped.'' Stating that from her perspective ''the 70-plus pages of recommendations rival North Korea for central planning genius,'' the speaker mentioned the proposed ''creation of a statewide land-control plan;'' ''massive expansion of public transportation systems;'' ''limits on new road construction and other infrastructure;'' ''more restrictive zoning;'' and her ''personal favorite, imposition of a 'Smart Growth' curriculum in public schools.'' Although she blamed the council for ignoring the proposals' ''taxpayer cost'' and for their ''inherent'' threat to private property rights, she credited it for ''advancing the principle that the state should not subsidize private development by underwriting infrastructure,'' for ''recommending the continued rationalization of cleanup standards,'' and for acknowledging ''that stricter land-use controls are hardly in keeping with public sentiment.'' Citing from the council's report that residents ''continue to express their living choices by moving out of urban communities and into rural areas,'' the speaker said instead of seeing such choice ''as the advantage of living in a free society,'' the council saw the need ''to alter the current dynamics.'' With the initial media attention focused on a recommendation to coordinate land-use planning among jurisdictions, she judged it ''unworkable'' and ''unnecessary,'' arguing against ''the popular misconception'' that most farmland is lost to development, while 75 percent of it ''is converted to forestland or parks, wildlife areas or hunting preserves.'' She regretted that the council failed to appreciate what American development represents -- ''ingenuity and innovation,'' ''accumulation of material and intangible wealth that has made environmental improvement all the more possible.'' She concluded, ''Our unsurpassed technological progress -- both economic and agricultural -- has allowed us to venture beyond the city in search of cleaner air, cleaner water, greener land, safer streets, and better schools. And I, for one, am not about to relinquish that choice willingly.'' -- Mackinac Center for Public Policy   9/9/2003

Resource(s): www.mackinac.org

State Will Focus on Urban Revitalization and Purchase of Development Rights to Reign in Sprawl

With six of the state's eight largest cities still losing mostly young people in the past three years and development claiming more than 10 rural acres each hour, Governor Jennifer Granholm's bipartisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council concluded its six-month series of deliberations and public hearings convinced that more must be done to revitalize urban cores, help towns save local character and stem farmland loss -- the ways to make it happen outlined through more than 150 specific growth-management recommendations, some easy to implement by executive orders, others needing legislative or voter approval. ''State laws inadvertently have promoted going out and finding green space (for development) rather than revitalizing urban areas,'' said council member, state Republican Senator Patti Birkholz, while Public Sector Consultants vice president Bill Rustem, whose firm helped the council draft its report, added, ''If we have more traffic jams, if the cost of infrastructure goes up, if we lose the vistas that define Michigan, the agriculture, the forestry land, that diminishes the quality of life.'' Consequently, reports Lansing State Journal writer Chris Andrews, the council recommended investing more state and federal money in urban infrastructure and transportation, with a focus on cities, towns and counties seeking regional cooperation; encouraging denser development, including small-lot zoning and multifamily housing; and spurring purchases of farmer development rights (PDR), possibly by issuing agricultural conservation bonds. In the past few years, farmers offered to sell development rights for 125,000 acres, but the state could afford only about 14,000 acres, the writer notes, quoting Michigan Farm Bureau president Wayne Wood, who said a PDR funding program is desperately needed, because it ''allows units of government, farmers and agribusiness to plan with the security that there will be a block of agriculture for further business.'' Governor Granholm asked her Consumer and Industry Services director David Hollister to follow the council's report with suggestions for policy changes and Republican legislative leaders also promised serious consideration, writes Detroit News Lansing correspondent Gary Heinlein. He quotes Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, who said, ''Any comprehensive land use policy will focus heavily on making Michigan's core cities and urban areas more appealing places to work and live.'' Nevertheless, the writer thinks ''the report's future is an open question,'' asking, ''Will the 100-page document be used as a guide to channel growth or join previous land use reports that are gathering dust on Capitol shelves?'' -- Lansing State Journal   8/20/2003

Resource(s): www.lsj.com/ ; www.detnews.com/index.htm

Detroit Counties Cry Foul Over State Reps' Housing Density Proposal

Disturbed by suburban sprawl and high home costs on the fringes of Detroit, state Republican Representatives Jack Hoogendyk and Marc Shulman introduced a bill that would require townships in the metro's Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties to allow density of up to eight homes per acre on at least 50 percent of their residential land with water and sewer services, a move decried by township officials as a blatant assault on local control. Representative Hoogendyk told Detroit News writer Amy Lee that he favors local control, but the three-county region's rapid growth warrants state action to concentrate development in urban areas and to help young families that often must move ever farther from cities to find affordable housing. ''If you're able to build eight homes on one acre, obviously those homes won't be $500,000 mansions, they'll be affordable homes,'' the representative said, pointing out that developers will also have more flexibility, because ''if they buy an eight-acre parcel, they could put eight homes on one acre and save the other seven for open space.'' Representative Shulman's chief of staff Todd Harcek called the bill ''a starting point to talk about the much larger issue of land use,'' with Governor Jennifer Granholm's Land Use Leadership Council ready to release its comprehensive report on August 15. Still, Lyon Township Supervisor Joe Shigley said the bill ''takes all control away from local people and puts it in the hands of the developers;'' Shelby Township Supervisor Skip Maccarone argued townships already face lawsuit threats for any rezoning denials and ''a statute that commands density greater than a master plan is an insult to the intelligence of local elected officials;'' and Northville Township Manage Chip Snider doubted this ''completely unreasonable'' bill would ''go anywhere.'' -- Detroit News   8/6/2003

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Michigan Suburban Growth Boom Spurs Urban Redevelopment, Sprawl-Control Plans

''One man's sprawl is another man's paradise,'' writes Detroit News senior editor Luther King, commenting on the newest U.S. Census Bureau estimate that the loss of almost 23,000 residents within the last few years lowered Detroit's population to 925,000 -- with Flint, Grand Rapids, Warren, Lansing, Livonia and other cities also suffering losses -- while the farthest parts of Wayne, Washtenaw, Livingston, Oakland and Macomb counties around Metro Detroit gained residents. Noting especially high growth in the southwestern Oakland County townships of Commerce, Milford and Lyon, the editor points out that since ''dollars for road expansion and repair haven't kept pace with the population boom,'' the area pays the price in ubiquitous traffic gridlock. He finds ''a growing recognition that there is a cost for this 'pursuit of happiness' '' in the suburbs. This recognition is reflected in the work of Governor Jennifer Granholm's Michigan Land Use Leadership Council. A draft of its forthcoming report includes a recommendation to create ''agriculture security zones'' and issue state bonds to spur multi-jurisdictional land protection and urban redevelopment initiatives in Wayne, Oakland, Macom, Kent and Genesee counties. Still, even those trying to curb sprawl differ on details, the editor writes, citing Oakland County's research paper and digital land use map for its 61 communities. While Oakland community and economic development director Dennis R. Toffolo would like communities to use the map for individual plans and business recruitment, Ferndale city manager Tom Barwin expects it to ensure better regional planning. He warns, ''We have to fix what we have and make what we have here livable and desirable instead of chewing up thousands of acres of farmland. Every dollar we spend on fixing a sewer or building a library in Macomb Township is a dollar that can't be used in Detroit.'' -- Detroit News   7/14/2003

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/metro/index.htm

Property Rights Movement On the Rise in Michigan

Set back during the late 1990s, the private property rights movement has reasserted itself in Michigan's local and state politics, defeating a widely backed construction ban for a fragile Lake Michigan bluff in Emmet County, helping Great Lakes shore landowners win the enactment of a state law that lets them mow and bulldoze the shores, inciting Republican-sponsored legislation to weaken the state's Natural River Act, and getting ready to hit the growth-management recommendations expected from Governor Jennifer Granholm's Michigan Land Use Leadership Council (MLULC) in mid-August. Its banner the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads ''nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation,'' the property rights movement posits it as ''the foundation of all other liberties,'' writes Michigan Land Use Institute news desk intern Sarah Morris, quoting House Republican Speaker Rick Johnson and MLULC member Brian Warner. The first warns, ''If you don't protect private property rights, you're going to have a hard time in a lot of the other areas;'' the other argues, ''The recognition of private property protects other freedoms. Having the right to enjoy our property is an important barrier against an abuse of police power.'' But this clear tilt ''in favor of self-interest'' lacks legal basis, the writer observes, citing a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limiting development at California's Lake Tahoe is not a taking because it doesn't diminish ''all or 'essentially' all of the value of the property,'' and because landowners who may feel a regulation burden also share a ''reciprocity advantage'' with others, which serves the common good. ''Since the economic value of Lake Tahoe property is based on the lake's natural beauty,'' the writer explains, ''regulating development on the lake protects property values in the long run.'' Environmental and legal experts stress other key points. University of Wisconsin (Madison) urban and environmental studies professor Harvey M. Jacobs points out that the private rights movement is ''tapping into a real sentiment of dissatisfaction'' with the government, while its moneyed industry supporters can gain from weakening natural resource safeguards. Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute (Washington, D.C.) Executive director John Echeverria says, ''The founding Fathers recognized that reasonable regulations applied across the entire community produce not only burdens but corresponding benefits that help all landowners,'' adding, ''There is a very large and well-organized, well-financed effort to push the takings clause beyond what the drafters of the Constitution ever intended.''   7/14/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Michigan Environmental Groups Call for Environmental Policy Based on ''Common Sense Conservation''

In a letter to the Michigan congressional delegation, leaders of 15 area environmental groups urged the two senators and 15 representatives ''to resist the Bush administration's attempts to undo more than a generation of protection for the environment of the state and of the nation,'' with Michigan Environmental Council policy advisor David Dempsey saying the request simply reflects the need for ''common sense conservation'' and Michigan Interfaith Coalition for Creation director Kim Winchel stressing the diversity of those concerned ''about what's happening at the national level with environmental policy'' and their hope to ''reverse that tide.'' Specifically, writes Michigan Land Use Institute deputy director Keith Schneider for the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service, the environmental groups asked the congressional delegation for help against the Bush administration's proposals to let military installations disregard laws to ensure clean air and water, endangered specie safety and toxic waste disposal and cleanup; weaken the Clean Air Act by allowing 500 power plants and other Michigan industrial facilities to increase their soot and smog-forming emissions; eliminate Clean Water Act protections for the state's small streams and wetlands, which would result in more water pollution and wetland development; shift the Superfund cleanup burden from companies to taxpayers, which would delay cleanup of the state's 67 Superfund sites. They also urged a push to review the recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission's permission for utilities to license nuclear plants without having to consider their vulnerability to terrorists, and steps to expand a 2001 Michigan law that requires ships entering the Great Lakes to purge their ballast water tanks from invasive species. Noting that in April state Department of Environmental Quality director Steve Chester wrote in opposition to removal of the state's 271,000 wetland acres from federal protection and Governor Jennifer Granholm followed with her own letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee against the military's exemption from environmental laws, the writer quotes the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council advocacy director Greg Wetstone, who said after a recent visit, ''state activists and elected officials in Michigan recognize the fundamental threat we're facing from the environmental retreat.''   6/25/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Study Analyzes Use of Transit Funds in Great Lakes Region

Having spent $35 billion of their $42 billion in federal transportation aid since 1991 on road and highway projects, the seven Midwest states of the Great Lakes area ''could have taken better advantage of the law's possibilities'' by using money targeted for sidewalks and bike paths and by investing more in transit, with Michigan -- known for the worst bridges in the nation and for the highest percentage of fair-to-poor roads in the region -- spending the least on repairs and the most on new roads, according to a study by the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, a trend observers expect to change under Governor Jennifer Granholm's ''fix-it-first'' policy. The foundation funds research for improving the Great Lakes environment, reports Booth Newspapers writer Meegan Holland, quoting Michigan Land Institute-Beulah transportation project manager Kelly Thayer, who says, ''We're on the leading edge of a crisis. We can't afford to expand the system while we're allowing it to fall apart.'' Michigan Road Builders Association executive vice president Tony Milo differs slightly: ''We've got to have a comprehensive plan that maintains what we have, expand where necessary and invest in a mass transit system. The challenge is to find the funds to do all of these things.'' Michigan Chamber of Commerce senior vice president for government relations Rich Studley is more skeptical: ''We have some very good bus systems,'' but also ''a lot of concerns about dirty, half-empty buses that run behind schedule,'' while transit proponents ''in their enthusiasm for this mode of transportation, substantially overestimate ridership and underestimate operating expenses.'' Noting the state's size and diversity, he says ''What might be appropriate in Southeast Michigan may not work at all in the Upper Peninsula'' and adds, ''I don't know how you force people to get out of their cars if they don't want to.''   6/25/2003

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/

Hopes Fade for Michigan House Speaker's Role as Smart Growth Leader

Propelled since his 1999 legislative debut to the Michigan House speaker post in 2001, ''folksy'' Osceola County farmer Republican Rick Johnson asserts he remains fully committed to his five-step land-use and environmental reform program from two years ago, but some civic activists and Democratic lawmakers say their hopes for him to become his party's ''smart growth'' leader dissipated after his Michigan Builder piece last January announced a ''responsible growth'' agenda ''built around protecting private property rights, preserving local control, and keeping taxes low.'' In early 2001, reports Michigan Land Use Institute news desk intern Sarah Morris, Speaker Johnson appointed his party namesake, Representative Ruth Johnson, to chair the new Land Use and Environment Committee, which quickly took up proposals to facilitate development of abandoned Detroit sites, provide water treatment tax credits, enact agricultural tax breaks, coordinate zoning for better growth management and protect lakes form invasive species -- the last two becoming state law and the speaker expecting a new debate on the other three and possibly similar ones once lawmakers receive the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council's recommendations due in mid-August. Two years ago, the writer notes, Speaker Johnson told a news conference that as ''a northern Michigan farmer'' he deeply appreciates land-use legislation, because ''(l)and use and the environmental concerns that come with it will be vital to the continued prosperity of our state.'' In the context of recent campaign finance reports identifying him as one of the top recipients of construction industry contributions, the speaker told the writer he would never accept money from anyone asking for a vote or a favor, but pointed out that he finds conservative landowners more vocal about their property rights than suburban homeowners are about traffic congestion or pollution. The speaker's ''tacit message,'' the writer comments, is that to pass important anti-sprawl statutes, he must ''hear from many more citizens about how runaway growth damages cities and the countryside.'' -- Michigan Builder   6/22/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Public Support Strong for Growth Management and Urban Revival at Michigan Land Use Hearings

