A City of Traverse City survey seeking input from Cass Street residents on replacing the road’s bike lanes with parking has sparked a broader community debate: Which is more critical, ample space for bikers, or parking for downtown homes?

City staff sent the survey to 83 property owners and tenants on Cass Street last week, according to Assistant City Manager Penny Hill. Hill wrote a letter accompanying the survey explaining the city had “received a request to allow parking once again on Cass Street” from the Old Towne Neighborhood Association. “The proposed change would eliminate the markings and signage for bicycle lanes, except that the sharrows at the Fourteenth Street and Eighth Street intersection would remain,” Hill wrote. “Shoulder striping would also remain, which would accommodate parking.”

The request stems from a May 25 Old Towne Neighborhood Association meeting, when discussion between residents and city staff turned to parking woes along Cass. “There was an informal open discussion, and people expressed interest in exploring (parking solutions),” says Old Towne Vice President Janet Fleshman. Cass previously accommodated on-street parking until 2013, when Old Towne and city staff partnered to introduce bike lanes as an experiment to “look at ways to make our streets more viable,” Fleshman says.

“What the neighborhood discussed as an ongoing part of this experiment is whether we should now explore other possibilities,” Fleshman says. “A number of houses (on Cass) have turned over to younger, two-car families. They’re socially active people who have company over and people working on their homes. The houses have short one-car driveways…they don’t have alley parking. So how do we get this street to work for everybody?”

According to Hill, whenever the city receives a request for change in on-street parking, it sends out a survey to potential affected residents. If a majority of residents support the request, the city can implement a 90-day trial to test the change “before forwarding the request to the city commission for final approval.”

But the high-profile nature of Cass – compared to smaller subdivision or neighborhood roads with considerably lower traffic counts – has prompted many residents and community groups to contend that “potential affected residents” extends beyond the inhabitants of Old Towne. On Facebook group Pro Bike/Pro Walk Traverse City, a post about the survey drew heated discussion about the possible elimination of bike lanes, as well as comments from multiple city commissioners encouraging residents to email their thoughts to the city.

“I think it’s extremely shortsighted that the city would only seek input from Cass Street property owners and Old Towne residents on this issue, when the impact will affect all of those who travel Cass Street,” says board member Chris Hinze of Norte!, a Traverse City cycling nonprofit. “We have so very few marked bike lanes in the city. We need to be talking about how to make these lanes better and where we can add more bike lanes, not how we can remove them to add more on-street parking.”

Hinze tells The Ticker that while “input from those who live on Cass is important, it’s critical to consider that Cass is the main north-south connection into downtown.” He says the city should consider creating a comprehensive bike-pedestrian master plan or active transportation plan that would identify corridors where cycling and pedestrian infrastructure are crucial – a list he says should include Cass.

“While I appreciate that everyone in the city wants to be able to park in front of their home, that may not be what is in the best interest for the city and region as a whole,” Hinze says.

Old Towne Treasurer Mary Burget, a Cass Street resident, says the neighborhood has only expressed an interest in having an open discussion and exploring parking solutions. She says the association is not advocating for one fixed outcome and that she’s concerned discussion will derail into an “us versus them” debate.

“I’m a bike rider, too,” says Burget. “That it’s been couched in those terms is a little upsetting.”

Cass Street, which varies in width between Fourteenth and Eighth streets, might not even be practical for on-street parking on both sides of the street, Burget says. She suggests having a one-way bike lane heading one direction on Cass Street and the opposite direction on Union Street, or looking at other ways to creatively balance parking with bike lanes. “We want to accommodate everybody as best we can,” she says.

Tough Hill only sent the Cass Street survey to property owners along the corridor, she says she’s received numerous “unsolicited emails” about the proposal. All input received will be shared with the city’s traffic committee, which consists of various planning, engineering, fire, police and other department representatives who study parking changes and other traffic requests. Those staff members would consider both the impacts and practicality of any changes to Cass Street, including whether the corridor is wide enough to accommodate two lanes of on-street parking (City Engineer Tim Lodge told The Ticker he hadn’t yet evaluated the request).

Typically survey feedback could be enough input for the committee to make a decision, but Hill says the elevated level of interest in Cass Street means the survey will likely be “one tool” in the decision-making process, which could happen over the next month or two.

“We haven’t gotten this magnitude of a request before,” she says. “We’ve received such a volume of feedback that we would likely work with other groups to get additional feedback."