Walking into a community meeting packed with angry residents can be intimidating. As the chair of the local planning commission, zoning board of appeals, or other community development body, the stakes are even higher. These local leaders are asked to guide timely decisions that shape the future and appeal to the needs of a diverse audience.
This event is unlike any workshop or conference available in Michigan. The Michigan Land Use Leadership Academy focuses on what it takes to play an effective leadership role in guiding land use decision making in your community. The weekend format provides an intensive hands-on opportunity to interact with local leaders, like you, from throughout Michigan.

Develop Leadership Skills
What makes a person an effective leader? Leadership is a skill set and a process that results in positive change. The Michigan Land Use Leadership Academy will help you develop the skills to be an effective leader for your planning and zoning body and community.

Because the Future is Too Important
It’s too easy to sit back and wait for problems (or solutions) to arrive at the planning commission door step. It is the role of the commission or board chair not just to execute administrative chores but to provide leadership to develop creative solutions to difficult problems. There has never been a more crucial time for leadership in Michigan. The Michigan Land Use Leadership Academy will provide the skills leaders need to move the community forward efficiently, effectively, and ethically.

A New Direction
Unlike traditional planning and zoning workshops, the Leadership Academy will focus on the “how” of leading a board or commission through the process of effective meetings, making decisions and shaping a community vision. Using a learn by doing format the Academy will provide hands-on skill development in:
• Facilitative Leadership
• Running Effective Meetings
• Parliamentary Procedures
• Budget Development
• Visioning
• Community Engagement
• Conflict Management
• Legal Compliance
Using small teams, participants will work together throughout the weekend to apply leadership skills directly to a case study common to planning and zoning.
Never before has the unique combination of leadership training, skill development and peer mentoring been offered exclusively for local planning and zoning board chairs in a condensed weekend format.