 Observations of the townships around Grand Traverse Bay area of Lake Michigan seems to indicate that local units of government (LUGs) with a population of between 1,000 and 5,000 usually have permanent offices and some full-time staff members, but typically do not employ staff planners and technical professionals.
LUGs with populations greater than 5,000 tend to have professional planners and technical specialists with GIS skills among their full-time staff. The probability of this being so increases in direct proportion to the LUG's population.
Hence for this project, LUGs with a population between 1,000 and 5,000 were earmarked for participation. These LUGs would have a permanent office and staff, but probably with no full-time technical/professional specialists (other than zoning administrators) on the staff.
The townships that eventually agreed to participate in the open source GIS project all fit these criteria, with the exception of Blair Township (population). Most of the project participants were previously acquainted with website author through professional or non-professional associations. The author is a current resident of one of the participating townships (Acme), and a former resident of another (Elk Rapids).
The participating townships are as follows:
 The bulk of the sections of this website will be a showcase of the desktop and web map products from the project participants. These sections will be updated as more products become available from the participants as the project progresses. |
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