Groundwork

June 26, 2015

The 20-Year-Old Advocacy Organization You’ve Never Heard Of

The Michigan Land Use Institute celebrated its 20th birthday in an unconventional way: by changing its name. Now called Center for Resilient Communities, Executive Director Hans Voss said he hopes to continue the same nonprofit advocacy work the organization focused on during its first two decades.

BORN FROM OIL & GAS

Groundwork’s roots can be traced to 90 acres in Manistee County. Keith Schneider, a national correspondent for The New York Times, moved full time to his northern Michigan property in 1993. Then an oil and gas landman knocked on his door.

Schneider learned the Antrim Shale was about to be tapped and northern Michigan was going to become one of the biggest natural gas producers in the world.

"I was really surprised by it because, prior to buying this property, I checked where the highways might go, where the transmission lines might go, where any pipelines might go, whether there were new developments in that area," Schneider said. "Remember, I’d been an environmental reporter my entire career, so I looked around to see what land use changes might be in store for that region of Manistee County and there weren’t any. I never thought to check for oil and gas."

Schneider organized a group of neighbors who called themselves the Michigan Community Land Use Coalition.

DO IT BETTER

Even from its earliest days, the nonprofit was not anti-development.

"We never said don’t do it, because natural gas was a fungible economic resource and it was a way to keep farmers’ large lots of ground in tact," Schneider said. "So we never, ever said no to it. We just said, "˜If you’re going to do it, do it better.’" Advocacy soon took over Schneider’s life. "I just didn’t want to be in a position where the Michigan oil industry was calling the publisher of The New York Times and saying, "˜You’ve got a correspondent out here who is asking a bunch of questions and leading a public interest campaign,’" he said.

Schneider resigned from The New York Times in 1995 and founded the Michigan Land Use Institute. It didn’t take long for word to spread about the pragmatic young activist and his new advocacy group.

"Hans [Voss] showed up at the door of our office in Benzonia, which was the one-room schoolhouse in the middle of the village, you know, unannounced," he said. "He just came to the door. He was looking for a job."

Schneider thought Voss was smart and energetic.

"I basically offered him a job, basically on the spot. "˜Do it. Work here. I’ve got no money,’" he said.

START A NEW LIFE 

Voss and his wife Maureen moved to northern Michigan fresh from an around-the-world trip. The couple was looking to start a life.

"We were living in the Detroit suburb of Brighton, recently married, fresh out of college. She was teaching school. I was working for an environmental consulting company doing groundwater remediation projects, mostly in southeast Michigan. We were not thrilled about that lifestyle," he said.

Voss found a kindred spirit in Schneider. He was impressed with the role Schneider played in saving MLUI’s first office, the one-room schoolhouse that would soon become Voss’s home. A developer wanted to tear it down to build a McDonald’s.

"That community was organizing around keeping its historic character on the top of the hill. A network of citizens basically bought the property to prevent McDonald’s from bulldozing this historic structure," he said. "McDonald’s then went down the street by the Shop ’N’ Save, so, no problem."

Voss shared Schneider’s desire to create a new path for environmentalism – one that would attempt to work with business rather than against it.

"I was uncomfortable with the anti-corporate dimensions of the environmental activist movement," Voss said. "So, he described a vision and really looked for opportunities to connect environmental protection with economic development. I came from a smallbusiness-owner family and felt comfortable in partnering with business."

AN INNOVATIVE LEAP

Environmental attorney Jim Olson said Groundwork’s success stems from Schneider’s early, innovative work combining advocacy and journalism.

"Keith put a core group of people together, talented in writing and organizing and journalism, and what they have been able to do is, in a way, merge advocacy with journalism, and they actually tied it to grassroots issues," Olson said.

That means they are able to identify an issue, tell a story, move public opinion and, through that, either directly or indirectly change policy. Olson said they were able to improve state regulation of Antrim Shale oil and gas exploration and affect a long list of other issues. Groundwork currently employs this strategy with Line 5 at the Straits of Mackinac.

"They look at facts and story and science and legal policy before they take positions," Olson said. "When people get it in that way, things happen on their own."

Olson represented MLUI the single time in the nonprofit’s history they filed a lawsuit: a bid to prevent the Hartman-Hammond bypass.

The lawsuit was dismissed, but not before depositions churned up evidence used to convince the Department of Environmental Quality to refuse a permit for the bridge.

TWO REPUBLICANS CAN DISAGREE

Garfield Township Supervisor Chuck Korn, a Republican, is an outspoken proponent of the Hartman-Hammond bypass. He believes Groundwork made its reputation in opposition to the bypass and has been irrelevant ever since.

"There is nothing there that’s unique about them," Korn said. "The primary thing about them is that they duplicate what other people are doing. It’s a job for the people who work there. They create controversy so they can raise funds and get grants."

That’s not a uniform position among conservatives. Bill Rustem, former director of strategy for Gov. Rick Snyder and advisor to Gov. William Milliken, said Groundwork has been effective for two decades in meaningful ways that are hard to measure.

"Whenever you’re doing public policy, public will is important," Rustem said. He said Groundwork has been successful in promoting regional planning, mass transit, protection of special places and sustainable development.