''It Ain't Even Close'' between sprawl friends and foes, reports Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) deputy director Keith Schneider from the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council's series of 12 late April hearings in six cities, where handfuls of builders adamant against any state control lost to hundreds of residents urging ''bold steps'' to revive cities, spur regional cooperation and devise growth-management policies. At Marquette and Detroit hearings, residents outnumbered sprawl friends by 10-1 and 15-1 margins, with ''strikingly high'' public support for growth-control measures in Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Pontiac and Lansing, too. As Livingston County builder Boyd Cannon insisted in Lansing that ''Sprawl is just Americans choosing where they live'' and his Jackson County colleague W. Jack Hurula claimed that ''urban sprawl is government misinformation,'' Mount Pleasant planning and community development director Tony Kulick countered: ''Smart Growth requires smart planning. The time is now for Michigan to move from the bottom of the pile.'' This ''powerful civic consensus for state action on sprawl,'' combined with strong calls by local officials ''for state assistance in grappling with sprawl,'' writes MLUI deputy director, got the industry's attention, contrasted with the council's own ''cautious tone'' and galvanized its members. While Michigan Association of Realtors president-elect Gilbert M. White admitted there's ''public support for action,'' though on a local rather than a state level, such diverse council members as Detroit urban developer Colin Hubbell and Michigan Nature Conservancy executive director Helen Taylor found the public voices refreshing and instructive. ''The issue of sprawl, the issue of uncontrolled, uncoordinated land use is on people's minds,'' said Hubbell. ''It furthers our charge. We're hearing it from folks. This is not our own personal agendas.'' The Nature Conservancy director observed, ''Even constituencies you might not expect were saying there was a need for action.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   5/11/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16488

Michigan's Congregation-Based Community Organizations Support Smart Growth Principles

Michigan Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm asked a rally of the inter-denominational Ezekiel Project activists in Saginaw to help press her cooperation-focused agenda for urban revival, land protection and road repair through the Republican-led legislature, her call ''How can we as a state get beyond turf wars when it makes sense to share?'' drawing a pledge from Ezekiel's president, Father John Sarge, ''We are prepared to stand with you and we will let our legislators know we want Smart Growth and 'Fix It First'.'' The Ezekiel Project's clout is on the rise, writes Michigan Land Use Institute policy specialist Charlene Crowell. Formed eight years ago, the congregation-based community organization already includes 19 churches and more than 5,000 members from across the denominational, ethnic and generational spectrum; its sister organizations, the MOSES of Detroit and the Isaac of Kalamazoo, have 15,000 and 3,000 members, respectively; a similar group in Grand Rapids will soon involve thousands more; and organizers envision a concerted effort this summer to form a statewide Michigan Inter-Faith Voice (MI Voice) alliance, which will ''serve as a powerful, coordinating roundtable for people of faith.'' Their support, the writer agrees with other analysts, may be crucial for beating back the conservative push against the governor's plan to repair roads before building new ones, create a metropolitan Detroit transportation authority, protect the Great Lakes and control massive groundwater withdrawals. The governor's call for policies of cooperation and inclusion to meet the state's fiscal, economic, social and environmental challenges, including health care, crime and metropolitan equity, the writer reports, was echoed by other speakers -- church ministers, Saginaw Mayor Wilma Ham, Democratic Congressman Dale Kildee and former long-time Minnesota state Democratic legislator Myron Orfield, urban expert and co-author of the new Michigan Metropatterns study. Putting the governor's ''Fix It First'' road policy in the context of Smart Growth efforts in 16 other states, he stressed that city cores and older suburbs face similar redevelopment challenges and that Michigan must ''find a forum where communities can work together.'' -- Great Lakes Bulletin News Service   5/8/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16487

Market Forces -- Not Smart Growth -- Drive Cost of Housing Higher

Builders are telling the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council that moves to curb sprawl and revitalize inner cities would drive construction costs up and the poor out ''of the only housing they can afford,'' but offer ''scant'' proof for these claims, writes Michigan Land Use Institute planner Jim Lively in his ''Smart Growth Can Deliver Affordable Housing'' piece on the institute's web page, citing a substantial academic evidence that ''market forces not land use restrictions'' are primarily responsible for high housing costs. Home prices, he writes, are indeed rising in Portland, Oregon, which has a growth boundary, but they are going up even faster in metropolitan Washington, D.C., with no such boundary and much weaker land use restrictions, since both are great cities ''where people want to live.'' With urban housing advocates admitting ''that the free market will never develop adequate supplies of affordable housing'' because it's ''not very profitable,'' the writer stresses, ''That is why metropolitan regions, backed by local, state, and federal funding, must invest in affordable housing, just as they do in roads, schools, parks and utilities.'' Noting that Michigan ranks 48th in per capita spending on housing subsidies and is one of 13 states without affordable housing trust funds -- while most Midwest states put $20-$30 million into such funds annually -- the writer points out that a ''mix of upper, middle, and lower-income housing requires a complex mix of programs and policies that increase public and private investment in cities and protect low-income residents from being priced out of the market.'' He lists several Smart Growth tools making these goals possible. Among them are Inclusionary Zoning, Smart Housing Zoning Codes, Community Land Trusts, Mutual Housing Cooperatives and Location Efficient Mortgages, along with aggressive public anti-blight and small-business investment programs, special housing rehabilitation codes and regional ''Fair Share'' affordable housing agreements. -- Great Lakes Bulletin News Service   5/3/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16484

Michigan Land Use Leadership Council Looks at State Models for Effective Smart Growth Strategies

As it seeks input for a future Michigan growth-management plan, Governor Jennifer Granholm's bipartisan Land Use Leadership Council can learn much about what works or doesn't in smart growth from other states, writes Michigan Land Use Institute policy advisor Arlin Wasserman, citing the institute's in-depth research in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Florida -- which found that big money talks, the right message must reach the right people, and political shifts require new messages and allies -- and the parallel Sierra Club/Mackinac Chapter interviews with environmental and land use advocates in 13 states, which confirmed the general conclusion that ''political leadership from top state official is crucial to advancing Smart Growth.'' In Colorado, the writer explains, a 1998 anti-sprawl measure, initially backed by 80 percent of residents and by $1 million in campaign donations, lost in a landslide because developers spent $6 million on a counter-campaign and Governor Bill Owens urged voters to let him control sprawl by other means. Consequently, ''Colorado's environmentalists find themselves on the outside as the governor works his way through a list of less ambitious reforms.'' In Pennsylvania, the 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania environmental group spent years garnering broad support for its reform proposals, forming alliances with smart growth, quality of life and economic efficiency advocates, and setting up an extensive education network. The Friends were happy to let then-Governor Tom Ridge ''take the credit for their proposals'' and to help inform his advisory board as it sought input on his 2000 program, eventually enacted into law. In Florida, gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush declared support for the state's growth-management policies during his 1988 campaign, but once elected ''pandered to the property rights movement and tried to gut the state laws.'' But environmentalists and ''savvy developers'' in the 1,000 Friends of Florida group ''did some research, and unflinchingly cited the undue industry influence and bias'' in the governor's new position, beating back his efforts. With the multi- state research by the Sierra Club/Mackinac Chapter showing the importance of holding elected officials true to their electoral land use promises and forming broad coalitions with groups focused on quality of life and social equity, the writer adds: ''It doesn't matter which political party controls a state's government. That's because Smart Growth is pro-business, pro-equity, pro-environment, and pro-quality of life. These are, in sum, bipartisan issues.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   4/13/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16478

Editorial: Smart Growth Principles Shine in a Slow Economy

''Smart growth saves money,'' write Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy Director Bruce Katz and Senior Policy Analyst Mark Muro in The Detroit News, pointing out that unanimity of the kind seen on the bipartisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council regarding the role of sprawl in urban decay, farmland loss and fiscal challenges ''gets things done'' and that bad economic times are ''the right time to tackle sprawl,'' because they ''accentuate cost consciousness, and sprawl is incredibly costly.'' In good times, they write, ''sprawl accelerates,'' prompting public calls for land protection, but the economic slowdown and tax revenue shortfall bring to the fore another reform rationale -- the huge public cost of new roads, schools and other services for ever more distant subdivisions and ''the cost-saving promise'' of smart growth. Noting Michigan's $2 billion deficit and Metro Detroit's 70 percent debt increase since 1993 to $8.9 billion last year, the writers cite studies by the Real Estate Research Corp., Rutgers University professor Robert Burchell and others that found compact growth up to 70 percent cheaper for governments ''than equivalent volumes of scattered growth.'' They then conclude: ''Now at least, the need to reduce inefficiency shows promise of overcoming such traditional hurdles to reform as Michigan's intense localism. Now, as never before, the possibility exists for a new consensus around smart growth that includes fiscal conservatives and suburban officials struggling to keep up with sprawl as well as environmentalists, farmers and urban mayors.'' -- The Detroit News   4/13/2003

Resource(s): www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/katz/20030413.htm

Michigan Bill Could Help Growing Townships Manage Economic Development Projects

The Michigan House of Representatives sent the Senate a bill that expands the definition of urban townships to those with 13,000 or more residents in counties of at least 150,000, and with master zoning plans adopted before February 1987, to let them form redevelopment finance authorities and use new business taxes for road, service and utility improvements, which would attract further private investment. The bill sponsor, Local Government and Urban Policy Committee Republican Chairman Chris Ward, stresses, ''Affordable infrastructure is critical to the redevelopment of sites throughout the state.'' Currently, 61 Michigan townships can form such finance authorities for brownfield reclamation, reports GlobeStreet web writer Robert Carr, quoting Representative Ward, who says his bill could similarly benefit at least 15 other communities. According to a legislative analysis, the writer adds, although the bill would keep tax revenue from going for other local needs and could encourage sprawl, it would let growing townships manage economic development projects without outside help.   4/3/2003

Resource(s): www.globest.com/

Gov. Granholm Launches Local Produce Campaign to Strengthen Michigan Farms

With her bipartisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council ranking land preservation, farm profitability and urban redevelopment as the best means to curb sprawl and boost the economy, Governor Jennifer Granholm launched the ''Select a Taste of Michigan'' campaign for buying state farm products at the recent ''Local Connections'' conference in Grand Rapids, starting its pilot program that will link area producers and retailers ready to offer consumers organic and other local products throughout the 2003 growing season. A first step in the governor's ''Buy Michigan'' push promised in her electoral platform last fall, the ''Select a Taste of Michigan'' campaign involves a partnership between the state Department of Agriculture and the nonprofit Michigan Integrated Food and Farming Systems, writes Michigan Land Use Institute economist Patty Cantrell at the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service web page, stressing that efforts to make local agriculture ''more entrepreneurial ... could reverse the direction of hundreds of millions of consumer dollars now flowing out of the state, generate Michigan jobs, strengthen Michigan's 52,000 farms, and save millions of acres of farmland now threatened by development.'' The writer notes that from Grand Rapids, the ''Select a Taste of Michigan'' campaign will expand statewide, promoting local farm products under the labels ''Select Michigan Fresh'' and ''Select Michigan Organic.''   4/1/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16476

Land Use Leadership Council Seeks to Revitalize Michigan Cities, Preserve Open Space

''We are not anti-growth. We are ... pro-Michigan,'' stressed Governor Jennifer Granholm at the first session of her bipartisan Land Use Leadership Council, telling it ''to achieve common ground and to achieve results'' that would help both preserve open space and revitalize cities, a goal confirmed by Senate Republican Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, who said, ''We need to focus not just on (preserving rural areas), but we have to also address why it is people leave the core urban areas.'' Two experts, reports Michigan Live web site writer Edward Hoogterp from Lansing, made clear the issues are interrelated. Michigan State University researcher David Skole cited recent findings that each one percent in state population growth brings an eight percent increase in developed acreage, a trend that would wipe out 25 percent of metro area farmland and 25 percent of southern Michigan forests by 2040. The director of the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, Bruce Katz, said Michigan's urban population is spreading out faster than in most other states. He linked that with the fragmentation of local governing power in metro areas, citing national studies that often find it a factor in rampant urban sprawl, while racial polarization may be another factor, with minorities increasingly isolated in central cities and whites moving out to the fringes. He advised the council to push for regional cooperation among municipalities, villages and counties since they all influence land use, development and local tax issues. With the council's report expected by August, one of its members, Michigan Environmental Council president Lana Pollack, gave it ''about a 50-50 chance of not being a waste of time, which is pretty high in the world of politics.'' And Senator Sikkema, notes Detroit Free Press writer Dawson Bell, added later that should the council try to ''tell people where they can live, it's going to be a failure.'' -- Detroit Free Press   3/25/2003

Resource(s): www.freep.com/news/mich/ ; www.mlive.com/news/statewide/

Land Use Leadership Council Has ''Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity'' to Boost Michigan's Economy and Quality of Life

Given his own ''eight-year immersion in the hard work of slowing sprawl and building a Smart Growth future,'' Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) executive director Hans Voss, a member of the new Michigan Land Use Leadership Council, considers the council's task ''a once-in-a-generation'' opportunity to boost the state's long-term economic competitiveness and quality of life, cautions his 25 colleagues against getting ''bogged down in details'' and urges a four-prong effort to ''enact formal state land use goals, eliminate state subsidies that encourage sprawl, promote regional coordination and cooperation, and ensure implementation of Michigan's Smart Growth program.'' Stressing the need to create a state Office of Smart Growth, which would oversee ''statewide land use efforts,'' ensure agency compliance and encourage business- government partnerships, the MLUI director writes that ''Smart Growth only happens when the state government takes the lead,'' that the 1997 Maryland Smart Growth program ''has paid off handsomely'' as it gave the nation's ninth smallest state one of the highest job growth and lowest unemployment rates, and that the council ''has the opportunity to combine the best elements of other states' programs and make Michigan's Smart Growth program a new national model.'' Confident that Michiganders believe in Smart Growth principles and want thriving cities, strong neighborhoods and open space, he writes they can't secure such better development options alone. Asking whether taxpayers should spend $1.3 billion to widen a seven-mile stretch of I-94 in Detroit while $130 million would be enough to ''build three commuter rail lines from Detroit to Mt. Clemens, Pontiac, and Ann Arbor and take cars off the road,'' he observes, ''Considering that business leaders support public transit as vital to Detroit's economic competitiveness and that 40 percent of Detroiters don't even own a car, the answer is clear.'' Then he appeals: ''No matter who you are or where you are from, you have a personal stake in the outcome. Speak out for Smart Growth. Attend the council meetings. Testify at the public hearings next month. Let's end sprawl and keep Michigan a great place to live, work, and play.''   3/24/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16460

