CONVENING FOR ACTION A Call to Action: Implementing Smart Growth

Smart Growth Principles:

1. Mix land uses.

2. Take advantage of compact building design.

3. Create housing opportunities and choices for a range of household types, families, and incomes.

4. Create walkable neighborhoods.

5. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.

6. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, historic buildings, and critical environmental areas

7. Reinvest in a strengthen existing communities to achieve more balanced regional development.

8. Provide a variety of transportation choices.

9. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost-effective.

10. Encourage citizen and stakeholder participation in development decisions.

Implementing smart growth in Kalamazoo County requires changes on four levels. First, developers, realtors and builders must be convinced that projects built along smart growth principles are profitable. Second, residents must realize that following smart growth principles leads to a higher quality of life, and must support smart growth with both their pocketbooks and their votes. Third, local governments must have the political will to pass zoning ordinances and enact building codes that both enable and encourage smart development. Finally, local governments must collaborate and cooperate on development decisions at a level unprecedented in this county. (See page 32 for additional following steps.)

Create county-wide GIS. The County Commissioner must fund GIS. For years, the county has cobbled together rudimentary GIS-like capabilities. However, real land use planning requires real GIS capabilities.

Develop a county-wide land use map. The county’s master plan and accompanying land use map were developed in 1970. The last county-wide land use inventory of any kind was in 1981. Planners recommend that master plans be updated at least every five years. The County Commission must fund the development of a master plan that reflects the present condition and future goals of Kalamazoo County in 2003. The current plan is essentially a historical document, reflecting what the county was like in 1970 and how residents thought it would grow through 1990.

Develop a Kalamazoo County Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program for farmland preservation. PDR, a voluntary program, enables farmers to be recompensed for placing permanent agricultural conservation easements on farmland. A state agricultural preservation fund was created through PA262 in 2000, and the federal government recently passed a bill funding farmland preservation. To be eligible for these funds, a local governmental PDR program has to exist. The PDR program currently proposed by the Kalamazoo County PDR Workgroup would access these funding sources and others. Unfortunately, a prerequisite for eligibility for state funding is the existence of a countywide land use map less than 10 years old.

Increase the supply of quality, affordable housing in the area. Kalamazoo County lacks sufficient affordable housing, both rental and owner, to meet demand. Currently, 54% of Kalamazoo County households would find the median-priced home unaffordable. Moreover, approximately 1600 people are on a 10 1/2 month waiting list for a 2-bedroom apartment, and roughly 250-300 people are homeless every night. In 2001 Kalamazoo shelters cared for 4458 homeless people, 2015 of whom where children. All communities need to have affordable housing available near workplaces and shopping areas.²⁸

Increase infill development in established urban and suburban communities. Allow and encourage building on small lots in developed areas. Pay particular attention to mixing uses when doing the infill.

Implement the Watershed Management and Stormwater plans. Developed through the work of steering committees and state funded, these plans provide frameworks for preserving, protecting and restoring water resources in the county. EPA regulations require local communities like Kalamazoo to implement stormwater management plans. Implementing the watershed management plan in conjunction with the stormwater plan will help reduce existing pollution and prevent future pollution, thereby preserving water quality and fragile wetland areas.

Link transportation planning with land use planning. When the next long-term transportation plan is devised by Kalamazoo’s metropolitan planning organization, engineering standards and traffic congestion should not be the main determinants of prioritized projects. Projects that implement smart growth principles need to be included in the plan and funded for implementation.

Use open space zoning and new urbanist principles to create attractive communities and protect sensitive natural features. Communities across the country have developed and adopted innovative zoning codes that encourage and enable preservation of important open spaces, primarily in the context of residential and commercial development. Kalamazoo County’s jurisdictional bodies must research and implement best-practice open space and new urbanist zoning and building codes.

Develop an educational program for the public on smart growth tools that currently exist and could be used immediately. Many tools exist to help communities grow wisely. For example, historic preservation, agricultural and other conservation easements are available to land owners as are land trusts. However, knowledge about these tools and how to use them needs to be increased. Until more people know about the benefits of these tools, they will continue to be underused in Kalamazoo County.

Fund and implement community capital improvements. There are several capital projects that, if funded, could both enable redevelopment of the urban core, and strengthen its sense of identity. For example, building the Business Route 131 interchange on the Northside of Kalamazoo will help redevelop older industrial areas of several local jurisdictions and remove truck traffic from neighborhood streets. Also, restoring WMU’s East Campus, with its historic buildings and unique viewscapes would create a focal point for both the university and the city.

Change the governance structure of the wastewater system in the county. The unused capacity of the wastewater plant should be used to implement smart growth. Changing the governance structure should also enable intergovernmental tax base sharing.

These are only a few of the ways in which smart growth principles can be embedded into the way we do things in Kalamazoo County. Many groups, both formal and informal, are working to bring these initiatives and others to fruition.

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