When I moved to northern Michigan from Las Vegas seven months ago, a lot of my close friends in Nevada questioned my decision.
I was leaving an established, secure job that I’d worked at for 11 years to work for a non-profit. And I was also moving from a place where it hardly ever rains to an often cold, cloudy, and wet climate.
But what my friends didn’t know is what you and I do know: This is one of the world’s special, beautiful places. The woodlands are simply remarkable. The shorelines of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior (my favorite) are absolutely breathtaking. The people of Northern Michigan are genuine and real.
By moving here, I feel like I’ve given my three young children a most precious gift—a chance at a childhood in a place that still has a natural environment and an innocence that can nurture their youthful, curious spirits.
How long will that innocence and naturalness last? That is something that my work with the Institute in Emmet County has me thinking about. You see, the county is in the midst of updating its comprehensive plan, the document that guides how Emmet will grow. It may all sound like a boring government procedure, it is, in fact, one of the most important things the county will ever do.
For the process to work, county residents have to tell their elected leaders what they would like to see Emmet County look like in the coming decades: What makes it into the county’s comprehensive plan dictates what ends up in the county’s zoning ordinance. That, in turn, controls what types of residential, commercial, and other development patterns will surface in Emmet County in the coming years.
We all know about the big-box blight that has invaded Bear Creek Township in the last decade and that there are few limits to this type of development in Emmet County. So the threat of big-box and strip development to Emmet County is very real. If we keep allowing this development, Emmet will soon look just like everywhere else, complete with bad traffic.
But if local residents are willing to stand up and tell the county that they want specific changes to the county’s comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance that preserve farmlands—and which prevent future big box and strip mall development—then we can change the county’s future for the better.
Last month I attended a meeting for the comprehensive plan, and I was impressed with local officials’ willingness to emphasize the need for the plan to preserve the county’s natural resources and farmlands. Emmet County deserves credit for making these top priorities in the county’s comprehensive plan.
But I was also deeply disappointed, because the only people in attendance were four Comprehensive Plan committee members, a local lawyer, and I. No one from the general public was there.
This was amazing to me. Think about it—a chance to shape the future of Emmet County forever, and no one was there.
So I’m issuing a challenge to you. Let’s participate in this together, and let us all tell county leaders what we want.
But I’m not just putting it all on you. I’m also going to challenge the county to find out what they are doing to encourage public participation. The county should be reaching out to all of the community’s shareholders to demand that they participate, and they should do so immediately.
To the south, Benzie County has done this successfully. Nearly a decade ago, they formed a 100-person citizen committee that formed an award-winning county master plan. Emmet County should be doing the same, but so far, its future has been left to a handful of people.
A date for the comprehensive plan’s land use subcommittee will be scheduled in the coming weeks. If you want more information, shoot me an email, and I’ll make sure you know when this meeting date gets set.
Let’s get involved, and let’s make a difference. It will be a great feeling. I promise.