Michigan Lawmakers Review Package of Growth-Related Bills

As the bipartisan Michigan Land Use Leadership Council prepares for its April series of five public hearings across the state, lawmakers are looking into a package of seven Republican bills that address farmland taxes, open space protection, housing density, land subdivision rules, transfer of development rights, and other growth-related issues. Two of three bills introduced by council member Senator Patricia Birkholz already make developers uneasy, reports Michigan Live web site writer Edward Hoogterp. The senator says her proposal to eliminate the 30-year old Land Division Act if it's not rewritten within two years -- to bar the practice of dividing some parcels into too many lots -- should spur a legislative discussion and bring all sides to the table. Developers admit that the act needs improvement, but oppose the ''sunset'' clause. ''You're going to have chaos at every level of government,'' says Michigan Association of Home Builders CEO Lynn Egbert, ''and you'll have a standstill on all sorts of development, residential and commercial.'' The senator points out that the idea behind her Development Rights Marketing Act proposal, which would allow their transfer from rural areas to locally designated growth zones, ''is to build more densely where the infrastructure is, and not send pipes out miles into the countryside,'' letting farmers ''continue farming and yet realize some value from their land.'' Builders consider the proposal too complex and likely to raise housing costs.   3/21/2003

Resource(s): www.mlive.com/statewide/

Michigan Suburbs Alliance Hopes to Create Statewide Coalition of Metropolitan Areas

Encouraged by a recent $60,000 grant from the Charles Steward Mott Foundation, the Michigan Suburbs Alliance -- created last year to seek a fair share of state funds for first-ring communities -- will work to create a statewide coalition of older metropolitan areas hard-hit by population loss, revenue shortfall and infrastructure deficiency. ''We shouldn't be building entire new communities in farm fields, with taxpayers' money, while we have communities that are struggling and blighted,'' alliance executive director Jim Townsend told Detroit Free Press writer Sharon Gittleman, while foundation environmental grant program director Lois DeBacker added, ''New development should be carrying its own weight. Right now, public policies are subsidizing them at the expense of people who live in established cities.'' But New Baltimore Mayor Joseph Grajek called the alliance's efforts belated. ''Their communities were created out of the sprawl of Detroit. Now they're saying the sprawl is going from them outward,'' he argued. ''If they really cared about stopping sprawl, it should have been stopped when it came out of Detroit. -- Detroit Free Press   3/20/2003

Resource(s): www.freep.com/news/

Study Finds Michigan Turning Towards Community-Minded Transportation Services

Years of ignoring urban transit in favor of sprawl-inducing highways have left Michigan with one of the nation's biggest disparities between high land consumption and low population growth, and now a Regional Ride study by the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) and United Cerebral Palsy finds a remarkable bipartisan statewide turn toward ''more economically effective, environmentally sensitive, and community-minded transportation services,'' reports MLUI transportation policy specialist Johanna Miller on the institute's web page, quoting Governor Jennifer Granholm, who said, ''Improving transportation options is not the concern of one city or county, but of entire regions and the state.'' According to the study, three of the state's key metropolitan regions -- Detroit, Grand Rapids and Ann Harbor -- are moving to rebuild their high-quality 1950s transit systems and the northern rural areas of Traverse City and Sault Ste. Marie are working to improve their modest bus services. The writer calls transit a no less ''realistic regional transportation choice'' for Michigan than it is for such cities as Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Louis or Dallas, where it's ''becoming the powerful economic engine its proponents long predicted.'' In St. Louis, she writes, ''new light rail lines and enhanced bus services helped generate some $2 billion in public and private commitments to new development -- including hospitals, retail centers, and high-end housing.'' In Atlanta, BellSouth consolidated 75 scattered offices near a light rail line, ''simultaneously expanding the city's investment and job base and giving half of the company's 20,000 employees a new, attractive transportation choice.'' To help Michigan urban areas reach their full quality-of-life potential and to ease sprawl pressures on farmland, the study recommends four steps. Regions should first repair rather than build or widen roads, which would cut future maintenance costs and leave more money for transit. They should establish regional transportation authorities to advance multi-jurisdictional cooperation and maximize their eligibility for federal aid. The state should let regions tax themselves for transit and other growth-related services, which now requires a statewide vote. It also should make transit diversification a priority, to regain its fair share of about $100,000 million a year in federal funds for new bus and rail initiatives. -- Michigan Land Use Institute   2/20/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/transportation/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16424

Poll Reveals Strong Support for Urban Redevelopment and Sprawl Control in Michigan

''We cannot save our farmlands if we don't save our cities,'' said American Farmland Trust's Central Great Lakes Office director Scott Everett, commenting on a new statewide poll that found across-the- board support for policies of smart-growth, including tax incentives for farmland preservation, zoning for open space protection, governmental aid for urban redevelopment and increased funding for schools involved in community growth planning. Commissioned by a diverse coalition of business and environmental groups, funded by the People and Land group formed by the W. K. Kellog Foundation, and conducted by an independent EPIC-MRA research firm of Lansing, reports the Paw Paw Courier Leader, the poll found 80 percent of respondents ranking government incentives for reuse and redevelopment of urban land and older buildings as ''top priority'' or ''important.'' It also showed wide-spread concern about urban sprawl as a ''serious'' or ''very serious problem,'' especially in rapid-growth areas, with parallel stress on the need for business and small business expansion. Michigan Chamber of Commerce environmental and regulatory affairs director Doug Roberts said, ''Michigan residents support a land use strategy that strikes a balance between allowing for economic growth while protecting the land resource.'' -- Courier Leader   2/17/2003

Resource(s): www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=2188

Michigan Land Use Leadership Council Named; Recommendations Expected in August

''Land use is a critical environmental and economic issue,'' said Governor Jennifer Granholm prior to her first State of the State address, naming 26 members of the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council co-chaired by former Republican Governor William G. Milliken and former Democratic Attorney Frank J. Kelley, with one of the appointees, Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) executive director Hans Voss, convinced ''that advancing new Smart Growth policies and thinking harder about where we make state investments will play a big part in helping to solve Michigan's budget challenges'' and meet the public need ''to enhance our cities, protect our countryside, and improve the quality of life in this state.'' The governor, reports MLUI program director Keith Schneider, emphasized the bipartisan makeup of the council and the openness of its work, saying it will ''seek public participation in the process.'' She expects the council's recommendations by August 15.   2/5/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/newsservice/articles/council.asp

Mich. Gov. Granholm Pledges to Address Land Use Issues in 2003

In 1953, Michigan issued nearly $100 million in bonds to span the Strait of Mackinac between its two peninsulas with the Mighty Mac bridge, which ''literally arose from citizen vision that extended far beyond what politicians and bureaucrats thought achievable'' and became a great symbol of ''the strength of our Michigan spirit,'' said Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm in her State of the State speech, summoning that spirit against today's challenges -- to wipe out the $1.7 billion deficit, ensure economic growth and protect the environment while securing better land use. Determined to cut spending, streamline the government and generate jobs, the governor directed her administration ''to create a Technology Tri- Corridor'' for the life sciences, the new homeland security sector and the automotive industry, promising to advance President Bush's State of the Nation commitment to launch ''fuel-cell powered cars within a generation'' a step farther, by not only building such cars in Michigan but also helping develop the fuel cell technology in its Automotive Technology Corridor. Likewise, the time has come for tougher environmental protection, the governor continued, stressing that in her administration, ''the environment will not be an afterthought; it will be a priority.'' Consequently, the governor asked lawmakers to pass legislation enabling Michigan to bar any out-of-state ''solid waste loaded with batteries, bottles, cans and toxic substances that jeopardize our health and safety;'' assured them that she will use her veto power against ''any proposed export or transfer of Great Lakes water outside of our Great Lakes Basin;'' and pledged to spur regional cooperation to manage watersheds, improve public transportation, and share common assets and services among units of government. Then the governor brought up key smart growth themes. ''And this year, we must finally address the issue of land use,'' she said. ''We must develop a cooperative, common sense approach to how we use our land so we can protect our forests and farms, prevent the sprawl that chokes our suburban communities and threatens our water quality, and bring new life to our cities and older suburbs.'' The governor concluded by saying she is ''pleased to join with Senators Sikkema and Emerson, and Speaker Johnson and Leader Byrum to establish a bipartisan Commission and Land Use to ensure that Michigan grows in a way that preserves the character of the state we call home.''   2/5/2003

Resource(s): www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21981-60490--,00.html

Land Use a Priority as Michigan Readies State Smart Growth Commission

''Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm, Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson and I,'' emphasized Senate Republican Majority Leader Ken Sikkema in an interview by Michigan Land Use Institute program director Keith Schneider for Great Lakes Bulletin News Service, ''are saying land use is a priority'' -- a strong ''collective'' commitment shown in the imminent selection of each party's ten appointees to the newly created state Smart Growth Commission. This even-handedness in creating the commission, expected to gather public input statewide and submit recommendations in September, adds to its power and credibility ''from both sides,'' said Senator Sikkema, noting that he sees the land use issue as both ''a water quality'' and ''a taxpayer'' issue, because ''urban sprawl means that you have to spend more money on roads, and schools, and water.'' He is convinced that such arguments are more effective with the public. ''If you go downstairs in the bar tonight and talk to somebody about land use, people will roll their eyes,'' he said. ''But if you say, 'Look, we need to protect the Great Lakes, we need to protect Michigan's lakes, rivers and streams.' Now that resonates with people.'' Described by his interviewer as generally seen to be ''the most knowledgeable environmental specialist in the Legislature,'' Senator Sikkema stressed that his party has ''no interest in appointing people to the commission who would surreptitiously blow it up,'' and that even Republicans nervous about the commission because of their concerns for property rights are prepared to support its recommendations, backed by a decade- long study of the impact and consequences of sprawl. Pointing out that Democrats will also face some ''philosophical challenges,'' since Republicans have no ''monopoly on issues of private property rights, less than effective government regulation, and less government spending,'' the senator expressed Republican willingness ''to deal'' with growth-management challenges, because his caucus ''has deep roots in the farming and agriculture community, knows that ''farmland is disappearing,'' values ''open space in Michigan'' and sees ''the need to protect water.'' The writer looks forward to Governor Granholm's State of the State speech February 5th for details of her Smart Growth plans.   1/27/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/newsservice/articles/commission.asp

Michigan Gov. Granholm Called an ''Aggressive Proponent for Smart Growth''

Within days of taking office, Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm called the reversal of her Republican predecessor John Engler's last-minute veto against creating the Detroit Area Regional Transit Authority (DARTA) her top legislative priority and appointed two of the state's most respected and environmentally-conscious statesmen, Former Republican Governor William G. Milliken and former Democratic state Attorney General Frank Kelley to lead a bipartisan commission on land use, both actions, writes Michigan Land Use Institute planner Jim Lively for the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service, distinguishing the new governor and her young administration ''as the most aggressive proponent for Smart Growth in Michigan's history.'' Growth management advocates and foes agree, the writer reports, that Smart Growth priorities, such as ''curbing sprawl, solving congestion, conserving farmland ... are now squarely in the spotlight in Lansing.'' Quoting one Smart Growth advocate, American Farmland Trust regional director Scott Everett, who calls land use a ''grassroots issue since the early '90s'' and expects ''to see the grassroots meet leadership from the top,'' the writer thinks the debate may well start when previous Republican state representative and now Senator Patty Birkholz reintroduces her 2002 bill to establish a ''Transfer of Development Rights'' (TDR) pilot program. Endorsed by the new governor, the program is strongly supported by the Michigan Farm Bureau, the American Farmland Trust, the Michigan Environmental Council, the Michigan Society of Planning and the Michigan Land Use Institute, and conditionally by the Michigan Township Association, but opposed by real estate and developer groups, newly backed by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, even though the chamber has recently launched a statewide anti-sprawl program to bring school construction back to city centers. ''The line has been drawn by the home builders on TDR,'' the writer again quotes Farmland Trust director Everett. ''Home builders want zoning changes for free, rather than buying them on the free market. But it's not the local government's job to make them rich.''   1/9/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/newsservice/articles/milliken.asp

