Zoning of Kalamazoo

The City of Kalamazoo is dedicated to ensuring a vibrant city with many opportunities for our community members to enjoy. With the rise of severe weather around the world due to climate change the United States, and other northern nations across the world, will be seeing a rise in immigrants due to our mostly favorable weather conditions. Michigan specifically is among the best-suited to handle dramatic weather shifts due to climate change because of our geographical location, access to fresh water, and less extreme average weather events. Due to this, it is highly likely that Michigan and surrounding states will experience an influx of climate-migrants and the City of Kalamazoo will be prepared for the sake of our native citizens and for the sake of citizens that will be joining our community in the coming years. 

One way the City will prepare is through the zoning ordinance. Zoning is a pivotal point in the way our city is developed and how the city functions. Zoning influences where people work, shop, and most importantly, live. Our zoning code specifies how many families can live on one plot or in one residence which will be crucial in welcoming migrants into our community and can foster deeper relationships between previous residents, new residents, and our city. Currently, Kalamazoo is divided into ten common zone districts: Neighborhood Node District, Live-Work 1 District, Live-Work 2 District, Downtown 1, Downtown 2, Downtown 3, Commercial Node, Community Commercial District 2, Community Commercial District, and Institutional Campus. These districts have different restrictions, requirements, and are helpful in defining development throughout our city (see Sheet 1).

The zone districts of note are N-Node, LW1, LW2, D1, D2, CC2, and to a lesser extent D3, C-Node, and CC. To explain the importance of each district and how the City will use each district to welcome new residents in this paper will be broken down by district. 

The N-Node district is important to creating a welcoming community as it focuses on promoting infrastructure that allows for walkable mix-use areas. Mix-use areas are usually building-dense areas that allow for commercial use on the bottom, or ground, floor while permitting the residential use of non-ground level floors. The mix of these use types allows for high pedestrian traffic with people shopping, eating, and working on the ground levels and a steady level of citizens using the area as “home base” as they live above these shops, restaurants, and office spaces. A high density of people in a small geographical space results in more social mixing and the bonding of the community as people create routines. It is hard not to form a connection if residents are seeing the same barista every weekday before work, or even through the course of years seeing the same people in the same shops. With the N-Node's focus on walkability and creating inviting public spaces the City is fostering a sense of community through the use of patterns and people’s need for connection. 

The zone districts of LW1 and LW2 will be lumped together as they focus on the same thing at different scales. The difference between the two districts is that LW1 is more centered around neighborhoods (residential feeling) while LW2 allows for more commercial and light industrial uses to be mixed into these neighborhood-like spaces. LW1 and LW2 are important to creating community through their specific use of residential space. N-Node is highly focused on the mix-use aspect of commercial and residential space while LW1 and LW2 mostly promote residential use with lighter forms of commercial and industrial uses, meaning these uses are not as disruptive or intergraded in the daily life of the area. These areas are neighborhood-focused which allows for the building of specific communities like families who have children that go to school together, or young people developing out-of-office friendships with coworkers. This is highly important for immigrant families to be able to connect to other native families in fostering relationships between households but specifically immigrant children who can allow for a stronger root system to be developed in this new community. 

D1 and D2 are highly important because of their promotion of mix-use spaces. These districts have the same basic function as N-Node so I won’t go into detail on why mix-use is vital to community building; however, it truly cannot be overstated how important intensity levels are to creating a vibrant, strong community (intensity levels being a mix of density and use. High intensity would mean a high population density in a relatively small geographic area and lots of activity, while low intensity would be akin to urban sprawl). D3 is of lesser note as it focuses less on retail, service uses, and storefronts and more on civic mixed use – though all three districts promote walkability and community-based commercial activity (such as festivals and events).  

CC2 is placed on a higher scale of importance to climate migration because it focuses on small- to medium-scale commercial and mixed-use development. This is important to incoming families that are looking to start small businesses, possibly out of their homes, as this area focuses on smaller commercial uses that be integrated with residential-uses while the CC district focuses on large-scale commercial development and C-Node focuses on supporting the redevelopment of medium-sized commercial centers as a way to promote better flow between large-scale commercial use and residential areas. 

The City of Kalamazoo takes great pride in how committed we are to ensuring our community is welcoming to all. The City has made countless changes to the zoning ordinance in hopes of promoting an uplifting space that immigrants will be drawn to and welcomed into. The latest zoning ordinance promotes mixed-use in almost all common zone districts to endorse community building and strengthen bonds between residents; however, the City also ensured that there were different districts to accommodate different lifestyles. The mixed-use promoted in downtown areas is not suitable for a large family but it would be the perfect area for a young person to start a new life in Kalamazoo, while the live-work districts foster a more neighborhood-like feel that might be more comfortable for family groups. It is the mission of the City to support and welcome any new face that is willing to join our community and to also strengthen ties for our native community to the city they know and love.  

Figure 1 shows a breakdown of each common zone district with the name of each district on the left and the definition of each district on the right. The definitions are largely from the City of Kalamazoo’s zoning ordinance while the table was made by the author of this project.