Traverse City’s social district on Eighth Street is set to reopen for the season today (Thursday), with city staff to start installing tables, planters, benches, umbrellas, and other amenities this morning on both sides of the corridor near the Garfield Avenue intersection. This is the second year for the social district – which establishes a defined area where to-go alcoholic beverages can be sold and consumed outdoors May 1-October 31 – following an abbreviated season last year as part of a larger East Side Placemaking Project (ESPP). City commissioners are set to review a progress report Monday and could consider possible tweaks to the social district.

Commissioners were set to discuss the ESPP this week, but their study session Monday was cancelled over a potential lack of quorum. City Manager Liz Vogel says the item will be added to the commission’s regular agenda on Monday, May 5. Staff will provide an update on the project, which was implemented last year and included the social district – requested by businesses along Eighth Street – and a “tactical urbanism” initiative to add outdoor placemaking elements to the corridor. In a memo, City Planning Director Shawn Winter noted that “long lead times on many of the amenities left the ESPP in limbo for most of the summer,” meaning the project didn’t truly begin until Labor Day weekend last year.

The first year of the ESPP, then, had an abbreviated season of just September and October, with a “marked decline going into October as the temperature started to drop with the turning of the seasons,” Winter wrote. Some city commissioners requested metrics to gauge the success of the ESPP, but Winter noted that the short season and lack of specifics from commissioners on which metrics they were seeking made such an assessment challenging.

However, “from the continued discussions with the constituents that have occurred since the end of the 2024 season, staff heard that it was warmly received by the surrounding neighborhoods, with two adjacent neighborhood associations holding their meetings/events in the ESPP, and the Traverse City Track Club frequently hosting their Wednesday night group runs at the ESPP,” Winter wrote. Businesses in the social district – which runs along both service drives on the north and south sides of Eighth Street in front of Tank Space on 8th, Oakwood Proper Burgers, and Common Good Bakery, among others – also gave feedback for consideration.

Businesses – particularly those participating in the social district – were enthusiastic about the program. Tank Space said it saw roughly 30 percent of its drink sales in social district cups and observed community groups, patrons with their dogs, and other visitors using the outdoor seating – even outside of operational hours, such as sitting outside with a coffee in the morning. “The vibrancy of the outdoor space, even for just the few months of operation, was fun to watch,” Tank Space owners wrote. “In conversations with our business and residential neighbors, we also see an opportunity to grow collaborative events in the social district.”

Common Good Bakery – which didn’t participate last year in district alcohol sales but will do so this year – said it nonetheless saw a “noticeable increase in sales” in the September-October period. “We have increased staffing and added a marketing position to fully invest in the success of this community space” for this season, staff wrote, adding that district event collaborations are in the works with groups ranging from TART Trails to Habitat for Humanity to Versiti Blood Drive to IPR. Oakwood Proper Burgers said the district’s barriers provided a “much safer pedestrian atmosphere” – without them, the restaurant regularly experiences vehicles turning so sharply into the boulevard “that they drive up on the sidewalk and sometimes nearly miss the corner of our building,” staff reported. “The social district is truly the best use of space.”

One business – Eastfield Laundry – expressed unhappiness about the project. It said the ESPP improvements provided a barrier to motorhome and handicap parking and that “people doing laundry with young children do not appreciate watching people drinking in the streets.” The laundry owners said the project “hurts our business.” Staff have noted that Eastfield Laundry has its own side parking lot available for use beyond the service drive area.

Businesses had some recommendations for improvements this year. One is to update the social district management plan to prohibit smoking in district boundaries. Another is to update the designated beverage containers to be reusable instead of disposable (state law prohibits glass, but other materials like metal or wood are allowed). Owners expressed an interest in establishing a process to obtain city approval to play “small-scale, low-volume music” outdoors, according to Winter. The city also received requests to expand the district’s boundaries further west along Eighth Street and south along Garfield Avenue.

Putting out more placemaking amenities is also on the docket for this season. Staff only spent $34,950 of the $60,000 approved for ESPP improvements last year. This year, the number of tables will expand from 12 to 18, with additional tall wooden barrels, rope delineators, bike racks, concrete planters, signs, umbrellas, and benches (both traditional and solar with charging ports integrated) planned to be installed. While city commissioners wouldn’t have been able to make any decisions on tweaking the social district this week at a study session, they could potentially do so Monday – or else give feedback on changes that could be brought back for formal action at a future meeting.

In the meantime, the social district will kick off its season as planned today. While the ESPP has been considered a pilot project, Winter notes that the social district designation remains in place unless it’s specifically rescinded by the city commission. Doing so requires a properly noticed public hearing “to afford people due process,” Winter says. Businesses encouraged the city to continue supporting the program, with Oakwood Proper Burgers stating that “none of the negative hypotheticals” that commissioners initially expressed concerns about have occurred in the district. “At what point can we stop the debate and commit to supporting this needed social space and community gathering space for the area of town that is most neglected?” owners asked.

Common Good Bakery agreed, noting that the district is helping support several fledgling businesses. “All three license holders in the district are young businesses in their first (Tank Space), second (Common Good), and fourth (Oakwood) years of operation, and all three have demonstrated a shared dedicated to community-centered business practices,” the owners wrote. They added: “This district has the opportunity to show our community (and others) the power of collaborative community space for neighborhoods and small businesses.”