By adopting new zoning practices that promote population density and mixed-use clusters, Grand Rapids planners have been able to focus on the way property is used, spurring revitalization in targeted areas and best use practices for lands and neighborhoods.
According to excerpts from the story:
Do you ever get the feeling when you walk by a parking lot that the cars are like rows of cadavers, the dead headlights staring back at you like the damned eyes of the departed? Does it make you feel empty and tired to know that those cars will at some point be turned on and driven back to big, spidery subdivisions, sucking up $4 per-gallon gas along the way, only to be parked again in cavernous garages?
Don’t you wish that parking lot was an apartment building filled with life, with good restaurants, bars, bookstores, coffee shops and — God — anything but rows of parked cars?
When Suzanne Shultz, the city of Grand Rapids’ planning director, talked about these things to a room of about 30 at the Central United Methodist Church in downtown Lansing Friday, the vibe was like, “Thank God she said that.”
Read the complete story here.
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