Michigan

Zoning limits bills prompt cities and towns to fight Michigan lawmakers

Published

3 months ago

April 10, 2026

Zoning limits bills prompt cities and towns to fight Michigan lawmakers

Mayors and township supervisors across Metro Detroit are alarmed about state housing legislation that they said could result in much denser development that would tax local infrastructure, though advocates argued it would reduce the cost of housing.

The legislation, introduced in February, has pitted local officials against some state lawmakers who contend that Michigan needs to address local regulations that restrict the building of more affordable housing. The bills, now in a Michigan House committee, would allow for smaller lot sizes and smaller setbacks, paving the way for more affordable homes, said State Rep. Kristian Grant.

“What we know is that over the last 20 to 30 years, zoning regulations that may have been well-intended when they started have gone further and further and have really become a redlining tool to keep people out of communities,” said Grant, a Grand Rapids Democrat who is championing the bills.

But local government officials said the bills take a one-size-fits-all approach to zoning across the state and that local infrastructure, including sewer and water systems, can’t support potential increases in housing density. They countered that the bills do not ensure that the new housing will be sold or rented at affordable prices.

Multiple communities, including Bloomfield Township, Clinton Township, Romulus and Sterling Heights, have passed formal resolutions opposing the legislation. Dozens of officials from across Metro Detroit gathered at a February press conference, organized by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, to blast the legislation.

“There’s never been an issue in Lansing in the time that I’ve been working on legislative advocacy that has galvanized our membership and local leaders statewide in favor or against something so much ― in this case, against a bill package,” said Kevin Vettraino, SEMCOG’s director of planning.

The Michigan Municipal League, SEMCOG and the Michigan Townships Association have organized a letter of opposition that more than 2,000 officials across the state and over 100 residents have signed. The issue is about local control, they said.

“We are strongly of the opinion that we are closest to residents and that we should have a say,” Bloomfield Township Treasurer Michael Schostak said. “We have the ultimate say on our issues that impact the local community.”

But Grant argued that zoning is one of the issues that increases the cost of housing. Americans live differently than they did several generations ago, as more families have single parents and some married people don’t have kids, she said, necessitating more housing units.

Grant said her legislative package is not focused on “getting rid of zoning in any kind of way.”

“It focuses really closely on five zoning laws that are very directly correlated to housing,” she said. “It also does not remove local input.”

Not all local officials in Metro Detroit oppose the legislation. Ann Arbor officials support the proposals as addressing the unaffordability of housing by increasing the supply and thus lowering the price.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said the legislation doesn’t eliminate local planning, but rather “ensures that there are minimum levels of housing opportunity everywhere.”

“This package provides a floor,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t provide a ceiling.”

Home builders explain why zoning rules are costly

Zoning rules often make it prohibitive for developers to build smaller starter homes, said Dawn Crandall, executive vice president for government relations at the Home Builders Association of Michigan.

“If they have, say, one-acre minimum lot sizes, … that increases the cost of a home just in the land,” she said.

Crandall said the costs of land and building materials, as well as lending issues, have made home development more expensive. Zoning law changes are “one piece of the puzzle” to increase the state’s housing stock, she said.

“This is just one way that we can look at maybe putting some guardrails and some stability across the state for builders who sometimes build in numerous communities,” Crandall said.

But SEMCOG’s Vettraino said the bills don’t ensure that newly constructed units are affordable. He pointed to a development under construction in Harper Woods that is targeting families earning 60-120% of the area median income. He said that this ensures that the units are “affordable currently and into the future.”

“There is no confidence that the end result of that bill package results in affordable housing, because it gives all the decision-making to the developers,” said Amy O’Leary, SEMCOG’s executive director.

Grant countered by noting that the current low supply of new housing is driving up costs. and. She pointed to Austin, Texas, where a Pew Charitable Trusts article said policy reforms starting in 2015 “aimed at encouraging the development of new housing, especially rentals,” resulted in rents decreasing as more homes were built.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said he hasn’t been able to pinpoint how the package helps reduce the cost of home construction.

The city is already conducting quick reviews of site plans — Dearborn’s site plan guide says reviews take about 20 days — and working on pre-approved housing designs for single-family homes and duplexes, he said. The moves are intended to speed up construction by vetting certain home designs in advance to ensure they comply with local zoning and building codes.

