Traverse City planning commissioners voted 7-1 Tuesday to approve the city's new master plan, the culmination of a two-year process to update the crucial document guiding land use and other long-term decision-making in the city.

The master plan draft - including a transportation subplan called the Mobility Action Plan and a prescriptive "magazine" portion that outlines specific goals the city hopes to tackle in the next five years - has been reviewed by both the planning commission and city commission over numerous in-depth meetings this spring and summer. The state's Planning Enabling Act requires planning commissions - not city commissions - to adopt master plans with a two-thirds majority vote. The act also offers the "opportunity" for legislative bodies like city commissions to have a vote, said City Planning Director Shawn Winter. Traverse City commissioners are expected to vote on the plan in September. 

City Commissioner Jackie Anderson, who sits on the planning commission, was the sole "no" vote against the plan. She asked to have her name removed from the acknowledgments section of the document, stating her input had been ignored and that she didn't believe "it's a plan that reflects the desires of the Traverse City community." She said the plan didn't emphasize neighborhood preservation as requested by citizens and was an "economic development dream" that valued transformation over preservation.

Other planning commissioners pushed back against that characterization. Chair Debbie Hershey said that neighborhood preservation was "one of the most talked-about topics" during the master plan process and is one of six main guiding principles listed in the final document. Community comments and surveys directly "shaped this plan," Hershey said, including tweaks up until this past week to accommodate neighborhood feedback. "The plan is not going to be beloved by everyone...but the plan came from the citizenry," she said.

Planning Commissioner Brian McGillivary agreed. He said all planning commissioners "made suggestions for changes or tweaks throughout this process," some of which were incorporated in the final version and some of which weren't. While McGillivary said he had quibbles with the language in some sections, "it's all minor stuff." He said the plan reflects the input of "a lot of voices" in the community. "Overall, I think it's a good plan and way better than what we have," he said. "To delay it would just be kicking the can down the road."

Michigan communities are required every five years to review their master plan – a “policy document used by elected and appointed community leaders to guide land-use decisions, including those related to transportation, development, housing, recreation, economy, natural resources, and arts and culture,” according to a previous city release. Traverse City is completing a total rewrite of its master plan for the first time since 2009.