956 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8a43733bc4fd6aa89215247bcda05a66.jpg f1decb95c418fe92ea04f99c977914fa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Decorated Publishers' Bindings Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Description An account of the resource From the early 1870s to roughly 1930, many publishers issued their commercial book covers with a remarkable variety of graphic designs and illustrations. This sixty-year period saw many artists and designers contributing to this art form. While some can be identified from their style or initials, others remain unknown. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Michigan Novels Collection Regional Historical Collection Lincoln and the Civil War Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>, <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-01 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Source Seidman Rare Books. PS3513.I213 I5 1901 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-01_Bindings0243 Title A name given to the resource In Search of Mademoiselle Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource VD (Designer) Description An account of the resource Binding of In Search of Mademoiselle, by George Gibbs, published by Henry T. Coates and Company, 1901. Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1901 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3adddc8bb4a640d72b1aa057fe102d24.mp4 674e0bb737e9ccdfab87350036336e2e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3bffd35b1ace26bfc1d631746e59b425.pdf f9583d0e703726797727df43bf20e402 PDF Text Text Interview Notes John S. Vedrode (00:32:00) Introduction (01:08) Family and childhood (02:37) • Grew up in the farming area of Merrill, MI with three sisters working on a 500-acre sugar beet farm. • Attended school through the 7th grade and went to work on the family farm with his father. Pre-enlistment (08:06) • He was working at the green elevator on December 8th, 1941 when a worker mentioned to him that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Vedrode next mentions that he had been deferred for 6 months and then drafted in June, 1942. Enlistment and Training (10:49) • Went to Detroit for a physical and was given a clean bill of health. From there he went to Fort Custer for fitting. (12:08) • From there he went to Fort Rucker for basic training. (12:37) • Vedrode recounts a story regarding his ranger training. During his training he was commanded to trudge through 10 feet of water in a foxhole up to his shoulders. Such a task was difficult at best since he had to crawl out like a snake while a machine gun fired at them 18 inches off the ground. (13:28) • While undergoing training, he met an officer by the name of Mike Drenine who gave him two weeks of commando training. (16:12) • After commando training he stayed with his company until being deployed. The Philippines (16:59) • While stationed in the Philippines, Vedrode served in Carlson’s Raiders and trained under him. (18:13) • Vedrode tells of an encounter of which Colonel Carlson tells a certain sergeant, “You do the training too; just like these privates are doing.” �Marshall Islands (19:35) • Vedrode talks about a combat encounter that he had on the island of Eniwetok. • Landing on an island that was only two miles wide by three miles long, the importance of this island to the U.S. Marines was an airstrip. • Vedrode tells of an encounter where he was wounded. After landing and meeting no resistance at a particular pillbox, he calls for a flame thrower to destroy it. Upon destroying it, Vedrode went around to the side of the pillbox where he was hit in the head. When the medics came to get him, he did not want to go even though they told him to wait for the ship to come and pick him up. Tagged as he was, to identify that he was wounded, he disappeared on three occasions that the boat came to get the wounded. (23:34) • Vedrode talks of how he took a month and a half to heal on Eniwetok Island. (27:22) • Brief description of a Japanese soldier who comes charging out of a cave while they fired at him while they set a charge which explodes, the cave, but does not kill the Japanese soldier. • Vedrode talks about an encounter in which he blew up a 75 mm gun turret. While a group of his men were firing two machine guns, he crawled up in between them to the gun emplacement and placed a charge there and 10 seconds later it exploded. Afterwards, he received the Silver Star and the rank of staff sergeant for his bravery. Japan (24:22) • During his three-month stay in Japan, he tells of an encounter where he gives some Japanese kids candy. After serving three months in Japan, he is sent home. Going Home (25:11) • Instead of telling of his experience in going home, he talks about his four brothers and the different branches they served with: Frank (Merchant Marines), Louie (Navy), Ernie, and Steve. After the war (29:08) • Vedrode talks about his marriage years after the service. He says he met his wife after the service and was married between 20 and 25 years. In addition, �he had five kids: Laura, Linda, Tina, Doug, and Dan and quiet a few grandchildren as well. (32:20) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VedrodeJ Title A name given to the resource Vedrode, John (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vedrode, John Description An account of the resource John Vedrode served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1942 to 1945. He describes combat on Eniwetok, where he earned a silver star for destroying a Japanese gun emplacement, serving with Carlson's Raiders in the Philippines, and serving on occupation duty in Japan after the war. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collins Sr., Charles E. (Interviewer) Collins, Carol (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Marine Corps World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-25 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7e33065f767e58090fe05759ad3329ec.m4v a0f5bc19458a8091bee5e7220d884bf2 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2de6982eddddb449a646368fc7e7f0b4.pdf e72d272cf3e5b53fda6b4866e4df2467 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Veteran: Gilford Veenstra Interviewer: James Smither Transcribed by Gabrielle Angel Interview length: 59:00 0:00:00.2 I: We're talking today with Gil Veenstra of Grand Rapids Michigan and the interviewer is James Smither of the Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project. Okay, Gil, start us off with some background on yourself and to begin with, where and when were you born? V: I was born August 1, 1926 in Grand Rapids. My mother was a school teacher. My dad was an auto mechanic. I: Okay, and did you grow up in Grand Rapids? V: Yes. I: Okay. Now, were your parents able to keep their jobs during the Depression? V: No, they had a hard time like a lot of the folks. They lost their nice, big house. He lost his business. He's a new car dealer and he served in the Army at the tail end of World War I as a motorcycle mechanic. I grew up on a farm with five boys and two girls. There was a role for that many kids as adults. Anyway, we worked for my dad when I got to be twelve, fourteen. Dad started me young. He rejuvenated his business but he never purchased a building. He was always shy of the same thing would happen as happened in the Depression. We went through hard times. I remember we were making house payments of twenty-seven dollars a month to the lady just down the street from where we lived. They still sent me to a Christian school. 00:02:06.1 V: I had one sister, she developed polio when she was about twelve, had her paralyzed from the waist down. She took most of my parents' energy and funds. At Mary Free Bed, she got all kinds of treatment. When she was old enough and I had a garage I fixed the car with hand controls so she could drive because my dad had passed away in 1950. I: Well that's getting a little bit ahead of ourselves in the story here. Let's go back into the 1930s. Your family had a hard time but you manage to kind of still make it through. You were, they were able to send you the Christian schools. Now, do you remember how you heard about Pearl Harbor? �V: On the radio on a cruise ship. We had a three-ship convoy headed out of Frisco. Actually, it was Treasure Island. And we went to Hawaii; that was our first stop, and we got and we couldn't get off of the ships. I: Back in in 1941 when the Pearl Harbor attack happened you heard about it on the radio. Now did you think at the time that the war would be over before you were going to get into it or do you not think about it? V: You know, as- as a young person there was a whole bunch of us guys in the senior class at Christian High went out and enlisted together. Just get in there and get it over with. We had that attitude and that feeling: do what we can. 00:04:04.1 I: And that's 1944, so that's several years down the line, but as you were going through school did you just always assume that sooner or later you were going to have to go? V: I don't think I gave it any thought. I: But, now when you enlisted did you choose which branch of the service to go into? V: I did. I: What did you choose? V: I chose the Navy. I: And why did you choose the Navy? V: You know, that's a pretty good question. Because my dad was Army, I didn't have any relation in the Navy. It was kind of our camaraderie in our senior class in high school that we were gonna enlist in the Navy when we graduated, so a bunch of us we came together. I: So, you're saying some of the other guys had a preference and you just went with them? V: Yeah, more or less I: Alright, so where did they send you now for training? V: At Great Lakes. I: Okay. And this is the summer of 1944 now? V: Correct. I: Alright, Great Lakes to the north of Chicago. What did the basic training consist of? V: We had firefighters, aircraft identification, machine shop, a bit of electrical shop. They exposed us to quite a wide field that we could choose from. I didn't expect that was going to happen, what are you good at? �I went into the basic engineering class right there at Great Lakes. They were committed I go to diesel school. 00:06:15.9 I: While you were still at Great Lakes, how much emphasis did they put on discipline and following orders? V: Boot camp is strict. We kept the barracks clean. Kept yourself clean. Did your laundry. Learn to tie knots. Everything had to be rolled and square knotted. We had a Chief who was in our company that owned a company that made band instruments. He was a real strict one for marching. A nice guy, sharp, but you better get your cadences right and stay with him. I: Now, how easy or hard was it for you to adjust to that kind of military life? V: Very easy. I: Why was that? V: I had some friends in my company. Friends that started with “V”. For instance, Elmer Veen. I'm Veenstra, he's Veen. If he'd wash down here, I'll wash up the vault. It was a few of the guys from our class and just seemed like we fit right in. I: Alright, how long did basic training last? V: Seven weeks and four days for boot camp. 00:07:57.5 I: Okay, and then what they do with you after that? V: I went into engineering, basic engineering. And that required a variety of exposure which determined that, using their judgment and my grades and whatnot, I better stay in a more technical field: diesel. I think in those days there were the thoughts of invading Japan. I'm sure of it. They were looking for good diesel mechanics for the landing craft, LCMs, and I enjoyed working on that GM 671, the same engine that powered city buses early in the 40s and 50s. I: Did you do your diesel training at Great Lakes or did they send you somewhere else? V: I eventually ended up in diesel school in Richmond, Virginia for diesel and advanced diesel. And, was that just learning the engines and how they work and how to a fix them. The instructor said, "How many of you guys have experience? My dad had a garage. I worked with my dad. Another guy says, "My dad was a service manager up in Minnesota for a Ford dealer." Another kid says, "I come out of Pennsylvania I'm a farm boy and he said we can fix anything." So, it was the three of us and we monitored the class. First of all, they did a time study of a tear down with the three of us working together. And then, they'd get the flunkies in and then time them. The navy's way isn't always the right way but it works, and I enjoyed it. �00:10:21.2 I: So, you were already helping do the training while you were still in training? V: Yeah, I did a teardown of a 671 and put her back together. Pressed a button, [motor noise] she’ll run. I: Now, did you get a chance while you are in the diesel school to actually ride in any of the landing craft, or were you just working on the engines themselves? V: The power units where there was an engine they had a little joules four-cylinder engines I ran the pump for a generator and the auxiliary stuff on that warship powered by diesel. I: But, at this stage you're not actually on any boats or ships. V: No, we were in the shop. I: While you were there in Richmond did you get to go off the base at all or did you just stay there? V: I think we were free to go on Friday night. We went up to this Mark Wade, his name was, he lived in Chatham, Pennsylvania just across the- a short distance from Baltimore, Maryland. We went there several times, stayed with Mark. The same three of us we were together on those kinds of settings, home cookin', sleep in a good bed. The neighborhood girls that would come over and just play games. We were just kids, nineteen eighteen, eighteen by that I'm sure. Ah. 00:12:23.4 V: Friday night they also would bring in girls, bus-loads of girls from Richmond, and they had what do you call a guy who plays a record? I: Well, a disc jockey. V: Yeah, a that's it. And they would have a dance. As a Christian Reform young man, we didn't believe in dances. Movies were, movies were not good either. I'll tell you a little story? I was sitting down. It was held in the gym. I was sittin' on the lower tier in the gym, just watching the goings on, and a young lady came up to me and she said, "Why aren't you dancing?" I said, "I don't know how." She said, "Do ya wanna learn?" I said, "Not in front of all these people." I said, "Maybe you and I could sneak behind the bleachers and you could give me some pointers." It happened, and she was my buddy for a few weeks. A Jamaican lady, Rita McCormy was her name. I don't know what nationality she was, but she was not Dutch. I'll tell you what. She taught me a few steps. It was interesting. �00:13:56.9 I: Did you go into the city of Richmond at all or just - ? V: We went to a movie now and then on our weekends if we didn't go up to Mark Wade's house. I: Asking in part because you're in the South and the South was segregated in those days and Grand Rapids wasn't. Did you notice any of the segregation or the Jim Crow, or did that not register with you? V: I never got involved with anything about segregation. I: Did you see things like whites-only bathrooms or anything like that? V: No, I really don't remember it. I: That's fascinating just to find out. Sometimes you notice sometimes you don't. But really a lot of your time off base was spent up in Pennsylvania, which is going back north again. Okay, alright, how long did you spend in Richmond? V: Well, diesel school was six weeks and four weeks I think, so, two and a half months. But I didn't finish up because I developed the German measles. Then my class graduated, so I think some of them got an advancement of rate. I would have qualified; I was right up on top of my class. Now I'm stuck in sick bay. And corpsmen don't know kids' maladies. You know when you've been a parent and you have eight kids like my wife and I have you go through those whooping coughs and tonsillitis and on and on and on. I was left all by myself and until the Lieutenant said, "Well, what are we going to do with ya?" I said, "Get me outta here." I said, like, "I want a job. I want to work. I want to be responsible for something." 00:16:11.1 V:And they sent me to California. I boarded a ship headed to the Commander of the Western Sea Frontier. I said, "Well, where's the Western Sea Frontier?" Nobody seems to know. You can't go west forever. We were on a troop ship. We had a true destroyer escort as well for our protection. They said the Japs had some submarines in that area. It took 28 days to get to the Philippines to my base at Guiuan, Samar where I ended up. Turned around coming home was only 18 days. It was a slow ride out there and a quicker ride home. I: When you went out, you would have had to zigzag and change course. V: True, we did a lot of that. I: Now, what was the weather like on the trip out? �V: On the way out? I: Yeah. V: It was calm. The ocean was smooth. We played cards every day. The guys taught me how to play bridge. There was lots of little fish, flying fish in the wake of the boat. Ship. It was just a just a nice cruise. It was smooth. Coming home, it was just the opposite. It was rough, it was dark, food was lousy. It wasn't as nice coming, home and there should have been a lot of joy. We were going home! We did our part. Anyway. 00:18:08.4 I: So, when did you go out to the Philippines? Are we still in '44 have we made it to '45 now? V: I get to the Philippines early in '45 like April, I think. They were still driving on the wrong side of the road, I know that. In the Philippines, that changed in June, I think, and I hadn't been in the Philippines very long before they put me on the right side of the road. I: So, when you went out to the Philippines initially you're on the islands of Samar. Okay, so what is your job initially? V: Initially, guard duty. I think they stopped at they started at the top of the alphabet from Z down. I was 18 -year-old kid that they strapped a 45 automatic on my belt. I had never had one in my hand before and I was a guard. And they said, "After dark, eight to midnight." The place was fenced in, but you had to walk from post to post. I mean you had your area to cover. There was something on the other side of the fence. I didn't find out what it was, but it scared the willies out of me. It made quite a racket and I seen it and didn't know what to do with it. But, pretty soon it quieted down I was relieved of that job. I worked in the chow hall. I officially sliced bread for about 2000 guys with a hand-slicer. I worked in the ammunition belt throwing cartons of boxes of, actually of 30 and 50 caliber machinegun bullets. 00:20:17.5 V: I said to whoever I can find out in charge, "Give me something I'm qualified for. I don't need to work in the chow hall." "Well, he said, "do you want to go to the loader pull?" I said "No, I'll get that when I get back home." "How about boats? Oh, we have room in small boats for you." So, we had LCM landing crafts and I think a boat was a 45-foot yacht. We had a what they call a RERE boat, a few black cats, a float boat, float plane. I forget the initials for that. But when you �armed that when you are out on the water, you were on a boat that had big cushions around the edge so if you got close to it you wouldn't puncture the fuselage, but it’s like a plane. There are numerous boats. Aircraft carriers, they call them, Jeep carriers, they couldn't fly a plane very big off of them. They would anchor out off our base while the pontoon barge would hook onto a plane drop a plane over the side onto our pontoon barge and we'd run it into the shore. 00:21:57.9 V: Right adjacent to our navy base was a B 24 Bomber Army base. We brought a lot of planes into there. That was when the war was, Japan was still putting up some resistance. Ah, Germany had surrendered when we were on the troopship going overseas. So I ended up in a boat-pool like that. I was assigned an LCM, a picket boat, and crewmen on pontoon barge. Pontoon barges were, most of them had twin power units. The pontoons were about 6x6 squared cubes, held together with iron girders, 9x12, that's nine by six plus the in between them. I think, I caught a few planes on there, especially the ones where the wings folded, but I didn't do a whole lot of that mechanical work. But I did, I got a nice story. We'll get to it about my experiences as a mechanic, unless you want to hear it right now? I: Well was this while you were still on Samar? Is this while you were still on Samar with the small boat unit or does that come later? V: I'm still on Samar. I: Yeah, go ahead. V: Okay. One day, the Chief, head of the boat load team, came in. His personal sea boat was knocking a horrible knock and his consensus of opinion was among the highly rated guys, including the Chief first class, second class, third class war mechs, was we can't fix that. That thing's junk. The main bearing is wore out of it. 00:24:16.0 V:I happened to come in off a run and I, like an inquisitive young guy, I'm listening to this conversation and and I listened to that knock, and I said, "That's not a main bearing knock." I said to the Chief, "The last job I helped my dad with in the garage, Bert Hammer had brought in an old dump truck that knocked just like your boat and we tore it down and it had a bad flywheel, a loose flywheel, and we went. to the junkyard and got a flywheel for it and we fixed it." As soon as I said this, he was as happy as happy could be. Okay, now we're in the Philippines and here comes the head man's boat and it's knocking and I said to him, "That's not a main bearing knock." I said, "I think you got a loose fly wheel." "What's your name?" he says so I told him. He says, "What's your rank?" And I says, "Fireman." �He hesitated and then said, "Can you fix that knock?" I said, "Yes, sir. It. was the same job as the last job I did helping my dad before I went on active duty.” And, the Chief was so happy. It took me a couple days. I had to round up the parts I needed, the tools and whatnot. 00:25:53.9 V: And, okay. The war's over. They are startin' to get rid of stuff: planes that they would have sal- that they'd salvaged the motor out of them, or vehicle, a jeep maybe, some boats, some small planes, a lot of bombs. The air guys would bring the bombs down to our base to our jetty, and we had a crane out on the end that that took them. Just like at the airport where they got your carts loaded with your suitcases, these old carts were loaded with bombs. We would load them onto the barge and take them out into deep water, push everything off the side. On this particular day, I had to be on duty from 8:00 at night until midnight, might even have been 4:00 in the afternoon. I said to the Chief, he and I were buddies by then, I had fixed his boat, his engine, I said, "Chief do you care if I- may I take a couple of hours off this afternoon and catch up on my correspondence?" He says, "That's fine. You be back here by 4:00." So I went to chow hall first went to my tent, we lived in tents,. I hadn't been there very long. The bomb disposal guys were doing their job. All of the big bombs were supposed to have been diffused. One or two of them were not. I'm sittin' in my shack, in my tent, and I hear this horrendous explosion then a second explosion, and I rounded up a jeep and I was headed for the boat pools. I gotta find out what happened. I know what's happened. Somebody didn't defuse a bomb or the crane dropped it. I didn't know what, but I couldn't get anywhere near it. The shore patrol got in right away and said, "You can't go it's still too dangerous; there may be more explosions." 00:28:32.1 V: There I am, without a job again, without a real job. The boat pool was gone. Thirty- five guys, some were from the Air Corps, and the bomb disposal, some were guys that were on duty, regular duty at the boat pool to take care of it, and some were the Filipino fishermen that loved to fish off of in the [unknown word, sounds like Rossetti] and I heard them say, I'm not sure of that number, but it was in the area of 35, were killed. I: What about men from your own unit? Did you lose any of the men from your- did you lose any of the men that you worked with? �V: Yeah. I was the only one. They put out a paper on the chow hall bulletin board. Sign boat pool boat pool personnel, sign this thing, a notification that your name and what your job was at the boat pool. I was the only one signed in, and a couple days later shore patrol came to my tent. I didn't know what to do, to be real honest with you. I went to my tent and, I'm sure of it, tearful, shocked. You know, my friends were gone. 00:30:06.7 V: And shore patrol says, "Let me see your dog tags. Come with me you'll go see the exec.” He says, "Veenstra where've you been? Shacked up with one of your girlfriends up there in the hills?" I says, "No, sir, I don't do that." He just was goofing with me a little bit. Giving me a hard time, I think. And he tried to account for my time and I said, "I had been right in my tent I signed the roster sheet at the chow hall every time it was posted. And I didn't know where to go and I didn't know what to do my job was gone, and my buddies." Later they said to go off to see Commander Grant from Allston, Massachusetts. He was the Lieutenant Commander I had chauffeured around the water. He came to me and he said, "How would you like to go up to Sangley Point to be up in Manila? They got some boats but they haven't got the mechanics. Would you like to go up there?" I said, "It's better than sitting here in my tent wondering what happened." Nobody knew. If they knew they didn't tell anybody, the higher-ups. There had to have been an accident somewhere. He said, "Tomorrow morning, have your sea bag packs. I'll be back to pick you up and take you to the airstrip." 00:31:52.9 V: Which he did, put me on a 646 normally used for paratroopers. The ones with the seats down the sides. And the pilot said, "Veenstra, come on up front." He says, “You're my only guy going for a ride today." And he and the copilot and I, right up in that front cabin. He said, "There's your base right down there." That was after we had taken off. And, he pointed out some of the scenery. It wasn't very long and we were at Sangley Point. You had to settle on a airstrip, you know the metal, that interlocking I: PSP V: Yeah the stuff. First there was just kind of screamed a little bit. "Ah," he said, "Here's your home for a little while." �Another shore patrol let me advance up. He said, "Veenstra, let me see your dog tags." He wanted to make sure. He said, "I'll take you to your..." We lived in classic huts, that was fun. A step upward from a tent. And, yeah. And I got acquainted with the guys. I had, I was third class by then. Right after I fixed the Chief's boat he said, "You're a fireman? I'll see to that." Within two weeks, I had my first stripe. I was kind of proud of that. 00:33:39.4 V: My son, John, worked for me in my shop, and he joined the Navy also. He served on an aircraft carrier the Oriskany in Vietnam. He was in electronics. After he had 30 months in the navy, he wrote me a letter and said, "Dad do you have room for me in the garage?" I had, by that time, three mechanics and then John joined me. My second son was Mike. He went to JCS for a while, then he went up to Ferris State College the automotive school, and then he came to work for me. My third son tried it for a year, decided he wasn't a mechanic and he didn't like being cooped up in the shop. He liked outdoor work. I encouraged him for sticking around for a little bit. I: Was there a point to make about your oldest son that was connected to your story or did you just kind of continue on? V: Well, he, you he said, "The truth is, Dad was in the Navy and, and if it was good for Dad, it will be good for me." So, he enlisted, and he was in the reserve. They had a place on Lower Monroe here in Grand Rapids. Once a week, they would have their meetings and that went on for a while. Until he, it was his choice to go on active duty, or I forget what the second choice was, but anyway he chose to, he chose to go active and he went to school for the technical job he had and he was assigned to this aircraft carrier. It was like a, I pictured it as an electronically controlled, repetitious-firing gun, antiaircraft and he never said much about it. At least we'd spend a day together on this Veterans flight to Washington, D.C. He pushed me in a wheelchair You know I'll be 91 pretty quick. They wouldn't let me walk. In fact, all of the Vets were in wheelchairs. 00:36:31.4 I: Yes, they do that. V: John was my cohort. He was right with me through all the looking at at Philippines, all of the Memorials cast in stone in Vietnam. John was in the Navy in Vietnam times for his carrier. He was interested in seeing those memories, and it was interesting. We went to to the big cemetery the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Interesting to watch the- the so-called guards, the strictness of the way they functioned. It was blessing to me just so see those guys, you know? They were sharp, sharply dressed, every motion was sharp. I got as much of a �kick watching those guys as I did some of the sights. We had... I have a granddaughter that married an Air Force guy and he was a Captain when she met him in Texas, and he went 20 years in the Air Force. He met us and is stationed in Washington. Now, he's discharged from the Air Force, so he's got the same job as a civilian. He was there with, I mean, five kids and he was just as excited as John and I were that he could show his grandpa that. 00:38:40.1 I: Let's go back here to your own stories, and you've gone on now to your second assignment. That's the one at Manila Bay, and what were you doing there? V: Maintenance on boats, a couple of LCMs, picket boats, just general maintenance to make sure gas levels the LCMs all go into freshwater cooled by the salt water had zinc plugs we had to change every so often that took some kind of static out of the water or something. Electrolytic action, I think it's called. And it was a real pleasure to see my grandson Eric "Butterball." He left the service as a Lieutenant Commander. He was up for Commander if he would have signed over for another tour but with five kids, he said, "I'm going to be a dad. Get a real job." [Laughs]. 00:40:03.6 I: Can I go back into your story proper? Now, when you're in the Philippines whether in Samar or now in outside of Manila how much did you see of the civilian population? V: We would get some of these ladies who did our laundry. They'd use stone. They'd beat your clothes up with stone, big rocks, and would wade out rinse them in the clear water dry them and fold them up nice. There were Jap- there were Japanese up in the mountains in oh, it was at Guiuan. And they would come in in the morning and they would have Japanese skulls hanging off their- they didn't have much on but their belt hold those skulls that they had taken care of. I: There were Filipinos that were hunting the Japanese up in the hills? V: They hunted, and for each skull, they were fed and fed well, the same food that we ate. They were tough little guys. No shoes, calloused feet, big feet considering they were little guys. Most of them will come up almost up to your shoulder. I would hate to tangle with those guys. They were tough. The only thing they had for offensive duty was a bow that curved. They didn't have guns. They did well with what they had to work with. 00:42:06.1 V: They would come down and you said, "Do I have anything to do with them?" The times that I spent in the chow hall, I would slice the bread. There was one time that I'd get to see them, but we couldn't talk to them, so if they got in your way one word I remember was iwas. “You know, get out of my way,” I'd say to all of them when I'm coming in with a boat and they're out there fishing with a spear-gun. �But, they're nice people. To top it all off, there was a Filipino, born in the Philippines went to school there, went to some seminaries, wanted further education, came to the US, I think he wanted a wife, too. He found a wife. Ah, he got his education, he's working on a PhD now. He's going back to the Philippines and he's going to be in charge of the seminary there. Brian Najapfor N A J A P F O R, the nicest guy. He's been our pastor in Dunton our URC church for about 4 years while he's deciding where God's going to lead him next. So, he's going to seminary and he's working on his Doctorate. I figure it will take him a year because he has a lot of the preliminary stuff out of the way already. He was a guildsman in the Philippines and now he is as a pastor from the Philippines. 00:44:05.7 I: Alright, and did you go into Manila at all? V: I wanted to bring officers from Sangley Point across the bay. It was a terrible ride. There were so many sunken ships in Manila Bay, and some of them had truck lights. They're sitting on the bottom, they must have had a generator. Some of them had lights on, but most of them didn't, and when fog came in, you couldn't see those lights and you would have to feel almost have to feel our way through. We had spotlights but the spotlight went about as far as the bow of your boat, your picket boat. The fog was pretty thick. A few officers were discussing to us that they had a date and we couldn't get them there on time because we had to take our time. One guy up on the bow to direct the coxswain by sound, you can hear the waves come up against the hull or all of the sudden you'll see a shape in front of you. Give the coxswain the directions. But, we always made it, didn't always make it on time I did not- I should say I didn't get into Manila. I forget what the summer capital of the Philippines is . I: Baguio. 00:45:50.8 V: I had a ten-day R&R and we took a truck, and went up to Baguio for ten days for the relaxation and what not, and back down the mountain back to Sangley Point. But, through Manila on the way up but I didn't see much. I: Did you see much evidence that there had been a war there, did you see damaged things? Or not that you noticed? V: Not that I noticed, that is a good term. I: So, what was Baguio like? V: What's that? I: What was Baguio like? V: Baguio? �I: Yes. V: They had a golf course but the green was sand after one group went off the green, they would roll it, rake it, pack it down, so your ball didn't roll. So, it's almost like a chip-shot. But, the food was good and you'd get a bath every night. 10 days that went awful fast. I: Now. Alright, were you stationed anywhere else in the Philippines or you had Sumar, then you were at Sangley Point. Did you go anyplace else or did you finish your time there? V: I finished my time at Sangley Point except for a short time. North of Manila, there's an out- a home-going dock where we picked up another boat there, so I spent a little bit of time there, but I don't forget what the name of the town is. I took another troop ship back home. Otherwise basically it was Samar, Guiuan. 00:47:45.5 V: I had thirty days where it was, I was it was temporary duty. Running liberty parties into town. I spent 30 days at Tacloban, Leyte attached to a repair ship. We were his Captain's barge. When they repaired what they had to repair, we would take it out to the ship that was out on the bay some place, or bring it in to Tacloban, so I did get to see a bit of that. I was in Tacloban when Japan surrendered. That was not a safe place to be. When guys want to get rid of their ammunition, I'm sure they pointed her up. That was the Fourth of July celebration. They were all firecrackers. I: What comes up comes down again. V: Yeah. That was noisy. I said to my coxswain on my picket boat, his name was Pinky, nice guy I said "Dave, I want to get home. I want to go back to the boat and get out of here. I think it's more dangerous here than a lot of those places have been." But, I'd been there. That was a good experience being my career and being the taxi for the repair ship they treated us so well everywhere else. 00:49:36.3 I: Were you at Cebu City? Did you see something of Cebu? V: Cebu? I: Cebu. V: Yeah. That's where all this I've listed was done, back in about, you know, '45 '46. I: So, when do you actually leave the Philippines? V: I don't remember the date. But it was in the spring of '46. �Okay, I got home, and I went to summer school at Calvin. Took a class in psychology from a professor that was going to retire. This was going to be his last hurrah. My wife's brother Andy had been in the Marines, he said, "Gil, if we are going to take any course we want to take this course with this psychiatrist professor." And, we did. One summer school. I really wanted to Calvin because I wanted to play baseball, which I did. But, the baseball coach left quite a bit to be desired, but I put my time in. I played left field. I could hit it as good as anybody. But, my wife said, "I think it's time we get married." I'd been working for my dad part-time and I'd gone steady with Jane as juniors in high school and then one day she said, "Gil, you're the only boy I've ever dated." I said, "Well, maybe you couldn't do any better." [chuckles] I said, "Gotta start at the top." [chuckles] And she said, "I would like to not go steady. I'd like to experience other boys." And I said, "That's probably a good thing to do. I know I'm not the only good guy around." 00:51:55.2 V: And then I started dating someone else. Ruth VandeKoppel. A nice, little girl Very intelligent, dad was a machinist. But she lived on the West side. Anyways, my best buddy, Bob Nott, and I used to double date. And Luke Nettle also. The three of us used to all go. I had a '31 Chrysler. And Bob knew Ruth quite well. He called me one day and he said, "Gill, I hear you're back with Jane again." I said, "Yeah, how'd you hear that?" He says, "Well, you know, the grape vine around here." He said, "Would you care if I date Ruth?" I said, "Go for it. You know her. We've double-dated so many times. You know her as good as your own girlfriend." And so, he married her. And I married Jane. I: Now, was that dating going on when you were in college or was that back when you were in high school? V: After college. After college, okay. I just went one year in that summer school and my dad wasn't real well and it wasn't very long, long we, I was a quick learner, having been to diesel school, I had some on the job training in the Navy experience. We reached a buy-sell agreement. He wanted to retire, and I would take over. �He lived a month and eight days from that point. He was gone. He never reached 60. He passed away before. 00:53:53.7 V: So, there I was, the youngest graduate in Grand Rapids. Probably the gutsiest one too. We'd go to the clinic unit, the job stores, part stores. I'd go to clinics on- on alternators, generators and starters I went to General Motors' training center in Detroit on automatic transmission. And, every clinic I could get to I would go to, and we had our motor header, our General Motor books, big thick things. Ah, one of my good friends in the business. I went to him one day, I was stuck. He said, "Gil, did you read the General Motor Magazine Board Book?" I said, "No." He said, "Read that book first and if you're still stuck, then you come back to me." I never went back. Elmo was his name. He did a lot of aircraft engine repair for our air strip at Kent County. That was still on Madison and Thirty-Sixth. I: So, how long did you run the garage? V: How long? I did it 30-some years, then my two boys, Mike and John, and I had three other guys. One of them came to me one day and he said, Marlin Dryer, he said, "Gil you've trained, I think I'm ready to have my own shop, but I won't infringe on your business. I'm going to establish a shop in Grandville." And so, Marlin went there. Jack and Dick stayed with me for eighteen years. And they stayed with my sons another eighteen. They were in the garage longer than I was. But, I had about thirty-some years. And I had good mechanics. We did a lot of work for the doctors in Blodgett. That was when my shop was on East Benjamin and East Fulton. 00:56:36.4 V: I played a lot of ball. Had a lot of surgeries. I've got metal knees, both of them, a metal hip, both shoulders have been operated on. I've got to see the surgeons at Blodgett frequently One of them was named Jerry Green. He's an ortho-pod and I had to get in to see him, and he had his book on him and he was reading it while he was standing there, and he started to laugh. He said, "Gil, all your problems start on Monday He said, "I wouldn't get out of bed on Monday if I was you." [Both laugh.] That's the doctor. He's gone more into it now. I: Alright. �V: He was a character, that guy. 00:57:34.1 I: Okay, just going to wind things up here. When you look back in time spent in the Navy, how do you think that affected you or maybe what you learn from it? V: To be independent. Not be afraid to tackle an assignment. I make friends easy. I'm just a common guy. We had eight children, so I'm a family man. I'm a fisherman, a hunter. My wife loves the fish. We own a place in Florida in Meadows Island for quite a few years. She'd be fishing the surf with me 5:30 morning. Every day but Sunday, catching as many fish as anybody on the beach. Of course, I'd bait her up, cast her out and hand her the pole. She made friends with one guy who made his own poles. He said, "Jane I'm going to make you a pole." She said, "Well, Gil's got a pole for me." He said, "I'm going to make a special pole." And he did. A 9.5-foot surf pole. It was a little lighter, but it was - she could handle it. Oh, she loved to fish. And we love to eat fish. My kids grew up on fish. I: The cardiologist will be happy. [laughs] Alright, well, you've got a good story, so thank you very much for taking the time to share it today. V: Well, I hope it's worth your while. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_VeenstraG2138V Title A name given to the resource Veenstra, Gilford (Interview transcript and video), 2017 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-06-19 Description An account of the resource Gilford Veenstra was born in 1926, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he grew up. He enlisted in the United States Navy after his graduation from high school in June of 1944 with several of his classmates. He received basic training at Great Lakes, which is north of Chicago, Illinois. He received diesel training in Richmond, Virginia. In the spring of 1945, he was deployed to a small boat pool in the Philippines. During his first assignment, he spent time as a mechanic and earned his first stripe by fixing his Commander's personal boat. The boat pool in which he was assigned to was destroyed in an accidental explosion, which prompted his second assignment at Sangley Point, on Manila Bay, where he also served as a boat mechanic. To conclude his time in the Navy, Gilford Veenstra served temporary duty in Tacloban, where he was working when Japan surrendered. He was discharged and left the Philippines in the spring of 1946. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Veenstra, Gilford Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/141b8849143e281318f3e8a8e96b34ce.mp4 58d85b7198b9a5067976bf3bc4bb3605 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/87180fa7d4e17f18725094f5b82a4374.pdf 2da3d022733b7e6cb603dc2fd109cdc2 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Bob Veenstra World War II Total Time: 43:00 Pre-War (00:05) • • • • • • Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1914. Went to a small public school. Attended Union High School in Grand Rapids. Upon graduation, he went to work at a blueprinting shop. Remembers hearing about Pearl Harbor on the radio. He was drafted in 1943 into the Navy. Training (03:40) • • • • • • Reported to Detroit, Michigan, for his physical and examination. (04:30) Went to Great Lakes Naval Training Station for boot camp. For boot camp, they got up early to go to breakfast, and then they reported to the field to be trained. Was then sent to Williamsburg, Virginia, for more training. He was put in the 42nd Seabee Battalion while he was in Williamsburg. He rendezvoused with the 42nd at Oakland, California. Active Duty (10:30) • • • • • • • • • • • • • From Oakland, he was sent to Hawaii where they did some training work. Remembers crossing the International Date Line. (13:30) Their Battalion’s job was to build a Hospital and airstrip on the Island of Samar in the Philippines. The island itself was rocky. (15:28) His specific job was to be a cook. There were around 8 cooks per ship. On the island, they stayed in tent that were raised off the ground and had wood floors. There were a couple hundred men on this island. They would create a line for the men that they cooked for where the men went through and had the option to choose what food they wanted. (22:10) The various cooks had specific jobs that they would perform. For instance, one man spent all of his time making ice cream for the camp. (24:00) The Navy was able to provide them with fresh food most of the time. They had a menu for the week which they went by. At each meal, they had a couple of hundred men that they had to feed. They were on this island for around six months. They were able to exchange mail with the mainland United States. They did not get much news about the war when they were there. �• • • • (31:45) Shortly after the war was over, his unit got sent to Shanghai, China on the Yangtze River. They stayed on the boat while they were there. They were sent there to be discharged. Also, part of the Battalion’s duty was to destroy mines in the harbor. They were also able to spend some time in the city of Shanghai. They went into the city on Rickshaws and ate the food. (39:30) He was in Shanghai for around a month, and was then discharged and sent back to the United States. DVD ENDS 43:00 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VeenstraR Title A name given to the resource Veenstra, Robert (Interview outline and video), 2004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Veenstra, Robert Description An account of the resource Bob Veenstra was drafted into the US Navy in 1943. He trained as a Seabee in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was stationed in California before being sent to Samar in the Philippines. After the war he was stationed in Shanghai. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Boring, Frank (Interviewer) Michigan Military Preservation Society (Grand Rapids, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-10-13 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/825ecced28e8df30d10f810a0c034ecc.mp4 ba3e9b46c965c475b45605fe999c5d5f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d0c61a2f4f9f27e7754e85627770d7c.pdf 0bf112e86b4938e3e1eb83e4a2ea5ac4 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans’ History Project Willard Veenstra World War II 48 minutes 25 seconds (00:00:38) Early Life -Born on December 16, 1925 in Grand Rapids, Michigan -He was the youngest of ten children -His father was a house painter -Born in the Netherlands -Learned his profession in the Netherlands -Remembers that his father had consistent work through the Great Depression -He was employed by a business that bought up and repaired foreclosed houses -His mother stayed at home and cared for the children -She was relatively old when Willard was born -She died when he was fifteen years old -Graduated from Union High School on June 15, 1944 (00:02:19) Getting Drafted Pt. 1 -Five days after graduating from high school he was at a base in Illinois being processed -He had received his draft notice before he graduated from high school (00:02:42) Start of the War -He was at a friend’s house on December 7, 1941 in the afternoon -Remembers hearing the radio broadcast telling of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor -He thought that the war would be over before he was old enough to serve -One of his older brothers got into the Army before he did -Served in World War II and in Korea -Eventually became a lieutenant colonel -Another brother got into the Navy -A few brothers in law also got into the military (00:05:43) Getting Drafted Pt. 2 -He decided to just wait to get drafted instead of enlisting -He reported to Fort Sheridan, Illinois to be processed and sworn into the Army -Traded in his civilian clothes for Army clothes at this point (00:06:30) Basic Training -Sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for basic training -Arrived there in July 1944 -A large part of the training was physical training -Marching and getting into shape -He learned how to shoot a rifle -Also received training with the 37mm and 57mm antitank guns -Glad that he never had to use them in combat though -Wouldn’t have been effective against the German tanks -Remembers that 1944 was a hot summer in Florida -When they marched back from the rifle range an ambulance followed them �-This was in case anyone passed out due to the heat -He trained with men that were his age as well as some older men -He didn’t learn much about them -Knew that they came from all over the United States -There was a focus on discipline and following orders -It wasn’t difficult for him to adjust to being in the Army -When he completed basic training he was given a thirty day leave (00:11:00) Stationed at Fort Meade -He reported to Fort Meade, Maryland in early November 1944 -He was supposed to receive more training with the antitank guns, but that never happened -Issued winter clothing at Fort Meade -Knew at that point he was definitely being sent to the European Theatre (00:11:48) Deployment to the European Theatre -From Fort Meade he was sent up to a camp north of New York City -Most likely Camp Shanks -Didn’t stay there very long -Sent down to New York Harbor to board a ship there -It was a Dutch ship that had been repurposed to carry troops -He was in New York City around Christmas 1944 -On the voyage over to Europe they ran into a bad storm -Some of the men got seasick -It took over a week to get across the Atlantic Ocean -Travelled as a part of a convoy (00:14:08) Arrival in Europe & the Battle of the Bulge -Arrived at Le Havre, France -He was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division -He was placed on a truck and sent to Belgium where the 2nd Armored Division was -Battle of the Bulge was still being fought at this time -2nd Armored Division had been sent down from the Netherlands -Helping to clear out the remaining German forces in Belgium (00:15:50) The Netherlands -After the Battle of the Bulge ended on January 25, 1945 they returned to the Netherlands -Got back there in February 1945 -Carried out various training exercises -He was part of the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment -Regular infantry that just happened to ride in armored vehicles -He was probably the youngest man in his company -Just made sure to watch what the other men were doing so as to learn -They were staying in people’s homes in the Netherlands -Stayed in the Netherlands until they made the final offensive into Germany -During his time in the Netherlands the 2nd Armored Division was issued new tanks -Had to learn what they looked like so as to differentiate them from the German tanks -The Dutch family that he was staying with could speak English fairly well -He could see the Siegfried Line from where he was staying (00:19:54) Advancing into Germany-Rhine Campaign -When the division moved out he remembers crossing a few rivers �-Had pontoon bridges set up so that troops and vehicles could get across -The advance began in March 1945 -Remembers in some German towns bulldozers were used to push aside the rubble -They spent a few weeks moving across northern Germany -They faced some opposition during the advance -Remembers one town that was full of snipers -Civilians were instructed to remove the snipers, or the town would be shelled -The civilians did not comply and the town was bombarded -On April 1, 1945 they came to another town and took it without opposition -As they advanced they checked side roads for German supplies or soldiers -The only major resistance they ran into was when they came to an open area -He was out in front of his squad when they started taking fire from a power station -Bullets were flying over his head -Eventually the shooting stopped and when they got to the station it was abandoned -They didn’t run into any German tanks during the push across Germany -The resistance was so light that they didn’t need air cover or artillery support -He saw quite a few German civilians -Captured some German soldiers and had them march back to the rear to be processed -They were able to travel seventy three miles in one day -Unprecedented in World War II when only one hundred yards would be taken in a day -Able to do this by riding on tanks on the Autobahn -Eventually reached the city of Magdeburg, Germany on April 11, 1945 -This was after the 2nd Armored Division crossed the Elbe River -Stopped there due to orders and a lack of gas (00:26:50) Contact with the Germans -He couldn’t tell how old the Germans were -Their uniforms and the way they all looked made them seem ageless -He remembers when his unit captured a German officer’s headquarters -The soldiers there surrendered without incident and handed over their weapons -He was able to get two Lugers (German pistols) that looked brand new -Wound up losing them after he got wounded in Magdeburg (00:27:45) Getting Wounded -On April 11 they got to the city of Magdeburg -Spent the night there sleeping on the floor of a train station -On April 12 they began to patrol the city and make it secure -They came to a collection of large, concrete sewer pipes -There was a German soldier standing in one armed with a Panzerfaust -A type of German antitank weapon -Willard turned around to warn the tank with the patrol of the threat -He was forced to take cover in one of the other pipes -The tank fired at the German soldier -Concussion was strong enough to knock a cigarette out of his mouth -He, and a few other men got separated from the rest of the patrol -Started to make their way back to the patrol when Willard got shot in the wrist by a sniper (00:31:08) Evacuated -He was taken back to where the tanks were and he was stabilized �-An ambulance was sent out to collect him, as well as other wounded Americans and Germans -He was sent to various field hospitals -Received penicillin shots to insure that an infection didn’t set in -Learned that the bullet had shattered his right wrist bones and caused nerve damage -Sent to a hospital in Cambridge, England -Given good cots to sleep in -Served tea with their meals until the Americans complained enough to get coffee -Got the chance to explore Cambridge -From Cambridge he was sent up to Glasgow, Scotland -Spent a few days there -Boarded a plane in Glasgow and was flown back to the United States -Stopped in Iceland to refuel (00:34:56) Recovery in the United States -Arrived in Mitchell Field, New York and was placed on another plane -Flown to Memphis, Tennessee then was taken to Kennedy VA Hospital -His hand was operated on there -It was part of the University of Tennessee -Arrived there in May 1945 -He was able to see his family on Memorial Day 1945 -Had hand surgery in August 1945 -Stayed at the hospital until March 1946 when he was discharged from the Army -Spent most of his time playing golf or bowling -Allowed to visit downtown Memphis -Remembers seeing a football game one night -He was able to go home on leave quite a few times while he was in the hospital (00:38:55) End of the War -He was in the hospital when the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945 -There were celebrations, but people knew that the war wasn’t over yet -He remembers being in the hospital when Japan surrendered -The celebrations were big and everyone was happy -Even one stern nurse smiled the day that victory was declared (00:39:43) Life after the War -After he was discharged from the Army he returned to Grand Rapids to work with his father -Did that for a while until he decided that he didn’t like it anymore -Didn’t want to fall off of a ladder and get hurt again -He went to college for a little while, but ultimately decided that he wasn’t ready for it -He went to a technical vocational school -Took a nine month course in technical drafting -Graduated from that as a draftsman -Went to work as an apprentice at one of the oldest architectural offices in Grand Rapids -Received in office training that lasted four years -Same office that designed the Grand Rapids Civic Auditorium -Did design work for Herpolsheimer’s and Wurzburg’s -Went on to work for another architectural office for two years -Worked for another company that designed reinforced concrete structures -Got married in 1950 �-Married for sixty four years (at the time of the interview) -Had five children, eleven grandchildren, and four great grandchildren (00:43:15) Reflections on Service and Memories of the War -Learned that war is not a thing that you wanted to be involved in -It was a different kind of experience for a nineteen year old -He became close with the men that he served with -Attributes this to the fact that they were all in it together -Saw a friendly fire incident when his squad was clearing a house -One man shot his best friend in the stomach by accident -Never knew if the man survived -Didn’t see much physical evidence of the Nazis while he was in Germany -Remembers when they rescued some French prisoners of war from a prison camp -He remembers the winter of 1944/1945 and the living conditions that that entailed -Had to sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag under a half shelter -Would wake up to snow on the ground -Remembers running into a dead cow in the middle of the road and how much it stunk -He saw firsthand the toll that the war had taken on the civilians of Europe � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_VeenstraW1700V Title A name given to the resource Veenstra, Willard (Interview outline and video), 2014 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2014-10-30 Description An account of the resource Willard Veenstra was born in 1925 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was drafted in 1944 and reported after graduating from high school that June. He trained at Camp Blanding, Florida, and Fort Meade, Maryland. He was sent to Europe in January, 1945, and was sent to the 2nd Armored Division as a replacement during the final days of the Battle of the Bulge. He returned to the Netherlands with them for training and was assigned to the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division. In March 1945 they marched into Germany and fought across northern Germany, known as the Rhine Campaign, until they reached Magdeburg. He was wounded in Magdeburg on April 12, 1945 and was eventually evacuated to the United States. