Imagine Cass Project Village of Cassopolis: Small, Rural, and Exceptional

Community: Village of Cassopolis
Population: Under 6,000

The Village of Cassopolis undertook the monumental and courageous task of charting a new identity. The Imagine Cass Project sought to transform the entire community, stop the perpetual decline and unite, for the first time in decades, under the core principles of community vision, cost-effectiveness, collaboration, citizen-led change and the principle if you invest in yourself, others will invest in you.

We asked this community to Imagine Cass.

Then we began Embracing The Vision.

The sweeping transformation included a redesign of the downtown streetscape including light poles emitting free wi-fi and playing music, a new beach including a 230’pier, an outdoor amphitheater and concessions, a lakeside boardwalk to connect public spaces, new municipal complex, creation of the Southwest Michigan Advanced Research and Technology Park and a comprehensive overhaul on the image and pride of the residents.
The Village has completely transformed into a vibrant, sustainable, rural and exceptional community!

Replicability:

The Village of Cassopolis is a community of 1,690 people that started with a team of four of us at Village Hall with a hope and a prayer when we kicked off the Imagine Cass project with our community. We believe we are a model for replication for communities of all sizes and scales. The impact and execution are clear and it can be broken down into a few simple principles.

People, Investment and Courage.

• People. Surround yourself with good people and good things will happen.

Build your internal team – the leader, the numbers cruncher, the local hero, the friendly face and the ace in the hole. Then, build your external team; collaborate with your schools, businesses, churches, daycares, non-profits, Chambers, local economic development groups, artists, historians, students of all ages past and present, and your residents. Join your MML’s, MME’s, ICMA’s, AWWA’s and keep learning from colleagues in this state, around the county and the globe. Finally, find your cheerleaders, the ones who will continue to cheer you on, champion everything you do, and pick you up when things are tough – every community has a few, find yours and keep them close.

Build the momentum.

• Investment. Invest in yourself and others will invest in you.

Convincing others that if you invest in yourself, others will invest you, simply put, is a foreign concept in many communities. You have to ask and you have to invest. You must address the things that are visible to your residents: your streetscape, your downtown lighting, your parks, the flowers that you hang in your downtown, the availability of broadband, and whatever assets are unique to you (we had a lake in our downtown!). But you must also address the things people can’t see like the - water, sewer, and storm water. You have to be creative when you want to make a major investment. As municipals, we are tasked with doing more with less, so start with putting your financials in order. Then start looking for some grant dollars - at the Village, we partnered with MSU SBEI, MEDC, RRC, MNRTF, RTF, CMAQ, CEDAM, and the EDA to name a few, to help fund our various initiatives. We pulled bonds to cover the difference and figured out a way to do all of it without raising taxes.

• Courage. Have the courage to move your community forward.

Have the courage to ask your residents and the greater community around you what is great and what is terrible about your community. Have the courage to listen to the harsh criticism and still create a vision of something better. Start with a couple of small projects that builds on your momentum and begins to spark the trust from your community that something might actually happen this time. Then, have the courage to execute the vision and make the transformation. You will drive further investment into your community and create a community that your residents can be proud of, your businesses continue to invest in, and encourages graduates to return home.

Creativity and Originality:

What makes the Imagine Cass project creative and original is that this wasn’t just one or two amazing projects, this was a complete community transformation filled with unique, fun, collaborative projects that completely transformed who we were as a community. We took the Village of Cassopolis from being described at our first community event in 2018 as dying, tired, rundown, ugly, sleepy, boring, drab, trashy and disgusting to what the community Imagined for their future, a community that was vibrant, beautiful, quaint, alive, charming, inviting, connected and thriving. We worked to bring creative elements and projects into our community that balanced our need for economic growth and prosperity, with what our community imagined and the overall well-being of our residents, all while trying to capitalize on our natural assets. A few of our favorite elements that we believe are the most creative and original from our transformation are:

