In 1992, when a task force appointed by Governor John Engler identified suburban sprawl as the highest environmental priority in Michigan, no one could have predicted that the finding would stir substantive action in so many places.

Republican leaders in the House, recognizing that sprawl also has economic consequences, issued a report in 1994 calling for sweeping revisions of land use laws.

A year later, the Michigan Society of Planning Officials published Michigan’s Trend Future, a 12-volume study that predicted serious consequences for the state’s agriculture, timber, and mining industries if current patterns of development are not curbed. (See article on page 2).

This year, 55 land use bills were introduced in Lansing, several specifically designed to end policy incentives that cause sprawl.

And across the state, business and civic groups have begun organizing local initiatives to improve land use policies in order to protect the environment and strengthen their economies.

During a visit to Traverse City in March, Henry Richmond, the founder of 1,000 Friends of Oregon and one of the nation’s foremost authorities on halting sprawl, remarked that few states in the country have developed a stronger grass roots network. And, said Mr. Richmond, "no state has amassed better data to make the case that changes are needed in how land is used."

Local efforts, though, are not the sole answer to the sprawl problem. The influence of new development often is felt across many jurisdictions. Thus, Michigan is unlikely to be successful in changing its development patterns, said Mr. Richmond, unless the Governor and the Legislature began to press for a new statewide approach. Such a policy, he said, should set consistent goals and include incentives to ensure that local governments coordinate their work.

In the early 1970s, Governor William Milliken sought such a plan but was thwarted by Legislative leaders who said it was unworkable. Since then, most of Michigan’s 1,800 local governments have resisted a statewide land use plan, contending it would interfere with their authority and be impossible to administer from Lansing.

In recent months, though, the idea has suddenly attracted new support from the unlikeliest of places — the business communities of Traverse City and Grand Rapids, the farm community, and Michigan State University. Indeed, at the grass roots, Michigan is taking more steps to contend with sprawl than almost any other state:

• The Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring New Designs For Growth to improve land use management in surrounding rural areas. (See article on page 4).

• In Kent County, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce helped establish the Metropolitan Development Blueprint. It is an ambitious regional plan to protect a network of open spaces and greenways, design neighborhoods around a new mass transit system, identify areas suitable for regional business centers, and support modernized land use regulations to encourage compact neighborhoods.

• The Michigan Environmental Council, which represents over 200,000 state residents, elevated land use management to the top of its political agenda, and organized a national conference in June that attracted experts from Michigan and 21 other states.

• Michigan State University announced it would concentrate more of its research and management expertise on land use issues, and hired Dr. Kurt Norgaard, an agricultural economist, to supervise the university’s program.

Linking all these initiatives is a new awareness of the enormous costs of doing nothing. Sprawl now is viewed as the central cause of traffic congestion, crowded suburbs, empty urban centers, degraded watersheds, disappearing farmland, rising taxes, and harried lives. Sprawl also has been linked to urban joblessness and homelessness, and to some extent, to failing public education and rising levels of crime, especially in the declining inner suburbs of major cities.

"Sprawl, if it is allowed to continue, will inevitably present society with lost opportunities, a variety of social and environmental problems and immense monetary costs," concluded the Michigan’s Trend Future report. "To defer decision is to decide in favor of the current pattern of development, leaving all the problems to our children and grandchildren."

Fortunately, several legislators are taking steps to respond. Among the land use measures pending in the Legislature is a proposal to amend the 1967 Subdivision Control Act, which allows large landowners to divide their property into smaller pieces without any local review. The law is responsible for fragmenting millions of acres of Michigan’s forests and farmland. Although the proposal makes eminent sense, it is opposed by realtors and home builders. A diluted version passed the Senate earlier this year, though its fate in the House is uncertain.

 

Michigan’s Trend Future

 

 

The future of other promising land use measures also is unclear. Governor Engler has told his party’s elders that for the time being he’s staying out of the debate. Even lawmakers from the Governor’s party say that this is an unfortunate decision for two reasons. No other issue is as crucial to the state’s economic future as corralling sprawl, and it was Mr. Engler himself who initiated the current discussion with the conclusions of his 1992 report.