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Veenstra, Willard Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d385e068b7f7fb99f00b865b1cda11be.mp4 1e2fefac9a17f04dc24649e15b7d680a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b62bb349e29dbdfff95c15a0c42bf635.pdf 156dcecf33557a290849e6ad968c6006 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Kosovo War Fidel Angel Vega Length of interview (00:41:01) (00:00:14) Introduction & Civilian Life  Fidel was born in the Bronx, New York on June 30, 1973 (00:00:32)  His father worked in silk-screening, while his mother was a stay at home mom (00:00:41)  Fidel worked numerous jobs before enlisting in the army (00:01:03) o Tinting windows on cars o In auto-parts stores o Worked as a plumber  Enlisted because his cousin approached him about joining and he was dissatisfied with his plumbing job (00:01:25)  Wanted to join the Air force but the recruiter wasn’t available, so he decided to join the Army that day instead (00:02:19)  He was able to choose his job entering the army and he chose 12 bravo combat engineer (00:02:40) (03:35:00) Training  Basic training was not a shock for him because family members who had served prepared him for the experience (00:04:00)  His AIT (Advanced Individual Training) was combined with basic training into OSUT (One Station Unit Training) (00:04:57) o He had the same barracks and the same drill sergeants at the same location in Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri o He adapted rather quickly to military life  After finishing OSUT he was assigned to the Bravo company, 326th Engineer Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky (00:05:47) o When he arrived, Fidel had to go through air assault training o He was required to train climbing ropes and rappelling from them as if off from a helicopter o He was able to climb a rope in 15 seconds, the limit being 30 seconds as he remembers it  He was asked to if he wanted to be the company’s platoon driver with a week or two of arriving, an offer he accepted (00:07:19)  Fidel remembers the men hazing a new lieutenant by walking passed him in a drawn out line, obliging the lieutenant to individually salute roughly thirty different men (00:08:10)  Air Assault School was one or two weeks long and helped him get over his fear of heights (00:10:00) (00:10:45) Active Service  After two years with the 101st he received orders to go to 82nd Engineer Battalion Bamberg, Germany (00:10:45) o He was assigned as the unit armorer, which he did for two years o Fidel’s job mostly required him to repair small arms weapons � After completing armorer school, Fidel’s unit was sent to Kosovo (00:12:33) o He was at one point tasked out to be a body guard for the battalion commander, a lieutenant colonel o During this mission he spent time in the cities of Kosovo where he interacted with Russian soldiers  Fidel arrived in Kosovo during December or January (00:15:38) o Fidel remembers a patrol where it was so cold that the hoses to their camelbak canteens froze, prompting them to return back indoors  The average day in Kosovo for Fidel entailed waking up, doing PT, having breakfast, and performing guard duty in the arms room (00:17:00) o They didn’t initially have an arms room, they had a C hut that acted as a barracks and arms room o The firearms needed to be guarded at all times, especially because the sea hut was only a wooden structure and the weapons were not entirely secure there  Fidel remembers a military police unit that was attacked by locals who threw rocks at the men while they were on patrol in the city of Pristina (00:18:30)  Fidel recalls that the primary job of the combat engineers in Kosovo was to plow the roads (00:19:30) o If they came across mines or IEDs they marked them and called a bomb disposal unit to dispose of them  There were not any NATO soldiers at his post in Kosovo, Camp Bondsteel, but there were some soldiers from Spain and Portugal (00:20:15)  While in Kosovo, the only time Fidel and the men went out, it was on a mission, as opposed to Germany where the men had free time on Saturday and Sunday (00:20:48) (00:21:50) Service in Germany  Fidel met some of his best friends through his unit in Germany, including his wife who was a paralegal (00:22:40) o Her MOS was 71D o He met her in August 2001, two months before his enlistment was up  Fidel recalls how he and a friend bought a broken down Volkswagen, which they repaired and drove around Germany during their leisure time (00:23:57)  It was difficult to keep in touch with family while in Kosovo, but in Germany it was relatively easy using phone cards or cell phones to call home (00:25:30)  He remembers some protests in Germany and the men were briefed where not to go because of them (00:26:18) (00:27:02) 9/11  Fidel was still in the Army when the World Trade Center Towers were attacked on September 11, 2001 (00:27:10) o He was walking into the med unit to collect his medical records when he saw several people standing around a television there o Fidel thought the other men were watching a movie and when one of them, a friend, told him it that the WTC towers had been hit, he thought they were joking around o He went back to the barracks to find out if it was true and was shocked to find his friend was telling the truth  On base, he remembers there being confusion, a lot of the men were nervous, some were �ready to go to war (00:28:17) o As he was about to leave the Army, Fidel remembers thinking that he may not be able to go home o He remembers a female soldier whose mother worked at the towers, but was sick that day and did not go to work o Fidel recalls another soldier whose cousin worked at the towers but was stuck in traffic when the towers were attacked (00:30:56) Return to Civilian life  Although he wanted to leave the army, Fidel found it difficult leaving just after 9/11 because he was unable to communicate with his friends, some of them serving in Iraq and Afghanistan (00:31:00)  Fidel found it somewhat difficult to adjust to civilian life, as his training left him always on the alert, aware of his surroundings and sometimes made him wary of others (00:32:50)  He still keeps in contact with some of the men he served with, especially through social media (00:33:40)  Fidel currently works for a company that has a defense contract with the Department of Defense and he works at the Army Reserve Center in Walker, MI (00:34:30)  After leaving the army, Fidel started a family with his wife and began working his current job as a security guard at the Army Reserve Center (00:35:09)  From his experiences in the Army, Fidel feels that sometimes war is necessary and also sometimes regrets leaving the Army when he did (00:36:17)  If there was anything he could have changed, Fidel would have chosen a different MOS, as his job as a combat engineer did not prepare him for any civilian careers as some army jobs do (00:39:17) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_VegaF1711V Title A name given to the resource Vega, Fidel (Interview outline and video), 2014 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2014-11-24 Description An account of the resource Fidel Angel Vega was born on June 30, 1973 in the Bronx, New York. During his adult life, Fidel worked a number of unsatisfying jobs that led him to enlist in the Army. In the army, Fidel served first as a combat engineer in the 326th Engineer Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division. Fidel was later transferred to the 82nd Engineer Battalion with whom he saw service in Germany as well as in Kosovo as a part of the peace keeping mission there following the Kosovo War. Leaving the army in October of 2001, Fidel's last month in the service was shaped by the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vega, Fidel Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Vega, Nikki (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6947c221911969200c44ea6a1e307117.mp4 471d88e1fb1d2b37ac2786ee32328275 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/94e630aadab9eb3f6579e7bad07f8a2d.pdf 6d7247e77e53a87bf3152496ca272647 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Francisco Vega Part 1 (59:46) “We are talking today with Francisco Vega of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The interviewer is James Smither of Grand Valley State University. Mr. Vega, can you begin by telling us just a little bit about your personal background, for instance, where and when were you born?” I was born in San Antonio, Texas on February 28, 1922. Before we start talking I would like to give you the title of what I am going to be talking about and that will be, “Snafu”, July 4th 2008 and “Snafu” simply means, “Situation normal, all fouled up”, and you will see from the very beginning of my lifetime in the service that there were a number of experiences that fall into that category. 00:56 “Can you tell me a little bit about your family? What did your parents do?” My father was the regional manager for the National Life Insurance Company in San Antonio; he had a large territory there. He also had his own business before that; a supermarket, and he had businesses in Mexico. My mother’s family was from Mexico and I had two uncles there, uncle Landino and uncle Francisco, he plays a part in my talking with you about this. They were in the wholesale food business and they owned orchards. They owned a very large piece of land and they were professionals. 1:41 Out of the six of us in my family, I am the oldest of the six. All of us have had our own businesses. Here in Grand Rapids I had my-- the youngest of the boys, Larry, he’s been in the business for forty-two years in financing, a family budget service. Anyway, we do work for ourselves with the thinking that if you work for yourself you create jobs for other people and all that. “How long had your father’s family been in Texas?” 1 �My father’s family was in Texas since Texas was part of Mexico. On my mother’s side, again is a tradition tied closely to service to country and community, and she is a descendent of General Santaro Topia, my mother’s name was Sarlospa Topia Vega and she is a great granddaughter of this general Topia who was a governor and military commander of Puebla during the battle of Cinco de Mayo on May 5, 1862. 2:38 His father, General Antonio Topia, joined in the cry for independence when they started the fight for independence from Mexico in September 16, 1810, so we grew up with a written history seeing all these items as part of our family, but never trying to reach that height or trying to imitate anyone. It was just there and I still have the two original letters as part of my legacy. One from the president Benito Juarez of Mexico to my ancestor and one from General Ignacia Zaragoza, who was in charge of the battle on them. 3:18 “In addition to having all that in family history too, your mother had some education too didn’t she?” Yes, as a teacher in a teachers college, Normal College in Saltillo. “Let’s see now, you were born in 1921, when did you finish high school?” In 1940. “What kind of high school did you go to?” I went to Central Catholic High School, it’s a military school—private—It is interesting that you asked me that question now because that was the first time, it was 1938 when I started there, that I could use my own name. All the time, and I have the records, that I was in elementary school in San Antonio, junior high school, for junior high school I was at Washington Irving, still I graduated from there by the name of Mike. They wouldn’t let me use my own name and this was all part of what you—the redevelopment of our country, some of the racism and discrimination. 4:19 It never bothered me because I thought, they don’t know what they’re 2 �doing, but if they want to call me Mike, fine. It wasn’t until I started Central that—I talked to my father and I said, “Dad, this business of Mike has to go”, and he said, “You understand why it happened”, and I said, “Sure”, but when we registered and were paying, it was—you paid, it was not public, I used Francisco after that. 4:45 ‘What proportion of the students at your high school were Mexican American rather than Anglos? Were you kind of unusual there?” Possibly when I was there maybe five or ten percent. “OK, so there were some, but it was still a little bit unusual at that point?” Yes, it required money and that limited a lot of people, just like today. You go to the universities, sometimes you go to a junior college, which gives you more affordability financially, or if you want to go to Harvard, Yale, Columbia or the U of M, you need the money for that. 5:28 “Right, now, what did you do after you finished high school? What did you do next?” Well, I had a scholarship to a business college because of my typing speed and it didn’t take long before jobs were coming in and being offered to people there at the college and so I took a job as a typist for an industrial company, AB Frain Company, and you would type invoices and that again gave me a lot of experience. This is what I did all day long and the invoices were on a roll and being fed into this typewriter. Then you had a comptometer, which is a paperless calculator and so, we would figure out four and a half dozen at twelve dollars a dozen. You multiplied it and put it in the statement or invoice. 6:22 I stayed with that until I went in the service, until December 7th 1941. “On December 7, 1941, how did you learn about the Pearl Harbor attack?” 3 �Every Sunday I would go out hunting, every Sunday morning at dawn with a friend of mine named George Cabina and we would hunt for rabbits just south of San Antonio. It was all country, it was no houses around and we always used .22 rifles and again we had been in military school and we had rifle range so we were familiar with guns. We would shoot the rabbits, clean them, come back and give them to some of the neighbors. Again we were very strong in the depression, not too different from what we’re going through now in our country, but then we went to mass at noon. 7:24 Having gotten up that early, I would come back and go back to bed and this is December 7th. So, I remember that my father came and said, now keep in mind— there is no television, no computers, just radio, and he comes in and said, “Would you get up Pancho, this is some news coming”, and he spoke English, and he said, “They’re talking about Japan”, and I said, “Dad, I’ll get up after while, we don’t have to, I don’t have to get up to go to mass at noon until 11:30 or 11:00”. Well, he came back again and after a while he said, “They’re talking about pearls”, and he said, “There’s a lot of excitement on that ant they’re just giving pieces of information”. So, finally I got up and of course we never heard of Pearl Harbor, we had not heard a number of things that were happening at that time and I would say within two hours, I had this call from my mother’s older brother, more or less a senior member of the family from Monterey, and he said, “You heard the news?” and I said, “Yes, uncle”, and he said, “Your country is being attacked, don’t wait to be called, offer your services”. 8:37 Again, that volunteering service to your country. This is Sunday, and Monday morning I went out—I went to the coast guard, I went to the infantry, which we have—in San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston, Kelly Field, Randolph Field, the military installations around, I went to every branch of the service, the Marines, the Merchant Marines, all of them and the one thing they were telling me at that time was, “We are not taking Mexicans at this time”. 9:03 Again this is—it did not surprise 4 �me too much because I would not—I always felt—I know who I am, so I don’t know what their problem is and here we are being attacked and this is the answer you are getting. I tried every branch of the service and now I did come back and said, “Dad, I did apply and I’m sure they will be calling me”, I think he knew that I was not telling the truth and this came out after I came out of the service, not before. But, I tried again and the same thing was on Tuesday so, I did register. I did not want—I did want to have a serial number of 1 because that meant that I had volunteered. 9:47 Number 3 meant that you were drafted. Nothing wrong with it except that being in military school, we all talked about being prepared to serve. So, with that I came across a newspaper, a full page ad, it was in the San Antonio Express and the San Antonio Light, that’s the name of the newspapers, that if you enlisted, if you had military service and you enlisted now you could remain within the Eighth Service Command, which was the San Antonio region, for the duration of the war. In fact that’s they way you were going in, being called for the duration of the war, not twelve months or anything. So, I went in and I signed up—there was one other person that went in at the same time and his name was Lica Lopez and he signed up, well he stayed in that region the entire war, in the Quartermaster Corps. I went in and the next thing I know I’m at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. I’m there a couple of days and I’m taken over to Dodd Field, which is part of Fort Sam Houston, one of oldest air fields in the country, next to the one, I think in Ohio. 10:52 There I am introduced to two sergeants in the regular army and they said, “We understand that you have experience so, you need to get over here and we need to test you on compliance”, and I said, “Fine”. There were a bunch of other soldiers; it was a close order drill, four by squads, and two by squads at that time. So, with that he said, “Get packed, you’re going to Kelly” so, I went to Kelly Field and I arrived there and he said—oh, while I was still at Fort Sam Houston, I was only 5 �there about four or five days, but I also had to do some work there and I remember this first sergeant, who I saw again after I came out of the service, and he was a typical first sergeant that you expect to see—big pot belly, a big guy and a big voice that didn’t need any assistance to be heard, and he called me and he said, “Now you go over to that little building over there, it was no bigger than a one stall garage, and he said, “You’ll find some brown bags in there, fill them up with one pound of what’s in those barrels”. 12:03 So, that’s what I was doing and it was Saltpeter so, Saltpeter in those bags was taken and mixed in with the food, with the mashed potatoes, and that was to keep the sex drive down in the soldiers. I did not know this when I first started hearing about it even before I left Fort Sam Houston and it got to be kind of a joke, and they said, ‘Where did you end up?” And I said, “In that shack over there filling one pound bags”, and they said, “Did you get into it yourself?” And I said, “No, they told me what it was about”, but that was part of the army life at that time. 12:42 Well, from there I went to Kelly Field and I arrived there with this other fellow and the first sergeant comes out and he said, “Now you’re in the air corps”, there was no air force at the time, and he said, “You are a squadron leader, each one of you” and he said, I think, “You have 20 men and they’re coming in”, when he said, “coming in”, the draft was on, a nationwide draft, and it means that they were arriving in trains, entire trains and you’re talking to people who don’t want to be there. So, with that he said, “There’s a train coming in”, and he told me to go meet them and he said, “You have four people here now that have been with us two weeks and each one is your flight leader, platoon sergeant”. 13:36 So, I talked to them and they just kept telling me, “We don’t want to be here” , and I said, “Well, I’m in charge and you’re going to do it the air corps way or you’ll do it my way”. I learned this from ROTC and they didn’t know what I was talking about right away, but they knew it was business now. So, with that, I divided 200 people arriving into fifty 6 �each and each one would get these guys. We were in charge of taking these new recruits to get shots, haircuts, their clothing, teach tem how to march, take them out on the rifle range, and a couple of incidents, and this is why the word I use “snafu”, you start seeing mix up. 14:25 We did not have enough rifles and we were using two by fours in some cases to demonstrate how to march and carry a rifle. There was a grenade range there at Kelly and it was simply an area that was surrounded by some sandbags and on one side was like a deep pit, a ravine, and you had four grenades and so, they gave me the four grenades and they said, “Do you know how to use them?” I said, “Well, yes, you pull the pin and get rid of it”, and so with that I took the four squad leaders and showed them how to do it—you have the guys watch you—we only had one grenade, and then you throw it over. Well, one of the guys got sick and I took his place so, I’m standing there, like we are here, and I said, “the rest of you just watch and you’re not going to do this now, here’s the grenade, you pull the pin like this and you drop it”, and I gave it to the fellow and I said, “Now you do the same thing like that”. 15:29 As I’m talking, the next thing I hear from him is “Like this sarge?” and he’s pulled the pin, and we’re standing and the last thing I wanted to do was get him excited or anything and he sensed right away that something was very wrong and I grabbed his hand and he wouldn’t open it so, I kneed him pretty badly, I must have raised him off the ground a good eight inches and I got it and threw it and it exploded. 15:58 then I went, that afternoon when I got through, I went to the headquarters and I talked to the first sergeant and I said, “Sergeant, I have to report, we had a problem at the grenade range” and he’s joking and he said, “with one grenade?” “Yeah, with one grenade”. He said, “What happened?” Well, here comes the colonel from the office when he heard me saying we had a problem and he said, “Why did you have a grenade?” And I said, “Well, I was given four of them” and he turns to the first sergeant and said, “That was supposed to been stopped two weeks 7 �ago, no more grenades.” 16:28 That was another thing, the word just did not get down quick enough. On the shots—you would just hear moans at night from all these guys that were getting these shots and some day you can see my record of them for that time for yellow jaundice, for yellow fever, for a number of them, but what they would do was they would take all these soldiers and they had just a jacket, I was trying to think of the name of it, it was OD work clothes and they would tie it around their waist and we would be marching, going to this building and when we got close to the building it went down like a funnel and as you got inside this corridor on either side were small windows and there were medics there I guess, I don’t think they were doctors, but these guys would go in with their hands on their hips like this and as they went by, they would get a shot in one arm and a shot in the other arm. 17:26 By the time they got to the end of the hall, some of them were in pretty bad shape from the pain and swelling. The regular army guys would be standing outside and they would start joking to these guys and say, ”Aw, don’t worry about it, when you get to the end look out for the square needle” and the guys, some of them would pass out. It was bad enough they were going through all of this, but these are the experiences that I said are totally unexpected, some of them you can laugh at. 18:05 From there I did go and finish my training of all these guys. We had a kitchen, we had a—it was a village and we were between Kelly Field and at Kelly Field they also had the enlisted men’s barracks, it was called and English name, Buckingham Palace. They told us to look at it and it was of course very fancy that you had telephone booths with an easy chair and they told us right away, “That’s not for you” so, they took us to this place where you had cots and drill grounds and that. 18:43 From there—we had people there from all walks of life. There was one fellow from Wisconsin and he asked me, “Do you know a printing shop here in San Antonio where I can get something printed?” I said, “Sure, I have an uncle that’s in that” so, I gave him the address and he sent 8 �somebody out because we couldn’t get off base, but he was very resourceful and he had a sideways cross, now they were taking everybody, there was no discrimination in that. Well, he had some cards printed and he sent them all to Milwaukee and saying, “Your son is in service, remember him in your prayers and don’t forget to send him a little gift”, and he was getting mail back of everything you could imagine on this so, he was getting candy, he was getting clothes, he was getting gloves, money and he just kept it up as long as I knew him and he was in there. 19:45 These are developments of what was going on when they were bringing in the civilian part, because this was civilian army. “How long were you doing that drill instructor work?” From October until January of 1943. This is about; I think it was January of 1943 when I arrived at Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the JAG School. Interviewer: “Tell us how you wound up going there.” By working, we couldn’t get off the base and I think you had to wait two or three months before we could get off, but on Sunday—my record of typing was recorded and I remember that this officer came in, I think it was the officer of the day, and called my name and said, “We need some help at headquarters”, and they wouldn’t ask you, you were told. 20:42 I said, “What is it about?” He said, “Well, you can type”, and this is what was used. So, as I’m typing, here comes this, it was like a Western Union teletype with all the information of schools that were available and as I was looking at them and I asked the officer of the day, “Is this available for anyone?” and he said, “Yes, did you see something you like?” I said, “Well, not yet”, I went to a military institute and I didn’t want military. I wanted a different experience. Pretty soon here come the Adjutant General and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and I had never been there, but I asked him I said, “ Is that one available?” And he said, “Do you want to go there?” And I said, 9 �“Yes” and he said, “Go pack, you leave in the morning”. So, I left by bus and I went to Baton Rouge and arrived there at night and they put us into the stadium, it was a very big stadium and I remember we were just beginning to fall asleep, it was getting dark and we heard this growl, a tremendous growl right outside the windows, at least it felt that way, and we started to wonder what the heck was going on , if it was a joke or something. 22:00 It was a growl and it just didn’t—it continued crying out so, we find out it’s a Bengal Tiger which is the mascot of LSU. I was there and we went through quite a bit of training and I received my first promotion from there, PFC. “What kind of training were you getting?” Army regulations. We went through everything that’s covered by it and it was there that I first found out what provisional meant when it is assigned to a unit. When a designation is attached to a unit it means that group is expendable. You’re going in there and chances are you are going to die and you can be replaced by anyone regardless of rank on that so, It’s very important for the higher echelons in command to know that they don’t have to look for another sergeant to replace a sergeant, they can put in a warrant officer, they can put in anyone they want to get the job done. 23:03 I finished there in January, I think it was a two or three month deal on that and upon graduation form that they assigned me to Altus, Oklahoma and I was called in, with my bags and everything, and they said, “Well, you’re leaving on the train and here are your tickets”. No, on the bus and he said, “Here are your tickets and ten dollars” and he said, “You’ll get the rest of your money and everything when you arrive”. Altus, I didn’t know where Altus was, but it is across Texas and that is a long way. So, I get to Altus again about late afternoon and I couldn’t find—I didn’t have a place to stay. They didn’t tell me where to report or anything and I had to wait until the next day to leave by train to Altus from Wichita Falls, Texas so, I went to a 10 �military policeman and I told him I had these orders that said I as supposed to be in Altus and he said, “The train doesn’t leave until tomorrow”, and he said, “Have you been to Altus before?” I said, “No”, and he said, “You are going to want to get out of there as soon as you can, if you can, if you can stay on the train, just stay on the train.” He was familiar with it and he said, “If you need a place to stay, you can stay in jail here with us” so, I slept that night in the jail. The next morning they take me to the station and there’s a coal burning engine and one car attached to it and that car is divided in half with a curtain and It’s passengers and freight and the back of that car is open and doesn’t have a door and this is wintertime. 24:53 So, I’m the only passenger— we get on that and start going and it didn’t take long before the smoke and everything starts getting inside and is just swirling inside and the cold. Finally we arrive at Altus and all that is there is like a four-stall garage and no one is there. It’s raining and there’s mud all over the place, but then a guy comes over from the engine, they didn’t have anybody else on that car, and he says, “This is where you get off”. There’s a ladder to walk on from the train to this garage, which is very close, it’s about ten or twelve feet away from the rail line, but nothing else, it’s allopen and mud. 25:42 So, I got out and waited there and finally a Jeep came up and I got on there to go to the Altus air base. As we started getting there, I could see all these barracks, one story, not two story, but they’re tied down with cable, cable goes over the roof of it and is anchored down in the ground. I guess that gives you a clue that there was a lot of wind out there. The outfit I joined there was UC 78 planes made of canvas, all silver, they had twin engines and were used for training navigators. 26:11 I would say that within a week—one of the things, there was “Lonesome George” that use to be on television, I don’t know if you remember him from early television. He played the guitar and had a kind of deadpan face. Well, he was stationed there, he was an officer in training there and the only reason I remember is because I 11 �would hear him play the guitar once in a while on that. One of the days that we woke up, we had quite a storm and the next day we went out there and there were just shreds, all these planes had been cut to shreds by hail. There were just pieces of it. 26:56 “Now what kind of work were you doing on that base?” Well, being a—administration—in other word I had gone to school and I was in headquarters again. And I usually ended up in headquarters because of that, which meant they put me at the center of information. While I was there, I received two promotions, Corporal and then Sergeant, but on the air base they sent a group of mechanics who repaired all the planes and some of them, they just tore them down and put new canvas on them. Then there was another opportunity to go to school, except I had to give up rank, which meant I had to give-up money. So, I went to that, it was to engineering school at Oklahoma A&M, today’s Oklahoma State. Engineering, I really was not looking forward to it, engineering was not exactly my best grades in school, but I signed up for it, actually I took anything to get out of Altus by then. 28:01 I was there at Oklahoma A&M and pretty soon they expanded the program, the person in charge of that, his brother was in charge of the water works in San Antonio and he had seen my records and one time he said “Hi” to me. One time when I was in the office there in the headquarters, he said, “Do you want to leave Oklahoma?” And I said, “Where to?” He said, “We’re opening up an expanded branch of this in Peoria, Illinois, at Bradley University, at that time it was Bradley Polytechnic Institute, so I said, “Sure, what’s the change?” He said, “No, it’s engineering and it will be accelerated”. Again, I signed up for that and I was in charge of the group. We arrived in Peoria at the railroad station. We were the first soldiers there since World War 1, so the whole town was out waiting to give us a welcome. 28:54 they have a brewery there, a beer and I forget the name of it, maybe Pabst Blue Ribbon, the other one is Hiram Walker whiskey and of 12 �course they were greeting us with bottles of each all up and down the street. We were on the streetcar coming out and the bands were playing and of course this was a surprise to us, we didn’t expect anything like that. We get there and they are not prepared to receive us, they just were putting everything together, their food, their cafeteria, the lodging, we didn’t have any mattresses for about a week. That means that we had the springs and double-decker beds, but no mattresses on them, but they greeted us nicely and the first thing they informed us he said, “This program that you have here now is scheduled for you to finish four years of college in eighteen months. 29:46 Outside of Sunday morning, we were going to school until eleven o’clock at night right around the clock and I don’t know how many classes. The math, I was able to memorize it and that got me through. I think there were two hundred or four hundred, I forget on that, but half of them washed out at the end of sixty days. Ninety days another group washed out and it wasn’t too long after that that they decided to close the program and I washed out about that time in chemistry. 30:15 Even though I had taken the course three times, the exam three times, the professor said, “Just keep with it and you’ll be able to do it”. Well, I had gone through algebra, calculus, integral calculus, geometry, this was besides the history and everything else we were taking, the physics and so on. 30:36 I said, “No, I think this is as much as I can go on this thing”. They had just taken, about a month before, the entire group had been taken to a hospital and they were all unconscious, they rushed us in ambulances and cars—food poisoning or something. Also, I lost a lot of weight—some of the best bunch of people I ever met, were part of that group—a lot of talent. 31:00 We had one fellow by the name of Jimmy Webb and on his duffle bad he had his initials JEW, which was when we were fighting Hitler and they were persecuting the Jews so, I remember him from that. The thing was—we had a professor of physics, we called him “Rapid Rudy” and he liked nothing more than to really show you how 13 �much he knew, at least that’s the impression he gave us. Keep in mind, I am talking about twenty year olds, but he would start at the upper corner of the blackboard and start writing formulas right across and it seemed like the blackboard was twenty or thirty feet wide, and from that he would then turn around and say, “Alright get the answer”, now, we did not use computers, we used logarithm tables, we used slide rules and Jimmy Webb was a very quiet individual and he would come up with the answer in less than five minutes. 32:03 We would time the guy and we were all looking at our logarithm tables and the slide rule and so on and he had the answer. It turns out that his family were army people, his father had been in artillery, his grandfather had been in artillery and they worked with math all the time and I think he must have had the logarithm tables memorized or something, but that was one of the individuals that I met there that were very nice. 32:28 When they closed that program I ended up going to Jeffersonburg, Missouri, one of the worst places I have ever been in, but before that, the group that ended there was one of the last groups that washed out before I did. When they closed the program, they ended up in California under special training. They ended up in two invasions in the Pacific and I would say all of them were killed, just about all of them because there was a reunion called at Bradley after the war and I was unable to go, but I think four showed up, and they said they would not hold another one. 33:06 One was this person who came in and had half of his face blown off and he had artificial work that had been done and they said it was just too much on that. That was the group out of Bradley. From there I went to Jefferson Barracks, again I’m a private now, the next thing I know I’m on KP, kitchen police, which means that you work in the kitchen, but you get up, I think they wake you up at 3:00 AM in the morning and you start going to the kitchen and peeling potatoes and getting everything done. Then you have breakfast late, but then you go back to bed. 33:45 You will have to get up again to clean up 14 �everything about 10:00. Well, I did that for about a week or so and coming back to the barracks one day, there’s a notice on there that they need firemen and anything is better than what I’m doing so, I went and told them I would take the job and they didn’t ask you if you had gone to school to learn that so, I took it and I was in charge of three two story barracks and the dental clinic. It didn’t take long, I’m rushing around, I had never used a coal furnace at all and I didn’t know how it burned or kept. So anyway, I’m putting coal into it and the dental clinic is about a block away, so I go to the dental clinic and you have people sleeping in the three barracks, but nothing in the dental clinic so, I figure I don’t have to come back to the dental clinic so, I will just load this thing up, which I did. It was a separate building adjacent, tied into the clinic, but it was the furnace, big doors and I just loaded it up and I remember it had a whistle on top, an emergency whistle, and I just leaded it up and I started running back and forth from one barracks to another and even carrying hot coals because they were going out on me. 35:07 finally my turn ended and another guy came in and he started, he knew what to do. I went to my barracks and went to sleep and they came and woke me up and this buck sergeant said, “You’re to report to headquarters”, and I go over there and this major, he said, “You were in charge last night of the—as the fireman?” I said, “Yes” and he said, “Would you go look at the dental clinic and come back and report to me what happened?” Fine, I go out there and there are a lot of fire engines around there and I go in and there’s steam coming out of the toilets and where the furnace was, the windows had collapsed, they had just melted off, the whistle that was on top of the thing was on the floor, the whole furnace, there was no structure to the furnace, it was all melted down on the floor and where the whistle had been, you see a hole had been blown through the concrete roof. 36:10 They were asking me, “What did you do?” I said, “I put coal into the thing”, and they said, “How much coal did you put in?” and the guy s were there, the 15 �doctors and dentists and they said, “You got to come and look at this”, everything that was open had steam coming out of it, the toilets, everything was steam coming out of it. 36:32 “Did you put coal into the furnace or just into the building?” No, the furnace was a big box and it had doors and you could open them up and put in the coal, and the shovels were about this wide so, I just loaded it up with coal and when I left it, it wasn’t on fire, it wasn’t burning, but it was—the coals were underneath—I guess it was that pretty soon everything got going on it and what was left was about this high on the floor, everything had melted. 36:56 So, I go back to the major and he said, “I saw it, now tell me how did you do it?” I explained to him and he said, “Have you ever used coal before?” I said, “No”, and he said, “Why did you volunteer for the job?” I said, “To get out of KP”, and he said, “Where were you rated?” and I said, “San Antonio”, and he said, “What did you use?” I said, “Natural Gas, we would open up—light up the match and that’s it”, and he said, “Ah, you better go pack, you’re leaving right away”. 37:27 So, he sent me to North Carolina and I was there for a while and I was drilling when they asked me to do that again. Then I went to Miles Standish, Camp Miles Standish outside of Boston. That was another experience, it was—they had a lot of big boulders where I arrived there, two story barracks and this must have been the latter part of April or early part of May, it’s part of my service record, but there were paratroopers and some of these paratroopers, they had just a strip of hair going down the middle of their head like that, but they would get up at the second story barracks level and you had stairs coming down and a little platform, and they would jump from there and they would just roll, hit the ground, roll and get up again and do it again. They were having a good time and I was very tempted to ask them to let me do that, just out of curiosity to see how they were doing it, but that’s one group that I saw there. 38:34 The other, we had a Blimp that almost came down on top of us there. There was a 16 �lot of fog and I remember it pulled up very quickly. It just got away and I think it almost came down on top of some of the buildings there, but from there they took us to Boston and this is all happening very rapidly, it fact my entire time in the service was very busy and we went to Boston, it was at night or late evening, anyway it was dark and they got us onto this ship and they said that it was the ship that the king and queen of England used for their vacation, we never saw those quarters, I don’t know what they were like, but we started going down and down until we got down to the metal, iron, and then they gave us some hammocks. They were all hanging on a post and you would take it and hang it to the other post m but these hammocks were made for people, I think, who were four feet tall and as we were going out the next day, I didn’t hear them move or anything, but we could hear the water right below us. 39:54 So, we were down pretty close to the outside of the ship I guess. The hammocks didn’t work at all, I felt like my legs were being bent backwards so, I didn’t use that. Then of course, we had water on the floor and it was moving around on that. Finally when we went out we were going, we could tell from the sun, we were going –the sun was on out left so, we were going East, ya, we were going East, coming out, it was on this side of us. 40:30 We were in a convoy and as far as we could see, it was just ships on that, a lot of them. “When was it? May of 1944, was that it?” Yes, I arrived in Liverpool on May 15th of 1944. “A couple of things before we get there. First of all, were you assigned to a unit at this point or were you simply going over as an individual replacement?” I think—as a private you were not told too much on that—we were just a group of soldiers that were there, I don’t know if we were replacements or— 17 �“You were not with a particular company with its own officers, noncoms and regular group?” No, not at that time. “Then when you were crossing the ocean, you were with a convoy etc. What was the weather like?” It was not as smooth as I would have liked to have seen, but it was not as bad as coming back. That is another—and I’ll get into it. What we did see for example, was most of the convoy, the number ships were to our right, we had some to the left, but we could see the end of it, maybe four or five rows of ships. Then we had about four deaths on that and they took the soldiers and they put a piece of metal between their legs, I don’t know what it was on that, and they put them on a piece of wood on the side of the ship, there was an American flag, and they tipped that board and the body just slid down into the ocean. 42:06 There were four that died. “What did they die from?” I don’t know, as a private, like I say, you don’t get to see too much, you just go there, but what also was of interest was when we had a drill as were to go when you were out—if you were out on top—I don’t think you could get everybody that was on that ship, or any of these ships, on the top deck. All of a sudden we started hearing what sounded like wailing dogs, the destroyers, that sound that they make, and the next thing we knew their was an explosion and it was quite a bit of distance from us, but it was submarines. 42:52 they blew quite a few of the ships , all of a sudden you would hear some explosion and you saw the smoke on that, and these destroyers going in and out and dropping their depth charges. This one time, I’m on the deck because it was my turn to get up there, and we had the Rabbi, we had a minister, we had a priest, they had told us if you wanted to go the confession or council or anything and I remember all of a sudden 18 �somebody yelled, “A submarine”, and these ships were actually not that close together, but all of a sudden here’s a periscope, right to our right on that and I thought, “My gosh, it’s going to crash into us”, but you could see the periscope, you couldn’t miss it at all so, then they started yelling for us to get to the—“Catholics over here”—and I’m catholic so, the others called the Jewish people and everyone—so, were there and this priest tells me something I had never heard and I wished I’d known about it—he said, “You’re getting general absolution”, which means you don’t have to confess your sins or say anything, all your sins are forgiven type of thing. 44:12 I’m thinking, “Why didn’t they tell us before we get to confession and sweat blood sometimes because you took somebody’s pencil or something”, but that was another experience I had. The submarine went down, it disappeared, but the destroyers came right in and dropped depth bombs and followed through and all that. We arrived in Liverpool, England on May 15th of 1944. If you can keep in mind the date, and keep in mind that on June 6th, less than thirty days, at dawn, I’m in Normandy at Omaha Beach. When we landed again, we went to, I think, Uxbridge, England and went into this barracks, they assigned us to it—again, we nothing about the invasion, we knew nothing that was going on and there were trucks and tanks all over the place if you looked around the streets and I thought it was just the war. 45:12 A lot of buildings were destroyed, you could tell that, but as we get to Uxbridge they take us to this barracks, it was a very small room and they had a double cot in there and they said, “Well, you better go here”, they were all English soldiers and they said, “Come over here and get your biscuits”, and I thought we were going to eat. Ignorance is so nice until you find reality, but we go in and they give us two cushions and they were canvas, and that was your mattress. You put them in these beds that were made of scrap wood that was what they could afford to do it. Then they gave us some coal in a bag, it wasn’t coal because the size of the stove was about—almost the size of a 19 �large corn flakes box , it wasn’t very big and this material they gave us looked like slag and we never could get it started and I think it was a nice gesture to make us feel good. We never got that started, but from there I was called in to work at headquarters again and I went in and I started doing some typing and here I saw a message come through from the 392nd Signal company, the company—and of course I could see the records and everything else was there and they had just come across Africa and had gone into Sicily, Italy and now they were brought into England. I couldn’t get, even in my wildest imagination, that I was that close to the invasion or why they were there, but it was a communications company and there again, I had gone from the infantry at Sam Houston, to Dodd Field, the air force, to Kelly Field, the Air force, then the air corps., and now I’m getting into the signal corps. 47:06 Then I was with the JAG while I was in school. I thought for a second, “Well they have to be experienced, they have to have training” so, I asked the sergeant, the first sergeant, “Can I join this outfit?” and he said, “What do you know about them?” and I said, “Nothing, I just started working here this morning” , and he said, “How long have you been in England?” And I said, “I just arrived yesterday”, and he said, “Ok, let me check on it”. It was very disarming and the next thing I know, he comes over and he called me and he said, “Come with me”, and I went in and he was a one star general in there and he said, “I need to ask you some questions”, “What do you know about that outfit and why do you want to join it?” “Where are you from?” Everything you could imagine and finally I said, “Look, all I’m doing here is typing”, and he said, “I hope you’re not competing with everyone else that’s here getting the job done” and fortunately the sergeant spoke up and said, “He’s one of the fastest typers we’ve had”, and the general said, “Ok, you can wait outside”. Well, I went back and started working and pretty soon here comes the first sergeant and he said, “Pack your bags, you’re leaving for the 392nd”, and I didn’t ask any questions so, I got my duffle bag and I 20 �went on a train to London and there I had to transfer to, I can’t remember, but I ended up in the Windsor Castle area. 48:36 While I was there in London, I saw a fellow selling some stuff and it looked like Tacos and anything of food, because we’re not getting enough food and the food that was given to us on the ship coming across was lamb, boiled and that was not exactly what I was used to coming out of Texas where you have a lot of meat you know. So, I bought these Tacos and I don’t know what I paid him for it, and I took one bite into it, I don’t know what was in it, but it was very dry, almost like sawdust and I didn’t say anything, I wrapped it up and put it in my duffle bag, but that would give you an indication as to the conditions in England at that time, they were in very dire straights from all this bombing they had gone through. 49:18 So, they took me to the 392nd and the person I was sent to was Chuck Lyons from Lansing, he was the teletype chief and he interviewed me and he said, “Ok, you can report and get your paper work done and so on”, and the next day I’m reporting to him. Chuck Lyons, he is in a building where—what’s the name of the Princess? She married a Prince—she’s been with Weight Watchers advertising now-- 50:01 “Sarah Ferguson”. Yes, Sarah Ferguson, where she’s been living—this was a castle, but we just went in the side door and that room is where they had the teletypes, and by the way, at this point we were living in perimital tents and there were cots all around and we’re in there, and the next morning was— that evening I went and checked on there and I talked to some of the guys and they said, “You are going to report to Chuck in the morning”, and the next morning I woke up and there’s barb wire around each one of all these tents—again, part of the war and I didn’t think much about it— So, the next morning this fellow says, “I’m your escort”, and it was an English Commando on that and he had boots that had iron, like a horse shoe, on the heel and he was in his full uniform 21 �so, he escorted us to this house, this castle where they were, and Chuck said, “Ok, come over and let me test you out” so, he sat me at this teletype and told me to take a little while and get familiar with it. 51:26 He said, “have you ever used a teletype?” I said, “No”, and he said, “It’s the same as a typewriter” so, I practiced for about twenty minutes or so and then he said, “Why don’t you go ahead and start typing this” so, I started typing and it jammed and I didn’t think I was nervous so, I tried it again and it jammed again and then he came over and he said, “Well, leave that one alone, come over here”, and he put me on another teletype and I started typing on that on and that one jammed and he comes over to me and he said, “Ok, what’s your typing speed? What’s the highest you ever hit?” I said, “A hundred and seventeen words a minute” and he was from Lansing and we never met afterwards and he said, “Let me tell you what’s happened. The first one you used was the American Teletype and that can only type seventy-two words a minute. The one you’re using now is English and that can only go to seventy-seven, you have no problem, your with me in my outfit”. 52:25 This was the 392nd Signal Company Aviation. So, with that we started getting ready. We were escorted back and forth for the short time that I was there. This commando, at one point he said, “----------Espanol, Do you speak Spanish?” I said, “Ya”, and he said, “I’ve been studying some”, and I am wondering if he has family from Spain or something, and he said, “I’m looking forward to getting to Spain or Latin America after the war” so, we hit it off pretty well. So, at one point we exchanged a gift. I don’t know what I gave him, it was food or something and he gave me a book of his training, which I still have and it is quite an unusual book, but he had two pages with a piece of paper in there and he said, “Now, you remember these two items, One of them is, if you ever capture a person and you don’t want to stay around, here’s what you do—just find a sapling and put one leg around it and the other one underneath and have him sit down and he cannot get out of that”. 53:36 “The 22 �other is, if you are ever captured and you want to escape and it’s a matter of life and death, you get a stick and make a point on it, you can use your teeth, make a point on it and you drive it through their neck and up into their palate”. This all happened in a very short time, but he gave me this book which has a number of things to help you. We’re talking about staying alive at that time. The thinking and mentality and so on. 54:05 From there, about two days later, I woke up with a tremendous problem breathing and they had intentionally thrown tear gas into our area, testing us and of course with a drilling I had done, we all had our gas masks with us, and at one point I smelled it and I just put it on and blew out and tightened the straps and these other guys that were there from the 392nd that had come across Africa, they were choking, they were running into the barbed wire and the barbed wire is the kind that they had for cutting. 54:47 “Razor wire”. Ya, and they were grabbing it trying to get out and they were—out of a sound sleep, you’re being gassed and not knowing what’s going on—the next day I started talking with them and I said, “You guys didn’t put your gas masks on”, they were angry and they said, “We don’t know how to do that”, and I said, “What do you mean you don’t know? Your coming out of Africa, Sicily, Italy and you couldn’t put your gas mask on?” And I asked them, “Did you get any training?” and they said, “Well, we’re from New Jersey Bell, Ma Bell, and our training was to put on spikes, climb a telephone pole and they took us out to a point in New Jersey and sent us out to Egypt, Cairo”. You would hear them talk Cairo, and all these places they had been, but they knew nothing about gas masks and then I knew—I thought, “Oh, my gosh, what did I get myself into?” 55:38 If they couldn’t use a gas mask, what’s going to happen when it’s time to shoot a gun or something? Well, it didn’t take us long to find out. On the evening of—by the way we’re a mobile outfit, and we had a teletype cryptographer’s radio, telephone, everything in 23 �communications, there were over thirteen hundred people as part of this battalion and many of them had come in as a group, they had been together for so long that the Lieutenant Colonel, which is the highest rank you could have in the battalion, I think he was a 2nd Lieutenant when they got into Egypt, and they were technicians—just out of the ordinary, they were just—they could build, they could do a lot of things with wiring and communications and radio and everything else. 56:37 so, when we started getting ready I see they had like a pick-up truck and a small box, almost the size of a camper that you see there that they loaded on the box and that was the mobile office. That would carry some of the guys that had Morse code, the Teletype, photographers, we had airplanes, we had Jeeps, we had motorcycles couriers, it was a pretty complete outfit. 57:06 So, the evening of June 5th, that afternoon they told us we’re ready to go and that means you just grab your equipment—we had a gas mask, we had ammunition, we had carbines, we had our food, and we had a raincoat. I don’t know who let the contract to make that thing, but we wore that more than anything else, it was just big heavy rubber. We get to Southampton and we’re being loaded, this is late afternoon of the 5th and getting dark. There I remember this one fellow, he had drumsticks and while we were waiting for quite a while for the ships and everything else, the trucks, there were many ships for our outfit, I don’t know how many there were. We didn’t get to see what some people write about a half a mile away—I cannot tell you that, I can tell you what I saw right next to me. 58:16 This fellow, he had drumsticks and he would sit there while we’re waiting and use his helmet and he would play with the drumsticks. I guess he was a professional. He had a phonograph about this size and there were some small records that he could play on that, but these small phonographs were the ones that were dropped behind the lines with messages for the maquis, for the underground. I learned that later, but there was one song they would play, “I’m going to move way out on the 24 �edges of town cause I don’t want anybody always foolin around—I wanna buy a refrigerator cause I don’t want the ice man comin’ around—I don’t want anybody foolin’ around”, and he would play that over and over—you can see that I can still remember it, and so then we started getting on the ship. We got on the ship and started moving out, but we couldn’t see anything because it was dark and then as we started getting out and could see more of a contrast than light because this is very early in the morning—as far as you could see—ships—there’s no end to them just like someone was actually painting them out there. 59:33 then all of a sudden we heard the planes coming over with the white stripes on them, markings. “Taking paratroopers over, yes”. Well, this is what I found out later, we had some people from out outfit that landed there with the paratroopers or before. They were the ones who guided— “The pathfinders”. Pathfinders, they come into play later too, how these guys joined us. So, we’re moving on the thing and the next thing that we know is we stop and they start dropping netting over the side. Now, I had gone through all this training of climbing on that at Kelly Field and everyplace, but then those nets were held by two posts, telephone poles, and you go one side and down the other and I remember that there was a fellow by the name of Pelletier in our outfit and he was from Boston, quite a heavy guy and older than we were, maybe twenty nine or thirty, but quite heavy and he didn’t want to go over the side because he was afraid so, they put him on the side for awhile and then they asked us to go over. :54 Next we’re getting on these barges where the front drops— “LCVP’s, the little landing craft?” 