Identifying the important characteristics of property • How to be heard and change minds • General Tips on Effective Public Involvement • Tools & Strategies for preserving the property

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Identifying the important characteristics of property
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How-to example

In which jurisdiction is the property? The most efficient way to find out the jurisdiction of the property is to check a plat map or any detailed map of the county.

Who owns the property?

• Find the address
• Look for an electrical box
• Look at addresses of adjacent properties
• If the property is for sale, call the realtor
• Determine the owner
• In urban areas, go to the jurisdictional assessor and look up the deed and tax records. In some jurisdictions, including Portage and the City of Kalamazoo, parcel information is available on the web.
• In rural areas, look at plat maps which will tell you the property owner's name and the acreage of the property. These can be found and purchased at the Conservation District office.

How is the property zoned?

• Go to the city or township clerk's office with the address and ask, or look it up on the zoning map in the clerk's office.
• If it is in a very rural township where the township office has limited hours, go to the Kalamazoo County planning office
• If it is in a large city or township, call up that jurisdiction's planner and ask.
• If it is for sale, ask the realtor

What is the property's intended use on the future land use map?

• Look at the jurisdiction's future land use map, available at the clerk's office.
• If it is for sale, ask the realtor.
• If it is in a large city or township, call up that jurisdiction's planner and ask.
• It is also wise to call the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to see if there have been any permits issued for that piece of land. (567-3500 or 1-800-662-9278)

What is the property's history? Knowing a property's history might lead to special ways to preserve the property or identify other groups who might be interested in the property's future use.

• Go to the local history room of the Kalamazoo Public Library and ask for information for that address or area in which the property is located.
• In more urban jurisdictions (e.g. Oshtemo, Kalamazoo, Portage), go to the planning department.
• For other jurisdictions, try the Kalamazoo County Planning Department.
• If the property is for sale, ask the realtor.
• For all jurisdictions, ask the clerk for any historical information they might have about the property.
• Go to the Kalamazoo County planning department and look at the aerial photographs from 1920, 1964 and 1998.

Does the property have any special characteristics?

• Contact the Conservation District to learn about the soil types and potential "build-ability" of the property.
• Contact the Historic Preservation Commission to see if the property has any special historical relevance.
• Contact the Drain Commissioner's office to learn about the water resource properties.
• Contact the jurisdiction to learn if the property may be a brownfield.

Does any other interest group have this property on their radar screen? Because of some special feature of the property, such as a stream or a particular soil type, the property may be knows to one of the groups listed below. If so, that group may have a wealth of information that could be useful to you.

• Kalamazoo River Protection Association
• Audubon Society
• Kalamazoo River Watershed Council
• Sierra Club
• Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy
• Michigan Farm Bureau
• Conservation District
• League of Women Voters
• Kalamazoo Nature Center
• Environmental Concerns Committee of Kalamazoo City, Kalamazoo County, and Portage
• Kalamazoo Environmental Council

For contact information on some of these groups and others, click here.

Cautions: What you can and cannot do - Property owners have rights protected by law. You as a citizen also have rights. You must, however, be careful not to infringe on the rights of others as you gather information about the property. Of special importance are:

• Open Meetings Act. All public agencies are subject to the open meetings act, which means that the general public and the media have the right to attend meetings of a public body and to obtain information about their deliberations. The public is allowed to speak in accordance with the rules of the public body.

• Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). All public documents are available for citizen inspection. This includes maps and meeting minutes. Copies can be requested of particular documents. The more specific a request it, the quicker the request can be filled, so make sure you know exactly what it is you want. Obtaining the documents is not necessarily free, however; copying documents usually involves a fee. For more information about this act, click here.

• Trespass. You cannot go onto a privately owned piece of property without permission. For more information about this act, click here.

How to be heard and change minds
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(Much of this section was written by Tom Brown, Kalamazoo College student)

In influencing policy in land use issues it is important to develop both a general long term approach as well as specific short term skills. The importance of considering a long-term approach in affecting change cannot be emphasized enough. Change requires a tremendous amount of effort; fortunately though many of the tools and relationships developed for one issue can be maintained and reused as additional issues crop up. If you have planned effectively, further action should become easier.

