Imagine Flint – A Master Plan for a Sustainable Flint

Undertaking a planning effort the scale of which the City has never experienced, the Flint community is developing it first comprehensive plan in nearly 65 years – Imagine Flint. The Master Plan, developed by Houseal Lavigne Associates, focuses on the neighborhood unit as the essential and most important community building block, the City of Flint is forging a new direction for the community that has lost 50% of its population in the last 50 years (from 200,000 to 100,000). A central feature of the Imagine Flint Master Plan is the use of an innovative ‘placemaking’ approach to land use planning that builds on the idea of establishing unique and desirable places.

The City of Flint is in the process of updating its zoning ordinance and the placemaking approach has enabled a more seamless integration of land use and development regulations with Master Plan recommendations. The place types identified in the Land Use Plan are now serving as the foundation for future zoning districts and form-based overlays that together, prescribe the desired development, permitting it to occur in appropriate areas throughout the City.