25 �Ya, landing craft so, they put one of our trucks in there and they put a jeep in there and then they want us to start getting in, getting over the side of the net. Just about then there was this terrible explosion to my right and I think it was a battleship of some size that started firing because we’re quite a distance away, I didn’t realize we were that far away from the beach. They start firing and I remember turning around and saying, “What the heck’s wrong with ya?” They were firing so close, like they would listen—it was just a reaction now of this. 1:44 “At this point did you know, any of you, what you were supposed to be doing and why you were there? Had they told you anything yet?” That is why I refer to this whole operation as “snafu”, July 4th, 2008. This is about as close as I can tell you about what happened on that—no, we did not know. We did not know of example, the biggest thing that happened right there is, as they dropped this net and we started going over, was that it was too short. “Oh… that is not good”. It was too short by say eight feet short. “So, you had to jump off the net down into the boat?” The thing was, every training we had we went up and down a net that was fixed. This net for example, the ship was rocking and it would go out and then slam into the ship, and your loaded down with so much gear. 2:43 They started going down and some of the guys would get at the end and there are more coming down and more coming down and loading and that was a real slaughter of guys right there. Some were floating between the ship and being crushed and I could see again, heads bobbing around there and all kinds of pieces of people. I started going down and I remember this one guy who was next to me—I don’t know who was running those things, the Navy or Coast Guard—I don’t know who they were—sailors, let’s put it that way. 26 �3:19 Anyway, I’m telling this one guys, jump, jump, and I was watching and this guy finally jumped, but he ended up straddling the landing barge, it had a little divider type of thing and he ended up straddling that and that was the end of him, he had to be put back on the ship. They tied him with a big heavy rope and got him over the side and fortunately got him down. When the fellow tells me to jump, jump and he starts yelling and he says jump, jump, and all this time I’m waiting for the ships to come together and the net to be in the right spot and I turned around and let him have about ten different swear words in a row and he was surprised when he heard me swearing that much, but I finally managed to jump, but I was on the inside. 4:17 We started moving out and we were getting shells and we were getting shrapnel very quickly because the Germans were within firing—we couldn’t see the land yet clearly. “Was it still dark?” Yes, it was dark, it was still—you could see the flashes and hear the firing. The firing, once it started, I don’t think it stopped day and night. Just like when you go down town to the 4th of July and you hear the fireworks start, except it didn’t stop. 4:55 There were ships and planes going over and all kinds of fighting going on, but as we started moving out, I remember thinking, “Why didn’t somebody think of hanging mattresses or something on the sides of this thing”, because it would ricochet, if someone was firing the shrapnel—you could hear it. “Bounce around inside the landing craft?” Guys would get hurt. I did not get hurt in any of the things like that, but as we got close to the beaches, the Colonel was in the jeep with the first sergeant, with a British liaison, which again goes back to—not a very tall fellow, and he was strictly “hot dog”, he would not wear a helmet. He had a beret on and he had a pistol that hung to his side and tied down to his leg, very much of a cowboy and the muzzle of the gun in the holster was down just to his knee and this is what was 27 �happening there. 6:00 All of our equipment by the way, had been prepared to run under water for quite a distance. I’m trying to think of the material they used, it was like Vaseline. “ An oil or grease kind of stuff, yes”. Then they had the exhaust pipe and an extension on that and all the wires had cosmoline, all the wires had this material because, you don’t see it today, but the rain we had yesterday. Most of the cars would not have been running at that time because the wires—the water would get right into the wires and stop any electricity from running properly. 6:44 As we get closer to the beach head here’s this Jeep in front, then the one truck—communications, I don’t know what it was, but I’m guessing it was a teletype, but we had more than one piece of equipment like that on other landing barges from other ships that were also taking off, but we didn’t know who to follow or anything. 7:11 There were no directions at all and I don’t think anybody knew— there’s land, get on it, and this is about the way the thinking was. Most of the thinking, just generalizing, was “We’re going over there, we’re going to kill Hitler, and we’re going to come back”, and that is about the general thinking. Well, as we started moving out then we started getting closer to the beach head and I found out later it was Omaha Beach on that, it’s part of my record, but as we started getting in there were a lot of tripod obstacles with bombs on them and I think a lot of them were being set off by the Germans firing. 7:57 We couldn’t see the Germans—could not see the enemy at all, not at Omaha Beach. They were shooting from fortification that they had—I’m trying to think of the name. “Pillboxes and bunkers”. Pillboxes, but they were just shooting out of those openings they had in them and they were just raking the beachhead, plus all these mines. We started getting close, I mentioned to you before that John Wayne was not there, none of the movie stars were there and I know they have done a 28 �good job on it and it was necessary, but we didn’t know where to go. 8:37 I remember as the Jeep goes off, there was a plank with holes in it and they use those for making emergency landing fields, which they built right there on top afterwards to land some planes, but as our landing barge starts going on that thing, the front drops on there and the next thing as they start to drive off it just goes like this and the Jeep goes underwater. 9:14 The only thing that was on top was the exhaust and the beret of this English guy was spinning on top and even then with everything that’s going on, the fighting, what you are seeing, humans all over the place, insides, everything is all over, I remember things like that. I think it was partly to lighten up a little bit because there was nobody there to hold your hand or anything. 9:46 “At the point where you’re landing, were there infantry already on the beach?” The ones that were there, ya there was some infantry, but a lot of them were against the wall— we couldn’t go anywhere. “Do you have a sense of how far it was from the water line to the sea wall?” Well, from the edge of the water to the sea wall, not over 100 feet. “So it was pretty close?” Then when we started coming in to try to find a place and we’re coming through for example where there are a lot of bodies just floating all over the place, like they were asleep, a lot of them together, they were just floating and pieces of people and so on. 10:30 then as we started getting—I do not know to this day how I ended up on the beach because the next thing I know this Jeep is on there and the truck drove off and the next thing I know is this tremendous explosion, not one, but several and I’m in the sand. Now whether I jumped over the edge of that thing or ended up thrown on the sand and as I’m getting ready to move I hear this guy in Spanish, I don’t know who it was or anything, but it’s just like saying today “Cool manner” and 29 �they use an expression today “awesome” this was at that time and in Spanish, I don’t know who it was, but I heard it right next to me on the sand and the next thing I heard him next to me and I turn around and he’s got a hole in his helmet. 11:29 I heard the thump of the metal, but it was close. I don’t know who he was, but he spoke Spanish and that’s how he ended up. It was about this time again we were just getting strafed, the machine guns are coming, and we were strafed by some German planes. There was one incident, I had another one later. The next thing is— our logo was painted on our duffle bag and all of our equipment—the orange ace of spades, and I remember at some point I looked up to my right and there’s a Jeep abandoned, it’s got nobody in it and it’s got the orange ace of spades on it so, I yelled, “Hey, one of our equipment”, and I don’t know who I’m yelling at, but these other two guys, I don’t know if they are from my outfit or not, I said, “Lets take it and get out of here”, it was like we were the only ones there—this tremendous fighting going on at this time, you tanks that were supposed to be on the beach sinking before they even get to the beach. 12:33 You’re seeing ships that are coming on shore with almost like a stairs on the side where the infantry would get off on those and they would get in as far as they could and the next thing was this tremendous explosion and the side has been blown off and there are all kinds of supplies being thrown all over the place, cigarettes, food, now we’re on the move on that . 12:59 I didn’t look at it that way, here’s this Jeep and the other guy, I don’t know who drove it, but we jumped into it and started going to the right. There were no maps, nothing to tell us what to do or where to go. 13:17 “ So, you’re just driving along the beach looking for a way up?” Ya, but it didn’t take us long to drive along the beach, we just found a spot that—I don’t know if I yelled or who yelled, “There, there’s an opening”, and we put that four wheel drive Jeep up 30 �there and climbed to the top. We went to Carentan—these little towns, I remember the names— Carentan, Ste Mère Eglise--we did not know where we were going. “This is on D-Day, during the day and you’ve got a Jeep—“ At dawn— “In the morning and the battle was still going on everywhere?” Oh, yes that battle was going on. “So, you just hop in a Jeep and take off across Normandy?” Ya. 14:01 “OK”. It was not across Normandy—it was to get the heck out of the beachhead. Interviewer: “But do you get as far as Ste Mère Eglise in a single day? How far did you-?” Ya, I had to reconstruct it myself a couple of times. So we came to Ste Mère Eglise and I remember we got there and that parachute was still hanging from the church steeple, but I do not remember if there was a body on it. Interviewer: “He actually survived and they took him down”. I was not there for that, but there were paratroopers on the ground there and we’re all in uniform and we were ready to shoot anybody that was not one of us—at least that was our thinking, and we did. So, we kept on driving and we get to Cherbourg. We did receive a message the short time that I was out—a story of one of the Kennedy’s who had—he was going to bomb Cherbourg because there were submarine pens there and I guess they had loaded this plane—it was a bomb and just full of explosives, the oldest son of the Kennedy’s— “Yes, Joseph”. 31 �He flew alone and I guess it exploded in the air and he was killed. So, I had that story in my mind about Cherbourg, what it was or whether it was supposed to be there, and as we started getting close we saw a little town, as far as I can recall where we were, I didn’t travel around. 15:40 One area we got to, there was a lot of fighting going on and we saw the, what do you call them, guards, houses for the German guards and you walk in and this is where you start going into where the submarine pens were and I got to see it, but the Germans, they were burned and you could smell it, they were still there, the bodies were there—flame throwers. 16:03 “The American didn’t get into Cherbourg until a couple weeks after D-day. So whereever—“ These were Special Forces. “But still…”. These were the ones that we met there and they were the ones who talked to us and said, “Who are you with? Where did you come from?” We said, “Over there and pointed to the beach head”. And he said, “Well, do not use the clicker, the Germans know about it, so don’t use it. Tell the officers to put some mud on their helmets”. They had the rank painted, one bar for Lieutenant or First Lieutenant. “Just tell them to put mud over it because the Germans are picking them off”. I took mine and the other two I had thrown away, but they had given to us a clicker, if we came to an area where we couldn’t see who it was—one click to identify ourselves and you were supposed to answer with two clicks, but the Germans had picked that up so, I threw mine away. 17:19 On the way back we saw the submarine pens, which was a unbelievable place, like an underground city, the thing and the submarines were there on that. 17:32 I think there were one or two and I think they were caught by surprise or whatever, but then trying to get back, one street where we came in and went out, we had left the Jeep and 32 �started walking and then this fellow said, “I think you want to see what’s over there”, and I said, “We can see it from here”. We had to cross a little street and there was shooting coming out and hitting on the cobblestone there and I said, “What do you want us to see?” “A statue”, and there was a statue of somebody—I would like to go back, I have never been back—it could have been Napoleon on horseback or something like that. It had a little fence around it. Just as we’re getting ready—there’s a darn thump and a large bullet hit the horse of the statue and put a hole in it, but anyway we just run across the street and there’s a little book store there and I—we didn’t want to touch anything because we knew there was a lot of what do you call it—bombs? 18:39 “Booby-traps”. Ya, booby-traps. We were very conscious of that, there were booby-traps and all kinds of stuff. If you pick-up a bar of soap, as you are using it, if you wore it down, it would explode on you. So, I walked in and there’s a book on the floor and it has a stamp of the Nazi’s on it and I said, “I don’t think there’s anything on this” so, I just took and tore out the pages and put them in my pocket, which I have kept. We then started back again, back across the street and got back in the Jeep and drove back. 19:13 We drove as far as where we could see where the beach head was and we left the Jeep and we started walking. By now, most of the Germans have been pushed back from the beachhead and then you start to figure out how long did it take? Was it fifty miles? I’m trying to reconstruct that myself, but as we came back these pill boxes were connected by trenches that you walk through and at one point this fellow, we were still together, the three of us, and the one fellow is ahead of me and we start going and there’s a pillbox and we see a pillbox and the entrance to it and a turn there—it’s a trench, and as we started getting closer, we heard something and we all stopped and the guy ahead of me said, “What is it?” So, the next thing we heard from them was one click coming to us and we didn’t have anything to 33 �answer with and I told him to ask him where the Yankees play and he did. He said, “Where do the Yankees play?” The answer came back and it was something way off and we just looked at each other and the grenades just went right in, each one threw one and there were two German soldiers in there and by time we got there, they were dead. 20:49 Again, what was going on and continued almost all the entire eighteen months I was in—it was a sniper—you were meeting people that were not on our side. From there we started walking and then we started seeing some of our people and I said, “Where do we join? Where are we at?” So, now we are going from where we landed to the left and we had to go up—climb up and that, and we start climbing we see that they have put some ribbon, a white ribbon, and we have to stay within the white ribbon and it goes up and then it stakes and it turns and it goes up again, and they told me not to get out of that ribbon. The mines are all over the place. We started walking and we had to make a turn and this fellow is no farther away than that wall over there and as he makes a turn there is a terrific explosion and he stops back of that ribbon and his foot is gone. 21:46 He stepped on a mine. We joined our outfit and they had us in an area that was a big area where the hedgerows were around it and this was hedgerow country, and there were irrigation ditches almost made for fighting and people could use those right away. We were in there, and we were with our own outfit and I remember some tanks started coming through and it may have been Patton’s. “Patton wasn’t there yet”. They were tanks and I remember we were yelling at them as they were coming through “Go back, it’s over, you’re too late”, but again we were twenty-two year old guys looking for something different than what we had to face. 22:31 The next day or so we started to move out and as we’re going, I’m in the first vehicle next to the first sergeant, Chuck Lyons, and as we’re moving very slowly, all of a sudden this guy starts yelling at us and there again maybe twenty or 34 �thirty feet away at the most, and it was the guys who had landed there, the Pathfinders, and they were very happy to see us and they had been inside this house that was all bombed out and the door was hanging on the side and these guys come out and they say, “were happy we found you”, and they start coming over. 23:15 the last guy that was coming our, for some reason he closed the door, he pulls it and there’s this tremendous explosion and again, a bomb was there or something happened and he was slightly injured. We kept on moving and we get to Laval, I think it’s Laval, France, no, not Laval yet, from there they moved us to Grandcamp-les Bains, it’s on the channel, I would say, we landed here at the beachhead and it’s to the right quite a distance. “West of there, between Ohaha Beach and Utah Beach”. 23:50 There we started communications. Now, we had people who were—because of the size of the battalion, we had people who were from England, we had small groups that went with—we were the communications for SHAEF, for the Ninth Air Force and the ground forces under the soldier’s soldier, what’s his name? “Bradley”. Bradley, and when some of the soldiers would come across something that was stopping the, some of the ground troops, then are people who were with them, would contact us and say, “We run across this”. 24:25 We had the war room right next to us as close as this cabinet is there and give them the tape and they would decide what kind of ordnance to use. We would send it back and if—usually for example, a lot of your—we call them the dot, dot guys—Morse code— because that was more portable, that went out and pretty soon there comes a plane, a P-47 as a rule, flying tanks and they would get rid of that problem. 25:19 This is what our role was. When we were getting ready to move out from—when they got us together there at that 35 �hedgerow country, we were instructed right there—they said, “You are to take any top secret, any secret, and confidential or restricted—no messages except red line from red line, we don’t care who it’s coming from because we have to keep the lines open for the war that is going on”. 25:50 We saw a number of messages coming through from Generals, from a number of people pretty high up. They were interfering and we wouldn’t even answer it and you could hear them talking about it. I landed there as a Private and we had that much authority—get that and get rid of it. We started moving when we were at Grandcamp-les-Bains, when they put us there; I really wanted to set aside some points. I saw for example that they brought in for the Teletype. The brought in a cable--there were some people in white suits and they connected our cable from our Teletype to England. 26:40 “They ran communication cables through the channel”. That was the safest. Everything else that we used was by air and could be intercepted. I was just fascinated by seeing that. We had an incident there that—we were working four hours and resting four hours right around the clock so, you were pretty well beat and I remember at one time we got a weapons carrier, it’s a small truck with seats on there, and they would take two of us or four of us in and then pick-up the other guys and bring them back, but in order to get to this Grandcamp-les-Bains, they had very narrow alley and that was guarded to the hilt on that and I remember these two Lieutenants and we called them—what was the name of the soap box that had twins on it? Anyway, we called them that name because they always carried comic books. 27:43 I couldn’t understand a person with that rank being attracted to comic books during was time. They always had them folded into their hip pocket. One of them was a guard that accompanied us, an officer, to get to this at night where we worked. As we were coming to this alley, and he had a word, a code word, a password, but on either side you had, I guess they were 36 �MP’s, and they would not hesitate at all because you had other people try to get through. Their equipment had been dragged right out of there and had been shot up pretty badly. 28:26 I don’t know if they were soldiers or not, but we get through, we get in there, they picked us up at night and the first thing he does it he takes this out and he’s looking at this and he tries to read and I said, “Oh my gosh what’s the matter with these people?” Anyway, we get there and he cannot remember the word and all of us start swearing at this guy and all we could hear out there were the bolts moving already—the MP’s. 28:59 He finally remembered so, we got through and I don’t know who hit the guy afterward, but he was an enlisted man and nobody said a word. Those were very close calls that sometimes we refer to as friendly fire, that’s the way these things had come about. I remember, while there, we sent the message for the----- breakthrough because we couldn’t get off the beachhead. We ere getting eighty eights, I think they called them, it was a very good gun that the Germans had, they put it on a tank or artillery or whatever, and they were reaching us. 29:32 I remember one time while we were there a message comes through and I tore the thing off and gave it to Chuck and said, “What the heck’s happening?” They sent the message that the Germans were using gas. That they had experience, whoever the guy was so, I gave it to Chuck and within a couple of minutes here comes another message from the Germans saying, “No, it’s a mistake, a mistake” so, those things happened at that moment right then and there. We did not retaliate, we gave it to the war room right there and then the message went out that we were going to retaliate, but they didn’t. Another time I was called, I had just gone to bed and was sleeping there and in our tents and we have a trench for us to get in because the—at night no one was supposed to get in there, no planes or ours or anything and they had tracers and that thing would go almost like fingers and bring anything down that was there, friend or foe. 30:45 Next to us, about a block away, there were fifty-five gallon drums 37 �stored as high as you could see them and it wouldn’t take—you do a thirty, thirty and blow up the whole place, but it was under camouflage, but this one night I remember that I was just getting ready to go to bed and this searchlight started coming on and firing, firing is going on all the time, but all of a sudden these tracers start coming in from far off where we would be— Omaha Beach is over here and it’s coming from the North to South and we heard the plane and I saw the plane zoom up and try to make a maneuver to get out. 31:31 I started yelling, That’s one of our, that’s one of ours, a P-38” and the guy said, “No, that’s a German”, and I said, “No, a German is more square”, that’s the way we talked, and all this time this plane started blinking it’s light and trying to get out of there—somehow it got in there by mistake. It didn’t take long and all these tracers just came through and he came down. The next morning as we were going to work, the plane was there and pieces of what was left of it and the pilot and again, they were not supposed to get in there. 32:01 They had a number of balloons. “Barrage balloons?” Yes, they were on the ships that were coming in for the landing and we had them there also, but there was another incident that shouldn’t happen, but we got this one message of a General Roosevelt who was killed—that was on the“Well, General Roosevelt didn’t—he died of—there was a General Roosevelt who was with the 4th division, he died of natural causes, but he was out of the army. There was another General who was hit by American bombers.” He was hit by friendly fire. Coming through the----breakthrough, I had just gone to bed and they came over and said, “Chuck wants ya, he needs ya” and I said, “To heck with him”. I’m just— we’re working four hours and resting four hours right around the clock I mean you just have time to get a bite to eat and we didn’t take our shoes off for over a month. 33:03 You were busy on 38 �that so, started swearing and told them I needed to get something to eat and to get somebody else and he said, “No, he wants you”. Well, pretty soon here comes an MP and he said, “Get up, you’re needed”, and I said, “Ok”. I go in and Chuck said, “Pancho, we have to send this message, there are two messages eight feet long and I need you on this one”. We had to send it out quick and there were a lot of numbers and coded and so on, but we could read it, we knew what it was. So, he took one and I took the other one and we started sending it out. 33: 49 This was the entire battle plan for the St. Lo breakthrough. It started out, and we saw this, where they would drop—the very first planes that came out, I think they were P-38’s, they dropped a flare of a color over there and another one over here, it was in a square. The next thing is—you started getting planes coming over and they didn’t stop. You had the English, you had B-17’s, B-24’s, all kinds of bombers coming through and they were just getting over the area and they started dropping the bombs in that square. 34:25 We got the message very quickly, “friendly fire”, and— “General McNair was the General that got killed. He was a very high ranking--” No, I’m talking one of the Roosevelt’s--wait a minute, wait a minute. “There was only one Roosevelt in the area and he wasn’t there by then, but there was a very famous General, high ranking General, named McNair, who was the head of the infantry. He was there inspecting things behind the lines and he got killed.” No, this— “There were some others, but not a Roosevelt, at least then.” I’ll double check on that thing. It was relayed to the Presidency and I’m thinking it was part of the Theodore Roosevelt family on that, but I’ll check it for you to be correct, but that’s what I can recall. 35:09 Then we started getting the bombs were dropped and then a lot of smoke 39 �started going up, a lot of black smoke and you could feel the trembling and you could see in the distance from the beachhead to St. Lo, you could feel it. This great big cloud started going up and then it started to rain. And then there was--the soldiers were being brought back, the prisoners, they were coming back and they had blood from their nose, from their ears from concussions. They were really in bad shape and they had really gotten a beating and they were just piled in the trucks, the prisoners. 35:56 When we got to the point of moving out of there, we really couldn’t believe they were finally getting on the beachhead. They were moving in and moving in, but they were not making the progress that we had hoped—being blocked there. With the opening of the St. Lo breakthrough, we moved out of there and we stopped at Laval, Laval, France, look at the map where it is. There was joined by Patton, by Bradley, Montgomery, I forget some of the other people who were there, Eisenhower was not there, but I remember that Chuck, we set up the mobile outfit and Chuck comes over and he taps me on the shoulder and said, “Send this message out” so, if you were sending out a message, whoever you are sending it to, you want to get their attention so they get the message, you hit the letter “K” repeatedly— that means I got high priority. 37:00 So, when this happened, I started—he told me this was for the—not the 3rd Army—anyway what happened was, I looked down and saw shinny boots and they were riding boots and we were not in a place where anyone has shinny anything there and I thought, “Oh my, I wonder who it is?” I wasn’t looking up at him and as I turned around he gave me haute to call on that. So, I kept hitting the “K” and then I put it on the Teletype. I said, “General Patton here, I have a message for you”. And he comes back and he was right in back of me and you could read what’s going on and when he comes back he said, “No shit”. 37:54 So, I hit the “K” again I tell them again, “Message here from General Patton”, and he comes back with the same thing, “No shit”. I looked around and you could see hi ivory 40 �pistols and he was dressed like he was going to be in a parade, but he always was immaculate for his role as head of the army, 3rd Army, right? 38:27 “Right”. So, he said it and his words were so soft, that’s what I remember, very much in control. He knew what he was doing, he was strong, very strong like the person was practiced speaking and sucking in his stomach and all this stuff, just soft he said, “Let me try it” so, I stepped out and I didn’t know he could type, really, he starts typing and I don’t know what he said and I wish I should have kept it, but what came back was, “Yes sir”. 39:00 I knew he could swear like no one so, that was—I had that Teletype copy for a long time, but it had “yes sir”, that’s the way it came back. He knew who it was then. Then from there we had—when we moved in there before it was a joining of this group, with different people in command and so on, we had camouflage, we were under a lot of trees, and just as were coming in there, we’re just starting to park, and we had the trucks, I think four by four’s or something like that, with canvas covers and were a little larger, but where the driver is, it was open and they had a ring, they had fifty calibers mounted on those things so, coming in we park in there and the next thing you heard was just a very soft ffffftttt and somebody yelled, “I’m hit”. It was a sniper. 40:08 We’re like in a forest. “And this is in an area far away from where there was supposed to be a front line, too. You should be some ways away from where there should have been Germans.” We were not expecting them—we had moved in, we had a lot of troops there, we had all the U.S. soldiers, we had taken the area, we had come through the St. Lo breakthrough, we’re stopping now and we’re not expecting anything like that. The moment we heard that—somebody yelled, “I’m hit”, it was a sniper and these guys on their trucks with those fifty calibers and anybody 41 �else—I think I had a Thompson with me and we just started shooting into the trees. We had more damage from the big branches that we were knocking down than the bullets. This guy was hit, I think in the shoulder. I think they were trying to kill him or mistook him for somebody else, but that was another incident where it was constant all through Europe, the sniper fire. 41:08 “At this point I’m going to give us a break, it’s almost twelve o’clock and were not done.” I’m surprised I’m around—on the landing—so many thousands and not many got out. “Now we’ve gotten you to the point where you’ve made it to Laval France. It’s August of 1944 at this point, they’ve broken out of Normandy, you’ve had your sniper incident, what do you do from there?” 44:50 We started moving towards Paris. I’m still in the Teletype work and when we start getting close to Paris the sniper fire was very strong, even within the city. We didn’t get too close to the city; in fact we didn’t even get to the city. We got to Versailles and I didn’t know too much about it, I had not read enough history, I wish I had become familiar with it before I was there. I know there were a lot of mirrors on that. We slept in the stables, which were pretty fancy. Then we went too, because of sniper fire and the fighting, there was fighting going on. Keep in mind that there were a lot of French supporting the Germans and they were losing their positions too. 45:54 “And Versailles actually was a place where the Germans had done a lot of business and there were probably quite a few right around there.” Before leaving the beachhead another incident I wanted to share with you, but anyway we get to Versailles—we went south from there and around Paris and we got to Chantilly on that, but then at some point we did—I’ll get back to that—I don’t want to forget this other incident that 42 �happened on the beachhead when we were at this town, Laval, and at one break, it was late afternoon or early evening, and I’m eating something, I think before I start my turn, and I hear this fellow over here speaking Spanish 46:56 and I couldn’t understand him too well, a civilian, and there were a lot of civilians dead all over the place too, they were hit pretty badly. I turned to him and asked him, “Do you speak Spanish?” He said yes, you do too? I would say he was possibly five feet tall, maybe not even that and I said, “Where are you from?” He said, “Spain, I’m trying to get back to Spain”, and he said, “I was a jockey for Goring, for his stables, but I’m anxious to get away and I’m trying to get back to Spain, but we haven’t eaten, do you have anything?” I gave him some of my rations. 47:38 Well then he said, “Will you be here tomorrow with a little more food so then I can leave for Spain?” I said, “Sure”, and the next day he is there, but he has about six other people and I didn’t have that much food, but I gave him what I had, but four of the other people were girls and they had bandanas tied on their head and I knew what had happened because we were also very much in touch with the maquis, with our communications, they were bringing prisoners in for interrogation and we were talking with them, we traded chocolate for epaulets, and the Germans are like that, but sitting there I knew the reason they had on bandanas was because their hair had been cut by the French underground because they had German boyfriends—they were good looking girls on that, but anyway again, keep in mind the age, twenty some years old, I told this fellow in Spanish, “I do not understand why these girls or anyone would be friendly with the Germans”, and this one girl spoke up in Spanish and she said, “I’ll say it in English, I just want to tell you that my heart is French, everything else about me is international”. 49:06 That was another big lesson to learn, but they were surviving on that. Going to Laval, going around Paris and Chantilly, we had been using a communication system called “type 10”, developed by the British, it was a dish, but you could 43 �only send a signal from on e high point to another high point so, one of the things we did, we to the Eiffel Tower. By then I’m asked to work at headquarters instead of Teletype, again the typing, I made a lot of records so, the next thing I started seeing where we got a group that is attached to us, to be sure they kept the Eiffel Tower intact and so they did. 50:03 Then we had a person living in a very small box at the Eiffel Tower at the very top of the thing, and we had one of these discs like a satellite that you see today on towers, and it was called “type 10”, that’s the way we referred to it, but it was a British invention and it was highly protected and I don’t think you could get close to the Eiffel Tower maybe for a half a mile. 50:36 Sill the statuary [?], all the guards were there and you couldn’t get through. They had the river pretty well protected with guards and everything, but then I was in headquarters and I did go to pay the guy in the Eiffel Tower, and it was an excuse for me to get up there. I thought I was going to go up there in an elevator—well, at that time—no elevators, you could go up to the second level or something, but the elevator ran with water and this is wintertime, but what they did, they had a ballast that they filled with water and this thing pulled the elevator up. 51:14 It was wintertime, but I had the gear, fleece lined jacket and so on so, I went up there with the fellow that’s up there and he said, “Do you want to see this new equipment how it works?” Now we are crowded together in this little room and this whole darn tower moved, I guess part of the structure, the engineering of it, and I said, “Sure”, and he said, “Do you want to talk to headquarters?” I said, “Ya”, well this was about as far fetched from what we had started with, when we saw guys in a truck along the beachhead yet, throwing wire out to give us communication that could not be intercepted, and these were telephones and I think you could yell and I think they could hear you better, but the wire was on the side of the road and here comes a truck and they just chop it up—they put more. 52:06 He said, “Do you want to talk to Chantilly?” I said, “Sure” so, he said, “Watch this 44 �screen”, well pretty soon it was all like snow and then he started turning some knobs and pretty soon a line went right across that screen and a voice just as clear as today’s telephones. I told him—I think I’m a sergeant by then, and I said, “Sergeant Vega reporting and I’m delivering the payroll, I want to make it official”, all these orders that had to be cut for me to get there. I told this fellow, “Look, we have to make a record of this, I’ll bring a rope next time and a camera. I want a picture, I want to see the Trocadero and all the statues and so on—proof that we were here so, the next time I go with a rope and in order to do that we wrap the rope, we walk the rope around the base of the flagpole and I’m on one side like this, and he’s on the other side and I start pulling him up so he can come over with a camera—twenty year olds, that’s how I have that picture [part of Mr. Vega’s file at this site], I took one of him too. 53:21 I never went back up, one time was enough. To get there you had a lot of military police with dogs and they would not let that dog at you, it was a dog that would grab your arm because these were communications that were very important on that. Then I went back to Chantilly, we started getting some of the guys from the ground forces with problems, we had one fellow we called “Ak Ak”, there was a machine gun that was developed for the paratroopers that was just a wire on it, what do they call it? 54:08 “A grease gun?” Ya, a grease gun, but we would call him, we had a name for him—the problem he had was stammering, and he would talk to you, ak,ak ak, and we called him Ak Ak. “Burp guns were—“ Burp guns, yes—so, there was another fellow that—he would walk around the yard, I mean the area there and he would go like this in the air (pointing up with his index finger) and we knew they were sick, that there was something wrong with him, and one fellow said, “do you know 45 �why he is doing that?” I said, “No” and he said, “If I tell you, you wouldn’t believe me, why don’t we go ask him?” So, I went up to this guy and I said, “what are you doing going like this?” And he said, “I’m goosing butterflies”, and you could see some of the guys had been really hit by some of the fighting that was going on. 55:03 From there I went into a—in Chantilly we captured a—when we moved in, it was already vacant, where we lived there, we had a chalet, a big place, and had communications of the Germans, they had it for developing photography, and I had been an amateur photographer with this friend of mine in San Antonio and we had the camera and I would develop the film and so on, but we would stretch it out on that. Well, the Germans had left these containers that you would take and put the film in there all rolled with a solution in there and you develop it without any lights going down or anything like that so, I sent that back to this friend of mine, but that was a place, we lived there, we had a small barracks, small houses, we then were there when we suddenly started getting—this is not where out teletype equipment was, it was just the living quarters. 56:13 Across the street from them, we had the generators and the antennas and everything else , but then we had the teletype equipment elsewhere for safety purposes. We had five soldiers that joined us there, they were constantly under guard, a special guard unit, and what they would do was listen all day long to intercept code, intercept messages, and they were intercepting message to Africa, to Germany, to all over, and break it down. Their record, because then I was in personnel, their records of education were just unbelievable, they were young guys, but they had been to MIT, to Harvard, to two universities in England, FBI, Scotland Yard, and these were guys that were so—they’d get lost in a crowd until you hear them talk. 57:12 They had such a depth of knowledge of a number of things and this is what they were doing. Well, they would come to work, they had a special place for them, and they would put on these earphones, but all this time, going back to where we 46 �lived, there is Chantilly, surrounded by barbed wire day and night, twenty-four seven guard on that for food and everything else. 57:35 That’s one big change that came about. Across the street we had an area with the generators, we were all self-contained, we carried our own generators and everything, and we had guards on that. We were so short handed by then because the war was spreading, guys were running messages on motorcycles and Jeeps and airplanes, we had some small planes and those guys could land them just about anywhere. They looked like grasshoppers on that. When we started to move from one place to another, remember that we had them jumping, as I’m recalling this, on this one convoy they were moving, and they had twenty or thirty trucks that were moving and motorcycles up ahead of us, and these motorcycle guys had special helmets and the motorcycles had like protecting shields for their legs. 58:42 what they would be practicing all the time, was to running almost full speed, throw the motorcycle on it’s side and just skid with it, and I remember we were on this convoy and this guy was ahead of us and he was swinging from side to side on a gravel road and the next thing was a big cloud of dust—he hit a mine, but nothing happened to him, I think the saddle bags he had, which were leather, were just pieces in the air and everything else. We threw the motorcycle to the side, there was nobody wasted any time repairing those things, but I remember that this plane came over and flew over twice and he had a message to hand deliver to the Colonel, but first he dropped a tube on a ribbon and then we stopped and pretty soon here comes this plane and the field where he landed had something growing on it, I don’t know if it was alfalfa, but it has something growing on it, some grass and it had to be at least three feet high, and he comes and lands on that and he is throwing it like he’s a lawn mower. 59:46 He gets close to us, he gets out and hands us this message that is sealed in an envelope to the Colonel, whatever it was— information—he goes back, gets in the plane , turns that thing around and gets up and gets out of 47 �the field. I don’t think anyone checked to see if it was a proper landing field, but this is what you were seeing. Were into Chantilly and we get a message that we need to get some guys, our people, our mobile outfit and equipment, to get them out of Ardennes. Now I had been to Reims once before, I don’t remember the reason for it, but I had been there once, I have a record of it. 48 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VegaF1 Title A name given to the resource Vega, Francisco M. (Interview transcript, video, and papers, 1 of 3), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vega, Francisco M. Description An account of the resource Francisco Vega was born in San Antonio, Texas. He tried to enlist in the military immediately after Pearl Harbor, but was initially rejected because of his Mexican ancestry. He eventually did enlist in the Army Air Corps, and began a long process in which he used his talents and persuasive skills to find increasingly interesting assignments, eventually training as a teletype operator with a signals unit that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and was eventually part of Eisenhower's headquarters. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) Video recordings United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army. Air Corps World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-03-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3a76bbf8f01cd69750e4f551218db552.mp4 8cfe3faaf5f3207836651040044e8d1f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6234fb26fb171ce5d15028f2baa6fd67.pdf 1704484d88e51b385cd157030f44cce8 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Francisco Vega Part 3 (36:14) Interviewer: “We are talking again with Francisco Vega. We are going to pick up with the end of WWII and go on from there. Mr. Vega, in the first interview we had basically covered your early life and your military career pretty much up to the end of the Second World War. You had further experiences after that, both in Europe at the end of WWII and then in the period of the Korean conflict, and so we would like to pick up the story basically, where were you when the war in Europe ended? Were you in France at that point still?” No, I was in Germany, we had been in France at Chantilly, and we had just moved to Kissingen in Germany and on the way there of course, we saw quite a bit of the country of France and Belgium and different things that had taken place such as the bombardment of the cities. The thing about Kissingen—I ended up going to the Ardennes. I volunteered to get one of our people out of there, we had special equipment and it was type ten equipment, which today we call satellites and it has to be from high point to high point. We were a mobile outfit. 1:30 Interviewer: “You talked about doing that in our first interview. That was during the war still during the Ardennes offensive because we had to get that out of there ahead of the Germans. From there just let me take it to the end of the war. That’s when we found out changes were being made. I was busy putting together the records. Our battalion had over 1300 people and we had myself and one other person. That’s all to take care of all the personnel records for the company, Headquarters Company, so we were very busy. Other than that, we thought it was, but 1 �we had not seen the end of the war itself and some of the people volunteered to go to the Pacific so, there were more records to get ready. Then I found out that you need a certain number of points—I had all these records of people who had been in Africa, who had been across northern Africa, and then into the landings in Europe. 2:30 We had been in five campaigns, all this coming together as the records are being put together. We realized—I think at one point someone said, “Do you realize how long we have been in a combat zone?” They said, “Eighteen months from the time we landed in Normandy until after the Ardennes and now we were getting ready to leave”. So, I found out I do not have—I miss returning with my outfit by two points. Interviewer: “Because your unit had already been in existence and you joined it as a replacement so, those guys had been in Africa etc., and they had more points than you and they could all be discharged, but you’re still there.” Right, and even with the five campaigns I was in, I still was missing a couple of points. I remember the colonel came over and he said, “I’ll arrange it so you go from here to Neustadt, it’s a long lines company, communications lines, and you won’t be there long. I feel badly that you’re not returning with us, but just get ready to leave.” That was it, I went to Neustadt and joined this outfit and while I was there I was able to see a great number of DP’s, displaced persons, many had broken limbs that had mended crooked and had not been set or anything. 3:51 I was there not more than two weeks and then I was asked to get ready to leave. They took us to the railroad station and there were “forty and eight” boxcars open and I joined with another bunch of guys and we started on the train back to Le Havre. So, you can see—from Germany all the way to the port of Le Havre. Remember, we had no seats and we had no toilets, we had nothing— 2 �Interviewer: “What was the weather like?” Very cold at that time. What we did, and of course there were a number of things, the people, the American soldier was so resourceful and we picked up five gallon cans of gasoline and other guys picked up containers and put sand in them and we would put the gasoline into the sand and light it, we were very careful because it was just an open flame, but that’s the way we came all the way to the port. 4:49 We get to the port and the different groups, they call them Chesterfield Camp and they have different names. Interviewer: “Yes they had a whole bunch of different camps and they were all named after different cigarette brands for some reason.” And from there they took us to the ship and we came on the Wilson Victory, now these were the new victory ships and this one was brand new, it had just come from the states and I don’t believe it had been used for anything yet. 5:20 Not a load of anything so, they put us on that and we left Le Havre, we left France. With that, we had a very, very rough trip. This ship would go down and I’m not a navy person, but it would go way up and come down and the motor would be whirling up in the air grinding away. We had on the area we were in, there was a beam that come loose and it just came right across the floor and we had a post with hammocks on the entire floor and it just cut them like they were butter and again using resourcefulness, we immediately grabbed our duffle bags are we went after that beam and threw ourselves and all our stuff on top to stop it. 6:12 We made it through and like I say, the storm was a very bad one, but we got through and landed at Camp Kilmer New Jersey, that’s the next place I can recall. I started making phone calls and one of the things that I was concerned about in Europe, a great deal, was I wanted to get back and marry this girl I had met and I was more afraid of not accomplishing that part of my life than I was of getting killed there, but this is the person I 3 �married in 1946 and we are still married. I finally went from there to the railroad station and when we got to Camp Kilmer, at the dock, I remember stepping out and possibly ten feet high there were boxes of small milk bottles in cartons and we hadn’t had any milk and we started drinking it and it got many of us sick. From there we went again to the railroad station and they took us down to—well, I went down to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and things started— events were getting into place and I remember getting into the railroad station in San Antonio and there was one fellow that came by and said, “well, I’m playing golf over the week end, are you going to be caddying?” It was a very quick reaction, but his lip was cut and they had to take him and get him some stitches, but again I did not fell racism or anything, but it just felt that this was not something that I wanted and I reacted to it. 7:58 Again, these were the changes that had come about, none of us had to put up with anything, we had volunteered many of us, and from there I remember calling home and my dad asked if I was ready to leave and he would pick me up, but I said I would take the bus and I’ll get home just fine. I will have a couple of days and they were processing us and we were at Dodd Field, part of Fort Sam Houston, and I remember we were in this four car garage, open, and I heard the sound of a plane and this young soldier processing us yelled, “the plane is strafing” or something like that and we hit the floor and then they started laughing, but anyway, we picked him up and put him in the shower, clothes and all. That was an experience of the changes that were coming about and we were still reacting on that. 9:08 From there, I remember that one of the persons that was there—he kept looking at me for a while, he was a big first sergeant, the kind you would like to see in a movie, he had a big pot belly, he had medals on and everything else, and he said, “Hi” to me, he said, “You made it”, and I said, “Yes”, and he had a purple heart on and I said, “I wasn’t dumb enough to get one of those”. We were joking and I said, “What the heck did you do?” I only have my staff sergeant 4 �chevrons on, I had received a promotion to sergeant major, but he said, “I didn’t keep my butt down” and I said, “You were hit there? Are you joking?” We were just joking talking about that. 10:05 Then I said, “You know, I remember you for another reason , you were the guy that had me pack those one pound bags of saltpeter”, and he said, “oh, we do that all the time”. That was just another incident from there. I left there in the morning, I was discharged and I took my discharge and went to the bus and went home and I arrived home and of course the family was waiting, I had called them, and I remember my mother was crying and I thought—she’s crying, she’s happy, but she kept on crying for a while and I said, “mother, I’m going to be here now”. When I was talking with the first sergeant, he asked me what I was going to do and he said, “are you staying in the reserve?” I said, “you know I have been wanting to get a commission, maybe I should do that”, so I signed up for the reserve—that was the beginning of it. 10:57 The final deal. I get home and we sit down and we talked an my mother said, “I do have something for you”, and this by the way—I’m a little bit ahead of the story because this is after I’d been in Grand Rapids. When I was there I met with the family, I made a trip to Mexico, my aunt Simona, a grandmother, an uncle, aunts and cousins were there and my aunt said, “You know I made a promise while you were in the service, that if you come back we will keep this promise”, in Spanish it is called amunda, like an order that you agree to do something. 11:42 We went to the church, to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the promise she had made was that if I came back alive that she and I would walk from, on our knees, from the door of the church to the altar, which we kept on that, we did that. Again these are just part of the cultural side and I respected their wishes and I was very happy that’s what got me back. I returned to San Antonio and had a job right away with the Veterans Administration Communications Division because of my typing and this is in January or February of 1946. My wife and I, the girl I was going to 5 �marry, we agree to get married in May of 1946. 12:35 We were married, we returned to San Antonio—we were married in St. Louis, Missouri, and one of the fellows that landed with me in Normandy, he was our best man. We returned to San Antonio and we left for Grand Rapids— we found a school out there, the University of Michigan, for what reason I still don’t know, I liked the name and I had been to three other schools before in the army, universities, so when we could not get into the U of M because every state university was giving preferences to their state veterans. My wife had met Jean Adrianse, a Grand Rapids family here, while she was in Chicago, my wife was working for the Social Security Administration and living at the YWCA and this is where Jean also lived so, she mentioned Aquinas that was just getting started so, we came up and it was September of 1946. When I left the Veterans Administration I believe from the time I worked for them, in a few months I received about four promotions, paid promotions, because what I was doing was typing records and of course my typing speed was there. 13:57 Interviewer: “You were fast and you had a lot of experience with records by this time too.” And with numbers, that I was something I had done before I went in the service. I had about two years working as a billing clerk and that was just all numbers. We came up here in September of 1946 and in 1948 I went to the University of Michigan School of Business Administration and while I was there I met George Heartwell, the father of our present mayor, and he was just out of the navy and I was just out of the army and we lived next to each other at Willow Run Village in Ypsilanti. 14:39 We returned to San Antonio in January of 1951 and my wife was working at the Grand Rapids Press at the time, in the old building across from the veterans park, and there was an ad in the paper and I called my wife and she asked me why I wanted to apply for a job if we were leaving for San Antonio? I said, “we are”, and she said, “Were leaving in January?” I said, “yes, and this was October. During that last year, 1950, we were living on Norwood St. and 6 �I saw a job opening at the Eastown theater, they had a sign out there and I went in and talked to the owner at that time, Allen Johnson, and he said, “do you want that job”? And I said, “Yes”, and he was surprised, and he said, “No, that’s a woman’s job”, and I said, “Do you pay for this”? He said, “Yes”, and I said, “I’ll take it, I live right around the corner here”, so I took that and it was a big joke for a while because people were not used to that, but it was a good experience and I ended up managing the Wealthy Theater, the Four Star, the Family and the Eastown and that was a chain owned by Allen Johnson and the film was supplied by a Detroit organization. 16:03 In October of that year, that’s when I called my wife and said, “There’s a box ad in the paper and I would like to know who it is”, and she asked again if we were leaving for San Antonio and I told her yes. She told me the job was with Resurrection Cemetery, the Catholic Diocese, they were down on lower Monroe where those new buildings are now and I went over there and they said, “Look, there’s a fellow, Harry, he’s from Kansas City, he was up here to get Resurrection Cemetery started, it being the second Catholic Cemetery in the nation with no upright monuments. 16:50 I knew nothing about the cemetery business, but he talked to me, Harry Graff, and he said it was commission and here is what you do. You take this book; these pages and you study them. I said, “I have a couple of questions”, and he said, “Don’t worry about the questions, the people will have all the answers for you”, and he had come from Kansas City. The thing was, he didn’t know much about the business himself, but I believed him, he was in charge. 17:18 From October to January, I started calling and just telling people who I was and explained the facility of Resurrection Cemetery and could I have an appointment. Well, once I was there I would tell them that I was only going to be there a short time and did they have any questions well, I will finish in about fifteen minutes, but I lucked out all the way through because people did not want to talk about this, that they were going to die and be put here—that fact that 7 �they knew how long I was going to be there encouraged them to listen a little bit. 17:53 We left in January by then, the first week in January of 1951, I set a national sales record, I was told it was a national sales record, I sold seventeen contracts in one week. Yes, I made some money, we had a brand new 1951 Buick Special, custom made furniture and so, we left for San Antonio. When I was leaving I got a phone call from Mr. James Harrington who was helping the Catholic Church develop Resurrection Cemetery and the other one was in Kansas City Missouri, and he wanted to know why I was leaving and what was it that I didn’t like. I said, “No”, and he said, “Have you ever made this kind of money before that you are making?” I said, “not with a piece of paper and a pen”, and he said, “Well, you’re going back to San Antonio now?” I said, “yes”, I’m stopping in Peoria to see my in-laws”, and he said, “Could you stop by Kansas City?” I said, “sure”, and we stopped by there on the way down, he took us to the country club, we had wild game, it was just a beautiful place and he kept asking me “do you know what you’re going to do when you get to San Antonio?” I said “no”, and he said, “Why did you leave this when you were making this money?” I said, “I have made more money than this, I had my own business before I came out of high school, but never with just a pen and a contract”. He said, “If there is anything that you need, please give me a call, I enjoyed talking with you”, I went to his home—I was just there a couple of days and so, we left on that basis and as we were leaving he said, “There is one thing you can do for me, will you please check on these demographics for Corpus Christi, the church has called and they also want one of these cemeteries”. And I said, “Fine, I will be happy to do it”. I get back to San Antonio and this—I’m back to my early comment that I was ahead of my changes in life, and when I arrived in San Antonio my mother is crying, my dad is there, everybody is happy, but at the same time mother finally said, “I have something for you”, and I said, “What is it?” It was this envelope and I said, “ I do not know what it is, why 8 �are you crying?” He said, “If you look at the address, it’s the army”. 