Subj: Re: Michigan Land Use Policy and the Mich. Chamber of Commerce
Date: 5/7/98 4:54:40 PM EST
From: [log in to unmask] (John Metzger)
Michigan is enjoying a homebuilding boom, similar to what occurred in New
Jersey and other Northeastern/New England states in the 1980s. This is
raising awareness about problems of sprawl, but our popular Governor Engler
is highly dependent on homebuilder and realtor financial support, and has
been slow to embrace growth management. He is pro-property rights, and the
state has created a purchase of development rights (PDR) program, which some
would argue is bad, fiscally unsound, ad-hoc planning (relying on
taxpayer-funded buyouts of unused development rights held by individual
farmers, rather than coordinated regional land use planning). There is
interest locally in the Grand Rapids and Traverse City metro areas in urban
growth boundaries, but the housing boom is mostly in the suburbs of Detroit,
the dominant metro area. Engler has created tax-free (Jack Kemp-style)
renaissance zones in selected distressed communities to lure investment into
cities, and is pushing for publicly-funded brownfield redevelopment
(although there is concern that taxpayers not bail out private land
contaminators from the costs of site cleanup).
Unfortunately, historic preservation has not been a big state policy issue,
although preservationists are active in cities such as Lansing (where there
is a National Trust Main Street-LISC program in the Old Town neighborhood)
and Detroit (where there is debate about the future of old buildings
downtown).
The state house is now controlled by the Democrats, and there is some
interesting legislative development (particularly in the House Urban Policy
and Economic Development Committee), but Engler is ultimately the key (along
with the powerful homebuilders). The Governor (who faces a re-election
challenge this fall) is pushing a bond referendum to finance brownfield
cleanup and environmental projects, instead of metropolitan land use
planning. There is increasing activity in the Detroit area around the issue
of "sustainable development." I recently completed a planning study for
Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, a community-based organization
(funded by EPA and the Mott Foundation) in the Detroit federal empowerment
zone. This group is involved with the national summit on sustainable
development, to be held in Detroit during May 1999.
I will send you a conference paper I wrote in the fall on the prospects for
growth management in Michigan. Thank you for the information.
___________________________________________________
John T. Metzger, AICP
Assistant Professor
Urban and Regional Planning Program
Department of Geography, College of Social Science
Michigan State University
216 UPLA Building
East Lansing, MI 48824
phone: 517-355-9732
fax: 517-355-7697
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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