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Local Township Report
February 05, 2005
Not much to report out of Holland lately. The Baker Lofts development is close to passing its final few hurdles in government. I hope he starts marketing them soon, so I can take a look at them.
Ethan, you make a good point about Laketown developing much differently than Holland or Park Townships. However, one thing you don’t really see is the actual reason for Laketown (and Fillmore) Township’s lack of greenfield development - a lack of water and sewer mains. The City of Holland refuses to grant more water from their system to either township, unless the city gets to annex some land. This, in effect, is a forced urban growth boundary on the south side of Holland. This is great for those of us on the south side, but, it also won’t stop growth if Laketown or Fillmore ever get their own water system (and Fillmore is designing one right now).
So, in reality, if we don’t do something now to change the goals of the Township Boards and Supervisors, we’re going to see Fillmore Township and some of Laketown Township start to look much more like Park Township.
Holland Township is an issue unto itself. I don’t know what to say about it anymore… what can be done now?
A few other townships to take note of: Zeeland Township is growing at a very fast rate, so it’s one of the new townships to watch. Port Sheldon Township has seen more growth lately as well, but mostly massive, large lot homes east of the power plant. Finally, Olive Township has seen alot of growth coming from Zeeland and Holland Township. But, they seem to be the most level-headed when it comes to expecting future development and focusing the growth, i.e., Smart Growth. They intend to develop Borculo as a more traditional downtown, focusing almost all new growth in the Township into that area. It’s an exciting idea, and hopefully it comes true.
You are right though Ethan. We need to find candidates to back in the various townships that support smart growth strategies. This isn’t easy. The township system in Michigan is rife with old-timers and people set in their ways. Furthermore, since Michigan allows easy voter recall, many township boards are extremely worried about upsetting citizens and being voted out of office, so they make their decisions based on keeping their own hides intact. Also, Michigan township voters have the right to call for a public vote on certain planning issues, so boards often just do things so that the public won’t fight.
The biggest issue we need to fight is the mentality of most citizens in the Holland area. Many, many people wouldn’t understand why they shouldn’t be driving their big SUVs around town. It’s their right! It will be touch to convince people that focusing growth and doing Smart Growth is not a negative thing. Planning is not a way of stopping economic development. We need to educate our fellow citizens. That must be first and foremost if we are to change the way the Holland area develops in the future.
Posted by paul at February 5, 2005 10:52 AM
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Brandon said on February 25, 2005 01:18 AMCan't we just wall-off Holland Township? It's so over... Watch it build-out wastefully and decline... look at any inner ring Detroit suburb, and that will be Holland Township in 50 years... actually Holland Township will probably be worse; at least they still tended to use a grid back then. Unlike real cities and towns, nobody will actually care when that place crumbles; it was nowhere to begin with. Oh, and just wait for the gas to start running out! Hiking to Best Buy? If Best Buy can even sustain itself... we'll have bigger issues by then, but I'll leave this to Kunstler.