Mission

In recent years, Michigan has experienced a period of unchecked growth, resulting in pressure to build more and larger roads to accommodate urban sprawl. These proposed roads threaten to irreversibly alter the natural beauty and environmental health of some of Michigan's most cherished places, including Petoskey and Traverse City.

ELPC has joined forces with the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) to create the Michigan Transportation and Land Use Reform Project. This project is focused on creating and implementing innovative solutions to contain sprawl and diffuse traffic congestion which will secure the happiness of Michigan's citizens and the health of its environment.

 

Bye-Bye Bypass

A recent decision by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to pull the plug on a $90 million bypass there ensures the historic, coastal town of Petoskey, Michigan will remain "the most beautiful spot in Michigan."

After more than a decade of federal studies and discourse with local residents to build a 10-mile-long, four-lane highway around this resort town of about 6,000, MDOT announced a “no build alternative,” citing challenges from local citizens, local government and various environmental advocacy organizations like the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) and ELPC. Not only that, but MDOT offered to provide funding and support for a transportation plan for the area’s increasing traffic congestion.

 

Hartmann-Hammond Bridge Victory Near in Traverse City, Michigan

ELPC and our partner and client, the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI), won a major victory when the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) denied a wetlands permit for the Grand Traverse County Road Commission's plan to build a 4- to 5-lane road and bridge project through the pristine Boardman River Valley.

This Hartmann-Hammond Bridge is the remaining keystone portion of an earlier proposed 30-mile bypass around Traverse City, which ELPC and MLUI stopped in August 2001. The proposed bridge would destroy wetlands, harm the Boardman River, which is a blue-ribbon trout stream, and induce sprawl in the Boardman River Valley, near Traverse City. ELPC and MLUI have proposed a positive "Smart Roads" alternative, which focuses on upgrading the existing Cass Road Bridge and adjacent roads. This smart growth approach would be more effective in addressing traffic congestion in the Traverse City area, and is less costly from both an environmental and financial standpoint.

 

Detroit Intermodal Freight Terminal

The Detroit Intermodal Freight Terminal (DIFT) in southwest Detroit proposed by the Michigan Department of Transportation would likely increase air pollution and truck traffic significantly in a neighborhood that is already subjected to these harms. This increase in pollution and traffic, along with the displacement of homes and businesses required by the DIFT, would threaten the healthy development that has been taking place in this corner of Detroit - the only neighborhood where population has been increasing and community revitalization has been really taking hold.

Michigan DOT's original plan was to expand the existing 300-acre Junction Yard intermodal freight terminal into the 895-acre DIFT in order to increase freight facility capacity in the Detroit metropolitan area. However, many local activists believe that this purpose can be better achieved by improving, not expanding, Junction Yard and three other existing intermodal facilities in the metro area. ELPC has been providing legal, policy and strategic assistance to these local activists in an effort to block the DIFT proposal.

ELPC believes the Michigan DOT's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project fails to adequately analyze the air pollution-related health impacts and environmental justice impacts, does not objectively consider no-expansion alternatives, and neglects to address possible strategies for mitigating the impacts of the DIFT. At a recent meeting, the DOT provided general details about its current preferred alternative - which would expand the Junction Yard by 210 acres, as opposed to the initially proposed 595 acres - but said specific and crucial information such as the number of trucks using the expanded facility and mitigation steps would not be provided until the Final EIS is released in March 2007.

While the DOT's currently chosen alternative is preferable to the initial proposal, ELPC remains concerned about the air quality and environmental justice impacts of the project, and strongly questions whether there is truly a need for the expansion at all. ELPC will continue to monitor the situation and work with local allies, such as Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) and the Ecology Center, to determine the appropriate next steps.

Traverse City

ELPC successfully worked with the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) to stop the Michigan DOT and the Grand Traverse County Road Commission (GTCRC) from building a 30-mile highway bypass around Traverse City. In June 2001, Michigan DOT cancelled most of the bypass project and returned the $3 million in federal funds it had received to study the project. This victory was due in large part to ELPC and MLUI identifying serious legal shortcomings in the planning process for the bypass and generating opposition from government agencies and local residents.

Unfortunately, the GTCRC is proceeding with one portion of the bypass proposal, a plan to build a four to five lane road and bridge project through the pristine Boardman River Valley, approximately one mile south of Traverse City. The so-called Hartman-Hammond Project would destroy wetlands, increase water pollution in the Boardman River, and serve as a catalyst for sprawl in the largely undeveloped valley. There is a cheaper, less environmentally destructive and more effective alternative: renovating and upgrading the existing Cass Road bridge and adjacent roads.

ELPC is working with MLUI, the Traverse City law firm Olson & Bzdok, and local environmental groups to challenge the Hartman-Hammond Project in state court and before the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which will ultimately decide whether or not to issue a wetlands permit for the project.

Petoskey

In September 2002, ELPC and MLUI achieved a major victory when the Michigan DOT permanently canceled its proposal to build a multi-lane highway bypass around Petoskey. The proposed bypass would have destroyed acres of wetlands and farmland, undermined Petoskey's historic downtown business district, and brought sprawling development to the largely rural townships south of the city.

In canceling the bypass project, the DOT also took the unprecedented step of offering to fund a local transportation planning process. This process presents an opportunity to demonstrate the merits of local transportation and land use solutions to local transportation and land use problems, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all highway bypass solution that the DOT recommends far too often.

Context Sensitive Design

ELPC is assisting MLUI in efforts to persuade Michigan DOT to reform its transportation planning process through the adoption of Context Sensitive Design (CSD) standards. CSD is an approach to road project design that fully and actively involves local citizens and leads to projects that (1) fit with the character of the local community, (2) minimize impacts to environmental, historic, scenic, and aesthetic resources, and (3) provide access for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. CSD calls for a rejection of the traditional approach to road design, which, by focusing almost exclusively on high design speeds, future traffic projections, and safety, all too often leads to projects that consist of multi-lane highways with wide lanes and little consideration for the local community, the environment, or other modes of transportation. ELPC believes state Departments of Transportation should revise their existing highway design standards and adopt strong CSD policies.

Transportation and Air Quality

Seventeen recent scientific studies have documented that individuals living within 500 meters of areas with high car or truck traffic have increased risks of various health problems such as asthma attacks, lung cancer, heart attacks and stroke. These localized air quality-related health impacts should be carefully studied as part of the transportation planning process in urbanized areas. This is especially true in southeast Michigan, where the Michigan DOT is considering three major transportation projects: a proposal to widen I-94 in Detroit to the equivalent of 20 lanes, a proposal to widen I-75 in Oakland County, and the DIFT project discussed above.