“We are doing all the right things, but the cost of construction is just high,” Hammoud said.

Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight said he’d rather see lawmakers give developers an incentive to build higher-density housing by subsidizing infrastructure costs, such as utilities and roads, that have to be paid before home construction can start. That can cost $100,000 per house, he said.

If legislators can find a way to provide that kind of incentive, McCraight said, “Now you’re talking.”

What the zoning bills say

House Bills 5529 and 5530, which are sponsored by Grant and state Rep. Jennifer Wortz, R-Quincy, respectively, would prohibit communities from establishing a minimum parcel size of more than 1,500 square feet for detached single-family residences served by public water and sewer, according to a SEMCOG summary of the bills.

Grant said land is expensive.

“If we require people to buy large amounts of it for one single-family home, not only does that take away from someone else who could have built on that land, but it prices people out,” she said.

House Bill 5583, sponsored by state Rep. Matt Longjohn, D-Portage, would ensure that the zoning in communities in or adjacent to a Metropolitan Statistical Area, such as Metro Detroit, doesn’t require setbacks larger than 15 feet at the front of a building or five feet at the side or rear. A setback is the space between where a property line starts and where a housing unit is built.

The setback changes would allow more land to be used for housing, Grant said.

Grant’s House Bill 5582 would restrict zoning ordinances from requiring more than one parking space per dwelling unit in a multifamily development. And House Bill 5584, sponsored by Rep. Joey Andrews, D-St. Joseph, would make duplexes “a permitted use” in any zoning district that allows single-family residences.

Developers would be able to submit a proposal for a duplex, but local governments could still set requirements for duplexes, including regarding the design of the building or its parking, Grant said.

“What the bill is essentially saying is that you cannot, off the bat, just make duplexes illegal to build in your community,” she said.

How the proposed legislation would increase housing density

SEMCOG’s Vettraino said the bills don’t specify how the setback sizes and minimum parcel sizes were determined. The legislation would allow 1,500-square-foot lots with homes that are 500 square feet in size and “minimal setbacks,” he said.

“What does this really look like?” Vettraino said. “When you do the math for a single acre, this would result in as many as 29 single-family units on a single acre.”

The legislation doesn’t talk about setting aside land for green space, utilities or infrastructure, but if 30% of the land were reserved for those elements, there would be 20 single-family units per acre, he said.

“This still is far more dense than anything that we currently have in the region,” Vettraino said, adding that Hamtramck is the densest city in Michigan at 18 housing units per acre, followed by Detroit at 12, Ypsilanti at nine and Center Line at eight.

The smallest lot sizes in Sterling Heights are 7,200 square feet, which are typically 60 feet by 120 feet, said City Planner Jake Parcell, which equates to just under six homes per acre.

Sterling Heights City Manager Mark Vanderpool said a few thousand housing units need to be built in the city in the coming years.

“Now, is it smarter to do it in the way we’ve been doing it, or is it better to have legislation that just mandates density anywhere in the community residential areas?” Vanderpool said.

The city manager pointed to the Lakeside City Center project, which will include “a couple thousand” housing units. The project will turn the Lakeside Mall property on M-59 into a mixed-use center, with restaurants, hotels, housing, park space and more.

Officials debate setback concerns

In Oakland County, which is home to hundreds of lakes, officials worried that reduced setbacks — meaning the space between where a property line starts and where a housing unit is built — could put developments too close to wetlands.

Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett said his community has had “major flooding” in recent years — something he said the proposed bills don’t take into consideration.

The Oakland County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution opposing the bills out of committee in March. Gwen Markham, a Democratic county commissioner from Novi, said the setback for wetlands in the county is currently 50 feet. One legislative proposal would allow up to a 25-foot setback from wetlands, inland lakes or streams, and high-water marks for the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair, according to the SEMCOG summary.

“Wetland setbacks protect buildings, whether it’s homes or businesses or public buildings,” Markham said.

“The local officials don’t feel as though you can just tell us across the board, ‘You need to be able to do this.’”

Ann Arbor City Councilwoman Lisa Disch disagreed, arguing that Oakland County could create natural feature protections in its zoning code that would address bodies of water and coexist with the proposed rules.

