Justice William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court

To be effective, professional planners must stay up-to-date on the twists and turns of case law involving planning, zoning, and land development litigation.  Fortunately, we Michigan planners have several excellent resources available, including Kurt Schindler at MSU-Extension and Mark Wyckoff‘s Planning and Zoning News.

Our first case summary for the Building Place Notebook is offered below courtesy of Mr. Schindler.  This rezoning case caught my attention because I happened to be there for part of it (early in my career as an entry-level staff planner).  Also, the “Penn Central” test described below is from a “landmark” U.S. Supreme Court case involving regulatory takings, which frequently appears on the American Planning Association‘s AICP certification exam (please pardon the obscure pun)….

(more…)

In the past, the conventional wisdom among too many “urban” planners was that agricultural zoning was little more than a “holding zone” for vacant land, waiting for development at some future time.

Today, there is a growing understanding that communities wishing to preserve the agricultural economy and unique character of our rural places must do more than simply respond and react to development pressures.  Planning for the future of rural Michigan communities is part of the mission of Building Place.  Planning for agriculture should be part of local community planning, whether your community is urban or rural in character.

As part of that mission, we are pleased to promote the upcoming 2009 Planning for Agriculture conference hosted by the Michigan Farm Bureau on January 29, 2009…

(more…)

Too often local elected and appointed officials feel overrun by the fast-moving flames of budgeting, personnel issues, and other public management challenges – to the point that they can do little more than react to the most urgent crisis confronting them.

Action on the “worthy” but not necessarily urgent things that need doing in a community (those that contribute most to achieving their community’s goals and priorities) get set aside or postponed for “another day.”

Economic development was one of those worthy but not urgent things a community needs to do, at least until Michigan’s current recession took hold.  For more officials, economic development has now also been added to “urgent” list, with good reason.

(more…)

UPDATE: Thank you to all that attended our recent conference session entitled “Brevity or Ambiguity: What’s in Your Zoning Ordinance?” Click here for the PowerPoint presentation and links to more information.

ORIGINAL POST:

“Brevity” and “clarity” are not words that leap to mind when referring to the character of most zoning ordinance language.  Local zoning ordinances have a broad impact on residents, property owners and business owners.   Too often the text of such ordinances, having accumulated years of amendments, has become ambiguous and unintelligible.  Clear, brief, and unambiguous writing is a key to developing a zoning ordinance that is easy to understand, administrate and enforce.

State-of-the-art zoning regulations must be well organized and easily understood by those who do not possess advanced degrees in either law or community planning.  Here are the top ten ways for planning commissioners and elected officials to apply the principles of brevity and clarity to a zoning ordinance:

(more…)

Welcome to the Building Place Notebook

Effective community planning is essential to keep your hometown an attractive place to live, work, visit, and play.  Building Place seeks to consistently provide exceptional community planning, zoning, and economic development advisory services to Michigan’s smaller towns, villages, and rural communities.

Communication is key to our success, so we intend to use this blog to keep our clients and friends up-to-date on the latest happenings at Building Place, and to discuss planning, zoning, and economic development in Michigan.  Most importantly, we will have The Zoning Guru on hand for those with burning questions!