zoning

In response to the currently proposed zoning reforms the city has assembled 👉an extensive FAQ👈; I used data from that document as the basis for the 👉"The Myth Of The Out-Of-State Housing Hoover"👈 post. That post lays out the data making it clear that the phenomenon of out-of-state developers collecting housing en masse has not happened here. Beyond laying that NIMBY trope to rest this document contains some particularly interesting nuggets which are worth calling out.

On the fourth Tuesday of this month (2024-04-23) the City Commission will be voting on the suite of zoning reforms which have been in development since the joint meeting of the Planning Commission and the City Commission in July of last year (2023).

The 2024-04-11 meeting of the City Planning Commission was an update of the current Master Plan process, this being a recap of phase#3. There is one more phase (phase#4) to go.

A key result so far from the process is that the citizens of Grand Rapids understand the need for housing, and are ready for it. In many ways the citizens of this city are out ahead of their leadership, by a considerable distance.

UPDATE 2024-03-12: Zoning text amendment adoption vote [or not] has been moved out to April 23rd, which will be a 7pm evening meeting.

At the 2024-03-05 Committee of the Whole (COW) discussed the proposed zoning / land-use reform proposals from the Planning Commission.

This Thursday (2024-01-25) the Planning Commission will hear the official presentation of a suite of zoning reforms which have been in development since the joint meeting of the Planning Commission and the City Commission in July. As expected, as with any land-use reforms, the opposition has mounted quickly.

UPDATE 2024-01-26: The proposed reforms were advanced to the City Commission unanimously. The stream of the meeting is available 👉here👈. It has been heard on back-channel that the approval of ADUs by Director Review by a typo, and that counter approval of ADUs is the text which will be advanced to the City Commission. Counter approval of ADUs reduces the time of the approval process dramatically in addition to eliminating a ~$1,330 fee.

On November 1st and 4th of 2023 the Heritage Hill neighborhood association hosted two (2) hour sessions related to the Housing "Crisis" and the current round of proposed Zoning reforms. Roughly the first hour of the session was a presentation, by a Heritage Hill resident, on zoning, Heritage Hills' current density, and the current housing market. The second hour was Q&A and the type of table based work-shopping typical of these events.