Macomb officials worry that communities could be ‘upended’

Macomb Township Supervisor Frank Viviano said that when he and his wife were deciding where they wanted to raise their family, they chose an area where they thought they could “get value” and liked the surrounding community.

“Now, if these bills were to go through, the community that I invested to, and the community that literally hundreds of thousands of southeast Michigan residents invested into, could be upended, meaning that we could have a duplex next to us, five feet from our property line,” Viviano said.

Clinton Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem said he and other township officials believe the proposed changes would reduce property values.

“Reducing the value of someone’s home is literally pulling money from them,” Gieleghem said, adding that a family’s single largest investment.

“We are for development and affordable housing options, but where the infrastructure exists to be able to support it,” Gieleghem said.

Kelly Karll, the manager of SEMCOG’s environment and infrastructure group, said municipal engineers are responsible for making sure roads, water, sewer and stormwater lines in an area can safely support what’s being built.

“So when the state overrides local control with one-size-fits-all-type mandates like this, it breaks that connection between development decisions and the capacity checks that engineers are required to make,” she said.

Karll said the bills would allow “major increases” in density in places where infrastructure was sized for a significantly lower level of use.

But Rep. Aragona said he and the other lawmakers are not trying to “overwhelm any type of system.” If they have to amend the legislation to ensure that infrastructure isn’t overwhelmed, they will, he said.

“We don’t want anybody’s basement flooding or any streets getting ruined because … there’s not enough impervious surface or what have you,” Aragona said.

Some opponents are backing another proposal, called the MI Home Program, which was introduced as House Bill 5660 by State Reps. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester, and Samantha Steckloff, D-Farmington Hills.

Under the MI Home Program, the state would spend $160 million annually for five years to accelerate housing construction and rehabilitation and promote updates to local zoning regulations, a Michigan Municipal League document said. The homes built or rehabbed using the state money would be required to be sold to people earning within 120% of the area median income, SEMCOG’s O’Leary said.

“If they want to actually fix affordability, they need to put some funding behind it,” said Orion Township’s Barnett, who supports this bill.

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Michigan

Michigan ‘defined’ by waves of immigration that keep shifting

Published

6 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Press Room

Michigan ‘defined’ by waves of immigration that keep shifting

Immigration has been a defining force in creating the nation’s identity over the last two and a half centuries and continues to shape the country and Michigan as the United States looks beyond its 250th birthday on Saturday.

That was on display in Southwest Detroit during a recent weekend event, as hundreds gathered for the unveiling of a state historical marker honoring a Latina activist.

“Michigan is defined by the efforts and cultures from the waves of immigrants who began to arrive when we were still a territory,” said Laurie Kay Sommers, a folklorist and historic preservationist based in Okemos, who has been writing about Michigan history and culture since the 1970s.

While the state was once shaped by waves of German, Irish, Dutch and Polish immigrants who arrived in the 19th century seeking job opportunities, especially as the auto industry exploded, immigration continues to play a key role in the state’s population.

Immigration is the sole reason the state’s population is growing, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, adding 55,000 residents in the 21st century. Population counts are a key factor in determining how much federal aid flows to states, counties and communities through hundreds of federal programs, according to the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog based in Washington, D.C.

“All the growth in Michigan between 2020 and 2025 is attributable to immigration,” demographer Kurt Metzger said. “In other words, we’ve gotten more people from other parts of the country than the rest of the country got from us.”

According to the American Immigration Council, about 7% of Michigan’s population was born in another country, while another 7% are native-born U.S. citizens but have at least one immigrant parent. Metro Detroit’s immigrant population is even higher at 10.7%.

The Trump administration has sought to rein in immigration, specifically those who’ve entered the country illegally. Heightened immigration and customs enforcement since the start of Trump’s second term, as well as executive orders, have led to court cases and clashes with activists across the country.

Trump touched on the dangers of illegal immigration during his June 24 remarks at the opening ceremony of the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., marking the start of celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“We inherited the worst, most dangerous, most wide open and insecure border in history, and we have quickly turned into the strongest, most secure border in the history of our country,” said Trump, according to video of his remarks posted online by Fox News.

