Enabling Desirable Neighborhoods - with Melissa Milton-Pung

Melissa Milton-Pung is a Policy Research Labs program manager at the Michigan Municipal League. As a Federally-qualified architectural historian, her expertise is in place-based economic development initiatives, historic rehabilitation, and heritage tourism. She holds a BA in Public History from Western Michigan University and a Master of Historic Preservation from the University of Kentucky College of Architecture, where her research created the Commonwealth’s first historic property tax credit. Melissa is also adjunct faculty in Historic Preservation at Eastern Michigan University and a past president of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network (MHPN).

Prior to joining the League in 2017, Melissa spent more than a decade as economic development & historic preservation project manager for Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), and worked in cultural resource consulting.

It's not enough to hope for better neighborhoods. Meaningful policy needs to be enacted to make better places possible. Melissa Milton-Pung and the Michigan Municipal League have been working to give advocates the tools they need to push for zoning and housing reform in Michigan. But the lessons they provide can be applied across the country.

This particular episode covered a large number of fascinating articles and resources. Check them out below.

Press Coverage:

Plan by MML and MEDC could bring more housing options to communities quicker

https://www.macombdaily.com/2022/10/15/plan-by-mml-and-medc-could-bring-more-housing-options-to-communities-quicker/

September 22, 2022 Press Conference 

https://www.facebook.com/MMLeague/videos/758557258540932

New partnership draws inspiration from catalog and kit homes to shore up state housing stock

https://www.secondwavemedia.com/rural-innovation-exchange/devnews/Pattern-Book-Homes-22.aspx

Housing experts lay out plan to encourage more infill housing across Michigan

https://mibiz.com/sections/real-estate-development/housing-experts-lay-out-plan-to-encourage-more-infill-housing-across-michigan

CNU Teams with Michigan Leaders on New Guide to Code Reform

https://www.cnu.org/news/cnu-teams-michigan-leaders-new-guide-code-reform

Resources:

Pattern Book Homes 

https://www.mml.org/pattern-book-homes/

Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H Ward Jandl, 1995

https://bookshop.org/p/books/houses-by-mail-a-guide-to-houses-from-sears-roebuck-and-company-katherine-cole-stevenson/7295788?ean=9780471143949

America’s Favorite Homes: Mail-Order Catalogues as a Guide to Popular Early 20th-Century Houses (ISBN: 0814320066) 1990

United Way - The ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Project

https://www.uwmich.org/alice-report

The Project for Code Reform (CNU)

https://www.cnu.org/our-projects/project-code-reform

Enabling Better Places: Users’ Guide to Zoning Reform

https://www.cnu.org/sites/default/files/PCR-9-15-18.pdf

Michigan Statewide Housing Plan 

https://www.michigan.gov/mshda/developers/statewide-housing-plan

Michigan Association of Planning Zoning Reform Toolkit 

https://www.planningmi.org/zoning-reform-for-housing

Michigan Association of Planning

https://www.planningmi.org/

Housing Michigan Coalition 

https://housingmichigan.weebly.com/

RSMeans - Construction Cost Estimating Software

https://www.rsmeans.com/