Survey information will be presented with opportunity for resident questions

The City of Kalamazoo and Kraemer Design Group will host a virtual town hall on Thursday, April 1, at 6 p.m. to answer questions and discuss historic resource surveying work that will take place this spring in the Edison neighborhood. The town hall will be streamed live to the City’s Facebook Page and YouTube Channel.

A panel of staff from the Kraemer Design Group and the City of Kalamazoo will provide information on the survey and what Edison residents can expect. Panelists will also be available to answer community questions about the project. Community members are invited to submit questions for discussion before the town hall by emailing hello@kalamazoocity.org, posting on the Facebook event page, or by calling (269) 226-6573 and leaving a recording the day of the meeting. Questions can also be submitted by commenting on the live stream during the town hall.

The City of Kalamazoo was awarded a Certified Local Government Grant from the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office to complete a reconnaissance level historic resource survey in the Edison neighborhood of Kalamazoo. The survey will be completed by the Kraemer Design Group this spring and will document all the buildings in the neighborhood. Edison residents may see surveyors driving slowly in a car and taking photos or walking in pairs taking photos from the public right of way with a phone or tablet and entering data. A final report will be submitted in the fall and will include photos of all buildings in Edison, a preliminary evaluation of the buildings, and tell the story of the Edison neighborhood’s history.

This survey is part of the larger Inventory Kalamazoo 2022 effort to complete a city-wide historic resource survey. The city-wide survey will be aided by volunteers who will help photograph and document the existing condition of every building in the city that is visible from the public right of way. The Edison survey will be done concurrently with the volunteer-based survey of the rest of the city in 2021 and 2022. Although the Kraemer Design Group will be completing the survey work in the Edison neighborhood, Edison residents who are interested in getting involved are welcome to volunteer as a surveyor in other Kalamazoo neighborhoods and can sign up to volunteer at www.imaginekalamazoo.com/projects/inventory/

About Inventory Kalamazoo

The City’s 2025 Master Plan calls for a complete survey of historic buildings and resources to record and evaluate their condition. This survey will also allow the City to fulfill its requirement as a Certified Local Government (CLG), a State certification that makes the City eligible to apply for grants from the CLG Grant Fund, as well as satisfy obligations to the State Historic Preservation Office and the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

This inventory will not automatically impact any historic designation of properties but will serve as a baseline of understanding for potential historic designations initiated by neighborhoods or through planning projects. The last inventory of this level was completed between 1999 and 2001.

Moving forward, the Imagine Kalamazoo 2025 Master Plan calls for an updated Historical survey every 10 years. For more information on this project please visit the Imagine Kalamazoo website at www.imaginekalamazoo.com/projects/inventory/