Smart Growth Coalition focuses on Leelanau

By Ashlea Turner
Sun staff writer
Although many people want life in their communities to stay just as it is, change and growth are inevitable. This concept has hit home in the last decade with Leelanau County residents. With a population growth rate of 27 percent in the last decade alone, our home has become one of the fastest growing areas in Michigan. About 500 new people a year are quickly discovering what an amazing place Leelanau County is when they find a home here. The natural environment is beautiful, the villages are quaint, the people are friendly and the overall quality of life here is tough to beat, so this kind of growth should come as no surprise. One word comes to mind — inevitable.

According to the Michigan Land Use Institute, an extremely effective nonprofit land use policy organization located in Benzie County (with offices in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Traverse City), Leelanau’s rapid growth is offering “new opportunities for the region’s young people, who are finding satisfying work at home rather than traveling to distant cities. But growth is also producing dissatisfying outcomes — more water pollution, loss of farmland and open space, traffic congestion and a quickening pace of life.”
Though some people believe that these side effects are also inevitable and “that’s just the price we’ll have to pay”, The Michigan Land Use Institute, along with an increasing number of local citizens, doesn’t agree. In response to Leelanau’s potential for growing pains, the MLUI is proactively helping to organize and empower concerned citizens across the county, in the form of a “Leelanau Smart Growth Coalition.” Through education, collaboration and empowerment, the Coalition hopes to make certain that the “peninsula’s rapid development is environmentally sensible and economically sustainable.”
What’s particularly striking about this Coalition is how different it is from traditional activist groups in its extreme diversity. This bipartisan and active Coalition is currently made up of local government officials, farmers, business leaders, professionals, conservationists, and plenty more. So what brings all these different types of people together? The simple answer is a love of Leelanau County. The more complex answer is a strong desire to work with others to encourage the incorporation of the Ten Core Principles of Smart Growth. They are as follows:
Smart Growth
– Fosters distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place
– Preserves open space, farmland, scenic beauty and valuable natural areas
– Strengthens and directs development towards existing communities, where infrastructure and other services are already available
– Mixes land uses
– Takes advantage of compact building design
– Creates a range of housing choices and opportunities
– Creates walkable neighborhoods
– Provides a variety of transportation choices
– Makes development decisions predictable, fair and cost effective
– Encourages broad community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions
In order to educate and empower citizens and officials alike about change and growth in their communities, the MLUI Smart Growth Coalition will host quarterly meetings across the county, “inviting leaders to share knowledge about development issues facing the county and gain the comfort to work together.” To find out when the next meeting will be in your area or to find out more information about the Coalition, visit www.mlui.org/leelanau (Or read next year’s issues of the Glen Arbor Sun for expanded coverage of the Smart Growth Coalition — Ed.)
Will Smart Growth one day be as inevitable as sprawl is today? On the Michigan state level, there is already bipartisan leadership working to advance Smart Growth policies in the legislature, according to the MLUI. Many township and village planning commissions across the state are also adopting Smart Growth policies in their Master Plans, including many already underway in Leelanau County. Many local government officials are hardworking and thoughtful, but they can’t do everything and they certainly shouldn’t do it alone, without public input. Thankfully, the MLUI is here to provide a vehicle for public concern in Leelanau County’s future.