The southeast corner of Drake Road and Stadium Drive was the focus of a zoning debate.
Lines of separation: How zoning is shaping Kalamazoo by
RAINE KUCH
K
alamazoo Planning Commission meetings are usually sparsely attended, but on a wintry day in January the meeting was standing-room-only. A crowd of hundreds filled both the City Hall chambers and the overflow room. The agenda item that brought out these concerned residents was the very unsexy topic of zoning — specifically, a proposed zoning change that would have allowed a Drive & Shine car wash to be located adjacent to Kalamazoo’s Asylum Lake, a popular recreational and natural area. “When there is a big issue about a beloved property like that, people will come out and speak out,” says Ben Gretchko, a student journalist who covered the event for the Western Herald, the student newspaper at Western Michigan University. 16 | ENCORE AUGUST 2020
Zoning is about borders, and borders can be created to keep something out or to hold something in. Zoning exists partly to keep everything organized in neatly assigned locations: residential (single family, multifamily), commercial (retail, office), industrial, agricultural, and so on. Zoning has shaped Kalamazoo in significant ways and this year has been at the forefront of both community reform and controversy. Along with facing conflict over environmental protection and the completion of housing projects set in motion years ago, Kalamazoo city planners are in the middle of overhauling the city’s entire zoning code for the first time since 2005.
Zoning shapes cities Zoning is a complicated issue for three reasons, says Greg Milliken, chair of the Kalamazoo Planning Commission. First, people do not enjoy change. Second, zoning is not easy for people to understand. And, third, people do not enjoy being told what they can and cannot do with their property. “Put all of this together,” says Milliken, “and it automatically becomes a negative conversation.” Despite people having unfavorable associations with zoning, Milliken says that zoning laws, which dictate how land can be used, were created to promote health, safety and well-being. Some of the earliest examples of zoning go back to New York City