New Michigan Governor Granholm Looks at Smart Growth ''Labs'' for Ideas

Determined to conserve Michigan land, curb sprawl and revitalize cities, incoming Governor Jennifer Granholm will be looking to the two key Smart Growth laboratories -- Maryland and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania -- reports Detroit News writer John Bebow in the final segment of its six-month ''Grappling with Growth'' series, stressing that although reform-minded state legislators from both parties herald a new era of environmental awareness and cooperation, the economic slowdown and budget shortfall may delay progress, while the ''trade-offs in Maryland and Lancaster (will) give leaders in Lansing plenty to debate.'' As the national farm preservation leader, the writer finds, Lancaster County spent $80 million in state and federal dollars on purchase of development rights (PDRs) to more than 50,000 acres in 600 farms, guarding its urban growth boundaries and becoming a ''garden'' magnet to thousands from across the East Coast, but recently losing the chance for business expansion, facing decay in the city of Lancaster and confronting questions about whether the permanent PDR agreements ''survive builder pressure'' after the next 40 or 50 years. More than 90 percent of Lancaster County residents want growth restraints and 77 percent consider farmland loss a serious threat, but advice to Michigan varies. Lancaster's Agriculture Preserve Board director June Mengel urges, ''Don't wait. We've been doing this for 20 years and we haven't done enough.'' Lancaster's economic development director Dave Nikoloff warns, ''Think hard before you do this. Nothing comes for free. The smart-growthers are well meaning elitists who think they know how everyone should live.'' In Maryland, the writer continues, Governor Parris N. Glendening's 1997 initiative funnels state school, road and sewer money to ''priority funding areas'' within and near municipal boundaries, while other funds and tax credits go for parks, open space and urban redevelopment, with the outgoing governor saying, ''Together, Smart Growth policies are setting a wise and prudent course for the future.'' Still, the writer sees ''signs of erosion'' for the state's Smart Growth. He mentions the administration change, massive budget deficit and many homeowners' unwillingness ''to trade the pastoral American Dream for a return to the old, crowded confines of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.'' And without further attitude changes, the suburbs will likely ''find a way, just like water, to move through Maryland's pretty valleys,'' the writer observes, as state Office of Smart Growth spokesman John Frece tells him, ''Schools are an issue, fear of crime is an issue, racism is an issue. You have to deal with all those social issues or it's not going to work.'' Nevertheless, a lot of Michigan's new course will depend on Governor Granholm, says the senior vice president of Lansing's Public Sector Consultants think tank, Bill Rustem, emphasizing, ''The governor has to provide the leadership. She has the bully pulpit.'' -- Detroit News   12/24/2002

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Michigan’s Smart Growth Governor and Her Unlikely Allies

Michigan Governor-elect Jennifer Granholm campaigned on a promise to strike hard at the sprawling development that clogs highways, empties cities, devours farm and forest land, and diminishes the quality of life. Both the Republican House Speaker, Rick Johnson, and the incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader, Ken Sikkema, have voiced strong support for new government activism to curb sprawl and its harmful consequences. The potential for substantive government action on sprawl is now possible in Michigan. -- Michigan Land Use Institute   11/22/2002

Resource(s): http://mlui.org/report.asp?spid=37

Grand Rapids Called ''Rising Smart Growth Star''

With renovation of its central business district under way and the first-in-40-years master plan -- focused on revival of all older neighborhoods -- Grand Rapids, Michigan's second largest city and a Republican stronghold becomes ''a rising Smart Growth star'' in the state's increasingly assertive quality of life movement and a likely model for other municipalities, especially now, after the decisive vote for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer Granholm, whose ''one Michigan'' platform included proposals for ''halting sprawl, fixing roads first before building new ones, and conserving farmland,'' writes Michigan Land Use Institute's Grand Rapids expert and journalist Andy Guy on the institute's web page. In contrast to the 1963 plan, which suggested razing the urban core and dispersing residents to suburbs along new highways, the Grand Rapids' 2002 Master Plan, the journalist writes, ''celebrates civic heritage,'' reduces car dependency and restores the sociocultural urban identity rooted in ''a unique sense of place.'' The plan's ten principles promise growth for present communities; mixed land use; compact development; a range of housing choices and opportunities; a variety of transportation choices; walkable and accessible neighborhoods; preservation of farmland, open space, natural beauty and crucial environmental areas; broad stakeholder and community cooperation; and predictable, fair and cost-effective development decisions. The journalist quotes city planning director Bill Hoyt, who says, ''The ideas in our new plan come from real people not professional planners,'' stressing that residents told officials to devise a transit system, reclaim the Grand River waterfront as a city centerpiece, preserve old architectural landmarks and promote mixed-use communities. ''This is groundbreaking for Michigan,'' points out Grand Valley Metro Council planning director Andy Bowman, excited that such a major city understood the need for change, seized the moment and rethought ''the traditional notions of community development.'' The Lansing-based Planning and Zoning Center's president, Mark Wyckoff, expects the new Grand Rapids plan to fare better than many others that faded elsewhere for lack of political leadership and dedicated funding. He also thinks the plan can influence the state's metropolitan agenda if there is a strong push by such groups as the area's 12-city Urban Core Mayors Association and by top state leaders. ''This is a major quality of life issue and the governor has to set the standard,'' he says. ''Even if the state does not spend a dime, the governor can use the bully pulpit to express new ideas.''   11/7/2002

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16369

Lansing-Area Counties Draft Regional Growth Plan to Coordinate Development

After three years of work by about 1,000 officials, business leaders, farmers and others seeking ways to contain sprawl, save on costs and secure quality of life, Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties around Lansing drafted their first long-term action program for 75 area cities, townships and villages, to foster coordinated development, transportation planning and protection of open space, wildlife and the environment. Called ''Regional Growth: Choices for Our Future'' and led by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, reports Lansing State Journal writer Chris Golembiewski, the program, to be finalized and adopted formally this winter, sets out 28 principles and 197 steps to guide localities in crafting new ordinances and other measures to reach common goals. According to the writer, all communities have already agreed to establish urban service boundaries; coordinate decisions to make the region ''internally cooperative and externally competitive;'' strengthen their urban cores to ensure its long-term viability; develop targeted growth areas before those without services; address housing needs of all residents equally; and enhance the present road, transit and ''nonmotorized'' transportation network before extending roads into rural areas. -- Lansing State Journal   8/1/2002

Resource(s): www.lsj.com/news/

Detroit's Older Suburbs Seek Greater Share of Revenue to Bolster Communities

''It's no longer city vs. suburbs in Metro Detroit. It's old burbs vs. new burbs,'' writes John Bebow of The Detroit News, reporting that leaders of 14 aging inner-ring communities in the recently-organized ''Michigan Suburbs Alliance'' blame last year's cuts in state's revenue sharing with municipalities on its ''almost exclusive emphasis on sprawl as the means of growing our economy'' and point out they need a larger share of sales taxes than newer neighborhoods to keep jobs and maintain services. They argue that the revenue-sharing formula, under which the state distributes about a quarter of all sales taxes to municipalities, depends too much on population size and ignores the special needs of older suburbs that are losing their residents and businesses. According to Royal Oak Mayor Bill Urich, the alliance is hoping that a gubernatorial change January 1 will benefit its agenda. Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence's executive assistant stresses that the alliance doesn't want ''to create the perception of old vs. new'' and only ''to make sure we're not subject to bad policy.'' But the supervisor of booming Canton Township, Tom Yack, calls it ''a crook,'' adding, ''Somehow, (inner suburbs) think their residents have more value than residents elsewhere. I think it's probably time to start a countergroup.'' Wixom City Manager J. Michael Dornan takes a middle route, saying, ''We need a group (of old and new communities) in southeast Michigan who can work together.'' -- The Detroit News   7/10/2002

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

''Illogical'' Road Plan Around Traverse City, Mich., Draws Lawsuits, Citizen Opposition

Ignoring the gradual loss of its region's character and natural beauty ''to sprawling development and out-of-date planning,'' the Grand Traverse County Road Commission has concocted the idea of easing congestion around Traverse City with a $30 million four-lane road and a bridge through the Boardman River valley, an ''illogical project'' opposed by hundreds of county residents, write Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) journalists Keith Schneider and Kelly Thayer, and challenged in court by five organizations dedicated to growth and traffic management, quality of life enhancement and natural asset protection, especially in the Boardman valley. Besides MLUI, the organizations suing the county's road commission include All the Way to the Bay, Coalition for Sensible Growth, the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council and the Sierra Club. Noting that the number of vehicles in the county is growing two times faster than its population -- which nullifies any chance of reducing congestion with the proposed road and bridge -- the writers point out that ''citizens are being pushed to trade a natural treasure for another corridor of sprawl like the infamous, strip-malled South Airport Road outside Traverse City.'' They back instead a $20 million cheaper and much quicker solution worked out over the last several years with extensive public input. At a cost of only $10 million, it would combine enhancements of traffic flow on the South Airport Road, the restoration of the Cass Road Bridge from one to two lanes and the connection of Keystone and Hammond roads. The writers conclude that abundant open space, clean water, great recreation, a small town atmosphere and a family-friendly environment ''are the very qualities that give north Michigan its unique character'' and which all Michiganders ''should do everything in their power to preserve.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   6/7/2002

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/projects/transport/tcbypass/tcbridge.asp

50-Point Urban Revival Agenda Outlined by Michigan Gubernatorial Hopeful Blanchard

''Seven of the last eight years were record and runway prosperity in America and Michigan. Yet in many respects our cities and neighborhood have declined,'' said the state's former Democratic Governor Jim Blanchard, stepping to the forefront of its present gubernatorial contenders with an unprecedented 50-point urban revival agenda, the Michigan Community Initiative, which would make the state invest in vacant properties, inner city schools and metropolitan parks; improve transit and aged roads before building new ones; and eliminate sprawl-subsidy policies and cultural barriers. ''It would be ridiculous to talk about improving life in cities without candidly talking about the need to improve race relations. What is a strength in Michigan -- diversity -- is far too often viewed as handicap. It's time to make our diversity an asset,'' he said. The director of the Michigan Land Use Institute's Grand Rapids field office, journalist Andy Guy writes that under pressures from ''an unlikely critical mass of stakeholders -- social justice advocates, corporations, environmental groups, farmers and municipal officials,'' the state's other top gubernatorial hopefuls, Republican Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus and Democratic Attorney General Jennifer Granholm and Congressman David Bonior, also ''acknowledge that a strong Michigan depends on a thriving network of city centers.'' Still, experts from the Grand Rapids area, ''west Michigan's economic anchor and the state's Smart growth leader,'' are greatly impressed with the comprehensiveness of Blanchard's initiative. Grand Valley Metro Council planning director Andy Bowman says, ''The concept of Smart Growth was in its infancy the last time Blanchard was in the office (1983-91). But to talk about vibrant city centers as a tool to manage growth, and curb sprawl, certainly elevates the discussion today.'' Center for Independent Living executive director David Bulkowski says ''We need a candidate who's not afraid to reprioritize'' from ''tax cuts and prisons'' to good schools, self-sufficiency and well-funded transit. A city planner, Suzanne Schulz, says given investment and proper design, cities can attract people back by offering them convenience absent in suburbs. ''People can live downtown, work downtown, play downtown, and even find a daycare center downtown. They can go out to eat and take in a show at the theater all without having to spend two hours in the car.'' -- Great Lakes Bulletin News Service   5/24/2002

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/projects/growthmanagement/general/andyblanchard.asp

Creating Urban Neighborhoods in Michigan's Suburbs

''New must look old'' in the main section of Macomb Township's future Town Center, reports Detroit News writer Santiago Esparza on the just-approved township ordinance, which requires the expected 2,500 homes in the one-square-mile area to be built close together, all within a five-minute walk of the almost completed $7-million town hall and all according to strict design guidelines, with large front porches and detached garages in the back. ''The insides can be as modern as they want. The facades must adhere to one of six styles,'' says Township Supervisor John Brennan, noting that the old-style look ''is really appealing to one third of the market, but it is a third not being served.'' The writer finds most of the land under this tough housing ordinance already snatched by developers, with three of them having submitted their proposals to the township architectural committee, the first stage in the approval process. He adds that the trend to create traditional urban neighborhoods in suburbs is gaining in popularity among area developers, with several projects in different phases of planning and construction in Dearborn, Romeo and Canton, Chesterfield, Shelby and Washington townships.   4/3/2002

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Development Brings ''Neighborhood Feel'' to Suburban Detroit

A new-urbanist Cherry Hill Village in Canton Township provides so many amenities long-absent in suburbs that its first residents aren't even very upset with delays in cable, phone and mail services, strained to their limits by Detroit metro sprawl, reports Detroit News writer David Shepardson. Touted by the primary developer, Biltmore Homes of Troy, as Michigan's first traditional project, the 338-acre subdivision will get more than 1,200 homes and condos over ten years, in a $175,000-$550,000 price range, with an 85-acre sister village across the road adding 600 apartments. Along with small yards, front porches and sidewalk benches, conducive to close-knit community, the villages will have more than 75 acres of parks and 26 miles of bike trails. The writer quotes Don Waxer, who says he and his wife moved to Cherry Hill Village from a subdivision of 1.5-acre lots, where ''you never met your neighbors and there wasn't much community,'' and now they ''love the neighborhood feel.''   3/17/2002

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Detroit Revitalization Program Would to 1,200 Housing Units

With Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's endorsement, the New York- based Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), has launched a three-year, $26-million Detroit neighborhood revitalization program, called From the Ground Up, to build 1,200 housing units, spur economic development and help the city find the most profitable way of disposing of its land. LISC senior program director Vincent B. Tilford told Detroit News writer Christopher M. Singer that during its ten years of cooperation with southwest Detroit community development groups, the Ford Foundation-created corporation has already helped built about 2,000 housing units. Noting that under the new program LISC will provide $8 million and raise $14.5 million in business, foundation and government contributions, he said ''the core of this effort'' is building community, adding ''Just housing is not community. It's neighborhood groups that can improve the quality of life.''   3/12/2002

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Healthy Rouge River Shows Benefits of Michigan's Natural Rivers Program

Although it crosses many residential, commercial and industrial zones on its lower course from the Rouge River State Game Area to the Grand River in Grand Rapids, the 123-mile Rouge River remains a clean anglers' paradise along its whole length, reports Benzonia- based Michigan Land Use Institute environmental writer Andrew Guy, crediting this rare success to the state's visionary 1970 Natural Rivers Program and area residents' foresight in using it three years later to place the river under permanent environmental safeguards. Throughout the river's corridor, he writes, communities coordinated zoning, kept buildings and septic lines 150 feet from riverbanks and restricted other land uses, leaving it ''a wild and wooded natural attraction'' that ''enhances the region's economy and quality of life.'' Each March, he continues, anglers wade in the Rouge's shallow waters full of migrating steelheads, to compete for the biggest catch, which ''weighed in 'round 18 pounds'' last year, according to Rockford bait-and-tackle shop owner Bernice Oosternouse. In contrast, the unprotected York Creek in Alpine Township five miles away became choked by sand and polluted runoff after two decades of ''relatively unchecked development'' and now the restoration of just one mile could cost $1 million. Quoting Michigan Department of Natural Resources fish biologist Amy Harrington, who says, ''Natural River designation is not stopping any development,'' but helps guide it ''in a way that protects the river,'' the writer adds that the program protects ''14 of the state's world class waterways,'' with communities seeking to protect two more.   3/5/2002

