In 2013, the Michigan Sense of Place Council, representing numerous state agencies under the direction of Governor Snyder, engaged in a partnership with Smart Growth America to provide technical advisory services to six communities of Michigan pursuing livable communities initiatives. The six communities were the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), ReImagine Washtenaw (Washtenaw County), the TriCounty Council of Governments, the City of Grand Rapids, the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments, and the City of Marquette. As part of the Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities program, the program seeks to coordinate federal funding directed to housing, transportation, and other infrastructure in communities to create more livable places where people can access jobs while reducing pollution and also saving time and money.

The assistance was in two primary areas – community mobility management and strategic transportation demand management (TDM). The focus of the effort for the Washtenaw Avenue corridor livability effort was on TDM. Through regular collaboration with a diverse group of corridor stakeholders, and building off of existing institutions and transportation assets, the task was to develop an implementable strategy for managing the growth of local traffic demands on the corridor to support and enable the revitalization vision of ReImagine Washtenaw. Uniting the four independent jurisdictions of the City of Ann Arbor, Pittsfield Township, Ypsilanti Township, and the City of Ypsilanti, ReImagine Washtenaw establishes a unified vision to create a series of active nodes along the major state arterial corridor. The vision is for walkable centers united by quality transit and enhanced urban design and place‐making offering housing, employment and retail opportunities to a wide diversity of people.

The project progressed in three distinct stages: 1) review of national leading practices and assessment of existing local resources and opportunities, 2) discussion of alternative approaches and strategies, and finally 3) development of an action strategy for implementation. This report is the culmination of these three phases and their associated findings.