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My name is Rebecca Fisher and I am going to be spending the summer here in Traverse City interning for the Michigan Land Use Institute. I’m originally from the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, and I’m a rising sophomore at Haverford College, located just outside of the city. I’m studying Political Science with a concentration in Peace, Justice and Human Rights....
If you are a northwest Michigan farmer who grows fruits or vegetables and you like the idea of local school children eating the food you grow—or you just want more sales—now is the time to explore those new markets. The Michigan Land Use Institute and Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District are launching an expanded two-year pilot project that could mean up to $200,000 in sales of local agricultural products to schools in eight districts in four counties. ...
On Wednesday, the Senate’s Infrastructure Modernization Committee passed five bills, three of the House bills and two from the Senate, that would flow new transportation money based on the normal transportation funding formula, Act 51. The bills would ensure that all transportation agencies get a share of the funding....
The SWG holds its last information-gathering meeting May 20 before the state issues a draft report in June that could recommend new ways to develop more customer-owned, rooftop solar power in Michigan. The meeting might be contentious: It features a presentation by the Edison Electric Institute, a national utility trade group that sees rooftop solar as an existential threat to their clients’ monopolies, and helps lead a multi-state attack on the technology....
Transportation advocates all over the state say the most recent proposal to raise much-needed money for transportation would bypass the state’s normal funding formula and divert money to roads only, leaving out transit.
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Traverse City's 20th annual Smart Commute Week is set for Saturday, May 31, through Saturday, June 7. Register now for the Smart Commute Challenge—it's free, open to the public, and available for all ages and abilities. One person can be a team, but it’s always more fun as a group, so rally your friends, co-workers, classmates and families and register by Friday, May 16....
Green Elk Rapids is a community based organization in Northern Michigan that aims to spread awareness of all things "green."...
PACE | May 1, 2014 | By MLUI
Grand Traverse County is now one of just seven counties and two cities in Michigan to adopt the local ordinance, known as Property Assessed Clean Energy. PACE allows local governments to place private business efficiency loans on local tax rolls, collect repayment via special assessments on property tax bills, and foreclose on properties that default....
Recently, TC-TALUS—this region’s transportation and land use planning body—released a memo that described the challenges with our road network’s ability to handle the traffic that travels between the east and west sides of the Grand Traverse region. The document is intended to help the TC-TALUS board prioritize major transportation projects for the region’s long-range transportation plan. Here are a few reactions. ...
A new Michigan Farm to Institution Network is helping schools, hospitals, day care centers, senior living and other institutions ramp up their purchases of locally grown food....
As work group meetings continue, interviews with solar panel owners confirmed that they are glad they built their systems, but have suggestions for improving the utilities’ solar pilots and the state’s net metering rules....
Five years ago, when DTE Energy and Consumers Energy launched small pilot programs offering premium rates to customers for power from their solar panels, Oak Electric and Four Elements Energy became very busy installing solar systems on homes and small businesses. But, in 2012, the roof fell in for rooftop solar in Michigan, when the utilities significantly changed their pilots. That happened, installers said, because DTE’s Solar Currents and Consumers’ Experimental Advanced Renewables Program (EARP) drastically cut their rates for new participants, citing sharply falling solar panel prices....
Fundrise allows average people to invest in property development even if they lack the credibility and capital of a wealthy developer. For northern Michigan, it’s a tool that offers a fascinating new process for rebuilding our area’s village centers and reinvesting in Traverse City’s emerging neighborhoods like Eighth Street, 14th Street, and Garfield Avenue.
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Last month’s Buses Without Borders event was a huge success! We heard terrific presentations from Vance Edwards, Kirk Steudle, Roger Millar, and Jay Flint. They talked about how reliable and efficient transit, when marketed well, can become a huge boost for tourist-based rural areas like ours.
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Representatives of Michigan’s two largest utilities, DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, made their first presentation to the state’s solar work group, and expressed little enthusiasm for expanding the use of customer-generated, jobs-producing, clean solar energy. ...
The Michigan Land Use Institute recently welcomed two new members to its Board of Directors: Bill Milliken Jr. and Jennifer Blakeslee. ...
Traverse Gourmet owners Norm and Cile Plumstead have pledged 1% of their business’s 2013 profits to the Michigan Land Use Institute. ...
Two weeks ago, MLUI was selected to participate in a fundraising challenge offered by Moosejaw and Patagonia through Crowdrise. We raised a total of $21,778 for our cause from more than 225 people! On behalf of everyone here at MLUI, I’d like to thank each and every one of you who donated. Thanks to you, we nabbed third place. ...
Karl Rábago's crowning achievement, so far, is his success at Austin Energy, where he parlayed an obscure phrase—Value of Solar—into a guiding principal that helped the public electric utility’s customers “go solar,” big-time. Value of Solar shows in exacting detail why encouraging customers to go solar—and paying them fairly for their power—is good for the company and all of its customers....
Last week, while national transportation experts like Kirk Steudle, Roger Millar, and Jay Flint were laying out a new plan for how regional transit can boost this region’s economy, Traverse City’s regional planning board was laughing....
