Urban Grand Rapids

Let's take a look at the Federally defined Urbanized Area (UZA). This is in contrast to the city, and the generally meaningless Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) which is most commonly cited. The appealing aspect of the UZA is that it represents a geographically contiguous area, usually clearly defined by the underlying infrastructure. It is also fun to say.

So, where is the Grand Rapids UZA?

Micromobility

Use of micromobility service (scooters and e-bikes) has increased 201% between 2022 and 2023. 2022 was a total of 163,690 rides, and 2023 January - August has already seen 262,155 rides.

The "Economic Impact Report of New Americans in Kent County" report was presented to the Committee Of The Whole on 2023-10-24.

The most important slide from their presentation of the report, from an urbanist perspective, is clearly:

UPDATE 2023-10-27: Due to the length of the meeting the discussion of the potential zoning reforms was postponed. What that means for any possibility of reforms which could assist the 2024 building season is not yet known.

UPDATE 2023-11-01: The discussion of the potential zoning reforms was moved from the end of this meeting to the beginning of 👉the 2023-11-09 meeting👈.

As you may already know Corewell Health constructed a new office facility in Monroe North between the Brassworks building and the Embassy Suites hotel. They also dropped ~900 additional parking spaces into the neighborhood - a neighborhood immediately adjacent to the city's commercial core and a neighborhood intended to be a hub for recreation and access to the river. Well, they've come back with phase 2.0 of their plan: it is surface parking lots everywhere. Corewell's intention is turn the entire center of Monroe North into an auto storage facility.

The Planning Commission's agenda for 2023-10-12 is 👉here👈.

You can explore the density, by Census Precinct, 👉here👈

Most of the land area of the city is in the 2,000 - 4,000 souls per square mile range. Of course many things can influence density; land can be used for a variety of useful purposes such as parks, industry, rail yards, and institutions such as schools. And land can be gobbled up by unproductive purposes like highways and country clubs.