A Traverse City trail connector with a contentious history will come before city commissioners Monday in a bid to permanently open up the property to the public.

The private wooded lot at 1430 Wayne Street – just west of Ashton Park – has an old farm trail running through it frequently used by walkers, bikers, cross-country skiers and Willow Hill Elementary School students. In the past, the trail connected the Oleson family farm (today home to Incochee Woods) with Oleson field in Hickory Meadows. According to property owner Fern Spence, the path continues to act as a “vital” access route though the neighborhood and to the park for community users, forming connective networks between Traverse City, Garfield Township and Elmwood Township.

“I’m holding on to (the property) privately until a public entity can pick it up,” says Spence. “This project isn’t for me. It’s for the community and the vision we all have of having non-motorized ways to travel around the city.”

Spence and her husband, Doug, want to sell the property to a public body that can dedicate a permanent public path through the lot. But deed restrictions placed on the property stemming from past legal controversies can only be removed by a vote of the city commission – a move necessary for a sale to proceed.

In the mid-2000s, developers Ted Lockwood and Bob Brick planned to build an access road through 1430 Wayne Street to connect to Incochee Woods. Neighbors protested using a city street to connect to a township development, and the project landed in court. A 2007 settlement agreement between developers, neighbors and the city prohibited any vehicular access on the property.

Three years later, in 2010, the city sold the lot to Keith and Sally Dykhuis. According to an email from the couple sent to Spence, the city refused to sell them the lot without first adding a deed restriction prohibiting a pedestrian path on part of the property. While City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht wasn’t employed by the city at that time and can’t speculate why the restriction was added, she acknowledges neighbors have threatened legal action in the past if a public trail was built next to their homes.

“I think it’s fair to say that property has a very long history, and that litigation is definitely on that list,” says Trible-Laucht. The pedestrian restriction – applied to 33 feet of highway easement on the property – could have been added to shield the city from future potential lawsuits.

After learning the Dykhuis' were being approached by potential buyers for the lot, the Spences purchased the property themselves in 2013 to secure it for public access. In the ensuing years, Fern Spence says the cost and liability of owning the property has become too prohibitive for them to personally continue maintaining it. Though it may be legally possible to build a pedestrian trail through the non-easement portion of the property without changing the deed, in order to sell the parcel to a public or nonprofit entity, Spence says “the pedestrian restriction must be lifted completely.”

“There’s liability with that restriction in place,” she says, “so no one will touch it until it’s been lifted.”

Multiple neighbors and community groups have stepped forward to support lifting the pedestrian restriction. Sue Vance, a teacher at Willow Hill, says the wooded trail is the only “safe option” for her students to access Hickory Meadows. “Every year I take my students on nature hikes at Hickory Meadows,” she wrote in a letter to city commissioners. “Using the Wayne Street access is the only way I would consider taking them…it would truly be sad and disappointing if this area was no longer available for pedestrian use.”

Executive Director Julie Clark of TART Trails also asked commissioners to support the proposal. “The effort meets the goals of both communities (Traverse City and Garfield Township) to provide immediate and meaningful ways for residents to access nearby parks and schools on foot or bike,” she wrote.

Of eight letters submitted this week to City Manager Marty Colburn’s office about the property, all eight supported lifting the pedestrian restriction. City Clerk Benjamin Marentette says neither his office nor the city manager’s office have received any negative correspondence about the topic, nor has Trible-Laucht’s. Three city commissioners –Tim Werner, Amy Shamroe and Brian Haas – say they’ve also received just positive communications so far, including from neighboring Wayne Street and Incochee Woods residents.

Wayne Street resident and adjacent property neighbor Mary T. Joseph, who previously publicly opposed lifting the restriction, did not return a phone call request for comment.

City commissioners will discuss lifting the pedestrian restriction on 1430 Wayne Street at 7pm Monday at the Governmental Center. The commission could go into closed session for a portion of the discussion to discuss legal counsel from Trible-Laucht about the property.