When he was running for governor, Rick Snyder had a ten-point plan to “Reinvent Michigan”. Point number five was: “Restoring cities and controlling urban sprawl”. Snyder came to the annual Michigan Farm Bureau dinner recently at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus was there too.
Snyder says he wants to encourage brownfield redevelopment and spend money on reconstruction and maintenance, rather than new construction.
Farmers have concerns about having to compete with developers for available land, and groups opposing sprawl want money for new rail projects.