Smart Growth has evolved from a useful notion into a mainstream bipartisan movement to establish a new economic development strategy around the principles of halting sprawl, securing natural resources, building modern regional transit systems, investing in downtown development, conserving farmland, gaining more affordable housing, and addressing racial equity. These ideas are now embedded as salient ideas in the governor's office, the state Legislature, and in Michigan's most prosperous metropolitan regions. 

Smart Growth serves as the core idea around which the Michigan Land Use Institute and other first-rate policy organizations are improving America's economic competitiveness.

In 2006, in Michigan and in other states, metropolitan regions have emerged as the most important forum for considering and enacting Smart Growth policy, incentives, and other land use and economic development measures. The five-county Grand Traverse region in northern Michigan is embarking on a major regional land use and transportation study to develop new patterns of development that conserve the natural geography, small town character, and develop alternative transportation systems. It is the largest such scenario planning project ever undertaken in a rural region in the United States.

The Grand Rapids region is considering a new fixed-rail transit system, and has become a showcase for sound planning and investments to transform a small Midwest city into a choice place to live and work.

Detroit, too, is making a big comeback. Regional projects to develop rapid transit, reinvest along the 28-mile Woodward Avenue corridor, clean up the Rouge River valley, develop the Detroit River waterfront, and build a new airport city between Detroit Metro and Willow Run airports, are under way.

The activity statewide follows several years of enacting Smart Growth initiatives by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and the Republican-led Legislature. Lansing lawmakers passed a rigorous fresh water security statute in February 2006 to protect Michigan's most vital natural resource. New bills were approved to promote regional transit systems and direct school boards to work with local planning commissions when considering the siting and construction of new schools.

In 2004 and 2005 Lansing lawmakers enacted 10 other bills to achieve Smart Growth, adding to the executive orders and 17 bills passed by the Legislature in 2003 that, among other things, empower municipalities to get tough on owners of blighted property, help expedite redevelopment of abandoned brownfield sites, and raise the cap on bond money available for such projects. Other measures signed by the governor provide for an affordable housing trust fund to aid citizens and core communities, and encourage regional planning and permit townships to include open space in their mixed-use zoning laws. The state appears well on its way to a Smart Growth future.

The Michigan Land Use Institute played a big part in helping to make that happen. Our combination of first-rate journalism, effective coalition-building, technical expertise, and grassroots organizing has helped more citizens understand how declining water quality is related to sprawl, or traffic congestion is the product of a spread out civilization that requires families to own fleets of expensive vehicles. As Michigan came to understand the consequences of sprawl, citizens and elected leaders turned to the Institute for solutions, research assistance, expert knowledge, communications, and capacity building. The outcome for our organization has been profound. The Michigan Land Use Institute, with 17 board members, 20 staff members, and 3,000 member-families, organizations, businesses and local governments is now among the 5 largest state-based Smart Growth and environmental advocacy organizations in the nation. Our Beulah home office is supported by regional offices in Traverse City, Harbor Springs, Grand Rapids, and Lansing. 

This sampling of distinguished achievements since our founding in 1995 is a tribute to the partnerships we’ve built with dedicated citizens, like-minded organizations, and visionary officials working hand in hand with us. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who share our vision for Michigan and who have made these accomplishments possible.

The Institute's work to link probing original journalism, active coalition-building, grassroots organizing, and technical expertise has produced new land use law and policy in Michigan:

