“What do Planners do?”

The Zoning Guru has been asked variations of this same question many times.

Urban Designer… Developer… Zoning Officer… Master Planner… Planning Commissioner… Elected Official… Grant Administrator… Advocate the public interest… Department Manager… Consultant… Teacher… Coordinator… Downtown Redevelopment Specialist… etc., etc.

Planners wear many hats, and specialize in many areas of community building. Here is The Zoning Guru’s first attempt at…

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Welcome to our new Building Place Notebook readers from Planetizen.com!

We at Building Place are celebrating a couple of milestones that made us smile this week, thanks to our readers:  Our Building Place Notebook online newsletter received its…
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The following case summary was adapted from one prepared by Kurt Schindler at MSU-Extension; excerpts reprinted with permission from the author. The Zoning Guru chose this case because it answers the $Million question elected officials face when confronted with a development-related lawsuit:

“Do we defend our master plan?“

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The term ‘spot zoning’ does not appear in the compiled laws of the State of Michigan, and is rarely mentioned in local zoning ordinances.  Spot zoning is a legal concept determined by judges or juries ruling on individual cases, so the meaning and interpretation of the concept can vary considerably from place to place.

Justice Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court

The most common response I’ve heard to the question “What is spot zoning?” is an echo of Justice Potter Stewart’s quote about pornography:  “I can’t tell you exactly what spot zoning is, but I know it when I see it.”

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Ask The Zoning Guru

• A planning commissioner with a burning question about your zoning ordinance?
  
• A zoning board of appeals member wrestling with a difficult decision on a variance petition?
  
• …or are you just looking for a clear answer to your zoning conundrum?
  

You’ve come to the right place. The Zoning Guru is here to help.

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For many living in Michigan, Thursday, August 14, 2003 was the day we truly experienced the “inky blackness” of a night without artificial outdoor lighting – as the Great Northeast Power Blackout of 2003 left parts of the northeastern United States in the dark for a day or more.

The Zoning Guru was one of those people who learned that week how much we rely on artificial light at night.  We also got a brief glimpse of many stars that we no longer see in the night sky due to light pollution from parking lot lighting and other exterior light sources.

Exterior lighting serves a wide variety of purposes, including:

• attracting attention (advertising),
• entertainment,
• aesthetics (such as landscape or architectural lighting),
• safety and security,
• warnings of danger, and
• illuminating our paths.

When overused or poorly shielded, however, such lighting dominates the night sky, blotting out the starts and leaving the characteristically orange glow of light pollution over urban areas.

Can we do anything about light pollution? …absolutely.  Do we need to cut the power again? No, but we do need to make smarter and more efficient decisions with regards to our exterior lighting choices if we want to restore the night sky in our urban and suburban neighborhoods… (more on this and an upcoming free lighting presentation on March 10th below)

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Three types of land divisions are permitted under Michigan law:

Land developers “created” the most recent type of land division using Michigan’s Condominium Act (Public Act 59 of 1978, as amended) to establish a popular form of development known as:

1.  Site condominiums.

In addition, the Land Division Act  (Public Act 288 of 1967, as amended) allows two more “traditional” types of land divisions:

2. Subdivision plats; and

3.  Metes and bounds or “unplatted” lot splits.

This article will focus on metes and bounds land division, which is a method of describing land using:

• references to the Michigan township and range system and county division;
• local geographic characteristics;
• a point of beginning (and ending) of the legal description, which must “close” to form a polygon;
• directions of bearing (compass directions and degrees);
• distance measurements along parcel boundaries; and
• land area enclosed by the legal description.

This is the basis for many rural legal descriptions of property, which may look something like this: (more…)