SG-W:/ Sylvan Township

I turned my petitions in to be a candidate for Sylvan Township supervisor yesterday. I'm running as a non-partisan candidate which will be tough but I couldn't bring myself to even pretend to a republican. Since last September, I've been following this e-mail group, going to classes, buying books and reading every thing I can find on land-use-planning. The frustrating part is that I haven't found anything that has ever worked. I've read the personal files of a friend of mine that tried to save some of Canton Township in the early 80s. Nothing worked and he moved up north. The fundamental question is how to stop population density increases and yet be fair to existing landowners. These are the techniques that I see as having potential in Sylvan Township: 1. Large lot zoning (2, 5, 10, 20, 40 acres per house). 2. Buying vacant land for parks. 3. Buying Property Development Rights (PDRs). 4. Zoning with Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs). 5. Encouraging the donation of Land to Parks, PDRs, Conservation Easements, etc. If you know of others let me know. I'm always looking for ways to keep Sylvan Township sylvan. Having heard about a technique is one thing, getting it implemented is quite another. At the moment I'm looking for potential consultants. So far, everyone that I've been exposed to just spouts the party line, collects their fee, and watches sprawl march on. The current township board and planning commission think I'm crazy so the chances of getting anything done before the elections are slim. Dave