MSU Extension Planning

The Michigan Planning Enabling Act (MPEA) grants local units of government (townships, villages, cities, and counties) the authority to create planning commissions and master plans. In 2024, the MPEA was amended by PA 153 of 2024 to add housing related requirements for master plans. The amendments impact three different sections of the MPEA, Section 7 (MCL125.3807) on what should be considered in a master plan, Section 15 (MCL125.3815) on planning commission membership, and Section 33 (MCL 125.3833) on required parts of a master plan. The amendments build on Michigan’s focus on understanding and meeting our housing needs as seen in the 2022 Michigan Statewide Housing Plan and ongoing activities of the 15 Regional Housing Partnerships. This article briefly explains the changes made in those three sections and offers suggested next steps for communities.

Purpose of a master plan

Section 7 of the MPEA outlines both the purpose of local master plans and the minimum criteria they must meet to guide development within a planning jurisdiction. Among these criteria is a list of issues that must address, from which the MPEA requires one or more to be selected for inclusion in the local master plan (MCL125.3807(2)(d)). This encourages local governments to plan for fire, light and air, civic design, efficient use of funds, recreation, transportation, and more.  For more on this, see the Michigan State University Extension article by Brad Neumann titled “Minimum contents of a master plan.”

Public Act 153 of 2024 amended this section to add “A range of housing types, costs, affordability, attainability, ages, and other characteristics, including single- and multiple-family dwellings, to serve the housing demands of a diverse population” to the list of things that a master plan should promote or adequately provide for (MCL125.3807(2)(d)).

Planning commission membership

In Section 15, the MPEA sets the membership requirements for planning commissions, including a subsection detailing how the membership of a planning commission should be broadly representative of the “important segments of the community…in accordance with the major interests” (MCL 125.3815(3)). The MPEA then goes on to list those major interests: “agriculture, natural resources, recreation, education, public health, government, transportation, industry, housing, and commerce” (MCL 125.3815(3)). PA 153 of 2024 amended this section to add housing to the list of major interests to be considered in planning commission membership.

Future development considerations are required parts of a master plan

Section 33 of the MPEA provides more details on what local communities must include in their master plans. Of relevance here is Section 33(2) that list subjects “that reasonably can be considered as pertinent to the future development of the planning jurisdiction” (MCL 125.3833(2)), and if they are, they must be included in the community’s master plan. These include things like transportation systems, wastewater and water systems, public utilities and more.

PA 153 of 2024 amended this section to add one more item to the list of subjects that could be reasonably relevant to the local community and therefore included the master plan. Now the language “An assessment of the community's existing and forecasted housing demands, with strategies and policies for addressing those demands,” (MCL 125.3833(2)(e)) has been added to the list above.

For more details on what should be in a plan, please see MSU Extension’s “Checklist #1F: What Should be in a Master Plan,” updated in 2025 to reflect these amendments.

PA 153 of 2024 also made minor language changes to the MPEA that did not substantively alter the statute, including improvements to readability like replacing the word “shall” with “must” and updating references to other statutes when needed.

Examples of planning for housing in Michigan

The Michigan House of Representatives Housing subcommittee heard testimony on these amendments to the MPEA during the legislative process, explaining that most local governments were already including housing in their master plans before these new requirements went into effect. There are a variety of approaches to take when planning for local housing needs. A selection of master plans from around Michigan with explicit sections on housing are linked below.

• City of Marquette (Marquette County) Community Master Plan (2024)
• City of Portage (Kalamazoo County) Portage Forward Together Master Plan (2024)
• Alpine Township (Kent County) 2023 Master Plan
• East Bay Charter Township 2023 Master Plan
• Oshtemo Charter Township 2023 Housing Plan

The Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) has captured examples of Michigan communities advancing their housing goals in their resource titled “Zoning Reform Stories and Studies: A Companion to the Zoning Reform Toolkit.” MAP also has several trainings available on planning for housing available for local communities.

Next steps and resources

An easy first step communities can take is reviewing how their master plan addresses housing. Does the current plan provide for a range of housing types to meet the population needs and to satisfy the changes to Section 7 of the MPEA? Are there analyses of the current and future housing demands as called for by Section 33? This could easily be incorporated into the recommended annual review of master plans or the statutorily required five-year review. For more on that process, see MSU Extension’s “Checklist #1H: The Five-Year Plan Review,” updated in 2025 to reflect these amendments.

From there, communities can decide if the master plan needs to be revised or rewritten. The MPEA sets some minimums but also allows communities flexibility in the exact details of what goes into a master plan. Communities that decide to amend their plan may find MSU Extension’s “Checklist #1I: For Adoption of an Amendment to a Plan” useful. Those seeking to adopt a wholly new plan may want to review MSU Extension’s “Checklist #1G: For Adoption of a Plan in Michigan.”

Communities will also want to consider if the housing segment is represented in their planning commission membership per the changes to Section 15. Planning commissions may also want to consider amendments to their bylaws to reflect the amendments as well. Any such amendments should be made in consultation with the ordinance adopted by the legislative body that created the planning commission. MSU Extension’s “Sample Bylaws for a Planning Commission” resource includes such language around membership (See Section 2.2.i).

MSU Extension has several resources to support local communities as they go through a master planning process. If you have questions about any of these materials or would like to schedule training for your community, please reach out to your Michigan State University Extension local land use educator.