Kalamazoo’s Environmental Concerns Committee voted to ask the City Commission to create new green space and conservation zoning districts.
The Kalamazoo Environmental Concerns Committee voted unanimously on August 19 to recommend the City Commission direct city planning staff to establish two new zoning classifications — a green space district and a conservation district — and report back on progress within six months.
The recommendation follows a detailed request from a board member of the Asylum Lake Preservation Association who told the committee during public comment that Kalamazoo currently has no base zoning category reflecting green or ecologically sensitive land. He said the city’s existing Natural Features Protection overlay still permits development on the underlying zoned land, while a dedicated conservation district would shift that default, requiring developers to justify departing from conservation status rather than requiring residents to defend individual parcels case by case. He pointed to land such as the Asylum Lake Preserve corridor and Oakland Memorial Beach Park as examples currently sitting in residential zoning that he said doesn’t reflect how the land is actually used, and cited Ann Arbor’s greenbelt and blue belt programs as models worth studying. The association’s letter to the committee made three specific requests: draft both zoning districts, reflect the designations on the city’s future land use map, and identify which parcels citywide would benefit before bringing a draft framework back to the community.
Committee member John Eric Kreuzer, who led the discussion, said the proposal aligns with goals already established in the city’s sustainability plan, climate action plan, and the Imagine Kalamazoo 2035 visioning process, as well as the City Commission’s prior declaration of a climate emergency.
After discussion about whether a six-month deadline for completed zoning changes was realistic, the committee amended its motion to instead request a progress update within six months, rather than requiring the ordinance changes themselves be finalized in that timeframe. The committee voted to send the preservation association’s letter to the City Commission along with its own recommendation.