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/

Detroit's Suburbs Burgeoning With Upscale Housing in New Downtowns

In contrast to Atlanta, Chicago and Houston, which are quickly gaining downtown residents, Detroit's population remains stagnant, with many metro area retirees and baby boomers turning instead to new downtowns in suburbs, where developers are investing millions in high-priced condos and other upscale housing. In Ann Harbor, Birmingham, Brighton, Northville, Plymouth and Royal Oak, reports Detroit News writer Shantee Woodards, more than 300 housing units are being built or slated for downtowns, in a price range from $345,000 for a condo in Northville to $2.7 million for a penthouse in Birmingham. The writer quotes former Canton Township resident Anne Smith, 55, who would ''go into my house and never go out again'' or drive 45 minutes to shops or cultural events, but now in Northville ''can hang out in our downtown, see all my neighbors, visit the shops and eat lunch.'' Robert Gibbs of the Gibbs Planning Group in Birmingham says, ''We're at the very beginning of this new trend. Empty nesters are moving out of their suburban homes.'' But some are concerned, the writer notes, that developers ''are pricing out thousands of potential buyers and fostering class separation.'' The research director for Wayne State's Center for Urban Studies, Kurt Metzger, says expensive housing ''is not economic diversity;'' it shows ''that the haves can live here, while the have nots have fewer options.''   3/4/2002

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Traffic Video Shows Complexities, Challenges of Road Congestion

In response to broad community interest in a presentation on Metro Detroit growth and traffic patterns by Oakland County Road Commission director Brent O. Bair at a Troy smart growth conference last October, the commission produced a video entitled ''Congestion: Why We Have It and What We Can Do About It,'' showing the problem's complexity and challenges. Detroit News columnist Tom Greenwood quotes commission spokesman Craig Bryson, who says the video illustrates positive and negative aspects of growth and explains many factors in congestion. For instance, he says, many people think that home-clustering will decrease traffic congestion, but ''the video explains that while cluster developments are visually pleasing, it doesn't matter if you scatter 100 homes across a 10-acre site, or cluster them on a 2-acre site; from a traffic point of view, the amount of congestion generated will be the same.'' The columnist adds that the video is available for free from the Road Commission for Oakland County's Department of Citizen Services, tel. (248) 858-4804.   2/14/2002

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

Lower Auto Emissions, New Energy Sources Detailed by Gov. Engler

Michigan's auto industry ''stood tall'' in the September 11th aftermath, said Governor John Engler in his State of the State speech, calling zero percent vehicle financing ''the most important stimulus package American families received,'' describing the ''inseparably linked'' debates about energy and about the environment and climate change as a direct challenge to Michigan's future and expressing relief ''that Congress did not ratify the hopelessly flawed Kyoto Protocol.'' The governor pointed out that the protocol exempted the world's most populous nations, China and India,''offered too little benefit to the world's environment and threatened way too much damage to the U.S. economy.'' Noting Michigan's great opportunity to affect both debates, since science and industry ''are successfully developing breakthrough technologies involving renewable sources of energy,'' the governor said, ''It is no longer a question of whether, but when, we will leave behind an economy powered primarily by fossil fuels.'' The transformation is already under way, he continued, with fast development of ''hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines, clean diesel-powered cars and trucks, and an exciting array of hybrid vehicles.'' Certain that innovative fuel cell technology will lead to impressive energy efficiency gains and emission cuts as it goes from the space shuttle to family cars and transforms ''our very way of life,'' the governor quoted Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford and General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner. One said ''fuel cell vehicles will ... end the hundred-year rein of the internal combustion engine as the dominant source of power for personal transportation;'' the other, ''The 20th century was the century of the internal combustion engine. The 21st century will be the century of the fuel cell.'' Amazed by a GM AUTOnomy concept vehicle unveiled at the Detroit International Auto Show and described as a ''revolution in how automobiles are designed, built and used,'' the governor said the vehicle's hydrogen fuel cell system is two times more efficient than a fossil fuel engine and produces only water instead of harmful emissions. ''If we fail to seize our opportunity, if we fail to adapt, we risk becoming as irrelevant as the horse and buggy,'' the governor warned. He thanked Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for joining industry leaders in Detroit with an announcement of a ''partnership called Freedom CAR (Cooperative Automotive Research)'' and urged Michigan's congressional delegation to work with the secretary and President Bush to ''further strengthen the federal research role and speed the development of hydrogen-fed fuel cells.'' He called President Bush ''a problem solver,'' whose approach ''stands in sharp contrast to that of the regulators, who represent the 'old thinking' from the end of the last century.'' With federal regulators, ''including many in the EPA and some in other agencies ... trapped in the past,'' the governor criticized ''the fossil bed of regulations known as CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)'' as threatening ''the ability of our companies to finance innovative technologies.'' The short-sightedness of mandating ''incremental gains'' in old technologies regardless of costs, the governor said, is easily understood when we realize that billions of dollars ''spent to comply with old regulations ... are being diverted from R & D in the new technologies and the benefits they offer.'' The governor said the U.S. should ''adopt the European clean diesel technology'' -- soon to ''power 50 percent of cars in Europe'' -- which would let it increase fuel efficiency by 25-30 percent virtually overnight. ''Command and control regulations like the Kyoto Protocol and CAFE are relics of the old thinking,'' the governor added, promising to send lawmakers within 60 days ''a message detailing steps we should take to ensure Michigan's preeminence in the global auto industry.''   1/23/2002

Resource(s): www.michigan.gov/gov/1,1431,7-103-9482-,00

Detroit Citizens Offer Opinions on Revised Transit Authority

Legislation to create a powerful Metro Detroit transit authority -- first proposed by Democratic Mayor-elect Kwame Kilpatrick and passed 74-23 by the State House just before the holiday recess -- ''could break a political logjam that has prevented southeast Michigan from developing a smoothly coordinated mass transit system,'' report Detroit News writers Gary Heinlein and Hawke Fracassa, but readers are almost evenly split on the daily's question about whether it promises to improve area transit. Replacing the ineffective five-county Regional Transit Coordinating Council, the new six-county Detroit Area Regional Transit Authority would have 18 months to hire a CEO, present the governor and lawmakers with a comprehensive transit plan and devise funding. With the State Senate expected to take up the legislation in January, the daily publishes opinions from a sample of 10 letters to the editor. In five letters, the readers write: ''Creating an authority will do nothing to get some people out of their cars;'' ''Why can't the area have a private company come in to run the mass transit?''; ''If supporters truly cared about creating a system that would succeed, this (funding) should have been the first thing that was decided;'' The railroad tracks have all been torn up for bike paths or hiking trails, so trains and subways are out;'' and ''Sure, put buses on the already crowded streets.'' In another five letters, the readers write: ''Once people experience clean, efficient and dependable transportation that actually gives them back their commute time by allowing time to read, converse with others, or contemplate their own thoughts without the interruptions of rush hour traffic, this idea will gain momentum just like it has in cities around the world;'' ''The regional transit authority is a necessary and important beginning to get the Detroit Metro area on track for a fine transit system;'' ''With today's costs of car ownership and traffic, we as a great Midwest city need to give serious attention and funding for auto alternatives;'' ''Metro Detroit is the largest U.S. metropolitan area without a light-rail system, let alone a subway or elevated train system;'' and ''Even Phoenix is building a light rail system.''   12/14/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com/

The Archdiocese of Detroit joined the growth-management movement

With several land-use bills considered a priority in the Republican-led state House, the Archdiocese of Detroit joined the growth-management movement, holding a mini-conference on Macomb County sprawl and recommending five countermeasures; the main one would make the Michigan Department of Transportation set aside 10 percent of its annual budget for a regional transit system, to ease residents' dependency on cars. The Archdiocese also urged government officials to cooperate on planning; coordinate land use to curb sprawl and facilitate development in city centers and older suburbs; share the costs of housing, schools and public services; and give communities more authority over state infrastructure outlays. "Macomb County embodies sprawl issues," said the Archdiocese's Department of Christian Service director Dan Piepszowski, adding, "We believe in equity and the common good and that the social fabric is like a web. Something that happens in one part of the web affects those living in the other part of the web. Sprawl is starting to have an adverse effect on the whole." He stressed that a legislative mandate may be the only way to ensure cooperation between the state, school districts, municipalities and builders. Detroit News writer Santiago Esparza notes that once the Archdiocese completes the conference report, it will start lobbying municipalities to work together on planning growth.   10/24/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

With a $250,000 U.S. EPA grant for ...

With a $250,000 U.S. EPA grant for the Oakland County Brownfield Initiative, County Executive L. Brooks Paterson allocated $80,000 to help Pontiac launch environmental assessments on three of its 15 brownfields and create a downtown revitalization plan. Pontiac Mayor Walter Moore noted that the city was the first in the county to identify future growth challenges and establish a brownfield redevelopment authority to assess its post-industrial and other vacant sites. The allocation, he said, provides means "to clear the way" for downtown area development and "an opportunity to form a public-private partnership." The county's solid waste manager, Martin Seaman, pointed out that with the shrinking stock of new commercial parcels, brownfields will be attracting more and more developers and investors. "The smart guys," he said, "are already looking at properties that were once viewed as pretty scary," thinking, "I can make a winner of this." According to the state's Department of Environmental Quality, 31 Oakland County municipalities have a total of 100 brownfied sites.   9/24/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan awarded ...

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan awarded the first $1.7 million in GreenWays Initiative grants to the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Washtenaw County, eight municipalities and three nonprofit groups, to help them buy land for hiking and biking trials. The foundation is hoping to raise $25 million for its drive to link area greenways -- trails, natural habitats and other natural sites -- with parks, nature preserves and historic landmarks. The initiative's director, Tom Woiwode, points out that communities with parks, trails and other natural assets will see land value increases and attract more businesses. "One major criteria businesses look for is quality of life," he says, "and this is clearly an investment in the quality of life."   9/21/2001

Resource(s): www.freep.com

Despite opposition from the public, environmentalists and ...

Despite opposition from the public, environmentalists and all gubernatorial candidates for 2002, including Republican Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus and Democratic Atty. Gen. Jennifer Granholm, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission voted 6-1to reopen Great Lakes shores to drilling for gas and oil deep beneath the water. With a scientific report that such drilling poses no direct threat to the lakes, except for the slight normal risk of leaks or spills on shore, Governor John Engler ordered a temporary drilling moratorium in 1997, to give the Department of Natural Resources time to include the report's 17 safety recommendations in its new leasing rules. Drilling backers argue that under-lake drilling will help ease the nation's energy shortages, while giving the state $60 million to $120 million in royalties over the next 20 years. The proposed rules, now approved by the Natural Resources Commission, would allow new wells 1,500 feet from waterlines, while banning them in environmentally sensitive areas. In a letter to department director K. L. Cool, Att. Gen. Granholm called the proposed drilling "a serious mistake from a legal, policy and fiscal perspective." The only commissioner who voted against the drilling, William Parfet, said, "If we go forward with this, we will win on the facts and lose in the court of public opinion." The director responded that his department was "committed to making the right decision, not the politically correct decision."   9/20/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

Having reached its peak before the 1920s ...

Having reached its peak before the 1920s, then slid to the brink of demolition under the failed urban renewal policy of the 1960s, Detroit's Woodbridge neighborhood was saved by local activists and, as a historic district, became a New Urbanism ideal, with annual home tours to promote local amenities and attract new residents. This year's Woodbridge Home Tour, September 22, is showcasing seven homes, with money from $12 tickets going for planting more trees, reports Detroit News writer Christopher M. Singer, noting that area home prices range from $20,000 to $300,000, which is affordable to many young families. Woodbridge abounds in mature trees, sidewalks, front porches and back garages. The neighborhood is diverse in all respects. Residents often get together to celebrate holidays, socialize, clean vacant lots and plant flowers. The writer quotes a lifelong resident, Dolores Weber, who says, "people actually live our motto, 'Neighbors helping neighbors.' If you need a favor, your neighbor is your closest ally. If there ever is a crisis, people do come out."   9/20/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

Applauding Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer for great ...

Applauding Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer for great strides in city redevelopment over his seven years in office, the chairman of the American Institute of Architects Detroit Urban Policy Advisory Team, Herbert P. Jensen, urges mayoral candidates to link the mayor's "series of stand-alone projects and initiatives" in a new livability vision, "be it to ensure smart growth or to moderate suburban sprawl." The livability concept, which implies neighborhoods with "housing, parks, shops, schools, churches and recreational opportunities -- all within walking distance" is gaining momentum nationwide, he writes, because of "a growing sense that something is missing" in our communities and neighborhoods, that many of them "are not what they could be." The penalty of sprawl in the Detroit metro area, he continues, has been "an extremely disproportionate consumption of land relative to our modest population growth," with the city's infrastructure once supporting almost twice its population and with residents' continual search for "a suburban lifestyle" affecting commuting time, air pollution and noise concerns, and road maintenance costs. Stressing the need for sound "principles of good design" to attract metro residents back to urban areas, the writer notes that Royal Oak and Birmingham "are already reaping the rewards of their livable communities agenda" with successful downtown housing, which places residents close "to work, restaurants, theaters and shopping, with less reliance on the automobile for day-to-day activities." But since creative architectural and planning designs "are only part of the vital, ever-changing tapestry that supports and nourishes livable communities," residents "must step forward to improve the environment in which they live, work and play," to help develop "our collective vision" and to influence decision-makers on "planning issues, zoning ordinances and legislation impacting our communities." The writer offers the next Detroit administration the architects' full support to help realize the livability vision.   9/4/2001

Resource(s): www.freep.com

To avoid the ugly consequences of haphazard ...