20:20 It was thick and I opened it up. I’m being recalled from the Air Force Reserve to be in the Korean War. I thought “oh my gosh”, I was just planning my life, starting a family etc., and I think I had to report the next day. We got there on a weekend and on Monday I’m at Brooks Field. When I walked in there I said, “Look, possibly could I get an extension?” They said, “no, walk over here”, and they swore me in and they said, “we are going to save time, we are going to issue you your clothing”, so, I came home with my duffle bag again. 21:06 In the meantime, I said, “I’ll get the work for Mr. Harrington”, and I did get to the library to look up the diocese and population etc. I called him back and gave him the information and he said, “Well, have you made up your mind what you’re going to do?” I said, “Yes Mr. Harrington”, and he said, “So quickly?” I said, “Oh yeah”, and he said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I’m going back in the army”, and there was just silence. 21:33 He had never been able to go into the army because he had a problem with his feet and he said, “Would you repeat that?” I said, “I’m going back in the army, I’ve been called back”. He said, “Do you want to go back?” And I said, “No, not really”, and he said, “Francisco, with the record that you have, and what you did in the military, why are you being called back?” I said, “Mr. Harrington, I don’t know, but I have my clothing and everything and I am supposed to get back there”. He would speak like Missouri—slow, with talk measured, and he said, “What are you doing tomorrow?” I said, “Well, I think I have three days to put things together”. And he said, “Would you meet me at the airport?” He said, “I’ll let you know what time, what flight I’m arriving” so, he flew in. 22:23 He go into Brooks Field and it was either a full colonel or a one star general we ended up talking to and Mr. Harrington starts talking to him. He said, “I’m Bud Harrington from Kansas city, Missouri”, I can almost hear him talking this way, and he said, “I understand that Mr. Vega is being called back to Korea”, 9 �and this fellow was straight backed and he said, “That is correct” and Harrington said, “Well, I’m here to ask if you can give him an extension”, and he said, “No, we cannot do that”, and Harrington said, “Well, how about some time so he can straighten out his personal affairs?” “Sir, we cannot do that”, and Mr. Harrington said, “May I use your phone?” He picks up the phone and I’m trying to keep from smiling and laughing only because of what then followed. He called and said, “This is Bud Harrington”, and I think he said, “Is Harry there?” And then he started talking and he said, “Oh fine, fine”. The Muhlbach Hotel was part of Harrington’s family and a well-known name for a brewery and wealth etc. Well, pretty soon this officer who was in charge, he got the drift of what might be the person at the end of the line and it took me a little while longer, but then this officer, he kept telling Mr. Harrington, “It’s fine, It’s fine”, he didn’t want any part of it and then Mr. Harrington said something and he said, “Do you want to talk to him?” 24:14 This really got this officer quite concerned and Mr. Harrington said, “No, we’ve got it taken care of,” and that was the end of it. To this day, all I know is whoever was at the end of the line was important to the moment there. When I got the extension of thirty days, I did some more work for Mr. Harrington and he told them—“This is what this man has made and he is still working for me, he just got these demographics” so, he was telling the truth so, I get the extension—I still had only a certain number of days and all the furniture we had bought, by the way, had still not arrived in San Antonio and we found out the truck had gone into a ditch and it was all ruined. It had been in the water for some time. We went from there, the last week-end— I had to report on Monday, and I told my wife—“Look, I just want some time by myself, I’m going fishing” so, I went to the outskirts of the San Antonio River or one of the rivers and I remember I had a fly rod which I had not used in years and I didn’t even have bait on it, I just have a knot on it to get it out there and while I’m sitting out there this fellow comes along the 10 �river and it’s not populated and he’s in work clothes and he stops and he walks a little bit closer to me, he was about a half a block away when I saw him, and he finally gets close enough and he said, “Sir”, and I didn’t say anything because I had my own self pity or anger that I let myself get into situations like that. 26:00 Finally he said, “You got a cigarette?” I didn’t want to talk to anybody and I said, “Yes”, I was smoking at the time and I gave him a cigarette and he moves away and he asked for a match so, I gave him a match and I said, “Look, would you mind leaving me alone? I don’t want to be rude, but I’m out here going over something that I have to go over in my own mind”. 26:24 He lit the cigarette and smoked and as he was leaving he said, “When you get there tomorrow, you ask for this person”, and I let out a stream of profanity and I said, “Leave me alone you bum, just mind your own business”. Anyway, he left and when I go there to report the next morning the first sergeant said, “Please go into the office with the officer there”, and I walked in and this fellow from the river was sitting there. 27:02 Now, how this came about—I have had experience with even less explanation at Omaha Beach and I got through a lot of stuff, but here’s another one that came—he said, “This is for you—the orders— you do not have to report, you were called up by mistake”. I said, “How many people are you calling up by mistake?” He said, “If I were you I would get out of here” so, I walked out and I stayed I stayed there just long enough for that term to end and I didn’t sign up again, but I did want to get the commission and that’s why I stayed in there and that was the end of my time in the service. 27:54 Interviewer: “Who do you think was the person on the other end of that telephone Mr. Harrington was calling?” I think it was Harry Truman, they knew each other and Harry Truman had offices and a suite at the Muhlbach Hotel, so this is why—I never asked Mr. Harrington because later on I went back 11 �to work with him, but it was such an unusual thing, I wouldn’t ask. I respected the guy and that’s whom I thought he was calling and that’s whom the officers thought he was calling and it took me a little while to catch on. 28:39 Very unusual things, very unusual things that I experienced, like this fellow coming along the river and how did he know—I must have said something to him for him to tell me. He said, “ When you go in there, you ask for this person”, and I didn’t ask for anyone, I just went in because I didn’t believe him, that there was anyone that could help me anyway. 29:03 Interviewer “Kind of a strange business so, once you had that sorted out, did you go to work for Mr. Harrington then? Was that the upshot of that since you didn’t have to stay in the army?” No, I gave Mr. Harrington the information and my sister and I started talking about doing something in business and she said, “Let me show you something”, she had been making these sandals, they were flat and made of toweling cloth—what do they call it? Interviewer: “Terry cloth?” Yes, terry cloth, they were made from that and you just slipped into them. She had the machine there at the house and she was doing that and I said, “How long have you been doing this?” and she said, “Anytime I want to, I just do some work on this, but I want to tell you something I believe we can do, do you remember the Rizik brothers?” We grew up with them and they were Syrian or Lebanese, I don’t recall, they were Middle Eastern people, and I said, “Sure, Mike and Theresa”, we had been in elementary school, and she said, “I think we can get some work from them”, and I said, “How much work?” 30:17 She said, “Why don’t you go talk to them?” So, I went down town to the Juvenile Manufacturing Co. and they owned the building that took up the entire block and was about four or five stories high. Inside it was all embroidery and equipment 12 �for the manufacturing of clothing etc. I walked in with Mike and he asked how my mother was and the family and I told him they were fine. I said, “My sister is doing some machine embroidery and I thought I might be able to get some work from you for her, for us and he said, “What do you have? What kind of work?” So, I took out some samples and he said, “You can do this here?” And I said, “Yes”. He said, “Were sending all this stuff out to Dallas because we cannot get somebody here that can do this”. And it was just simply—well, it could be a number of things-- the samples I took were just a little piece of cloth with the face of a cat—one line drawn, almost like a cartoon deal and it could be done in a matter of seconds with a chain stitch like the machine that is putting a name on something. 31:28 So, he said, “I can give you quite a bit of business with us”, and I said, “Ok, please put it in writing”. Fine, he put it in writing and I go back home and I said, “I’ve got a letter here that will give us about as much work as we can handle”, and I asked my sister what we will need and she said, “Well, we better get two more machines or get one more machine”, and we took a room that was adjacent to the garage and started working on that. 32:00 I go back to Mike and he said, “I have an order, I’ll have it delivered for you”, and he sends out the beginning of a hundred forty thousand dozen. I think we finished forty thousand at $1.00 a dozen. Then my sister started training other people that had graduated with her from a technical school in San Antonio, Texas and we started getting a lot, we were just given flat pieces and it just developed into—we were doing anything that was printed we could put into embroidering. I had people that had a new breed of cattle that was developed and they wanted for shows. We would take a piece of felt, blue or white and embroider the photograph on there and of course there was very good money in that. These people treated these cattle like children, it was their pride and joy and the breeding and everything that went with it. 33:04 We got into working with furniture manufacturers, for the 13 �inside of caskets, we got into volume. By then we had three shifts working and Mr. Harrington called me and he said, “Could you break away and come up for a week-end?” I said, “Sure”, and my wife stayed in Peoria and by then we had our first child and I went to Kansas City and Mr. Harrington said, “Look, I’m in Albany and Troy and I’m not getting results, I have to have Grand Rapids—I have Kansas City”. Mr. Harrington had owned banks and automobile distributorships, Kaiser, Frazier, and he was a businessperson. He said, “Would you be interested in checking out to seeing if you can tell these guys how you made your sales?” I said, “Mr. Harrington, I just asked the people if I could explain the services we have.” So, I started there in Kansas City and the first thing I had to do—when I went into the first meeting there was a fellow who puts his feet up on the table and he has a small knife and he is cleaning his fingernails the first thing I did was ask him to wait until after the meeting if he wanted to talk to me. I said, “You have been fired”. So, the rest of them got the drift too. 34:29 They started listening and we started getting sales. Mr. Harrington said, “How would you like to handle the sales contracts?” I said, “Mr. Harrington, I’ve got an infant company there in embroidery, let me talk to my sister”. My sister and I talked and she said, “If you want to stay it will be fine”, and I said, “Ok, why don’t you take my share of the company for $1.00”. We had all kinds of equipment and machines, we had power-cutting tools—we had many things going. Interviewer: “That was all in San Antonio right?” That was in San Antonio. Interviewer: “Why were you up in Peoria at this point?” At this point I had come back to Peoria to be with my wife. She was also in agreement and so I just went back to Kansas City and whatever I had in San Antonio stayed there for quite a while, but I started then hiring and training the people for Albany connected to Detroit cemeteries and 14 �Grand Rapids. Then there was a change; Harry Graff wanted to return to Kansas city and Mr. Harrington asked me if I had any suggestion about who we put in there and I said, “Mr. Harrington, how about me?” 35:43 He said, “Why do you want to go there?” It was a big operation and I said, “I like the fishing and I like the hunting, I don’t like the cloudy days, but I think my wife will like it, she was born in Idaho and raised in Peoria, Illinois and like the changes in climate.” 36:03 Interviewer: “The seasons.” We came back to Grand Rapids again, George Heartwell had just moved to Grand Rapids from Detroit and he was heading Citizens Mortgage, he was a graduate attorney, but he went into the mortgage business and again we were like lost brothers. We had enjoyed many fishing trips, many hunting trips, the family came along and it’s been a very nice experience here and that about brings me up to working with you in the great job that you are doing. 36:40 Interviewer: “Well thank you very much for coming in and finishing the story for us.” Thank you very much again. 15 ��L.' ~onorable 11liscbarge . . I· . . f?hteJ ~ ~ ~ ' FRANCTSCO Oompany 'A" ~ v~GA 1700th 18 199 154 J ~.~~ ~ starrl S1gna l Service I • Serge~nt , '. Barta Hon(A1nl) ~~~}!f- ~~ae~~[7~~~~., - !?7;{a_~~ ~ <a~~ I /fd ' Army of tqe Jtniteil llJta,es I --- I '- ..... .,.,J " ae~' " n4 a ~_/~, ~~ [$a##[7~ . ~ ad ~ I 7' .._~ .__':::-:'] ." ; . -.J :' II . ) I I I �kh t. LAST NAME. 'IIIIT HU'E • MIDDLI HONORABLE I INITUL a. DISCHARGE AIIU SEILIAL '..J I"~ HO. I. OUOI / •. A'M O•• UVICI COMPONINT I 18 199 154 to O •• "'NIZATION Sig C A!JS II, I 7. OATI0' UPUATlaN •. S/S~t PUCI 0' .IPAUTIONSeparat i'.:m Center 1709~h Signal Ser,,;ice Dn (AVfjJ) 9 Dec 45 Fort Sam Houston Texas •. PUMANINTAaONI•• 'ONMULING pUIPa.u 3,21G 'il 'l'ravi is st I'II'H II. PUCI a, "ITN j Texas San Antonio 7 Bexar ibounty 28 Feb 22 ta. Ie SOUGHT San Antonio Tex~s U. COLO' nil coLa. HUN HIIOH7 WIIGHT /17.110.DIPeND. SEle 9 Drown Brown 610" 121 Las. 0 ) 10. ADDIIESS '"011 WHICH IN'LOUIEN' DATE 0' I'.' WILL , II. CIYILIAN aa , DATe 0' I'·' II DATI0' INLISTMINT 22 Cct 4211 .NDUCTION U. II. OCCUPATION Typist II TAR Y HISTORY DU C IO"'C"'tl"'.4A2C"YI o' •••• 'cc .II. '''0 /1'. 110. 1-37.32 MIL or PLACE 2 2 IItTI' INTO SIAYICI I st~ Rctg San Antonio Tex3.s I I 10. MILlTAIrOCCUPATIONAL SPICIALTY ANDNO. Adrnlnistrntlvc Gpecidist .I a, "THU ANDCAMPA'IINt Ho rmandy Central 31. 1'!athern .:Ie. WOUNDS l"rance R"CEIVED Good 1 Service IN ACTION Arden,' nes American Condut't StripJ I TYPHOID I TITANU' I.MUNIZATION SeRYIC.. IMONTHS GO 33 ••.• 'C.) I 45 IDATS 1 G 17 a •. P.,O•• UYICI I '1II0,.tHS I 1 31. 1 II o;;/3gt il I... vi No ne 1 , ~\I"I", . .'0; , r 'A' .... II,,' .,. n.VICI 'CHOOUATTENDID - General Basic " .l.-.. II ' ',.wI 0 _1';;..f _ (Th,s ~pa". 10' C\ ••• •••• ,~I .•I.I. '?' n ,,,. _. r-s-._ • ~. J' ••. A I. . I ••. INSURANCE I V'.u ?~./ 0 A T A NOTICE / J ~ a G-;.••••.• IDUCATID. (Yeora) ,. /, ••••• 'Z , •••••• I, e;tt U••••• "=j (j -1._' I I! •• .• DATIa, "U'VAL 15 May 44 2 Dec 45 I PAY ... 5 AND ItITUIN US w~ < J ';..s' 11'.1 - .•.. ,.:___ , U. s. EAT.IE ,'fI&JDilry • t.e. , .•,. h •• !h·~ .~.·t"".l·l~ I\dmini.r.mioa 10 I". aad (or the fll~u" ~a", "I ..• .t~, '''(\' "1 i'··a".·II!"P I-tndlt aadu rit~ In of rhe 5rrvlCrmr1l' Rn:t '11, a U'""',;l1I' DUTINATION 44 24 Uov 45 I n OUTSIDC CONTINeNTAL 2 },fa'r ae. HleNUTeMADINILD Ii IlltVICI DATIa, DIPUTUU 6 Jul 45 IDATS 7 I·,edal With Victory Ribbon I OTHI'rjPh~I~) I rOaEIG •• SlltYICI IYIEARS J-:AJ[1~ Campaign Award compl.'rn 01 above it.ml or .ntry 01 oth., lI.ms ,p.cIII.d in W. D. DI,.cliv.s) ..•:I: Laoel Dutton I Issued • ASR Score (2 Sep 1945) - 76 I I, 1,1 SI. 0•. PtISO" SIGHATUIIE IIING IIPA-IIIATEO • II: IT. ~fl/7~i! WD 1 AGiO .0aM 53.5' November 1944 ThJS 101m ~u~r.sede. all pleV;OU.f I ~ P•.••~~.?az j(.rlj. \jr.IFT~.l}j""'CPJlIS.~s (rr.z~~d ed'IIon2 arganizalion •• lgna'ure) 1 t nn I'er-s Ofrtcer 01 WD AGO F"orm.S3 and SS lor .nli.,.d person. .nh,l.d 'A an lIano,abl. Di.eha,q.. whIch will not b. u.••d aIr., ,eceipt 01 ,hI. r.vII/on. -_._~ \ I DATil 19Jan44 27!~eb45 TOTALUN"N 0' .ERYICI 17. CONTINENTAL Rhineland 'I'hen'ter I Caml?a~gn Medal Hed:),l I Ueri torioua Unit 3 Ov~rscas Service Dars :: LATEST 18Aor441 rlAa. I ILIU••• U••"u"•••••UTl (I.•.. lnlanl'y.aviatlonandma'hman.hlpbadg Sharpshooter Carl1ine 17 Feb 44 II Hone •• ALLPOI 'I' .• AND CITATION' stars ... !jl)? II, Europe DeCORATIONI Bronze I 1.'1' !: o �/ . R~.§lBl.Q.IiJ2 I I HEADQUARTERS I 1709TH SIGNAL SERVICE BATTALION (AVN) I APO 696, U S Army ~28 I August 1945. I SPECIALORDERS) I NUMBER •••••• 73) I • I I . . '1. 1ST LT ROBERT T. CARTON,0580604, AC. Co "en. l709th 816 Serv Bn (A~), 1s .placed on TDY. for a period of one. (1) day, eft o/a 4 Sep :+945, wP Hq. USFET and Wiesbaden M1litary. Germany. tor dy in conn~ation w!5Ignal Activities •. Upon compl ot TOI, he wlll ret to pror~~ orgn and ata. TDNby 1vlT. i- . . 2. Tec 4 samuel S. Mekler, 32498716. Hq Det. 1709th S1g Serv an (Avn), is~laced on TDY, for a period of five (5) days. eff o/a 5 Sep 19~5~ WP Complegne. Franae. for dy In connectlon wjSlgna1 Supply Act~vlties. Upon compl or TDY. ~e will rat. to proper orgn and sta. tDN by Mr. I 3. i I Co "A", 1709tl Tea '6 Paul J. ~ eller 1 12 440 g Serv an (Avn Sig Serv Bn ~vn. a trt n gr. t qDe. and is atct;ld to. 00 ."A It , l709th 81g Serv ~n (Avn) for rat only. EDCMR: 4 Sep 1945.J No travel involved.: . " I I 4. S6t franoisco / V I ' M. .' I " Vega, 18199154. Hq Det, 1709th Sig Serv Sn (Avn) It is ~PPOinte~ .an Pars Sst Major. for the 1709th Sig Serv Bn (Avn), vice, S/66t;·tHarley Q. lohaerrer Jr, 36181755. transferred. I 5. 'I'm, tol I' . . Care dire -, ! EDCMR: 4 S'ep 1945. ' • m ASGMT"- ~ HELD. I 1ST LT (82Q) ROBERT T. CARTON00 ·0", 1709th (0224) AO~. Sig Serv Bn (Am) 1ST LT (92Q) JOSEPH;BREOHER I 01643574 (0220) Si8 C Co "A", 1709th Sig Serv Bn (Avn) 0580604 . r~ I Serv ~~ (~~7~)tt~: EDCMR: 4 Sep 1945- No tra.vel i i ,I ~o:;S~o3~fi~31~~9t64~tg No travel involved. I I· Hq, ASGD, involved.. wp 00 MSW, 1709th 51S Serv Bn (.Avn) . . Co "Bit, 1709tb 5il$ 5erv Bn (Am) . ' ~:r~B;~ tI~~?5 e 1 I 7. 50 much of par 5. SO 72. this oSf perta1ntng to transfer of EMfr Co "B". l709th 5le Serv En \Avn) to Hq Det, l709th Sig Serv (Avn), 1s amended 1)0 include: "No t~ve1 involved". . Sn I t I §I , i I -1- I 1~.;.1~ ! �J IN r/Ii ~ r./ !.tf+ V~SIDN C v ll-TLG:.- ~ cj !NVAS"fO C. tI I«S fLlt-lS-)...I r.) 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Welght ••••••• 'fl'l.....;.;.:~ ......Ib.. ;,. •••••••••..•tone··)..~ti· •• Color hair ••.Iil.""'.~~or eye••••P.~.9.~Ple"lon .•••~ •••••••• Scart or dl.dnliul.hinll mark •••••••••••••••••••.••..•••••••••••••••••••••.••• ......................... . _ ~~.~ : ~:~.:~ . ~ .r" . --_._---- ....•• f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VegaF3 Title A name given to the resource Vega, Francisco M. (Interview transcript, video, and papers, 3 of 3), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vega, Francisco M. Description An account of the resource Francisco Vega was born in San Antonio, Texas. He tried to enlist in the military immediately after Pearl Harbor, but was initially rejected because of his Mexican ancestry. He eventually did enlist in the Army Air Corps, and began a long process in which he used his talents and persuasive skills to find increasingly interesting assignments, eventually training as a teletype operator with a signals unit that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and was eventually part of Eisenhower's headquarters. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) Video recordings United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army. Air Corps World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-03-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/14ef37546db8ad385ef31d3c9c9d6281.mp4 6370ca2f2efe348619b1c8318a54ef9f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/051cf740657724ba8d0b25dc6f3e5726.pdf 6b9c72fb107ea72f3e67e4eb6de585b3 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran History Project Francisco Vega Part 2 (46:44) Interviewer: “We had gotten in your story up to the period of the Battle of the Bulge and we want to talk about that. You mentioned to me of an incident that took place when you were first in Normandy.” Yes, I was very much impressed and sometimes I think, how can I be that impressed with all the activity that was going on, the firing, the shooting, the people dying, you could see them just dropping wounded and others asking you for help, but I was very much impressed by some of the things that we did as young guys. One of the things that stayed with me—we were getting into a lot of mines and all of a sudden I saw this tank coming about and it’s got chains in front and they are flailing and just exploding mines and everybody is running in back of the tank to get through the hedgerow country and those are the things that have stayed with me, that whoever came about doing those things. Another thing I remember—it did not take too long to realize that whatever our work was, when we landed we had weapons in our hands and it was almost the rule that if somebody is facing you, they shouldn’t be, they should be going the other way so, you were very careful in a way, but I remember our carbines, they had a cartridge clip that you stuck on the bottom and once it was fired you were supposed to get another one and it didn’t take us long and we got two cartridges and used tape and tied them together. 1:53 When one cartridge was used up, you just turned it over and put it back in there, and a number of things like that. We had a—shortly after we got into Chantilly the word got around that we were going to have “Brooklyn chicken” and here we had been getting rations, C rations and K rations and all of that was like cardboard, but 1 �what is was, our cook had taken Spam and deep fat fried it and powdered eggs and we just thought it was a good big banquet, but nobody was telling any of these things, things we were putting together on equipment and things like that. 2:43 I do not know how this was done, one of the reasons we wanted to get to the Eiffel Tower is we understood the Germans had crystallized a number of communication cables and then we had two guys working on this, all Bell Telephone people, that repaired it and made it usable again so, naturally you had to be impressed. These guys were very unassuming, they were tinkerers, but they would get things done and constantly I heard they say, “All I want is to get back and get my little green truck”, I guess they would use a green truck when they would go and do repairs in homes etc., but I just thought I would mention that to you. 3:22 We started then at Chantilly we started getting some word that there was some activity behind the German lines and we would get this again because we were working right with the war room, which was Eisenhower’s right hand and he has to be informed. This is the reason I make the ----------before the breakthrough in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge and the next thing I hear was, “ we have to get our guy out of there”, he’s in the Ardennes, and I heard them talking, I heard the adjutant, we’re all in the same room as Sergeant Major and I was in charge of administration stuff and I heard them talking and saying they needed to find someone and I said, “what is he going to do?” And they said he needed to drive the mechanics jeep, there were two trucks and we didn’t know what we were going to find out there , but we had to get that guy out. 4:22 They said to bring out the equipment or destroy it so, I said I would drive it, but then the Colonel was coming down the stairs and said, “what’s this I hear you’re volunteering for what?” And I said, “I want to drive the jeep, Colonel”, and he said, “we only have you and one helper now in administration”, and he would see me type at times and I would get that stuff out quick because I didn’t have to hunt and peck because I had 2 �worked with numbers so long so he said, “I don’t think so sergeant”, and I said, “I am insisting you let me go”, and he said, “why do you want to go?” 5:03 I said, “you and your guys have come across Africa and you’ve got all this experience and you’re going to deny me this one chance?” I did go and I drove the jeep and it was loaded down and I was the only one in the jeep and there were tool boxes in there that they thought they might need. I had hand grenades on me, I had a Thompson submachine gun mounted on the side, I had a carbine in there, I forgot what else as far as weapons that were there, but I, we started driving and it was getting dark, we were driving at night, and the only thing we had for lights, I was following the second truck, all they had for light was a little square of light that you could see—there were no big lights or anything. 6:00 We’re moving on that—when we would get to a corner to turn and it was at night and what happens is the jeep has a short wheel base and anytime you hit gravel you lose traction and start spinning and that happened to me twice. The guy in front could see that I was not behind him, my headlights were little tiny slits in the cover of the headlights and they came back and wanted to know what was the matter, did I know how to drive the thing. There was fighting going on around us so, we get to Reims and we are going to Ardennes where the fighting was going on and I remember as we get to the river, it is a very high bridge and it had been bombed so they are not using it. 7:19 They said they were going to cross it and as we get close to the river the engineers had put together what looked like a children’s--Interviewer: “Tinker toy bridge?” Well, like rubber boats. Like what you would have in the back yard for a child and they had joined them and on top of that they had planking. This thing is across this river and I would say this river was about twice as wide as the Grand River downtown. We had to cross this thing with branches coming down, if I were the Germans I would be a mile up the river and put a big tree in 3 �there or something, this was going through my mind. First the trucks went and got through and I’m following, but I could just feel this thing moving, but we got through on that and we started going through some villages. 8:20 We get to one village, this is daytime, we slept in Reims, I remember I slept under the jeep with air force wool stuff on and we get to this town and there’s a—it’s pretty bombed out, the streets are pretty bad so we are going very slow, but the German people are very close to us with their houses and stuff and I was expecting a grenade anytime on that thing because they could just flip it from a window or something, but as we get close to the center part of town, they had a little plaza and you couldn’t go straight and you would go around the side and here’s this fellow standing in the middle of this little plaza with a tuxedo and a top hat on. 9:15 I thought it was the mayor saying hello or something and we didn’t stop and we kept on going and we came to another location where there were a lot of displaced persons and prisoners of war and I thought it was some kind of a concentration camp because they had them in a group, but along the street there was a ditch and the people I saw were well fed, they were fat and big and they were guards and the people were there with there arms crossed on there stomachs and what they did is they cut the stomachs of the prisoners to give them a slow death and these guys were sitting there with their intestines in their hands just dying. 10:17 The guards of the camps were doing that. Interviewer: “That’s got to be stuff that’s happening later on in the war, not the Battle of the Bulge phase.” We’re going to the Battle of the Bulge. Interviewer: “In the battle of the bulge you’re still in Belgium and France, not where the camps were.” 4 �This I can—I mentioned to you that we’re in Germany—we’re in some country that is not France when we crossed the Rhine. Interviewer: “It sounds like you’re crossing the Rhine, but I t sounds to me like you got some parts of the going into Germany story mixed up with the Battle of the Bulge story because in the bulge story, you were still in an area that was friendly to you and in the camps story the camps were all in Germany. 10:54 We got to Montigny [Malmédy?] and I saw guys that had been shot there, it was snow. The worst thing we started seeing was many of these soldiers were frozen. This is past where the prisoners were, there was no snow there that I can recall, but it was cold. As we started moving, we saw the GI’s, they had trench rolls, but they were frozen on them. We saw some of the wounded and as we started getting through we found our man and he was not where any of the troops were or anything like that, and he comes out and he is very happy to see us. I don’t know who had the map or compass or anything out and as we started getting through we finally found our man he was not where any of the troops were or anything like that. We got there and he comes out very happy to see us. I don’t know who had the map or the compass or anything out—before this happened, this one night before we got to where he is, I kept wondering that is these guys are spread out again and they don’t come back where do I go? I have no road map, nothing. 12:01 That’s the way things were going so, when we got to—it was dark and I don’t know just what location, but there was firing going on and I got myself away from the truck and the next thing, I heard somebody yell and it was English help or something and I slowed down and it was dark and I couldn’t see anything except I could tell there was somebody out there maybe 100 feet away from the road and by then the guys started coming back, one of them came back walking and again he said, “you’ve got to keep up with us”, and there was fighting going on 5 �all around there and I said, “I know”, and he said, “why did you stop?” I said, “Because somebody needs help”, and we had to stop because this guys yelling out there. 12:59 And he said, “you’re hearing things”, so it took a little while and we went out there and here’s a truck, Red Ball Express loaded. A small truck with five gallon cans on it and the gasoline is spilling all over the place and we’re getting fired at and I don’t know where it’s coming from or anything and we got him out, this guy is caught, but the guys got him out and put him in the jeep and dropped him off where some American soldiers were and we asked them if they had a field hospital or a medic or something. I don’t know what happened to him. That was one incident and we kept on going and we got to where this fellow with a truck with a piece of equipment was and he said, “let’s get out of here, let’s get out, let’s get out”, There’s a lot of shooting going on now and I said, “we cannot take the equipment.” 13:57 We had long silver tubes like pipe, it was an explosive, Magnesium, I think it was Magnesium and so he had all the Magnesium set up, we got some more and put it on everything we could. 14:20 When we left England, they made us get rid of everything, any correspondence, anything that could identify you and it was the same thing at that moment, we didn’t want the Germans to capture it or whatever happened. Any Identification—fingerprints or whatever they would use. Everything melted, those magnesium bombs—just white stuff and got back and got back to Chantilly, but there was an experience there—we ran into quite a few American soldiers—I don’t think that—I did not get into Bastogne, I did not see that. As far as the incident for example, the gasoline for Patton, we were getting messages even before that Patton was going to stop at a certain point and Patton wasn’t answering. 15:07 He was out there and not answering us so then we sent a message out saying “no more gasoline” and that’s the way we stopped him to the best of my recollection because there were messages going out, but I don’t know if he was going to Berlin or Bastogne, 6 �but he ended up in Bastogne and we saw some of that for him to get there and coordinate this thing—this is not an expressway or highway with maps and there were a number of places we got to, especially on the way back, where leaving we burned the stuff and the people were just screaming at us, they were angry because things had come through and they had gone over their equipment, they had carts and animals. 15:56 Interviewer: “You had refugees trying to get out of the way and our equipment is going back and forth with Americans retreating and advancing and it was pretty confusing.” There was another town where we were and I found out later was the Netherlands, on the strip, I don’t know where, I have it written down somewhere on that, but that was our experience in Ardennes. We got back and it didn’t take long before we started to back up right away. We had a ceremony there; I think it was before I went to Ardennes, where they presented, I think, fifty bronze stars to this outfit and decorations for the colonel, but these were all guys that were in Africa together. 16:42 I remember the incident there, another thing that’s unusual—we had one fella who came in from Africa and they had all been together, I think he was from New Jersey and he didn’t give a darn about anything and he now became a sergeant major and I think he had about forty promotions from pfc and back and they would promote him and he doesn’t care, but he was the one, when we got to Chantilly, he took one of the little buildings that we had and set it up as a barber shop and you would walk in there and he had all kinds of bottle that he put water in and colored it like you would always see in a barber shop. 17:26 It was nice to see that you could get a haircut, but we would get a haircut over in Chantilly from the French and what they would do was they would just pull your shirt back and blow the hair, but with this fella, he would give you the feeling that it was a little bit better and more like what you would get at home. He was one of the persons who received the bronze star and it was wintertime and they had us all in 7 �formation in the street and in two rows. I forget who the officer was that came to present the bronze stars and he would pin them on them. Well I’m in the second row and the sergeant tells the colonel that he, I don’t know what his name was, doesn’t want to come out and he tells the sergeant to get him out here. Now here is a guy with a long history like I mentioned and the colonel said to get him and bring him out here and he comes back and stands there and I think it is the general who is presenting the stars and he’s giving a talk and he’s pinning them on and so this guy comes out and he stands right next to me and all he is wearing are shoes. 18:40 Nothing else and it’s so cold all his hair is just standing out and I thought, “oh no, what’s going to happen here and the colonel saw it and he didn’t say a word and the general comes along and finishes that row and stands back and of course he stands right there and he has the medal to give him and he looks and I’m standing right next to him, I ‘m not getting a medal, and nobody says a word, but the word has gotten around that this guy is naked so, the colonel puts it on the guys shoulder and says,” you’ve earned it”, and he moves on. 19:23 You run into these incidents that are so far removed from what you see on the reporting on TV there. Things are going on there a lot of things like that took place. 19:34 I came back and I was transferred, I prepared all the reports, and I think you have to have seventy five or seventy four points to come back and I think my army discharge shows I missed it by two points and I had done all that work for thirteen hundred people over there and the colonel comes over and talks to me and he said, “I feel badly you know that”. And I said, “Yes, I know that”. Interviewer: “So basically the rest of the company was getting to go home, but you were staying.” Yes, I had to go to another company, long lines, I can’t think of their name right now or the number and they were in Bagustadt [Ingolstadt?]. 8 �Interviewer “In Germany, yes.” These long lines were going to be moving also very quickly and he said, “I can’t thank you enough”, and I said “fine” .for getting all the records, everything was—and suddenly we found out where we had been, we didn’t know the name of Omaha Beach, we knew the names of all the other battles because they had to be put in the records and they had to be done individually so, this is what I did. 20:43 Then he said, “you’ll be going home soon, your going to long lines and they are moving also”, and I said, “ok, thank you”, I had also gone on a furlough To Nice, from there they gave us a chance for a week so, we went on that and came back again. It was quite an experience, I think it took us—but Kissingen—we had gone past Chantilly, past Kissingen, we were in Germany, I went to the Black Forest. Another incident on that—we had been on the rations and I know that when we went to the black forest there were beautiful streams there and somebody saw there were trout in there and it wasn’t long before the grenades went in and they got the trout and we had fresh fish on that. 21:37 I had an incident there when were getting to Lechstadt and I started getting there with an early group and that and I started getting a toothache and I end up with a toothache—wisdom teeth and it was really bad so, I had to do something and I said not to send me back that it would go away, but they said it wouldn’t and that there was a dentist there and they told me to go see him. I went in to the dentist and the first thing he saw me he started talking and he said, “my name is Sullivan and I’m Jewish and he was nervous and he put me in his chair and his chair is run by a fellow who speaks Spanish, but I think he was Pilipino and the chair looked like a sewing machine that turned the drill. 22:43 He said, “take the chair, but I don’t have any anesthetic, it’s coming in from somewhere”, and I said, “I can’t wait Dr. it is really bad”, and he said, “you have two of them, not just one”, and I said, “I want you to take them out”, and he said, “without anesthetic”? I said, “do whatever you have to 9 �do and take them out”, so he said, “let me get some volunteers”. He goes out and they strap me in this chair like you see, my arms and everything and these guys are holding my head and he said, “ok now, I’m going to have to cut around the gum” he explained to them, these guys that are holding me and he cut around the gum and it’s just like hearing things break, like pencils cracking and he said to the guy, “let me have an elevator”, and it’s like a long screw driver and he puts it under the tooth and snaps it out. 23:43 Then he does the same thing with the other one and then it hit me, just like somebody hit me in my head, on the front of my head, just like a blow. So then he said, “OK, now were going to do something to stop the bleeding”, it was a powder—what did they call it? It is used when you get cut—anyway he put the powder in to stop the bleeding, but he said, “you are going to go to bed and don’t walk because you can hemorrhage and really bleed”, and they gave me more powder and they stopped bleeding. I went to the place where I was staying that we had taken over, I guess it was a spa deal so, I went in and they knew what had happened and they were all talking about it and they said, “you’re crazy to have done that”, and I said, “It was that I can’t do anything, it was just getting worse” so, they took me up to this room where I was staying, we had just gotten there, I put my duffle bag in there and I get in bed and they put this great big pillow, it was like a big pillow that is made of feathers on there. 25:10 Interviewer: “A featherbed”. I had never seen one of those and they put me on that and then he comes over and says, “The colonel heard about it and he sent you something for you to drink”, and it was whiskey, which the officers had—we didn’t have it. I took a glass and I wanted to knock myself out and I woke up at some point and I started to bleed and I put some more of that powder on it, I can’t think of the name, but I was just fascinated how that powder just stopped the bleeding. That was over 10 �with and we started getting the people back and from that I went to Nice and they took us to Frankfort, or some large city, where there were planes and we got into a C-47 and the fella said, “don’t use the first two seats on this side and what had happened was shrapnel had come in and you had metal. The seats were like trays that you have in a cafeteria, but they’re all just stamped in there, the seat were stamped with no cushion or anything so, we sat on that and the sergeant with the plane, an enlisted man, said to me and the guy on the other side, the right side, “I want you to watch and if you see a bolt shaking like it’s going to come loose, let me know and we’ll stop the plane. It was what you call it, a covered engine”? 26:37 Interviewer: “Yeah”. So we take off and of course you get this whistling coming in through the holes in the seats and the pilot says, “I’m going to fly low enough so you can see over Switzerland, the Alps and Lake Geneva. I didn’t care where I was because I was concerned about the darn plane and the bolt. We went to Marseilles and we landed and this bolt pops out and I told the crew chief and he said he would take care of it and I said, “were in Marseilles now”, and he said, “your getting off, we just have to wait until a plane lands”, well, another plane came in, a B-17, and it came in and never stopped, it went right into the water. 27:30 They were having problems with shot up planes, but I don’t think the guys drown or anything. We got off the plane and they took us to Nice from there. We got good food and rest, they took us back and I finished preparing the papers for the outfit to leave and I went to Bonnstadt and there again they had displaced persons and many of them had broken bones and they had not been set and I don’t know if it was from beatings or what, but their legs were bent between the knee and the ankle, they were just completely bent. Their arms—they had been really mistreated and others had been hit and had their teeth knocked out, but this was all on my getting ready to leave. From there they took us to 11 �a train, forty and eight, box cars, and I forget how many of us were in there and again, it didn’t take us long to get a fire going and something that I ended up using later on at Willow Run. At the University of Michigan when I was living at Willow Run, we took a can of sand and somebody had some gasoline and we poured the gasoline on the sand and light that because there were no seats. It was a cattle car. 29:02 We left there and got to La Havre and left on a brand new ship, the Wilson Victory, it was one of those that was made in a week or so and it was brand new, it did not have a ballast on it. We ran into a—it was very good because it was all clean and as we went down, we had some kind of dividers for the hammocks which were for sleeping and we had our duffle bags, but we started leaving on that and we started getting some food. They wouldn’t give us any milk, I wanted some, but they didn’t give us milk. It was a brand new ship so, we started out and this first thing you know we ran into one whale of a storm. I mean the front of that ship was going out of the water and slamming down, the propeller was whirling in the wind and it just went from bad to worse. 30:06 I don’t know what happened to the ships that may have been with us, but at one time a big beam got loose on the fore and it chopped a number of the posts with the hammocks and that’s another incidence where somebody yelled, “get the duffle bags” and we all got our duffle bags and just went after that beam and covered it and got on top of it just like it were a human being. That is another incident I can remember on that trip, there were no delays, no submarines or anything. Interviewer: “Do you remember when it was that you were sailing out? Was it after the war was over now?” No, I was discharged December 15th of 1944, no 1945. Interviewer: “The war was over then.” It was just over because it was just ending at that time, the “Battle of the Bulge” just took place. 12 �Interviewer: “The bulge is December of 1944 into 1945 and Germany surrenders in May of 1945.” I was discharged in December of 1945 so, that took place before this. All the time I was there, I was in a combat zone so were the other guys. There were snipers, land mines and we could not talk to the population, and in fact we were prohibited from doing it. 31:30 We learned four words in German very early that they taught us, even before we got to the beach head— rausmitten(get out of here), tun(halt), and I forget what the other two were, but those four words were what we would use. We would not do anything with the German people because we didn’t know if they were friend or foe, even in civilian clothes. 31:56 So the moment it ended I was on my way back. I was discharged in December, whatever time it took to get from Bonnstadt to La Havre and coming across. Interviewer: “Well your discharge has your services coming in the middle of 1945.” My discharge came in December of 1945 at Fort Sam Houston. Interviewer: “Yes, but that’s still seven months after the war is over basically, but you got far enough to be in Germany which means you’re there in 1945 when the Germans are surrendering and all of that. You’re saying while you were there, you didn’t really have contact with the Germans.” I didn’t have anything to do with the surrender, I had no details on that and by then we were— our outfit was ready to get back, some of the fellows did go to the pacific, they signed up for that, I didn’t consider that, I had met this girl in Peoria, which I married in 1946. 32:52 I had my own business before I went in the service and I wanted to get back to work. I had people working for me before I came out of high school, but that wasn’t unusual in our family, we were 13 �working and studying, but I wanted to get back to do something else. I wanted more studies, I had been to Oklahoma A&M, Bradley, LSU etc., and I was fascinated and we always had encyclopedias at the house too, but no sooner than it was over I thought I was fortunate to get through all this stuff and I saw a number of guys that were hit. We had a fellow by the name of Garcia, I can’t remember his first name, but he drove a, he was a courier in a jeep and he was not very tall, but he would go from Chantilly to a number of towns along the boarder where the army was and their messages, they didn’t want to send anyway but by currier so, he would get into his jeep and he would scoot down and he had some metal stuff that he had put on the jeep on the side and he would drive that way. 33:55 Well, he ended up with a broken back. I remember they brought him back and he was hit by something on the jeep and was knocked off the highway and got a broken back so, they brought him back to, we were in Chantilly then, and they returned him to the states. Just a number of incidents like that and I’ve been keeping track of some of these things as I remember them, but it is unusual because some of these people who have written and to be honest with you, they have taken somebody else’s word without proof on that, they just want to sell some books and we have to address a recent situation, he wrote the WWII—it was on television—The War— Interviewer: “Ken Burns.” Ken Burns, and he had done this before and because of the communications we have now with the computer it is instant across the country you know, but he had written book where he did not recognize any countries that spoke Spanish. Jazz, some of the greatest jazz musicians, Latin America even today, that’s well known, and you have many of the black jazz musician and Latinos, he didn’t recognize them. He wrote about baseball and sports and he didn’t recognize any of the Hispanic players. Reggie Jackson, his middle name is Martinez, and today how many 14 �do we have in each one of the leagues and they have been around for a long time. When he wrote about the war, he didn’t recognize the Latinos and many won the Medal of Honor and by ethnic breakdown it’s the largest group. 35:41 That is one of the reasons when I saw what you were doing and not that I was going to mention it-- it is not recorded. Now you are doing it. Interviewer: “Yeah, there is a group at the University of Texas that have conducted a lot of these. They aren’t run by historians and there are some issues with the quality of what they are doing, but they at least have made a fairly substantial collection. That was available to Burns at the time, but he just didn’t know about it or think about it and that was pretty embarrassing when that happened because there was no good reason for it.” 36:17 In addition, he is doing it with tax money and I work for myself and you pay taxes, you want to see that money go to doing some good for us and not to eliminate people who have made a contribution fighting for this country, which is the highest thing that you can do. When people don’t want to go to war somebody has to and there comes a time I think when we have a Bush right now and anybody that wants to run for president better have a tremendous confidence in them, any political office, to want the job because you’re going to get people who you don’t do anything right. I remember when at Pearl Harbor they came over and attacked us and all we were asked in most of these cases we don’t stay there as the colonials did years ago. All we have asked is a small piece of ground to bury our dead in the National Cemeteries and they are there. The same thing for example when we had the towers bombed in New York, they came over for whatever reason, but within hours there wasn’t a plane in the sky. The president sent out—and he was not in Washington you know— 15 �Interviewer: “He was down in Florida.” Within hours every plane was on the ground so, this took a lot of support and a lot of determination to do it just like Truman coming to drop the atomic bomb. 37:41 If we stop to think what was going on in the South Pacific, all the people who were dying there and again because of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Somebody makes the decisions and they’re tough so, I have to say we have had some pretty darn good people as head of our government and when they are there they become what the demand are of the time and at that point. Like we talk about ken Burns, now he has additional funding to write some more, but he’s getting now caught because the people are writing to the sponsors. This is our system of government—free enterprise—fine you make money and you spend it on something, but you want your return on that. 38:26 Interviewer: “Let’s try turn it back here to your own story. Back at the time you spent in the army, how do you think that affected you as a person?” Oh my gosh, it’s—you’ve been recording for an hour and a half or two hours and it will take me about three hours to give you examples of the change. Interviewer: “Well then, give me one good one.” When I said I worked for myself, before I came out of high school I had two cars. I went to a private school, OK? I had no credit cards, but if I didn’t have $200.00 in my pocket to me it was almost like a mortal sin. In other words it gave me the freedom of buying things and I had people working for me, but I wasn’t the only one in my family. All six of us, boys and girls all have had their own business, but then to get exposed to the nation that was using by force to train to fight to the point of dropping the atomic bomb that is a tremendous dedication of a group of people, I don’t care who they are—short, tall, catholic, protestant, but it came and we joined together on that and we had the people who brought us together. When you take Roosevelt for 16 �one, Patton, Arnold who flew the first bombing mission in B25’s and taking off from a carrier to bomb Tokyo to let them know we’re hear and we’ll get back with you. All of these things are people who are unbelievable and you go through any of our city blocks and I would say you have twenty houses in a block or fifteen every on e of these people is possibly a different religion and somehow we get along. You go to countries where the religion is the same—even dictators where they have the same government, they can’t get along. So, what is it that we have here? Well, if you read the constitution it tells you a little bit about it. I take my hat, for example when you take the change; it is almost a change that I would say that I have gone through when Roosevelt died. 40:40 I was in Chantilly and I was on the Teletype and the message comes through in code. We have cryptographers right next to us and the guy comes over before he gives it to the war room and says, “look what came in, the president died”, for Roosevelt to die— he had brought this country out of a depression –during the depression, I worked for ten cents a week for two weeks. We were in very, very bad shape and all of a sudden Roosevelt died and he is the one that took us out of the Pearl Harbor and we’re winning the war—my first thought was that we lost the war, but we didn’t know of any other president—it was Roosevelt and the Democrats, we heard of Hoover—well he made a mistake and it was bad, but we didn’t hear— now who is going to follow up? 42:37 My gosh we saw a picture of the guy Truman and he’s coming out of Texas and he’s got a Stetson hat on and there was no big smile, no charm, Roosevelt was like Kennedy, they didn’t have to talk, they projected themselves and all of a sudden you see this guy who had not finished college, who had been in bankruptcy, Truman, and we had a war going on, this is not over and look at what he lived up to—the GI Bill, he did away with the racism and discrimination in the armed forces, he brought them together so, these are the changes that I see, but almost—I’m not even a part of it, it’s just too big on that and it’s still 17 �going on. I think one thing we should publicize is, any of these people who are thinking of invading us, Iraq or for a time it was Russia and let them know that just that part of the constitution that we had before the Supreme Court that we’re entitled to a gun so, they should think if they are going to invade America, every time they walk on our blocks, these people have guns in their houses, they don’t have to put an army together and they have done this since the colonial times. 42:58 Interviewer: “I remember Humphrey Bogart pointing that out in a movie during the Second World War. The Germans should be careful about going to—it was Casablanca— certain parts of New York you didn’t want to go. Well you have told a remarkable story here and I would just like to thank you for coming in and doing this. I’m still active in the community and the same with my children, I have three daughters and one is Margaret Vega, she is with Kendall, she’s a professor of art and our oldest, Sue, is a housewife and her son is graduating from the University of Hawaii, he got a scholarship there and our youngest one Liz, she use to be an anchor here at channel 8 so, I’m familiar with some of the work that you do, but she here and went to New York to get a station on it’s feet. She was constantly being offered private secretary jobs and she took one with Turner Television and I remember when she mentioned that I asked her what she was going to do and she said they wanted her to train some of their people when they appear on television before congress and the public etc. They wanted her to get more training so, she was sent to—she had a masters already out of Michigan State University, but she had worked at Aquinas and Michigan State and also in Rochester at the university there, so schooling was very big part. They sent her to Denver for some schooling there in finance and they sent her to England, Turner did, for economics and she starts going across the country, she’s married and has two children, her husband runs like our 18 �VanAndel Arena here, in Rochester New York, good tax payers. They started sending her across the country doing film and training people—Garner and some of the movie people making commercials, she’s in charge of that and the first thing you know she wants to make a change and is going to the west coast and I ask her where she is going to go from what she has now and she said she was going to Xerox because they were in trouble. They had offered her quite a job and she was leaving for Mexico in two weeks. They have a big mess down there and she had a whole staff to put together to straighten it out. Being able to communicate is great. She lives in Rochester and they closed the whole operation in Mexico and in the last year she has developed a system using the Xerox equipment they make and that she was recognized for by all the other companies—IBM and all of them, they gave her a big reception in Boston and from there she was given a big reception at the white house for this equipment. She just got back from England about a month ago putting the equipment in operation and right now she is in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore for the same thing. So that when I mention to you that I have been involved in a number of things, this is the younger generation and you have the hope of doing anything you want to do and if anybody tells you that you can’t do it say good by to them. 46:34 there are a lot of opportunities all the time. Interviewer: “I think that makes a good concluding point here. Thank you for coming on.” Thanks for the invitation and thanks for the work you’re doing. 46:44 19 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VegaF2 Title A name given to the resource Vega, Francisco M. (Interview transcript, video, and papers, 2 of 3), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vega, Francisco M. Description An account of the resource Francisco Vega was born in San Antonio, Texas. He tried to enlist in the military immediately after Pearl Harbor, but was initially rejected because of his Mexican ancestry. He eventually did enlist in the Army Air Corps, and began a long process in which he used his talents and persuasive skills to find increasingly interesting assignments, eventually training as a teletype operator with a signals unit that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and was eventually part of Eisenhower's headquarters. