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The same sections of Macomb Township, in 1980, left, and in 1995. According to the Detroit News, in the past twoyears more homes have been built in Macomb than in any other community in Metro Detroit -- the township's growthrate in the 1990s has been 39.6%.
 Six years ago a governor-appointed task force identified the "absence of land use planning that considers
resources and the integrity of ecosystems" as the state's most serious environmental problem. Since then, theDepartment of Agriculture, the House Republican Policy Committee, the Michigan Society of PlanningOfficials, and a Natural Resources Commission task force all have recommended strengthening state laws tocombat sprawl.
Despite these findings, Lansing mostly has ducked. One reason is the lingering memory of the losingbattle waged in the early 1970s to establish a statewide planning program. Local government leaders,representing the more than 1,800 county, township, city, and village governments with zoning authority,strongly objected. They feared a state program would erode their control. In addition, development interestsopposed any program that might determine where new construction could occur.
A generation later, a growing grass roots movement is calling on the Legislature and the Governor to tryafresh. Additional pressure is coming from candidates for public office who are embracing the need to curbsprawl.
The Institute has worked with the Michigan Environmental Council and other public interestorganizations to develop the following Action Plan. Based on original research, and applying models fromother states, its aim is to establish a statewide growth management program that does not diminish theauthority of local governments.
Our goal is to work with local officials, state lawmakers, and citizen groups to build a larger consituencyfor this Action Plan, and gain passage of a Smart Growth Act by the year 2000.
1. Pass legislation to establish a 30-member Smart Growth Commission.
• The Governor and the Legislature are charged with appointing members to the commission.
• Members include citizens, farmers, local government leaders, academic experts, professional planners,
members of the House and Senate, chamber of commerce executives, and staff members of public interestorganizations.
2. Give the Smart Growth Commission one year to hold public hearings in at least 20communities across the state, to consider ideas from citizens and to publish a report thatestablishes statewide planning goals that:
• Enhance economic development and shared prosperity.
• Make cities more livable.
• Provide sufficient and affordable housing.
• Preserve small towns and a community's sense of place.
• Protect natural resources.
• Confirm and enhance the authority of local governments to oversee uses of land.
• Ensure clean air, clean water, and wild habitat for plants and animals.
• Ensure an adequate land base for agriculture, forestry, mining, and recreation.
• Safeguard cultural and historic heritage.
• Link land use and infrastructure planning.
• Reduce municipal expenses.
• Encourage transportation alternatives.
• Promote collaboration and cooperation among state and local governments, and among state agencies.
• Establish a state role in resolving land use disputes.
• Ensure a state role in overseeing and enforcing the growth management program.
3. Engage in legislative debate and convert the findings of the Smart Growth Commission into the Smart Growth Act by the year 2000. The new law will:
• Set formal statewide planning goals.
• Require county governments within two years to write master plans and enact ordinances that are
consistent with the statewide planning goals. Appropriate $15 million to support these efforts.
• Require cities, townships, and villages within five years to write master plans and enact ordinances that
are consistent with the statewide planning goals. Appropriate $50 million to support these efforts.
4. Enact a second law to implement the Smart Growth Act.
• Establish a new division in the Department of Management and Budget to dispense grants, providetechnical assistance, and coordinate the land use and infrastructure investment activities of state agencies.
• Establish an oversight process for enforcing the goals of the Smart Growth Act by directing counties towork in collaboration with local governments to ensure that the planning goals of the act are put into effectconsistently.
• Enable state agencies to give priority status for public investments in planning, state revenuesharing, infrastructure grants, and other economic investment to those communities that adopt statewideplanning goals.
• Encourage the Michigan Supreme Court to designate a special panel made up of existingmembers of the Court of Appeals to adjudicate land use disputes.
• Appropriate $5 million annually to support the new special court panel, the new Management and Budget division, and local government oversight. |
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