Yarrow Brown: Zoning atlas for northwest Lower Michigan

Stephanie Shomin, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
·4 min read

Jun. 26—We have an exciting opportunity for northwest Lower Michigan with the new zoning atlas.

Drawing inspiration from our friends at Housing Next and the Michigan Association of Planners, the recent workshop hosted by the City of Traverse City shared promising results from a zoning atlas project in West Michigan and explored how this strategy could be applied to our region.

Imagine having a tool at our fingertips that would allow for economic growth around housing in a strategic way. A database, yes, but also a visual tool to help our communities focus growth near existing amenities/infrastructure, plan for future growth areas and utilize the new housing tools to incentivize affordable housing. For context, when we say affordable, we mean a cost where the resident is paying 30% of their income or less on housing costs.

So, what is a zoning atlas? A zoning atlas combines each community's ordinance text and spatial data about zoning boundaries into a single interactive map. This makes new analyses possible. Why is this so exciting? A zoning atlas is ONE methodology and platform with support from ALL KINDS of organizations — governments, universities, regions, consulting firms, foundations, realtors, banks, think tanks and more. The National Zoning Atlas project contains analysis for 107 housing variables, including permitted uses, lot size, setbacks, coverage, density, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), planned development, mobile home parks and public hearings.

Why is this important? If you are a mapping geek like me, this will get you excited. This tool can help implement housing by showing where unused capacity exists. It can also identify project parameters across jurisdictions. Having a zoning atlas for a county or a region can help make zoning accessible to smaller scale developers.

The zoning atlas project can also support state and local investments by identifying where zoning supports "missing middle" or other housing types. It can identify areas for Housing Tax Incremental Financing (TIF), Attainable Housing Districts, Neighborhood Enterprise Zones and other incentive programs.

What were the results of the Kent County zoning atlas? What did they learn? For a project with four or more units, only 0.6% land is available for 14% of the population that needs that type of housing. For a two family, only 1.5% of the land is zoned for two or more units and the need for this type of housing is 10%. This means that with the current zoning, 24% of the population in Kent County needs to fit into 2.1% of the land.

What can we learn from this? It depends on your goals for housing. If we want to meet our need for housing in Northwest Michigan, we need to take note of the points made at the TC Housing Workshop. Changing the zoning or type of development in certain areas can bring in a much higher taxable value and in some cases help pay for the cost of infrastructure in less than six months.

By targeting areas for growth we can take advantage of corridors with existing sewer and water infrastructure and where land is underutilized (i.e. large parking lots). We can consider ways to encourage private development by improving the sense of place via infrastructure investments and coordinating developers. Remove barriers in the zoning code and use incentives and impact capital to catalyze the first handful of developments. Then, let the market work.

Where will housing be built if we don't take action? We will likely continue to see more sprawl and more impact on our natural resources as homes are built further and further from infrastructure and amenities. For example, in Kent County, a corridor strategy can focus on 3,943 acres and build 70,974 housing units and the cost for New Infrastructure is $250 million. This compares to the status quo of 118,918 acres with 73,089 housing units and new infrastructure costing over $10 billion.

What are some next steps for Traverse City, Grand Traverse County and our region?

* Focus investment in a relatively small radius where amenities are available and incentives can be targeted.

* Determine which tools are most appropriate, such as zoning updates, incentive policies and the role the unit of government might play in supporting more homes at every price point.

* Look at ways to use impact capital and public financing for infrastructure or key community benefits.

There are 12 different tools/options available to units of government and communities to help meet the housing needs of our community and look at growth responsibly. Now we just need to put these tools and resources into action!

Source: Flywheel Community Development and Michigan Association of Planning (MAP)

Yarrow Brown joined Housing North in 2020. She worked 12 years for the Leelanau Conservancy, 15 years for a nonprofit and did private consulting. She is a member of the Cleveland Township Planning Commission and has represented the Leelanau Conservancy on the Leelanau Clean Water Board for more than a decade. She lives in Leelanau County and owns a 13-acre farm with her husband and daughter.