To avoid the ugly consequences of haphazard planning and enhance the quality of life for our children and families, it is important now to carefully consider how we want our state and communities to look in the future, said Republican chairwoman of the Michigan House's Land Use and Environment Committee, Ruth Johnson, emphasizing in the discussion of her two anti-sprawl bills at a public forum in Brandon Township that the best way to preserve green space is to show developers the financial benefits of preservation-oriented projects. Thus, her House Bill 4995 would require townships to enact open-space ordinances and let developers cluster their allowed number of houses up to three per acre on half of a site, with the other half left undeveloped, which would cut infrastructure costs and increase property values. Such a clustering at a more-than-50-home project in Springfield Township, she said, increased lot values by about $20,000 each. Her House Bill 5038 would require townships to coordinate planning, with their project proposals subject to mutual advance notice, review and input. Brandon Township resident Trish Henning applauded the proposals, noting that too often a builder's idea of open space is a golf course. "We need our woodlands and wetlands," she said,"not just for our wildlife, but for our quality of life." Detroit News writer Mike Martindale expects a house vote on the bills sometime next year.   8/1/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

Affluent Oakland Township, with a population of ...

Affluent Oakland Township, with a population of 13,000, a median home price of $430,000 and six golf courses, has already preserved about 2,600 acres of green space, making residents feel they live in a "paradise," but in a move to inhibit sprawl even further, officials are asking voters to approve a 0.75-mil bond levy to buy another 500 acres for parks. The new levy would cost the owner of a $500,000 house about $183 a year, raising $570,000 annually for ten years. Township Supervisor Susan Hoffman says, "It's a land preservation millage. We want to buy up land that we think is worth preserving from an environmental or historical point of view." Planning commissioner and trustee Marc Edwards points out that residents who object to "paving paradise ... can put their money where their mouth is -- and if they don't, don't blame the township."   7/11/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

A land-use planning bill, introduced by Republican ...

A land-use planning bill, introduced by Republican Representative Patricia Birkholtz in April and likely to reach the floor this fall, is already sparking a political test of will, as planners and local officials say it's long overdue and builders call parts of it "over-reaching." Detroit News writer Mike Martindale reports that the bill, called the Coordinating Planning Act, would encourage communication and joint planning among rural and suburban communities, rewarding them with "a higher priority for state grant funds." Specifically, he writes, it would "establish a process and incentives for cooperative, coordinated and compatible land use planning; enhance home rule by providing reciprocal rights of review and comment on development plans; provide a clear set of purposes for planning; provide predictability and certainty in land use policy; require a local legislative body to adopt a land use plan; establish a state granting program for preparation of plans; create a menu of plans and establish elements of each plan; allow plans to be amended only once a year; require communities to prepare capital improvement plans; and establish the powers of the planning commission." Expressing the sentiments of many local officials, the president of the Michigan Society of Planning, Richard Carlisle, says the need for such a bill was clearly shown by a state environmental risk study that listed the lack of land use plans and the fragmented land use decision-making process as the state's most pressing issues. "Not water pollution, not air pollution," he stresses, "but our misuse of land." But spokesman for the 12,000-member Michigan Association of Home builders, Lee Schwartz, is skeptical. He describes the bill as "part of a nationwide movement going beyond land use and allowing planners into our everyday lives." Representative Birkholtz responds that her bill doesn't call for mandates, a state growth commission or community power to stop others from adopting their own plans. She says she has talked to builders, who often face difficulties with projects that "span communities with different rules" and they want "some consistency." For builders, she stresses, "Time is money."   7/11/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

Twice in the past century, Michigan residents ...

Twice in the past century, Michigan residents "helped the state claw back, first from the ruin of forest devastation, and then from gross air and water pollution," writes conservation historian and Michigan Environmental Council adviser Dave Dempsey in a Detroit Free Press column, noting that once again they "have to lead the way" to protect the state's natural resources while its population grows by a projected 11.8 percent, but land consumption by 63 to 87 percent over the next 20 years. In 1901, the historian writes, under public pressure to restore the state's primeval northern forests, decimated by 18th and 19th century loggers, the legislature "created the first state forest preserves," which became "the base for today's 18 million acres of Michigan forest." Then, in belated response to public outrage over uncontrolled municipal and industrial pollution, he continues, politicians put Michigan in the forefront of environmental legislation. He lists a 1965 air pollution law, five years ahead of the federal Clean Air Act; a 1968 $335 million clean water bond, four years before the federal Clean Water Act; the first nationwide ban on most DDT uses in 1969, three years before the federal one; a 1976 ban of toxic PCBs, along with the nation's best bottle deposit measure; and the country's strongest 1979 wetland protection act. Now, with the lack of "a clear state policy and tools to help communities manage growth wisely, Michigan is losing vast areas of open space, wetlands and farmlands" and is "suffering increased pollution runoff and flooding from the smothering of soils under concrete." The historian sees the time as "a period of ruin every bit as damaging as the previous stripping of the forests and the fouling of our air and water." He attributes much of Michigan's earlier environmental leadership to the coverage by the Detroit Free Press, research and advocacy by academicians, stewardship by some industries and efforts by officials like former Governor William Milliken, who sought a land-use policy in the 1970s and calls today's sprawl "a plague on the land." But he credits residents with providing "the prime impulse for both private and public reforms" and ends wishing he could close his book "Ruin and Recovery" with the answer to "whether we'll come together to conserve our unique, valuable lands from sprawling land development."   7/10/2001

Resource(s): www.freep.com

The public sentiment is the driving force ...

The public sentiment is the driving force behind the state's new focus on environmental protection, urban reinvestment and curbing sprawl, writes Michigan Land Use Institute program director Keith Schneider in a Detroit Free Press column, observing that "a new quality- of-life politics has formed in Michigan" with "surprising speed"and is now advocated by such top Republicans as Governor John Engler, House Speaker Rick Johnson and a gubernatorial hopeful, Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus. With consistently high public support for "environmental protection and economic development as compatible goals" and distaste for pitting "one against the other," he writes, "the drive to protect natural resources and improve the quality of life" has resulted in unheard of alliances" that are changing the face of Michigan communities." In the Detroit region, three counties, 48 localities, hundreds of business leaders and thousands of home owners "are cooperating to clean up the rouge River and its 438-square-mile watershed," with more than $500 million already spent on new sewage and stormwater storage downstream and the enactment of new protective ordinances upstream. In the Grand Rapids region, two counties and 32 localities in the Grand Valley Metro Council are making joint decisions "to combat sprawl, improve water quality and invest in downtown." In 1999, the council helped Grand Rapids and its suburban townships establish an urban growth boundary to concentrate development in current service areas and discourage it elsewhere, as "enough leaders and residents recognized that a growth-at-any-cost program yields a long and avoidable list of expensive problems." In the end, the writer stresses that with every Democratic gubernatorial candidate espousing preservation and development ideas shared by most voters, the 2002 challenge for state Republican leaders, "scrambling to reinvent themselves and the image of their party," is to convince a majority "that they really mean it."   7/10/2001

Resource(s): www.freep.com

When the cities do well, this nation ...

When the cities do well, this nation does well, said the new U.S. Conference of Mayors President, New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial in his inaugural speech at the end of the five-day 69th annual meeting in Detroit, announcing a national "Competitive Cities Tour" to promote metro areas as powerhouses in the national and global economy. Scheduled to start in September, the tour of 10 to 15 cities will highlight best mayoral "practices and strategies" for promoting the "six keys" to city competitiveness. He lists them as "safe streets and communities; a skilled workforce; the arts, as both a cultural/educational and an economic force in communities; strong infrastructure; good, affordable housing; and strong economies." Mayor Morial also outlined plans to form the conference's sister organization -- an "international conference of mayors" to give mayors a global forum to discus initiatives and policy issues. 06.27.2001   7/2/2001

Resource(s): usmayors.org

American cities are once again a magnet ...

American cities are once again a magnet for ambition and culture and enterprise, said President Bush at the 69th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Detroit, crediting mayors for much of this success and committing the federal government to work with them in a further push to empower cities and communities. The president stressed that "equal opportunity is an empty hope without good schools" and hailed Congress for the education reform bill that "spreads power to local communities and, for the first time, demands results in return." He also pledged to help "the working poor" become homeowners by "providing tax credits to investors to redevelop and build new single family homes" and by allowing low income families "to consolidate a year's worth of Section B assistance for a downpayment on a home." Focusing on his initiative to boost charities, faith- based organizations and other "neighborhood healers," which have "commitment and spiritual strength" but often "lack resources," the president recalled Robert Kennedy's philosophy on aiding cities, with its emphasis on "the involvement of community," and expressed his pride at the endorsement of the initiative by the mayors and by "a monumental figure in the civil rights movement," Rosa Park. Calling for support of the Community Solutions Act (HR-7), sponsored by Republican J.C. Watts and Democrat Tony Hall, the president noted that "many acts of charity and social justice are also the acts of faith," especially in cities, where "more than 70 percent of African American churches engage in community outreach programs, including day care, job search, substance abuse prevention, food and clothing distribution." Frequently applauded throughout the speech, the president pointed out that "in many places, African American churches are thy only institutions that hold the fraying strands of a community together." Then he said, "I understand, mayors, my administration did not invent the idea of community empowerment. But along with you, we're going to build on it." 06.26.2001   7/2/2001

Resource(s): usmayors.org

In the U.S. Conference of Mayors leadership's ...

In the U.S. Conference of Mayors leadership's statements on President Bush's address at its 69th annual meeting in Detroit, the conference's outgoing president, Boise Mayor H. Brent Cole, acknowledged the president's policy of open doors to mayors since he took office and said mayors are working closely with him "on the biggest challenges facing cities today -- cleaning up brownfields in old industrialized areas, creating more affordable housing, fighting drugs and reducing traffic congestion." The conference's president-elect, New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial said he looks forward to helping the president "connect with America's cities and invite him to participate in an upcoming tour of the nation's cities with Mayors." Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran welcomed the commitment of additional resources for urban faith-based-initiatives, noting that mayors "have long partnered with the faith-based community to provide support and services to neighborhoods and families."   7/2/2001

Resource(s): usmayors.org

With new brownfield legislation introduced in Congress ...

With new brownfield legislation introduced in Congress by Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin, Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer said investment in brownfield clean- up helps urban economic growth, adding "We as cities need to take advantage of every opportunity we can to increase and improve our quality of life." The U.S. Conference of Mayors' estimates that brownfield redevelopment could create more than 550,000 jobs and $2.4 billion in tax revenue.   7/2/2001

Resource(s): detnews.com

A proclamation by the U.S. Conference of ...

A proclamation by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in support of faith-based initiatives reads: "For many years, cities have worked closely with faith-based and other community serving organizations. Therefore, the United States Conference of Mayors strongly endorses President Bush's efforts to highlight and increase public awareness about the key roles that these groups play within our society and to increase both public and private support for effective community serving groups." An initial survey of mayors about "the creation of Offices of Faith-Based Community Initiative and/or Faith-Based Community Liaisons," found that 121 mayor's offices have already designated liaisons, with another 37 intending to do so. The special Mayors' Task Force on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the proclamation says, "will examine the roles of local governments in these efforts, identify and highlights some best practices, forward policy suggestions to Congress and the White House and create a cadre of mayors that will serve as national spokespersons on the issue."   7/2/2001

Resource(s): usmayors.org

Alarmed by the Troy area's development reaching ...

Alarmed by the Troy area's development reaching 90 percent, threatening the last wetlands and overburdening drains with polluted storm runoff, residents Lon and Pat Ullman convinced the city last year to follow 39 other Michigan municipalities by forming an environmental regulation committee that has now drafted both wetland and natural features preservation ordinances. The wetland ordinance would require Troy to draw and maintain a map of wetlands; protect wooded wetlands or those under five acres, along with streams, lake prairies and steep slopes; establish a mitigation program; set up a 2:1 wetland replacement ratio; make developers seek a wetland determination on or within 50 feet of project sites; and treat violations as misdemeanors, separately for each day. The natural features ordinance would require developers to create a 500-foot vegetation setback from the boundary or edge of a rookery and a 50-foot vegetation setback from the edge of a lake prairie, steep slope, woodland or protected specie habitat, under a similar misdemeanor sanction. This, according to Lon Ullman, "gives the city the option of deciding for itself what it wants to do with its open space rather than abdicating responsibility to a state agency," while also putting developers "on notice about what they can and cannot do." Stressing that the elimination of lowlands as the natural filters and reservoirs would open streams and lakes to massive storm water runoff carrying animal waste, petroleum products and other pollutants, he predicts that a second phase of the Federal Clean Water Act, perhaps in two years, may require treating all storm water like sewage. City Councilwoman Robin Beltamini supports the proposed ordinances as "a good compromise between property rights and protection." But Mayor Matt Pryor expects legal challenges, informing Ullman, a Troy resident for 26 years, that in Colorado, the definition of conservationists is those "who built their condominium yesterday."   6/13/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

In a Detroit Free Press comment on ...

In a Detroit Free Press comment on the "smart land use" legislation announced personally last month by "one of Michigan's highest-ranking conservative leaders, House Republican Speaker Rick Johnson, Benzonia's Michigan Land Institute program director Keith Schneider hails it as "a turning point" for both the party and the state. The speaker "validated the striking need for a state role" in land-use decisions and "put his party's leaders and business allies on notice that fighting suburban sprawl, protecting farmland and revitalizing cities are political issues" of the day. The speaker's five-point package includes proposals to coordinate planning and zoning among adjacent jurisdictions; base farmland taxes on agricultural rather than potential development value; and provide cities with low-interest loans for halting sewage treatment plant overflows into lakes and rivers. Noting that opponents "are sharpening their talons to tear the legislative package apart, as they have to other promising sprawl-fighting and urban redevelopment initiatives in years past" and stressing that the speaker, with his "bold and coherent vision ... has put his own prestige and the credibility of his party on the line," Schneider ends, " For the sake of all Michigan residents and our magnificent state itself, it's vital that he succeeds."   5/18/2001

Resource(s): www.freep.com

Another Metro Detroit community leaning toward the ...

Another Metro Detroit community leaning toward the neighborly feel and small-town designs of New Urbanism is Chesterfield Township, where officials are considering a $27 million, 29-acre mixed-use project, boasting a landscaped park with a large pond, benches and a gazebo for outdoor concerts. The township planning administrator, Janice Giese, says the project, called Chesterfield Commons, by Nu-Way Investments Inc. of Shelby Township, calls for 58 eight single-family townhouses and 20 brownstones. It is "geared to the old-time families when you sat on the porch and talked with your neighbor." Architect Brian Gregorich adds, "We want it family-oriented. We did not want the upstairs homes to just be lofts." Among varied neotraditional projects in the metro area, Detroit News writer Santiago Esparza lists $15-million West Village and $22-million Georgetown Commons in Dearborn, $28-million Cherry Hill Village in Canton Township and the planned Town Center in Macomb Township. Similar projects are also under way in Shelby and Washington townships.   5/8/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

Michigan House Republican leaders, Speaker Rick Johnson ...

