Northern Michigan’s Crystal Ball

Dec. 18, 2015

What big issues, decisions and news our cities face in 2016

Development, big and tall, will be the hottest topic in Traverse City for the foreseeable future. Debate has raged for months over whether the city should allow the construction of a nine-story building, a project that would either promote density, walkability and affordable housing or would scar the city with an out-of-character monstrosity, depending on where you sit. That issue, along with a slate of development projects waiting on deck, are likely to use a lot of ink in the papers and bandwidth in comments sections in 2016.

What’s going on elsewhere in northern Michigan? We asked around at township offices and city halls from Harbor Springs to Cadillac and learned what people will be talking about over the next 12 months.

TRAVERSE CITY

While Traverse City is debating how far up to build, Acme Township planners are preparing to spread out. Supervisor Jay Zollinger anticipates the new Meijer store and other development expected at the Grand Traverse Town Center will increase demand for affordable housing and he wants the township to be ready.

“Having affordable housing in our area will make a big difference in how big we can grow over time,” Zollinger said.

He said the next year could see retail, restaurants, banks or offices spring up near the Meijer store. At the same time, Meijer will have to compete for workers with a Wal-Mart planned in Kalkaska and possibly a Costco near Traverse City.

“I never thought in my life I’d say we have more jobs and not enough people,” he said.

Growth is also on the horizon in Garfield Township, where a massive potential development could soon emerge. A parcel on US-31 South near the township’s border with Blair Township has the potential to become a very big development, Garfield Township Supervisor Chuck Korn said.

“As the development pressure builds, I think that will probably be an attractive piece of property,” Korn said. “It’s big enough that you could have that multi-use kind of deal, with housing, shopping, office space. It’s really an enormous piece of land.”

Approvals are already in place for an entrance to the property and an interior road that would run parallel to the highway, though nothing specific has been proposed yet.

In Elmwood Township, the biggest growth coming in 2016 isn’t a development, but around-the-clock fire protection, said Supervisor Jack Kelly.

The township will have a 24-hour fire department for the first time thanks to a millage that passed in August.

“It’s going to be a major improvement in terms of providing safety,” Kelly said.

Currently, one person staffs the department 10 hours a day. In 2016, the department will have a staff of two working around the clock.

HARBOR SPRINGS

A theater, hotel, restaurant and possibly the redevelopment of the waterfront park are on Harbor Springs’ agenda next year. Construction of the Lyric Theater is already underway and is expected to be completed by May or June. The nonprofit movie house, located in a former Packard dealership, is modeled after Traverse City’s State Theater.

“It will be the first time the city has had a theater in town in decades,” City Manager Tom Richards said.

The long-stalled Hotel Janelle could also appear in 2016. Richards said developers were granted an extension until next fall to commence construction on the three-story hotel.

That project has been talked about since the mid-2000s and has confronted numerous hurdles, including the 2008 financial crisis, which put the development on hold indefinitely. Now, with a new owner, Richards said the project could finally become a reality.

“There’s been a lot of talk about it over the years and we’re hopeful that this is the one that’s going to take off,” he said.

There’s also been a lot of talk about what’s going to happen at the former location of Juilleret’s Restaurant, a family diner on State Street that’s been closed since 2007. Richards said the building’s owner is refurbishing the restaurant and looking for an operator who will run it.

Officials also hope reconstruction of the waterfront park’s harbormaster building will happen in 2016, Richards said. He said that will be the first step of an overhaul of the waterfront park that’s been talked about for years.

“There are a lot of things happening with the downtown right now,” he said.

PETOSKEY

Perhaps the obvious issue in Petoskey is: What’s going on with that hole in the ground?

“We try to refer to that as 200 East Lake Street,” City Manager Rob Straebel said.

A developer is looking at the property and the city has defined the financial incentives it would offer to see something built there — Brownfield dollars, tax increment financing and possibly a public-private underground parking garage — but whether anything happens there in 2016 is still up in the air.

“We are talking with developers every couple of weeks or so,” Straebel said. “I think it’s largely contingent upon the overall economy of Michigan.”

Asked what he believes will be the biggest issue for Petoskey in 2016, he cited the lingering burden of lost tax revenue brought on by the financial downturn of 2008.

He said Petoskey lost 20 percent of its revenue because of lowered property tax valuations and there is no simple way to make up that loss. It can only be restored as properties are bought and sold at higher values.

“The financial challenges are going to be ongoing for several years into the future,” he said. “We’re having to cut additional costs in our general fund. At this point, it doesn’t look like any jobs are going to be jeopardized.”

The 2016 budget was passed the first week of December and the city is not running at a deficit. Straebel said the upshot is that park and building maintenance will be postponed, and people might start noticing.

GAYLORD

Voters shot down a bid to remake Gaylord’s Main Street in August. That proposal hit a roadblock because the majority of voters didn’t want the street reduced from five lanes to three throughout downtown.

City Manager Joseph Duff said the city council voted in November to use Michigan Department of Transportation funds to redevelop Main Street, but keep all five lanes.

The redesign will include new sidewalks, curbs, trees, landscaping and bump-outs at pedestrian crossings. The redevelopment of Main Street will be accompanied by some large new developments.

A boutique hotel is planned to take over several buildings in the heart of downtown.

“It spreads across several properties. The Fifth/Third tower is one component they’ve purchased and they are looking at some other buildings,” Duff said.

The $6 million hotel will be modern, but its architectural style will stay true to the town’s Bavarian theme.