As the governor’s task force said then, "Michigan lacks a statewide planning system that encourages appropriate land use with consideration for sustainable resources and long-term ecosystem health. This threatens Michigan’s quality of life. The lack of integrated land use planning is a broad issue with far-reaching effects." ±

Halting sprawl has become a hot topic across the country. A sampling:

• In 1995, the California-based Bank of America concluded in a widely-publicized report that California’s ability to attract new industries was deteriorating in a business climate that now features sharply higher expenses and declining worker productivity as a result of sprawl.

• In New Jersey, a study by Rutgers University found that if sprawl was prevented during the next two decades, the state could save $8 billion in construction costs for new sewers, water lines, schools and roads.

• In studies of rural regions of Massachusetts and Minnesota, the American Farmland Trust dismantled a major myth about growth. The Trust determined that for every dollar raised in property taxes from new subdivisions, $1.25 or more is spent in services. For every property tax dollar raised from farmland and open space, less than 40¢ is spent in services.

• The largest employers in Lexington, Kentucky — among them the Lexington Herald Leader, Lexmark, Bank One, Toyota USA and Ashland Oil — have initiated Bluegrass Tomorrow, a seven-county growth management project to strengthen the area’s economy and protect its distinctive rural character. Bluegrass Tomorrow also has published nationally-recognized manuals on community design and regional growth management strategies, along with economic studies clearly showing the benefits of halting sprawl.

• High tech manufacturers in California’s Santa Clara County took the lead in 1992 to forge relationships with local governments and citizens groups to establish a plan of action to reduce housing costs and traffic congestion. The business leaders:

• Are working to pass into law a _¢ sales tax to finance a $1.2 billion program of rail transit construction and road improvements.

• Supported efforts to protect open space with land purchases, and stood shoulder to shoulder with environmentalists and local government leaders to establish a new urban growth boundary for Santa Clara County that went into effect earlier this year.

• Organized a team of volunteers to appear at government hearings in support of affordable housing. In the past two years, 7,800 new affordable homes have been approved for construction.±

 

 

The Institute is hosting a number of lively programs this summer for citizens interested in learning more about growth and development in Northwest Michigan. Our Dessert & Dialogue series will be held on Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. at our office, which is located at 845 Michigan Avenue (US-31) in Benzonia, just south of the stoplight and north of the Mills Community House.

Join us for coffee, cake, and informative discussions about the following issues:

 

If existing patterns of development continue, unrelenting sprawl will permanently alter Michigan’s physical and cultural character, according to one of the most comprehensive statewide land use studies ever conducted.

The 12-volume report, Michigan’s Trend Future, was produced by the Michigan Society of Planning Officials. It is the result of nearly two years of work by planners, economists, sociologists, farmers, builders, foresters, conservationists, and government officials. The team received grants from some of the state’s major foundations to document what is currently occurring in land use and to project future trends.

Among the study’s principal findings and projections are these:

• From 1982 to 1992, Michigan lost 854,000 acres of farmland, a rate of loss equal to 10 acres per hour per day, with no sign of slowing.

• Between 1.4 and 2 million more acres of farm and forest land will be converted to urban development by the year 2020. That increase in the consumption of rural land (63% to 87%) contrasts with state population growth from 9.3 million to 10.4 million (11.8%).

• Since 1975, the number of cars in Michigan has increased by almost 2 million, while the state’s population has increased by 420,000. The number of vehicle miles traveled has increased by more than 20 billion, and the average travel time to work for commuters traveling 45 minutes or more has increased by 24%.

• The study also says residential, industrial, and commercial migration from urban to rural areas and an increase in recreation and tourism are putting worrisome pressure on the quality of Michigan’s land, water, and air.

In effect, the report describes a disturbing pattern of haphazard development that is dramatically transforming Michigan’s natural resources and environment. Our current land use practices, like those in every other state, are dictated by an over-reliance on the automobile that is over-consuming land and energy.

The study documents current trends in the following areas: land use; agriculture; natural resources and the environment; mineral development; water, sewer, and other infrastructure; transportation; public lands and forestry; population; jobs and the built environment; public policy; and tourism and recreation.

