Special Reports

Most Special Reports are provided in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. PDF allows you to view these publications exactly as they looked in print, as well as to save for later viewing and share with friends. Click the "PDF" links for these files, or visit Adobe's Web site to download the free Acrobat Reader software required for viewing these files.

Executive Director Newsletter: Fall 2011 | PDF Catch up with recent MLUI staff and board news!

Families on the Edge: Designing Communities That Work TEXT | PDF Northwest Lower Michigan is a hard place to live if you are poor. Cheap housing is far from town; cars are utterly necessary; long winters mean sky-high energy bills; and eating fresh, local food is a luxury. Fortunately, The Grand Vision project offers wildly popular, relatively low-cost solutions that help everyone.

20-20 by 2020: A Clear Vision for Clean Energy Prosperity | PDF Traverse City Light & Power's push for renewable energy should include much stronger commitments to energy efficiency and local, entrepreneurial wind and solar power projects-keys to lowering electric bills and creating new jobs in the region.

Expanding Transportation Choices in the Grand Traverse Region | PDF Connecting Villiages and Towns with Public Transit

Northwest Michigan's Farm Factor | PDF Agriculture contributes substantially to the economy of the six-county northwest Lower Michigan region. Ample opportunities also exist to significantly expand its economic footprint.

See the Local Difference TEXT | PDF Regional food systems become essential ingredient for Michigan's future

Perspectives from Surveys of Northwest Michigan Growers and Buyers | PDF The northwest Michigan region is home to almost a quarter-million people and hosts around 50 percent more seasonal residents and tourists through the year. It also has a diverse and unique agricultural industry that is struggling as rapid development inflates land values and economic pressures drive down prices for agricultural products. The region's growing population and vibrant tourist industry, however, together make a potentially large market for local farm products. To the extent that local growers can better access this market, greater local food sales could help the agricultural industry survive, and even thrive, in the face of population growth and development.

Eat Fresh and Grow Jobs, Michigan | PDF Determined efforts to increase sales of fresh, local foods in Michigan could significantly boost employment and personal income across the state, according to a new study by university and nonprofit researchers.

From Rust to Blue | PDF Several years ago, at the prompting of President George W. Bush, public officials from around the Great Lakes Basin put together a multi-billion-dollar plan for a badly needed restoration of those magnificent bodies of water, which hold 20 percent of the planet's fresh water. But then the White House cooled to the idea, and the proposal is stuck in Congress, which seems reluctant to spend that much money on the environment. "From Rust to Blue" underlines and demonstrates, with real-world examples from throughout the basin, that restoring the damaged Great Lakes ecology will also restore the basin's badly damaged economy, too, and provide a very large prosperity payback that dwarfs the proposed $20 billion investment

Fever of Development, Frontier of Recovery | PDF The sale of an expanse of globally rare, undeveloped Lake Michigan beach and dunes at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River signals an unmistakable and possibly momentous shift in the Saugatuck and Douglas real estate markets. An analysis of demographic and market trends affecting southern Lake Michigan shoreline communities and recommendations to protect the environment and a small town way of life.

Going To Town TEXT | PDF | ORDER New Urbanism Arrive In Nothwest Michigan

Getting There Together TEXT | PDF | ORDER Citizens’ Agenda to Move Transit Forward in the Grand Valley Region

New Plans For Barren Lands TEXT | PDF | ORDER A brownfield redevelopment guide for Michigan's northern coastal communities

Water Works TEXT | PDF | ORDER Water Works describes a new way of thinking about water resource development that is gradually and organically emerging in the Great Lakes Basin. It reduces costs, safeguards waterways, and strengthens the region's economic competitiveness. The challenge and responsibility for the region's civic and business leaders is to understand this movement and establish an atmosphere in which it can flourish.

Living for The City TEXT | PDF | ORDER Developing Smart Growth Leadership in Detroit

Follow the Money TEXT | PDF Follow The Money documents a profoundly misguided investment strategy that harms Michigan’s quality of life by subsidizing sprawl. the 21st century.

Benzie Bus Fact Sheet | PDF Build a Benzie bus system!

Elm Street Writers Group: Collected Essays 2003-2004 TEXT | PDF | ORDER This third collection of stirring articles by the Elm Street Writers Group continues chronicling the decade-old national Smart Growth movement, which is doing so much to make America a better place.

The Regional Ride TEXT | PDF | ORDER The Regional Ride is the second of four annual reports to be published by the Michigan Land Use Institute in partnership with United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan. MLUI and UCP Michigan are part of the statewide Michigan Transportation & Land Use Coalition, which is working to make public transit — including services to people with disabilities — a local and state priority.

People and Pavement TEXT | PDF A new approach for designing roads that better mesh with downtowns, neighborhoods, and the natural environment is quickly gaining acceptance in Michigan. Known in technical circles as “context-sensitive design,” the approach reflects both the increasing public resistance to new road construction and a more penetrating civic wisdom about the need to reduce environmental and community costs.

Hard Lessons TEXT | PDF | ORDER Causes and Consequences of Michigan's School Construction Boom

State's Proposed Crystal Lake Boat Launch: Three Ways to Make it Right | PDF The state DNR has proposed a new boat launch for Crystal Lake; the Institute has three recommendations that would make it right.