“When folks develop in our downtown, they pretty much jump right into it and this developer is very much committed to it,” Duff said.

That’s not all that’s expected for Main Street in 2016.

Lisa McComb, executive director of the Otsego County Economic Alliance, said a brewpub is planned for a property across the street from the hotel and another developer is planning a gourmet deli.

CHARLEVOIX

Two astonishingly cold winters left Charlevoix’s infrastructure in need of repair.

It may not be glamorous, but that not-insignificant project is the biggest thing on the horizon for 2016.

“I think the big focus next year will be addressing that stuff nobody sees, but they rely on everyday,” said City Manager Mark Heydlauff.

Water lines, in particular, suffered during the last two winters and need replacing. The most visible part of the project will be the eight blocks of streets that need to be

replaced. Roadways wear out over time, but the harsh winters sped up the degradation.

The projects are expected to cost between $3.3 and $3.5 million. The city received some emergency funding two winters ago, after the state declared an emergency due to the harsh winter, but the money Charlevoix received as a result of that — $115,000 — was used for emergency repairs.

The streets to be overhauled are Wood; Green; St. Mary’s Drive; East Upright (200 block); Alice, from Belvedere to Garfield; Burns, from East Dixon to Petoskey Avenue; Nichols, from East Dixon to Petoskey; and State Street (water main only from Garfield to Lincoln).

The work is expected be done next summer, Heydlauff said.

CHEBOYGAN

While one northern Michigan town after the next strives to make itself more inviting to tourists, Cheboygan is embracing its roots as a working-class city. The city spent $850,000 in 2015 on 1,400 feet of Cheboygan River frontage it hopes to develop into a new Great Lakes shipping port; the city could spend $4 to $5 million over several years developing the land if the port succeeds in attracting new manufacturers.

“Really, the history of Cheboygan has always been more of a blue collar town,” said City Manager Tom Eustice. “I think for us to be successful, we need 52-weeks-a-year jobs.”

That’s not to say Cheboygan doesn’t benefit from tourism — they get a lot of seasonal dollars from people who stay on Burt Lake or Mullet Lake or the Inland Waterway — but Eustice said they don’t get the kind of tourist influx that’s seen in Traverse City, Petoskey or Mackinaw City.

Historically, Cheboygan has relied upon manufacturing jobs and, lately, they’re hurting. The Proctor and Gamble plant, for example, which at one time employed 1,000 workers and closed in 1990, is today home to Great Lakes Tissue, where just 100 people have jobs, he said.

Eustice said the Port of Cheboygan has already attracted interest from a couple of downstate manufacturers who could be lured north with access to a port. Local manufacturers like Moran Ironworks have also expressed interest, he said.

The port will be operated by Kokosing, Inc.’s Durocher Marine Division. The deepwater port, located at the intersection of Main and Lake streets, will be able to accommodate Great Lakes freighters up to 800 feet long and some saltwater ships.

FRANKFORT

Sometimes when Frankfort City Superintendent Joshua Mills looks at all the people downtown in the height of summer, he scratches his head and wonders where they are all staying. There are only so many resorts and hotels and seasonal homes.

A bigger head-scratcher is where to find housing for all the workers needed to accommodate that rush of summer resorters.

Mills said too many employees cannot find housing near Frankfort.

“The biggest issue for us is going to be workforce housing. I don’t like to utilize the term affordable housing because that’s different for everybody,” Mills said. There are state-subsidized housing developments in Frankfort, but he said a lot of people who work in Frankfort make too much money to stay there.

“We have three affordable housing developments. They’re subsidized housing, which are great, that fills a need,” he said, “but people that have jobs don’t qualify for some of those.”

The problem affects employers and workers; employers hang Help Wanted signs only to have positions go unfilled and

workers travel miles between Frankfort and wherever they happen to find an place they can afford to rent.

This is not a new problem; officials have already taken steps to find solutions, but so far, those have come up short. Frankfort passed an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units, for example. That didn’t generate a lot of workforce apartments, however.

“They are not typically being made available for rent,” he said. “They’re overflow for family; they’re granny flats.”

Frankfort also lowered the minimum square footage for new housing from 1,000 square feet to 680, and they’ve changed zoning in the downtown core to allow three-story buildings.

City officials are considering even more drastic steps. Mills said they have considered allowing residential units to be constructed in areas zoned light industrial, in an effort to attract entrepreneurs to live-work properties, and they’ve talked about allowing even smaller dwellings — perhaps 500 square feet — as part of planned unit developments.

“I don’t know if we're going to create an environment where you could come in with a 150-square-foot trailer; I don’t know if we’ll go that far,” he said.

CADILLAC

If Cadillac ever lacked heart, it’s going to have a new one beginning this summer.

Bids are going out in late December for construction of the Cadillac Heritage Plaza, a town square that City Manager Marcus Peccia said is the largest public works project in Cadillac in memory.

Heritage Plaza, along with a renovation of the Rotary Arts Pavilion, will link downtown Mitchell Street with the Lake Mitchell waterfront.

“We are doing everything we can to have this thing done, basically, by next summer,” Peccia said.

Funding for the project, which could cost up to $1.5 million, will come from bonds or loans, state grants and donations.

It began several years ago when Cadillac applied for a Michigan Municipal League place-making grant. That led to a Michigan State University study of how a parking lot that separated downtown from the beach could be redeveloped into a place where people would want to spend time.

Peccia said some parking will be lost in the creation of this new park, but much of it will be replaced elsewhere.

“The idea is to try to create a community gathering space, a community meeting place,” Peccia said.