When the Snyder administration developed an economic growth strategy that divided the state into 10 regions, the Traverse City region became the state’s model, in part, because of Groundwork and the Grand Vision initiative, which grew from the Hartman- Hammond debate, he said.

Chris Kolb, president of the Michigan Environmental Council and a former Democratic state representative from Ann Arbor, said Groundwork helped shape the Grand Vision and is now helping see it through. For example, mass transit was identified as something that should be a priority. Groundwork is now leading the call for a train from Ann Arbor to Traverse City.

"What they’ve done is kind of helped to keep the pedal on the accelerator to make sure that it moves forward," he said.

CONFUSED ABOUT "LAND USE"

Bill Ballenger, founder of Inside Michigan Politics, said he’s been aware of Groundwork for almost as long as they’ve been around. He said the group has been good at getting its message out across the state, even if that message sometimes puts people off.

"They’re active and they’re committed and they do a lot of online stuff and emails, and they speak up on environmental issues," Ballenger said. "The really important question in Lansing is, how much of an impact do they have on the legislature? The answer is probably they haven’t had much success – at least recently with a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor."

Ballinger, a one-time Republican senator, said Groundwork is perceived in Lansing as an environmental activist organization. He suspects the name change signals an effort to appear more nonpartisan.

"The term "˜land use’ immediately kind of sets off alarms in the conservative community," he said. "They’re thinking, "˜Who’s kidding who here? These people really want government to play a bigger role on how land is used.’"

LAND USE AS LAND RENEWAL 

In the context of urban renewal or farmland preservation or smart growth, the term "land use" can have nuanced meanings.

"They were an early adopter of using "˜land use’ as a strategy to combat many things we’ve got going here in Michigan," said Dan Gilmartin, executive director of the Michigan Municipal League.

Focusing on land use as a means to solve problems has proven a successful strategy to improve urban centers in Michigan, he said.

"Nowadays, we can have conversations about how you can’t have good rural places without having good urban spaces," Gilmartin said. "That’s something people understand pretty well and I’m not sure they did 10 years ago."

Gilmartin said Groundwork’s proposal for a rail link between Ann Arbor and Traverse City is exciting, and the project could spark a new era of economic development.

"Someday, we’re going to do that project and say, "˜What happened? What took us so long?’" he said.

Gilmartin also credits MLUI with being among the first to talk about the farm-to-table movement.

MLUI labored for years to create a local foods movement. Today, restaurants, grocery stores and food trucks are trying to jump aboard the local food movement on their own.

"That’s the kind of thing that really you wouldn’t have seen 10 years ago, even five years ago," he said.

GROUNDWORK IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Groundwork’s efforts to promote local foods can be seen in its annual Taste the Local Difference publication. They are also evident in local elementary schools.

Meghan McDermott is amazed at the results the farm-to-school food program has produced at Traverse Heights Elementary School.

When she arrived from Chicago two years ago, the FoodCorps service worker met elementary students who had never eaten fruits or vegetables. FoodCorps is a division of AmeriCorps, a national service organization.

"We have lots of great memories of kids saying now they won’t eat sugar before their vegetables again," McDermott said.

McDermott said Groundwork plays an important role in the food program. In addition to providing office space, they pay a portion of the stipend that FoodCorps workers receive and they make connections between schools and farms.

"It’s critical because FoodCorps, as a national organization, really relies on the local organization to make all of this happen," she said.

Amy Six-King, Traverse Heights principal, said she’s watched better nutrition improve students’ alertness and attention spans.

"It’s phenomenal. My students have really embraced the FoodCorps members who come to the school," Six-King said.

GOODBYE MLUI, HELLO GROUNDWORK

Schneider – today an international environmental activist at the Traverse City-based Circle of Blue – has slowly come around regarding the name change.

"A year ago, I offered a word of concern and I haven’t said a word since," Schneider said. "And I’m a grownup and I think it’s a nice name. I wish Groundwork Center the best, but – as the guy who named it and founded it, you know, you can imagine – I have somewhat of an ownership of that name and would have liked to have seen it continue."

Schneider spoke at a May event at The Franklin in Traverse City when the new name was unveiled. Voss said the name change came from necessity.

"I would talk to people and I would say, "˜Yeah, I’m with the Michigan Land Use Institute,’ and they would just look at me and wonder what I was talking about and I’d stop and slow down and I would say, "˜Well, let me tell you about what we do,’" he said. "When we looked at what was most important to our success, which was building constituency, we recognized that the name was still a barrier to the accessibility of the organization and recruiting more supporters, more advocates to our work. We knew the time had come – we had to make a shift."

What is Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities?

Groundwork is a Traverse City-based nonprofit organization with a $1.3 million budget that advocates for local food, promotes clean energy and champions a rail link between Traverse City and Ann Arbor. They’ve also helped lead a campaign calling for the decommissioning of oil pipe Line 5 at the Straits of Mackinac. Over two decades, they’ve fought against the Hartman- Hammond bypass in Grand Traverse County, joined a coalition that lobbied for Great Lakes beach access, fought to prevent gas drilling on Great Lakes bottomlands and argued for smart growth across Michigan.