As part of a new project to bring better road design to Michigan communities, MEC staff members Brad Garmon, Ben Stupka and Jennifer Paul may be tapping on your car window this summer. The team is working to develop a model local ordinance for Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS)-a companion policy to new Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) road design standards demanded by Governor Granholm this winter. CSS seek to integrate the traditional transportation priorities of safety and mobility with community priorities such as character and environmental protection.

Earlier this year, Kelly Thayer from the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) authored an excellent primer on CSS. People and Pavement is available through MLUI or can be downloaded from their web site at www.mlui.org/downloads/flexibledesign.pdf. MLUI's report is helping guide the MDOT into a new design paradigm.

While the state is now on the right path to creating a friendlier road design policy, many of the most contentious projects remain in the purview of local road agencies at the city or county level. MEC staff are investigating these local projects with an eye toward alleviating the pressures between engineers and community members. Their research will be incorporated into a model ordinance development process ongoing in Washtenaw County. There, staffer Justin Weiner is leading a collaborative of local governments, citizens groups and businesses that share concerns over transportation systems and their impact on community development, both positive and negative.

Washtenaw County forms a microcosm that reflects much of Michigan as a whole, with one of the state's most vibrant cities (Ann Arbor) and one of its most challenged (Ypsilanti), and holding 170,000 acres of farmland and 110,000 acres of recreation and forest land. If a CSS ordinance can meet the needs of this diverse population, it should be viable in many other Michigan communities.

At summer's end, MEC will share the stories of local road projects as well as the model CSS ordinance for counties and cities with local officials and community leaders.

Take action! Have you been delighted or dismayed over a local road project? Are you proud of the community for saving the old covered bridge or furious that a new road was ripped through a wetland? We need to know! Contact Brad Garmon at bradmec@voyager.net to schedule a visit by MEC staff and add your two-cents to this exciting new policy!