Here We Grow

The next Grand Vision workshops on March 20th at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center are all about regional transportation solutions for the future. At all of the previous workshops we have heard lots of ideas about improved transit service for commuters, so it seemed like a great idea to use existing county bus systems to bring people from outlying counties to the workshops in Traverse City. This would not only get lots of people on the bus for the first time, but it would also help promote discussions about creating a truly regional transit system.

Use public transportation to bring people to a public workshop about transportation. Seems like a simple idea, right?

Regional planner Matt McCauley of the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments convened a meeting of the transit agencies attended by Antrim County Transportation (ACT), the Benzie Bus, Cadillac Wexford Transit Authority (CWTA), and BATA (serving Grand Traverse and Leelanau Counties), as well as a representative from Michigan Department of Transportation who oversees the funding of these bus systems. Matt floated the idea of getting some good public relations for the bus services, and helping bring in the crowds from the outlying counties. All of the bus providers thought it was a great idea.

Not so fast, said the MDOT bureaucrat. These bus systems are funded with federal transportation dollars, so they have to follow federal rules. Concerns about county transit buses competing with private charter buses create restrictions on public providers making any changes to their hours or service for a special event. The Grand Vision workshop was scheduled to end at 9:30 p.m. – after the normal operating hours of all the county transit agencies. The only way they could bring people home from Traverse City after the meeting would be to permanently change their operating hours to at least 11 p.m., and begin to offer late night service to Traverse City every night. There’s no way these agencies could justify the cost of offering that service, so it looked like this idea was derailed. Sorry, said the bureaucrat, but it would a lot easier if the workshop was being held during the day.

This is the moment in meetings like this when the participants will typically shrug their shoulders and go home muttering about stupid bureaucratic rules that squelch local creativity. I’ve been in too many of those meetings in the past, and was prepared for it to happen again.

But there’s something going on with the Grand Vision that didn’t allow that to happen this time. Why not hold a second workshop during the daytime hours, suggested McCauley? We might even be able to expand our audience by appealing to folks who don’t want to stay out until 11 p.m. on a week night. The MDOT bureaucrat agreed that, as long as the agencies provided only their regular service, this would work.

With less than a month to go before the workshop, the consultant team agreed to host a second workshop.

This story is significant because for the first time in the Grand Traverse region, we have begun thinking about providing regional transit service. Mostly we have learned about the incredible bureaucratic barriers to getting it done. But more importantly, we have begun to demonstrate that there are ways to get around those barriers.

For the Grand Vision to truly succeed in its goal of creating a regional growth strategy that preserves the character of our region in the face of rapid growth, there will be lots of bureaucratic barriers. It’s nice to see that we’re getting some early practice at overcoming them.

See you on the bus!

It is hard for a couple of reasons, and the first is the most obvious: at the Michigan Land Use Institute, we regularly talk to people and local governments about planning, zoning, and land use. As you can imagine, that’s not as easy as talking about the Red Wings or who is going to play quarterback for the Spartans or Wolverines this year.

But in fact, after nine months at the Institute, what I’ve found is that talking to people about planning, zoning and land use is probably the easiest part of the job. The hardest part, I’ve found, is trying to convince people that when I talk to them about these issues, I’m trying to help them.

I’m giving you this background because recently, I had a wonderful experience in this regard. For the last several months, I’ve been helping my colleagues in Benzie County on land use issues. As you know, Benzie County is a beautiful place, but it is also in danger, because the county is currently in the midst of a maddening political transformation when it comes to planning and land use. The county created a solid master plan years ago that would help it use its magnificent landscapes wisely, but inexplicably, the county never updated its zoning ordinance. Since then, two townships, Inland and Homestead, have withdrawn from county planning and zoning mostly out of frustration over lack of representation in county government.

The two townships have since formed their own planning commission, and watching them do so has been neat for me on a personal level. I really respect their willingness to take control of their fates through local government. It’s been a real civics lesson for me.

However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that when we analyzed the townships’ new master plan, we found a couple of significant concerns. The master plan, as written, would allow sprawling commercial strip development on U.S. 31, which is the primary corridor through Benzie County. And, we also are very concerned that the townships’ plan for medium density residential housing growth will also lead to residential sprawl, which could ruin the beautiful Benzie County that we know today.

Here comes the hard part. With the help of my co-workers, we’ve been asking local officials to take another look at these two issues in their master plan. Specifically, we've asked them to consider further defining the amount of commercial on U.S. 31, and to also consider a concept known as conservation design, which is a planning and zoning technique that allows for both economic development and conservation of open space.

Initially, when I showed up at the township planning commission meetings, I was greeted with a certain degree of suspicion. Unfortunately, the Institute is often and wrongly viewed as a group with a political agenda, and there is also the unfortunate reality that a prior land use issue that came up in the county several years ago – and which I had nothing to do with – led many township residents to greet me with reservation.

But over time, I’ve repeatedly talked to township leaders, and I’m impressed with them. It is incredibly obvious to me that the residents of Inland and Homestead townships love their county and they love their communities, and they have no desire for sprawl, either. Despite their initial suspicion, they’ve given me a chance to be heard, which is all you can ask for.

At this point, I don’t know if they’ll make any changes to their master plan. That’s up to them – not me. But I do hope the residents of Inland and Homestead realize what I’ve been telling them about conservation design is not politically motivated. Instead, I simply want to give them more information on planning and zoning so that they can make the best decisions possible when it comes to managing their beautiful communities in what is sure to be significant growth in the coming decades.

I really do have their best interests at heart, and if I can convince them of that, then maybe they can use information to help their townships stay as rural as possible while still balancing -- and even encouraging -- economic growth.

That’s hard too, but it can be done.

Glenn