“We are removing murderers, gang members, drug dealers and dangerous criminals by the thousands. They came in through a ridiculous open border.”

How immigration has evolved in Michigan

Still, how Michigan immigrants are reshaping Michigan continues to evolve.

In Detroit, a city once made up of a wide range of immigrants, the southwest side is one of the city’s last ethnic enclaves. Home to thousands of Latinos, it reflects how the contributions of immigrants and their descendants have shaped Michigan even before it became a state in 1837.

The Smithsonian was one of the sponsors of an event Saturday that recognized part of southwest Detroit’s commercial corridor, full of Latino businesses, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In a separate event, about 100 people attended the Sunday unveiling of a State of Michigan historical marker in honor of Dr. Lucile “Luci” Cruz Arellano Gajec, a community organizer, author and historian, who died in 2008.

“It’s well-deserved and long overdue,” said Tobi Voigt, director of museums for the State of Michigan Historical Center, at the unveiling of the historical marker at 4000 W. Vernor.

Latino businesses in southwest Detroit are just one example of the way “Main Street” businesses in Metro Detroit rely on immigrants to own and operate restaurants, hardware stores, dry cleaners and pharmacies, to name a few professions, according to a recent study by nonprofit Global Detroit that explored the immigrant impact on the economy. Global Detroit said it advocates for “equitable local, regional and statewide economic growth through immigrant inclusion.”

The April report, called “Job Creators: How Immigrant and Diverse Entrepreneurs Drive Metro Detroit’s Prosperity,” found that while immigrants comprise 10.7% of Metro Detroit’s population, they make up 12.5% of the workforce, 18.4% of area business owners and 23.8% of “Main Street” business owners.

Like many immigrant business owners, Gias Uddin Talukder, a Bangladeshi immigrant, saw a niche that he could fill to help others in his community. In 2013, Talukder started Bengal Auto Sales, a used-car dealership in Hamtramck, to serve other Bangladeshi immigrants who have formed a community on the border of Hamtramck and Detroit.

“I want to be known as more than just a businessman; I want to be involved in lots of activities,” Talukder said in an interview with the nonprofit New Economy Initiative.

He has given cars away to those in need and has raised thousands of dollars for various charities.

The largest number of immigrant business owners in Metro Detroit were born in Iraq, according to the Global Detroit report. Organizations such as the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce and the Chaldean Free Loan Fund have invested millions of dollars to support start-up businesses within the Chaldean community, as well as services for immigrants and refugees.

The West Bloomfield-based Chaldean chamber said an estimated 59% of Chaldean households own at least one business.

“Immigrants are critical drivers of the small business economy and are well-represented among the region’s business owners despite their small share of the population,” the Global Detroit report said. “The facts rebut tropes that immigrants take jobs from U.S.-born workers. Immigrants expand the economy.”

Changing demographics

Still, data shows that the mix of those who come to Michigan from other countries is changing.

As the six-county Metro Detroit area continued to lose both Black and White residents in the last five years, the region experienced double-digit increases in the Asian and Latino populations.

In 2023, the region’s Asian population of 261,532 residents surpassed the Latino population’s total of 250,215. The latest Census data doesn’t fully capture the impact of Middle Eastern immigrants because, until recently, they were categorized as White. In 2024, President Joe Biden’s administration created the designation of Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) as a new federal race category.

The enduring influence of previous waves of immigration is felt in every part of the state, said Sommers, the Okemos-based historic preservationist. Whether it is the French names of cities like Detroit or Calumet, the former Finnish churches in the Upper Peninsula or the many local bakeries on the west side of the state that sell Dutch or Czech pastries, the impact can last through food and historical architecture.

“Much of Michigan’s surviving 19th and early 20th century buildings were built by immigrant carpenters, brick layers, iron workers,” Sommers said. “Much of the interior artistry of major architectural landmarks were decorated by immigrant artisans.”

Same immigration concerns, but a different century

Immigration at times has also created a backlash in the form of anti-immigration policies, nativist rhetoric and sometimes violence.

Much of the language and immigration policy of the Trump administration echoes the early 20th-century battles to halt the influx of Southern and Eastern Europeans, among others, said Ashley Bavery, an associate professor of history at Eastern Michigan University.

