Imagine you are coming back to northern Michigan after 15 years away. What would you want to find upon your return?

It's the question that Claire Karner, director of planning and zoning for East Bay Charter Township, posed to members of the township’s planning commission earlier this month to kick off the visioning process for a new township master plan, the answers to which could help shape several of Grand Traverse County’s highest traffic areas, including the intersection at Hammond and Three Mile roads and the stretch of US-31 from Three Mile to Acme. The thought experiment will act as the first step to a process that will take several months and combine ideas from the planning board with feedback from township residents. 

“A master plan, by state statute, needs to be reviewed and/or updated every five years,” Karner tells The Ticker. “The East Bay Township Master Plan was last updated in 2015; [what we’re working on] is an update of the existing master plan. I think it's building on a strong foundation of what the previous master plan had, but we are also hoping to do a lot of public engagement and use that public input…to help us craft the vision, the action plan, and the goals that we're going to focus on over the next 10-15 years.”

When Karner asked the planning commission to envision returning to the township in 15 years – and to “pretend money and politics are no issue” to what they’d hope to see – board members came back with responses ranging from less light pollution in East Bay Township to an east-west bypass. But Karner says the most common visions had to do with the strip of US-31 between Three Mile and Holiday Road – a corridor historically known as “the Miracle Mile” that the East Bay Charter Township Planning & Zoning Department has taken to calling “the Beach District.” Revitalizing the corridor – which has faced issues in recent years with failing businesses, empty buildings, and vacant lots – is a top priority for the planning commission with the upcoming master plan.

“There was a lot of discussion about the Beach District and some of the placemaking that [commission members] wanted to see,” Karner said. “Burying utility lines; redevelopment of some of the vacant sites along the corridor; walkability, like trail connections or pedestrian crosswalks from one side of US-31 to the other; and a desire for better access to the water, whether that's making it possible for boaters that are coming into the township to access hotels and restaurants, or for residents and visitors to be able to access the water from the township.”

For Robert Tubbs, the township’s planning commission chair, a key goal of the master planning process is identifying ways to give East Bay Township a clear identity. Working toward a more cohesive and vibrant vision for a Beach District, he says, is a part of that goal – as is growing East Bay Corners, the intersection at Hammond and Three Mile that currently features an Olson’s Food Store, a library, several gas stations, Roy’s General Store, and the East Bay Township Hall. Bringing more businesses to that corner – and encouraging non-vehicle traffic to businesses and schools via further development of non-motorized trails – are top priorities for Tubbs.

“We don't really have a quote-unquote ‘downtown’ in East Bay Township,” Tubbs says. “But we do have a village center district, which centers around Hammond and Three Mile roads. I think it'd be nice to continue to develop that spot into more of a commercial area. We’ve got quite a few schools in that neighborhood of Hammond and Three Mile Road, too, and we’ve been talking about walkability to the schools from neighborhoods. I think being able to walk or ride bikes and to have those kinds of connections would be great.”

While planners and commissioners have their priorities for the new master plan, the document will also take into account the input of those who live and work in the township. Karner says she’s currently in the process of planning a community outreach process aimed at reaching more people than past master planning sessions.

“We’re planning to send out a postcard to all properties – all residents, all business owners, all addresses in the township – in early November, inviting them to participate in the survey,” Karner explains. “We're also planning to go into the schools to do some engagement associated with the master plan, and then also some business owner outreach through focus groups.”

Karner expects there will be a draft of the new master plan by sometime next spring, at which point the planning commission would put the document out into the world for a requisite 63-day public review period. After that, the commission would hold a public meeting, hear public comment on the draft, and either consider revisions to the document or adopt it officially as the latest East Bay Charter Township Master Plan.