Five Decades of Regional Planning   The Region 2 Planning Commission (R2PC) is a voluntary association of local units of government serving Hillsdale, Jackson, and Lenawee Counties.  The R2PC is one of 14 state planning and development regions in Michigan formed under Michigan’s Public Act 281 of 1945, Regional Planning, which recognizes that planning services can most economically be provided among local units of government on a cooperative and voluntary basis.  Please visit the website of the Michigan Association of Regions for more information.

R2PC History The Jackson Metropolitan Planning Commission was formed in 1956 by the Townships of Blackman, Leoni, and Summit and grew to include all of Jackson County in 1965, in-cluding the City of Jackson.  The local governments of Hillsdale and Lenawee joined the organization in 1974, which became the Region 2 Planning Commission.  A total of 90 local units of government, including the three counties, are currently eligible to join the R2PC

2007 Membership Over two-thirds (64.4%) of the 90 eligible local governments, including the three coun-ties, are active R2PC members in 2007.  Approximately three-quarters of the 27 and 34 local units of government in Jackson (85.1%) and Lenawee (77.1%) Counties, respectively, are currently members in the Commission, including the two counties.  Less than one-third (32.1%) of the 27 units of government in Hillsdale County are members.

Physical Setting and Population Region 2 is located in the south-central portion of the Lower Peninsula, just north of where the boundaries of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio meet.  The three-county region comprises 2,056 square miles of land, including areas of rich farmland and forests and a variety of lakes and river systems.  The region also contains the rolling hills and dales of the Irish Hills and the flatlands of eastern Lenawee County. The region contained 303,839 residents in the Year 2000.  Population centers include Greater Jackson, the Adrian-Tecumseh-Clinton Corridor, and the Hillsdale-Jonesville Corridor.