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) Video recordings United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army. Air Corps World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-03-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2b7bd488b441f8e32b720fa1c52a63ea.mp4 ba7f79b40553f1514f903db7b47f9124 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8123d0ea9da7f708700902295500123f.pdf d036dc4aac8352ff13a55cfcbcbef650 PDF Text Text Velez-Cruz, Miguel Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Vietnam War Interviewee’s Name: Miguel Velez-Cruz Length of Interview: (56:21) Interviewed by: Harry Vo Transcribed by: Lyndsay Curatolo Interviewer: “Hi. This is Harry Vo interviewing for the Veterans History Project. Here we have a veteran in the recording studio with us. Please introduce us with your name, your unit, your position in the Army, and what wars have you served in?” My name is Miguel Angel Velez-Cruz. I served in the United States Army. When I left the Army my rank was Specialist 5 E-5–– basically Sergeant. I was trained as a medical records clerk, at the beginning. When I served–– the only war that I ever served was in Vietnam. I was there from June ‘68 to June ‘69, and I had two different jobs; as a medical records clerk in a missile battalion, but then in a service battalion I worked in grave registration–– which was considered a service battalion in quartermasters for the first logistical command. Basically, after I left Vietnam I finished my military career in Germany. (1:26) Interviewer: “Please tell us about yourself. What are important things that we might like to know?” I was born in Puerto Rico in 1949. I was raised and developed in the 1950s and 1960s, and that was the worst part of the Cold War mentality and Puerto Ricans, as U.S. citizens–– Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States–– they gave us citizenship in order to be capable of drafting us to the Army for whatever wars. My grandparents were drafted for World War I, my biological father and his brothers were drafted for World War II, and my stepfather and his brother served in the Korean War because it was all based on age and the different generations in my family. I was surrounded by a family where men joined the service or didn’t object to being drafted to the service because Puerto Rico was a very, very poor place to be in those days. It was basically a third-world country within the jurisdiction of the United States. It was very poor, so joining the Army and getting a check every month instead of cutting sugar cane was a way out of extreme poverty. That was the experience in my family. (3:08). By the time I was 16/17 the war in Vietnam was already getting hot. In 1966/1967 I was already feeling the allure of the adventure of getting out of my hometown–– a small little town on a small island–– and I just wanted to leave and see the world, and I look at the Army as one way of doing it. Also, while I was in high �school–– you know, you’re starting to shape your political views and things–– I was exposed to the anti-communist propaganda of the 1960s. They told us all the time that the Russians are coming, the Chinese are eating babies, and communism is the worst thing in the world–– which I’ve always agreed that it’s a horrible political system, but it created a mentality in me that anything that the government was asking me to do in order to fight communism, it was okay because it was like a new “crusade,” you know, we were going to save the world. You never questioned what was happening and you never questioned if the government was telling you the truth or not because that was very important. It was unforgivable. Your country was always right, and that made me not [want] to wait. Instead of being drafted, I joined. I volunteered. (5:05). In December I talked to my mother–– I was an only child, something happened–– and I wanted to fly helicopters. That was the coolest thing in the 1960s, helicopters in combat. They were the latest and greatest machine. I didn’t know that they were very slow, very prone to dropping from the sky, very easy to shut down, but they didn’t show you that on the ads on TV to join the Army. They show those beautiful things moving at high speed and dropping soldiers and everybody wins the war. I wanted to be a helicopter pilot and I joined with the idea that I was going to go to helicopter school in Fort Rucker, Alabama, but my mother had other ideas. For whatever reasons my family had some political connections in Puerto Rico with the Commissioner in Washington. We don’t have a Congressman, we have something called a Commissioner. He doesn’t vote but he has about the same privileges that any other house member has, and he was a friend of my family’s. They managed, through him, to keep me away from something called combat arms. Combat arms in the Army are infantry, tanks–– anything that is shooting–– artillery. Anything that is shooting with something. So, they kept me away from that and being a helicopter pilot was considered dangerous and being an only child and all those reasons, my mother managed to keep me away from the helicopter pilot school. Suddenly I was sent to a clerk school and I asked, “Why? I had a contract. I was supposed to go to helicopter pilot school.” They say, “No, the class has already started. You’re going to go later.” Because in the Army you never got an answer for anything. You were told what to do and you did it and that’s it. So, I started my military training in what they call basic training–– what all soldiers do just in case because every soldier there has to be a rifleman, you have to know how to use a rifle–– and that’s what they do in basic training. That was done first in Fort Jackson and then in Fort Gordon, Georgia. Fort Jackson is in South Carolina. From there I went to Advanced Individual Training and they sent me to this clerk school and they made me a medical records clerk in Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. (8:10). Places that I’ve never been in my life because I only lived in New York City with my parents–– my stepfather and my mother–– for about three or four years when I was a child, between five and nine years old. That was my exposure to English, but they went back to Puerto Rico and the rest of my life I lived on the island with everything in Spanish. After Fort Leonard Wood, I received orders to go to Vietnam and I asked, “When am I going [to helicopter school]?” “Oh. Probably when the next class of helicopter school starts. They’ll pluck you out of Vietnam and send you to Fort Rucker.” “Okay.” So I went to Vietnam and the very first unit I went there [with] was a missile air defense unit. Something �called HAWK missiles. These systems were designed to shoot down aircraft in case North Vietnamese or Russian or Chinese aircraft would come down south–– which never ever happened in their ten years of involvement in Vietnam. There was never an aircraft coming from the North to the South. We sent thousands of aircraft from the South to the North. Our unit was there for a few years, but by the time–– I was there about six-months to eight-months in this unit, which was the first unit that I was headquartered in because it’s considered air defense artillery, the missiles [and] the rockets. Headquarter battery [and] I think it was 6th Battalion, 71st artillery and air defense. They decided to send that unit to Germany because there was no use for it in Vietnam, but anybody who was six-months or less in the country was going to stay in Vietnam. So what are [they] going to do with Mickey Velez? (10:30). I was the battalion aid station medical records clerk and I was learning things about what they do in aid stations, but suddenly they sent me to a place called the 38th Base Post Office because I was a clerk, I was not a shooter. That is the place where–– it was a huge room under a wooden building where they had 500,000 cards printed by computers, IBM computers. Before you guys–– you never heard of these because you were not even born when they already changed–– computers were programmed using cards. You would type code on a card, the computer would read the card, maybe like a zip drive, and you have to imagine it’s like a piece of paper with a bunch of holes, it would read that information. Every single soldier, airman, and sailor in the Vietnam area had a card like that. We controlled, that way, the movement of their mail. Packages sent from home, letters, and whatever. That unit was there for the exclusive reason of every time that somebody was wounded, got sick, or died in combat the parent unit–– the infantry unit or whatever, wherever–– would produce a piece of paper and that piece of paper would become another printed card. And I would receive one of those cards–– I would receive packages everyday–– [when] there were thousands of people getting sick or wounded in Vietnam every single day. (12:46). We were all divided by last names and I would take one, look in my files for the card of the individual that said, “Keep on sending the mail wherever he is,” and substitute it with one that said, “Search.” Search means we’re looking for you, but in reality that something happened to you. Sometimes it said, “Search KIA.” That was the very first time in my life that I heard that acronym because not even in training [did] we [hear] of that acronym. It means “Killed in action” and those we already knew that they were dead, so we started a process of holding their mail and all their packages, and making sure that it wasn’t any stuff–– because all of that stuff was going home–– but [seeing] if there were any pornographic magazines that he might get, photos that his wife was not supposed to see, we took them out. There was a unit that just cleansed all their belongings to make sure there were no drugs, nothing going back home that would make the family feel uncomfortable because that person instantly became a hero, and we had to protect [their] image. So that’s what was done there. (14:18). I spent about five months in that unit and the Captain of the unit called me and he said, “Velez-Cruz we need you for a special mission.” I was still going to be with the 38th BPO, but I was going to go TDY, which means temporary duty. You still belong to your unit, but they are lending you to a unit that needs your hands. “You’re going to go TDY to this unit.” It deals with casualties and making casualty �reports and dealing with casualties, so I thought it was going to be like a hospital but I didn’t know anything about grave registration–– which was the service unit. They’re called service units which also belong to the First Logistical Command that took care of all services in Vietnam for the guys in the field. Grave registration was, in reality, commanded by a quartermaster battalion. Quartermasters are the people who move things in the Army–– boxes of bullets, boxes of food, boxes of clothing, and boxes of people. When people die in the service, they are not patients anymore and they’re treated like a commodity, like a “thing.” And they’re moved around, I think, with respect. We were always very concerned about those–– we call them men, but they were all boys. I was 18, I wanted to be called a man not a boy, but now that I'm 71 I see them as children because they were 18/19 mostly. They moved them around as “things.” (16:52). We used forklifts because sometimes we had to put 10, 20, 50 in an aircraft because it was wholesale slaughter. In Vietnam there were weeks or months where there was a lot of activity happening, a lot of combat, or a lot of attacks or a lot of issues [of] why people would die. I knew people who committed suicide. I knew people who were so terrified of going to the field–– draftees–– that, for some crazy reason, they would harm themselves and sometimes they would die. Which is illogical because you’re afraid of going to the field because you’re afraid of being hurt, but then you hurt yourself with a rifle or a grenade and you end up dead. We received all kinds of people, even civilians, nurses, doctors, people who died in accidents. There were traffic accidents. People who were shot down in helicopters, you know, so we had to process all kinds of individuals that were exposed to harm. The first week that I was there, it was scary. I have seen bodies before, in Puerto Rico. Funerals would happen in the house if somebody died–– one of my uncles or grandpa, whatever–– the viewing, because we were Catholics, would happen in the house where that person lived. It usually was an older person–– we usually live with [our] son or daughter–– so it would happen in the house that they lived in. When my grandmother died, she was viewed in her living room. So, I was used to seeing dead bodies because they took me to–– in the Hispanic Catholic tradition they don’t keep you away from funerals–– they want you to see [and] be exposed to that probably because it’s a part of life. I had seen bodies, but never had I seen somebody exposed to what I call a “traumatic event.” (19:16). Like a traumatic amputation, when something is blown up away from you–– an arm, a leg, a head–– and we had to deal with that. When I saw the first nasty ones, I was apprehensive, you know. I’m doing my job but after a couple of weeks your brain becomes like–– you have some kind of processing system that allows you to get used to it. Somehow you protect yourself–– not going crazy–– of seeing such horror, and I kept doing my job. I was not an embalmer, you know, but I did have to help because the people who actually did work on the bodies were overwhelmed. We worked seven days a week, they just had enough crews to give us a break. Actually, they sent me there so people could take a break–– especially with the paperwork because we got to make sure we sent the body to the right place. We had to identify them properly and what I did is I made sure when we took all the clothes off, everything. Socks, shoes, everything. In the Army they teach you your belt, your pants, your shirt, your boots, every piece of uniform–– your hats–– every piece of uniform they give you, you write your name, rank, and serial number. We would look at these �things because the dog tags, sometimes they were there and sometimes they were not. A lot of guys threw them away in the field because they were afraid of the noise they make, they jingle, and if you want to be quiet at night and you’re moving in the middle of an operation, they would throw away their dog tags or put them in a pocket and then if something happens the dog tags are lost. (21:18). But, the medic in the unit would tie a–– usually in a hand or in a thumb–– a tag explaining that this is so-and-so, but I have to confirm that this is so-and-so so I start all the paperwork that’s required to file as a casualty report. The morticians sometimes would take fingerprints–– most of the time they did, unless it was very clear [like] they had their wallet with them and I saw the ID card and it was very easy. We would say, “Yeah. He’s him.” and it was clear. No facial injuries and the guy was not badly decomposed. But most of the time we got people that didn’t look nice. Their faces were contorted or wounded or a bullet hit them in the face and it makes a mess of it–– your bone structure gets all messed up. If it’s an explosive it’s even worse, so we did fingerprinting and I saw things that were crazy. ( There was a helicopter pilot that was burned, so we couldn't see anything and the skin was coming off of his hands. So one of the guys–– the morticians–– took the skin of the fingers off and put it in his own hand so he could take the fingerprints. Imagine that. You see that and you say, “That’s horrible,” but when you start seeing things like that everyday, you start saying, “Well, that’s it. That’s how it is” That was my experience in Vietnam until June ‘69. I spent like five months there, every single day, seeing dead people and helping shift them home. (23:32). They sent me back to the United States because I still had over a year left in the Army, and went back home for my life. When you left Vietnam they would give you a 30-day leave. I decided to get married to my girlfriend. We got married and when I went back to Texas–– for some reason they sent me back to that 71st artillery unit, the air defense unit–– in Fort Bliss, probably because it was in my record. When I arrived they told me, “You’re leaving for Germany.” So, they sent me to Germany with my wife and I ended my military career living in Stuttgart as a paymaster paying the troops because I was a clerk. I was not an airborne ranger or anything like that. And immediately I left the army with the GI Bill and I joined the University of Puerto Rico [where] I wanted to study medicine. My family was poor, I couldn’t go to med school but I managed to get a degree in Biochemistry with two majors. I was a pretty good student, did pretty well, and right after college I got a job in the pharmaceutical industry. First in a company that was making devices and then with Johnson and Johnson. I worked 27 years for them. That was my major job, working for the same company making all kinds of drugs. Prescription drugs, over-the-counter, different divisions, and I did all kinds of jobs. Even in engineering–– I’m not an engineer but they made me an engineer. [But] I had a very good career, a very busy career, and a joyful career. They gave me all the toys that I wanted every time there was a new project. So, my memory of the war during those days was basically if someone asked, “Are you a Vietnam vet?” I would say, “Yes. Sure.” “What did you do?” “I was a clerk.” But, I never talked to anybody about my experience in Vietnam. (26:05). There were very good memories of Vietnam because remember, they would give us a break–– once in a while–– and I would go to Saigon–– I was in Saigon–– [but] I would go around downtown. I remember I used to go to the same place always– �– they had a nice zoo on the outskirts of Saigon. My favorite place to go–– because I did it as much as I could–– there is an area at the outskirts of Saigon, like suburbia we call it today, which is called Cho Lon, which was the Chinese neighborhood of all the Chinese refugees that came from the nationalist groups in China. They went first to North Vietnam and then when North Vietnam was taken by the communists, they moved to Saigon. So, Cho Lon was the Chinese neighborhood and they had the very best restaurants. I was always looking at the girls, of course, like any other 18/19-year-old boy would do. I was trying to keep myself for my–– and I have to confess–– I was always trying to keep myself for my girlfriend. I was terrified of getting sick or anything like that. I worked in a medical unit so I knew what venereal diseases were, but I always found Vietnamese girls so delicate and so beautiful–– very thin. The–– I forgot the name of the dresses that they use–– (27:47). Interviewer: “Áo dài.” Exactly. Áo dài. I found that so elegant and so beautiful because the Vietnamese–– men and females–– they’re very thin. They’re usually very thin and elongated people, even their faces are. I found them attractive and I found their culture interesting because I was interested in them. [Like] “What am I doing here?” So, I needed to learn about them and I found Saigon a very beautiful, quasi-French town. Great bars and good music. That’s when I first got introduced to rock because I came from Puerto Rico and in 1968 it was not a big thing on the island. The music that we heard there was different. So those were the positive memories I had of Vietnam. Those were the ones that I talked about most. (28:56). I never mentioned to my wife or my family–– and I had five children–– I never ever mentioned to them my experience–– the nasty part of the war; the things that I saw and the things that I had to do. I lived my life, forgot about it until I retired when I was 60-years-old. I had a heart attack because of other conditions. I was exposed to a lot of junk–– like almost everybody was in Vietnam, agent orange and all that stuff. One of the components is dioxin, which is a horrible poison. They think it affected my heart because when I was in my 30s I started having problems with my heart. I retired when I got my heart attack. My wife said, “No. You worked enough.” I had done pretty well in the industry and by 62 I could have taken my pension as the fullest so why stay longer? Katherine, my wife, said, “You should retire” and she’s younger than me so [said] “I’ll work until I can retire.” We already had part of the kids in college–– the first three–– and everything was okay. Now I find–– with nothing else to do–– because I didn’t want to do work, I didn’t want to consult with friends who came to my house. I have the money I need, I wasn’t ambitious in that sense. I started trying to do some arts and crafts. Took up painting, took up writing, making little airplanes and little canons and things from kits. I became involved in the artsy part of my brain that I had never developed because I was a techie. Especially with painting–– I really got hooked onto that–– and drawing because I could never even draw a circle, so I took night classes for drawing and then for oil painting, and I’ve been doing that for the last seven/eight years. (31:27). But, when I was about 65 I started having these memories of the war–– nightmares. They first started as dreams �and then as nightmares. The typical nightmare was in my room, I’m sitting–– I have a little sitting area in our master bedroom–– and somebody comes through the door of my bedroom and it’s five, six, seven, eight kids. Some of them have uniforms–– torn uniforms–– some of them have hospital gowns, just how I received them in the mortuary and they start talking to me. I cannot remember a single name, but I remember the faces. I remember the faces like it was yesterday–– and I still remember the faces, and they’re talking to me, “Hey Mickey,” because everybody calls me Mickey–– my friends. In the Army also everybody knew that I was Mickey because that’s the nickname that my mother gave me. “Hey Mickey, why don’t you come with us? Come with us.” I interpreted that as–– I knew because those were the guys that were dead, that I processed–– I knew that they were on the other side of the fence, and I thought they were calling me to be with them. I started getting scared saying, “Am I going to do something to myself to go with those guys?” Because they [were] inviting me to go and play ball with them, you know, “Let’s play ball. Let’s do something together.” It got really, really scary and I couldn’t sleep because I was terrified of closing my eyes because if I went to sleep, they would come. (33:30). So I was becoming depressed and horrendously tired all of the time and I couldn’t do anything so I went to my doctor and he told me, “I think you might have PTSD.” I said, “But how come? It's been 50 years since the war.” They said, “Well we’re discovering that your brain keeps that stuff hidden because you’re busy, while you’re living a life and it protects you like that. Now that you’re retired, your brain is not as busy as it used to be, those file cabinets start opening and you start remembering things.” As a grandfather, the value I have for life and for harm to young men is very different than I had when I was there. We were all airborne chairs, you know, they used to call us “chairborne rangers,” but we all wanted to be looked at as men. Rough, tough guys even though we were all boys. But, that’s not how I saw myself then. That’s how I see them now. When I see those bodies, I see boys. I don’t see men, I see children and it got really, really bad. So, this physician recommended that I start doing psychotherapy and a psychiatrist. My private psychologist sent me to the VA and they diagnosed me at the VA again [and] confirmed that I have suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome–– I think it’s called. I’ve been in treatment for the last four or five years at the VA Hospital here in Philadelphia in their program for PTSD. I’ve been told that is forever. You cannot cure a memory. The horrors that I saw of dismembered bodies, beautiful people destroyed–– Vietnamese and Americans–– you cannot forget something like that. That’s why it’s called a trauma. (36:00). What I do is, every two-to-three weeks I talk to a psychologist and I keep an eye on myself using different techniques that they showed me on how to deal with that–– how to accept it, how to embrace it. Embrace those memories as a part of my service. There are, you know, some things that I don’t want to remember, but will always be there. There are some things of the service–– of the Army– – that I loved. I loved the camaraderie. I would have–– if it wasn’t because I went to college and I studied science–– I would have stayed in the Army because to me it was a nice career. It was a good thing to do, it was something noble. It was like being a priest or being a teacher. Being a soldier was something noble that was in my brain, because you did something that nobody else wanted to do–– but somebody had to do it. But, thank God I didn’t stay because I would have �gone again to Vietnam and who knows what would have happened. I might’ve ended up in that stupid helicopter school and might end up being dead because you don’t know what life keeps for you. After that I had a decent life and the only negative things about that is the memories of those five months. (37:50). Interviewer: “I guess the next question would be, what does war mean to you now?” Well, like I told you, as my brain was being formed as a teenager–– during the Cold War–– this anti-communist propaganda was pouring in high school, on TV, all of the time. So, I became a believer. I was brought up as a believer in this anti-communism doctrine that we had in the 1960s–– 50s and 60s. I always believed that every word that every word that came from my government was the truth. My government would never, ever lie–– especially a President or a Congressman. These were our leaders, these were decent people that we elected to take care of us. After the Vietnam War–- after the Fall of Saigon in ‘75–– a lot of books started coming out. I started reading about the origins of the conflict in Southeast Asia, including the French Indochina Wars. Street Without Joy, A Bright Shining Light, all the novels that came out. In the history book, The Pentagon Papers, that came out–– even though it was still going on in the latter part in the 1970s. Information started coming out that our government knew that we could never, ever win that conflict. (39:45). The objectives that the United States government had tried to achieve in Vietnam were unachievable, and they knew that early. Some people say by 1965, most of the people that died–– Americans–– that died in Vietnam died in 1968, 69, and the 70s–– tens of thousands. Even though Richard Nixon knew–– and Lyndon Johnson actually decided not to even run for President because he knew that he had made a mistake–– they kept sending people there, and they kept blowing the place up. It’s not only the people that we lost, you can’t imagine killing in such a short period of time over–– they think it’s between one and three million people who died in Southeast Asia because of our intervention there–– because we bombed the place to hell. Somebody would shoot a round and we would call in artillery and blow up a whole mountain–– because we had that power. Not only North Vietnamese and Viet Cong combatants were killed, but a lot of civilians died. By the end of the decade of the 1970s, I had lost all confidence in my government. I never thought that the government would ever be truthful again. I don’t believe that anything that comes from Washington is the truth. I lost faith. I do not lose faith in my country, because I don’t think that Washington is my country. I am one of those believers of “we the people” and you are “we the people.” I am one of those “we the people.” I still believe in my country, but I don’t trust any leader of any country of any part of the world because I think they lie. (42:06). Politicians have a tendency to believe more in themselves than in their own people, and they can send young boys to do lots of harm in places–– not because the United States is in danger–– but because their next political election might be in danger. They can send young boys to get hurt, and hurt themselves [but] because we are so powerful we hurt other people more than we get hurt ourselves–– by the thousands, by an exponential factor. So �that’s my wound–– the loss of that innocence. The loss of that belief in the people in Washington. I just–– I lost a lot. (43:02). Interviewer: “Is this something that you would go back in time and tell your 19-year-old self?” In 2000 there was the Gulf War. My oldest son, Michael–– he is Miguel Angel also–– he was of age and they were talking, “Oh my god, we’re going to have to put 500,000 people in the Middle East” for the first Gulf War. I [thought] they might start drafting because we don’t have enough people in the Army for that–– because they took every National Guard unit, they took every Reserve unit. I thought if they start drafting I’m going to send my boy to Spain. I have relatives and friends in Spain because my ancestry is Spanish, and I told my wife he will get on a plane, and I don’t care how much money I have to pay lawyers, but he’s not going to any military service for what I thought–– because now I [had] started digging into what politicians are doing that we now have to go to the Gulf War for: to protect oil interests. I question every single military action that the U.S. government gets involved with. I always question it now and that’s one of the lessons of that experience. (44:30). Interviewer: “Would you say that this part you had in the war, do you let it define you or do you move on from that?” It never goes away, so it does define you. Every experience that you have–– I’m talking now as a 72-year-old guy–– every experience that you have in life will define you. War or no war. Peace or no. It doesn’t matter. Every experience you have in life will define you. That made a big imprint because it was very traumatic, so it left a very big imprint in life. For example, I always wanted to work in the healthcare industry. I always wanted to–– I always wanted to be a physician. I couldn’t because you needed a lot of money to go to medical school, I come from a poor family, so the next best thing when I got an opportunity I stayed, and always enjoyed, working in the healthcare industry in medical devices. I was working in the development of kidney coils for dialysis, IV sets, and stuff like that. Then, in drugs that were helping people. So, that defined me. (45:53). When I saw so many people hurt I said, “I would like to do something better than hurt people or make money.” Even though I’m pretty smart, I could’ve been a banker or a salesman in a corporate system and probably made millions, I said, “I’ll make enough to raise a family.” And I did pretty well, but I wanted to always be in a place where I could help. I love the Army because of the sacrifice those boys make. Those men make a sacrifice for all of us and I love them and I always hope for the best for them because they do things to protect us. They’re there for us to be protected–– every country needs an army, unfortunately, in this modern world. I keep an eye on what the government uses their resources [for], because sometimes they might be used for–– it’s needed to get them involved–– but sometimes it’s just �for political bull, and I’m very concerned on how that precious resource is used. That could be a lesson learned from my experience. (47:22). Interviewer: “In your journey, defining your PTSD with your own psychologist, are there any important pieces or particular pieces that you would like to share with us?” Sharing. I never, ever told anybody about the bad things that I saw. I should have started talking about that when I was younger. It doesn’t mean that it would have gone away–– or maybe the PTSD would have manifested in a different way, because I’m not an expert in that field, I don't know–– but when I spend time with other veterans that take the same therapies that I take at the VA hospital here, the sharing of the experience, the talking about it, saying what you want to say about how you feel about it. There’s a group here in the VA that uses a concept called the modern moral injury process. That moral injury process–– first–– it parts from the premise that war is bad. Most people believe that–– even though men have been doing it for thousands of years, tens of thousands of years, we’ve been deprecating each other, you know, killing/doing harm to each other to take the woman, to take the land–– they say that our brain is not designed to be exposed to that kind of stuff. We don’t like it, it’s not good for you, it’s not good for your mental health. (49:30). It wasn’t good 2,000 years ago when you read about hermetic tales of The Iliad, The Odyssey. You feel the same stories that modern soldiers with PTSD tell you come from those stories in the past–– and those are thousands of years old. It looks like soldiers were condemned to that horrible nightmare of watching or seeing or doing things to other human beings that are not good for you. They are not good for your mental health, and you will suffer for it. The latest data says that it’s not good. Any kind of trauma that you see of harm to be done from one human being to another, it’s not good for your mental health. You’re not designed for that. That is something that through the moral injury group I learned, and that I have the right to demand from my government–– when they’re going to send young men to combat for whatever interest; to protect our country [or] whatever interests they are–– I have the right to demand of all the United States citizens to be involved in that process. In other words, with the war in Afghanistan and Iraq nobody cares, nobody knows. Everybody says they remember, [but] everybody says, “There’s a bunch of soldiers in a place, doing some things.” But they aren’t really involved. It doesn’t touch them because we have a volunteer army now–– nobody joins, you know. Very few people join. Less than a fraction of one percent are the families in America that are involved–– that are paying the price for the protection of all our interests. That is not right, in my perspective, because we’re harming all those boys by exposing them to those horrors because when they come back. (52:05). I’m telling you–– they are not supposed to be seeing people blowing up, babies being blown up, little children dying sometimes of their own weapons because you don’t know, in the middle of a mess, all kinds of stuff happens. Then when you come up, you come up with that baggage and nobody cares. Through the moral injury process I learned that everybody should care. It is our responsibility–– it’s not that we have to do it because we’re supposed to be nice, no–– it is our responsibility to care where we send those �boys, what they’re doing–– because they’re doing it for us. They’re not doing it for themselves, they’re doing it for us. [So] it’s our responsibility of what they do. When they come back it’s our responsibility to make sure that they have all the tools to process all that mess that’s in their brain. That’s another lesson to learn. (53:10). Interviewer: “Do you have any concluding pieces of––” I am Puerto Rican with a Latin background, like you know that from Latin America. I’m a romantic at heart–– even though I’m a techie. So, once in a while when I want to say something to myself or to my wife or to my children, I say it in writing and sometimes I say it in verse. I wrote something, because I can never remember their names, I can only remember their faces. I wrote something for these kids that visit me at night: “Old nights of soft, pale armor, Why are you so still and quiet? Do you come to me for companionship? Do you want me to play on your game? Your game is past. Stay on your side of the field. I feel your countenance. The way you stand reminds me of my resolute pose. I am fearful. Go to your house of fire. I want to touch you, I want to clean your wounds. Will you forgive my fear? Please stay on your side of the field. Your face is familiar But all your faces were the same. Young, soft, pale, Like children with no sun. Please stay on your side, I won’t forget you.” Interviewer: “Thank you, Mickey. I want to thank you for participating in the Veterans History Project. It’s really important that we capture your story and we have it just somewhere for future reference.” I’m sorry I got a little emotional there at the end. Interviewer: “You’re good. No, it’s perfect.” �Because it–– they were kids and we were all kids. Interviewer: “It’s important Mickey. It’s important. It’s very important.” Thank you, sir. (56:21). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Velez-CruzM2376V Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Velez-Cruz, Miguel A. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-06 Title A name given to the resource Velez-Cruz, Miguel (Interview transcript and video), 2021 Description An account of the resource Miguel “Mickey” Angel Velez-Cruz was born in Puerto Rico in 1949. Velez-Cruz was raised and developed during the Cold War periods of the 1950s and 1960s. Coming from a long line of United States veterans and the desire to get out of extreme poverty, Velez-Cruz volunteered to join the United States Army. Velez-Cruz began his career in basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina and eventually went to Fort Gordon in Georgia. Eventually, Mickey attended AIT and was made a medical records clerk in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. After a few months at that position, Velez-Cruz received orders for Vietnam and landed with a missile air defense unit. Quickly, that unit was ended and Velez-Cruz was sent to the 38th Base Post Office. After spending five months with the 38th BPO, Mickey received orders for temporary duty. This is when he was assigned to work in grave registration. He stayed with this position until June of ‘69 when he left Vietnam. After his discharge, Velez-Cruz was reassigned to go to Stuttgart, Germany where he worked as a paymaster. However, since he left the service with the GI Bill Velez-Cruz decided to go back to school. He attended the University of Puerto Rico where he received his degree in Biochemistry. From there, Velez-Cruz worked in medical devices and eventually landed a 27-year gig with Johnson and Johnson. Velez-Cruz wraps up his interview by discussing his experiences with PTSD and emphasizing the importance of military awareness for the United States. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Vo, Harry (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States—History, Military Veterans Video recordings Afghan War, 2001-2021—Personal narratives, American Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401. Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a58fff3926b7b2d4bf4d61cd3da6fc3.pdf 3dfbee9a91bee70d78f357a4bec39420 PDF Text Text Young Lords In Lincoln Park Interviewee: Estervina Jiménez Velez Interviewers: José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez Location: Grand Valley State University Special Collections Date: 6/23/2012 Biography and Description Although Estervina Jiménez has never lived in Chicago herself, her life has been deeply connected to the city. Born and raised in Barrio San Salvador of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Ms. Jiménez’s husband, Cordero, traveled back and forth to Chicago’s La Clark for work in the early 1950s. Many of her other family members did the same, starting and sustaining the social clubs, congregations, businesses, and other organizations that were at the core of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community. Ms. Jiménez also had several uncles migrate to Detroit during that same period in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Through her memories, it is clear that social clubs like the Hachas Viejas and other were a fundamental source of support for separated families in a strange land. These organizations also provided a way to cope with language and cultural challenges, segregated streets, and housing discrimination. Today, Ms. Jiménez volunteers in her church in San Salvador, the Catholic capilla. She delivers communion to the sick and visits and prays with them. She spends much time sitting on her porch with her husband, who is now in poor health, talking with the travelers who walk down the small path in front of her home. When someone dies in San Salvador, she makes herself available to assist in the traditional novena and helps to lead and to pray the rosary for the nine days. If there is an event or program she also helps out. In fact, she helps the priest whenever called upon and volunteers to daily to clean the church. Ms. Jiménez �is a resource for the residents of San Salvador, especially in the Morena and Lao Frío sections of Caguas. Ask anyone from San Salvador and they will also tell you that she is like the unofficial mayor. � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d13342eb1b9b5e319d3a5e823c05fae.mp4 0228b954b73837dd43bda5ad893fff0a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Young Lords in Lincoln Park Collection Subject The topic of the resource Young Lords (Organization) Puerto Ricans--United States Civil Rights--United States--History Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Personal narratives Social justice Community activists--Illinois--Chicago Description An account of the resource Collection of oral history interviews and digitized materials documenting the history of the Young Lords Organization in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Interviews were conducted by Young Lords' founder, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, and documents were digitized from Mr. Jiménez' archives. The Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection grows out of the ongoing struggle for fair housing, self-determination, and human rights that was launched by Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, founder of the Young Lords Movement. This project is dedicated to documenting the history of the displacement of Puerto Ricans, Mejicanos, other Latinos, and the poor from Lincoln Park, as well as the history of the Young Lords nationwide. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jiménez, José, 1948- Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection (RHC-65)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng spa Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-65 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 2012-2017 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Título Spanish language Title entry Estervina Jiménez Velez vídeo entrevista y biografía Sujetos Spanish language Subject terms Young Lords (Organización) Puertorriqueños--Estados Unidos Derechos civiles--Estados Unidos--Historia Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Puertorriqueños--Relatos personales Justicia social Activistas comunitarios--Illinois--Chicago Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park (RHC-65)</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-65_Velez_Estervina Title A name given to the resource Estervina Jiménez Velez video interview and biography Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Velez, Estervina Description An account of the resource Although Estervina Jiménez has never lived in Chicago herself, her life has been deeply connected to the city. Born and raised in Barrio San Salvador of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Ms. Jiménez’s husband, Cordero, traveled back and forth to Chicago’s La Clark for work in the early 1950s. Many of her other family members did the same, starting and sustaining the social clubs, congregations, businesses, and other organizations that were at the core of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community. Ms. Jiménez also had several uncles migrate to Detroit during that same period in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Through her memories, it is clear that social clubs like the Hachas Viejas and other were a fundamental source of support for separated families in a strange land. These organizations also provided a way to cope with language and cultural challenges, segregated streets, and housing discrimination. Today, Ms. Jiménez volunteers in her church in San Salvador, the Catholic capilla. She delivers communion to the sick and visits and prays with them. She spends much time sitting on her porch with her husband, who is now in poor health, talking with the travelers who walk down the small path in front of her home. When someone dies in San Salvador, she makes herself available to assist in the traditional novena and helps to lead and to pray the rosary for the nine days. If there is an event or program she also helps out. In fact, she helps the priest whenever called upon and volunteers to daily to clean the church. Ms. Jiménez is a resource for the residents of San Salvador, especially in the Morena and Lao Frío sections of Caguas. Ask anyone from San Salvador and they will also tell you that she is like the unofficial mayor. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jiménez, José, 1948- Subject The topic of the resource Young Lords (Organization) Puerto Ricans--United States Civil Rights--United States--History Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Spanish language--Personal narratives Social justice Community activists--Illinois--Chicago Language A language of the resource spa Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-06-23 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a5b2a2171a4d0527f56a7f5e38f2004b.mp4 216bcf791808b3451e1e740eb5e81460 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/82e7d22ebea4632b929d14e072980f94.pdf c5f1ffd0d48a739c8a19017cd77a706d PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Oral history interview transcript Erwin Veneklase Born: February 24,1920 WWII Veteran United States Army, 1939 to 1943 2nd Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd (Red Arrow) Division Transcribed: by Joan Raymer, May 29, 2007 Everyone Calls me Irv, so feel free to. Interviewer: “To begin, I want to know what your experience was in Grand Rapids before the war.” Before the war, I had a couple of jobs. I worked in the furniture factory and the idea of going into the service was pretty good because the money looked larger so going into the service would up the alley, so I went in. 1:50 Interviewer: “What would you say the atmosphere of Grand Rapids was before the war?” Before the war, Grand Rapids was a very knit community. You had sections of Grand Rapids that were Polish you were in one section. Lithuanians or Dutch it was pretty well segregated like that. Other than that, things were great. Interviewer: “So when the government called up troops what made you join?” I was in when they called us up. Why I joined? Just like any other young guys, I didn’t want to have my mother and dad tell me when to get in etc. I learned the hard way. I went into the service and I had some guy tell me when to get up and when to go to bed. 3:08 Interviewer: “What did your family think about your joining the military?” They didn’t have any feelings what so ever. I just went in and went down to Louisiana with the rest of them. It was just another experience, that’s all. Interviewer: “When you joined the 32nd, did you have any idea what the history of it was?” No, I had no idea. All I know is we met down there nights at Michigan Street at the old Armory and spend 2 hours down there and get paid for it. Interviewer: “What did you do in those 2 hours?” Oh, they would lecture or they would read books. Just kind of goof off for 2 hours really. Interviewer: “How did you feel when you found out there was a war happening or there was a war coming?” 1 �Do you want to rephrase that? 4:38 Interviewer: “How did you feel personally that there was a war and you are going to be called into service or going to fight?” See we were down in Louisiana when they hit the harbor, so we had already been in better than a year, so we were more or less expecting something. We were going in October and we were supposed to be released in October, but they didn’t and down there it was “over the hill in October”. Then they hit the harbor and after the harbor you expect anything and everything. They got us out to Frisco as best they could. 5:45 Interviewer: “So when Pearl Harbor was bombed, what were your first thoughts?” Go over there and kick the sh-- out of them. I mean go over there and do our job. Sorry, my language isn’t the best. Interviewer: “So explain please your daily routine in Australia, I mean in the boot camp in Louisiana.” Get up in the morning, make up your bunk, go through the line, get something to eat, go through the line again to get a jelly and peanut butter sandwich, get together and go out to the “boondocks”. There were a lot of swamps. 7:00 Interviewer: “What did you think about the peacetime maneuver, the fake army and the battle they had?” Well it’s just one of those things. Your following the lead that’s all, your part of the unit and you do what they tell you to do. Interviewer: “Do you feel that it helped you later on, that it helped you training?” Now that I’m older and think back, yes because first of all you got to know the guys you’re with and they become like family and secondly, you learn to take orders and follow orders. I guess that’s about it. 8:11 Interviewer: “Was that hard, learning how to take orders, or did that just come natural being in the military?” All I can tell you is, if you go into the service and they tell you to do something, you had better do it. Interviewer: “What was your first reaction when they told you that you were going to head to Ireland, which is where I believe your division was first heading, but they changed course and headed to the South Pacific?” Well, like I say, you wonder who is directing the show. “Lets get the show on the road and on the right track”. 9:00 You know this war is going on so why go through all the motions and then end up in Frisco to get out into the Pacific, but orders are orders and they aught to know what they are doing. Interviewer: “Did that upset your mindset at all? Your expecting to go into Europe and fight the Germans and it got changed.” No, it didn’t for me because I knew we were going over to do a job, but didn’t know where. After we got on the boat we realized we were going. 2 �Interviewer: “How was your first travel across the Pacific? I’m assuming it is your first time across the ocean. What was you experience like?” Going out of the harbor, was like riding an elevator and I was on the back deck and this was a luxury liner and it was just up and down. I don’t think there were too many guys that weren’t sick. It was a rough night, but hey, you get through it. Interviewer: “Did they pack you on there pretty good?” Well, they didn’t leave too many spots open, I’ll say that. Interviewer: “Did you have any particular experience with the King Neptune Ceremony going across the equator?” Not really. I can’t say I did, no. Interviewer: “What was you first impression of Australia? You came off the boat and what was the first thing that struck you?” They are very, very pleasant people and I always thought I would like to go back, but of course I never did. I never had the money to go back, but they are great people. 11:32 They had the highest respect for the U.S. In fact, at that time they were part of England and what they thought of England wasn’t to put in the books. Interviewer: “Did you feel like you were acting like a savior to the Australians?” No, they accepted us as part of them. They were very, very cordial. We couldn’t ask for better. The Australians had already sacrificed a lot, which we found out after being there. I was making more money in the service than a guy working in an ammo factory seven days a week. Back then, they had to pay such a large amount of money from their wages to England and of course since then it has changed. 12:46 They are on their own, but back then, that’s the way it was. Interviewer: “Did your relationship with the Australians change after you were in combat with them?” My relationship with the Australians, in combat, was nothing but the best. In fact, I probably learned more from the Australians about actual combat than the army ever taught me. I’ll never forget, we got into New Guinea and I was assigned to be behind the natives, the “Gooks”, the carriers and they gave me a Thompson and we had the big 50gallon drum and he said, “yank, why don’t you put a sign on your head?” He said, “It’s short burst and its rattle, rattle. It’s probably one of the first, the most important things I ever learned from them, the Australians. 14:13 They were tremendous fighters. Interviewer: “ Did you feel you had to work your way up to what they became? Did you look up to them as a roll model?” When I went on patrol under one of their leaders, yes. After we got up over the hump, up over the mountain, yes. It was very good. Their Sergeant was like our Captains and it was very, very, I mean he knew his job. If you ask, I will tell you later on and explain what I meant by that remark. After you lose a lot of guys, my job was changed so I was, from watching the natives carrying, after all your stuff runs out, plus the fact, the natives 3 �are only going to go so far, they’re not going into the real combat zone. 15:40 That’s when I was assigned to the headquarters and I had communications experience so Interviewer: “What was involved in being part of the Headquarter Company?” Making sure if we could possibly run lines to the forward lines of the lines company back so the battalion commander could have communications with the front lines. 16:25 It wasn’t always possible, but we did as much as we could. There again, I mean you guys are probably thinking about high frequency radios and that, we didn’t have them. While we were going up over the hump a plane come over and pushed it out the door and that was it. Do you have any idea how they found us? I’ll tell ya, we put a white panel on the ground and that’s what signaled where we were. Obviously it took the Japs about ten days until they realized the same signal. That was about the end of the natives. They got out of there. 17:30 Interviewer: “Now before you said that you learned a lot from the Australians. How did you feel about your overall training that the military gave you?” Like you said, you got a job to do and they tell you what to do and you do it. That’s about the way I can explain it. Obviously if you get into close combat, then it’s head to head. Sure you’re told to protect a certain portion, but it’s head to head. There again you got to remember that the Japanese were just like the people in Iraq right now, they sacrificed themselves. It was an honor for them to die for the country, so we had to be watching out for that. The Australians taught me that you don’t take prisoners because there is no place to keep them and if you did you’d have to feed them and we were getting hungry anyway. 19:02 That’s why these people right now are saying about the atrocities, well, they don’t know what war is like because you r whole feeling, I was brought up and raised Catholic and you don’t kill, but hey, when the first one whistles by your ear, the second one you don’t take a chance. 19:39 I mean this is the way it goes. In a split second, your whole instinct changes so you become a member of the group. The guys in the unit are like brothers. They fight for each other. Interviewer: “How important was that brotherhood?” Extremely important, because when one went down, you tried to get them back so they could be taken care of. The medics, they were with us, they were walking with us. The army is supposed to have the Red Cross, the Australian, you don’t do it, you don’t advertise what you are because you’re the first one their going to get. 21:12 Interviewer: “How did new recruits take to them? Did it take a while before you finally trusted them and before you considered them equals?” New recruits, you had to have enough members to be a combat unit, so when they draft, they took the draftees and put them in there. They had very little training really, so a lot of them, their experiences had to be the hard way. 22:03 Interviewer: “Now Mr. Veneklase, I want to go back a little bit and I want to understand what was your very first impression when you landed on Buna, landed on New Guinea?” 4 �It is the most useless feeling because you are on the landing craft and they drop that gate and you’re in water chest high, you have the gun over your head and your dead meat if somebody’s there because they have your chest and head to shoot at. 22:54 It was “get out of that water and take cover”. This is what happened. It’s an eerie feeling to be the target and not be able to shoot back. Interviewer: “Did you understand what your mission was when you landed or were you clueless as to what you were supposed to do?” If you study far enough, you find out the communications weren’t that great. Just like today, you got the problems in Washington and we had it the same way, the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was going to do. For us, we weren’t told what we were going to do or how or why. All we knew was to follow orders and the orders were to hit the trail and go up over the hump. 24:07 We were supposed to protect one side of Australia, so we had already been there and that’s what we did. Interviewer: “What was your most striking experience crossing the hump?” Striking experience, I guess being bombed and strafed. Like I said, the Japanese took that white sign and used it to their advantage and they did a pretty good job. Interviewer: “What was it like living day and night with an enemy so close and being bombed nightly?” They didn’t bomb during the night. They would bomb and strafe during the day. It was just take cover and hope and pray for the best. At night, well you don’t sleep. You rest, but you don’t sleep, because you’re always waiting to hear some noise or some movement because in the jungle there, when you take a position in the dark, you don’t move because one of your own guys could shoot you. 25:59 It’s just one of those things, you rest, but you don’t sleep, you don’t fight the mosquitoes and that. By that time you get so used to being bit by mosquitoes and things, so what. Sure you try to get comfortable, but it was impossible because you walk through the rivers and your boots are wet. You can’t take you boots off so about the only time they came off is when they rotted off. 26:46 There again, the supplies wasn’t there. Interviewer: “So what does it mean to sleep with one eye open?” Explain that if you can. Well, you get rest, but you can’t sleep. In other words your body rests, but you don’t get any sleep because of the fact that you know the enemy is out there and any movement is your just waiting to defend yourself. Interviewer: “What was the weather like?” Hot, rainy, we went through rain forests. You could almost set your watch by it. Rain, but there again you dry out. I remember that they dropped supplies to us because the guys going through, some of their pants were ripped etc. and the first drop they gave us was blue jeans. 28:39 Interviewer: “What did it feel like in the jungle? How did the jungle feel and smell?” 5 �After being down in Louisiana you got used to that kind of a smell. That kind of smell is a moldy type smell and I guess we got used to it in Louisiana. Interviewer: “What type of diseases and illness was there that you and everybody experienced in the South Pacific?” I can’t speak about everybody; I can only speak about myself. Malaria and dingy fever, jungle rot, now that I think about it, I must have laid about 5 days before being found. I picked up a worm that gives the natives big puffed bellies; well I picked up one of those worms. Nervousness, I still refuse to watch a war movie. 