Fri 7 Aug, 2009
Youth and Local Government - UPDATE
Filed under: General, Law, PlanningTags: eligible to vote, Local Government, Planning Commission, Public Participation, Senator Patti Birkholz, Youth
UPDATE 4:
Here is an example of how ONE PERSON can make a difference: Senate Bill 726 (substitute S-1) to remove the option for youth under 18-years-old to have a place on local planning commissions has been approved by the Michigan Senate and sent over to the state House with something more than…
…the usual “legislative analysis” prepared by senate staffers. In this case, the thoughts and words of a youth who spoke against this bill at the senate committee hearing have been included in the summary under “opposing arguments:”
Click on the picture to read the entire analysis.
“Young people who want to make a difference in their communities should not be discouraged” from doing so. If you agree that this option should remain in state law, please take the time to contact your state representative to ask them to oppose this bill.
UPDATE 3:
Senate Bill 726 (actually substitute S-1) has been approved by the state Senate and sent over to the Michigan House of Representatives for consideration. On the House side, SB 726 (S-1) has been referred to the Committee on Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs. No hearing date has been set for the bill.
The substitute bill disguises its purpose by rewording the language to replace the specific prohibition on under-18 planning commissioners with more opaque provisions requiring:
“Members of a planning commission shall be qualified electors of the local unit of government, except that (a limited) number of planning commission members may be individuals who are not qualified electors of the local unit of government but are qualified electors of another local unit of government….”
The effect, however, is the same: The Michigan experiment in allowing the option to appoint an exceptional high schooler as a full planning commissioner would come to an end with the passage of this law.
UPDATE 2:
The following appeared in a recent edition of Eastern Michigan University’s Early College Alliance (ECA) newsletter:
Talking to the Senate
On September 15th, first year ECA student Elana N. traveled to Lansing to speak to a state Senate committee on Senate Bill 726, which would delete the option for local governments to appoint someone under 18 years of age to a local Planning Commission. Elana reports:
“I was introduced to Senator Patti Birkholz, who was the one that proposed the change in the law. She was nice in disagreeing with me. I thought that people under age 18 should be able to be on the Planning Commission, while she did not.”
“Soon it was my turn to speak. My Dad introduced us, and then spoke a little bit about why we were there. I spoke about my experience as Vice-President of the Midtown Neighborhood Association at age 10. I talked about my goals and what I did to achieve them, and about what I did when I needed help. I ended with saying that I wanted other kids and teenagers to be able to have similar opportunities to mine.”
“All of the Senators congratulated me afterwards, except a really quiet or a really tired Senator Allen. I also got invited to job-shadow Senator Birkholz.”
UPDATE:
The Michigan Senate’s Local, Urban, and State Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 726 on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. in room 110 Farnum at the state capitol in Lansing. Written comments about the bill can be sent via email to Derek Bajema, Clerk for the committee (click here to email the committee).
ORIGINAL POST:
“Why don’t young people get involved?”
This is the oft-heard refrain as we lament the low turnout of young adults in local elections and their absence from community planning efforts. A small but important step was taken here in Michigan in 2008 with the adoption of the new “Michigan Planning Enabling Act” (Public Act 33 of 2008, “MPEA”). This act includes the following provision in Section 15:
(4) Members of a planning commission shall be qualified electors of the local unit of government, except that the following number of planning commission members may be individuals who are not qualified electors of the local unit of government:
(a) 3, in a city that on the effective date of this act had a population of more than 2,700 but less than 2,800.
(b) 2, in a city or village that has, or on the effective date of this act had, a population of less than 5,000, except as provided in subdivision (a).
(c) 1, in local units of government other than those described in subdivision (a) or (b).
This innocuous looking bit of legislation opened up new opportunities for local (non-resident) business owners, school officials, and young people (under-18 years-old - not yet eligible to vote) to have a stronger voice in the long-term planning and development of their communities. A diversity of perspectives is essential to the success of any local planning commission. Where local communities take advantage of this opportunity, their planning efforts will be the better for it.
“Why make it harder for young people to get involved?”
Unfortunately, this 11-month-old Michigan experiment in expanding the potential pool of planning commissioners may be coming to an abrupt end for the under-18 set….
A new State Senate bill, SB 726, introduced by Senator Patricia Birkholz, would insert the following provision into Section 15 of the MPEA:
“To be eligible to be a member of a planning commission, an individual shall be at least 18 years of age.”
Senator Birkholz has been a strong supporter of local planning and zoning, and was instrumental in getting the new MPEA adopted (including this “non-qualified elector” option). That’s what makes SB 726 somewhat perplexing. The following is a excerpt from an email The Zoning Guru sent to Senator Birkholz this morning about this bill:
To: The Honorable Patricia L. Birkholz, State Senator
Senator Birknolz,
I read with interest the notice of your introduction of SB 726, a bill to amend the Michigan Planning Enabling Act (2008 PA 33, “MPEA”) to add an age restriction (minimum 18 years old) for service as a local planning commissioner. This is a disappointing development, as the current law would allow the opportunity for local communities to hear from an age cohort rarely represented in community planning.
