For example, the state House of Representatives approved three bills Wednesday requiring local municipalities to adopt open space preservation measures, in the form of ordinances that would allow a landowner to build the same number of units as established by the local unit of government while protecting 50% of the land in an undeveloped state.

Another proposal is the Coordinated Planning Act, Staley says, which would require Michigan communities to create a vision about what sort of people, jobs, and housing will exist there 20 years down the road.

"Somehow, these communities -- cities, towns, and townships -- also will have to figure out how to change their zoning and land-use plans to fit the vision," Staley says.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.