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.
Shelterforce recently developed a six part series on ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). While there is currently no hope of meaningful zoning reform in Grand Rapids, MI I believe this remains a critical topic to track as ADUs should be the clearest path for residents to invest in their own neighborhoods - right on their own property.
