Housing Lake Workshop #2 (EVENT #3) OCTOBER 14, 2025

Oct 18

Event #3 Overview

On Tuesday, October 14, 2025, over 60 stakeholders from across Lake County gathered online for the coalition's first virtual workshop. The session featured keynote speaker Leah DuMouchel, Director of Programs and Communications for the Michigan Association of Planning, who presented "Housing Supply, Choice, and Affordability: Meeting Communities Where They Are." She shared Michigan's statewide housing data, practical zoning reform strategies, and real-world examples from Ann Arbor, Traverse City, and Mount Pleasant. Following the keynote, the project team presented comprehensive Lake County housing data, including demographic trends, housing unit distribution, affordability metrics using Area Median Income (AMI), and cost burden analysis across different income levels and subareas.

Building on goals and data needs identified in earlier workshop, participants rotated through four focused breakout sessions examining critical housing factors: mobility and growth patterns, new construction trends, demographic shifts and housing needs, and affordability drivers. Coalition members reconvened to share insights from their discussions, identifying common themes and divergent perspectives across the four topics. Facilitators synthesized the findings and outlined next steps for the coalition's work, previewing upcoming virtual workshops focused on vision development and strategy creation.