Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand is approaching his first anniversary in office, marking nearly a year of progress on key campaign issues since taking the oath in January.
WATCH FULL INTERVIEW:
GR Mayor David LaGrand FULL INTERVIEW
“We are a great city. We are doing well. I just feel so glad to be able to be part of this community,” LaGrand said. “I think maybe the biggest thing I’ve been happy about in the last year is transition things, making sure that we don’t miss a beat on anything we’re working on in the city.”
Housing remains a top priority for LaGrand, an issue he identified as critical when I interviewed him 11 months ago, just days after he was sworn in.
“One thing that we can’t fix at the local level is building code issues. I’m in conversations with folks at the state level, state representatives, so I hope we’ll be bringing forth some legislation that will help us do some smart building code shifts,” LaGrand said. “The local question largely comes down to zoning. So I’ll give you an example. I was at a project a while ago, a new house went up, and I asked, why wasn’t this a duplex.”
The city reports 346 new housing units have been built so far in 2025, though that number is incomplete because the city stopped publishing data after the September economic development projects meeting. Instead, the city now points to new housing permits issued, which total 1,010 — a significantly higher number.
LaGrand said there’s been a shift in the type of housing the city wants to prioritize.
Grand Rapids mayor reflects on first year in office, housing priorities
“Building a world where we have more duplexes really is going to help us with the affordability thing. More than building single-family homes is so we’re going to keep building single-family homes because people want them,” LaGrand said…