"The study showed that Michigan citizens do not know much about land use, but want to know more. A large percentage believe existing planning has been effective, but that more planning is needed," said Mark Wyckoff, president of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing and the study’s principal author.

He added, "One of the questions in a survey was, ‘Do you believe the economy and environment can go hand in hand?’ It got a very high response. We’ve got a basis of common ground to go forward with promoting economic growth in non-destructive ways — it shouldn’t be an either/or situation." ±

 

Michigan’s Trend Future is designed to be easily understood by readers who do not yet have a working knowledge of land use or planning.

The public library at the Michigan Land Use Institute has a full copy of the report. We are located at 845 Michigan Avenue (US-31) in Benzonia, just south of the stoplight and north of the Mills Community House. Our telephone number is 616-882-4723.

To find a copy of Michigan’s Trend Future in other locations throughout the state, call the Michigan Society of Planning Officials in Rochester at 810-651-3649.

 

As the Grand Traverse region looks toward the next century, there are serious questions about how it will accommodate escalating population growth. One sure sign of an increasing population is the piling up of cars on the roads. The traditional concern: how to move these cars as efficiently as possible. The conventional answer: build more and wider roads.

In the Traverse City region, that answer is in the form of a proposed bypass, which might offer short-term relief for traffic congestion. But the lesson from other regions is that bypasses literally provide the framework for sprawl.

The Michigan Land Use Institute is involved in discussions with county and state transportation officials and concerned citizens about possible alternatives to the bypass. We have tapped into a national network of communities that have effectively dealt with growth without building bypasses. There are several solutions that could work very well for the Traverse City area.

The most common feature among these remarkable communities is their focus on land use as a central, rather than secondary, issue of transportation planning. The term "Transit Oriented Development" (TOD) has been coined to describe neighborhoods that are small in nature, contain a variety of uses (residential, retail and services), and are centered around a regional transportation system. Neighborhoods of this kind encourage walking, biking and mass transit as feasible alternatives to the automobile.

It’s easy to see how Traverse City and its surrounding communities could adopt this model, because the region is just beginning its sprawling development pattern.

Standard "strip development" is not centrally located to much of anything, and is rarely friendly to pedestrians or bicyclists. Without proper land use planning, there is no way for a community to decide how and where it wants to grow.

Several cities and towns throughout the nation have addressed this problem by creating "Urban Growth Boundaries." These boundaries draw a clear line between town and countryside and focus development in sensible, harmonious patterns. A fine example of the success of this approach is Portland, Oregon, which now is considered one of the most livable and economically vibrant cities in America.

Finding workable alternatives to the "more roads" model for managing a region’s transportation needs means going beyond the question of how to move cars as fast as possible. A solution to the problem comes from changing the question altogether. It then becomes: How can we strengthen communities, and protect our region’s natural beauty, while enabling people to get where they want to go as quickly as possible? ±

New Designs For Growth Underway

The Michigan Land Use Institute has joined a coalition of business, government, educational, and environmental organizations in a novel planning project to prevent damage to natural resources and strengthen the economy in the Grand Traverse region.

Led by the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce, New Designs For Growth is providing public education and land use planning services, at a shared cost, to townships in Grand Traverse, Antrim, Leelanau, Benzie, and Kalkaska counties.

The project opened on March 12 with a conference that attracted more than 300 community and business leaders from the region and across the state. In his keynote speech, Henry Richmond, one of the nation’s foremost land use experts, commended New Designs For Growth as a pioneering effort that fits its region and its time. Without such a plan, he said, Northwest Michigan could easily succumb to the blight of sprawl that has harmed so many other beautiful places in the United States.

The principal services offered by New Designs For Growth are:

• Organizing public meetings to help inform township leaders and residents about the most up to date conservation planning principles.

• Holding workshops and conducting personalized planning review sessions for builders, developers, and large property owners that emphasize new approaches to rural land division.

• Sending a team of technical experts to assess a township’s land use plan and then provide professional advice about how it can be strengthened.

• Providing technical assistance to community leaders for writing new zoning and permitting provisions designed to save money and provide economic incentives for protecting small towns and natural resources. ±

Benzie Master Plan "Visioning" Set

The Benzie County Planning Commission, with assistance from Citizens for Positive Planning, has scheduled a "visioning" session to encourage public participation in the development of a new master plan. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. on July 17 at the Congregational Summer Assembly in Frankfort.

