Land Transfer Background

January 1999

For some time a committee of GVMC has been discussing processes and products that encourage local units of governments to cooperate, especially in that area of land use. The committee, the City-Township Cooperation Committee, produced a set of policy statements in late 1996 that provided an overriding philosophy on land use issues. That set of statements promoted the concept of local governments being mutually interdependent and stressed the need for planning on a multi-jurisdictional basis. The statements also promoted elements of utility regionalization, the development of an urban services district and/or an urban growth boundary, and considered the cooperative sharing of regional revenues and resources.

During 1998 the group took additional steps to address more specific steps to encourage cooperation when local units are faced with decisions relating to annexation, detachment and other forms of land transfers. The committee heard from legal experts on these issues and considered current state statutes governing local options. The members moved toward the concept of a set of standards, or a defined process, that local governments be encouraged to follow when and if a request for a land transfer is received. The cornerstone principle agreed to by the Committee members, and which is fully incorporated in the attached "Land Transfer Standards" is that all land transfers only be by mutual consent of the municipal parties involved.

With that overriding concept, the standards provide for local units to make commitments to work together to arrive at a mutual satisfactory solution to a land transfer issue by joint planning, joint decision making, joint development agreements, by adopting a set of criteria for evaluating the issues and to seek mediation prior to any legal or State Boundary Commission action being commenced.

The Committee fully endorsed the belief that the best solutions are those that are developed and agreed to by mutual action of the parties. It is the firm belief of the Committee that communities which follow the recommended procedures incorporated within these Standards will indeed arrive at a mutual solution, a solution which may or may not include an actual land transfer. It should also be noted that the Committee greatly encourages all local units to begin a cooperative planning process with neighboring units. It certainly is not necessary to wait until a request for a land transfer is received prior to cooperative planning efforts with the neighbors. All cooperative initiatives between and among local units are encouraged and highly recommended.

Those persons who have served on the City-Township Cooperation Committee and who have made major contributions to these Land Transfer Standards include the following: Larry Silvernail (Byron), Don Hilton (Gaines), Sharon Steffens (Alpine), Marsha Bouwkamp (Grand Rapids Township), Frank Campbell (Hastings), Jim McIntyre (Cannon), Jose Blanco (Wayland Township), Jim Buck (Grandville), Jon Aylsworth (Greenville), Jay Cravens (Cascade), Tom Dempsey (Sparta), Bill Hardiman (Kentwood), George Heartwell (City of Grand Rapids), Henry Hilbrand (Georgetown), Kurt Kimball (City of Grand Rapids), Leon Uplinger (Algoma), Leon Van Harn (Hudsonville), Michael Young (Rockford), Ron Howell (Cedar Springs), Bob Homan (Plainfield), George Haga (Ada), Cindy Heinbeck (Alpine), Don Mason (Wyoming), Frank Sessions (Tallmadge), Ruth King (Plainwell), R.J. Poel (Georgetown), Don Knottnerus (Walker).