• Network: Initially you will not have developed the critical mass of connective links between people in your area necessary to get things done. Who are the movers and the shakers? Who are the decision makers? Who do they listen to? Do you know them and have you established a relationship with them? Networking, while often feeling like a waste of time, pays off. Without networking you will not know how to direct your energies so that your effort is seen and heard by the right people. This simply takes effort and is developed over time.

• Trust and Integrity: Why should anyone listen to you? Do you get results? Does your word and opinion mean something? While we may feel the answer is a simple "yes"; these questions are really answered through results proven over time. People are always looking for an easy way to get their voice heard, when in fact the easiest is by developing a reputation for honesty and forthrightness over time. Your reputation takes a lifetime to build, and is very easy to tear down. Keep this in mind through all your actions. Public officials are busy individuals who simply have too much information to sort through in too little time. But if you have the benefit of a good reputation, if you are known to trustworthy and competent your voice can be one of the influential few who have the ear of their local official.

• Information Gathering: When attempting to persuade or pressure a politician to support a particular cause, it is imperative that you thoroughly educate yourself using all means available to ensure that your cause has a strong foundation of relevant information to build community support and political power from before confronting any officials. Regarding land use issues, the path to this knowledge is often complex and frustrating, as you often must gather information from many sources, the community clerks, committees, officials, and politicians are the most common, before you can present an argument supportive of your stance. However, one must not let the complexities of your regions political system frustrate or diffuse your cause in any way. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to be well informed. It is absolutely crucial that, prior to any other action, you find and understand all relevant information to your cause. This includes understanding and being able to intelligently respond to the opposing person's views. If you approach this battle unprepared, you will not only fail to accomplish what you set out to do, but you will also lose considerable credibility for any future issues you and the group you represent choose to confront in the future. For more information, click here.

• Letter writing: A straightforward and easily accessible method of making your voice heard in local government is letter writing. The beauty of letters is that they are done on your own time and privately. This affords you the time to think about what you want to say, and say it in a logical, concise, and well-informed manner. The down side to letters is that the officials have extra time to sit and think about your letter, so they have to be very convincing. For more specific points about effective letter writing, click here.

• Publicity: Publicity is another tool that can get your voice hear. However, it can be a very tricky tool to manage. For tips on how to use publicity effectively, click here.

• Lobbying: The purpose of lobbying is to have direct personal contact with the targeted official. Lobbying requires a well-informed and well-spoken individual to speak informally with the official. It is absolutely crucial that the lobbyist be held in high esteem by both the community and the targeted official. At all levels of government, but especially as you work towards the upper tiers, it is progressively more difficult to get an official to listen to your campaign. If the targeted official respects the person representing you, your chances of gaining his or her ear are greatly increased. It is often helpful to have someone that donated money to the official's campaign, or is part of a major business in the area. The general idea is that if you can engage a powerful community member in your fight, the official will assume that there is much support for your cause from all levels of the community. Again, either having large support or portraying the illusion of wide spread support is necessary for this and every tactic.

• Mass Turnout: Showing the officials, especially elected officials, the sheer numbers of people in support of your cause can be a very powerful in gaining their support. However, this tactic only works under certain conditions. For more information on how to use this tactic, click here.

• Petitions: A petition is another tool that clearly demonstrates the amount of public support an issue has in the community. The petition should be worded in such a manner that the beginning gives a general statement of the problem and your stance, and moves then to your precise proposals for change. Again, the petition does little more than demonstrate the amount of supporters, but they have the advantage of being cheap and easy to conduct. Most importantly, a petition is an excellent way of identifying and recruiting potential supporters that would be willing to take a more active role. When asking people to sign a petition get their name, address, and phone number. Then, as time passes, keep them informed on the state of your cause. Always keep an eye out for people that show more than normal interest. In most local jurisdictions a petition for an initiatory ordinance can be used to force a special election on overturning the elected body's decision. To learn how to create a petition for a referendum for any particular jurisdiction, contact the jurisdiction's Clerk's office. This last type of petition takes much more time and energy than a regular one.