“There’s a lot of rhetoric about how immigrants are going to pollute the good Nordic and Protestant stock of America, and America is going to turn into something, kind of racially, that wasn’t right,” Bavery said. “They’re going to be too many Catholics and too many Russians and Poles, just to name a few.”

The Trump administration has justified its immigration enforcement efforts as an attempt to collar and expel criminals — whom Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has termed “the worst of the worst” — who entered the country illegally while deporting undocumented immigrants it has encountered.

There were federal laws a century or more ago that limited the flow of immigration. In Detroit, during the 1920s and throughout the Great Depression, the city’s police chief teamed up with a local federal representative of immigration services to conduct what they called “a deportation war,” Bavery said.

Bavery is the author of a 2020 book, “Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America’s Northern Border,” that looks at the labeling of immigrants as criminals, among other things. The book examines the policies applied to combat “bootleggers,” the smugglers of Canadian alcohol across the Detroit River during Prohibition, who sometimes would also transport a handful of immigrants on the boats along with the illegal booze.

23.8% of ‘Main Street’ businesses owned by immigrants

The April report by Global Detroit found that while immigrants account for 18.4% of all the business owners in the region, they are 23.8% of the business owners of so-called “Main Street” businesses. Those include supermarkets and grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, gas stations, as well as hotels and motels.

Behind Iraq, India ranks as the second most common country of origin for business owners in Metro Detroit, followed by Romania.

Still, the report found that barriers remain for many immigrant entrepreneurs, especially in accessing loans and grants.

“The region’s economic success will depend, in part, on its ability to spark, attract, retain and nurture a wide range of businesses from a diverse group of business owners,” the report said.

laguilar@detroitnews.com

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Michigan

Thousands without power in mid-Michigan

Published

16 hours ago

July 1, 2026

Press Room

ROSCOMMON, Mich. (WNEM) – Power outages are starting to pop up around mid-Michigan as severe thunderstorms roll through the area.

Consumers Energy is reporting these outages:

Roscommon County: 1,305 customers affected
Ogemaw County: 5,989 customers affected
Iosco County: 840 customers affected
Clare County: 390 customers affected
Gladwin County: 1,187 customers affected
Arenac County: 732 customers affected
Bay County: 222 customers affected

So far, DTE Energy is reporting 94 outages in Huron County.

Click here for the Consumers Outage map and here for DTE.

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Michigan

Whitmer says she will pull Michigan National Guard from D.C. if troops used in Trump’s Safe and Beautiful Mission

Published

1 day ago

July 1, 2026

Press Room

Whitmer says she will pull Michigan National Guard from D.C. if troops used in Trump’s Safe and Beautiful Mission

June 30, 2026 / 11:12 PM EDT
/ CBS Detroit

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says that the Michigan National Guard soldiers heading to Washington, D.C., will only support the America 250 Mission and threatens to pull them if they participate in patrols under President Trump’s Safe and Beautiful Mission.

In a letter to Maj. Gen. Paul Rogers on Monday, Whitmer urges Rogers to “take all necessary measures” to ensure that soldiers only provide public safety and security during events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States.

“If the National Guard is unable or unwilling to ensure the Michigan National Guard is only supporting the America 250 Mission, appropriately defined – and is unable or unwilling to communicate consistent with that fact – then I will end Michigan’s support for the America 250 mission,” Whitmer wrote to Rogers.

The Safe and Beautiful Mission was created under the Trump administration to deploy the National Guard to D.C. in August 2025 as part of a push to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital, despite data showing that crime had declined in recent years.

At the time, local police data showed that violent crime in the area had been declining after a spike in 2023. However, Mr. Trump criticized that data, calling them “phony numbers.”

The deployments drew criticism from officials who opposed the federal government sending the National Guard to multiple cities. In one case, Illinois and Chicago sued the Trump administration to block the deployment of troops. That suit has since been dismissed, with a judge declaring the administration’s orders to no longer be operational.

“Several governors have deployed their National Guard soldiers to support this [Safe and Beautiful] mission. As you know, I have not deployed – and will not deploy – the Michigan National Guard to support the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Mission,” Whitmer said.

CBS News Detroit reached out to the Joint Task Force for comment on Monday and has not heard back.

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