30:25 Taps still gives me chills. Interviewer: “You mentioned that you laid 5 days.” I had to and the reason I say that is because we cut the cable between Buna village and Buna Mission and Sergeant Botcher, who is trying to get his citizenship back, and by that time “stuttering Smith” was our battalion commander and if you would talk to him like you and I are talking now, he would stutter something fierce, but when he got mad, he didn’t stutter. You knew what he meant. I don’t know, I guess I can’t say too much. In my opinion, Botcher was the guy that did more for the 32nd division in New Guinea than any of the officers ever did because after that night he gave the orders and Botcher said “sir with your permission I’ll take my squad out on the beach. Were going to have a counter attack”, because he had gone through the war in Spain and this is where he got the experience. He was dead right. He wasn’t promoted from a Sergeant to a Captain I believe, but he deserved that plus. He was killed later on from what I understand. Interviewer: “What did it take to be a good leader in the situations you were in?” 33:14 To be a good leader? To have as much knowledge of the situation as possible and have a lot of “be dumb and go after em”. Like I said, before we captured Buna village and Buna Mission, I was sent on patrol with this Australian and I was one of the patrols and made a sharp right on the trail and he picked up a stick and threw it and they had machine guns right around the corner and had we tried to go around there we would have all been wiped out. I didn’t realize there was that much brass up there, Eicherberger came up there and he asked this Australian, “what’s the matter” and or course the Australian’s click there heels and throw the highball and he said “twin machine guns right around the bend sir”. Eicherberger said, “Get around there and wipe them out” and the Australian clicked his heels, threw another highball and said ‘yes sir, were right behind ya”. Eicherberger never said word one; he just turned and got out of there. 34:53 You asked me what I thought about the Australians, well, that’s what. Interviewer: “ What was your mind set of the Japanese before you went into combat?” They were just another person, but once you get into combat they’re an enemy and it’s either you or them and you make sure it’s them and not you. Like I said, they tied themselves in trees, snipers, in the jungle you try to move forward in a single line and they just picked out the guy they wanted and “bam” and they’d have him. Obviously they just gave their position away, so they just get hit and dangle like a tire from a tree. Just dangle. Sure they screamed and sure, if they had a squad they’d try to come forward with their hands up to try to surrender. You don’t take the enemy; I mean you can’t take 6 �a prisoner. This is what the Australians told me,” You let them go by and then you hit them in the back of the head with the but of a gun and then cut their throat, but be sure you cut it deep enough so they can’t scream”. 37:03 If it was today, they would say it’s atrocities. That’s part of combat, and never, never be taken a prisoner because the Japs were tremendous on torture before they killed you. They would try to get as much information as they could. Interviewer: “ Mr. Veneklase, what was your reaction when you saw the Japanese for the first time?” First time? The first Japanese I saw was, we landed at, it was at Townsby or something like that. We tried to stay away from Port Moresby because it was the base of the attack unit. 38:22 They tried to get us to skirt it on our way so we could support the Australians on their right hand side. The first Japanese I saw was there and they were, I’d rather not say what they were doing, but they had been down there and the Australians had them. 38:57 Interviewer: “What was your first experience with the Japanese in combat?” First experience, real experience is when Neal Tambor, who was from the north end, the two of us were supposed to be pulling up, making sure the natives didn’t run off with the supplies and to this day I can’t tell you how or why the natives could sense, they could sense a Japanese plane long before we could and when they started to run, you took cover. 39:58 Well, Neal and I were standing there and he dove one way and I dove the other and we found part of his foot. So it must have landed right between his legs. I took a little of the shrapnel and that was about the first real bad experience I had in combat. 40:25 To see somebody, just like you and I are sitting here talking and “pst “ he’s gone that’s all. He was from the north end and I was from the north end and we probably lived a mile apart, went to the same school. There’s a fine line between love and hate and about that time is when the line changes from love to hate. From then on it’s “get everyone of them people you can”. 41:29 Interviewer: “If you had to say, what was your greatest fear when you were out in the jungle?” “Was it the Japs themselves?” That and going upstairs to have the good lord pass judgment I guess. That was the biggest fear. You don’t think of, I guess, fear, you got a job to do and you find one and you hit em. You get em, that’s all. I remember we got closer to the village in Mission and they got set up a couple of cocoanut trees and dug a bunker behind it. Cocoanut trees, you could shoot a canon at them and I don’t think it would penetrate, anyway, this guy volunteered, we would give them all the fire we could and he was going to go up there an drop a couple of grenades, at least one grenade behind them and he did, we gave him all the fire power to keep their heads down. They just had enough room between the trees to shoot from. He went up, pulled the pin, threw it in the bunker and they picked it up and threw it back and it blew part of him away. He is laying there moaning and groaning and hollering for help. There is nothing you can do, if you stood up you would be dead meat. 43:46 That was another experience that I can recall very, very vividly. To this day I believe we had WWI ammunition because it was early and the fact that everything they had was going over to Europe. So all we were doing was a holding 7 �power really now that you think of it to keep the Japanese out of Australia. 44:24 If they ever got to Australia, God help us, I don’t think we would ever have stopped them, but that’s the way things go. Interviewer: “did your hatred for the enemy drive you?” Definitely. In fact, I would say that I was discharged from the hospital and got back to Grand Rapids, if I had run into a Jap in the street, I’d have cut his throat and I wouldn’t have even blinked an eye. 45:15 I would just cut his throat period. That’s how much you get to hate them. Sure, you mellow over time, but it takes time to mellow too. Some of the things you went through and saw, it’s absolutely hate. Interviewer: “How do you feel about the Japanese now that you’ve grown older?” How do I feel towards them? Their fine, their a human being and they should be treated as such. I have very strong thoughts about why we went over and kicked the “living hell out of them” and then turn around and buy all of their automobiles, but I’m not very happy about that, but that’s the way the country went so there is nothing I can do about it. 46:34 Interviewer: “You mentioned that you were Catholic. How much of a roll did your religion play?” Very, very, very much, in fact I had my knife and my rosary and that’s the two things I brought back with me. They didn’t want me to keep the knife I had, but it wasn’t listed as something the government had given me so they let me have it. Interviewer: “Did your view on your religious life change at all when you were in the heat of battle?” My view, I don’t know what you mean by my view of my religious life. Interviewer: “Let me re phrase that. Your personal religion, your catholic religion, did that change at all during battle?” If it did, it got greater because of the fact that you didn’t know if you were going to here today or tomorrow, so you trusted everything into the hands of the lord. There is no such thing as an atheist in combat. They can say what they want, but hey, when you get them down to the “nitty gritty “ they know somebody’s calling the shots so their ideas change. 48:50 Interviewer: “ Mr. Veneklase, I want to get back to Buna and the Kakoda Trail. What was the Kakoda Trail and can you describe what it was like?” It’s a dirt trail with stone that you could walk on. I mean it’s through the country, a way of getting from one point to another. It wasn’t direct; it went by the country’s side. Obviously you come through a valley, you walk through the river, and there were no bridges so you just hit from one to another and get through as fast as you can. It’s open water and a dead area if there is anybody there so you get through as fast as possible. 50:14 8 �Interviewer: “Supply factor was very crucial on the kakoda Trail. How did that affect you and moral and the army in general?” They couldn’t find us for three days to drop to us so and I don’t know why. They never told us, probably because the Japanese had come over and bombed Moresby, I don’t know. All I know is we went three days without supplies before they could drop to us. I’m sure that’s exactly the way that I picked up that worm, because we came through the village and it looked like a chicken, it’s head went off and raw chicken doesn’t taste that bad if your hungry, but I’m sure that’s the way I got that worm. In my own mind I’m sure of it. 51:42 Interviewer: “What were those 3 days like?” Have you ever gone without food for a day? Well, I would suggest that you try it sometime. You’ll appreciate a hamburger or a peanut butter sandwich. You’ll think you lived like a king. 52:20 Interviewer: “Did the experience you had during the great depression growing up, did that help you adjust to these circumstances?” It helped me because my father of course was very, very strict with us and at a meal he said, “It’s on your plate, you eat it”. He didn’t care if you liked it or not, if it was on your plate he didn’t care how long it took, but you ate it. My mother took hamburg, which was about all we could afford, and she could make a meal out of hamburg so many different ways and thank god that she could and I was in a big family. 53:21 Interviewer: “What was the food like in the army?” Better than nothing, but you get used to it. After all, the guys are cooks, but their not chefs so whatever they have, enjoy it. 54:00 Interviewer: “ I understand Mr. Veneklase that you were wounded in battle. Would you please describe that?” I got hit with shrapnel from that bomb that killed Neal or Bud Tambor. The medic pulled it out and put a patch on it and the following day, he was killed. When I got back to the hospital they said, I showed them the scar and they said that I would have to prove that it was from enemy fire. So how are you going to prove it when the two guys are dead? There is no way of proving it. At that point I said “well keep the damn medal”. 55:18 Interviewer: “Was that your ticket home?” No, no, the worm was, they couldn’t treat me overseas. They had to bring me back to the states and the treatment for it. They told me they got rid of it and a couple three years ago a doctor told me, “you still got it, they got it under control, but you still got it”, but I’m alive. That was the reason they had to bring me back. Back, stop to think, they didn’t have hospital ships back then. I came back on an old Dutch freighter. 56:17 They took me down to a hospital in Temple, Texas. Probably by this time it’s probably closed. Klosky General. 56:33 Interviewer: “Now did you, when you were away from your fellow comrades and being wounded, how does that feel?” 56:54 9 �I was conscious, but when they came over after they captured the Buna Village and Buna Mission, I must of got real close to one of them because I was out and when I came to the seaplane was there and they obviously wouldn’t have a seaplane in the bay there if the Japs were that close. 57:28 It had to be at least 5 days and when I came to, I was on the backboard and the guy said “how would you like a dry cigarette?” It was like a stick of gold. It was a guy from the Salvation Army. So you can figure out the time that was spent between the time they struck and the time that I came to I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how many, what happened or how long it took for sure. I only know is that they got me out of there. 58:07 Interviewer: “You mentioned, Mr. Veneklase, a cigarette. How much of a factor were cigarettes and even beer?” I never drank and I never smoked until I went in the service. My dad, like I say, was very strict and I played a lot of baseball so he was death on it. He asked, “Do you want to smoke or play ball?” I wouldn’t give up ball. You ask about his being strict, yes he, the kids in the neighborhood went to Berean Baptist Church and you got to remember this is back when you walked into a different church, it’s a no, no. Today it’s nothing, but I went up there and I got to go to their picnic and I came home with a brand new glove and a ball, a baseball, and I couldn’t wait to show my dad. Showed it to him. “Where did you get it”? Told him, he never said a word, just put his shoes on and said “come on were going back up to that requiem and give them back that ball and glove. That’s just like stealing it, it doesn’t belong to you”. That was probably one of the best lessons I ever learned. 00:29 Interviewer: “How was coming home after the war was over?” I was home long before the war was over. I got out in 1943 and the war ended in 1945. I was married in 1944. A lot of celebration and I had a wife and a son. We didn’t have a car; we didn’t have money for a car. :53 Wherever we went , we walked. There again, like I say, I could talk to you like a father, these kids today, your spoiled. Interviewer: “When was the first car you got?” 16. Interviewer: “Did your dad give it to you? You had to have some way of getting it”. No, I worked on a farm when I was younger. Generally speaking kids get cars today given to them. 1:37 Back then it was a luxury. 10 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VeneklaseE Title A name given to the resource Veneklase, Erwin T. (Interview transcript and video), 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Veneklase, Erwin T. Description An account of the resource Erwin Veneklase served in the 2nd Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd (Red Arrow) Division between 1939 and 1945. He enlisted in the National Guard in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and trained with his unit in Louisiana before beign shipped first to the East Coast and then back across country to Australia and New Guinea, where they were the first American troops to reinforce the Australians. His battalion crossed the Owen Stanley mountains on foot without adequate supplies or ligistical support, and then fought at Buna from Novl 1942 to Jan. 1943. He became seriously ill at the end of that campaign and was eventually shipped back to the U.S. His account is one of the interviews featured in the documentary Nightmare in New Guinea produced by Grand Valley State University. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Mingerink, Jon (Interviewer) Mingerink, Rick (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-11-04 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a0e21b46bfc46fc1777bb12c12268bf4.mp4 ab2a85c0fc26ed88a2adec684404ec96 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8809efaa112e8f002dd985ba6d3c5fcd.pdf 339897c07d5178ab03de1d1e449d443b PDF Text Text GVSU Veteran’s History Project Korean War Norman Vermerris Total Time: 27:54               (00:12) Birthday is February 22nd, 1931 (00:27) Worked in the Air Force; highest rank was a Staff Sergeant (00:43) Enlisted in Grand Rapids, Michigan with seven of his friends o They decided to join the Air Force (1:04) Korean War started in June of 1953 [1950] o Instead of being drafted into the Army, he and his friends wanted to join the Air Force o October or November when they enlisted o Physicals were in Lansing (1:44) January 7th, 1951 when they went into the service o Wet by train to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas (2:15) Most of the guys that were with him were from Michigan, but one was from Texas (2:27) After Basic Training, Mr. Vermerris was sent to Biloxi, Mississippi to go to Radio School o Afterwards, they had to choose between Airborne, Ground Radio, or be an instructor o He ended up in the Airborne, was pleased with this (3:07) Sent to an Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington o There was a C-124 Operation as well as a school for pilots and co-pilots o Flew over the Pacific and the Atlantic o They flew to most of the islands in the Pacific (5:10) They also flew over to the East Coast; made shuttles from Maine into Greenland, as well as Iceland (5:54) They helped move B-29 outfit from England to the United States o Strategic Air Force [Command] at the time; England also had cargo planes (6:52) They also flew to Alaska (7:00) Remembers flying from Greenland to the Washington Air Force Base – McCord (7:36) Also flew into Japan with cargo (7:47) Eventually in Tacoma they moved his outfit to Florida o After this was when he went overseas and was stationed in Japan o Flew from Japan to Korea o Was on a Troop Carrier; 6th Squadron Combat Cargo �               (9:40) Flew over food, ammunition, etc. (9:49) Originally was going to be a part of the combat crew for a year, but then a truce was signed in 1953 (10:18) Later, in the 315 group, there was a C-46 that was going to be flown back to the US o Mr. Vermerris was sent to Brady Air Force Base in the southern islands of Japan o Was going to put in extra tanks in the planes so they could go to the US o Eventually decided against this, so Mr. Vermerris couldn’t be rotated back to the US o Stayed until 1954 (12:15) Often flew from Pusan to places in Japan as well (13:03) Brady Air Force Base was on the coast of Japan, 7 feet above sea level (13:24) When he was still in a Japanese city, there was a Korea pilot who flew a plane into the base; deflected from North Korea; was given a large sum of money o He was also supposed to go to the United States o Airplane was flown to Okinawa o They later picked up the airplane o Eventually flew it to Dayton, Ohio (17:47) Once Mr. Vermerris was in Patterson Field, he hitchhiked home (20:18) While he was in school training, he also learned how to navigate (21:00) Mentioned that he used to meet one of the guys he signed up for the Air Force with o This friend was a photographer o Met most of the guys he signed up with in various places during the service (22:11) Was in the service from January of 1951 until December of 1954 (23:17) Remembers bringing POW’s from Korea into Japan (23:35) Mr. Vermerris worked mostly in supplies (23:44) He also went to Indochina and supplied the French with things o Also flew into the northern capitol of Vietnam (26:55) Remembers snow-steps in Greenland (27:37) Was in Japan when the [Korean] war officially ended � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context VermerrisN0890V Title A name given to the resource Vermerris, Norman (Interview outline and video), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vermerris, Norman Description An account of the resource Mr. Vermerris is from Michigan and was born on February 22nd, 1931. In 1951, he and some friends decided to join the Air Force instead of waiting to get drafted for Korea. He received his training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, and then to Biloxi, Mississippi to learn how to use a radio. He chose to be in the Airborne. His job in the service consisted of supplying troops in Japan, Korea, and he even traveled to Greenland and Iceland. He was in the Air Force for three years. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Otten, Tim (Interviewer) Wassenaar, Austin (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-02-17 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2fac85d3794714a89590a9b5f0076169.m4v c38412bd6a7461c0e26ab81e2c3c8f32 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/77aba69ebcf5f32a3dc9ee6536c5700e.pdf 6e362034acaf010e098797a89669fa53 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans’ History Project Robert Vickers Cold War; Post-Cold War 28 minutes 11 seconds *Note: Times in outline coincide with timecode on interview (01:23:25) Early Life -Born in Lexington, Kentucky, on September 25, 1944 -Lived in Kentucky until his entry into active duty (01:24:00) Active Duty & Becoming a Chaplain -Went on active duty in the Army in 1975 -Went on active duty as a chaplain -Commissioned as an officer in the combat engineers in 1965 -Had been in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Eastern Kentucky University -After a couple years in a reserve unit, he realized he was being called to the chaplaincy -Gt a seminary deferment for three years -Called on active duty in 1968 -Asked for branch transfer to chaplain’s school in the summer of 1969 -Transfer was granted and he was taken off active duty -Stayed in a reserve unit until 1973 -Southern Baptist Convention and Chief of Chaplains office wanted him to go on active duty -He wanted to go on active duty -Process lasted from 1973 to January 1975 -Looked forward to that duty -Obligation of eight years as a reservist, and he could have gotten out of the Army -Wanted to go on active duty and stay in the Army -Concerned he’d rush in and be disappointed -Talked with a World War II veteran chaplain about the chaplaincy -Told him to try it for three years -If he didn’t like it, he would get a guaranteed spot in a church (01:28:06) Stationed at Fort Carson -His first assignment was at Fort Carson, Colorado -Assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 77th Armored Regiment -Served as the battalion chaplain for a year -Stationed at Fort Carson for 15 months (01:28:39) Stationed in West Germany -Placed into the 76th Infantry Brigade and sent to Wiesbaden, West Germany -Old headquarters for United States Air Force command -Three units from Fort Carson were sent to West Germany -Deployed in March 1976 �-Originally a six month deployment on rotation -He was there for three months and told anyone wanted to stay in Germany could stay -More cost effective than the rotation system -Loved Germany and working with the troops -Decided to extend his tour in Germany -Family joined him -Worked on counselling as part of the alcohol and drug abuse program -Commander got him involved with that program -Felt like he was doing something useful (01:31:20) Advanced Course for Chaplains -Returned to the United States in June 1979 -Attended the Advanced Course for Chaplains at Fort Wadsworth, New York -Six months to complete that training (01:31:54) Stationed at Fort Devens -Sent to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, in January 1980 -Knew that the base was slated for closure (base eventually closed in 1996) -Stationed there for 2 ½ years -Selected for the Civilian Education Program after 1 ½ years at Fort Devens -Army wanted him to work in educational psychology -Left Fort Devens in May 1983 (01:32:57) Studying at Vanderbilt University & Working at Chaplain School -Went to Vanderbilt University and studied in the School of Education -Knew he would return to the Chaplain School to work in the Course & Development Division -Put together a strong course of instruction while at the Chaplain School -Challenging, but worthwhile -Integrating military education into chaplain education -Part of the Chaplain School faculty for four years (01:34:56) Stationed at Fort McPherson -Selected to be a staff officer for Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Georgia -Had about 5 ½ years of troop command experience -Stationed there for our years -Worked on programs as the training and readiness chaplain -Developing training conferences, mobilization conferences, and mobilization training -Went to National Training Center a number of times -Big transition period for the Army -Expanded expectation for chaplains -Worked as a chaplain and as a staff officer -Integral part of units -Difficult for some chaplains -Wanted to focus more on chaplain duties and not staff duties -Learned that chaplains didn’t get a pass just because they were chaplains -Attained the rank of lieutenant colonel while at Fort McPherson �(01:40:30) Stationed in South Korea -Deployed to South Korea and attached to the 2nd Infantry Division as the division chaplain -Stationed there from May 1991 to May 1992 -Separation assignment -Note: Meant that family couldn’t accompany soldiers on deployment -Most significant professional military experience and most personally gratifying experience -Fast-paced, and some of the best officers he worked with for extended period of time -Held chaplain and staff duties -Able to connect with officers during their personal crises -Even the best officers get stressed with their jobs and private lives -Needed counselling -Opened up to him (01:43:42) Stationed at Fort McClellan -Sent to Fort McClellan, Alabama -Made the training brigade chaplain -Slowdown in terms of promotions for officers -Six months as training brigade chaplain -Became the main post chaplain for two years -Completed a course with the Army War College via correspondence -Worked on the course at night -Sometimes worked through the night then worked as a chaplain during the day (01:45:58) Stationed at Fort Sam Houston & End of Service -Went to Fort Sam Houston, Texas -Assigned to the 5th Army’s chaplain office -Retired from the Army at Fort Sam Houston -Stationed there for 1 ½ years (01:46:37) Life after Service -Became an endorser for the Southern Baptist Convention -Allowed him to still be involved with the military in a civilian capacity -Worked with the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marines -Did that for a year -Also involved with prison and business chaplaincy -Had to quickly learn how to work in the chaplaincy outside of the military -Got help from other directors of chaplaincy -Did that for seven years and enjoyed it (01:48:10) Changes in the Army -During his active duty career, he experienced the Cold War and the mentality that went with it -Daunting -His unit in Germany was tasked with defending the Fulda Gap in the event of an attack -A Soviet invasion would have wiped out his entire unit -They would have served as more of a speed bump than as a full block -Mentality changed after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War -Army began to focus more on counterterrorism �-He was at Forces Command during the Gulf War -Aware of the multiple deployments used by Army and the effects on soldiers and chaplains < Tape ends before interview ends> � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_VickersR2074V Title A name given to the resource Vickers, Robert C (Interview outline and video), 2016 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-10-26 Description An account of the resource Robert Vickers was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on September 25. 1944. He was in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at Eastern Kentucky University and received a commission as an officer in the combat engineers of the Army in 1965. He decided to become a chaplain and attended seminary for three years, then went to the Chaplain School in 1969. He stayed in the Army Reserve until January 1975 when he went on active duty. His first assignment was at Fort Carson, Colorado, with the 1st Battalion of the 77th Armor Regiment, for 15 months. He was stationed in Wiesbaden, West Germany, with the 76th Infantry Brigade from March 1976 until June 1979. He studied at the Advanced Course for Chaplains at Fort Wadsworth, New York, then went to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, in January 1980. He left Fort Devens in May 1983 to study at Vanderbilt University then serve at the Chaplain School. He was stationed at Fort McPherson, Georgia for four years, then did a tour in South Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division. Robert's last two assignments were at Fort McClellan, Alabama, and at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he retired in 1996. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vickers, Robert C. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Keizer, Herman Jr. (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3ff5d477487b2996d06d1cdf89e52195.pdf 847443f96bb18873815928148a32a367 PDF Text Text COLDWATER, MICHIGAN �MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE A GUIDE FOR THE LONG-RANGE I I I I I I l t DEVELOPMENT OF COLDWATER, MICHIGAN PREPARED FOR THE COLDWATER PLANNING COMMISSION PREPARED BY VILICAN-LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. COMMUNITY PLANNING CONSULTANTS 29621 NORTHWESTERN HIGHWAY SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48034 ,. I, I_ ' I_ L DECEMBER, 1976 �r r r r r r r r r r r MAYOR CHARLES WOODWARD CITY COUNCIL RUBY LOEHR ALBERT NELSON ROBERT RUMSEY W. W. SMITH ROBERT SWANSON RICHARD ZELUFF JOHN COLE ALICE PUORRO PLANNING COMMISSION ALICE DONNEL, Chairman CHAR LES BACON SHERWOOD CRAIG FRED CULY ALBERT HIGH RICHARD MOORE MAR IL YN SEAMAN ROBERT SWANSON CHARLES WOODWARD r [ CITY MANAGER GODFREY COLLINS CITY CLERK [ , ' r r r r r MARCELYN LABELLE BUILDING COMMISSIONER RUDY KOVALES PLANNING CONSULTANT VI LI CAN- LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, I NC . �I ' I r I I l I_ t ,- TABLE OF CONTENTS . i . ii PREFACE FOREWORD INVENTORY EXISTING CONDITIONS . 1 EXISTING LAND USE . 1 OTHER LAND USE . . . 4 TOTAL LAND AREA .4 . .4 LAND USE PROBLEMS STRUCTURAL CONDITIONS HOUSING CONDITIONS FACTORS INFLUENCING BLIGHT PHYSICAL IMPROVEMENTS PROPOSALS .. . . POPULATION . . . . . . . POPU L ATION TRENDS . . POPULAT ION CHARACTERISTICS FUTURE POPULATION . . . .. t l I f I r I_ . 8 .9 .9 . 11 .11 .12 .14 RESIDENTIAL AREAS RECREATION AND COMMUNITY FACILITlES RESIDENTIAL AREAS RESIDENTIAL LOT SIZES . . . . . . . RESI DEN flA L AREAS PLAN ( . 6 .6 . . . . . RESIDENTIAL AREA LAND USE POLICIES .16 .16 .17 .19 . .. .. . .. ... . .20 .20 STANDARDS EXISTING RECREATION FACILITIES .21 .22 PARKS AND RECREATION PLAN .23 .26 .26 .26 .26 .27 .28 .28 .28 .29 RECREATION / CONCEPTS COMMUNITY FACI LIT! ES . . . . COMMUNITY FACILITIES PLAN City Hall . . . . . . . Public Safety Fac1lit1es Fire Station Location Library . . . . Publ ic Utilities Secondary Schools . Other Public Facilities �r r I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I COMMERCIAL BASE AND INDUSTRIAL AREAS PLAN COMMERCIAL BASE ANALYSIS FUNCTIONAL USE CLASSIFICATIONS CONSUMER DEMAND DETERMINANTS COMMERCIAL DEMAND PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS INDUSTRIAL AREAS . . . . . BACKGROUND FOR INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT SITES INDUSTRIAL AREAS PLAN . . . . . . . . . . THOROFARE PLAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT .30 .30 .31 .32 .34 .36 .36 .37 .39 . .42 LAND USE RELATIONSHIPS .43 THOROFARESTANDARDS .44 THOROFARE CAPACITIES .45 THOROFAREPLAN .48 THOROFARE CONCEPTS ENVIRONMEN TAL ASSESSMENT .52 THE VISUA L ENVIRONMENT .52 LAND USE TRANSITIONS . . .53 .54 LANDSCAPE TRANSITIONS . SUGGESTED PLANT MATERIALS H ISTORICAL PRESERVATION . MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE THE MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE .55 .58 .61 I I �f I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I FIGURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Existing Land Use Map . . . . Structural Cond iti ons Survey Map Neighborhood Unit Concept Residential Areas Plan Map Parks and Recreation Plan Map Cemetery Lake Park Site Concept South Lake Park Site Concepts A & B Proposed Elementary School - Neighborh ood Park Typical Section through Sauk River - Riverside Drive . . . . . . . . 2A 7A 16A 17A 23A 24A 24B,C 25A and Jaycee Park . . . . . Community Facilities Plan Map Primary Market Area Map Industrial District Concept Industrial Areas Plan Map . Thorofare Concept Residential Development on MaJor Thorofare Concepts Cross-Section Standards Local Street Types Thorofare Pian Map . . Convenience Center Intersection Scheme Transitional Details . . . . . . . Screening Details Greenbelt Planting Screen Illustrations Commercial Strip Development Concept Master Plan For Future Land Use Map . 25B _ 29A . 31A . 36A . 41A 42A . 43A . 45A . 50A . 51A . 53A . 54A . 54B . 56A . 57A . 62A �-I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I TABLES . 2 1 Existing Land Use 2 Population Trends . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3 Percent of Population By Selected Age Groups .12 4 Persons Per Household 1960 1970 .13 5 School Ch ildren Per Household .14 6 7 Population Projections . . . . . Development Capacit ies By Neighborhood Unit .15 8 Summary of Recreational Standards and Concepts .21 9 Average Sales Per Square Foot .32 Supportable Building Area .33 .34 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Potential Commercial Demand Estimated Commercial Land Area Needs Existing Industrial Zoning and Land Use Street Classification Criteria and Cross-Section Standards Theoretical Thorofare Capacities . . . . . . Street Traffic Counts and Theoretical Peak Hours .18 .35 .39 .45 .46 .47 II �I I I I I I I I I I I I- '- ~ ~ ~ ~ J: PREFACE �f l PREFACE r I I I I I I The Coldwater Master Plan for Future Land Use, contained herein, reflects a decision by City Officials to come to grips with their community's physical problems through the planning process. It is further the intent of the City to utilize the plan as a guideline for the proper and orderly development of the community of the future The plan sets forth the planning policies, guidelines and land use proposals for the long-range development and potential redevelopment of the City. This Master Plan for Future Land Use is the result of an orderly process of study by the Planning Commission over preceding years. During this time, a number of early technical memorandum reports, were prepared for review by the Planning Commission. The results of these memorandum reports are summarized in this document. City Officials should retain the memorandum reports for future reference. I I I 'I f f f I I -i- �r r FOREWORD In order to provide a sound basis for orderly, long-range community growth, possession of a practical Master Pian for Future Land Use 1s essential. Intelligent forethought, if exercised 1n the past, could have prevented or lessened current ( I I I I I I I I I I I I I I land use problems confronting most communities. American communities have generally grown in a haphazard manner, and this chaotic growth has tosterea a host of problem5. Today, no private corporation would consider bu ilding a plant or develop ing a shopping center without first assessing its needs, resources and potential It has just been w ithin the past few decades that communities have begun to recognize that they, too, should chart a course for the future w ith the goal of providing an environment which provides pleasant living cond 1t 1ons, outlets for recreation , adequate and efficient areas for industry and commerce, and a transµonat1on network coordinated to compliment this pattern . The purpose of the Master Plan fo r Fu t ure l and Use is to serve as a gwde for land use needs and development patterns 1n the area . It is based on an orderly process of survey, analysis and coordination The Master Plan for Future Land Use map contained in th is report, grapn ical ly portrays land use recommendations which are supported by the accompanying text With in the total Master Pian for Furure Land Use, the most important single element is the Master Plan map l.Jpon th is graphic summary, the location and extent of future residential, recreational, pub lic, commercial and industrial uses are ind icated Each of these areas reflects a coordination of numerous social, economic and physical relationships necessary 1n fulfilling current and future needs of a truly desirable and organized community The Master Plan for Future Land Use shou ld thus serve as a gu ide for both public and private deve lopment Two legal instruments, the Zoning Ordinance and Subd iv1s1on Regu lations, are 1mpo1tant tools for implementing the plan . Zoning regulates the use of land w th in the commun ity and 1s based upon the philosophy that the common good of the community is vitally important and must be the criteria used for plann ing decisions In add ,t 1on to land use, zon ing also controls the height and bulk of build ings and l1m 1ts the number of dwellings which may be -ii- �r [ [ · built on an acre of land . This prevents overcrowding, provides for adequate light and air, and generally insures conformity to a minimum standard of livability. Without such controls, it would be virtually impossible to estimate population I I I I I I I I I potential and future facility needs. T he second major legal tool for effectuating the plan is Subdivision Regulations. These regulations govern the character of new development by subjecting it to careful scrutiny by the community . In addition to complying with the Zoning Ordinance, proposed subdivisions should meet minimum standards in regard to the provision of utilities, streets, sidewalks and contemporary design standards. These regulations are intended to protect the purchaser, the developer, and the local governmental unit by guaranteeing proper development w ithin the framework of the Master Plan . The ability of a competent plan to materialize as envisioned cannot be assured however, even with the aforemented legal instruments, unless there is widespread understanding and support of the pianning officials, intangible factor may well be the key one . Hence, it is essential that planning be considered a continuing process, with proposed development referred to the Planning Commission to insure conformance with the City's long-range goals. It is, however, vitally important that the plan be recognized as a flexible instrument, subject to changing conditions and unforeseen technological and social changes which may occur. In order to obtain optimum effectiveness in the planning program, it is, therefore, essential that the plan be periodically reviewed and re-evaluated. I I I I I I I process by elected department heads, and the community in general . In the last analysis, this -iii- �I I I I I I I I I I I I ~ ~ I ~ r INVENTORY �I r r I I I I I I I I EXISTING CONDITIONS The preparation of the Coldwater Master Plan for Future Land Use w as influenced in part by the critical "fixes" in the community. That is, those natural and man-made features which presently exist. An inventory of the existing conditions in Coldwater established the basic framework upon which the Master Plan was developed . EXISTING LAND USE Knowledge of the extent of existing land use in the community provides the key to better understanding the present relationships between various land uses. This knowledge, in detail form, also reveals predominate land use in the community as well as desirable and undesirable conditions . An accurate up-to-date land use study provides the basic input upon which decisions can be made concerning allocation of residential , commercial, industrial and public land uses. Ten basic categories were used for the classification of existing land use in Coldwater. The land use survey was concluded and documented in September 1974. TABLE 1, which follows, depicts these categories and their respective acreages. In 1974, the City of Coldwater contained a gross land area of 3,857 acres, or about 6.0 square miles of land within its corporate limits. I I I I J r I -1- �I I I I I I I I I I I I J TABLE 1 EXISTING LAND USE CITY OF COLDWATER Use Acres Percent of Total Percent of Developed 19.6 1.0 0.4 2.7 9.4 35.6 1.8 0.7 5.0 17 .1 119.6 81 .2 167.9 43 .5 3.1 2.1 4.4 1.1 5.6 3.8 7.9 2.1 402 .0 30 .7 10.4 0 .8 18.9 1.5 Total Developed Vacant Land Waterways 2,123.5 1,572 _3(2) 161 .2 55.0 40.8 4.2 100.0 Total Undeveloped City Total 1,733.5 3,857.0 755.3 38.4 15.5 105_7(1) 363.8 One & Two Fam ily Residential Multiple Fam ily Residential Office Commercial Industrial Public School Park Other Public Quasi-Public Rights-of-way Streets Railroad 45.0 100.0 (1) Includes 7.7 acres of publicly owned off-street parking which primarily serves commercial uses. (2) Includes 204 .9 acres owned by the State of Michigan Training School and 87.4 acres reserved for future parks. l I J J r J The spatial arrangement of land uses is shown on the Existing Land Use map which accompanies TAB LE 1. Total developed land area amounted to 2,124 acres, or about 55 percent of the total land area of the City . A general summary of the various categories follows: -2- �/ h't't:I SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (!) SCATTERED MOBILE HOMES Gl!liffl TWO FAMILY RESIDENTIAL [:;:;::::::j MULTIPLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL D:] MOBILE lt:t~tl OFFICE - COMMERCIAL HOME PARK ~ INDUSTRIAL ~ P U B LI C P PARKING QUASI -PUBLIC SCHOOL IE ELEMENTARY, J JUNIOR HIGH,S SENIOR HIGH) PARK BRANCH VACANT COUNTY AIRPORJ' 1000 000 1500 SCALE 1N FEET SEPTEMBER 1 19 74 EXISTING LAND USEI CITY OF COLDWATER MICHIGAN vilican · lemon community a assoc i ates inc . planning consullonts �I I I Residential land occupied about 794 acres or nearly 21 percent of the gross land area of the City . This represents the largest developed land use within the City of Coldwater. Residential land use comprises approximately 32 percent of t_he City's developed land . 'I I I I I I I I ,. l ' 'I I A further refining of this classification finds single-family dwellings make up over 90 percent of the residentially oriented land in the City. The balance of the residential lands are comprised almost completely of multiple-family dwellings. Commercial land in Coldwater accounted for nearly 106 acres of land or about five percent of the developed land in the City Commercial acres do not include offices which comprises just under 16 acres of land in the City Together these two uses occupy only about three percent of the total land area of the City. The largest concentrations of commercial land use in the City of Coldwater is contained within the Central Business District and to a lesser extent along North Marshall Avenue and near the City's east end along Chicago Street. Industrial land use in Coldwater accounts for just over 17 percent of the developed land area of the City and over nine percent of the City's total land area. Of the nearly 364 acres of land devoted to industrial use in Coldwater, most of it consists of light industrial land use. Nearly all of the industry in the City is located in the southwest and south central part of the City . However, a maJor new area of industrial land use is developing in the southeast part of the City . Public and Quasi-Public lands together comprise about 412 acres of land in Coldwater. This amounts to just over 19 percent of the developed land area of the City. These types of land use comprise the third largest land use type in the City. Of the two land use types, land occupied by public uses, such as city and county governmental facilities, public schools and parks, makes up a great majority of the land area of the total category . For instance, public school land comprises nearly six percent of the City's developed land Rights-of-Way in Coldwater includes public streets, alleys and railroads. Nearly 21 percent of the total developed land in Coldwater is composed of rights-of-way. Rights-of-way in the City contain about 433 acres or over 11 percent of the total land area in Coldwater. The greater portion of this use is contained in streets and -3- �I f I I alleys which totals 402 acres or over 90 percent of the category. The remaining 31 acres, exists as rights-of-way of the Penn Central Railroad and its spurs. OTHER DEVELOPED LAND USE Two other basic land use categories are depicted in TABLE 1. These include va:ant undeveloped lands ' ' ' ' ' '• - - and water courses. Vacant land within the City comprises about 1,572 acres which accounts for near ly 41 percent of Coldwater's total land area. Water courses in Coldwater includes portions of three lakes and the Sauk River . These combined water courses occupy approximately 161 acres of land which represents about four percent of the City's total land area. TOTAL LAND AREA Of Coldwater's total 3,857 acres of land over 2, 123.5 acres, or 55.0 percent, stand developed in a variety of land uses. However, of particular significance is the fact that almost 40 percent of the developed land in Coldwater contains nontax revenue producing uses. These uses include: schoo ls, parks, rights-of-way, public and quasi-public uses. LAND USE PROBLEMS At the time the field survey of existing land use was being carried out in Coldwater, notice was also being taken of significant land use problems or problem areas that were recognized in the City . The following is a brief recognition and discussion of the more significant problems that exist in the City of Coldwater: Mixed Land Uses: These patterns occur where one land use category is permitted to intrude into neighboring properties. Such intrusions can have a detrimental effect on adjacent properties. For instance, commercial and industrial uses in residential districts effectively diminish the residential · integrity of the area . By the same token, scattered residential concentrations within areas or iented to nonresidential nonresidential growth and development. -4- uses, can retard continued �I I I I I I I I I I I Incompatible Land Use: Incompatibility between land use types occurs when poor relationships between residential and nonresidential land use is created . Nonresidential uses fronting directly across a street into residential uses is an example of poor land use relationship. Land Locked Parcels: Poor land platting practices in the past have created sizable parcels of land within block interiors which have become virtually unusable. Their size, shape and lack of access often negates development of these parcels, robbing the City of potential tax revenue and creating maintenance problems. Traffic Hazards: Include multiple street intersections, improper alignment of intersecting streets, acute angle intersections, and intersections at grade level railroad crossings. 'I I I I I I • -5- �f I I STRUCTURAL CONDITIONS The problem of physical deterioration 1s one that confronts all aging commun ities . Communities of all sizes find themselves with areas that conta in obsolete and deteriorating structures. These areas are often visual and social burdens on the City as well as financial burdens. Areas that are deteriorated or dilapidated generally require more public services than they return to the City in ta x revenue. In order to determine, evaluate and assess the extent of physical blight in the community, a field survey of housing conditions was undertaken. During the course of the field survey other environmental factors were taken into consideration. These factors included among others, street conditions, lack oi· public utilities and incompatible land use mixes. I I I I J I Once these problem areas were evaluated and their particular problems analyzed, potential corrective remedies could be advanced. HOUSING CONDITIONS The survey, conducted in the field, examined each block in the City. Each structure was assigned to one of five structural categories. These categories related to the general quality of the structure which, in turn, related to the ultimate categorization of all areas in the City . These areas, based on the major impact of individual structures within them, were rated either: Sound: (Stable Areas) contain substantial masonry or wood structures not older than 25 years in age and having excellent maintenance. Sound: (Scattered Deficiencies) Substantial masonry or wood sided I, structures of adequate construction and size, but older in age . Some I I I Minor Deterioration: Older fairly substantial structures in areas that have I t obso lescence but continued maintenance. some scattered structures with numerous deficiencies. However, the majority of the structures can be economically rehabilitated . -6- �I I I I I I f ' ' ' '• • I Major Deterioration: Less substantial structures of older age with fair to poor maintenance. These areas contain a larger number of scattered dilapidated structures. Predominately Substandard: Poor substandard structures with serious deterioration of several structural components with little or no maintenance of structure or yard. Many will require major or total clearance and redevelopment The Structural Conditions Survey map on the accompanying page shows that four of the five areas classified on the map, are fairly evenly distributed throughout the City in terms of land area involved . The greatest concentrations of sound or stable structures are found 1n those areas of the City that contain newer residential and industrial structures Structures found to be sound with scattered deficiencies extends along Chicago Street, through the Central Business District, eastward to beyond the 1-69 interchange. The area also extends northward along Marshall Street as well. Surprisingly, this area forms the inner City, which most often is an area of greater structural deterioration. However, these areas contain many older structures of significant architecture, and are being well maintained . Lying between the areas of sound structures and those with scattered deficiencies is a band of structures which are found to be in a state of minor deterioration. Practically all of these type of structures lie north of Chicago Street. Below Chicago Street, in the south portion of the City, is found the most extensive concentration of structures in both a major state of deterioration and predominately substandard . Two additional areas of structures found to be in a major state of deterioration lie in the east central portion of the City north of Chicago Street and in the west central area of Coldwater, along Chicago Street. Two areas are shown on the map as areas containing predominately substandard structures. These include the Park Street corridor area and the area near Cemetery Lake. The latter area, however, has received major upgrading in the form of new public utilities and street improvements . -7- �SOUND t:;:;:;:;:;:J SOUNO·SCATTERED DEFICIENCIES ~ MINOR DETERIORATION ml MAJOR DETERIORATION - PREDOMINANTLY SUBSTANDARD AIRPORT SCAL£ 1N FEET $fl"T(li11Ut , 1,7• SURVEYI STRUCTURAL CONDITIONS CITY OF COLDWATER MICHIGAN 'lilicon · lemon a associates Inc. community plonnino consultants �Though this section has pointed out structural problem areas as they are found to exist in Coldwater, it cannot assign specific correctional procedures to each problem area individually . Such solutions, while recommended, will require a good deal more detailed analysis of each area than can be contained within the scope and range of this document. There are, at this time, however, two basic programs available to communities in their efforts to eliminate and prevent blight and blighting conditions. These programs include: Community Development Programs. Systematic Code Enforcement Programs . The City of Coldwater is involved in both . FACTORS INFLUENCING BLIGHT Not only does the quality of structures within a community determine its livabi lity , but the socioeconomic factors of the community influences these qualities as well. In some cases, one factor may be dominant, but generally a combination of factors must be recognized as potential causes of blight. Such factors which influence blight and generally are found to exist in communities can include: Inadequate building maintenance. Mixed structural uses. Incompatible land uses. Inadequate neighborhood faci Iities. Traffic and parking problems. Social and psychological factors . Inadequate codes and enforcement. Economic factors . -8- �PHYSICAL IMPROVEMENTS The general physical condition of a number of structures in the City have been improved since a neighborhood analysis was completed in 1968. The Coldwater Central Business District, for instance, has been significantly improved through a renewal project. Structures in the vicinity of Jefferson and Lincoln School, have been improved w ith the advent of street improvements and public utilities. Individual home improvements appear to have been spurred by municipal improvements. All such actions serve to improve the overall physical condition of Coldwater, its appearance and total building inventory . Yet, the City is still confronted by areas which exhibit major structural deterioration . PROPOSALS Stud ies have shown that persons living in the poorest quality housing are those with the lowest income. As a result, the housing that should be replaced or substantially improved is usually the housing occupied by those least able to afford improvements or a better dwelling unit without some manner of subsidy. others living in such conditions may be elderly persons on fixed incomes There are, however, various types of programs for low or moderate income families, such as housing for the elderly and handicapped and rent supplement programs available to the community through state and federal agencies. Any one or combination of these programs could greatly reduce existing housing problems in Coldwater. The City has already availed itself of some former federal programs and has applied for consideration for federal assistance funding under the Community Development Program. In order to prevent future blight in currently sound housing areas, and to promote the removal of blighting conditions in those areas of Coldwater presently affected, the City has set forth to : Identify in quantitative terms, the number of ill housed citizens in the City and the number of standard housing that is or could be made available . Establish goals and objectives. -9- �= I • •I • '• I • • •II Determine needs. Adopt programs for the replacement of substandard housing in the City . All of the above proposals have been carried out and are contained in the City's Application for Community Block Grant Funds. Upon approval of the application and receipt of the funds, the City will need only to implement the above objectives, to carry out the program . J II ' 'I -10- �POPULATION The analysis of past and present population trends is a fundamentally important element in the planning process. The information derived from an analysis of population can be used to estimate future population levels and significant trends which may have a bearing on the facilities and services to be planned. POPULATION TRENDS The history of population trends reveals much about the character of an area and is a valuable aid in projecting population growth. TABLE 2 depicts the history of population growth for Coldwater, Coldwater Township and Branch County since 1940. TABLE 2 POPULATION TRENDS: 1940-1970 COLDWATER, COLDWATER TOWNSHIP AND BRANCH COUNTY Year Coldwater( 1} 1940 · 7,343 1950 8,594 1960 8,880 Percent Coldwater( 1) Change Township 1,406 17.0% 119.1% 16.9% 62.1% 15.6% 34,903 15.3% 5,785 Percent Change 30,202 5,016 3.1% 9,155 Branch(1) County 25,845 3,081 3.3% 1970 Percent Change 8.6% 37,906 SOURCE: 1970 U.S. Bureau of the Census ( 1lincludes population of State Training School The City of Coldwater showed a significant decrease in its rate of growth between 1950 and 1970, but appears to have stabi Iized during the last two decades. -11- �~ •II II II • • • • • • ',. - The City's population as a percent of the County's has continued to decrease through the last decade, while the Township continues to increase its share of the County's total population . In effect, the population of Coldwater has continued to grow at a moderate rate over the last two decades, while Coldwater Township has grown rapidly . The two units of government combined, makes up a major part of the County's total population. POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS Future facility needs can, for the most part, be determined by an analysis of the age composition of the City's population . Each age group has significance in terms of both economic and social factors. For comparison purposes, data in TAB LE 3 records the percent each age group comprises of the total City population in 1960 and 1970 . TABLE 3 PERCENT OF POPULATION BY SELECTED AGE GROUPS: 1960-1970 Age Group Percent of Population 1960 Preschool Age -5 School Age Elementary 5 - 14 Secondary 15 - 19 Total School Age 5 - 19 Labor Force Family Forming 20- 44 Mature Family 45- 64 Total Labor Force 20- 64 Retirement Age 65+ Percent of Population 1970 11.4% 8.7% 202% 20.8% 6.8% 8 .8% 27 .0% 29.6% 29.4% 29.2% 19.0% 20.1% 48.4% 49.3% 13.2% 10.3% 100.0% 100.0% SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census 1960 and 1970 -12- �The percent of population in the preschool age has declined significantly since 1960. This trend, however, is similar to that of the nation. School age children, in all three categories, experienced an increase in their percent share of the City's total population. The same holds true for the total labor force age group as well, though the family forming category experienced a slight decline. The retirement age group, however, experienced a substantial decline which is somewhat unique in the face of a national trend towards a maturing population. This age group becomes even more unique in light of the fact that the median age of the City's population of 28.9 years is higher than the Township, Branch County and the State which are 24.7, 27.8 and 26.3 years, respectively. The number of persons per household, which is shown in TABLE 4, compares household ratios for the City, with the Township, Branch County and the State. TABLE 4 PERSONS PER HOUSEHOLD: 1960-1970 COLDWATER, COLDWATER TOWNSHIP, BRANCH COUNTY AND MICHIGAN Coldwater Coldwater Township Branch County State of Michigan 1960 1970 3.04 3.14 3.23 3.42 2.92 3.27 3.13 3.27 The older median age is again reflected in a smaller average family size in Coldwater. In contrast, the Township showed an increased family size which is characteristic of its younger population . The trend towards smaller average family size, is once again, typical of the national trend towards fewer family members. Data cconcerning the number of school age children per household is useful as an indicator of future growth trends and for determining residential areas and elementary school capacities. For the purposes of land use planning in Coldwater, the characteristics of school age population 1s expressed as a ratio of kindergarten through sixth grade ( K-6) pupils per fam1 ly TAB LE 5 depicts the respective number of elementary school age children per househo Id for the City . -13- �TABLE 5 SCHOOLCHILDREN PER HOUSEHOLD Total Households School Age Children Children Per Household 3,083 1,326 .43 Once again, the ratio reflects a maturing population in Coldwater which produces fewer school age children per household than either Branch County or the State, whose ratios are both .50 school age children per household. For the purposes of computing forthcoming residential unit data, particularly supporting elementary school and playground needs, a more modest ratio of .40 will be used. This ratio recognizes the downward trend in family size evidenced by local, County and State statistics produced since the City's .43 ratio of 1970. FUTURE POPULATION Population projections for the City of Coldwater are based on present as well as past trends. Population projections are, at best, no more than theoretical estimates of growth yet to be experienced. Hence, they are made with the understanding that varying land development trends which may take place in Coldwater, can affect its rate of growth. As a result, the population projection figures contained herein should be reviewed from time to time. These population projections nonetheless provide reasonable estimates for anticipated future growth into the foreseeable future. Population projections for the City are predicated on two basic projection techniques, the techniques assume that: Coldwater will continue to experience a three to four percent growth rate per decade. Coldwater will comprise 24 percent of the County 's future growth. The third set of figures represent a "working estimate" and are an average of the other two. -14- �• TABLE 6 includes the numerical projections determined in the above two techniques as well as the working estimates. TABLE 6 POPULATION PROJECTIONS CITY OF COLDWATER Technique 1977(1) 1980 1985 1990 3-4% growth 24% of County Growth Working Estimate 10,075 10,200 10,400 10,300 10,400 10,700 10,600 10,600 11,000 10,800 (1)Estimated population of City as of January, 1977, by building permit data. As helpful as the above projections can be to planning future community needs, a more useful component of long-range planning is the population holding capacity figure . This numerical estimate may be found in the residential areas element of this document. -15- �RESIDENTIAL AREAS RECREATION AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES �RESIDENTIAL AREAS The neighborhood unit, a concept of which is illustrated on the following page, is intended to create self-contained residential areas . Each unit, ideally, should be served with such supporting facilities as an elementary school, its playground and a neighborhood park . All of these facilities should be located near the unit's center. Pedestrian movements from any part of the neighborhood unit to these facilities should be possible without crossing a major thorofare or nonresidential district. Hence, the requirement of safe, convenient pedestrian access, particularly for the City's school children and elderly citizens, serves as a prime factor in dimensioning the proposed unit. The geographic size of a unit should be adequate to physically contain the necessary population to support neighborhood facilities . ·. Of utmost importance . is the need for an optimum population capable of generating a sufficient enough elementary school age population to warrent an elementary school. The interior street system within a unit should be d~signed to discourage through traffic movements, thus affording safety to residents and residential stability to the neighborhood . RESIDENTIAL LOT SIZES Since each neighborhood unit should be large enough to physically support neighqorhood facilities, a population of adequate size is desirable. Since the ultimate population holding capacity is a function of density, it becomes necessary to allocate lot sizes to areas having good residential potential. Residential lot sizes, or lot areas assigned in this manner, must comply in area to the minimum requirements of the zoning district in which the area is located . During the process of determining lot sizes for the various neighborhood areas, the following basic factors, among others, was taken into consideration : Existing lot sizes in presently developed residential areas of the community . Physical features of the land. Provision of, or feasibility of, centralized sewer and water systems. Anticipated range of dwelling unit types. -16- �I I .J I I I I 7 TOWNSHIP \, _JI L TH E TOWNSHIP IS USUALLY AN AGRICULTURAL ENTITY OF 36 SQUARE MILES . AS SUCH IT IS PRI MARILY A MEASUR E OF LAND WITH ROADS OCCURRING ON SEC TI ON LINES . ✓ T HE COMMUNITY IS THE FOCAL POINT FOR AN AGRICULTURAL HINTERLAND THAT OFTEN TRANSCENDS TO WN SHIP BOUNDARIES. IT IS A COMPLEX OF PEOPLE ENGAGED IN BUSINE Sf , INDUSTRY, AND CIVIC ACT IVIT Y. THE COMMUNiTY PROVIDES SUC H BASIC SERVICES AS TH E HI GH SCHOOL, SHOPPING CE NTERS, PARKS , AN D OTH E R FACILITY NE EDS FOR ITS INFLUE NCE AREA. NEIGHBORHOOD C_ THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS THE BASIC PLAN NING UNIT IT CONTAINS A POPULATION LARGE ENOUGH TO SUPPORT ONE ELE MENTARY SCHOOL AND NEIGHBORHOOD PARK . THE RESIDENTIAL STREET SYS TEM IS DESIGNED TO ELIMINATE THRU TRAFFIC WITHIN THE RESIDENTIAL AREA. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND PARK ARE LOCAT ED AT THE CENTER OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITHIN SAFE WALKING DISTANCE OF ALL SCHOOL CHILDREN. NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT CON CE PT I vilican · lemon planning a assoc. inc . consultants �..,... I I I I I I '''' ' 'I I I RESIDENTIAL AREAS PLAN Throughout development of the Residential Areas Plan, the fact had to be recognized that Coldwater as an established City can not, due to ex isting features, meet all the concepts of the ideal neighborhood unit. Therefore, existing land use "fixes" played a significant role in the establishment of the neighborhood unit boundaries. These ex isting fixes inciude : Major thorofare patterns. Railroad rights-of-way. The Sauk River and the lakes along the City's west side. Location, service area, and site area of existing elementary schools. Patterns of existing and potential nonresidential areas. Utilizing these fixes, the neighborhood unit boundaries were determined. The neighborhood units are presented on the Residential Areas Plan on the accompanying page . The Residential Areas Plan proposes eight neighborhood units within six areas of concentrated residential development. The six residential areas shown on the plan will be served by six elementary schools. Two of the six schools are proposed new schools, yet to be built. One of the new schools is proposed in Residential Area 1 and the other in Residential Area 3 . One older existing elementary school is proposed to be eventually phased out of operation. This is the Washington School in Residential Area 4 . TABLE 7 on the following page, depicts projected development capacities by neighborhood units, including dwelling unit holding capacity, anticipated population, public K-6 enrollment potential, and recommended school playground, park needs. The projected population holding capacity for the City is indicated on the table at 18,160 persons with an anticipated K-6 generation of 2,410 children. -17- �1, MOIHH EXISTING - SCHOOL E ELEMENTARY J JUNIOR HIGH S SENIOR HIGH PROPOSED G) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL c::::J RESIDENTIAL AREA 2,880 400 RESIDENTIAL AREA POPULATION K·6 PUPILS PER RESIDENTIAL AREA QEEill MAJOR NONRESIDENTIAL AREAS BOUNDARY AIRPORT SCALE R ES I D E N TI A L A R EA S PL A N CITY OF COLDWATER MICHIGAN I , u~ T viii eon · lemon IN , F[[T 1, l' !> a 011oeiotes inc . community plonninQ eonsullonh �• - - - - - - - - -IIll TABLE 7 DEVELOPMENT CAPACITIES BY NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT Neighborhood Planning Unit Potential Single-Family Dwelling Units 1 Potential Multiple-Famiiy Dwelling Units 2 917 .....' cp 100 Existing Park (Acres) Neighborhood Park Needs (Acres) -3-4 5.4 3.0 8.4 3.0 2 1,075 3 1,235 100 4.0 4 1,050 117!a) 3.0 5 1,344(b) 19.6 6 385 199 Total 6,006 517 Existing SchoolPlayground (Acres) 5 School Total Playground School/Park Needs Needs (Acres) (Acres) 6 7 9.0 10.4 9.0 10.0 Total Potential Dwellin!! Units 8 Potential K-6 Generation 9 Potential Population Capacity 10 1,017 380 2,880 1,075 430 3,150 11 .0 15.0 1,345 510 3,800 11.4 10.0 3.0 1,167 420 3,160 4.0 3.6 11.0 8.0 1,349 510 3,820 5.8 2.0 7.8 7.0 584 160 1,300 39.2 19.0 33.2 58.0 6,532 2,410 18,110 35.0 SOURCE: Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc., 1975 COLUMN EXPLANATIONS: 2 3 4 5 Number of single-family dwelling units in the neighborhood unit at projected hold ing capacities based on density limitations of zoning district. Number of mu ltiple-fami\y dwellings in the neighborhood unit at projected holding capacity based on density limitations of zoning ordinance. Number of acres of park serving neighborhood unit. Number of acres recommended for neighborhood unit, based on population. ( 1.0 acres per 1 ,000 persons) Number of acres of existing elementary school-playground site within the neighborhood unit. ADDITIONAL NOTES: (a) (b) Nursing home units Includes 106 mobile home units 6 7 8 9 10 Number of acres recommended for neighborhood school-playground in neighborhood un it based on enrollment (5.0 acres plus 1.0 acres per 100 pupils) Total of columns (4) and (6) less columns (3) and (5). Total of columns ( 1) and (2) Column (1) times .40 or .15 elementary school age per single -family or multiple-family, mobile home unit, respectively. Column ( 1) times 2.9 or 2.2 persons per single-family or multiple-family, mobile home unit, respectively . �, J J J J •I RESIDENTIAL AREA LAND USE POLICIES To assist the City in carrying out the intent of the Residential Area Plan, to the extent possible , the following guidelines are recommended : Nonresidential land uses should not be permitted to develop within the residential units and scattered nonresidential uses presently in these areas should be phased out over time through strict zoning regulations. Large scale multiple-family developments could also be undesirable within the neighborhoods because of the traffic which they generate. These uses should be located on the boundaries of or outside of, the residential units with access only to the boundary roads. Plats which are recorded with in these areas should be designed so that through traffic will be discouraged as much as possible. New plats should be designed so that access to existing and proposed elementary schools is assured . The City and School District should continue to combine their efforts in acquiring sites and developing elementary school-playground facilities in conjunction with a neighborhood park. -19- �RECREATION The Parks and Recreation Plan for the City of Coldwater is developed with the objective of adequately satisfying local elementary school-playground, park and recreational needs of the City . The plan proposes a system of consolidated neighborhood recreation facilities in conjunction with larger scale community wide recreation facilities. CONCEPTS Recreation facilities need to be provided at different levels for different areas and different activities. For instance, elementary school playgrounds provide for active recreation while the neighborhood park should be oriented to passive recreation. For planning purposes, parks and recreation facilities can be grouped into three basic criteria : Elementary schools, playgrounds and neighborhood parks. These facilities should be located near the center of the neighborhood so that children can walk to them without having to cross major thorofares or other physical I •• I I I I I I I barriers. The elementary school would ideally contain between 400 and 600 pupils . Middle schools, and community-wide park facilities. These facilities should be located on major or secondary thorofares, and serve several neighborhood units. Community-wide park facilities are primarily designed to serve large citys in which more than one Junior High School exists. Secondary schools and major park facil ities should be located on or near major thorofares because of the traffic they generate. The concepts map on the accompanying page ii lustrates the advantages of a combined elementary school, park facility . In those instances where large City wide parks also serve as neighborhood parks, an area within the larger park should be designated for passive recreational use, to satisfy the neighborhood park needs. In these instances, the neighborhood park should be located within the larger park at a point closest to the residential areas. -20- �I I •I STANDARDS The standard recommended by the National Recreation and Park Association for total recreation space recommended in a developed community is ten acres for every 1,000 persons. The total acreage, however, should be divided into the several different types of recreational facilities. TAB LE 8 below summarizes the various standards. The t able represents National Recreation and Park Association standards. TABLE 8 SUMMARY OF RECREATIONAL STANDARDS AND CONCEPTS (b) Municipal-Wide Facilities Large Park (al Community Facilities Playfield Neighborhood Facilities School-Playground Park Principal Age Group Elementary All Ages High School Jr. High School Family Type of Use Active Passive Active Active and Passive Distance from Home Easy walking distance for age group involved Easy walking d ist<1 nee for age group involved Usually within walking distance Short driving time Location Center of neighborhood, away from through streets Center of neighborhood, away from through streets Center of community on th rough streets On through streets Size Standard 5 acres plus 1 acre for each 100 pupi ls, approximately 1 acre per 1 ,000 population, approximately Varies 10 ac./1,000 population less space required per neighborhood and community facilities Approx imate Size of Unit 9 to 11 acres 3 to 6 acres 20-30 ac. Jr. High 40-60 ac. Sr. High Varies Minimum Size 2 acres 2 acres 10 acres 20 acres (a) Deficiencies in neighborhood facilities can be relieved by excesses in another neighborhood or at larger facilities only if no major streets or physical barriers separate areas and if walking distances remain short. (b) Deficiencies in Municipal-wide facilities can be relieved by excesses in other large parks, but should not be relieved by excesses in neighborhood facilities since it would mean drawing vehicular traffic into interiors of neighborhoods. -21 - �I i • EXISTING RECREATION FACILITIES There are no actual independently located neighborhood parks in Coldwater per se. The usual two level (passive neighborhood park-active city wide park) system found in most communities the size of Coldwater, has been consolidated into multiple level recreation facilities in the City. For instance, four of the six elementary school-playground facilities serving the City, are located in conjunction with larger City wide parks. These include the: Parkhurst Park - Edison School Facility - a multiple use recreational complex which serves the north central neighborhood of the City . Jefferson Park - Jefferson School Facility - a multiple use recreational complex which serves the east neighborhood of the City. Jaycee Park - Franklin School Facility - a multiple use recreational complex which serves the southwestern residential area. Waterworks Park - Lincoln School Facility - a multiple use recreational complex which serves the neighborhood in the southeast part of Coldwater. In addition to the above parks, the City maintains five other parks. With one exception, all of these parks are located in the western part of the City. These parks include: Rotary Park - a City wide park oriented to passive recreation. Cemetery Lake Park - a tract of vacant land which lies along Cemetery Lake. It is undeveloped at this time. South Lake Park - a large tract of vacant land lying along South Lake. The park is on the .site of a former land fill. The flat topography of th is site makes it well oriented to active recreational use. Coldwater Recreation Area - a large park site intended for active recreational use . The park is presently under development. -22- - - - - -- --- - ~ �City Square Park - a small passive recreation oriented park, located at the east end of the Coldwater Central Business District. The Branch County Fairgrounds, located along the south side of the Sauk River, across from Waterworks Park, and County Park located along the west side of Messenger Lake, are two other major recreation facilities available to Coldwater residents. Other major recreation facil1t1es which are conveniently available to Coldwater residents includes two public golf courses and a private course, a snowmobile trail and about 150 lakes of all sizes in Branch County . The City's secondary school facilities also provide a full range of recreational fac1lit1es and programs. According to the National Recreation and Park Association standards provided in TABLE 8, the City of Coldwater should be providing no less than 92 acres of park land for the use of its citizens. An inventory of existing parks identified on the preceeding pages, finds Coldwater presently providing about 68 acres of park land with an additional 47 acres of open space land available for park development. This amount of developed park land represents about 74 percent of acres recommended for park use. However, ex isting park facilities combined with City land designated for park use, exceeds the recommended park acreage by some 25 percent. PARKS AND RECREATION PLAN The Parks and Recreation Plan which follows, proposes three basic programs for continued park development in Coldwater. These programs include: The continuation of the present policy of consolidating neighborhood level recreation facilities w ith City wide recreation facilities . The continuation of improvements to ex isting parks and the development of the vacant land areas presently owned by the City for park use. The acquisition of additional land areas for eventual park use. A brief summary of each of the preceeding proposals concludes the Parks and Recreation element. -23- �.,, . . * CITY AND OTHER PUBLIC LAND POSSIBLE ACOlASITION MAJOR RECREATION AREA SUGGESTED BIKE ROUTE El PEDESTRIAN PATH 0 ,ooo \ \ ) SCM.f. PARKS AND RECREATION PLAN COLDWATER MICHIGAN NOVEMIIVI " ,,oo FEET 1975 III VIUCANL[MAN & /ISSOCIATES, INC r.2 - - c -...,..---... ~ �I I I I I I I I I I I • • Consolidation of Park Facilities reflects the approach taken by the City in developing its overall parks and recreation program . The excellent distribution of existing parks throughout nearly all of the City has permitted the consolidation approach to park development to be successfully carried out in Coldwater. Future parks and recreation planning proposals contained in the Parks and Recreation Plan reflect a continuation of this approach . Existing Park Improvements are proposed for several City parks that are presently little more than vacant land parcels. Improvements include: The Cemetery Lake Park Site an eight acre site which adjoins Cemetery Lake along its east shore line. The accompanying illustrative design concept suggests the preservation of the site in its natural environment. The Heritage Recreation Area is a large City wide park site that is presently under development and when completed w ill be one of the City 's primary recreation outlets. The eventual development of an elementary school playground. park facility proposed fo r the area should take place w ith in the recreation area or on land adjoining the park site. The South Lake Park Site is a 42 acre site and is undeveloped at this time . Two illustrative design concepts present general design concepts for the development of this park site. The second concept shows an expanded area extending northward from the South Park Site and connecting w ith Rotary Park . The extension would involve an area north of the Sauk River which is heavily wooded . This area contains significant natural resources and would provide an excellent site for nature studies . The Rotary Park Site is an ex isting passive recreation oriented park . The City is pla11ning to expand and improve facilities within this park in the near future . The Acquisition of New Park Sites is proposed in the northeast part of the City as well as along large portions of the Sauk River, South Lake, Cemetery Lake and North Lake. -24- �TRAIL SYSTEM TO CONTINUE NORTH ALONG SHORE LINE TO RESIDENTIAL AREAS 100-200' SHORE LINE STRIP BIKE ROUTE AND PATH PICNIC AREA LINK PATl-tWAY SYSTEM TO COLDWATER RECREATIONAL AREA ALONG SHORELINE TO OPEN UP VEWS OF CEMETERY LAKE MAIN ENTRANCE TO CONNECT TO FUTURE RESIDENTIAL STREET CEMETERY LAKE PLANTING SCREEN EXISTING 40' ACCESS EASEMENT LINK PATHWAY SYSTEM TO ROTARY PARK 0 50 100 SCALE NOVEMBER CEMETERY LAKE PARK llli! FEET 1975 11!1v1 uc,\N LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, IN(. '3 Cnn,m11ni1y PUnninc C<>,,..,llMill l.•mfK•;ic • u:Mfu l·, �···:.\ SOUTH LAKE PARK ENTRANCE ACTIVE R~CREATION . FIELD SWIMMING BEACH '.( ~ ., PARK MAINTENANCE CENTER ~ l ::, ID 0 SOUTH LAKE PARK CONCEPT ·~· b--# 1gg SCALE NOVEMBER ~ IN !o FEF.T 1975 e ~~~::;.~!~~~~~~~~!~~:rc:;;, �~~~~~~-,_.,_ TO CEMETERY LAKE PARK TRAIL TO CONTINUE ALONG . ACT;VE RE~R~A~ION FIELD // SOUTH LAKE SWIMMING BEACH PARK ENTRANCE AtTIVE RECREATION . FIELD ·. ·· · . { .'J'G,(J PARK MAINTENANCE CENTER . w > IQ ,-. "" ,-. .," ~ ,0 I()() SCALE SOUTH LAKE PARK CONCEPT "B" TRAIL SYSTEM TO CONTINUE ALONG SHORE TO COUNTY PARK, WEST SIDE MESSENGER LAKE NOVEMBER 200 JN :)lO FEET 197S IP!i VILICAN LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INc._ D c-,,,.,,, ,.........c-...,,_, un,,upo ,.,.,.,..,. �An area along the north side of Seeley Street is proposed for a new elementary school-playground, park facility . The site is on State owned property and will require acquisit ion from the State before the site can be developed. Acquisition of the site should take place before the land is utilized for State or private development interests. An illustrative design concept follows, which portrays a possible design layout for development of the site . Lake and river land park sites are proposed on the Parks and Recreation Plan for eventua l acquisition . This land, suitable for little else, is high ly desirable for park and open space use. Much natural beauty exists along the shorelines and river banks, which offers great park land potential in its natural state. Acquisition of shoreline and riverfront land, as proposed, will also permit several of the City's major park faci lities to be linked together as parts of an extensive greenbelt corridor through the City . A system of bicycle and foot paths could then be developed within the greenbelt corridors and adjoining parks. The Parks and Recreation Plan proposes such a system within the greenbelt corridor and the park sites. The design concept on the accompanying page illustrates how such a path could be deve loped within the proposed greenbelt corridor. -25- �.._ ~ ... ..._ ... ... ,_ 1111111 lllllll '111111 , _ WII .• (:•·• · ·.. ... . .. . / :.. BRANCH : .. ·. ·•·· · : .· . ~ ·- . . .. .. 1111111 ,_ .. .. ·· ~··• .· GAME .FIELDS .. ACTIVE . REC.REATION COUNTY INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL DISTRICT VOC-ED CENTER BASEBALL SOFTBALL FIELD ·• t?~'''' c'C SEELE'!' ROAD 0 PROPOSED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEIGHBORHOOD PARK a ~ 129. SCALE NOVEMBER ~ IN !" FEET 197.5 9 ~~~:~~~.~~~o,,!.1~;~~·.!~~- 111111 �SAUK RIVER EXISTING DEVELOPMENT 20-30' BUFFER STRIP 6 PEDESTRIAN NON·TRAIL SIDE 20' MIN. PATH EXISTING DEVELOPMENT PRESERWION-BUFFER TRAIL-SIDE OF RIVER 50' MIN. S,:RIP TYPICAL SECTION THRU SAUK RNER FUTURE RESIDENTIAL CEMETERY LAKE 50-100' PRESERV.<crlciN AND BUFFER STRIP a PEDESTRIAN PATH APPROX . 50' SHORELINE PRESERVATION STRIP TYPICAL SECTION THRU CEMETERY LAKE RIVER BANK TO REMAIN IN NATURAL STATE 1 10 SKE ROUTE PEDESTRIAN a SHORELINE 20' SEPER AT ION El.FFER RIVERSIDE DRIVE PATH TYPICAL SECTION THRU SAUK RIVER-RIVERSIDE DRIVE-JAYCEE PARK EXISTING JAYCEE PARK �COMMUNITY FACILITIES To properly and effectively operate a community requires the provIsIon of numerous services and facil ItIes. The range and complexity of these services and facilities are directly related to the size of the community . In the case of Coldwater, the extent of public services and facility needs are based on the projected 18,110 person population holding capacity, discussed earlier in this document. COMMUNITY FACILITIES PLAN The following text presents proposals and recommendations for future essential public services. This element of the plan document is concluded with the Community Facilities Plan wh ich locates the various community facilities discussed herein . City Hall provides the primary admm1strat1ve functions of the City of Coldwater and is presently housed in several store front buildings in downtown Coldwater. These are two-story structures which have become inadequate for continued municipal functions In order to resolve the problem, the c;ty has purchased the Branch County Bank building with the intent of converting it to municipal use in the near future. The bank building is a substantial structure offering three floors of usable space in addition to a basement. The total floor area of the structure wil I be more than adequate to accommodate mun ici pal administrative needs well into the foreseeable future. The bank building's location Within the Coldwater Central Business District will continue to provide Coldwater residents w ;th a conveniently located City Hall facility with adequate off-street parking available . Public safety facilities, namely police and fire departments, should be centrally located to provide max imum protection to life and property of City residents. -26- �Until recently the Coldwater Fire and Police Departments were housed in the present City Hall structures. Recognizing the inadequacy of its public safety facilities, the City constructed a modern new public safety facility . The new facility, which houses the fire and police departments, is located on Di vision Street at the southeast edge of the Central Business District. Since modern publ ic safety facilities represent major capital outlays for development, they should be located so as to best serve the community. This is particularily important relative to fire protection . Fire station location cons iderations involve several key functional demands. Upper most among these are : The location and distribution of critical land use, such as schools and hospitals. Alarm travel time for fire equipment to such uses. Availability of an adequate supply of water. Equipment and personnel. Alarm travel t ime particularily should be in proper relation to the type of development that is serviced. Generally, the Insurance Service Office of Michigan recommends the following standards for commun ities such as Coldwater. Type of District Critical-High Value Land Use (Commercial, Industrial, Institution al) Recommended Service Radius 1 ½ miles Residential (Single-Family Dwellings, Properly Spaced) 2 miles Scattered Rural Development 5 miles -27- �The plotting of fire service routes is a complex undertaking which must take into consideration, and ref lect the existing street pattern. The Fire Service radii, plotted on the Community Facilities Plan map, illustrates the extent of the City's fire service protection based on recommended radii for local fire protection. Ideally, all of the City of Coldwater lies within the recommended 1 ½ mile high value service radius originating from the new public safety facility . Nearly all the Coldwater Planning area falls within the two mile service radius. Obviously, the site of the new public safety facility is a well placed location, relative to providing sound fire service protection. Library service has been avai lable to Coldwater residents since 1870. It is among the first libraries to· commence service in the State and as such, has been declared a historical site . Structural limi tations due to the age of the library , has greatly reduced its usable floor area to a point less than the minimum needed for a community the size of Coldwater. Plans are underway , however, to structura lly renovate the existing facility and to construct an addition to it. Improvements to this facility are designed to retain and enhance the present arch itecture, thereby retaining its historical value. It is fu rther proposed that the library functions of Branch County be combined with the City's, in order to provide more efficient service. Completion of the renovation and the new addition will provide the facility with adequate floor area to serve the community within the foreseeable future. The present 35,000 volume capacity of the library wi l l be expanded to 60,000 volumes. Public utility services in Coldwate_r are provided by the Board of Public Utilities which functions as the policy mak ing body for municipal owned utilities. These utilities include water, electrical power, and waste water treatment facilities . All these facil i1ies are capable of adequately serving the City of Coldwater at its estimated population holding capacity. Secondary schools in Coldwater serve a school district which extends well beyond the City of Coldwater and its planning area . Both the Legg· Junior High School and the Coldwater Senior High School are located adjacent to each other on large tracts of land in the northwest part of the City. Both facilities are modern structures and lie within sites capab le at accommodating future structural expansion needs. -28 · �Other Public Facilities which directly affect the City of Coldwater includes the Branch County Court House. The Court House is a new facility, conveniently located at the east edge of the Coldwater Central Business District . The Coldwater Hospital, and the U.S. Post Office also provide a critical service to the City and the County . The Post Office facility is new and conveniently located at the west edge of downtown Coldwater. The hospital has also built recent additions to increase its efficiency . The hospital serves as the central medical facility in Branch County . The Branch County Airport, the Intermediate Vocational Education Center and the Coldwater State Training School are other major public facilities that are located in or near the City of Coldwater. While these facilities are of direct benefit and economic value to the City, their function extends their influence well beyond the City of Coldwater and beyond the scope and range of this report . -29- �/ ....... / * FIRE 6 POLICE STATION I 1'2 MILE FlRE SERVICE RADIUS I I I I I I SCALE ....... IN 'f[T IIOVt"•Ell ,1 17!> COM M u N I Ty CITY FAOf CI COLDWATER LI TI Es MICHIGAN p LAN 1 ,;lican . lemon . . . . . .;., •• ;,c. communHy plann;no canoultant, �I I I I I ~ ~ ~ COMMERCIAL BASE AND INDUSTRIAL AREAS PLAN �r r J J 'J 'J 'J ' ' 'I I I I I COMMERCIAL BASE ANALYSIS The primary goal of analyzing a community's commercial base is to determine the magnitude and character of comme rci al uses that are most in keeping with the community's needs, according to considerations of consumer spending power and relative convenience to major populat ion centers. It is equally important to relate the commercial base of nearby comm un,t ,es to that of Coldwater as well, in order to arrive at valid conclusions. The conclusions arrived through such an analysis provides a basis upon which projections of future floor and land area needs can be made. FUNCTIONAL USE CLASSIFICATIONS The types of businesses wh ich were analyzed in the Economic Base Analysis included all establishments which sell reta il merchandise. The functional use categorizat ion wh ich was utilized throughout the analysis was determined on the basis of factors of consumer shopping patterns combined with typical store location considerations. In respect to shopping patterns, commercial uses can be categorized according to frequency of purchases and the time-distance factor which consumers are w i ll ing to travel in order to purchase various goods to meet their service needs. The commercial use categorization utilized throughout this analysis will follow this format: Category Comparison Representative Uses Department stores, stores, speci alty sporting goods. Convenience clothing stores such stores, furn iture as jewelers and Food stores, drug stores, eating and drinking places, miscellaneous retailers such as tobacco shops and newsstands and personal service establishments which include barber and beauty shops, dry cleaners and similar uses. General Auto dealers, gas stations, hardware and building supply stores. -30- �J J J J J ' ' ' ' 'J ~ ~ ~ I I I I Generally speaking, consumers patronize stores in the comparison category much less frequently than in the convenience group of stores. Gasoline service stations are excluded from the convenience groups due to their freestanding, independent nature. CONSUMER DEMAND DETERMINANTS Determining consumer demand, requires an analysis of such things as market areas, and consumer demographics. From such determinants, estimates of Coldwater's present and future commercial facility needs can be made. Market Area - Delination of the community's trade area is contingent upon two basic principals. These are: The location and magn itude of nearby communities and commercial centers. The character and adequacy of the commercial centers. In addition to these principals, such things as, access, adequate and convenient parking, merchandising practices and appearance, also play a roll in influencing consumer draw. By relating these elements to Coldwater's potential market capture, a primary trade area was determined . The results of these findings is illustrated on the Primary Market Area map on the accompanying page. Consumer Demographics - Market demand can be predicated on the spending potential consumers within a trade area, can spend on goods. Spending potential, therefore, relates to spending units, or the number of households (spending units) in the market area. Spending potential in turn is linked to consumer income levels and typical commercial expenditures by store and commodity . Once consumer income levels and the number of occupied dwelling units within the market area are known, the average yearly sales per household for the various commercial commodities can be ascertained. This information may then be converted to indicate commercial needs on a square foot of building area basis. Essentially, the conversion of consumer spending potential by store type in annual dollar amounts, will provide a general indication of present and future commercial floor area that can be economically justified. -31- �I ' ''J • ,• , J J J , , J J , , ,, ; ;" :::, UNION SHE!?,,,~O , ---- ui GIRARD "'-~ --7 ,, I ~ ; ' I BU1"LER /'·l!~I- PRIMARY 7,' 1MARKET AREA I COLDWATER MATTESON QI.II/IICY BATAVIA ,._ (\J /111,!ll/ BRONSON BETHEL OVIO ALGANSEE ! - - - + - - - - - - - - - - --- --I- : ~~~~~~"-~--~~~·------ l___ ..J. ___ J_~~~. GILEAD G K<NO\HOOK VILICAN·LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. : SCALE : Community Planning Consultants PRIMARY MARKET AREA COLDWATER, MICHIGAN I CAUFORN'~' .... 1": 3 MI LES ± I : I �The Urban Land Institute has developed typical annual sales per square foot figures for various types of retail stores . These figures are shown in TAB LE 9 . COMMERCIAL DEMAND The forthcoming spending potential and supportable building area estimates for Coldwater are predicated upon estimates of future dwelling unit and income levels. TABLE 9 AVERAGE SALES PER SQUARE FOOT (Gross Building Area) Typical Annual Sales/ Square Foot Comparison General Merchandise Apparel Furniture, Appliances Other Comparison $60 $60 $65 $85 Convenience Food Drug Eating and Drinking Other Convenience $125 $85 $60 $75 General Automobile Dealers Gas Stations Hardware, Building Supply $55 $80 $55 SOURCE: Urban Land Institute An assumed average annual real growth rate of one percent per year was utilized in projecting household incomes between 1969 and 1975 due to high inflationary levels. Between 1975 and 1990, an assumed two percent per year real income growth factor was used. -32- �Average household spending standards were then predicated upon household and income estimates. By using the average sales per square foot data provided in TAB LE 9, aggregate spending potential was converted to supportab le square feet of building space by commercial category . By computing the amount of commercial floor space Coldwater's market area can economically justify, subsequently perm its a comparison of existing and potential floor areas by commercial category . Though it is not the intent of the commercial base analysis to determine the square feet of commercial space in areas outside Coldwater, the impact that these commercial areas have on the City of Coldwater, must be taken into consideration . The 1972 U.S. Census of Retail Trade prov ides statistics which indicate what percent of the building area that exists in the Coldwater Market Area, is located in the City of Coldwater. A statistical breakdown of the City's market capture is provided in TABLE 10 which follows : TABLE 10 SUPPORTABLE BUILDING AREA: COLDWATER Commercial Category 1963 City Share of Market Area(1) Comparison Convenience General 76 60 65 80% 49% 60% 63% Total 1975 1980 1985 1990 277,931 331,070 158,445 183,185 270,410 304,260 392,762 210,697 340,363 457,849 . 236,281 378,259 706,786 943,822 1,072,389 818,515 (1 )SOURCE : 1972 U.S. Census of Retail Trade: Michigan The figures contained in TABLE 10 are combined in TABLE 11 with projected needs, to give an estimate of the additional square footage of space which the market area can be expected to support in Coldwater at future points in time. -33- �TABLE 11 POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL DEMAND - COLDWATER COMMERCIAL BUILDING AREA IN GROSS SQUARE FEET Commercial Category Existing ( 1) Occupied Vacant 1975 Additional Needed 1980 Potential (2) Additional Needed 1985 Additional Needed 1990 Additional Needed Comparison Convenience General 222,600 138,225 200,950 400 6,670 277,931 158,445 270,410 55 ,331 19 ,820 62 ,790 331,070 183,185 304 ,260 108,470 44,560 96,640 392,762 210,697 340,363 170,162 72,072 132,743 457 ,849 236,281 378,259 235,249 97,565 170,639 Total Commercial 561 ,775 7,070 706,786 137 ,941 818,515 249,670 943,822 374,977 1,072,389 503 ,544 ( 1) Estimates made from Base Maps and Aerial Photo(!raphs (2) Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. estimates It should be noted that circumstances within the market area, unforeseen at this time, may arise from time to time Such variations or fluctuations can alter the competitive economic environment within the market area. Hence, it may be necessary to adjust the statistical contents of this study occasionally to reflect trends yet to come. However, for the purposes of this study, the statistical data contained herein is regarded as accurate and provides a practical basis upon which future commercial needs can be planned PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS To this point the commercial base analysis has dealt with commercial needs on the basis of income spending potential compared to supporting floor area. There are, however, other considerations, which while ancillary to the primary intent of projecting commercial floor area needs, are critically important to the overall success of a commercial center. These other considerations are area requirements for off-street parking needs, landscaping, sign locations, etc. All of these uses consume space and, therefore, should be added to projected commercial floor area needs in order to produce a true overall land area projection for future commercial needs in Coldwater. The Urban Land Institute has produced statistics regarding conventional requirements for automobile parking relative to square footage of commercial floor area. These statistics recognize a land to building ratio of about 3.1 as sufficient to provide adequate area for both building and ancillary uses on a typical commercial site -34- �This ratio, when applied to projected commercial floor area needs of Coldwater, produces an overall commercial land area need both in square feet and in acres. Overall future commercial land area needs are ex pressed in TAB LE 12 in terms of square feet and acres. TABLE12 ESTIMATED COMMERCIAL LAND AREA NEEDS: COLDWATER Year Projected Additional Commercial Building Area (Square Feet) ( 1 ) Land Area Required (Acres) 1975 1980 1985 1990 137,941 249,670 374,977 503,544 9.5 17.2 25.8 34 .7 (1)Estimated by V ilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. from TAB LE 6. The City of Coldwater presently experiences a deficiency in its overall retail floor area potential of about 138,000 square feet . By the year 1990 it is estimated that nearly 504,000 square feet of reta il commercial floor area should be added to the City's commercial inventory to satisfy anticipated future market demand. Rising populat ion levels in both Coldwater, Coldwater Township and Branch County, coupled with the improved appearance of the City's principal commercial areas, should maintain Coldwater as the areas primary commercial center. -35- �'J ', ' ' ' ' ' ' 'J J , ,' , , , INDUSTRIAL AREAS A well established and diversified industrial base is critical to Coldwater's present and future economic vitality . This is true not only in terms of personal income in the community, but for income in the form of tax revenue to the City. Thus, the City's Master Plan Fo r Future Land Use must not only provide for present industrial development, but for future industrial development as well. BACKGROUND FOR INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT The total industrial base of Branch County increased by about six percent in the last decade. Significantly, a substantial increase in the base, was experienced in the manufacture of durable goods. What used to be a basic county-wide orientation to an agricultural economy has been shifting to one of a diversified industrial base . No where else in Branch County has this shift been more evident, than in the City of Coldwater. The City's remarkable success in attracting new industry and significantly expanding its industrial base has taken place, for the most part since 1970. Most of the City's industrial growth has been attracted to an area along the Penn Central Railraod Corridor, generally south of the Sauk River Continued industrial expansion in Coldwater is expected to occur primarily within the same area . This expectation is based on the amount of usable vacant land within the area presently zoned for industrial use; the proximity of desirable rail and road transportation and the areas acceptable location for industrial growth and development compared to other land use in the City. The vacant industrial oriented areas, as they continue to develop, should be designed in the most efficient manner to compliment the existing planned industrial subdivisions. A sound, well planned layout for these areas, particularily if they are large tract areas, will assure the City of a successful industrial district; one in which the most efficient use of the land will ha,<6 been achieved . The concept on the accompanying page illustrates an orderly approach to industrial development . -36- �~ , . ..... , . . , . . ~ , . . - . , . . , . . , _ . , _ . , _ , _ . - , . . WII RESIDENTIAL DEVELOP M E NT - " E AR OF FR EEWAY ON '· 0 TS FREEWAY .: 1 m~~~ : •••••'•~~•~~•:·~•r••·•·:;••.· CARS-. ~~ i •; :· : ;• ~ ... .. in~;nn ·,•, · INDUSTRIAL :::::::::::-:-:-:-:: -:-: -:-:-:-::::~::::: i: ~: i :~: i : j.; DEVELOPMENT "' CARS ----- i"\ l:[[~!i~ ·• ;4t~1~G / :i~,~I:;: i)J 'I!!!'!!ll:!Ililjl!!l:Il:Ill1l Ill I", ~ ;! 1 w a: ~ 0 a: 0 J: ~ ~ a: ..,0 ;,, vvv .., v- -u v.JV"'V-V- I""' t,._rv>V-~ ~ - ~~ ~I..J\) j -V"\...,-...J"\._,.__..,,r,J ,....._,-.r MAJOR RESIDENTIAL INDUST RIAL DISTRICT DEVELOPM E NT CONCEPT I vi Ii can le man 8 assoc. inc. planning co nsultonfs ,~ :::,:;:::::;:::::::::::;::·· �INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT FACTORS Trends in industrial development and factors governing the selection of industrial sites are critical in terms of developing a sound industrial base. Certain factors exist relative to plant locations that make a particular community , or a site within a community, attractive to industrial use. Generally, these factors will include: Availability of adequate sites with public services. Adequate labor force. Good Transportation facilities. An equitable tax rate . Reasonable and compatible laws. Uppermost among these factors are the first two, adequate sites, and an adequate labor force. Adequate Sites Providing contemporary industrial sites has become a valuable asset to those communities involved in the physical plant needs of modern industry. Comtemporary industrial sites should contain enough land area to adequately accommodate modern plant structures. The adequacy of an industrial site involves more than sufficient land area, however, the availability of public utilities and public services, compatibility with surrounding land use, soil conditions, topography and drainage are other important considerations. Approximately 75 percent of the City's existing and proposed future industrial land contains gravel based soils. These soils not only possess good load bearing characteristics but provide excellent natural drainage as well. Furthermore, the topography of the industrial areas is gently rolling, making it conducive to industrial use. -37- �J ,' '', ' ' ' ', ', , , , , A great deal of Coldwater's success in obtaining new industry has been its ability to offer a variety of desirable industrial sites. Most of these sites lie within two planned industrial subdivisions which offer public utilities and services. As critical as adequate sites are to Coldwater's industrial base, the availability of an adequate labor force is also of utmost importance. Labor Force A great deal of Coldwater's recent industrial growth and expansion has taken place since 1970. Yet, the Federal Census in 1970 recorded a 17 percent increase in the City of persons employed in the manufacture of durable goods, even though overall employment in the City declined in the last decade. Similar information indicated that employment in the manufacture of durable goods in Branch County increased by some 23 percent during the last decade. Overal I employment increased by about six percent over the same period of time in the County . A recent study of employment characteristics in Branch County shows a total of 3,251 persons employed in Coldwater in the manufacture of durable goods. Th is figure represents 64 percent of all persons so employed in t he County. More significantly, it represents a substantial increase over the 657 persons so employed in Coldwater in 1970. A similar study further indioates that about 17 percent of the County's labor force is unemployed . With total County wide labor fo rce estimated at 21,500 a workers, appr6ximately 3,100 persons are available for employment. From the above observations, it can be concluded that: The number of persons employed in Coldwater in the manufacture of durable goods has increased . The number of persons working in and living in Coldwater has decreased. This is not to say that the number of jobs in the City has declined, only that a greater number of people are working in the City and living elsewhere. A n adequate employable labor force is available to man jobs created by future industrial growth and expansion in Coldwater. -38- �With industrial sites and an employable labor force available, Coldwater must plan for future industrial growth and development. INDUSTRIAL AREAS PLAN The Industrial Areas Plan map presented at the conclusion of this section, illustrates the extent and general location of land expected to contain the greatest potential for future industrial development within Coldwater and its planning area . Portions of the industrial areas depicted on the plan map are presently zon-ed for industrial use. In all, the Industrial Area Plan proposes a total of about 1,600 acres of land for industrial use. Included within the planned industrial areas is the 1,025 acres of land within the City of Coldwater, presently zoned for industria l use. TAB LE 13 which follows, provides a breakdown of industrial uses within the industrial districts in the City . TAB 1.- E 13 EXISTING INDUSTRIAi.. ZONING AND LAND USE CIT V OF COL DWATER Acres Industrial Zoning D- 1 Light Industrial Districts D-2 Heavy Industrial Districts 221 804 1,025(l) Total Land Use in Industrial Zones Industrial Land Use( 2 ) Other Land Use(3) Vacant Total (1) (2) (3) 342 155 528 1,025 F igu res represent all land area with in the d ist rict , including streets. railroads and r ivers. Figure represents industrial land use within the industrial zoning d istricts, excluding 22 acres of other industrial land use located in the City in ot her zoning districts. Category includes commercial and residential uses in t he i ndustrial districts as well as rivers , street and railroad rights-of-way . SOURCE : V i lican-Leman & Assoc iates, Inc., Community Plann ing Consultants -39- �The information contained in TAB LE 13 points to the fact that about 528 acres of land w ithin the City of Coldwater remains available for future industrial development. It should be noted, however, that portions of the vacant land areas within Coldwater's industrial areas are owned by adjacent industries for future use. Hence, it is estimated that about 40 percent of all the City's industrial zoned land is available for new industry . With 60 percent or more of the City's industrial land inventory already consumed, it is apparent that continued industrial growth and expansion in Coldwater wil I depend on the City's ability to provide new sites. With 1,600 total acres proposed for industrial use, 1,025 acres of which is presently zoned for such use, a net of 575 additional acres are proposed for future industrial development. The most logical areas for future industrial development are those areas which lie adjacent to the City 's present industrial zoned land . These areas are ideal for future industrial growth because they possess the same general site characteristics that has made the present area attractive to industrial development. Future expansion into the immediate area w ill also permit sound coordination of development and continu ity between present and future industrial land use. New areas proposed on the Industrial Areas Plan include: An area lying south of Garfield Avenue from west of Jefferson to west of Sanford, including a strip of land lying along the north side of Garfield and extending northward along South Lake. An area lying east of Michigan Avenue and extending south of the Penn Central Railroad corridor along both sides of Michigan Avenue to the Sauk River and eastward to Interstate 69 An area lying south of U.S. Highway 12, between Interstate 69 and Fiske Road, including land along both sides of Willowbrook Road south of the Penn Central Railroad Corridor. -40- �An area along the north side Park -Street Street. between Elm Street and Clay The amount of industrial development that will actually take place in Coldwater and consequently, the amount of industrial land area that should be provided , will ultimately depend on the City's success in stimulating continued industrial growth . The Industrial Areas Plan, therefore, has been developed to incorporate sufficient land area to accommodate industrial growth into the foreseeable future. ', ', , -41 - �~ JJ .,_,_., f ~~ Jl NOR TH LAKE r r mffl EXISTING INDUSTRIAL LANO USE ~ PROPOSED INDUSTRIAL AREAS - EXISTING INDUSTRIAL ZONING DISTRICTS ~ PARKS ANO OPEN SPACE AIRPORT :>oa 1000 i,oo $CAL[ I N F[[T OCTO l l: lll , lt 7 1 INDUSTRIAL AREAS PLAN CITY OF COLDWATER MICHIGAN I viliccn , lemon a osaociotes Inc. community planning eonaultanta �THOROFARE PLAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT �THOROFARE CONCEPTS The transportation of people and goods has become one of the more important · considerations of land use plann ing. In order to efficiently carry traffic, thorofares must be adequate in capacity, both from a volume and safety standpoint. Efficient traffic movement can be obtained only by properly relating thorofares to existing and proposed land use. In communities, such as Coldwater, the functional classification of streets is much less involved than in large commun ities where the functional classification of streets becomes a complex matter. In fact, in Coldwater, the classification of its street sytern can be narrowed to two basic functions. The functions include those streets which carry through traffic, and those which carry local traffic. Through traffic movements are those which pass through the City with origins and destinations beyond the City . Since th is form of traffic desires to pass through the City as quickly and efficiently as possible, it will seek those streets that extend through and beyond the City. Truck traffic may compose a large percentage of this form of traffic volume . Local traffic movements are those with origins and destinations generated within the City. This type of traffic moves at a slower pace and experiences frequent stops. Traffic moving on residential streets and shopper traffic is typical of local traffic movements. Since through and local traffic movements am distinctly different functions, they should be separated as much as possible . A balanced traffic circulation system, therefore, will provide certain streets for a particular level of function . Various functional street classifications are listed below and briefly summarized: Local or Minor Streets: The local or minor street should be found in neighborhood areas or utilized as service drives in nonresidential districts. The design of local streets should discourage through traffic or short-cut routes which can easily harm the residential character of an area. -42 �MAJOR THOROFARES MAJOR THOROFARES TOGETHER WITH FREEWAYS (WHERE THf.Y EXIST) SERVE AS THE PRINCIPAL NETWORK FOR TRAFFIC. FLOW. THEREFORE, MAJOR THOROFARE8 CONNECT AREAS OF PRINCIPAL TRAFFIC GENERATION AS WELL AS SERVING AB INTERURBAN CONNECTORS. THESE STREETS PROVIDE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION AND COLLECTION OF THROUGH TRA,,IC TO ANO FROM COLLECTOR ti''""'' D //(fa FREEWAYS THE ,REEWAY OR t:XPREIIWAY IS DESIGNED ,OR THE MOVEMENT OF THROUGH TIIA,,IC HTWEEN ANO THROUGH URBANIZED AREAS, ALL DIRECT ACCESS TO ABUTTING PROPERTY IS PROHIBITED. IN ADO I Tl ON TO HANDLING LARGE TRA,FIC VOLUMES WITH A HIGH DEGREE OF SAFETY, FREEWAY SYSTEMS ALSO MEET IIORE ADEQUATELY THE TRAVEL TIME DESIRES OF USERS. 0 D 0 COLLECTOR STREETS ~ THIS SYSTEM PROVIDES FOR THE COLLECTION ANO DISTRIBUTiON OF TRAFFIC BETWEEN MAJOR THOROFARES ANO LOCAL STREETS ANO IS COMPOSED OF THOSE STREETS USED MAINLY FOR TRAFFIC MOVEMENT WITHIN RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL, ANO INDUSTRIAL AREAS, 0 LOCAL STREETS LOCAL OR RESIDENTIAL STREETS PROVIDE DIRECT ACCESS TO ABUTTING PROPERTY, THEY ARE INDIRECT IN ALIGNMENT IN ORDER TO DISCOURAGE THROUGH OR FAST MOVING TRAFFIC . THOROFARE CONCEPT I vilicon · lemon planning a assoc. inc. consultants �Secondary Thorofares or Collector Streets: Their primary purpose is the collection of vehicles from the local street system and distributing them to either their local destinations or to a major thorofare. Major Thorofare: These roadways can also serve as collectors as wel I, however, their main intent is to move high volumes of traffic over longer distances with a maximum of "green light time." Freeways: The freeway is designed to handle large volumes of high speed traffic, moving long distances either within or between urban areas. Its capacity is increased by the elimination of grade level intersections, driveway access, and controlled access connections. The planned integration of these various street types and the manner in which they should work together to make up an efficient street system is graphically portrayed on the accompanying page. LAND USE RELATIONSHIPS Residential land use should not face directly on a major thorofare. They should instead face a local neighborhood street. Movements to and from residences along major thorofares greatly reduces the street's ability to move traffic safely and efficiently . An ideal relationship of residential development to major thorofares is depicted on the concepts provided on the following page . On the other hand, commercial land use, such as shopping centers, should be located on, but not bisected by, major thorofares. However, commercial frontage generates a high volume of turning traffic which will diminish the streets ability to move traffic properly. Hence, commercial access points should be controlled. For the same reasons, commercial frontage should not be allowed to string out along major thorofares. Such strip commercial development destroys the ability to effectively control turning traffic movements. Through traffic carriers may traverse industrial districts. In fact, when properly buffered, major thorofares which border industrial areas can serve as effective transitions. , -43- �r UJ i;:! ---~ ___J ' =..... I ---~ t::! 0 BACK-LOTTING (REVERSE FRONTAGE) MARGINAL ACCESS ROAD _ _ _ _ _) C MlJ0(7. TllOtZOF._12.e Ill ~ . r 4 u.. 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 .., 4 :J. MAJOR INTERSECTIONS RESID ENT IAL DEVELOPMENT ON MAJOR THOROFARES I vilica~-l,eman 8 assoc. inc. planning consul t ants �THOROFARESTANDARDS The existing thorofare network w ill influence ultimate street patterns while future needs will be dictated by ex isting and futur~ land use development. In order to arrive at a rational determination of needs related to land use, the cross-section characteristics and traffic carrying capacities of various thorofare types should be understood . Agencies responsible for street and highway construction, vary in their recommendations relative to paving and right-of-way widths. The standards recommended for the various paving and right-of-way widths proposed in the Coldwater Thorofare Plan, are generalized below. Category Local Street Collector Street Major Thorofare Paving Width Right-of-Way (In Feet) (In Feet) 27 to 32 36 to 44 22 to 36(1) 33 to 36( 1 ) 66 86 120 to 150 120 to 150 NOTE: (1 )This dimension represents paving widths per set of lanes as part of a divided roadway . A flush median of 11 to 12 feet or raised median of 24 to 60 feet is recommended . The above standards are depicted in greater detai I in TAB LE 14. The standards contained in the table are graphically illustrated on the cross-section standards which acc;ompany the table. -44- �• TABl.E 14 STREET CLASSIFICAl'ION CRITERIA AND CROSS-SECTION STANDARDS Element freeway Major Thorofare Secondary Thorofare or Collector Local CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA 1. Service Function (Movement) (Access) Primary None Primary Secondary Equal (al Equal (al Secondary Primary 2. Principal Trip Length Over 3 miles Over 1 mile Under 1 mile Under½ mile 3. Linkage of Land Uses Major Generators & Business Centers Secondary Generators & Business Centers Local Areas Individual Sites 4. On-Street Parking None Limited Unlimited Unlimited 4-6 None - 2 2-4 2 2 2 12' g· 11' -12' 8' 9' 7' CROSS.SECTION STANDARDS 1. Number of Lanes (Moving) (Parking) 4 or more None 2. Lane Widths (Moving) (Parking) 12' 3. Median Width 26' - 70' (bl 24' - 60' (cl None None 4. Right-of-Way Width 300' - 350' 120' - 150' 86' 66' (al The function of secondary thorofare or collector street :s assumed to be equally divided between the movement of t raffic and 1lle l'.'ro,lision of access to abutting property. (bl 26' is the minimum width of a median on an u.-ban freeway. A rural freeway would have a minimum width of 70' plus ano1her 10' of "shoulder" adjacent to each of the high speed lanes. (cl 16' may be used in some instances where infrequen t left turn sloi:s are required. 24' provides mi nimum reservoir area for left tu rn5. 