Michigan House Republican leaders, Speaker Rick Johnson and Representative Ruth Johnson, announced a five-point bill to curb sprawl and protect the state's lakes and rivers, with public hearings on the specifics scheduled to start this month. The Speaker, a northern Michigan farmer, is making the legislation a priority at this session; the Representative says land use "is a hard issue ... but the time has come now to act on this, and we are the people to do it." The legislation would require municipalities to pass ordinances on land preservation in new subdivisions; encourage inter-municipal coordination of planning and zoning; cut the procedural red tape snarling redevelopment of vacant urban parcels, estimated at 45,000 in Detroit alone; provide communities with low-interest loans and other assistance for water and sewer system improvements; and promote cooperation with the federal government and with Canada to protect the Great Lakes from foreign aquatic species immigrants and from water diversion. Details at www.gophouse.com   4/16/2001

Resource(s): detnews.com

After a decade of unrestricted growth and ...

After a decade of unrestricted growth and mounting traffic on their rural roads, officials in five northwestern Macomb County communities have moved to protect local character with a variety of ordinances and guidelines that deter big projects and especially low-end housing, while helping small-scale businesses. Reporting from the area's annual leadership meeting, sponsored by the Rome-Washington Chamber of Commerce, Detroit News writer Santiago Esparza writes that developers are observing new regulations, some of which require larger lot sizes with more green space and thus reduce their infrastructure costs. He notes that Washington Township Supervisor Gary Kirsch and other officials meet with developers early in their project planning to save time and money, with the supervisor saying, "Instead of chasing the storm, we have harnessed the storm." The writer adds that Bruce Township has just enacted the most stringent outdoor lighting regulations in Metro Detroit; Ray Township have rezoned several parcels from residential to commercial and decided to stop paying for new water and sewer lines for at least ten years; and Armada Township and Romeo Village are seeking to enhance their historic sections by requiring new projects to blend in well.   3/26/2001

Resource(s): detnews.com

In efforts to preserve Macom County quality ...

In efforts to preserve Macom County quality of life, newly elected, fifth-term Board of Commissioners Chairman John C. Hertel is getting tough on sewage and urban sprawl. Having created the Blue Ribbon Commission to examine pollution in Lake St. Clair area, the Macomb Water Quality Board and the Partners in Planning sprawl-study group, the chairman, reports Detroit News writer Gene Schabath, will form alliances with adjacent counties to secure state and federal funds for fighting air and water pollution and will hold an anti-sprawl conference, with emphasis on creating oases of parks, forests and other recreational land in the county's communities. He notes that his hometown, Lenox Township, has already "embarked on the oasis idea" and donated more than 40 acres for its park. He also will create the board's ad hoc road committee to work with the county's Road Commission on relieving traffic in the worst-congested areas. Concerned that with the "tremendous" pace of homebuilding people drive there "and can't move," the chairman says that the "craziest thing for me is for someone to invest $300,000 to $400,000 in a home and then lose the quality of life (by) not being able get to places conveniently because the road system is so poor."   1/29/2001

Resource(s): www.detnews.com

By replacing many growth-first officials with challengers ...

By replacing many growth-first officials with challengers who perceive the economy, the environment and local stability as equal priorities, voters in a dozen localities sent leaders in Lansing a clear anti-sprawl message last month: "Approve new solutions, or face defeat," writes Keith Schneider in the Detroit Free Press. The author, program director of the Michigan Land Use Institute in Benzonia, names the areas where voters ousted officials who used to grant variances from zoning and master plans "to anybody waving promises, often empty, of new jobs and tax revenues." They include Benzie County, four townships in Macomb County, Arcadia and Filer townships in Manistee County, Casco Township in Allegan County, West Bloomfield Township in Oakland County, Milan Township in Monroe County and Meridian Township in Ingham County. One of the new Meridian board's members is the program director of the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club, Anne Woiwode. She pledges to fulfill voter wishes for smarter growth and greater participation in all decisions that affect their community.   1/2/2001

Resource(s): www.freep.com

Taught by the great Chicago architect Daniel ...

Taught by the great Chicago architect Daniel Burnham to think on a big scale, Detroit architect John Marusich and the nine others at his downtown ArchiCivitas firm would like to start turning the city into a pedestrian-friendly metropolis, by building over its freeways two futuristic pods with high-density housing, tree-lined parks and parking garages for 25,000 cars. Freeway ramps would lead directly to the garages, from which commuters and visitors could take trolleys, people movers and scooters to their destinations. When you look at the big, sprawling freeway systems, you see that they take up a lot of space and offer nothing in return, the architect says. His parking structure, transportation engineering and landscaping consultants agree that the pods can be built, but require investments upwards of $400 million apiece, excluding housing. He is determined to seek investors and re-establish the urban fabric. He says, People have been going to Chicago, New York or Rome for an urban experience. We must create a pedestrian-friendly community here.   9/14/2000

Resource(s): detnews.com

To extend their public reach, diversify expertise ...

To extend their public reach, diversify expertise and coordinate efforts, the Michigan Society of Planning Officials and the Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association merged, creating the 5,100- member Michigan Society of Planning, headquartered in Farmington Hills. The new society will work to reform and match land-use legislation with modern growth trends, adopt a regional approach in community planning and reduce traffic, pollution and environmental damage. It will also try to help contain sprawl and revitalize older neighborhoods. The new society's president, Richard Carlisle, said its members can now present a unified voice in Lansing on several legislative proposals dealing with planning, zoning and urban sprawl. He pointed out that many communities are planning their development in somewhat of a vacuum, without looking at utility needs, transportation issues and quality of life in a regional context, and that the society wants them to avoid mistakes. The society's executive director, David T. Downey, noted that local governments oversee 95 percent of new Michigan projects, but adjacent communities may have conflicting land-use laws. Some develop farmland in distant suburbs, he said, while land in urban areas sits abandoned or blighted. He hopes to find some incentives to reverse this pattern. The society is already preparing a draft of the Coordinated Planning Act - to amend four current laws, including the 1931 Municipal Planning Act - for review at its first conference in late October.   9/14/2000

Resource(s): detnews.com

Running out of land zoned for industrial ...

Running out of land zoned for industrial and commercial projects, three Howell County municipalities, Howell, Pinckney and Green Oak Township, are creating brownfield authorities to draw up redevelopment plans and obtain state cleanup grants and developer tax breaks. The chairman of the county's Economic Development Corporation, Fred Dillingham, says the county doesn't have enough contaminated sites to significantly cut greenfield development, but will save some space by returning them to productive use. Local officials have the option of declaring brownfield zones or redeveloping all eligible sites within their boundaries. Under a new state law, their brownfield authorities also can restore some dilapidated buildings.   9/8/2000

Hoping to save Oakland Township's rural character ...

Hoping to save Oakland Township's rural character despite Metro Detroit suburban growth pressures, its officials are proposing the area's first incentive-based ordinance, which would let home builders increase their projects' density by about 20 percent in exchange for keeping at least 40 percent of the land as open space. Builders choosing this track, instead of the standard zoning and permit procedures in force, would also have to meet tougher landscaping and buffer zone requirements, but would benefit from a streamlined approval process and from savings on less extended infrastructure. Township Manager Jim Creech counts on public input to work out the details and have the ordinance ready for his full board before the year's end.   8/28/2000

Seeing city-suburb cooperation as profitable to all ...

Seeing city-suburb cooperation as profitable to all involved, the Detroit branch of the interfaith Metropolitan Organizing Strategy For Enabling Strength (MOSES) plans to help build metro area coalitions to lobby lawmakers in both state and national capitals for better solutions to such common problems as sprawl, transportation and funding inequities. After its Ferndale City Hall policy meeting, attended by local officials and leaders of six area churches, Rev. Jerome Stevens of Detroit's Renaissance Baptist Church described MOSES as a movement that could became a model for showing varied groups that it benefits everyone to work together for our own self-interest. Noting that jobs are moving farther out, but many people lack cars or the means to follow, Rev. Stan Ulman of Hamtramck's St. Ladislaus Catholic Church said the rich move to expensive homes in suburbs, older neighborhoods lose tax dollars and sprawl concentrates poverty and race. Glad to find politicians who share the group's views and also press for change, Rev. Steve Jones of Birmingham's First Baptist Church stressed that older suburbs are no less concerned about the lack of affordable and subsidized housing than cities, adding that those trapped in areas of concentrated poverty must find a way out or the nation will face increased social problems.   8/15/2000

I-375 doesn't work, writes the cofounder ...

I-375 doesn't work, writes the cofounder of Transportation Riders United, Karen Kendrick-Hands, in a Detroit Free Press opinion piece, blasting the Michigan Department of Transportation for the inner beltway's extension proposal, which makes a bad idea even worse. She calls the beltway an example of destroyed transit infrastructure and sacrificed neighborhoods in the name of auto-only access, reflecting the department's obsession with suburban interstate solutions forced on an urban street grid. Asked by General Motors Corporation to improve access to its world headquarters and garages on the riverfront, she writes, the department rushed the belt extension planning without an environmental impact study, analyses of other options or opportunity for public input. Then she cites a better idea, from a long-time cabinet member under previous federal administrations, Republican Casper Weinberger, who said that tearing down freeways and replacing them with boulevards may become one of the great public works endeavors of the 21st Century. That's exactly, she stresses, what we should do with I-375.   8/10/2000

Under the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program ...

Under the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program, 26 students of the seventh and eighth grades completed a four-week Detroit Future City 2000 summer course, learning the basics of land use and urban planning. After two weeks in seminars with city planners, the students spent another two mapping transportation, housing, employment, city services and communication for the Pilgrim Park area. The pre-college program's instructor and the course teacher, Gwendolyn Mia, who prepared the students's presentation to Northstar, says the nonprofit community development corporation may follow some of their ideas.   8/10/2000

Citizens, guard your master plans, urges the ...

Citizens, guard your master plans, urges the executive director of the Michigan Land Use Institute in Benzonia, Keith Schneider, warning in a Detroit Free Press column that many local governments, still driven by memories of the terrible economy in the 1980s and pushed by developers toward the growth-at-any-cost strategy, often violate sound master plans and zoning ordinances. The result, he writes, is more sprawl, more congestion, less open space and growing civic disputes in dozen of townships and counties. As an indication of the problem's scope, the author cites a study by the former Meridian Township top planner, Joan Guy, showing that between January 1997 and May 2000, the township's board approved 37 rezoning requests, 27 of which, or 61percent, violated its master plan. Stressing that land-use decisions must always be consistent with master plans, the author recalls a 1997 court ruling against the city of Troy because it violated its master plan so many times that denying another developer's rezoning request would deprive him of his equal protection rights.   8/10/2000

A new report by the Southeast Michigan ...

A new report by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments warns that the continuation of the last decade's suburban sprawl will strain the region's aged roads and infrastructure even more, with revenues failing to cover their expansion costs. Studying the 25- year regional transportation plan, says the council's executive director Jim Tait, we identified $41 billion in needs and $24 billion in anticipated revenue, which means a $17 billion shortfall. The council will search for more revenue sources and better regional transit planning, meanwhile encouraging area residents to share rides and telecommute.   8/10/2000

Responding to market demand and public anti-sprawl ...

Responding to market demand and public anti-sprawl sentiments, Michigan developers are increasingly adopting eco-friendly designs popular in such states as Oregon and Maryland. The designs, writes Louise Knott Ahern in The Detroit News, include setting aside about half of a project site for parks, open space and other recreational use; clustering homes on small lots; using the local flora and natural topography as storm water retention systems; and protecting trees and other vegetation. As examples, the writer lists the Dominion subdivision of the Brighton Township in Livingston County and the Hummingbird Ridge subdivision of the Springfield Township in Oakland County. Dominion developer George Mansour and his partner Anthony Paterra consider protecting the environment no less important than making a profit. They say that some narrow-minded local governments with outdated ordinances force developers to build large houses on huge lots, which results in suburban sprawl and hurts the environment. Hummingbird Ridge developer Susan Aulgur says all developers should realize that development does not have to equal destruction. Officials of those and other nearby townships applaud eco-friendly developers. But the executive director of the Michigan Land Institute in Benzonia, Keith Schneider, notes that such greenfield subdivisions still require new infrastructure, whose costs are usually borne by local communities and home buyers. The least expensive Dominion homes, for example, average $750,000. Like many northern Michigan city officials, Schneider advocates downtown redevelopment as the most cost- effective, socially-equitable and environmentally-friendly solution to sprawl.   7/5/2000

Governor John Engler signed legislation expanding redevelopment ...

Governor John Engler signed legislation expanding redevelopment tax credits from job-creating to job- retaining businesses and from contaminated to other abandoned sites, covering their preparation, building demolition and infrastructure improvements. The governor stressed that the new law continues momentum for urban site revitalization, helps keeping jobs closer to where people live and reduces pressures on green space. Increasing the million-dollar tax credit cap to $30 million, the law will help cities and townships seeking brownfield redevelopment and enable the state to give General Motors Corporation huge tax breaks for new plants in the Lansing area. Lansing Mayor David Hollister who has long been working to bring new GM plants into the area, credits the state tax incentive package for the deal's prospects.   6/16/2000

Helped by a $75,000 EPA grant, six ...