A Civic Gift TEXT | PDF Historic Preservation, Community Reinvestment, and Smart Growth in Michigan

Code Red In A Blue Water Basin TEXT | PDF | ORDER The mere mention of diverting fresh water from the Great Lakes to far-off lands usually triggers passionate calls for immediate protective action. But concerns about far more mundane issues - those local water uses that actually drain aquifers and stress lakes and rivers - receive far less attention. Code Red in a Blue Water Basin highlights four Great Lakes communities where unrestrained local consumption and a lack of scientific information already frustrate attempts to keep local water supplies clean and plentiful. Code Red urges lawmakers to promptly enact modern water-protection legislation that ensures safe, fresh water for industrial, agricultural, and residential use.

Deciding The Fate Of The Great Lakes TEXT | PDF | ORDER Great Lakes governments now are negotiating a common strategy to implement the Great Lakes Charter Annex, and protect all water users — from farms and cities to fish and forests. To develop a truly effective plan, leaders must: • LAY DOWN THE LAW. Turn general principals for protecting Great Lakes water into enforceable law with no loopholes. • PROTECT IT ALL. Protections should apply to the entire freshwater system, including groundwater and small streams that feed the Great Lakes. • SEEK PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. States and provinces must involve citizens, businesses, and communities in decisions that affect their freshwater resources.

Elm Street Writers Group: Collected Essays 2001-2002 TEXT | PDF | ORDER This collection of commentary, the second by the Elm Street Writers Group, takes in a year in the life of America starting with the September 11 calamity and ending with the November election results. Throughout, perceptive writers provide discerning perspective on how old and basic civic ideals — natural resource protection, neighborhood preservation, economic competitiveness, local control — are being expressed in new ways.

The New Entrepreneurial Agriculture TEXT | PDF Farmland in Michigan is currently more valuable for building superstores and subdivisions than growing corn or strawberries because global markets pay little for the state’s farm products. But a new crop of innovative farmers is making money and keeping land in agriculture. New Entreprenurial Agriculture explains how communities can help their farmers switch to profitable markets and reap the many benefits of working farmland. By Patty Cantrell and Jim Lively

The New Economic Engine TEXT | PDF | ORDER New Economic Engine is the first of four annual transit reports to be published by the Michigan Land Use Institute in partnership with United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan. MLUI and UCP Michigan are part of the statewide Michigan Transportation and Land Use Coalition, which is working to make public transit — including service to people with disabilities — a local and state priority in Michigan.

Liquid Gold Rush TEXT | PDF | ORDER Michigan Land Use Institute’s Liquid Gold Rush is a comprehensive analysis of the state’s quick permitting of the Perrier Group’s plan to bottle central Michigan spring water and implications for the environment, economy, and quantity of fresh water in the Great Lakes region.

Elm Street Writers Group: Collected Essays 2000-2001 TEXT | PDF | ORDER Some of nation's most talented writers explain the Smart Growth movement's significance, defend it from critics, and report on new and promising trends. Elm Street commentary has been published in more than 60 major newspapers nationwide, more than 40 Web sites, and in dozens of magazines and newsletters.

The Homestead Swap TEXT | PDF In 1996 the owner of the Homestead Resort in Leelanau County proposed swapping 161 acres of undevelopable wetlands for 207 acres of public land overlooking Lake Michigan in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The proposal was initially embraced by elected officials who agreed that the resort owner’s property rights, and the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council contracted with the Institute to prepare this investigative report. It was a decisive step in convincing Congress to reject the proposal, and provides a well-argued case study for activists facing similar situations.

Rivers at Risk TEXT | PDF The risk to northern Michigan's wild watersheds from oil and gas development has never been higher,according to this report. The Institute presents the case for reviving hydrocarbon development planning in Michigan, along with an account of the historic Pigeon River Model and an action plan for today.

Natural River Fact Sheets (4 in set) | PDF Learn how communities and public policy makers can use the Michigan Natural River Program to protect some of the state's most treasured natural features and most valued natural resources.

H2S Protections TEXT | PDF This comprehensive proposal to protect the public from dangerous exposure to hydrogen sulfide recommends better communication and access to information; new public safety standards; better research models; coordinated and uniform state oversight; a new role for the DEQ Air Quality Division; improved preventive and emergency response measures and reforms in well permitting.

Green Scissors TEXT | PDF An extension of the national Green Scissors Campaign, this project draws on the insights of dozens of local citizen groups and is the first such report to focus on one state. Green Scissors Michigan recommends cutting ten wasteful government programs in order to save federal and state taxpayers $2.8 billion, while protecting the environment and communities.

Benzie County Wetlands TEXT | PDF The Institute launched the Benzie Wetland Protection Project to address the increasing loss of the county's prized wetlands to commercial and housing development. Based on the belief that wetland protection requires the active support of landowners and citizens, this report provides Benzie residents with an introduction to wetlands and how to safeguard them.

Smart Roads: Grand Traverse TEXT | PDF Traverse City area residents joined with the Institute and the grassroots group Coalition for Sensible Growth to develop an innovative, citizen-led program to meet the Grand Traverse region’s transportation needs now and in the 21st century. It’s an alternative to the costly and destructive Traverse City bypass proposal.

Transportation Fact Sheets | PDF The Institute's Michigan Transportation and Land Use Coalition has published four new fact sheets. They describe in clear terms where state transportation policy has taken a wrong turn, and how to get it back on track. The fact sheets are designed as tools for activists and citizen groups to understand how to overcome the state's primary obstacles to better transportation choices in Michigan.

The Shoreline Guide TEXT | PDF | ORDER This booklet gives property owners and local government officials detailed information on how to safeguard coastal resources by adding a shoreline protection overlay to existing zoning.