• On August 7, 2006, by a margin of 2,630 to 1,915, Benzie County voters approved a small property tax increase to pay for a new county-wide public bus system. The vote came after nearly a decade of work to organize and build public support for a transportation alternative that would help workers and employers alike. The Institute played an important role throughout those years with its strategic, technical, communications, and coalition-building skills, working with an alliance of  county organizations.
• On July 7, 2006, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed into law Public Act 276 of 2006, sponsored by Phil LaJoy (R-Canton), which calls for school boards that are planning to significantly expand existing high schools or their athletic facilities to communicate with local township planning officials. The law came two years after the Institute published Hard Lessons: Causes and Consequences of Michigan’s School Construction Boom, which found that changes in how the state funds public schools triggered widespread abandonment of established neighborhood schools in favor of building huge, expensive “trophy” schools far from established population centers.
• On April 20, 2006, Governor Granholm and the Republican leaders of the state House and Senate reached a groundbreaking agreement to build roads and finance rapid transit. For the first time in Michigan’s history, the governor and the lawmakers married rapid transit financing to road and highway construction. They agreed on an infrastructure development pact that views highways and transit as equally critical pieces of the state’s development strategy.
• On February 28, 2006, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and the Republican-led Legislature reached agreement on a package of new laws to establish the state’s first-ever water-extraction permit system and user fees to manage large-scale withdrawals from aquifers, streams, rivers, inland lakes, and the Great Lakes.
• In 2004, the Legislature approved a new affordable housing trust fund, one of the important Legislative achievements that year.
• In 2003, the Department of Natural Resources revived the state Natural River Act and achieved formal protections under the law for the Pine and Upper Manistee rivers, the first new designated Natural Rivers since 1988.
• On April 5, 2002, a permanent state ban on oil and gas drilling beneath the Great Lakes took effect. The Institute led the statewide campaign to enact the ban, which passed the state House in January, 98-7, and the state Senate in February, 28-5. On July 29, 2005, the United States Congress approved a nearly identical ban on Great Lakes oil and gas development.
• In 1999, in large part as a result of the Institute's work to call state and national attention to a massive soil washout into Lake Michigan, the Legislature and Republican Governor John Engler strengthened the state’s soil erosion control law.
• In 1998, Governor Engler and the Legislature strengthened state oversight of the energy industry and established new public health and safety standards.
• In 1996 and 1997, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources rescinded a privately negotiated agreement with the state energy industry that drained $8 million annually from the Natural Resources Trust Fund. The state attorney general launched a related investigation to recover millions more dollars from natural gas companies that had unlawfully diverted royalty revenue from the state treasury. The duel actions, prompted by the Institute's investigative journalism, has recovered more than $80 million for natural resource restoration and park construction in Michigan.   

The Institute’s unique, action-oriented newsroom disseminates penetrating news and learned commentary via its nationally recognized Web site <www.mlui.org>, and its magazine, news wire services, special reports, articles, and radio  and television broadcasts. Our journalism:

• Helped to convince Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and the Republican-led Legislature to reach agreement on a package of new laws, signed on February 28, 2006, to establish the state’s first-ever water-extraction permit system and user fees to manage large-scale withdrawals from aquifers, streams, rivers, inland lakes, and the Great Lakes. The new laws also strengthen environmental standards for making decisions about major water projects, enhances water-use reporting guidelines to better collect data about the state’s hydrology, and directs industries to develop modern conservation standards.       
• Provided probing reporting and the most penetrating analysis of any media source in Michigan or nationally of the significance of a 2004 Michigan Appellate Court ruling that for the first time barred citizens from walking on the Great Lakes shoreline in front of private homes and businesses. In conjunction with an amicus brief that the Institute filed in the state Supreme Court that argued for restoring the rights of citizens to walk the Great Lakes shoreline, the Institute continued to report on the issue throughout 2005, framing the consequences for the state and national media, and elevating the lower court ruling to public prominence. In July 2005 the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the public interest and restored the rights of citizens to walk all 3,200 miles of Great Lakes shoreline in Michigan.
• Published Follow The Money in 2005, the first study of its kind in Michigan that documented where $10 billion in state economic development spending went, and how such public spending for roads, water, infrastructure, jobs, and business subsidies contributed to sprawling patterns of development and urban disinvestment.
• Published Water Works in 2005, which calls for securing a new future for the state's fresh water by helping to put the Great Lakes to work in more productive ways that reduce business costs, save tax dollars, and transform Michigan’s economy.
• Prompted the insightful editors of Utne Reader to nominate the Great Lakes Bulletin for a 2004 Utne Independent Press Award, one of the highest honors in independent media.
• Reported on the consequences of the Bush administration's environmental policies in Michigan in penetrating articles that were picked up by Scripps Howard, state newspapers and broadcasts, on prominent Internet sites, including Gristmagazine.com, and by national and state columnists.
• Provided members, readers, and the news media with the most informed and penetrating coverage of the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council and its promising results. 
• Developed a nationally important Web site that attracts 130,000 visitors a month who view 380,000 pages monthly, download over 16,000 copies of 25 Institute publications, and spend an average of 4 minutes per visit. Two years running http://www.mlui.org/ has been recognized by Planetizen.com as one of the nation's best forums for Smart Growth news and commentary.
• Succinctly summarized and broadly disseminated the top 10 recommendations of the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council.
• Significantly heightened public awareness of sprawl’s costs and Smart Growth’s solutions.
• Published a path-breaking report on the consequences of school construction to accelerate sprawl in Michigan, a study that was featured on the cover of Governing Magazine, among other prominent media. On July 7, 2006, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed into law Public Act 276 of 2006, sponsored by Phil LaJoy (R-Canton), which calls for school boards that are planning to significantly expand existing high schools or their athletic facilities to communicate with local township planning officials.
• Outlined reasoned steps Michigan should take to protect the security of its fresh water and ensure a permanently bountiful supply.
• Developed the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service, a statewide news service that provides probing reporting and learned commentary to Michigan's media and focuses on Smart Growth, environmental policy, farmland conservation, transportation, urban development, and economic competitiveness.
• Edited and published the work of the Elm Street Writers Group, a select corps of top American journalists and land use policy experts, that has emerged as a singularly influential voice in the American Smart Growth movement.
• Uncovered and ended a private agreement between the energy industry and state government that drained $8 million a year from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. 
• Called state and national attention to a massive soil washout into Lake Michigan and bolstered the Legislature’s resolve to strengthen the state’s soil erosion control law.
• Exposed a proposed land swap on South Fox Island as a giveaway of publicly owned resources and galvanized statewide opposition to the exchange.
• Provided expert news coverage of the 2002 Michigan gubernatorial campaign, widely reprinted in state newspapers and picked up by the broadcast media, that served to significantly increase public interest in Smart Growth and environmental quality as campaign priorities for both major party candidates.

