TRAVERSE CITY — The long-awaited More healthy Consuming Tradition Draft Strategic Plan stirred some lengthy dialogue by the Traverse Metropolis Downtown Growth Authority assembly.
The DDA was the primary to get a glimpse of the plan at its month-to-month assembly Friday morning and the 19-page doc elicited lots of dialogue, particularly since two board members (Pete Kirkwood of The Workshop Brewing Firm and Pam Marsh of Pink Ginger) are enterprise house owners with liquor licenses in Traverse Metropolis.
Kirkwood shortly responded after the disclosing and a synopsis of the draft plan was delivered by Elise Crafts, founding father of Statecraft and head of the DDA’s Wholesome Consuming Tradition undertaking, and Megan Motil, founder and principal of Parallel Options.
Kirkwood stated the research’s “presumption is Traverse Metropolis has a ingesting tradition downside,” however later added most liquor license house owners are accountable and deal with issues the appropriate method and the features that want addressing are “simply fixable.”
Marsh stated she believes 80 p.c of town does it proper and a small share creates the notion of a much bigger problem.
Kirkwood stated the survey discovered that the 20.7 p.c of ‘extreme’ drinkers in Grand Traverse County is similar to total state figures and ranks twenty fifth of Michigan’s 83 counties.
“Let’s be certain that we have now a wholesome ingesting tradition, however let’s not inform individuals we’re Daytona or Key West, which we’re not,” stated Kirkwood, who stated tour group operators must take extra accountability.
Later within the assembly, Mayor Jim Carruthers additionally evoked the identify of the southern-most level in Florida after mentioning Traverse Metropolis has made lots of prime 10 lists just lately, together with one about occasion cities.
“I don’t wish to be Key West,” Carruthers stated.
The final part of the More healthy Consuming Tradition Draft Strategic Plan highlighted instant (0-18 months), short-term (1-3 years) and long-term (4-5 years) motion steps, together with which non-public or public entity was accountable for implementing and/or supporting.
When requested after the presentation concerning the features every board member was most enthusiastic about, these motion steps have been lauded by a number of.
Higher lighting, extra video cameras and an expanded police presence downtown have been talked about repeatedly as measures to extend security downtown, whether or not linked to the ingesting tradition or not.
“These are all good issues, however we have now to take a look at it culturally, too,” Metropolis Police Chief Jeff O’Brien stated on the shut of the presentation.
Crafts and Motil will host two open homes on the plan Sept. 27, the identical day the Metropolis Fee is scheduled to overview it at a research session. The Closing Plan shall be offered to the DDA Board for consideration at its Oct. 15 assembly earlier than heading to the total Metropolis Fee on Oct. 18.
In different enterprise on the practically 2½-hour assembly, the DDA board:
- Heard a prolonged presentation from Nice Lakes Fishery Fee Govt Secretary Bob Lambe on the proposed FishPass. The proposed dam and selective fish passage undertaking is presently within the Courtroom of Appeals after thirteenth Circuit Courtroom Choose Thomas Energy put a maintain on development in January, days earlier than work on the $20 million-plus undertaking to be paid for largely with federal funds was slated to start. Lambe stated the 400-foot-long channel could be used to check applied sciences and methods to dam undesirable aquatic species like sea lamprey and move fascinating ones would basically exchange the Union Road dam, is particularly designed for Traverse Metropolis and would full the restoration of the Boardman River.
- Heard a report from Suzanne Schulz of Progressive AE on a neighborhood survey and downtown circulation research for the redesign of East Entrance Road. The survey outcomes shall be offered at a collection of in-person (Sept. 27) and digital (Sept. 29) city corridor conferences. Schulz stated pedestrians are the “No. 1 precedence” with the undertaking, however that “we’re serious about all customers, all (transportation) modes in all of our designs.”
- Tabled a presentation of the 2021 Tree Administration Plan for Downtown Traverse Metropolis due to the size of the assembly and time constraints of the board. The board additionally canceled the verbal CEO report from Jean Dernezy, an Arts Fee replace and workers reviews on transportation and neighborhood improvement.
