If You Seek A Pleasant Peninsula: Challenges & Opportunities In Regional Coordinated Land Use Planning In Lower Michigan

Abstract

This paper hopes to examine what challenges, opportunities, and possibilities compose Michigan's regional coordinated land use planning issues. The reader should look for the obstacles that stand in the way of implementing change to allow regional coordinated land us planning initiatives to take hold within Michigan's structure of government. West Michigan, Mid Michigan, Southeast Michigan, and the Greater Traverse City were the four regions examined throughout Michigan's Lower Peninsula during this study. In order to tackle land use and urban planning issues in Michigan, I asked the seventeen participants to consider what attempts at regional coordinated land use planning have been successful, and to address any problems they saw within the state. Many of the participants cited numerous answers and examples that helped me draw inter- and intra-regional conclusions that were examined and acknowledged as Michigan progressing in the national land use, growth management, urban sprawl movement. Governor Jennifer Granholm outlined her initiatives in her Land Use Action Plan to help the state address these issues in November 2003. This study also compares Governor Granholm's ideas for regional coordinated land use planning policies and programs to those of the participants. Statewide and region specific difference must be recognized, understood, and addressed in order for any legislation to be successful.