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Michigan Communities Rise Up to Stop Sprawl

October/Novemebr Issue, 2006

Along with everything else on this year’s election ballot, local communities across Michigan will be voting on whether to tax themselves to stop sprawl.

Boosted by the success of last year’s Ann Arbor greenbelt millage and Ann Arbor Township farmland preservation millage, several communities have posed similar questions to their residents. The Ecology Center is actively working on two of these campaigns -- in Scio Township, just west of Ann Arbor, and in Brownstown Township, in the Downriver area near Flat Rock.

In Scio, citizens are voting on a ten-year millage to save open space and farmland, and which could leverage additional funds from Ann Arbor’s greenbelt program. Half of the township lies in the greenbelt district, and the City has indicated that properties that provide matching funds stand a better chance of being selected than others.

Brownstown residents will also be voting to preserve some of the area’s finest open space, which has come under increasing assault from developers in recent years. Most notably, Brownstown is home of the Sibley Prairie, one of the most ecologically significant sites in the region, and the target of recent development proposals.

Land preservation millages will also be considered by voters in Oakland County, Clinton County (near Lansing), the Traverse City area, and by five adjacent townships in Antrim and Grand Traverse Counties.

 


Update:

Scio Township approved Proposal J, the open space preservation millage, on November 2, 2004. It passed with the support of 75% of township voters. In Brownstown, the open space millage did not pass; 43% of township voters supported the proposal.

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