Students come together for community planning

Angela Fortino handed out informational packets before participants departed on the Urban Planning Conference bus tour around some neighborhoods in Kalamazoo Friday. Jo Wei Looi/Western Herald

By David Zukowski
Western Herald

Students and professionals from across the state are taking an active role in community planning.

Western Michigan University’s Fetzer Center was home to the fourth annual student conference hosted by the Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) on Friday.

The organization, as described by its Web site, “exists so that Michigan will consist of healthy, safe, attractive and successful communities built first and foremost on quality community planning.”

The event, funded by the student assessment fee, was designed for students, by students, and focused on providing participants with an opportunity to network as well as build their résumés.

A presentation by Southwest Michigan First’s Jill Bland, a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), kicked off the event, followed by student presentations, a networking lunch, and career counseling.

Student presentations ranged from discussing Michigan’s regional planning policies to case studies investigating a variety of real life planning scenarios.
One such study evaluated changes in school “walkability,” or the distance, environmental quality and safety of an area through which children were required to walk.

Richard Sadler and Donald Lafreniere, students from the University of Western Ontario, sought to determine what factors, if any, affected the fragmentation and walkability of schools in the Great Lakes area.

Lafreniere collected substantial amounts of data in an attempt to prove whether or not the socio-economic status of local residents, school capacity, racial segregation or the increase in charter schools had any effect on the overall walkability.

“We really wanted to look at not only how the walkability of the area changed over the years, but why students would often bypass the closest school to travel to a further school,” Sadler said.

While some small trends were highlighted, most were deemed to be too insignificant to have any real impact on the system.

The study concluded with Lafreniere offering a list of potential solutions, such as the relocation of specific schools, to prove that many issues can be prevented and solved, with proper regional planning.

Another presentation, given by Eastern Michigan University student Mark Ferrall, compared Michigan’s regional planning to the policies of other states.
Ferrall pointed out that while Michigan certainly is not the most poorly planned state in the country, it could benefit from new, proven planning policies.
For example, Oregon’s planning model requires communities to create land use plans.

This differs greatly from Michigan’s much more compulsory, permissive policy, where joint planning is neither mandated nor offers incentives.

“It’s difficult to encourage a local government to adopt new policies if it’s not necessarily going to save money,” Ferrall said.

“However, since the enactment of the Joint Municipal Planning Act of 2003, communities have more accessibility to planning tools, and they have been used by 12 communities so far.”

Other presentations included “Stabilization of a College Town Neighborhood” by Justin Robinson from WMU and “Encouraging Reuse of Abandoned Commercial Structures” by Robert Linn from the University of Michigan.

“Between 1978 and 1998, there were 12 demolition permits for every building permit,” Linn said. “Instead of immediate demolition, we should focus on reusing those buildings.

Reuse offers significant benefits, especially because vacant lots can depress neighboring property values by as much as 20 percent.”

Linn introduced various alternatives to demolition, such as turning the vacant properties into temporary “retail happenings” where retailers can open up for a short period of time without worrying about high rent and construction costs.

Similarly, keeping old buildings in operation can be very beneficial to smaller businesses, as often times they lack the required funds to maintain and build a new property.

Following the presentations, participants received an opportunity to tour either historical locations or neighborhoods of Kalamazoo via charter bus.

The historical preservation tour began with a trip to WMU’s East Campus, where Sharon Ferraro, Kalamazoo’s historic preservation coordinator, discussed the university’s early history, as well as the changes that had been made upon the creation of West Campus.

The tour later traveled through various neighborhoods and introduced students to many of the historical districts scattered around the city, such as the Stuart Historic District, offering a unique glimpse into Kalamazoo’s rich history.

The tours culminated in a walking tour downtown before convening for a reception at Shakespeare’s Pub, where students were able to relax and network with their peers from across the state.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Feb 7 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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