• Phone Calls: Flooding an official's office with phone calls can be a very effective method of either gaining access to him or her or altering his or her stance on an issue. Continue calling until something happens, as being a nuisance is a very underutilized method of pressure. When placing the calls, especially the earlier calls, it is likely that the caller will get through to the official. That caller should be well informed and prepared to speak. Similar to the letters, it is often helpful to provide an outline of the issue, and of the 'ideal' conversation. That way, the necessary information should be conveyed. Also, have your most impressive callers call first. It is most helpful to the campaign if the barrage of calls is very convincing, so get your most poised and powerful representatives in before the official starts rejecting your calls.

• Know what you're up against: Now that you have your tactics for pressuring officials, and you have all of your information about who, what, when, where, and why, you must now have a basic understanding of what you are up against. There are three types of officials that you are likely to come into contact with: elected, appointed, and staff; each type of official poses its own unique challenges. For more information, click here.

• Call your own meeting: Once you have gathered information, worked through the extensive levels of local government officials, and finally had a convincing interaction with a politician, it is imperative to now hold a forum between the official and your organization to discuss the issues of controversy. This meeting will usually be between you and a few of your most noteworthy or active supporters, and the official and his or her staff members. This meeting is usually set up via a phone call or a letter written directly to the official. The most effective means of setting up a meeting is often a letter followed a few days later by a phone call. When approaching this meeting, you must first have strong knowledge of the exact stance the official has regarding your issue, and the reasons he or she holds such views. You must design your group so that you have a wide breath of experience, knowledge, and community support. When this group is gathered, practice 'mock meetings' so that you and your members feel comfortable and confident in such a forum. Enter the meeting with a strict agenda, and stick to it. Do not let the official get your group off track or divert the meetings objectives. If the official seems open and understanding to your perspective, continue the meeting until a finalized agreement is reached. Do not leave this meeting with anything left unresolved unless a second meeting is scheduled. Finally, even after an agreement is reached it is important that the official knows that your group is still strong and active within the community. This will force the official to remain accountable for the decisions they agreed upon with your group. If your organization disbands after the meeting, you will have no pressure to ensure that the official follows his or her words with the actions agreed upon.

General Tips on Effective Public Involvement
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• Get involved often and early: Kalamazoo has dozens of committees that are run by concerned citizens just like you. One of the most effective techniques in influencing land use decisions is to get involved in one of these committees; either through attendance at meetings, letters to the chairmen, or through involvement with the committee itself. This will not only give you a voice but it will also begin to connect you with people who are concerned with similar issues in city governance.

• Be sincere: It is a truth that people respond to emotions far more readily than logic. This isn't to say that a logical, coherent argument is inessential, but it helps tremendously if your argument appeals to people at a level deeper than intellectual understanding. A heartfelt, honest statement is far more motivating than a cold intellectual argument (or an emotional incoherent outburst!).

• Know your issues backwards and forwards, then study them again: You have to know your stuff, period, point blank. Land use in particular is a very technical, field that has a "code" all to itself (similar to the legal system). This means that you not only have to know your own argument (and opposing viewpoints as well) but you also need to know the language in which to argue your case. Even if you are well informed on your issue; if you do not understand the workings and language of the system you will be unable to effect change.

• Understand your limitations: We all have a limited number of hours to commit to the issues we care about in our lives. There are always going to be more issues to needing attention with than there are available hours in your day. If you are unable to focus your time into small, manageable chunks it is easy for your efforts to become dispersed and ineffective. Take the analogy of spinning plates, if you try to spin too many plates at once all of them will come crashing down. If you have 5 hours to apply to a problem, then pick a task that will take 5 hours to do…and do it well.

• Plan, prepare, and perfect: You only get one shot at making your argument to an official. Make it count by being ready and prepared. If possible role-play the situation ahead of time. While this sounds funny, nothing prepares you better than experience.

