Proposed Zoning Overlay Would More Closely Regulate Building Heights, Trees, Land Uses Near Airport

A new zoning overlay district is in the works for the Traverse City area, courtesy of the Cherry Capital Airport (TVC) Joint Zoning Board. The ordinance would establish “regulations on land within the Airport Hazard Area (AHA)…which is an approximately 10-mile radius [around] TVC,” with implications for land uses, building heights, and tall trees. While the ordinance has drawn scrutiny from some locals who worry it could significantly impede property rights and quality of life in Traverse City, leaders of TVC’s Joint Zoning Board argue it would create more legal protections and avenues for development.

Karrie Zeitz, TVC’s general counsel, and Bob Nelesen, airport engineer and zoning administrator, presented the draft ordinance in detail at a public forum last Thursday, February 26. Per Zeitz, TVC is required under federal law “to take steps to ensure safe navigation of aircraft in and around our airspace, as well as to assure safety of all of those persons on the ground in and around the airport.” TVC already receives an airport approach plan from the state, which “shows the heights that should be not exceeded around the airport for safe flight, as well as the land uses that should be restricted around the airport for safe flight [and] safety of those on the ground,” she added.

The problem, Nelesen explained, is that the AHA around TVC is littered with uses misaligned with federal or state laws. Under the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act, local governments have been required to integrate airport plans into their zoning ordinances and master plans since March 28, 2001. Older uses are grandfathered in, but any nonconforming uses approved and built since “are technically illegal,” Nelesen said. With illegality comes risk of lawsuits or other involvement in local land development from the state or the Federal Aviation Administration. The purpose of the new zoning is to remove those risks.

“This ordinance would actually give us a means to adopt variances to get [those illegal uses] into legal compliance,” Nelesen said. “It'll actually take the control from the state level and bring it back to the local level.”

The ordinance would act as an overlay “that supplements local zoning laws without replacing them.” Strictest development restrictions would apply to zones closest to the airport (pictured), with areas further out into the AHA having fewer limitations. Specific rules are intended to minimize direct flight hazards (like tall structures or trees) and more indirect risks (like garbage disposal sites that attract birds, thus posing bird strike threats to aircraft). The ordinance also restricts near-airport development of housing, schools, daycares, churches, hospitals, nursing homes, or other uses where quality of life would be significantly impeded by noise from the airport.

None of these rules would apply to existing structures or land uses. The ordinance explicitly states it would “not require the removal, lowering, or other change or alteration of any structure or tree not conforming to the ordinance’s regulations when adopted or amended, or otherwise interfere with the continuance of any non-conforming use.” However, any new construction project within the AHA, or any “construction that increases the height of existing structures,” would need to abide by the ordinance’s rules.

The five near-airport zones are considered “mandatory permitting areas,” where any new development would go through the TVC Joint Zoning Board as part of its approval process. The lone exceptions are uses less than 12 feet in height. Outside of those zones, the rest of the AHA’s 10-mile radius is considered a “conditional permitting area,” where a review from the TVC Joint Zoning Board would be triggered by uses exceeding 35 feet in height.

“That’s not to say [taller structures] can't necessarily exist out there,” Nelesen said of the conditional permitting area. “For instance, up in Holiday Hills, East Bay Township has a water tower. But it does have a 24-7 red light on it for pilots to know that there's an object there.”

Those types of risk mitigation strategies are the other big part of the ordinance, with procedures in place for property owners or developers to seek variances for new nonconforming uses.

Those variance conversations are already happening in some development situations. Shawn Winter, planning director for the City of Traverse City, remarked during last week’s meeting that when the city gets a land use application, “our zoning administrator checks to see if that parcel is in one of those airport approach zones. If it is, he sends it to the airport to begin their process. What this ultimately does is gives us a pathway for allowing projects to continue with variances and mitigation strategies. In the absence of this, we'd have to just stop the project.”

One recent example, Winter said, was the former Teboe Florist site on Eighth Street, where the Traverse City Housing Commission built a 46-unit senior apartment complex. “[That project] is a density and height in an approach zone that exceeds the limit,” Winter said. “But we were able to work with the airport and come up with mitigation strategies to make better quality of life for the residents there, and therefore the project could continue.”

“[That process] was not as streamlined and transparent as we would like it to be,” Zeitz added of the Teboe Florist site approval. “So, what we're looking for [with this ordinance] is a more streamlined, transparent, codified, supported-in-the-law way to do it.”

Despite assurances from Zeitz and Nelesen about the ordinance being a net positive, some locals used last week’s public forum to raise concerns about unchecked airport growth, jeopardizing Traverse City’s Tree City USA status, and overall transparency.

“You mentioned quality of life in one slide [of your presentation],” one attendee said. “It's just three words but it's practically the most important three words... So, I'd urge you to consider quality of life at every step... Not just development growth, public safety, safety of planes, of passengers, of people on the ground, but quality of life overall for Traverse City. If we degrade this over the next five, 10, 20, 30 years, we will not be sitting in a place where we desire to live, or where our children or grandchildren desire to come back to, and we will have done ourselves a disservice.”

A formal public hearing for the new ordinance will be scheduled soon.