UPDATEThe West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission is a federal and state designated regional planning and development agency serving 120 local governments in Lake, Mason, Muskegon, Newaygo, and Oceana Counties.
WMSRDC is also responsible for the management and administration of the homeland security program for the counties of Clare, Ionia, Isabella, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola, and Ottawa.
WMSRDC is also the planning agency for the metropolitan transportation planning (MPO) program for Muskegon and Northern Ottawa Counties.
James Maike, Chairperson
Newaygo County Commissioner
Sandeep Dey, Executive Director
Amy Haack, Editor
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WMSRDC, with assistance from the Muskegon Area-wide Plan (MAP) Advisory Committee, is in the process of scheduling community forums for the MAP Update. The forums, to be held in October, will be an opportunity for the public to provide input regarding the future direction of Muskegon County. There will be at total of five forums held covering the following topics: Land Use & Growth, Natural Resources & Environment, Economy & Jobs, Infrastructure, and Quality of Life. Stay tuned for more information regarding the upcoming MAP Community Forums. The mission of the MAP is to involve citizens in the shared vision for the future of Muskegon County. For more information regarding the MAP and the forums, please contact Erin Kuhn, Program Manager, at (231) 722-7878 extension 18 or at ekuhn@wmsrdc.org. |
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Rating our Local Road Conditions Interest continues to grow in the Asset Management program ever since WMSRDC expanded its offerings to include the rating of local roads. WMSRDC recently received permission from the Michigan Department of Transportation to rate a number of local road systems. WMSRDC will perform ratings for the City of Grand Haven, Norton Shores, Whitehall, Montague, and Walkerville. In addition, WMSRDC will be rating the local roads for Mason County WMSRDC, along with a local agency employee, will rate the condition of all of the public roads using the PASER rating system. PASER is a visual assessment system that rates the road condition on a scale of 1-10. These ratings are the first step in a planning process known as Asset Management. Asset Management is based on an inventory of each local road network within each of the municipalities and then applying the correct fix or maintenance based on the rating. For more information regarding the Asset Management Program, please contact Joel Fitzpatrick, Senior Planner, at (231) 722-7878, ext. 16 or at jfitzpatrick@wmsrdc.org. |
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Record Number of Clean Air Action Days This Summer So far the 2012 summer Clean Air Action Season has seen 21 Clean Air Action Days for the Muskegon and West Michigan area, surpassing the all-time record set back in 1999 of 20 days. The Clean Air Action program, formerly known as Ozone Action!, began for West Michigan in 1995. WMSRDC partners with others through the West Michigan Clean Air Coalition on the educational outreach program that promotes voluntary actions to help reduce emissions on Clean Air Action Days. The most common reason for Clean Air Action days is a forecast of high low-level ozone concentrations. The amount of ozone generally considered "unhealthy" is a concentration above 75 parts per billion over an eight-hour average span. For more information about the Clean Air Action Program, contact Amy Haack, Program Manager, at (231) 722-7878 ext. 19 or at ahaack@wmsrdc.org. |
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WMSRDC and the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership are nearing completion of a large-scale fish and wildlife habitat restoration project with support from a $10 million dollar National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ARRA grant. WMSRDC’s management of the project, along with the creativity of project engineers and contractor expertise has resulted in cost savings, achieving restoration beyond original grant goals. In addition, the project's economic benefits have been studied by Grand Valley State University, and results indicate that the project will generate $66 million in economic benefits over 10 years, attract 65 000 new visitors annually, and raise property values by $12 million. A recent NOAA study (Edwards PET, et al. Investing in nature: Restoring coastal habitat blue infrastructure and green job creation. Mar. Policy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.05.020) notes that “the 50 ARRA projects administered by NOAA in the first year and half generated a total of 1409 jobs. These habitat restoration projects created, on average, 17 jobs per million dollars spent which is similar to other conservation industries such as parks and land conservation, and much higher than other traditional industries including coal, gas, and nuclear energy generation. This suggests that habitat restoration is indeed an effective way to stimulate job creation.” For more information, please contact Kathy Evans, Program Manager, at (231) 722-7878 ext. 17 or at kevans@wmsrdc.org.
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