The results of this and several previous visioning sessions will be used to amend the county’s master plan, which was last updated in 1979.

In the past year, there have been visioning sessions in Lake Ann, Honor, Thompsonville, Benzonia, and Frankfort. The meetings were organized with the assistance of Marsha Smith of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, and were facilitated by Mimi Petritz Appel.

The consensus that has emerged from the meetings so far is that Benzie County has a superb natural environment, and that more needs to be done to protect it. Participants also identified the friendly business owners, a diversity of community groups working for the public good, and the absence to date of large developments as strengths of living in the county.

On the other side of the ledger, they said, the most significant drawback to living in Benzie County is the tight market for good jobs.

The county’s economy is dependent on tourism, said David Neiger, Director of the County Planning Department. "We have to keep our eye open as far as commercial development is concerned so that we don’t impact the environment, and make sure our tourism economy doesn’t decline," he said.

The visioning approach is new for Benzie County. Previously, said Mr. Neiger, the Planning Commission would hire consultants, write a master plan, present it at public meetings, and ultimately gain approval. But the top-down process did not encourage as much public acceptance as county leaders desired. "The new way is to work from the bottom up and get as much involvement as possible," said Mr. Neiger.

MERC Gaining Ground on Oil and Gas Industry

The fast-paced Antrim Shale natural gas development that has overtaken northern Michigan is a tale of misguided government policy. More than 5,200 wells, and all the roads, pipelines, compressing stations and processing plants that accompany them, have intruded on communities and damaged resources. The harm has been subsidized by hundreds of millions of dollars in federal tax credits and state subsidies.

A year ago, citizen groups and local governments organized the Michigan Energy Reform Coalition to build an awareness and base of support for the modernization of current energy development policy. The Michigan Land Use Institute is managing this project.

Specifically, MERC’s goals are to strengthen state and citizen oversight of the oil and gas industry; reduce environmental damage, and increase economic returns for affected communities and property owners.

To achieve these goals, the Coalition established a four-point strategy that includes:

• Ending the inherent conflict of interest in which the state government is simultaneously the promoter, the primary regulator, and a direct beneficiary of oil and gas development.

• Establishing a Non-Renewable Energy Impact Fee on oil and gas producers. The fee — a minimum of 4¢ per million BTUs — would be shared among townships and other local government agencies to improve land use management in Michigan.

• Providing severed rights property owners with just compensation and much greater authority to decide how their land is used.

• Protecting Michigan’s rivers, streams, and lakes by requiring the oil and gas industry to prepare hydrocarbon development plans — based on the Pigeon River model of the 1970s — before new wells are drilled or any additional permits are issued in sensitive watersheds.

Members of MERC

Filer Township

Ossineke Township

Pleasanton Township

Springdale Township

Anglers of the Au Sable

Center for Wildland Conservation

Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination

Friends of the Jordan River Watershed

Michigan Communities Land Use Coalition

Michigan Environmental Council

Michigan Environmental Trust Limited

Montmorency County Conservation Club

Opal Lake Association

Pigeon River Country Association

Spirit of the Woods Conservation Club

Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council

Trout Unlimited

Over the last two years, the Department of Natural Resources has been working with citizens in the Big Manistee River watershed to designate the river and its tributaries under the state Natural Rivers program. However, the fate of the lower third of the river, which courses through Manistee County, is in jeopardy because of a vocal contingent of anti-government activists.

The Natural Rivers program, enacted in 1972, is an enduring economic and environmental success for Michigan. The Betsie, the Boardman, the Jordan, the Pigeon, and the Au Sable rivers, just to name a few, are protected from pollution and haphazard development because of special safeguards provided by the program. It is enthusiastically supported by the vast majority of landowners along these rivers because of the value designation adds to shoreline property and the quality of woodland life residents enjoy.

The Big Manistee River, which has its headwaters near Gaylord and reaches Lake Michigan in Manistee, is home to a number of landowners in Manistee County who are concerned about the effects the program will have on their property rights. They fear that the Natural Rivers program as an effort by "big government" to steal land and violate personal freedoms.

