New Design project leaders also have begun pressing for substantive changes in state law to encourage uniform planning goals as well as require coordination between jurisdictions. The New Designs for Growth steering committee is seeking additional financing from state and national foundations. Need for the Project For most of the 20th century, the essential images of Northwest Michigan have been its inviting forests, peaceable orchards, and sparkling blue lakes. These treasured attributes are threatened as the next century approaches, since the entire region has been swept up in a powerful economic restructuring. Traverse City is now an influential regional economic center that is generating jobs in record numbers.
Most residents are of two minds about the growth.
A century after the natural frontier was settled, a new economic frontier based on banking, construction, education, medical care, professional services, recreation, telecommunications, transportation, and energy development is providing welcome business and career opportunities in Northwest Michigan. In order for communities to protect their land and their culture, they will need to amass a more extensive database on economic policy and land use management, and establish a much more inclusive public education program to bring in residents, business leaders, and public officials. New Designs has approached both of these issues with a multi-faceted strategy. The local home builder and realtor groups have supported a speaker series, with widely publicized appearances by nationally prominent authorities. Toward an Architecture of Community, have spoken here in the last year.