Working Waterfronts in Michigan

Michigan Working Waterfronts needs your input

Come and discuss jobs, economy, natural resources, visual and recreational access to public waters, tax policy, transportation and other topics at the Michigan Working Waterfront conference scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, March 17 and 18 at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing.
 
Michigan has a competitive edge - our Great Lakes coastline. The limited number of places we can access our public waters for things like fishing, transportation and recreation are incredibly significant places.
 
Working waterfronts allow citizens to access the Great Lakes without owning coastal property, provide jobs through tourism and shipping and add value to the heart of our coastal communities. The Michigan Working Waterfronts conference will cover the importance of keeping those places accessible to the public, how we can better plan for sustainable points of access and what supporting working waterfronts can do for local areas as well as the state.
 
Other coastal states like Maine, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama have been dealing with similar challenges to water access and working waterfronts for several years. In fact, the issue was so significant that 70% of the voters in the State of Florida passed a state constitutional amendment in 2008 to protect working waterfronts by continuing to do tax assessments at current value in working waterfront areas.



Presentations (PDF)

Working Waterfronts

For a general overview of working waterfronts in Michigan see our December 2008 article