Environmental policy and environmental engineering graduate students from the Spring 2004 SS5200 Environmental Decision Making class developed land-use planning resources for the Houghton County Planning Commission (HCPC) as their course practicum. The resources included additional analysis and sorted versions of the comments made by residents of each city, village, and township in the county as part of the 1997 “Shaping Our Future” survey .

The HCPC and individual units of government received copies of the resources developed. Funding to support the class project and additional work by the instructor and two of the students came from the Americana Foundation and the HCPC, with matching funds from the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation.

“Shaping Our Future” Survey Sorted Comments, by Community
Comments (except summaries) are reproduced exactly as written by respondents to the 1997 Houghton County "Shaping Our Future" Land Use Survey who identified themselves as residents of each community. General comments not identified with any survey statement were sorted into 33 categories during survey analysis (survey respondents were not aware of these categories).

Some general comments that address more than one topic are divided into the appropriate categories. All local governments and libraries received full survey results in 1998. Local governments received the comments from their residents’ surveys; general comments were not sorted into categories at that time.

Adams Township
Calumet Township
Calumet, Village of
Chassell Township
Copper City, Village of
Duncan Township
Elm River Township
Franklin Township
Hancock, City of
Hancock Township
Houghton, City of
Laird Township
Lake Linden, Village of
Laurium, Village of
Osceola Township
Portage Township
Quincy Township
Schoolcraft Township
South Range, Village of
Stanton Township
Torch Lake Township
Unknown Residence