Ann Arbor Greenbelt Initiative

For a relatively small city, Ann Arbor, MI, is a happening place—urbane and collegiate, but also earthy and unpretentious. Downtown denizens can drop into any number of bookstores or listen to live music at one of the city’s annual festivals. Along the Huron River, University of Michigan students unwind between classes, while others jog and throw Frisbees.

You need a farm infrastructure to run a viable business, and as farms disappear, the market for farm equipment dealers and suppliers shrinks. Farmers here fear falling below a critical threshold that’s needed to keep that infrastructure in place.

- Mike Garfield, Chairman, Greenbelt Advisory Commission.

Summary

The Fund is working with the city of Ann Arbor to assist in implementing a unique and vital greenbelt program. We will continue to work with our partners, including The McKnight Foundation, to provide project management support, stewardship planning and outreach with local landowners.

Challenge

In recent years Ann Arbor has slowly become a victim of its own success. Suburban sprawl has threatened much of the rural heritage that gives southern Michigan its charm, while also jeopardizing the city’s distinct downtown character.

Solution

In response, the Fund is helping to implement the Ann Arbor Greenbelt Initiative, a far-reaching project designed to protect and link city parks, natural areas and working farms throughout the city, while curbing the growth and effects of sprawl.

Results

Over the next three decades, the initiative is expected to raise $80 million through taxes and state and federal incentive programs, which will be used to purchase land and development rights both within and outside the city limits. To date, the Ann Arbor Greenbelt Initiative has received more than $1.7 million in federal matching funds from the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program to purchase the development rights from five working farms.

The initiative has spawned other conservation efforts as well. In addition to the city of Ann Arbor, four out of the eight townships within the Greenbelt District have voted to protect farmland and open space inside their borders, thus allowing the jurisdictions to leverage their investment in the initiative for even greater returns, both economic and environmental.