The Institute’s Michigan Transportation and Land Use Coalition is a potent statewide alliance of urban, suburban, and rural organizations, as well as unions, transit agencies, local governments, and environmental groups. The coalition:

• Helped win public approval in August 2006, by a margin of 2,630 to 1,915, for a small property tax increase to pay for a new county-wide public bus system in Benzie County. The vote came after nearly a decade of work to organize and build public support for a transportation alternative that would help workers and employers alike. The Institute played an important role throughout those years with its strategic, technical, communications, and coalition-building skills, working with an alliance of  county organizations. "I think we've helped advance something that truly will deliver dignity, freedom, and economic independence to all of Benzie County's residents and visitors," said Kelly Thayer, who as an Institute staff member and Benzie County resident led our efforts. "What a marvelous thing that is!" 
• Helped convince Democratic Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and the Republican leaders of the state House and Senate to enage in negotiations and reach a groundbreaking agreement on April 20, 2006 to build roads and finance rapid transit. For the first time in Michigan’s history, the governor and the lawmakers married rapid transit financing to road and highway construction. They agreed on an infrastructure development pact that views highways and transit as equally critical pieces of the state’s development strategy. The first half of the novel agreement calls for the Legislature to amend and pass a contentious House proposal that allows Michigan’s local transit agencies to raise money for rapid transit projects. By approving the original version of House Bill 5560, introduced almost a year ago by Grand Rapids Republican State Representative Jerry Kooiman, Michigan preserves $100 million in federal funds that will be used to design and start building the Ann Arbor to Detroit rail line that SEMCOG settles on, as well as the $14.4 million federal dollars earmarked for a streetcar system in Grand Rapids.
• Developed a pioneering partnership with the Detroit Branch NAACP, the nation's largest NAACP chapter, to educate civic leaders about how Smart Growth affects housing, transportation, economic development, and race. 
• Worked with advocates and reported intensively on the need for a state affordable housing trust fund to provide working people with the opportunity to own their own homes, and to rebuild core communities. The Legislature in 2004 approved a new affordable housing trust fund, one of the important Legislative achievements that year.
• Prompted the Grand Traverse County Road Commission to indefinitely suspend additional public investment to build a new bridge and highway across the Boardman River valley, south of Traverse City, and to launch a comprehensive regional study on land use and transportation to solve traffic congestion in the fastest growing region in the Midwest. The decision culminated an eight-year  grassroots campaign led by the Institute.  
• Convinced Governor Jennifer Granholm to appoint Institute Executive Director Hans Voss to the bipartisan 26-member Michigan Land Use Leadership Council, the most significant state-sanctioned effort in three decades to curb sprawl statewide. 
• Convinced the state to embrace the policy of fixing roads first before building new highways.
• Protected thousands of acres of active Emmet County farmland by defeating the proposed $90 million Petoskey Bypass.
• Saved nearly $2 billion by halting wasteful highway expansion plans for US-131, US-23, the Traverse City Bypass, and I-73.
• Convinced the Legislature to invest 35 percent more in public transit and make regional transit in Detroit a priority.

