Melissa Milton-Pung is a Policy Research Labs program manager at the Michigan Municipal League. As a Federally-qualified architectural historian, her expertise is in place-based economic development initiatives, historic rehabilitation, and heritage tourism. She holds a BA in Public History from Western Michigan University and a Master of Historic Preservation from the University of Kentucky College of Architecture, where her research created the Commonwealth’s first historic property tax credit. Melissa is also adjunct faculty in Historic Preservation at Eastern Michigan University and a past president of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network (MHPN).
Prior to joining the League in 2017, Melissa spent more than a decade as economic development & historic preservation project manager for Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), and worked in cultural resource consulting.
It's not enough to hope for better neighborhoods. Meaningful policy needs to be enacted to make better places possible. Melissa Milton-Pung and the Michigan Municipal League have been working to give advocates the tools they need to push for zoning and housing reform in Michigan. But the lessons they provide can be applied across the country.
This particular episode covered a large number of fascinating articles and resources. Check them out below.
Press Coverage:
Plan by MML and MEDC could bring more housing options to communities quicker
September 22, 2022 Press Conference
https://www.facebook.com/MMLeague/videos/758557258540932
New partnership draws inspiration from catalog and kit homes to shore up state housing stock
https://www.secondwavemedia.com/rural-innovation-exchange/devnews/Pattern-Book-Homes-22.aspx
Housing experts lay out plan to encourage more infill housing across Michigan
CNU Teams with Michigan Leaders on New Guide to Code Reform
https://www.cnu.org/news/cnu-teams-michigan-leaders-new-guide-code-reform
Resources:
Pattern Book Homes
https://www.mml.org/pattern-book-homes/
Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H Ward Jandl, 1995
America’s Favorite Homes: Mail-Order Catalogues as a Guide to Popular Early 20th-Century Houses (ISBN: 0814320066) 1990
United Way - The ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Project
https://www.uwmich.org/alice-report
The Project for Code Reform (CNU)
https://www.cnu.org/our-projects/project-code-reform
Enabling Better Places: Users’ Guide to Zoning Reform
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