Of Airports and Gravel

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Dec. 13, 2025

No doubt the entire Grand Traverse region is popular with visitors and prospective new residents. Additionally, people already here travel more, and some now telework from home but have to zoom off to meetings someplace other than their home office. The result is our little airport just keeps getting busier and busier.

Founded in 1929 as Ransom Field on what is now mostly Memorial Gardens off South Airport Road, it moved to its current location in 1936 as Traverse City Airport, eventually becoming the Cherry Capital Airport (TVC).

It is now the third largest airport in Michigan by any measurement (only Gerald Ford in Grand Rapids and Detroit Metro in Detroit are bigger/busier), approaching 800,000 passengers annually on 10-13 daily flights from seven different carriers depending on the time of year. If you have flown lately, you know the days of arriving casually and being one of the few to pass through security are long over.

Which is why the airport now is expanding, creating a new terminal to accommodate the growth. It will be expensive, and not everybody thinks it’s a swell idea.

Formed in early 2021, the Northwest Regional Airport Authority is governed by six members appointed by the Grand Traverse County Commissioners and three by Leelanau County Commissioners. The nine members have significant power for an unelected group, including the ability to create ordinances and, importantly, condemn surrounding land through eminent domain. They hope to pay for the estimated $120 million expansion costs through grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and the issuance of up to $71 million of bonds backed by the full faith and credit of Grand Traverse County.

In general, airports are an intrusive necessity, occupying enormous chunks of land while providing a convenience for all of us. More people are now flying to more places than ever before. According to Statista, the U.S. now has 19 major air carriers doing at least $1 billion worth of business annually, another 37 small or medium carriers, and about another 20 that are small and very localized.

Our airport forecasts more travelers in the coming years and is actively seeking additional carriers. The increased demand is not completely organic. Cherry Capital has at least one employee whose primary job is to solicit other airlines to come call TVC home, while Traverse Connect offers some financial incentives for carriers starting service here.

This expansion does not come without controversy or opposition. Another terminal, more air carriers, and more flights means a bit more intrusion into surrounding neighborhoods. Literally on the chopping block are trees at Oakwood Cemetery, allegedly in the way of expanding general (private) aviation. The cemetery, founded in 1861, is considered one of the most beautiful in the state, but will be less so when any of its mature trees are amputated. (Some might argue more planes and fewer trees isn’t so good for our environment, either.)

TVC is incredibly convenient at just a couple miles from our business district, and that can also be a problem. The current airport expansion plans surely will not be the last unless the area suddenly stops growing. Otherwise, in 20-25 years, the need for more expansion will exist, and the airport will begin to legally consume parts of the city. The airport will eventually have to move, and that planning should begin now. It will be expensive, it will be annoying, it will generate angst aplenty, but TVC cannot exist in perpetuity in its current location.

Meanwhile, in Banks Township in Antrim County, they are attempting to eliminate zoning altogether. There might be dots to connect here.

A gentleman owns a relatively small—30 acres—gravel mine and would like to make it six times bigger at 183 acres. That effort was stopped by the planning commission citing local zoning rules. Keep in mind a gravel mine is considerably more than just scooping up small rocks. There are waste products including overburden (the dirt covering the gravel) plus fine sand and clay and what’s called gravel wash mud, not to mention silica dust, a known health hazard.

Unable to expand the mine, the owner ran for the township board and won, and he and two other new members voted to simply eliminate zoning, arguing private property rights trumped any concerns. Such a repeal requires public hearings and public votes, but the vote of the township board starts those balls rolling.

No zoning would mean no restrictions on expanding the gravel mine (or lots of other zoned restrictions), but the mine owner says his running for the board and then supporting the zoning repeal are not connected to his mine interests. You decide if there are dots to connect.

Maybe one of the expanded flights will pass over an enlarged gravel mine, newly visible from the air.