By Leah DuMouchel/Director of Programs and Communications, Michigan Association of Planning
Michigan, like every other state in the nation, has long had legislation on the books giving local government the power to make zoning laws. And Michigan, like every other state in the nation, has not implemented any way of tracking what those laws are, when they change, or their cumulative effects.
That is beginning to change, and Michigan is changing with it.
The Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) is developing the “Michigan Zoning MAP”: an interactive display that will show what types of housing are permitted in each zoning district. The project builds on MAP’s deep and longstanding commitment to advancing zoning reforms that increase housing supply, choice, and affordability. As an organization, our acknowledgement of the role that planning and zoning have played in pushing the cost of housing out of reach has driven the development of tools that communities can use to play a role in pulling it back. Since 2020, these tools have included educational summits, two years of housing-focused webinars, publications like our Zoning Reform Toolkit and its companion guide Zoning Reform Stories and Studies, services in collaboration with the Regional Housing Partnerships, and issues of our bimonthly magazine devoted to housing.
The Michigan Zoning MAP (MZM) was inspired by our work in 2024 on a pilot project in partnership with the National Zoning Atlas, a housing-focused map that was built by reading every zoning code in a subject area and reporting on each of the regulations that impact residential uses. Michigan is one of more than 30 states that have contributed to this national map.
Building on the success of this pilot project, MAP is now taking the idea further. The new, Michigan-specific MZM will also include community-level access to the data generated by the research team, allowing local land use decision-makers to combine the zoning and housing information with other datasets to make fine-grained decisions about how and where zoning reforms are possible, feasible, and desired.
The great breakthrough of the public map is that it makes zoning information available and accessible to everyone: investors, employers, housing advocates, and residents in addition to local officials and decision-makers. Many a developer has lamented the productivity lost to the infamous “red tape,” and many a home improver has exited the permitting process with a newfound aversion for interacting with their City/Township/Village Hall. For them, the MZM can take much of the burden off the initial research stage of their project without changing a single regulation or process.
Another breakthrough is the ability to measure the cumulative impacts of the restrictions to housing development that are imposed by zoning. The findings from our early work are grim for advocates of housing choice and supply, and for those seeking a range of housing types at a variety of price points: we’ve built a large-lot, single-family monoculture, and an expensive one at that. But you cannot fix what you do not measure. Ultimately, every community benefits from peeling back this shroud of mystery around the basic rules of spatial organization.
The initial Michigan Zoning MAP will include the three West Michigan counties in the pilot project (Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon), as well as Wayne, Oakland and Macomb. Additional counties are in the pipeline, and MAP is actively recruiting more to be added through 2026. There are a variety of ways to fund these projects, including Regional Housing Partnerships, local and county general funds, foundations, and university partnerships. For more information, email ldumouchel@planningmi.org.
The Michigan Association of Planning, a membership-based organization serving planners, planning officials and land use decision-makers, is a MAC Affiliate. Learn more about the Affiliate program at https://micounties.org/affiliates/.