Using misinformation, and tactics designed to intimidate — such as shouting down speakers at meetings and videotaping their opponents — the property rights advocates have nearly halted the work of the citizens advisory committee charged with studying the river for designation.

The Michigan Land Use Institute gained a seat on the committee in April, and now is seeking to help address the property rights arguments in Manistee County with reasoned debate and accurate data. Among the steps the Institute is taking is to interview landowners along the Betsie and several other rivers to introduce testimony from property owners who support the Natural Rivers program.

Public officials in Manistee County and the state DNR are interested in receiving letters from property owners who have real experience with the Natural Rivers program.

They also would appreciate hearing from people who recognize that designation provides the best long-term protection for a river ecosystem, and attracts recreationists and sportsmen who contribute to the region’s economy.

Address your letters to Dan Pearson, Coordinator, DNR Natural Rivers Program, PO Box 30452, Lansing, MI 48909-7952; with carbon copies sent to Sharlene Wild, Chairwoman, Manistee County Board of Commissioners, 7700 Milarch Rd., Onekama, MI 49675; and Carl Mesezke, Chair, Citizens Advisory Committee, 18310 Coates Hwy., Brethren, MI 49619.

These letters really will make a difference. Thank you.

 

Visit our Library

By Florence Schneider

People everywhere are looking at ways to improve how we live on the land, grow our food, manufacture goods, and provide jobs, while protecting the environment and building strong communities.

You can get a good sense about the range of fascinating ideas percolating all over America by visiting our library. The Institute is collecting publications, videos, and reference materials that will impress you with their imaginativeness and versatility. We often find our heads swimming with possibilities for how these ideas can work in Northwest Michigan. Out of all this creativity you too will discover, among other things, that sprawl is not inevitable!

Our library is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Feel free to call us at 616-882-4723 to set up an appointment if those hours are inconvenient for you.

 

Book: The Geography of Nowhere, by James Howard Kunstler

This is a good place to start forming an understanding about the problems caused by the sprawling patterns of development in America since World War II. Mr. Kunstler has written a book that is candid, often funny, and right on the mark. He makes a persuasive case that suburban sprawl has resulted in a deteriorating quality of life, rising cost of living, congestion, pollution, and loss of community.

The final chapter of the book, "Better Places," describes other approaches to development, such as building traditional neighborhoods instead of tract housing, that can create pleasant, harmonious places to live.

Reports: Alternatives to Sprawl and Planning and Growth Management in the States, by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Alternatives to Sprawl is a booklet that offers a brief but thorough overview. It covers the factors that encourage sprawl, its costs to society, and ways to create different approaches for economic growth and development.

Planning and Growth Management in the States is a treasure trove of detailed case studies, from Florida, New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Georgia, Oregon, and Washington state. All of these states have responded to development pressure with integrated planning programs, and this handy volume documents how they did it.

Newspaper: "What Will Be...The Future Look of Rural Michigan?" Stewardship Quarterly.

In case you missed this issue when it was published in the Fall of 1995, it contains an inspiring collection of initiatives taking place throughout the Traverse area. Featured are two residential developments in Antrim and Charlevoix counties that preserved large amounts of open space, in essence creating a private park for the enjoyment of all the subdivision residents. An article by the Northwest Michigan Resource Conservation and Development Council further describes the ingenuity of this "conservation planning" approach.

Newsletter: Land Patterns, published by 1000 Friends of Minnesota.

The Spring 1996 issue of this beautifully designed and well-written newsletter contains an essay on the causes, consequences, and remedies for sprawl by Henry Richmond of Oregon, a nationally recognized leader in the anti-sprawl movement.

There also are articles clearly explaining the elaborate ways in which current tax incentives are used to promote sprawling growth, which results in increased property taxes to cover the rising costs of services. These articles will convince you that sprawl is not the result of market forces at work, and that one can be anti-sprawl without being anti-growth.

Of special interest to citizens are a "Checklist of What to Look For in Your Community’s Comprehensive Plan," and a favorite in our office, "Ways to Stop Sprawl Without Lying in Front of a Bulldozer."