• 76 color changing led street lights that emit Wi-Fi, play music and have internal irrigation
• 18 digital led banners
• 25,000 square feet of pavers including a custom Compass
• 2,200 new plantings
• 230’ long ADA accessible pier which includes fishing areas, transient boat slips and an open end to go jump into the lake from
• Custom fabricated architectural archway with quotes creating a memorable gateway into the beach
• Taking an abandoned road and creating a year-round usable, free community space that included a new beach in our downtown with food truck row, an amphitheater, custom designed swing tables and benches, a free life jacket program, free WIFI, the fish shaped bike rack and the Stone Lake Monster paddleboat
• ADA Boardwalk connecting our downtown that can be used by walkers and bikers including fishing platforms and lookout areas
• Free monthly community events including Beach Bash and Rock the Block concerts at the beach throughout the summer, Stone Lake Ice Fishing Tournament, and Christmas in Cassopolis Community Celebration
• Playground area designed by our elementary school students
• Benches created with recycled aluminum with QR codes to the story of their origin (Norway) in partnership with our newest recycled aluminum business
• Southwest Michigan Advanced Research and Technology Park (SMART) which will provide access to robust electric, fiber, rail and solar allowing companies to work towards lowering their carbon footprint.

Community Impact:

The Imagine Cass community transformation project has had, and continues to have, a significant Community Wealth impact. This project is currently engaged in five of the six categories including Public Health, Arts and Culture, Financial Security, and Infrastructure and Sustainability.

Public Health

As a small, rural, low-mod community, quality of life disparities can be seen just by driving through our community. In recognizing these disparities, the Village has tried to provide opportunities that are central to improving the residents experience in the community. Recognizing the need to provide a more pedestrian friendly community, the Village instituted a streetscape design that reduced traffic lanes creating traffic calming through town, added bike lanes, and a boardwalk that takes you past the lake. Creating a public beach area that included the pier, public amphitheater, and pedestrian plaza created a central gathering hub and sense of belonging for residents within the village. This area provides kayaks, paddleboards paddleboats and free life jackets to residents to be active out on the lake. It also includes areas for fishing, enjoying live music, church services, weddings and community wide events.

Arts and Culture

Two new custom murals were placed into our community including a Welcome to Cassopolis mural and a salute to our Veterans mural. We added downtown light poles that play music, have digital banners and emit wi-fi. We have continued old traditions and started new traditions like Beach Bash, Rock the Block summer concert series, the Ice Fishing Bowl and Christmas in Cassopolis which along with our new Farmers Market collectively continue to build the social fabric in our community.

Financial Security

Our promise to the residents was to accomplish change without raising taxes, and we have accomplished that. Our core principle if we invest in ourselves, others will invest in us has led the Village into unprecedented growth. The Village leveraged millions of dollars and took out bonds to cover the costs of the projects, and in turn, we have more than doubled our general fund income, and project it to triple within the next two years, creating a financially healthy, stable and resilient community for the first time in decades.

Infrastructure

The Village updated all the water, storm and sewer lines within the streetscape and beach portion of the project area; including addressing any lead services that were discovered. Storm separators were installed near Stone Lake in order to protect it from the effects of road run off and pollution. Increases in water/sewer users due to the new investment has allowed the Village to stabilize the community water rates and for the first time in more than a decade, we no longer need to impose the automatic water/sewer increase to our residents; in fact, our projections have those rates remaining stable over a minimum of the next five years, while continuing on our aggressive capital improvement plan. Stabilizing rates for residents continues to build trust with our community members that we are making wise investments into the infrastructure which is maximizing their public health benefits. Providing free broadband from our new light poles throughout town and in the pedestrian plaza, provides access to a critical asset that is necessary for students, residents and businesses to function.

Sustainability

Having a lake in the middle of your downtown lends itself to becoming a public asset. Creating a harmonious relationship between this natural resource (Stone Lake) and the creation of a public asset (the beach/fishing pier) to ensure long-term sustainability of both requires the Village to continuously work in close connection with the DNR, SESC, EGLE, environmentalists, concerned citizens, fisherman and aquatic biologists.

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