Accomplishments
Transportation
The Institute celebrated many successes in its work supporting citizen efforts
to develop and promote alternatives to proposed highway extensions and bypasses,
which stimulate sprawling development. It also gained important ground,
along with the Michigan Environmental Council, with a statewide coalition
of 30 organizations working to reform state transportation planning and
spending. In 2000 the Institute:
•Helped in March to defeat the Michigan Department of Transportation’s
plan to spend $1.5 billion on replacing scenic, two-lane U.S. 23 with a
100-mile, four-lane freeway through undeveloped countryside along the Lake
Huron coast between Alpena and Standish.
•Convinced MDOT in January to scrap a $500 million plan to extend the
U.S. 131 freeway into northwest Michigan north of Manton by publicizing
that the project would only shift development from downstate communities,
not spur substantial new business in the north.
•Completed “Smart Roads: Petoskey,” a technically qualified
and compelling alternative to a $70 million state department of transportation
proposal to build a major highway bypass around the northern Michigan resort
town of Petoskey. Two local governments have since announced their official
support for the effective and lower-cost “Smart Roads: Petoskey”
plan over the state’s bypass proposal.
•Prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to question a Grand Traverse
County and MDOT proposal for a $25 million bridge across the Boardman River
valley as part of a larger highway bypass around Traverse City. The Fish
and Wildlife Service cited the Institute’s critical assessment of the
bridge plan, as well as the Institute’s citizen-backed “Smart
Roads: Grand Traverse Region” alternative, in its letter of caution
to the Federal Highway Administration.
•Convinced state lawmakers to propose an annual $25 million increase
in funding for public transit. Action on the bill ended with the 2000 legislative
session but promises to heat up again in 2001.
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