County Looks to Launch Community Development Department

Grand Traverse County is getting closer to launching a new community development department – a team that would help lead county planning, land use, and economic development efforts and foster regional collaboration. County commissioners will receive an update on the project at a 9am special meeting Wednesday.

Commissioners will also discuss a planned housing study, staff salary recommendations, a closed session on the potential purchase of the PACE building, and whether to discontinue invocations at the start of county meetings.

Community Development Department
After being without a planning commission or department for several years, Grand Traverse County is working to launch a community development department that would help lead those efforts regionally.

Commissioners approved a budget at the end of 2025 that included two new full-time employees for the department once it’s formed. A county project team that includes Community Development Coordinator Maxwell Cameron has been working with firm McKenna to help determine the department’s focus and scope, priorities, and staffing structure. The group interviewed 22 stakeholders “across local municipal jurisdictions, partner agencies, and internal county leadership to glean how the new community development department could be most supportive and what to prioritize,” according to presentation materials shared with commissioners.

Those stakeholders said the county should help fill a “coordination gap,” serving as a “convener, connector, and implementation partner – not as a top-down regulator or decision-maker over local land use.” Stakeholders “consistently described fragmentation, siloed decision-making, and difficulty coordinating around regional issues like housing, infrastructure, transportation, and economic development,” according to the presentation.

Local governments, particularly smaller municipalities, described needing practical assistance more than long-range planning support. Those communities often “lack the staff time, technical expertise, and funding capacity needed to manage increasingly complex projects and initiatives,” the summary states. Assistance could look like infrastructure and utility coordination, grant funding identification and administrative support, shared data/systems/communications, housing tools, and transportation and mobility coordination.

The presentation lists some “early wins” that could help the community development department establish its footing. Those include helping coordinate trail/sidewalk planning across jurisdictions, improving permitting through EPIC-GT (the county’s new online permitting program), helping with zoning enforcement (particularly with blight), holding regular intergovernmental meetings, advocating for local priorities at the state level, and supporting “high-priority housing and transportation initiatives, particularly along key redevelopment corridors already identified by the county.”

Stakeholders identified areas of concern as well. Notably, that includes “past inconsistency from county leadership.” Partners who were interviewed “emphasized that municipalities must retain local authority and that the county must build credibility through listening, responsiveness, and consistent long-term commitment.” Building relationships and trust and delivering consistent support and tangible results will help determine the department’s success, McKenna found.

Commissioners are expected to give feedback on the findings Wednesday and discuss next steps. The county Economic Development Corporation is also slated to discuss the department at its 8am meeting Thursday.

Also at Wednesday’s commission meeting…
> Commissioners will hear an update from CommunityScale, a firm hired to complete a local housing study. The firm will evaluate existing housing stock, current market conditions, and planned housing developments along with demand – including demographic and employment trends – to identify gaps in housing types and locations, according to CommunityScale’s proposal. Recommendations will also be included in the final report expected this fall, including incentive programs, housing policies, and investment strategies. Commissioners agreed earlier this year to complete a market assessment specific to Grand Traverse County that would provide updated information since the last time Housing North and the Bowen National Research put out a Housing Needs Assessment in 2023.

> Commissioners will discuss whether to discontinue the county’s invocation policy, which allows for board members or their designees to offer a short prayer or statement at the beginning of commission meetings on a rotating basis. Invocations can’t last longer than three minutes and are not supposed to “to proselytize or advance any one faith or belief or to disparage any other faith or belief.” The policy was controversial when it was adopted in 2019, with commissioners and members of the public criticizing the inclusion of religious activity at government meetings.

County Administrator Nate Alger tells The Ticker that legal counsel flagged the policy because commissioners haven’t been following the procedural rule stating the invocation should come before the Pledge of Allegiance. However, that raised a larger question: If the county is looking at the prodecural rule, “we should have the discussion about if we should even be having an invocation,” Alger says.

> Commissioners will go into closed session to discuss the potential purchase of the PACE North building on Garfield Road. The county is nearing a deadline to exercise its right of first refusal on the purchase, Alger says. Any action taken would need to occur in public session. Commissioners will also discuss a proposal from the county’s recruitment and retention committee to improve the pay scale for 70 noncontract exempt salary employees. The move is intended to make the county more competitive in recruiting and attracting employees and address wage compression. Finally, commissioners are expected to hear an update on Antrim County dams, which need repairs that could affect at least a few hundred property owners in Grand Traverse County.