Another Parking Deck in Traverse City?

Project Revitalizes West Front Street, Requires No New Taxes

By Peter Schmitz, Co-chair

Citizens for Traverse City

Over twelve years ago, Traverse City completed an extensive public process to establish a city Master Plan.  They asked the tough questions about how can we best use this beautiful area and yet strike the balance between growth and our desire to keep the natural beauty that draws so many people to our city and the area.  This plan has been reviewed and modified on an annual basis since its inception.

A key tenet of the Master Plan is to move our city core towards a more walkable and pedestrian-friendly environment.  This includes the use of public parking decks to move the cars up and out of the way. To achieve the goals, a number of tried-and-true concepts were established.  The idea of creating brick crosswalks at mid-street, adding trees and other landscapes, and changing the zoning laws so that building were encouraged to be constructed near the sidewalk are examples.  The use of existing land and cleaning up brownfield areas with new construction rather than sprawling into greenfields and precious farmlands was recognized as central to our community's and, by connection, our region's long-term health. The basic concept of building density in our city core is a cornerstone of the Master Plan.

The fundamental benefits to building a public parking deck are numerous and are available for you to review on line at our website http://www.citizensfortc.com/.  They are very much in line with the city's Master Plan and goals of organizations such as New Designs for Growth and the Michigan Land Use Institute.

The proposed deck on West Front Street is the culmination of a well-conceived plan, not a hasty decision. The exodus of Grand Traverse Auto from downtown left a huge scar that has been an eyesore for ten years. The Traverse City Master Plan targeted this area for a public parking deck.  The plan recognized the need for public parking to support a vibrant West Front Street area.  This development will create the connection between East and West Front Streets and also lead to connections all the way through to West Bay.

Some say the Hardy deck is not full, so why build another? The truth is the Hardy deck is well ahead of projections in both usage and revenues. A parking deck is not built for only the present needs but based on expected future needs as well. The city would have a much greater concern if it were already full after only three years.  Through similar public-private development agreements, we have seen a number of attractive new developments like the Radio Center buildings expand the vibrancy of our downtown.

This public parking deck is being built, wisely, as part of a mixed-use development so the property doesn't come off the tax rolls. Contrary to what you may have heard from those who would oppose this development, the parking deck will cost the citizens of TC nothing. No special assessments. No additional taxes. The state is picking up nearly half the tab, about $6,673,000, and the balance will be paid through new property taxes generated by the new Federated Properties project and existing commercial tax base in the district.

In summary, this project was developed by following the current best practices in land use, and it facilitates the continued strength of our city core.  The developer, Federated Properties, has proposed a project that fulfills all of the goals established in the city's Master plan for the property. The city has the opportunity to take advantage of money allocated from Lansing to pay for half the deck's cost and requires no new taxes on the citizens of Traverse City.  It is the best circumstance our community could hope to achieve for a property that has been a vacant blight on the West side of our downtown for a decade.

I ask you to vote Yes on August 8, 2006.

Peter Schmitz and wife Kim are owners of Annie's and American Spoon Foods in downtown Traverse City. Peter is chairman of the Downtown Development Authority board and is also sales manager of Tellurex Corporation.

Too Big, Too Expensive, Too Risky

By Jim Carruthers, Spokesman

Wise development or not, the small town of Traverse City does not need another parking structure within a massive, mixed-use development topped with four stories of high-end luxury condominiums.  This development will do nothing to prevent sprawl or promote the economic vitality of downtown.  It will only drain the taxpayers by forcing them to pay for infrastructure upgrades that only benefit the downtown business district.

Sprawl has been occurring in the Grand Traverse Region for years under the watchful eyes of our regional politicians and community leaders.  During this time, planners and developers have continued discussing ways to prevent sprawl but have come up with few remedies to stop it.  Just look around us at Acme, Blair, East Bay and Garfield townships:  Sprawl is happening at alarming rates.  New research shows that in order to deal with sprawl effectively, communities must go to where sprawl is happening, (Metropolis Magazine, April 2006, "Toward a New Suburbanism.")  Building this massive structure in downtown Traverse City will do nothing to stop sprawl.

"New Urbanism" and "Smart Growth" are concepts for building better communities and have set in motion new trends on how we look at and control our growth.  In the beginning, these techniques sounded good and looked promising.  In-fill development and redevelopment of urban areas set the tone and created a vision for stopping sprawl by building up our urban core.  However, in reality, this is not stopping sprawl.  It has only permitted developers to obtain greater density on their properties by allowing bigger and more expensive buildings on less space while providing them tax incentives to do so.  In turn, this forces municipalities to plan and upgrade infrastructure -- at the taxpayer's expense.  The outcome is more expensive housing and retail on the backs of taxpayers with little guarantee of economic gain.

Studies also indicate that people are not flocking to our urban core and that they still want space to spread out in.  Does building this almost block-long, 100-foot-tall project downtown really fit in with the Traverse City Master Plan's number one community goal of  MAINTAINING A SMALL TOWN ATMOSPHERE?  I hardly think so!

There is a City Proposal on the August 8 ballot about funding Federated Properties' high-end development and parking structure at 145 West Front Street through bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the citizens of Traverse City.   We are already backing bonds for an existing parking structure a few blocks away that sits half empty most of the time.

The city is struggling with its budget and yet suggests it can afford this parking structure by paying back the bonds with Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and Brownfield Funds.  However, these same funds are available to the developer without the city having to provide bonds for the project. 

TIF and Brownfield funds are diverted tax dollars that our schools, libraries, and General Fund never see.  They are redirected to give the central business district a boost while providing little guarantee of economic success.  Business districts outside the downtown boundaries do not get the same incentives because TIF only supports several blocks of downtown.  The people that lose out most here are residents, neighborhoods, and business outside the downtown district.

The one question that seems to be left out continually in this process is what about affordable housing?  Almost every plan we see uses affordable housing as a hard sell for moving development along.  We are told how these big, in-fill, mixed-use buildings are going to provide housing for everyone.  However, when they are built, the only thing affordable about them is the cheap building products used to build the high-end spaces.  Of the sixty-seven condominiums in the Federated Properties' West Front Street development, there are plans for only one (1) affordable housing unit.  Will this unit be sold to someone in need or will it be sold as affordable summer housing for some fortunate snowbird?

Many upscale projects have been planned and built in this area, and many still sit empty because there simply is not a need for such development in our small tourist town.  Indicators are pointing to a downturn in our economy.  It's time to evaluate the real need for growth downtown and spread this across the entire city so neighborhoods and all businesses can benefit.  This project is just too big, too expensive and too risky!

You have a chance to stop the madness by voting NO on City Proposal 1 on August 8.

Jim Carruthers is a long-time Traverse City resident and community activist.