• Don't get caught up in your own mind: remember, even after you've have prepared properly a person may only care about 1 small point on your list of 10 amazing reasons why your approach is best. It is your job to get that one point across to someone with as little interference as possible. A common failing is to Don't allow yourself to get caught up in your own mind about what you feel is important, tailor your argument to what's going on in the mind of your audience.

• Persevere: Remember the final goal of making your community a stronger and better place for everyone is a long and difficult road. Systems are designed to resist change, prepare for this and consider each action you make one step moving you toward the change you want to see in your community.

For advice from activists themselves, click here.

For examples of how these tactics were used to make real changes in Kalamazoo, click here, or for another example, click here.

Tools & Strategies for preserving the property
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Depending on the specific characteristics of the property, special preservation tools may be available that might constrain development. In some cases, the landowner has to agree to the use of the tools, and in fact would have to be the one to initiate the use of these tools. For others of the tools, particularly those related to zoning, a citizen could advocate for their use.

• Preservation-oriented Easements - property owners can give up one or more of the rights that they have to their property for the purpose of preventing certain uses or future actions. Preservation easements generally prevent certain kinds of development on the property. Typically, a land owner is compensated in some fashion for agreeing to an easement on their land. For more information, click here.

Conservation Easement is an agreement between an owner and a conservancy that limits the use of land by protecting possible natural or historic elements. For more information on conservation easements, click here.

 

Historic Preservation Easements are widely used in Indiana, but not yet in Michigan, though they certainly could be. For more information, click here.

 

Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs protect agricultural land from development. The farmer is paid the difference between the agricultural value and the developed value of the land in return for a permanent conservation easement. In 2000, PA 262 was passed, allowing community-based farmland preservation programs in Michigan counties to receive state funding. For more information, click here, and go to the Rural Partners of Michigan website.

• Restrictions on the Development of Historical Properties
  • Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. When federal funds are involved in development, such as building a new highway, the funding federal agency has to consider historical preservation values in its planning and decision-making. If the properties affected by the development are listed on or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, then the National Historic Preservation Act can be invoked for a Section 106 review. For more information about Section 106, click here.

   

  • Section 4F of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966 is the strongest preservation law at the federal level. It prohibits federal approval or funding of transportation projects that require the use, either direct or indirect, of any historic site, public park, recreation area or wildlife refuge unless there is no feasible alternative. The project must minimize harm to the area. This Act is especially relevant to more rural areas. For more information about this Act, click here.

   

  • Historic Preservation Commission guidelines for local historic districts ensure that the historic character of the district is maintained. Local historic districts have been used in the City of Kalamazoo and the Village of Richland, for example, to both retain historic character of neighborhoods and to mold future development in a historically sensitive fashion. For more information, click here.

• Environmental restrictions on changes in land uses
  • Wetlands - Michigan has a Wetland Conservancy Strategy that includes a Wetlands Reclamation Initiative ands sets criteria by which wetlands can be developed. For more information, click here.

   

  • Role of the Drain Commissioner - Because the Drain Commissioners approves site plans for development on parcels that contain water resources, she can be a conservation ally. Moreover, because she is the only official elected by all county voters, she has a considerable amount of autonomy. For more information, click here.

   

  • Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act - The role of this Act is to protect the general public by regulating earth change activities, which can injure the environment through erosion and the unnatural accumulation of sediment. The general contractor is responsible for abiding by this Act, and is subject to fines and other penalties for failure to do so. For more information, click here.

   

  • County-level water quality and septic failure monitoring - Some soil types in the county do not drain well and are not well suited for septic systems. Even in adequate soil types, ill-planned and misused septic systems can fail, leading to groundwater contamination. Information is kept on septic failures and water quality, which can be useful to argue against development in areas not served by the regional wastewater authority. For more information, click here.

   

  • Stormwater regulations- In 1987 the Clean Water Act was amended to regulate stormwater discharge. Phase II stormwater regulations regulating stormwater discharges from municipalities in urban areas with populations less than 100,000 will begin in 2003. Because of these regulations, most jurisdictions will require new developments to contain stormwater on site. This is a preservation tool because not all sites are suitable for on site storage of stormwater. For more information, click here.

