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The Institute staff. Standing from left to right: Keith Schneider, LeClair Stoltmann, Hans Voss, and Arlin Wasserman. Center row: Florence Barone, Aimé Merizon, and Anne Stanton. Front row: Deb Negri-Jackson, Alicia Harrison, Patty Cantrell, and Kelly Thayer.
1998 A Year to Celebrate
Our Annual Report
to the Community
In the final weeks of 1998, newly-elected members of the state House of Representatives met in Lansing to decide their legislative priorities in 1999 and 2000. Topping the list of concerns in both parties was the need to tame sprawl, conserve farmland, rebuild the state's urban centers, and encourage environmentally-sensitive development.

Here at the Institute, we celebrated. Our research, organizing, and support of grassroots groups are helping to make a difference in communities throughout Michigan and influencing public policy in Lansing. The goal of improving how we use land is attaining genuine momentum, and the Institute is playing a vital part in ensuring that it continues.

We are doing so by building statewide coalitions. In 1998 the Michigan Energy Reform Coalition, an alliance of 30 organizations, sought and gained the passage of new laws to preserve natural areas, strengthen protections for public health, and provide fairer terms for mineral and surface landowners.