Relying on key portions of the recommendations set forth by the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council in 2003, Sen. Patty Birkholz (R-Saugatuck) is attempting to clean up the contentious legislative quagmire of the Land Division Act. While the Leadership Council identified four major changes to be made to the Land Division Act, Sen. Birkholz is currently only addressing the Council's interest in shortening the plat review and approval process in her legislation, SB 1416.

The bill will allow a land proprietor to request a preapplication review meeting, which would include the governing municipality and a representative from each county agency that is entitled to review the plat. This includes the drain commission, the road commission and the county public health department. Essentially, this revision would allow the proprietor to review his/her concept plan for a given site before he/she commits to drawing up a preliminary plat and bringing it to the governing planning body.

In exchange for this move towards intra-organizational coordination, the proprietor would be able to use an expedited final review process. Instead of each agency approving a final plat sequentially, it will be done concurrently, thereby shaving anywhere from 15 to 45 days off the approval process.

Although this is a significant improvement in the timing of approval processes, which begins to hint at coordinated planning as well, it does not address other major concerns with the Land Division Act, including Leadership Council Recommendations to remove the automatic ten-year redivision authorization.

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