   

  • Brownfield programs - Brownfield programs reduce sprawl through the rehabilitation of the brownfields creating space for businesses, housing while protecting human health and saving green space and natural resources. The programs have incentives for redevelopment, including cost-effective cleanup options, causation-based liability, liability protection for new owners, and grants and loans available to local units of government. For more information, click here.

   

  • Contaminated Soil and waste management issues - Contaminated soils are both a health and an economic problem. In older cities, where these sites are most common, the dead spaces are conspicuous symbols of lost jobs and shrinking tax revenues. A very common and hazardous contaminant is lead. Environment justice activists have devised numerous strategies to deal with these problems, and could be effective allies. For more information about this problem, click here.

• Agricultural

   

  • Problem: Subdivision Control Act. Many in the state of Michigan see this Act as the major cause of residential sprawl into farmlands. Problems center on long platting process time, absence of standards for information on preliminary plats, and no regulation on the division of land into parcels exceeding 10 acres, and no regulation on the re-division of parcels every 10 years. Attempts to fundamentally reform this Act have failed. For more information, click here.

   

  • State Farmland Protection Programs. A state-wide PDR program has existed in Michigan since 1996. This program is the model for the new local government PDR program that many are trying to create in Kalamazoo County. (LINK to the Preservation-oriented easements page) The major problem with the state-wide program has been the lack of funds, although, at least one farm in Kalamazoo County was preserved under this program. For more information, click here.

   

  • Land Trusts. For information about land trusts, click here. Information is also available at the American Farmland Trust website.

   

  • Urban Growth Boundaries and Urban Service Areas. While urban growth boundaries are popular in the northwest and northeast part of the country, urban service boundaries can serve much the same purpose in protecting agricultural areas from unwanted development. In Kalamazoo County, the wastewater service area and the water service area could easily be made more effective as urban service boundaries through actions of the Regional Sewer and Water Commission and the City of Kalamazoo. For more information, click here.

   

  • Agricultural Zoning. Most of the rural townships have agricultural zoning ordinances. Most of these, however, are not exclusive agricultural zones in that other uses besides agriculture are permitted. Changing zoning ordinances to delineate exclusive agriculture zones as distinct from rural or low density residential zones would keep agriculture viable. For more information, click here.

   

  • Transfer of Development Rights. TDR programs have been used by developers in other states to create higher density residential developments while protecting land in more outlying areas. For more information, click here.

   

  • Michigan Right to Farm Act. This Act protects a farmer's right to farm and is particularly important in the context of encroaching residential development, given the fact that farmers typically use manure as a fertilizer. For more information, click here.

• Open space

   

  • Open space zoning. Open spaces are defined in various ways by local jurisdictions. They can be natural areas, historical areas, public and quasi-public areas and for the purpose of perserving natural areas, spaces, or places of historical significance. Open spaces are also defined as being used for recreational or other public use such as public schools, parks, golf courses, and campgrounds. Many jurisdictions have zoning ordinances that specifically concern open space zoning. For more information, click here.

   

  • Open Space Communities. Planned urban developments (PUDs) and Open Space Communities are subdivision-type developments in which certain amounts of open space are required. In return, the developer is allowed to increase residential density over that allowed in the surrounding zoning district.

   

  • Open Space Preservation. In 2000, cluster zoning was made a mandatory part of the Zoning Enabling Acts. A residential developer is allowed to build the same number of dwelling units on a piece of the site as would be allowed on the whole property. This has the effect of clustering the dwelling units and leaving some land open space. All jurisdictions had to have cluster zoning in their ordinances by December 2001. For more information, click here.

   

  • Tradable permits. Kalamazoo County has one of the most well known tradable permit programs in the country. Tradable permits are a market-based approach to achieve water quality goals. Often in these programs, wetlands areas are used as a means to trade pollutants. For more information, see the water quality trading documents on this website.

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The pieces: jurisdictions, zoning, and master plans

The Players

Playing the Game

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