Unplatted land division's effects on resource productive lands : a study of the Michigan Land Division Act

For nearly thirty years, the Subdivision Control Act of 1967 (SCA) was the state statute that governed land division in Michigan. The SCA allowed for an indiscriminant pattern of large lot, rural land division that challenged, if not destroyed, viable land resource production. In 1996, the Michigan Legislature passed the Land Division Act (LDA), which repealed and replaced the title and certain sections of the SCA. The LDA attempts to eliminate many of the results that the former statute had on rural land by establishing fewer division before platting is required and offering incentives to retain greater percentages of the parcel being partitioned. This research examines the current efficiency of the incentives, to retain 60% or more of the original parcel, in Eaton and Montmorency counties, which represent two scenario locations. The findings reveal that the incentives have not been utilized in Montmorency County and minimally utilized in Eaton County. Those unplatted land divisions that utilized the incentives, commonly referred to as "bonus" parcels, are located in rural regions, with predominantly agricultural land cover, in proximity to urbanized areas. The results indicate that the incentives under the LDA have been minimally applied and have not yet helped retain significant portions of resource productive land in Michigan.Department of Urban PlanningThesis (M.U.R.P.