Yesterday, during a special meeting, the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development made changes to the Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs) by making language changes to say land is not suitable for livestock if the area of the community is primarily residential (defined as more than 13 homes within 1/8 of a mile of the animals, or with any home within 250 feet of the proposed facility) that do not allow for agricultural use.  This would still allow a local community to have an ordinance allowing livestock within their community in these areas if they choose to do so. This makes it clear there is no Right to Farm protection in these types of areas.

After much testimony from many small farm operations with concerns, a vote was taken and language passed by the Commission.  There was discussion on having the committee through their annual review process discuss more urban type issues and density requirements.

As an additional result, the League and Michigan Townships Association have been asked by the Commission to communicate any concerns we hear about from our local communities to the Commission so they are aware of what issues are out lingering and any unintended consequences these changes may have made.  I would encourage you all, as you work through any urban farming issues, to please pass those concerns along to me so I can be sure they get to the Commission.

The League is supportive of this change and allowing the local communities along with it’s residents decide what might be suitable in their own communities, especially in residential neighborhoods.  We look forward to continued work with Commission and MDARD staff on these types of issues in the future.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development and land use issues. She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

With the summer months soon coming upon us, it is not too early to start considering a Labor Day bridge walk in your community. Every year the Michigan Fitness Foundation encourages Michigan communities to host a Labor Day Community Walk to demonstrate their commitment to physical fitness and community involvement.

Labor Day Community Walks are an opportunity to showcase unique parks and recreation spaces in each community and in the past have included activities in public trails, parks and local bridges. These events give residents a local opportunity to participate in Michigan’s tradition of community unity through physical activity on Labor Day.

Every year more than 50,000 Michiganders travel to the Mackinac Bridge to celebrate Michigan’s tradition of physical fitness by participating in the Labor Day Bridge Walk. While not everyone is able to make the trip to the bridge, the Michigan Fitness Foundation would like to give all residents an opportunity to get active on Labor Day.  Each year the Michigan Fitness Foundations encourages communities to get active by hosting local fitness events on Labor Day weekend in conjunction with the Mackinac Bridge walk and run events.

By hosting a Labor Day Community Walk your community can inspire community unity and physical activity during this holiday weekend. We encourage a route length of approximately 5 miles and, if possible, incorporate a community bridge, although communities are welcome to tailor the walk to their unique area. Host communities will receive free promotional materials, a guide to creating and hosting a community walk and can use the Governor’s Council logo on all materials. In addition, your event has the opportunity to be endorsed by the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports. Endorsed events will be promoted by the Michigan Fitness Foundation in order to increase participation and obtain media coverage.

This year Labor Day Community Walks will take place on Monday, September 1, 2014. We hope that you will consider making your community a part of Michigan’s Labor Day tradition. To learn more about the walk, please visit http://michiganfitness.org/labor-day-community-walks. To register your community and receive free support materials, please e-mail marketingevents@michiganfitness.org with the following information:

• Contact name
• Contact number
• Contact e-mail
• Community name
• Location and name of walk
• Description of event
• Number of people expected to participate

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development and land use issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

The International Downtown Association (IDA) will be holding their Midwest Forum in Downtown Grand Rapids May 5-6, 2014.  The conference has been designed to be distinctly different and memorable.  Attendees won’t be stuck inside convention and meeting spaces – they’ll be moving between six progressive topical sessions held inside the offices and intuitions that are collectively working to build and rethink the Grand Rapids community.  The focus will be issues and opportunities facing Downtowns that include talent attraction, innovative public engagement, growing support for local businesses, positioning arts and creative institutions to change the cultural landscape, transformative projects and techniques, and much more…

To explore these topics, a lineup of more than 20 speakers has been assembled, including:

• Richard Saul Wurman (Tuesday keynote) – Founder of the TED Conference, and so much more..
• Rick DeVos – 3^rd generation philanthropist and architect of the world-renowned ArtPrize and Start Garden
• Mike Berne – International retail planning expert
• Jeannette Pierce – Grassroots talent attraction guru at D:hive
• Chris Muller – Citizen advocate working to change the shape of the Grand River
• Scott Page – Principal of the APA’s recipient of the 2013 National Planning Award for an Emerging Planning and Design Firm
• Sarah Filley – Co-Founder of PopUpHood
• Lyz Crane – Deputy Director, ArtPlace America

See all the detail and the full list of speakers here.

Registration is only $175…

Questions? Contact David Downey (ddowney@ida-downtown.org) or Debbie Young (dyoung@ida-downtown.org) of IDA.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development and land use issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

The House Local Government committee took testimony this week on HB 4024 (Rep. Heise, R – Plymouth).  This would lock borders of charter townships of 20,000 or less by not allowing annexations.  This piece of legislation has been introduced for the past few sessions.  It stems from an annexation issue between Northville Twp and the city of Livonia (although the city of Livonia didn’t play an active role in the annexation).  The annexation was ultimately turned down by the voters but the goal of the sponsor is to prevent this type of “hostile annexation” to happen again between a more urbanized township and a city.  We testified in opposition to this as did the Michigan Association of Realtors.  The Michigan Association of Home Builders is opposed as well.  There will be workgroups on this starting next week and continuing through the summer months.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development, land use, and municipal services issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

On the final session day of Sunshine Week, the House passed HB 4001, a bill that makes numerous changes to the FOIA law, making it more costly to comply and more punitive for local units of government if a mistake is made.  The bill passed in bipartisan fashion, 102 supporting and 8 opposing.

