Traverse City commissioners will consider several housing-related issues tonight (Monday), including a resolution supporting the Homelessness and Housing Task Force Strategic Plan, the rezoning of Eight Street land for housing, and an annual report on city spending of federal housing funds. Commissioners will also consider approving several trail/mobility items, including a partnership with East Bay Township and TART Trails to widen a section of trail near Parsons Road.

Housing
After Traverse City and Grand Traverse County commissioners had a rare joint meeting in June to discuss a new detailed 100-page strategic plan from the Housing and Homelessness Task Force, city commissioners will vote tonight to approve a resolution supporting that plan.

The Housing and Homelessness Task Force – a group led by the Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness, featuring city and county representatives and funding from a Rotary Charities grant – met for over a year to create a housing plan tailored to northern Michigan. The final report outlines eight key housing recommendations along with potential budgets, funding sources, and action steps.

One example is creating a single campus for shelter operations with 165 beds – potentially through expanding Goodwill’s Keystone Road operations, exploring new locations, or adding 30 beds at Safe Harbor. Others include targeted prevention and housing stabilization to reduce first-time homelessness, coordinated system navigation and outreach, expanded permanent supportive housing, and updated zoning and land use policies to allow for more flexibility and density to build “deeply affordable housing.”

City Manager Benjamin Marentette, who served on the task force, wrote to commissioners that “housing and homelessness is a significant issue for our community with significant complexity and depth.” While the city “cannot and should not expect to solve this issue on its own,” it has already allocated “substantial city and federal tax dollars” to the issue and can continue advancing that work by partnering with others, Marentette wrote.

“In communities where I have seen significant progress, it required philanthropy, the state, the county, the city, and various agencies all providing funding and resources – and our situation is no different,” he said. If the resolution is approved, city commissioners will join county commissioners in supporting the plan, as the county has already adopted a similar motion.

After discussion at multiple prior meetings, commissioners will vote tonight to approve rezoning land at 314 East Eight Street. The site of the former Copy Central building, which recently underwent demolition, is planned for a four-story Traverse City Housing Commission development with 43 low-income units, including 29 one-bedroom and 14 two-bedroom units.

The rezoning will change the land from C-2 (Neighborhood Center) to R-3 (Multiple Family Dwelling), which would mirror the zoning already in place for surrounding parcels. Commissioners earlier this month approved a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement for the development, which will be in place for 45 years and lock in the income range for tenants – 30 to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI) – for the duration of the contract.

Finally, commissioners will vote tonight to approve the city’s annual report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The report outlines how the city is spending its federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, which go toward housing initiatives. The city drew down $319,861 in the 2025-26 year and just under $368,256 in the two years the program has been in effect. In addition to program administration, funds so far have been used toward “renovations at East Bay Flats, renovations at Northwest Michigan Supportive Housing, staffing at the Central United Methodist Church Outreach Program, and staffing at Jubilee House,” according to Acting Planning Director Leslie Sickterman.

Trail/Mobility Initiatives
Commissioners will consider collaborating with East Bay Township and TART Trails to widen a section of TART Trail near Parsons Road.

According to Mobility Infrastructure Director Chris Weber, a “substantial section of the TART Trail” was removed recently to accommodate the installation of a new force main running from East Bay’s pump station near the intersection of Indian Trail Boulevard and Pine Grove Avenue all the way to the city’s treatment plant on Boardman Lake. Plans originally called for restoring the trail to its previous 8-foot width.

“However, current standards and best practices for multimodal trails generally call for a 10-foot-wide paved surface,” Weber says. East Bay Township has offered to cover the additional cost of reconstructing the trail to 10 instead of 8 feet wide. Within city limits between Airport Access Road and Hastings Street, there’s approximately 550 feet of trail that wasn’t in the removal/restoration limits. “If this section remains in place, it would result in a relatively short section of older, narrower pavement between newly reconstructed 10-foot-wide sections of trail,” Weber says.

The cost to reconstruct that section to 10 feet wide is $31,838, plus a 10 percent contingency for a total not-to-exceed cost of just over $35,000. TART Trails has agreed to contribute $5,000 toward the city portion, with the city chipping in just over $30,000. Funding for the project will come from the Complete Streets Advisory Committee fund.

Also related to mobility, commissioners will consider approving several traffic control orders tonight. Those would allow overnight parking on South Civic Center Drive by permit for the residents of Parkview Senior Apartments, installing a BATA bus stop on the east side of South Civic Center Drive, and installing a BATA bus stop on the east side of Woodmere Avenue between Baldwin and Boon streets.