CONVENING FOR ACTION

Official composite Kalamazoo County maps

"Citizens tend to think of plans as all-controlling, comprehensive solutions or all-controling disruptions of individual decision making. Real plans are big and little, support private and public decisions, and affect decisions through information, not directly through authority." --Lewis Hopkins, Urban Development: The Logic of Making Plans

The following pages show various Kalamazoo County maps which are official in the sense that they were either created by the Kalamazoo County Planning Department or they are a composite of the official local jurisdictional future land use or zoning maps. Kalamazoo County is the largest county, in terms of population, in the state of Michigan to be without countywide GIS mapping capability. Our county's future land use plan is decades old. How can we make good public and private development decisions without adequate information?

The 1990 print of the Kalamazoo County Land Use Plan Map Created in 1970 (This is the "most official" countywide map in existence in Kalamazoo County.)

The 1996 Composite Map Created by a County Planning Dept. Student Intern for the Council of Governments (This map was drawn on four large pieces of cardboard. The map has been discolored by the sun and may currently be housed at the Kalamazoo Township Hall. This map does not a countywide consensus plan but was made to draw community leaders into a discussion of common land use issues.)

The Convening for Action Composite Map of Original Land Use Plan Maps for the County's Jurisdictions (This map is a more sophisticated version of the student intern's map. It is not a countywide vision for future growth.)

The Convening for Actio Composite Map of Original Zoning Maps for the County's Jurisdictions (This map is included for the sake of completeness..

To see the project's re-colored composite zoning and land use maps, click here

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