The House passed version of the legislation is here.  While we recognize this version is improved from the introduced version, we still have a number of concerns with it and remain in opposition.  Additionally, there are many punitive damages for local units of government who are abusing FOIA or those who may have made a mistake in processing but there is nothing in the legislation to address abuses on the other side.

This bill now moves onto the Senate. I would encourage you to contact your Senator and relay the impact this will have on your communities to them.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305. 

Today, the House Commerce Committee passed House Bill 5097, a bill that would exempt police and fire from PA 54 so they can have retroactive pay increases after a contract expires. In 2011 the legislature passed a number of reforms to help employers control costs and be better stewards of taxpayer resources. One of the, if not the, most significant reform was to prohibit retroactive pay increases after a contract has expired. This game changing statute, PA 54 of 2011, has helped communities settle contracts more quickly and provides more certainty in municipal budgets. Passage of HB 5097 would be detrimental to our ability to settle contracts quickly and efficiently.

I urge you to contact your legislators to let them know how detrimental this carve out would be. The arguments the public safety groups use for supporting this bill are that the number of PA 312 filings would proliferate and the legislature only intended this bill to impact teachers.

According to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission there were only 43 PA 312 filings in 2013 as opposed to 69 in 2011. PA 312 filings are significantly lower than they were before enactment of PA 54.

In addition, even if the legislature only intended this for teachers, it has been a game changer for municipal budgets, and it’s critical that we keep this tool to allow local units the opportunity to settle contracts expeditiously and save taxpayers money.

We appreciate all the members who have already contacted their lawmakers on this issue and we hope others follow their lead. It is critical that you please contact your legislators and ask them to OPPOSE House Bill 5097. You can find the contact information for your Legislators here.

Samantha Harkins is the Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League.  She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at sharkins@mml.org

The National Main Streets Conference is coming to Detroit in May and the Michigan Main Street Center is calling all hands on deck to ensure a great conference experience by all.  Nearly 200 volunteers are needed from May 17 to the 22 to provide support and assistance throughout all areas of the conference.  Because of this, the Michigan Main Street Center is looking to local municipalities and those working on downtown development to meet the challenge.

Check out the link below for a complete list of volunteer opportunities that range in time, commitment, location, and training.  Volunteers committing more than eight hours of time at the conference will receive a 50% discount in registration costs.  All volunteers will enjoy swag, an on-site reception and the peace of mind knowing that they helped contribute to the best National Main Street conference to date!

Volunteer Spot Link

For questions regarding volunteer opportunities or the National Main Street Conference in Detroit check out www.preservationnation.org/msconference or email events@nmsdetroit.org.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate of the League handling economic development and land use issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

The Senate passed SB 631, a bill that would give local communities the ability to regulate carrier pigeons (currently they are not allowed to so).  The local community cannot ban them but could regulate them.  A resident in Allen Park testified in support of this legislation given the situation she is forced to live next to (200 carrier pigeons in a residential neighborhood, pigeons less than 30 feet from her home).  The city offered free land for the owner to house the carrier pigeons, which he refused.  The smell and feces droppings are affecting the resident’s quality of life surrounding the owner.  This bill would allow a local community to regulate the placement of these pigeons.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development and land use issues.  She can reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.   

HB 4487, a bill to allow Downtown Development Authority funds to be used for creating and operating a marketing program for local agricultural (think local farmer’s markets), passed out of the full House of Representatives yesterday.  The DDA act does not currently prohibit this type of activity but the sponsor (Rep. Stacey Erwin Oakes, D-Saginaw ) wanted to make it clear that it is allowable.  An additional hope of the bill sponsor is that this legislation would bring to light the ability of DDAs to do this and thus they would begin partnering (or create) with their local farmer’s market in an effort to make it more vibrant.  The MEDC is supportive of this effort to create strong farmer’s markets.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development and land use issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.  

The Senate Energy and Technology Committee heard testimony this week on SB 493 (Sen Rick Jones), a bill prohibiting a local unit of government from adopting an ordinance that deals with amateur radios (called HAM radios) and prohibits locals from restricting antennas of amateur radios to heights below 90 feet unless they make certain proofs and sets unreasonable standards.  The League along with Tim Wolff, village manager for Lake Isabella, testified in opposition.

The HAM radio industry indicates they are codifying what the federal government already requires.  However, we feel this legislation takes that a few steps further because the federal guidelines do not have a 90 foot preemption or require the local unit of government to have “clear and convincing” evidence as to why they deny a HAM radio.

We do understand the importance this technology plays in safety when all other systems go down.  However, we have multiple concerns with this legislation. First, we have a concern for the preemption of local control.  These towers can be unsightly and can drive down the property values for those around, especially if not properly maintained so we need to ensure that the local unit of government is able to have a say in where they are placed so the location makes sense for the community.

Second, the League is concerned about the safety and property of those property owners surrounding the antenna.  Should that antenna fall, it should not be large enough that it cannot fall on the same parcel of property.  This would help ensure neighboring structures are protected and help minimize private property damages.

Third, we have concerns that the language in this legislation does not address collocation.  We wouldn’t want to see these amateur radio towers being used to host other things such as TV dishes.

We look forward to working with the sponsor and the industry to see if a solution can be agreed upon.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development and land use issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.