We planners often talk of wanting to encourage young people to participate in the planning process, but the MPEA marked a real change for the better in this area by giving local communities the opportunity to appoint, if they wish, both a non-resident (such as a local business owner) and an under-18 representative to their planning commission.
Why take “under-18″ option away? Planning commissions often serve as a training ground for future elected officials at the local level. If we want more young people to take interest in their communities and government, the “under-18″ option in the MPEA is an excellent starting point to make that happen.
We all know that not all young people are mature enough to take on the responsibilities of a planning commissioner, but some are! There are many young people in Michigan who could do a great job as a planning commissioner if given the opportunity.
When an “under-18″ applies to serve on a planning commission, I trust the elected officials of that community to do their job to pick the best candidate for the position. Why take away this option for a local Mayor or Twp. Supervisor to find that, in some cases, the best candidate might just be a young person? If having these business interests represented on the commission is so important (and it is!), then having a young person’s perspective is equally so.
As adults who participate in building the future of our communities, it is important to encourage the young people within our sphere of influence to get involved in their community and government. We certainly should not make it harder for them to do so.
The Zoning Guru would encourage our Michigan readers to contact Senator Birkholz to ask that she reconsider and withdraw SB 726. The senator’s contact information can be found on her website (http://www.senate.michigan.gov/gop/senators/Birkholz.asp?District=24).
© 2009 Building Place - Rodney C. Nanney, AICP (www.buildingplace.net) - All rights reserved. Contact us here for information regarding reprinting, redistribution, or other use of original material. Excerpts may be quoted with proper attribution and a link to this website.
About the Author
Dave Atkins says:
Aren’t there other ways for young people to be involved? I consider myself (a 42-year old) very involved in our local planning process, but decided not to run for a position on our planning board because of the time commitment and the fact that in that role, I would be required to consider many issues and minutae apart from the ones I care most about: promoting active transportation (walkability/biking). Getting elected or appointed to a board or commission is not the only way to be involved–and in fact, I would say it is one of the least important.
Start a blog about your town like I did at http://westwoodblog.org.
Organize other interested young and older people to do commmunity service events like cleaning up parts of town.
Form a neighborhood association BEFORE there is a contentious land use/planning issue that divides the community.
Be an advocate first…before you seek out a representative role that will require you to act in a role that may limit your impulses.
There are so many things motivated people can do…
Lee Krohn, AICP says:
For several years now, we have had a youth initiative in which our community has appointed two high school students to nearly every appointed municipal board. By all accounts, this has been a successful project, and we are about to have our first student appointed as a full voting member upon her 18th birthday this week. Our students gave presentations at regional and national planning conferences over the past year, speaking from the heart about how this experience has given them great appreciation for the importance of community, and the importance of the debates and decisions in which they participated. We just won an award from the Vermont Planners Association for this initiative, giving youth a voice in civic affairs.
We encourage other communities to take similar steps! Please feel free to contact me for more information.
Lee Krohn, AICP
Planning Director, Town of Manchester, Vermont
Pam Phan, Youth Program Coordinator says:
It is good to hear that communities around the country are also including youth of various ages in their long-term planning process. I especially appreciate the intent of a policy to open access to constituencies that have often been institutionally excluded. In Portland we currently employ teens and young adults to work alongside planners as “youth planners.” Youth conduct surveys, focus groups, and other types of data collection on district and neighborhood projects, completing analysis and identifying gaps in city-wide planning efforts, in order to make them more holistic. Youth Planners also help with the design of our public input process for our comprehensive plan update and strategic plan. We have found great success with this youth empowerment model, that approaches youth as equal partners in our community to participate in planning, where we have been able amplify youth voices that would otherwise been completely missed (i.e. youth of color and/or immigrant and refugee youth). In addition to youth as planners, having a youth voice directly on the planning commission has been a dream of mine for sometime now. i applaud legislators in Michigan for modeling ideal inclusion and fostering life long civic engagement. It would be a shame to pull back, after only 11 months, which does not seem like quite enough time to evaluate the full potential of such a forward thinking policy.
I welcome dialogue about youth in planning and civic life, and if others would like to contact myself or hear from youth planners directly, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Pam Phan, Youth Program Coordinator
Bureau of Planning and Sustainability
City of Portland, Oregon
Larry Krieg says:
And the most important reason why young people should be allowed to participate in planning: they will be the ones who have to live longest with their planning commission’s decisions!
Larry Krieg
Planning Commissioner
Charter Township of Ypsilanti, Michigan
rodneynanney says:
Larry -
Very true!
rodneynanney says:
Pam -
Thanks for the update on your program. It’s wonderful to hear from communities that are actively (and successfully) engaging young people in the planning process. This is great information. If you’re interested in writing a more detailed article on your program, we would be happy to post the article in the Building Place Notebook. Feel free to contact us directly (see contact information at the bottom of the page) to discuss details.
If you have any links to Internet sites covering your program, let us know. We would be happy to post them on our site.
rodneynanney says:
Lee -
Thanks for the post. What a great success story. Were the students’ presentations recorded by chance? If so, they would be great YouTube material to help promote youth in planning.
rodneynanney says:
Dave -
Great ideas, thanks!
Burt Hayes says:
I love to read articles that are informative, Thanks again for a nice site