Helped by a $75,000 EPA grant, six largely rural communities in northern Oakland County - Highland, Milford, Milford Village, Rose, Springfield and White Lake -- are launching the Metro Detroit area's first joint plan to manage their inevitable growth, while saving whole ecosystems. A new study by the Michigan Natural Features Inventory found these ecosystems to be the state's most pristine, with many rare and endangered plant and animal species. To ensure their integrity and avoid the cross-boundary environmental hassles now plaguing the county's many southern jurisdictions, the six northern communities want to adopt a new environmental designation, called a resource district overlay, which would require communities' cooperation and developers' creativity to extend site protection measures onto an entire ecosystem regardless of jurisdictional divisions. With their national association endorsing master-planned environmental restrictions, area home builders support the cross-jurisdictional protection of ecosystems as a smart, realistic approach to growth. For their part, they remind communities of the need to respect property rights and ask them to allow greater project densities in exchange for open space donations.   6/16/2000

A long-time country dump six miles northeast ...

A long-time country dump six miles northeast of Lansing, bought by the Michigan Wildlife Habitat Foundation, was cleared, landscaped and transformed into the 296-acre Bengel Wildlife Center to promote smart growth. The center's director Dennis Fijalkowski describes its mission as reaching out to developers, officials, planners and other professionals who are changing our landscape every day and who seek help to learn new approaches, techniques and resource uses. A board member of the Michigan Association of Realtors, Gilbert White, speaks for many in the industry, welcoming the center as much needed for encouraging voluntary compliance with environmental ethics and with the growing public demand to curb sprawl. The center will host seminars on such topics as land reclamation and cluster zoning, while showcasing sound construction practices, recycling and conservation, green space preservation and other smart growth solutions. Named for Russell Bengel, a Jackson politician and philanthropist who founded the Michigan Wildlife Habitat foundation two years before his death in 1984, the center is also open to school groups and graduate students learning natural history.   6/16/2000

In several metro Detroit suburbs, residents who ...

In several metro Detroit suburbs, residents who used to fight strip malls and mega-stores are now fighting parks, schools and churches - the very institutions, writes Gordon Trowbridge of The Detroit News, once seen as pillars of a healthy neighborhood. It also shows, he continues, how far some are willing to go in this era of sprawl to preserve their personal slice of suburbia. The writer cites Northville Township Supervisor Richard Henningsen as saying that the resulting problems are especially acute in areas with homes in the four- to five-hundred-thousand-dollar range. Northville lost its fight against a new school in court. But nearby Canton Township still faces a court battle over a charter school; Hartland Township declined a $350,000 state grant for a new park that would be open to nonresidents; and Milford residents bitterly oppose a YMCA project. This disturbing trend is emerging in other affluent neighborhoods around the country. Officials and planners attribute it to growing wealth, vanishing open space and the transformation of old-time parks, schools and churches into big structures that take more space and have greater local impact. The writer also notes a conclusion by authors of a book on Long Island development, Rosalyn Baxandall and Elizabeth Ewen, that the expanding wealth of the last decade has led to a sense of entitlement among suburbanites, a feeling that any imposition on their lifestyles is intolerable.   6/9/2000

After Governor John Engler has proposed the ...

After Governor John Engler has proposed the first comprehensive plan in a generation to modernize the state's land use policy, his aides entered into closed-door negotiations this spring with home builders and real estate agents, producing two measures that may undercut a strong package of farmland protection bills currently in the Legislature, warns the executive director of the Michigan Land Use Institute, Keith Schneider. In a Detroit Free Press commentary, the author praises the governor for his proposals to help farmers stay in business by reducing property taxes and to protect farmland by creating an Agricultural Preservation Fund. But he stresses that developer-oriented measures sponsored by Republican Senator George McManus would lower the so-called recapture fee to just 0.1 percent of the land's actual market value and would generate from developers only one to two million dollars for the preservation fund. Both measures, he writes, are designed to provide builders and land speculators with a taxpayer-funded land banking system to buy and hold farmland at markedly reduced property tax rates, and then make a killing once it is sold. Both, he adds, would accelerate the loss of farmland in Michigan, erode the foundation of the state's $4 billion farm economy and transform miles of rural countryside into ugly and damaging sprawl.   4/28/2000

A Smart Growth Conference, held in Troy ...

A Smart Growth Conference, held in Troy by the builder-dominated Michigan Smart Growth Coalition, agreed that smart growth strategies can both ease the sprawl burdens and allow development. Stressing that once something stops growing, it begins to die, its keynote speaker, Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus urged area officials, planners and construction industry executives to find the right land-use balance. One top panelist, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments Executive Director Paul Tait said the Detroit metro area's population growth in the next 25 years from 4.75 to 5.32 million, with 170,000 new jobs and 370,000 new households, will cause the development of 235,000 acres of farmland. The side effects of this growth could be allayed, discussants said, if the area would increase funds for public transit and electronic traffic control systems; relieve the pressures to sell farmland for development by cutting farm estate taxes and calculating property taxes on farms' agricultural value; and change suburban zoning laws to permit denser development, with condos and apartments, and to preserve open space.   4/17/2000

The language of sprawl foes and builders ...

The language of sprawl foes and builders is becoming the same, but definitions of 'smart growth' differ, writes Detroit News' Gordon Trowbridge, previewing a Smart Growth Conference by builder-led Michigan Smart Growth Coalition, April 14 in Troy. He sees the conference as the trade coalition's biggest push yet to seize its opponents' smart growth emblem. At stake for both sides, is a key piece of rhetorical high ground in the fight for public opinion on the volatile issue of suburban growth. The writer quotes the director of the Michigan Land Use Institute, Keith Shneider, who says developers are adopting the message and language of more progressive groups ... because they feel vulnerable. A political analyst with Public Sector Consultants in Lansing, Craig Ruff, adds that the adoption of smart growth terminology by real estate and development groups demonstrates the rising importance of the debate. A spokesman for the local chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, Joe Neussendorfer, denies any kind of hidden agenda and declares developer openness to all viewpoints. But sprawl critics are excluded from the conference. One of its key speakers, Samuel Staley from California's Reason Public Policy Institute, promises to take on the myth of farmland lost to development.   4/17/2000

In his State of the State speech ...

In his State of the State speech, Governor John Engler called upon the legislature to pass "a new Brownfield Redevelopment Act as a part of a broader core cities strategy." The governor said this act will encourage developers "to invest in blighted areas" and reuse old buildings "not necessarily contaminated," while reducing development pressures "in rural areas without services." The governor stressed that the pressure to develop rural areas can be further reduced "through a constitutional amendment ... to keep land in agricultural production and to conserve green space." Describing the state's rural legacy as vital to its future, the governor asked the legislature to approve a key recommendation of the Agriculture Preservation Task Force and "tax agricultural land on use value, not on market value."   1/31/2000

The state's top developer of housing at ...

The state's top developer of housing at sites rich in lakes, streams and wetlands, Ivanhoe-Huntley Cos. in West Bloomfield, won its third environmental award from the Michigan Society of Planning Officials for the local 318-home Chelsea Park and Westwind Lake Village project. Partners Gary Shapiro and Steve Perlman plan to expand the winning design to adjacent parcel, by building the 115- home Chelsea Gardens. "People are tired of pulling into a new subdivision where the trees have been torn down and everything looks sterile," says Shapiro, "they are looking for communities with a unique identity with dense natural features and landscaping." Such communities, he adds, ensure better quality of life and faster-increasing property values. The firm's other projects will include the total of 1,100 homes and condominiums with similar site landscaping and open space amenities.   9/13/1999

Livonia: This Detroit suburb is in the ...

Livonia: This Detroit suburb is in the midst of a controversy over a developer plan for stores and 220 condominiums on a 29 acre site, seven acres of which are part of a state-protected wetland. The city approved the project, but conservation activists object, sending the developer to negotiate a permit with the state Department of Environmental Quality. Developer Steve Schaefer argues that the heavily-built area is zoned for development, that the commercial part of the project was scaled down, and that the wetland is a result of storm water runoff from previous construction. Activist Bill Craig points out that an aerial photo of the area shows an island of green among urban surroundings, and that laws require its protection from development. Presenting these pro and con views, The Detroit News invites readers to express their thoughts on the project.   7/30/1999

Alarmed by a there-year loss of open ...

Alarmed by a there-year loss of open space to residential and commercial growth, Northville Township in Wayne County is competing with developers and buying as much land as it can, to save it for recreation and ensure local quality of life. In the past two years, the township has bought about 235 acres, including 60 acres this month for $22,000 an acre. The money comes from a millage approved last August and from Building Authority bond sales.   7/27/1999

After 25 years as a bank official ...

After 25 years as a bank official and three years as a business owner, Ron Davis of Clarkston in Oakland County says he looked at the surrounding urban sprawl, then looked at himself and said ÒEnough is enough.Ó A chance meeting with the president of the North Oakland Land Conservancy, Tom Stone, prompted him to apply for the group's first full time executive director slot. Winning in a nationwide competition, he found a cause and began a new life. He says, ÒFifteen years from now, I will be able to look back and see what we have accomplished and I am going to know that I had a part in that. For the first time in my life, I will have made a difference.Ó   7/27/1999

Detroit: City officials and developers are advancing ...

Detroit: City officials and developers are advancing $5 billion plans to transform the city's 25-acre eastern riverfront, long ruled by industries, into a pedestrian-friendly urban village, with housing, shops, offices, restaurants, parks and casinos. The city is using its new eminent domain law to relocate three cement companies from the riverfront, and to buy the sites for casinos, parks and other projects. General Motors and the casino groups are spending $2 billion on area streets, infrastructure and other upgrades. Further business commitments are expected soon.   6/18/1999

Detroit: The Regional Chamber holds its 19th ...

Detroit: The Regional Chamber holds its 19th annual Leadership Policy Conference June 3-6 on Mackinac Island, with a focus on regional public-private cooperation for transit improvement, job training and orderly growth. Entitled "Regional Strategies for a Global Marketplace," the conference brings together 1,300 political, civic and corporate leaders, including Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Ford Motor Co. chairman William Clay Ford Jr., several U.S. lawmakers, and many county chairmen and executives.   5/31/1999

In a speech at the National Town ...

In a speech at the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America in Detroit, Vice President Al Gore confirmed the White House commitment to green space preservation and urban revival, saying that Americans "want smart growth that produces prosperity while protecting a high quality of life." Addressing 3000 people in the audience and 60,000 through satellite TV linkups, the Vice President announced 47 agency measures to help the growing movement toward economic and environmental sustainability. He also urged Congress to approve the Livable Communities Initiative, including $6.1 billion for mass transit, $1.6 billion for state and local anti-congestion measures, and $700 million in tax credits for Better America Bonds.   5/14/1999

Detroit: With a nod from Governor John ...

Detroit: With a nod from Governor John Engler and Mayor Dennis Archer, the Detroit City Council voted to offer Compuware Corporation a 15-year property tax exemption on its planned corporate headquarters and office tower downtown. The city wants to use the exemption as a leverage in negotiations with developers of five blocks around the Compuware project. Not having sought a tax break, the corporation did not immediately respond to the offer.   4/29/1999

Detroit: The downtown community anticipates the relocation ...

Detroit: The downtown community anticipates the relocation of Compuware Corp.'s world headquarters to its center as crucial for its four-year-old drive to became a true 24-hour business and service district, with flourishing entertainment and night-life. The expected arrival of more than 6,500 Compuware employees -- mostly well-paid professionals, many of whom may also wish to live near their work -- is seen as "the best thing that's happened to downtown development in years." It promises the city much more "than all the stadiums and casinos combined.   4/1/1999

While Governor John Engler and Detroit Mayor ...

While Governor John Engler and Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer work on plans for the National Town Meeting, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments spotlights 34 local "examples of smart growth" that balance economic, environmental and social needs. The executive director of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, Martin Spitzer' told The Detroit News that the city was chosen for "its leadership on these issues." The daily has reported that some Michigan Republican congressmen may ignore the meeting if they see it shaping up as a "campaign rally" for Vice President Al Gore.   3/1/1999

Detroit: The City Council's vote to convert ...

Detroit: The City Council's vote to convert the rail line along St. Aubin into a freeway is criticized by an opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press as a "great leap backward". The author, Stephen Hands, 14, will lead a transportation workshop at the National Town Meeting on Sustainable Development. Noting that the freeway will benefit only casinos, Hands makes a case for a better use of the money to start a commuter rail between downtown Detroit and Pontiac, Mt. Clemens and Ann Harbor. The rail would benefit all residents, and especially the almost 40 percent who lack cars and depend on public transit.   2/1/1999

A seminar on sprawl, economic growth and ...

A seminar on sprawl, economic growth and community values, hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, has afirmed the urgent need for comprehensive planning "to avoid the mistakes of the past." As the first steps to limit sprawl, save on infrastructure and relieve gridlock, experts proposed investments in older communities, new toll roads, better traffic flow control and a competition between public and private transit.   2/1/1999

Michigan voters overwhelmingly authorized a $675 million ...

Michigan voters overwhelmingly authorized a $675 million bond issue to redevelop brownfields, clean up and protect lakes, rivers and streams, and improve state and local parks. A state official promised to start some projects next spring, but warned against expectations of overnight changes, because remediation and redevelopment are lengthy processes that take several years to yield real results.   12/1/1998

A comparative study by the non-profit Jackson-based ...

A comparative study by the non-profit Jackson-based Consumer Renaissance Development Corporation has found that the state's brownfield redevelopment program is the best in the nation. Since 1995, the program has attracted $459 million in private investment and created 5300 jobs.   12/1/1998

In the first ten months of 1998 ...

In the first ten months of 1998, housing permits in Metro Detroit's eight counties were issued at the highest rate in 25 years. The area's real estate professionals expect the strong growth to continue in 1999. With the housing market Ògoing nuts,Ó builders remain focused on the outer suburbs, but don't neglect urban neighborhoods, stepping up both construction and renovation projects.   12/1/1998

An Urban Land Institute conference in Detroit ...

An Urban Land Institute conference in Detroit, "Setting the Stage for the Next Millennium in Metropolitan Detroit," focused on regional planning and city revitalization. The conferees outlined ways to sustain growth, create coalitions, renovate the downtown area and improve public services and infrastructure.   4/1/1998

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, under whom $6 ...

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, under whom $6 billion in private investments have come to the city during his first term, is seeking even more for the second one. The mayor divided the city into ten clusters whose residents, helped by planners and business leaders, chose locations for malls, housing and other projects. The city also sells land for development in a novel program to rebuild neighborhoods.   3/1/1998

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