The Institute’s work to protect farmland and improve the agricultural economy:

• Worked with leaders of the Traverse City Area Public Schools to introduce locally-grown food into school cafeterias.
• Published a print and on-line guide in 2005, Taste The Local Difference, that makes it much easier for local growers and consumers of farm-fresh food to find each other. 
• Published path-breaking and widely read articles exploring the full value of Michigan agriculture to the state's economy, environment, and quality of life.
• Defeated flawed tax legislation that would have accelerated farmland loss.
• Convinced state agencies to follow federal Clean Water laws to reduce pollution from factory farm waste.
• Advanced the principle that local and state economic development agencies can help farmers stay on their land by investing in entrepreneurial business strategies.
• Held a nationally-prominent conference, Seeds of Prosperity, to promote the idea of entrepreneurial agriculture in Michigan and the Midwest.
• Published a print and on-line guide, Select a Taste of Traverse Bay, that linked growers of good food with buyers.  

The Institute’s statewide Michigan Energy Reform Coalition:

• Protected the Jordan River valley from natural gas wells.
• Strengthened state oversight of the energy industry and established new public health and safety standards.
• Convinced the Legislature to approve five new state laws to protect consumers and conserve natural areas.
• Discovered and ended taxpayer subsidies to the oil industry and added $8 million a year in revenue to the Natural Resources Trust Fund to purchase recreational lands.
• Protected the Great Lakes from oil and gas development along the coast, including leading statewide campaign to ban oil and gas drilling beneath the Great Lakes.

The Institute’s Grassroots Support Center has helped more than 40 new public interest organizations across Michigan launch their work. It also provides community activists with the skills to be effective advocates. With this assistance citizens:

• In Acme Township are effectivey responding to a proposed million-square-foot "lifestyle center" and working to replace it with a traditional town center.
• Executed a campaign in Charlevoix to successfully block a new Wal-Mart supercenter that business owners said would damage the regional economy.
• Helped the Traverse City commission approve a new downtown bus station over the objections of local business owners who contended, without supporting facts, that the station would reduce property values.
• Halted a proposed $700 million coal-fired power station in Manistee and replaced it with a proposal to establish a cleaner, greener regional energy strategy. 
• Developed strategy and communications tools that helped citizens block the state from allowing a Cadillac electric utility to burn dirty tires for fuel.
• Provided technical, communications, and financial support that enabled Friends of the Cedar River, a new citizens organization, negotiate a $135,000 court settlement to protect the Cedar River in Antrim County.
• Assisted an exceptional citizens group with communications, strategic planning, and capacity-building in their successful work to preserve farmland zoning in Milan Township near Detroit threatened by a 1,000-acre industrial proposal.
• Provided staff, communications, technical expertise, and coalition-building support to a coalition of conservation organizations that revived the state Natural River Act and achieved formal protections under the law for the Pine and Upper Manistee rivers, the first new designated Natural Rivers since 1988.
• Protected 40 miles of Great Lakes coastline by establishing locally implemented ordinances that guide shoreline  development.
• Helped manage and guide a coalition of citizen organizations that prevented changes in the state’s Drain Code that would have made building on soggy ground easier.
• Provided strategic planning, communications, and staff support to a citizens organization in Acme Township to advance the goals of a conservation-based master plan and prevent a big box retailer from violating that community vision with a new 80-acre super store. 
• Worked with Filer Township and the Health and Human Safety Committee in Manistee County protect the public from exposure to toxic hydrogen sulfide, and then develop and enact new public health protection standards that are among the best in the nation.  
• Provided strategic planning, communications, and message development support that enabled citizens in Bear Creek Township to overwhelmingly approve a voter referendum to defend their rural quality of life. The vote prevented a big box retail developer from violating local zoning and master code provisions.