January 9, 2023
Jessica Mathews / [email protected]
A longtime Livingston County employee who has guided planning efforts for more than three decades is retiring.
Planning Director Kathleen Kline-Hudson’s last day is this Friday. She had just graduated from college with a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Michigan when she began her career as the county’s senior planner nearly 32 years ago.
Kline-Hudson has gone through a lot of changes over the years. She said she often thinks about how when she first moved here there were barns on three of the four corners of Grand River and Latson Road, where Walmart is now. Kline-Hudson said it was a big change and she really wondered where she was moving at first, but everything was about to change and it was really fun to be part of the growth – adding that there is “never a dull moment”.
Kline-Hudson told WHMI that she’s been here through an engagement, marriage, two kids and now retired and “wouldn’t change that for the world.” She said Howell, and Livingston County in general, is a wonderful place to live and work – adding that she has formed so many community partnerships that these people are now friends.
After all these years, Kline-Hudson said she would miss it, but plans to continue doing other things she loves like kayaking and painting – adding that her two adult children are getting married in October, during the same months, so she will “be busy and having fun” after her retirement. Kline-Hudson has also started an art business during the pandemic.
Some of the planning department projects that Kline-Hudson is most proud of include advocating for affordable and accessible housing through a grassroots committee she created called Housing Growth & Opportunities (Hg&o); participate in three decades of the U.S. Census through county activities such as census tract redistricting, local addressing activities, and communication to encourage citizen participation; establishing the opening and continued development of Lutz County Park and Fillmore County Park; and the creation of the current 2018 Livingston County Master Plan – which she says is a unique, “out-of-the-box” approach to county planning. This document won two national awards and two state planning awards.
Kline-Hudson is also very involved in the community. She helped start the Livingston County chapter of Habitat for Humanity and was the founding secretary and delegate of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and has been part of a wide variety of advocacy groups. SEMCOG work.
Additionally, Kline-Hudson has served on a wide variety of community committees, including the Human Services Collaborative Body, the Livingston Leadership Council of Aging, the Livingston County Transportation Coalition, and the United Way’s Award and Co-Chair of the Employees’ Campaign of the Livingston County (with Brian Jonckheere for several years).
Kline-Hudson says she will continue to be active in the Livingston County community by volunteering on community committees and hopefully as a local planning commissioner.
A retirement party is planned for Thursday. It will be an open house from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the historic Livingston County Courthouse in downtown Howell.