New Urbanism Arrives In Northwest Michigan

A special report by the Michigan Land Use Institute, "Going to Town: New Urbanism Arrives in Northwest Michigan", documents newfound interest among the area's developers and government officials. The report -- the subject of four community meetings in northwest Michigan over the next four weeks -- found that rising gas prices, escalating traffic congestion, and a rapidly growing population both wary of and eager for a healthier lifestyle, are fueling that interest.

Today traditional-style neighborhood or town center developments are being planned, are already rising, or are now full of satisfied residents not only in larger towns such as Traverse City, Manistee, and Petoskey, but also in villages like Empire and Harbor Springs, and even rural townships like Acme. Some are "infill" projects, built on old brownfield sites; others extend a town's existing neighborhood street grids; still others transform greenfields into bustling new centers of commercial, public, and home life.

All of them draw on a new vision for building neighborhoods and downtowns called New Urbanism. Whether this trend again dominates housing patterns in northwest Michigan -- after decades of suburbanization that many longtime residents find worrisome -- depends on whether more newcomers can be convinced that their vision of living out in the countryside can become instead one of living in a town where the countryside is close by, gorgeous, and carefully preserved.