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Highland Park: A community in transition
Published on April 13, 2013
Highland Park shares a similar history to its older, larger neighbor –Detroit. During the early 20th century, the city grew rapidly and the total population peaked in 1930. -
New rural water quality protection guidebook prepared by Michigan State University
Published on April 13, 2013
New guidebook is a “must have” that details best management practices that lower the impact of land use activities on water bodies and provides sample language for community master plans and zoning ordinances. -
Michigan Local Government Benchmarking Consortium helps lower costs and improve services
Published on April 13, 2013
Organizations that want to improve program effectiveness and efficiency need to manage performance, and to do so, they have to measure it. The measures they choose need to be meaningful and linked to a desired goal, result or benchmark. -
Food innovation districts are a powerful economic development tool
Published on April 9, 2013
Food innovation districts provide a way of improving a community’s food infrastructure while creating a cooperative business environment for food-oriented businesses. -
Understanding nonconformity: Are you 'granfathered' in?
Published on April 4, 2013
Properties that qualify as nonconforming often have particular regulations that affect how an owner can make changes to the property. Understanding these regulations is important in order to avoid potential conflict with local government. -
Local budget process needs more community input
Published on April 4, 2013
Michigan communities are governed by a law designed to establish a consistent process to regulate the financial management of local units of government. However, the Act does not require any more additional public involvement than a single public hearing. -
Planning your community’s future for a stronger, sustainable, self-reliant food system
Published on April 4, 2013
How a community grows, changes and prepares for its future is guided by its master plan. Where does the food system fit into your community’s future plans? -
Cleaning up your community: How to deal with the accumulation of junk
Published on April 4, 2013
Accumulated junk on properties can adversely affect the health, safety and property values in a community. Using a multi-faceted approach to dealing with junk can bring people together to improve the quality of life in their community. -
Neighborhood planning leads to place
Published on April 4, 2013
Planning at the neighborhood level leads to better communities and better placemaking, also forms building blocks for local government’s plans. -
Communities can enhance local planning and zoning using the Internet
Published on March 24, 2013
Advances in Internet technology and accessibility provide an excellent opportunity for land use officials to make planning and zoning information more available, and increase the number of citizens engaged in planning decisions.