GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A prominent West Michigan apartment developer is challenging a regional study that calls for 33,914 new housing units by 2029 , saying the figure “is not based on history, facts or common sense.”

Dan Hibma, of Land and Company Apartments, said demand for that many units doesn’t align with projected population growth, and that there’s currently a 6% vacancy rate in the local rental market.

“We don’t need 33,914 units,” Hibma wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to the Grand Rapids City Commission.

Hibma, whose company owns 16 apartment communities in West Michigan, also challenged the use of tax subsidies to promote new housing, and said demand for new housing could be partly met by renovating older units.

The author of the 2025 Housing Needs Assessment , Patrick Bowen, said

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