70' is requi red for 204' intercounty h ighways. THOROFARE CAPACITIES The traffic carrying capacity of a street may be considered as the number of vehilces that can pass a given point in a given period of time (design peak hour capacity) without causing undue congestion _ To obtain estimated design hour capacity figures for key thorofares in Coldwater, standards developed by the Highway Research Board, were used . -45- �* 3'6' - 44 VARIES 86' COLLECTOR STREET FLUSH MEDIAN 22'- 36' MAJOR THOROFARE 24' - 6D' 33°-36' 120'- 150' MAJOR THOROFARE CROSS SECTION STANDARDS I vilicon-lemon 8 ossoc. inc. planning consultants �Based on these standards, a 20 foot wide pavement width (two 10 foot wide lanes) has a design hour, two-way traffic capacity of 840 vehicles, assuming 50 percent green traffic light time and no on street parking. 20 10 , 'f = 2.0 X 840 = 1' 680 X 50% = 840 Theoretical peak hour capacity figures, using the above formula, can be varied by expanding the width of pavement lanes, or by increasing the green hour traffic light time. Theoretical street capacity' figures can be related to various types of thorofares as shown in TABLE 15. TABLE15 THEORETICAL THOROFARE CAPACITIES VEHICLES PER 24 HOURS Green Time Arterials Expressway (12' Lanes) , , ,' , , , Two Number of Lanes Four Six 100% 81,600 122,400 Divided Multi-Lane Road ( 11' Lanes) 50% 60% 22,900 27,500 34,300 41,200 Undivided Mult.i-Lane Road (11' Lanes) 40% 50% 60% 7,400 9,200 11,100 Eight 163,200 14,800 18,500 22,700 The capacities portrayed in TABLE 15 are based on peak hour capacities which have been converted to 24 hour capacities under the assumption that peak hour traffic volumes represent ten percent of 24 hour traffic volumes. The estimated theoretical peak hour traffic capacities contained in TABLE 16 on the accompanying page, are intended to serve as an indication of how near a given thorofare is functioning relative to its peak hour traffic carrying capability. The information provided in TAB LE 16 shou Id be viewed as a general source of reference, serving as a summary of present and future thorofare needs. -46- - --- ---- --- ------ - - - - -- �,. ,. •• ~ "II&~~~~~,. • TABLE16 STREET TRAFFIC COUNTS AND THEORETICAL PEAK HOURS COLDWATER, MICHIGAN 1976 CRITICAL NORTH/SOUTH TRAFFIC CARRIERS Pavement Width (In Feet) .f;:,, ";-.J U.S. Hwy. No. 27 Vicinity of Garfield U.S. Hwy. No. 27 Vicinity of River Bridge Division Street Vicinity of Park Marshall Street Vicinity of Church Marshall Street Vicinity of Abbott Marshall Street Vicnity of State Michigan Avenue Vicinity of Chicago Existing Percent of Peak Hour Green Time Traffic -- Theoretical Peak Hour Capacity· Pavement Existing Percent of Peak Hour Width (In .Feed · Green Time Traffic Percent of Ca1>,citv: 22 70% 371 907 44% 18 60% 182 756 25% 47 50% 575 1,974 29% 47 50% 1,139 1,974 58% 47 50% 760 1,974 39% 47 50% 620 1,974 31% 22 50% 800 est. 924 87% Western Avenue Vicinity of Chicago Western Avenue Vicinity of Bishop Butters Street S. City limits to Chicago Sprague Street V icinity of Chicago St. · Sprague Street Vicinity of Perkins Sprague Street Vicinity of Garfield Theoretical Peak Hour Capacity · Percent of Cap'acity · · 35 70% 53 1,470 4% 41 70% 131 1,722 8% (1) - _( 1) 31 50% 380 1,302 29% 22 50% 1,102 924 +19% 22 60% 293 924 32% 24 70% 38 1,008 4% 22 50% 220 924 24% 22 50% 243 924 26% 22 60% 169 924 18% CRITICAL EAST/WEST TRAFFIC CARRIERS Chicago Street Vicinity of Michigan Chicago Street Vicinity of Rose Chicago Street Vicinity of Wright Chicago Street Vicinity of Sprague Chicago Street Vicinity of Morse Chicago Street Vicinity of Division Chicago Street Vicinity of Jay Chicago Street Vicinity of Western (l)Not Known 65 50% 1,638 2,730 60% 43 50% 1,519 1,806 84% 43 50% 1,425 est. 1,806 79% 48 50% 1,325 2,016 66% 48 50% 1,343 2,016 67% 64 50% 1,395 2,688 52% 51 50% 1,018 2,142 48% 64 60% 1,436 2,688 53% State Street W. of Grand State Street E. of Grand State Street W. of Marshall State Street E. of Marshall Garfield Road Fillmore to Sprague ( 1) (1) �With one exception, all of Coldwater's thorofares are functioning within their estimated theoretical peak hour design capacities. Only those portions of Chicago Street in the vicinity of Rose and Wright Streets are commencing to approach their peak hour design capacity. The only other street approaching its design hour capacity is Michigan Avenue in the vicinity of Chicago Street. The one exception is Sprague Street in the vicinity of Perkins Street. This thorofare is functioning at nearly 19 percent over its design hour capacity. A primary reason why some steets in Coldwater have become major arterial streets and others have not is because they extend beyond the City . These roads include a federal expressway, a federal highway, and six county roads, several of which are actually inner county arterials. THOROFAREPLAN The Thorofare Plan map, contained at the conclusion of this element, delineates an arrangement of traffic routes designed to serve the City's future land use development patterns. The streets designated on the map include a limited access expressway, a highway - bypass corridor, major an~ secondary thorofares and collector streets. The balance of the City's street system is composed of local streets. The primary means of access to Coldwater is by means of Interstate 69, which passes along the City's east side. Access to Coldwater from the expressway may be gained at the Chicago Street interchange or at a secondary interchange about two and on-half miles south of the City. The secondary interchange serves as the southern access point for the 1-69 Business Loop into Coldwater. The Thorofare Plan proposes the development of a major highway - bypass route to serve the City along its southern boundary. This corridor would become a by-pass route for through traffic movements on the present U.S. Highway No. 12 which passes directly through the City as Chicago Street. The by-pass would relieve through traffic pressures on Chicago Street, particularily within the Coldwater Central Business District. The by-pass corridor would also serve as a truck route around the City and to the expanding industrial areas through which the corridor is proposed to pass. -48- �, A study to determ ine the feas ibility of the proposed by-pass is being prepared by the Michigan Department of State Highways and Transportation . The study will determ ine the future of the by-pass corridor. To accommodate through City t raffic movements, and to lend to the continuity of the present street system , the following streets are proposed on the Thorofare Plan map as major thorofares in the City . East/West North/South Ch icago Street (U .S. Highway No 12) Marshall Street Division Street A system of connecting secondary tho rofares are proposed for the City, which in effect, will create a ring road system around the community. The streets designated as secondary thorofares in the City include: East/West State Street Garfield Avenue North/South Western Avenue Butters Avenue Sprague Street Michigan Avenue Four additional roads w hich extend through the Coldwater Planning Area are designated as secondary thorofares. These include : River Road Behnke Road The Thorofare secondary Union City Road t-i ll more Road Plan map proposes several connections to I ink designated thorofares directly together to improve continuity. These improvements propose: The d irect connection of River Road and Behnke Road at Chicago Street. The direct con.ne~tion of Behnke Road at Garfield Avenue. -49- �J ' '• , , , , , Twenty-seven streets within Coldwater are designated on the"Thorofare Plan map as collector streets. The more significant among them are: Hudson Street Church Street Pearl Street Clay Street Hanchett Street Monroe Street The above collectors carry significant volumes of traffic because they are located in and around the Coldwater Central Business District . Several other streets also serve as collector streets with a particular function. These collectors are located within, or pass through, the City's industrial areas and are intended to carry industrial oriented traffic. These designated collectors are : Jay Street Race Street Park Street Wi Ilowbrook Road Conover & Hooker Streets Bennett Street Michigan Avenue (south of the Penn Central tracks) The Thorofare Plan. also proposes the extension of five collector streets and the relocation of portions of two others. These improvements include: The extension of Church Street from Grand Street to Hanchett Street. The extension of Park Street from Elm Street to Sprague Street. The extension of Hooker Street from Sprague Street to Michigan Avenue. The extension of Hooker Street from Michigan Avenue to Willowbrook Road. The extension of Michigan Avenue south to the by-pass. The relocation of Park Street, from Monroe Street to Clay Street, to connect with Race Street. The relocation of Clay Street and intersection with Division Street. -50- Industrial Street at their present �NOiE; M1':I./MUM DESl\'2A~LE LENGTH -soo' STREET DIVERTER CUL - DE - SAC iHOIZO LOOP L Q CAL STREET Ty p ES I FA!'Z E STREET vilico~•lemon 8 assoc. inc. planning consultants �' ' ,' ,' , , , , ,, , , , , As noted in the concepts portion of this section, local streets should be designed tb provide for movement between individual sites and major and collector streets. At the same time, they should be so designed to discourage through traffic movements. There must also be an emphasis on the aesthetic value of the street layout. The most effective means of assuring that development adheres to these objectives is the application of controls and standards provided in the City's Zoning and Subdivision Control Ordinances. Various methods that may be used to encourage the desired exclusivity of local residential streets and to discourage through traffic movements are illustrated on the accompanying schematic . -51- �r r r ':- ~;,;, ,:;; j l""e t ~""' <')!)"' \S O O ~ \) O 0 0' ' ~ J J , , , ,. -- ... Elll S T l NG PR OPOSED 11111 EXPRESSWAY MAJOR THOROFARE SECONDARY THOROFARE COLL~CTOR STREET LOCAL STREET AIRPORT ~ !IOO S COAC;~UIIIN, E MICHIGAN PLAN TH ORO FARER CITY OF COLDWAT I 1000 l !,00 1:;,ET a as1ociotes I nc . vi1icon . lemon Ing consu l tants community plonn �.I ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Physical land use planning is recognized as an important participating factor in the development of our man-made environment. For two long, however, planning and resultant physical development has been carried out with little understanding of the critical need to balance our man-made environment with our natural environment. Only within the last decade have we come to recognize on a national level, the devastating effect that our man-made environment is having on our natural environment. Fortunately, our need to preserve all facets of our environment is now fully recognized. Controls designed to preserve our natural environment have been effectuated at nearly all levels of government. These controls are intended to curtail the errosion of the natural environment and to foster a workable balance between our man-made environment and the natural environment . The things that pollute the environment take on a variety of forms. The components most often associated with its destruction are those which pollute the air and water. More recently, however, we have become aware of other forms of pollution which also affect us. These po ll utants include excessive noise and vibration and the physical appearance of the environment . The former can most often be resolved through design engineering technology . The latter, however, becomes directly involved with land use planning . The Visual Environment In many instances, visual pollution is a direct result of the needless scarring of natural resource areas and the development of our man-made environment without regard to app~c;Jr.ance or compatibility between uses. A lack in coordination of land use types is generally a fault of poor land use planning . -52- �Fundamentally, the coordination of land use development creates compatibility between various land use types. Land use compatibility may be accomplished via land use transitions or through site plan detail by which a physical landscape buffer is created. Land Use Transitions This type of land use coordination is most effective, when land areas are large enough to permit a combination of land use types to create the transition . For instance, the integrity of a single-family area which lies near industrial land is better preserved when the two areas are separated by an intermediate level of land use . Intermediate land uses can include multiple dwelling developments or office uses or combinations of both . A good example of how transitional land use works, may be found in the Industrial District concept contained in the Industrial Areas Plan element of this document. A second example, which provides for transitional land use around commercial centers, is illustrated in the Convenience Center concepts on the accompanying page. In both instances, an intermediate level of land use is employed to serve as a buffer between an intense form of land use and a restrictive form of land use. A great part of the success in the transitional land use approach to compatible development, lies in the proper placem~nt of structures. This is not only important within the transitional use itself, but is particularly critical when relating it to the uses it is located between . For instance, in both of the transitional land use concepts discussed above, multiple-family residential developmen.t was used to create the transition . In other words, th is intermediate land use was located as a buffer between the more intense industrial and commercial uses and the single-family areas beyond. The multiple dwelling structures, however, are placed in such a manner that they face into their own common yard areas and not into the rear of the commercial or industrial uses next to them. When this technique is successfully carried out, the overall visual impression of the site is a pleasant one, even though the transitional use may be located next to more intense development. -53- �cSINGLE FAMILY i ~ g SCHEME MAJOR B lllOROFARE SINGLES FAMILY MAJOR ~ TTIOIIOFARE SCHEME C MAJOI? T~OK'OFARE ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT CONVENIENCE VILICAN · LEMAN "'Q <t ,: SCHEME A a ASSOCIATES, SCHEMES CENTER INC. INTERSECTIONS PLANNING CONSULTANTS �The environment of the transitional use, as well as the use it is intended to buffer, can be further enhanced by the use of landscaped greenbelt planting strips. Use of greenbelt planting strips as shown on the Convenience Center concept, provides additional screening between land use types. Landscape Transitions There will be instances where achieving a desired transition thro ugh land use types will not be possible. In those instances, transition must be accomplished through on-site physical design features. Whenever on-site design techniques are used, two basic objectives should be attained . These are : To visually screen objectionable areas such as outdoor storage yards, loading , unloading areas, parking lots, processing facilities, etc., from view of adjacent residential areas. To curtail noise, glare, dust, etc ., emitting from nonresidential uses which adversely affect the adjacent residential environment Effective visual screening can be accomplished through use of an evergreen planting screen adjacent to the use area to be obscured. Initial plant materials should be of sufficient size and density to create an opague, year-round greenbelt planting screen . A repetitive pattern of plant material is usually the easiest design to install and the one most adapatable to the requirements of a lineal planting screen. The second objective noted above may not be totally achieved through developmerit of a planting screen alone. This may be particularily true in terms of curtailing noise. From a design viewpoint, noise levels are often more effectively diminished by increasing the distance from source to receiver or by construction of sol id, non-reflective barriers. These barriers may be in the form of wal Is, fences or earth berms (mou!'lds) . The accompanying design concepts illustrate various modes of screening that may be implemented along common boundaries that separate various land use types. Screening of this type is most often desired between residential and nonresidential uses. -54- �'-~ f;. I I- [j ~ 4 ~ 6 !: j ~ ~ ! ;i ~ ~i ~i2 I i :rl ~ ~ I= i i JJ ~ e ~ (i ~ ~ ID·J\ ~ tr n ~ ! mn ! ii6 Ill~ ii 1-- tij~ -- I I~ QI ~ ~-- ?i I ~ iZ ---~ ~D ii!'i ?; - ---- ~ r ~ i ~ ! I ~ IL ~ i~ ~D -~ -~ ~ ~ 1'l ~ ?; 1 ~1 -z Ill ~ \Ll D _, ~ .<f D <! ~ z <:) z I- ~ ~ ~ z· j ~~ <{ �I I • ' ' ~ lf()lld . tI l ~ . .'.J . -~-~ · m -~':_m :~ rm SCREENING DETAILS p. _. r•'l~ �• • .,' '• To insure that landscape screening and greenbelt areas will be developed to maximum effectiveness all plant materials should be purchased and planted according to the standards and specifications adopted by the American Association of Nursery-men regarding height, spread, caliper, ball, etc. The following is a list of plantings that can be used in the creation of an effective landscape screening buffer. SUGGESTED PLANT MATERIALS Minimum Size (a) Evergreen Trees 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. (b) Narrow Evergreens 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. (c) Five (5) feet in height Jun iper Hemlock Fir Pine Spruce Douglas-Fir Three (3) feet in height Co lumnar Honok i Cypress Blue Columnar Chinese Juniper Pyram idal Red--Cedar Swiss Stone Pine Pyramidai White Pine Irish Yew Douglas Arbor-Vitae Columnar Giant Arbor-Vitae Tree-Like Shrubs 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Four (4) feet in height Flowering Crabs Russian Olives Mountain Ash Dogwood Redbud Rose of Sharon Hornbeam Hawthorn Magnolia -55- �• • • • (d) Large Deciduous Shrubs Honeysuckle 1. 2. Viburnum 3. Mock-Orange 4. Forsythia Lilac 5. Ninebark 6. 7. Cotoneaster 8. Hazelnuts 9. Euonymus 10. Privet Buck thorn 11 . 12. Sumac Six (6) feet in height (e) Large Deciduous Trees Oaks 1. Hard Maples 2. 3. Hackberry Planetree (sycamore) 4. Birch 5. 6. Beech 7. Ginkgo 8. Honeylocust Sweet-Gum 9. Hop Hornbeam 10. 11 . Linden Eight (8) feet in height (f) Evergreen Shrubs Pfitzer Juniper 1. Common Juniper 2. Savin Juniper 3. Canaert Eastern Red-Cedar 4. Japanese Spreading Yew 5. Japanese Upright Yew 6. Two (2) feet in height (g) Vines (possibly used with masonary walls) Common Winter Creeper 1. Beagleaf Winter Creeper 2. V irginia Creeper 3. Japanese Creeper 4. -56- �NOTE : TO USE BE SCREENED W THE SELECTION, SPACING , AND SIZE OF PLANT MATERIAL SHALL BE SUCH AS TO CREATE, WITHIN A FIVE (5) YEAR PERIOD FROM THE DATE OF PLANTING, A HORIZONTAL OBSCURING EFFECT FOR THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE REQUIRED GREENBELT AREA, AND A VERTICAL OBSCURING EFFECT OF SUCH HEIGHT AS IS DETERMINED ADEQUATE BY THE PLANNING COMMISSION FOR PROPER SCREENING BETWEEN LAND USES. 8 = BERM HEIGHT b= PROPERTY H= LINE OR l)ISTRICT W= PLAN PLANT MATERIAL HEIGHT MINIMUM HEIGHT OF INSTALLATION SC REENING AT !NITIAL MINIMUM WIDTH OF GREENBELT AS SET FORTH BY ORDINANCE FOR RESPECTIVE USES AND DISTRICTS -~ DECIDUOUS H & EVERGREEN SHRUBS 1112'' CAL. H u z ~ ~ u 0 DECIDUOUS TREES V'l V'l" <( ~ ~] z8 <( ~ :E E _, ., u,JC ~ w GREENBELT SCREEN SECTION ~ 4' ~ z°: <: ~ ~E ..J E >3 EVERGREEN TREES COMBINATION BERM/GREENBELT SECTION SCREEN ._--------------------TF\ANs,,-,o"'CREDETAiI~s m _J �Nonresidential uses most often are the uses wh ich turn out to have the greatest impact on our visual senses. Most of our visual pollution (those physical elements of our man-made environment wh ich are abrasive to our view), exists along our major thorofares in the fo rm of strip commercial development. In many instances, a single bu ild ing or a single sign may not appear unattractive. It is more often the conglomeration of a number of unrelated signs and structures intently placed along t he thorofare , t hat makes them visually objectionable . In most instances, the various signs and buildings have developed independently with little or no regard to creating a un1formally attractive frontage. The commercial development concept on t he accompanying page illustrates how strip commercial frontage along maJor t horofares can be developed in a manner that w il I successfully relate to adjacent residential homes. Whenever development, such as t hat ill ustrated in the concept, takes place careful consideration must be given to t he rear of the sites. Off-street parking, as well as loading, unload ing fac ili ties placed in t he rear yard areas, must be effectively screened from adjacent residential properties. This can be done either by means of an arch itectural mason ry wal l, or by intense evergreen planting screens. , A concept of res1dent1al development along major thorofares, which may be found in the major thorofare element, graphically portrays means by which residential development shou ld relate to major thorofares. Locating dwellings in this manner serves two pu rp oses. One, it promotes the value of residential dwellings along majo r thorofa res, and secondly, it discourages strip commercial development along the thorofare. , f f '• By closing the frontage to str ip commercial use , another advantage can be recogn ized. Commercial land use can be more effectively tied to the intersections of major thorofares. When commercial development can be concentrated in this manner, it can be better planned , can be more uniform in its appearance and can be more effectively screened from adjacent residential uses. Residential development which takes p1 ace along major thorofares in the manner illustrated on the concept, can prov ide the motorist with extensive greenbelt vistas that are not only pleasant to the eye , but increases the efficiency of the thorofare as we! L 57- �, , 9 C:J 8 c;::J 7 CJ 6 c::i uD ·· 5 4 3 o , 2 C::::J - 'u' r_ _ __::; MA JOT<! THOf{OfAR.E. BEFORE M. A JOR. THOROFARE. --- - - - -- - - - G. • . •~ 1nlli111!11ifl O •E 2 f"A RKI NG (l D-lHPHtHH-HHl t;, .J.I.UWJ.1¼,-t,,;m.~-'-"-"-"-'"'-"' --W- f'K----"-"''-'-"'-",-"=:..,'-----r-----:;iF;:;:::t:g::j;=J 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 AFTER COMMERCIAL STRIP vilican · lemon a assoc. inc . planning consu Jtants �, HISTORICAL PRESERVATION An additional element of our man-made environment, which until recently has been under-emphasized, is the heritage of our past contained in historical landmarks. Communities throughout the nation are awakening to the fact that much of their heritage is being threatened w ith age and the pressures of new development. In some instances, whole concentrations of historical residential landmarks are being threatened by the pressures of encroaching commercial development. In other instances, the historical value of an ind ividual structure is lost through conversion to another type of use. Of course, once a historical landmark is destroyed it is lost forever. Ouite often, conflicts between preservation and physical change is generated in areas containing structures of historical value. Ways need to be found to properly integrate historic preservation with physical change so that a just balance is obtained . In 1954, the Un ited States Supreme Court ruled that preserving local historical landmarks is as valid an argument for promoting the general welfare of a community as it is to provide for its health and safety. Since then, legislative enactments, such as Michigan's Public Act 169 of 1970, has encouraged the rehab ilitation and preservation of historic landmarks. Under this act a Historic District Study Committee has been created in Coldwater. Th is comm ittee is in the process of survey ing the historical and architectural worth of buildings with in the City . Upon completion of this undertaking, the committee w ill subm it its findings and recommendations to the community . The committee also hopes to conduct community-wide educational activities to encourage preservation, maintenance. and restoration of local historical landmarks. Through the dedicated efforts of this committee, Coldwater, which is richly endowed w ith structures of historical significance, is striving to preserve its heritage in the face of continual change. -58- �, , , With the advent of the railroad in 1850, the population and wealth of Co ldwater grew. As a result, many small and moderately interpreted Greek Revival style homes, pretentious villas of the newer Italianate style , and a scattering of the Gothic revival style were erected through the 1870's. Succeeding generations before the turn of the century found Coldwater continuing to prosper and grow. This prosperity Is still reflected in the outstanding number and quality of majestic Queen Anne style structures which exist in Coldwater to this day . The people who built these homes came from all walks of li f e. Some became wealthy and bu ilt the pretentious h istorical structures. Many others built smaller more modest structures. Yet, these are no less significant, because their architecture and quality reflect the temper of their t ime. They comprised an important element in the physical life of the community . As then , the character and personal ity of today 's Coldwater is maintained by the bu i Id ings of w h 1ch It Is composed. The residences constructed by the Community 's ancesto rs provide a visual history of Coldwater's past. Hence, present generations have a responsibl1ty to preserve for the future, these things of value from the past. Steps along this line have been taken and have resu lted in the East Chicago Street area receiving State and Federal recogn ition as the East Chicago Street Historic District. Th is area is entered in both the State and National registers of historic places. A structure w ithin the East Ch icago Street Historic District, known as the Hyde Gibson House, was erected around 1837. This is the only known structure of that period still stand ing in t he commun ity . The fact that this structure lies within a recognized historical district may preserve It for the benefit of generations yet to come . In addition to th is area, two other historic landmarks in Coldwater have been recognized by the State and the Federal government These two structures include the Coldwater Public Library, erected in 1886 and the Wing House, wh ich has become a museum. These structures are also listed in t he State and National reg isters of historic places There are other areas as wel l as individual structures scattered throughout Co ldwater that should also be recogn ized and preserved as historical landmarks. A reas along West Ch icago Street and Pearl Street, for instance, are worthy of such considerat1 on . 59- �Many of the sites are historical structures that are true works of art. Many are harmonious buildings, designed either by local architects or by master builders. They possess workmanship, proportion and detail which can no longer be duplicated . These buildings lend dignity, continuity, grace and variety to the City . Hence, efforts should be continued to enlighten the public of the need to preserve these sites throughout the City . No where in Coldwater is this need more evident than in the East Chicago Street area . Expanded strip commercial development along the East Chicago Street interchange with Interstate 69 , is threatening this historical district. Protective measures should be taken to assure that the true historical significance of this district wi ll be preserved. When areas such as this, as well as individual structures of historical significance are rehabilitated and preserved, more than the visual environment of the community is enhanced; the personality and quite possibly the face of the community is saved . In fact, when areas of natural or man-made significance are preserved and when care is taken to assure proper relationships between land use types, Coldwater's environment is improved . -60- �MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE �• • '• ' ' THE MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE The Master Plan for Future Land Use, which follows, represents a composite of the elements presented in the preceding sections. They are considered to be imaginative, yet workable and realistic, providing for a desirable arrangement of the various land uses, a unified and efficient thorofare system, and the necessary public facilities to serve the commun it y. It should be emphasized that the Plan rep resents what is felt to be the best future use of land based upon today's knowledge and trends. The Plan is by no means rigid or unchangeable. It should be reassessed periodically and adjusted to meet new trends and to allow flexibility in cases where an alternative use may be as desirable as the one initially proposed . Timing is critical to effectuation of the Plan . Some proposals should be carried out as soon as possible, especially in t he case of acquiring land for schools and parks. These sites will eventually become more expensive as development occurs, and in some instances, may not be available at a later date. In summary, the more significant goals and proposals included in the Master Plan for Future Land Use are: To provide for the redevelopment of housing types within the Planning Area by designating those areas which lend themselves to rehabilitation and redevelopment. To set aside sufficient land area to meet the leisure time recreation needs of both present and future residents, and to carry out park improvement programs. To develop an efficient, well -organ ized thorofare system which meets the needs of all anticipated land use types, while at the same time providing necessary linkage w ith the regional highway system. To promote the development of a sound economic base through continued commercial and industrial growth . -61 - �To promote the preservation of the City's historical landmarks and to assure the development of an orderly and harmonious relationship between various land use types to enhance the visual environment of the community. It should again be noted, that the Master Plan For Future Land Use map, as presented herein, is intended to show generalized land use and not intended to indicate precise size, shape or dimension . The map reflects long-range future land use proposals and does not necessarily imply short-range zoning proposals. -62- �NORTH lAl<E LAND USE E2TIJ ~ PUBLIC ~ SCHOOLS E ELEMENTARY J JUNIOR HIGH S SENIOR HIGH PROPOSED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PROPOSED PLAYGROUND -- ~ PARK 8 OPEN SPACE OUASI - PUBLIC COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL THOROFARES - !BRANCH EXPRESSWAY 11111 BY - PASS - MAJOR THOROFARE SE CON DARY THOROFARE COLLECTOR STREET crn.JIIITY AIRl'ORlf LOCAL __..._ STREET HISTORICAL OISTRICT 000 SCALE 1000 IN I :100 FEET NOIIEMBEA,1976 MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE CITY OF COLDWATER MICHIGAN I vilicon . lemon community 8 associates inc . planning consultants � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Coldwater_Master-Plan-For-Future-Land-Use_1976 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976-12 Title A name given to the resource Master Plan for Future Land Use Description An account of the resource The Coldwater Master Plan for Future Land Use for the City of Coldwater was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. in December 1976. Subject The topic of the resource Master plan reports Coldwater (Mich.) Branch County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6866c4102ef27cd587d98ddabcb889bf.pdf 287ce2aa2c2907172b924a09a9c85d31 PDF Text Text COMPREHENSIVE RECREATION PLAN �"· FROM THE LIBRARY OF 'Planning & Zoning Center, Inc. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I COMPREHENSIVE RECREATION PLAN Emmet County PREPARED FOR: EMMET COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH, 1970 PREPARED BY: VILICAN-LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. COMMUNITY PLANNING CONSULTANTS 29621 NORTHWESTERN HIGHWAY SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48075 CONTRACT ITEMS: B-1, Part, B-4 and B-5 �CONTENTS I -F OREWORD I INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY INFORMATION I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I INTRODUCTION 1 STATEMENT OF COUNTY RECREATION GOALS 2 COUNTY RECREATION ANALYSIS 5 DEVELOPMENT OF RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES 6 THE NEED FOR PLANNING STANDARDS 8 SUMMARY OF RECREATION CONCEPTS 9 COUNTY RECREATION ANALYSIS - REGIONAL DIMENSION RECREATION TYPES 12 PRIVATE AND SEMI - PRIVATE RECREATION 14 BROAD SCALE RESOURCE INTERPRETATIONS 18 BROAD SCALE RESOURCES OF EMMET COUNTY 21 COUNTY RECREATION ANALYSIS - LOCAL DIMENSION LOCAL RECREATION DIMENSION 25 CONCEPTS AND STANDARDS 25 POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS 27 INVENTORY AND DEMAND 28 LOCAL RECREATION PLAN 32 COUNTY - WIDE RECREATION PLAN RECOMMENDATIONS 48 �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I - ILLUSTRATIONS SELECTED RESOURCE INVENTORY 19A CONCEPT SKETCHES : MICRO CLIMATES 21A SOIL SURVEY 22A SCENIC AND RECREATION RESOURCES 23A NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL-PARK CONCEPT 26A RECREATION PLAN 47A T 'A B LES SELECTED PRIVATE AND SEMI-PRIVATE RECREATIONAL FACILITIES 15 2. PUBLIC RECREATION LAND INVENTORY 29 3: LOCAL RECREATION NEEDS 33 1. �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I FOREWORD This is the fourth (4th) in a series of Preliminary Plan reports for Emmet County, Michigan, and contains the analysis of recreation at both the regional and local leveL Preliminary Comprehensive Plan reports are published to enable ci t izens, organi zations, and others interested in the future of the County, to review initial find ings before a final plan is adopted. Any comments or suggestions on this material w ill be welcome subjects for discussion and consideration by the Emmet County Planning Commission . The preparation of this report required the cooperation of numerous officials and agencies concerned with resources and recreation in Emmet County. Hence, credit for much of the resource data contained in this report and related County planni'ng· reports must be accorded to the following : Mr . William Grimm, District Conservationist, U.S. Soil Conservati on Service, Boyne City Mr . Robert 0. Dodge and Mr . Lawrence Miller, Parks Di.vision, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Lansing. Mr . Edmund J . Ecker, Area Forester, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Indian River. Mr . Stephen Swan, District Fisheries Biologist, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Gaylord. ' ' The preparation of this report was financially aided through a Federal Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, under the Urban Planning Assistanc,e Pr·ogr·am, a _u thori'zed by Section· 701 ·o( the Housing ,Act of 1954, ?-S amended, admi:nistered by ,the Michigan Dep'.a rtment .of Commerce. 11 �INTRODUCTION & SUMMARY INFORMATION �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I INTRODUCTION In man's attempt to flee the high density urban environment he has created, he rushes on weekends and vacations to the countryside. "Man depends on nature, and since he cannot live without the natural environment or iri an environment modified beyond certain limits, the preservation of nature and its resources 1 becomes the first and basic goal. 11 Past and current trends with regard to recreation indicate a mounting impact upon those areas endowed with scenic natural resources. Increases in metro- politan population, coupled with more buying power and greater mobility, will place new demands upon recreation facilities available to the public,. The north- ern region of Michigan's Lower Peninsula offers vast recreation potentials for the future leisure-oriented public, and as highway and air traffic facilities continue to improve, tourist visitation will become larger and more frequent. In addition to tourists, the State's northern resources offer an outstanding outdoor environment to its residents, who should assume the responsibility for retaining the quality of the environment. Outside pressures will be exerted in increasing quantities throughout the region, and on;y through advance planning and concerted action can the area avoid the depletion of environmental resources experienced in and around metropolitan areas. This is an exacting process that will demand innovative approaches to recreation home subdividing, road building, community development, and wilderness sanctuaries. The region must be satis- fied with being a mere reflection of development techniques used elsewhere, but must imaginatively combine the vast recreation re<Sources found among public and private lands with the most up-to-date development concepts. Doxiadis, Costantinos A. Emergence and Growth of an Urban Region - the Developing Urban Detroit Area Volume 2, Detroit Edison Company, 1967, Page 29. -1- �I I I I I I STATEMENT OF COUNTY RECREATION GOALS The goals and objectives of the Recreation Plan for Emmet County are presented at two levels : short-range and long-range. While these goals are presented separately, they are closely inter-related and depending upon circumstances at the moment, a long-range goal may be implemented before a short-range goal. SHORT - RANGE RECREATION GOALS Improve facilities at existing community parks and expand parks to serve citizens in the County. I Existing public lands owned by 'townships_,, villages I I I I I I I I I I i the County and school districts should be given priority consideration for recreation-community facility development. If applicable, design local parks to serve visitors and tourists as well as community residents. the multiple function While local recreation demands should have priority, concept is an important consideration. Provide specific recreational facilities and parks to serve the needs of children, youth, young families, adults, and retirement age citizens, as demand indicates. Develop necessary administrative procedures, citizen committees and/ or official park commissions to oversee the evolvement of a complete parkrecreation system. Desirably, a recreation system should include County parks or coordinated local recreation systems at the County level. Utilize available funding programs from state and federal agencies to implement recreation plans in the County and municipalities within the County . I -2- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ' Encourage the preparation of detailed site plans and working drawings to guide actual improvements to recreation areas. Promote park usage with adequate signs or other measures to identify available facilities, especially when tourist interest is a factor. LONG-RANGE AND CONTINUING RECREATION GOALS Ad.opt zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations and other development controls which recognize recreation and natural resources as a vital element of community responsibility. Promote an equitable distribution of parks, recreation areas and facilities in the County. Inform private recreation investors of County resources £or outdoor recreation and of proper development standards to meet present day requirements. Guide community improvements so that gradual progress 1s made to enhance the potential for development of private outdoor recreational facilities. Basic improvements include : electric power, natural gas, road improve- ments, airports, and related . Preserve historic areas for their cultural value in the County as well as for their tourist appeal. Protect wildlife habitat areas from pollution, drainage, and other depletion acts which may alter the ecological balance between wildlife, resources and man. -3- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Acquire or otherwise insure the preservation of outstanding natural features which may or may not have been inventoried in this Plan, but which fall with;,. _ in the principles of sound recreation planning for Emmet County and the communities therein. Coordinate over-all recreation planning and development with individual communities, state and federal agencies, sportsmen clubs or associations, private recreation entrepreneurs, and others, with County and regional recreation objectives. This suggests that each development be viewed as part of a larger, more complete, and convenient recreation system. Evolve a comprehensive system of park-recreational facilities in the County and communities of the County. be limited to; community parks, neighborhood parks, recreation buildings, recreation structures, swimming beaches and other specific facilities necessary to support active or passive recreational pursuits. I I I Facilities include, but would not -4- �&£ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I COUNTY RECREATION ANALYSIS The purpose of the County Recreation Plan is to serve as a guide in the maintenance, creation and perpetuation of resources, both natural and man-made, as they relate to the recreation environment. Emphasis is placed not only upon resident use and enjoyment, but on the attraction potential for tourists as well. The County Recreation Plan is a flexible guide, from which orderly growth and dev elopment may ensue. It is not meant to be a rigid plan of action that can be outdated by short-range cycles in recreation desires or changing population characteristics . Hence, the implementation of the concepts in this study hinge upon broad endorsement by County residents who must participate on decisions to pre-serve the County's outstanding natural environment. Each recreation project involves considerable detailed planning for site characteristics, use demand, cost benefit analysis and methods for financing. A single County Comprehensive Plan cannot and should not answer these details for each recreational area or potential. OBJECTIVES The future of Emmet County as a regional focal point in the area of outdoor recreation will depend on successes in achieving the following goals: To illustrate where recreational facilities exist. To familiarize County residents and potential developers with existing resources and environmental advantages. To guide in the identification and reservation of desirable and needed recre ation sites, recognizing that many unique areas can be diverted to other uses. I - 5- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I To propose design standards for preserving and developing the County's natural resources. To guide future development based upon a projected design concept aimed at unifying the recreational elements of the County. To insure an equitable distribution of parks, recreation areas and facilities. To encourage comprehensive outdoor recreation planning at private, commercial and public levels with regard to site development and its compatibility to the County as a whole. To point up the need for various means of control in natural resource development. This analysis of Emmet County's Recreation Plan begins with an inventory of all major recreational features in the County including soils, topography, scenic areas and man-made facilities. These are viewed in terms of the County's region- al setting and the various types of recreational activity that is in demand. The proposed plan is a synthesis of the inventory, adaptable recreation features, and the overall concept of recreation applicable to the County. DEVELOPMENT OF RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES The provision of all recreational facilities discussed in this report lie beyond the County's present and foreseeable financial capabilities. However, the County, as a unit of government, should not be singularly responsible for providing all such facilities . It is nontheless recognized that recreational resource potentials must be preserved until adequate parks, trails, beaches, and water bodies are needed and developed . The realistic achievement of this goal will necessitate cooperative action between various groups - only one of which will be the County. - 6- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ,., To implement the County Recreation Plan, some new measures will probably be required to enable or promote cooperative development programs among governmental agencies, quasi-public bodies and private groups. It is intended that pri- vate enterprise, in the form of commercial or tourism recreation, be an active element in the realization of this plan. To be economically feasible for development, a private resort or recreation area must have: The potential to serve a desired use; A market, or demand; Design production (number of lots, houses, rooms, facilities, etc.) to meet a need or deficiency and to pay for the cost of development and provide a profit to developers. To be aesthetically successful, the resort or recreation facility must; Retain the original characteristics of the natural environment that makes the area desirable; Be of a quality that co _m plements the natural environment; hence, careful attention to architectural design, choice of materials, and methods of construction; Be an activity which complements or adapts to the natural environment and adjacent uses. -7- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I To be successful in a planning sense, the resort or recreation facili t y must: Be viewed in its total context with the County, northern Michigan and M 'i dwest region. Have the various physical elements designed in a coordinated and efficient manner so as to give diversity and complementary economic support. See these elements 1n relation to the over-all benefit of the area and the total environment. To attain "successful developments 11 in this sense means that we: Do not overdevelop to the extent that the carrying capacity of the land is exceeded; Do not break down the existing systems of plant and animal ecology; Must develop and meet environmental standards of design and implementation ; Must avoid those developments that, over a period of years, downgrade adjacent or potential uses. THE NEED FOR PLANNING STANDARDS To encourage sound recreation developments, the County must establish minimum design criteria and minimum development controls . This is more critical than prescribing minimum park acreages per 1, 000 population and will be essential to protect those natural amenities originally making the County desirable. Fail - ure to do this will result in less quality and less ability to maintain a quality environment for future generations. -8- �I I I I The last twenty years have witnessed vast changes in leisure oriented activities. There is a definite distinction between resort life in the 1950 1 s and resort life in 1970. The camping boom is still on the increase as are first class motor inn complexes. Tourist accommodations which supply quality services and quality environment manage a successful livelihood. I I I I I I I I I I I I I Resort areas of the nation are experiencing a housing boom with regard to seasonal or vacation homes. Too many of these developments are carried through w it hout planning and lack proper concepts for future development. As a result, we see our scarce water frontages subdivided into small lots which when built up lose the natural character and the amenities that originally made the area saleable. Over-crowding, pollution, poor architecture, poor site planning, inadequate roads, extinction of the native vegetation - these are some of the factors contributing to the depletion of what was once thought as a natural resource. It has happened in metropolitan areas and it will happen in Emmet County, until development embodies standards which spell the difference between quality and building. 11 11 just another Too often, planning regulations are forgotten at city or village limits ; too often, people living within scenic rural areas are oblivious to what makes the area enjoyable until these factors are altered or disappear. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS IN OVERALL CONCEPTS 1. Missionaries - Promote the historically important role of the missionar y in Emmet County. Acquire historic sites, build replicas of former missions, churches, shrines, trading posts, Indian cultural centers, and related points of interest. This historical theme is an important c u ltural heritage which though not unique to the County, is suited to the attractions of recreation. I -9 - �I I I I I I I I I I 2. interesting facets of any areas history, including Emmet County. I I I The shores of Lake Michigan and communities of Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Middle Village, Cross Village and Mackinaw City all have a strong history in Indian culture. Historical markers, reconstructed Indian v illages, museums, and related means can be used to express Indian history to the educational- cultural advancement of tourists and citizens. 3. Agriculture - Since the County has some excellent agricultural lands, work toward the continuance of farming enterprises. Marginal farms may beco·m e economically sound by adding supplemental activities, such as camping, hunting, fishing and vacation farm activity. Farms are necessary for bas i c food production, they are important economic forces, they support a higher level of wildlife for sportsmen, and are important in maintaining open space. 4. Scenic Easement - Scenic easements are means of preserving scenic areas without taking title in fee. I I I I I I Indian Culture - The life, habits and history of the Indian people are highl y Easements would be most logical along rivers where natural image is important to canoeists and/or fishermen. Also, along some roadways where panoramic views may become obscurred by development. 5. Scenic Drives - Establish a system of scenic drives to link spe cific recre ation activities and sites with one another . The concept of outdoor recre - ation necessarily involves the scenic quality of access routes. Since Emmet County benefits from the fall color season, the scenic routes may be multi functional. At the present time, the main access to the Wilderness Stat e Park does not present the image of a wilderness recreation area . -10 - �I I I I I I 6. establishment of one or more County parks. I I I I I I I I I I I If so, these should be coordin - ated into the recreation system so as to supplement and operate in harmony with community parks and state parks. Some recreational opportunities may only be established through County level action. 7. Local Parks - Recreation for County residents will evolve from County features and tourist facilities. However, each community within the County will have specific local recreational demands to fulfill. I I County Parks - A Gounty level interest in recreation may well lead to the County, school district, township and village lands should be given priority consideration as resources for local recreational facilities. 8. Important to the Recreation Plan is the resource inventory. A more de - tailed inventory of soils, plant and animal ecology, and active recreation sites would strengthen the basis for detailed planning in the years ahead, and this should be pursued. 9. Because of the limited funds available for recreational facilities, the County should encourage the development of recreational facilities through private enterprise and other public agencies. (Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, Michigan State Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service, et c .) 10. Standards of design should be developed and incorporated into local de v elop ment controls (zoning, easements, sul:3division regulations, as well as boards of review) and where possible, applied on a County-wide basis. -11- �I COUNTY RECREATION ANALYSIS Regional Dimension �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I RECREATION TYPES Recreation is recognized as the humi3,n necessity to pursue those activities that refresh the mind and body, be they achieved through contemplation of scenery, v isitation of historical sites , close association with geological and biological forces of nature, or through such activities as boating, skiing, campi.ng, hunting and other outdoor sports or community activities. For the purpose of this report, recreation will be considered in terms of outdoor activities, active or passive, which are influenced by the landscape environment of which they are a part. Man utilizes the landscape to test his senses and he seeks those landscapes which will provide him with a variety of experiences. Federal and state involvement in _ recreation is highly interdisciplinary . . It aims toward the principle of multiple use of natural and man-made resources. Therefore, state and federal lands, forests, and waters may be utilized for their potential as spots of scenic beauty, wildlife refuge, or source of commercial timber. F£deral and state programs are aimed at satisfying regional and continental demands and usually involve recreation experiences related to conservation areas, historical sites , natural preserves and wilderness regions. County and local governmental bodies are, engaged in similar recreation types, but usually on a smaller scale , Moreover, usage is aimed largely at area resi- dents, except in tourist economy areas, such as Emmet County. The objective to satisfy tourist demands may well dominate local recreation planning and development because local needs can be satisfied in part with tourist attractions. The private sector of outdoor recreation is highly diverse, but may be broken down 1 into the following major components : 1 Thompson , John R . , Parks and Recreation, ''The Giant Nobody Knows", March, 1968. -12- �Profit seeking outdoor recreation enterprises: Ski resorts Golf courses Campgrounds I Fish and hunt camps I I I I I I I I I I I Vacation farms, resorts and lodges I I I Riding stables Swimming pools Canoe liveries Non-profit outdoor recreation enterprises: Voluntary Associations - church groups, YMCA, YWCA, boy scouts, girl scouts , boys clubs, 4-H clubs Employee membership only Impoundments licensed by Federal Power Commission Private forest lands Participant - financed outdoor recreation enterprises: Golf and country clubs Hunting preserves Boat clubs Riding clubs Swimming and diving clubs Athletic clubs Snowmobiling clubs -13- �Some of the more interesting dominant characteristics of the private recreation- r I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I al enterprise on a national scale are : Average development is small - about 52 acres. Most endeavors have a low capital investment. Income is usually supplementary to a regular income . The majority have no paid employees. Very little promotion is done . Many of these characteristics are applicable to Emmet County, and are already developed to a high degree. For example, the ski resorts of Boyne Highlands and Nubs Nob rank among the finest facilities in the Midwest. PRIVATE AND SEMI-PRIVATE RECREATION RESOURCES TABLE 1 lists the private and semi - private recreational facilities available in Emmet County. Also given on the table are reference locations and approximate acreages of each facility . For the most part, the list inventories non-public recreation resources, and although it may not be a 100% accurate list, it represents the spectrum of private recreation in Emmet County. 1 As a general obser- vation, private recreational services are regional in their scope of services, and rely strongly on tourist visitation for economic support. Like regional public recreation areas, they serve local needs as well. The most dominant private recreational resources are Boyne Highlands and Nubs Nob. These ski resorts are complete recreation complexes that offer scenic resources, vacation home subdivisions, con~ominium recreation dwellings, tourist lodging, restaurant services, _golf and other activities for complete year around recreation activity . Snowmobiling_:_- will also become a more dominant recreational pursuit in this area . Both ski complexes contain more than 70 percent of the private recreation land inventoried in the County ( 1, 980 acres). 1 Data was derived from the County land use inventory, aerial photographs, County Plat Book, and Comprehensive Plan Reports prepared for the County, Petoskey, and Harbor Springs . -14- �------- -----------TABLE 1 SELECTED PRIVATE AND SEMI-PRIVATE RECREATIONAL FACILITIES Emmet County ,_. u, I Facility , Location by Township or Reference Northland Drive-in Theatre Hollywood Theatre Victory Lanes Bowling Petoskey Bay- View Count:ry Club Emmet Sportsmens Club (US-131) US-131 Golf Driving Range Petoskey Bowmens Club Camp Petosega May Marina Crooked Lake Yacht Club Two (2) Trout Ponds Ponshewaing Marina Alanson Marinas Petoskey Playhouse W eq uetonsing Golf Club Harbor Point Golf Course Birchmont Farm Resort Walstroms Marina Club Ponytail 5-Mile Creek Community Center Boyne Highlands Ski Resort Nubs Nob Ski Resort Trout Ponds Boat-Rental Indian Museum Marina Wilderness Golf Club J ordans Campground Riding Stable Trout Ponds Campgrounds Resort Petoskey Petoskey Bear Creek Bear Creek Bear Creek Springvale Pickerel Lake Oden Crooked Lake Littlefield Littlefield Alanson Oden Little Traverse West Traverse West Traverse Harbor Springs Little ,T raverse Friendship Pleasantview Pleasantview Maple River Larks Lake Cross Village Paradise Lake Carp Lake Paradise Lake Wawatam Wawatam Mackinaw City TOTALS Approximate Use Acreage 10. 0 acres .1 •5 110. 0 30.0 5. 0 5. 0 190.0 2. 5 . 1 5 7. 0 . 5 1. 0 .6 153. 0 96.2 30. 0 4. 0 .5 5. 0 1,780.0 200. 0 20.0 .1 .3 .3 90 . 0 6. 0 5. 0 •& 2. 1 2, 7 55. 7 acres �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Some other recreational services from the private sector include : recreation farms , golf clubs, marinas, riding stables, trout ponds, camp grounds, and sportsmen clubs. Intensive indoor recreati on is provided by club buildings, bowling alleys, theatres, and playhouse,s. Although ski i ng has exerted an e x ceptional influence on Emmet County 1 s tourist economy and has extended the vacation season to year around prominence, summer recrea ti on related to sand, sun and water is still the predominant tourist volume attracti on . Winter tourism can be expected to grow in importance since the popularity of the snowmobile . By the spring of 1970 , it has been estimated that there will be about 100, 000 snowmobiles in Michigan . Add to this the machines that may come from Illinois, Ohio , Indiana, and other states , and Michigan 1 s w"inter attraction potential looks considerably brighter . Emmet C o unty is excellently positioned to become a major Midwest snowmobile center , and freeways e x isting levels . e x tending northward will improve accessibility beyond The County may well be concerned about the snowmobile in terms of: Scenic trails Winter- camping Machine sales Repair services and parts 0££- sea son storage Servic e centers , with parking , gasoline, food, entertainment, etc. -16- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I It may not be beyond reason to expect snowmobiling to assume resort proportions , much like ski resorts. By 1976, winter tourism may be as big as the summer season . 1 Such a resort could be a year around use of the vacation £arm or dude ranch s i nce steep topography is not a requirement. Snowmobiling to be most success- ful , will require close public - private cooperation, because snowmobiles cover long distances , hence , public and private lands must be packaged to provide continuous safe trails . At the same time resources and privacy must be insured. The snowmobile has trend overtones, of a major outdoor sport. are conflicts between snowmobiles and other County sports. However, there Therefore, County- w i de efforts will become necessary to designate snowmobile trails, perhaps following the early overland trails of Indians , exploit'ers and missionaries. Some areas and trails should be restricted so that snowshoeing, cross country skiing and wildlife habitates are not subjected to the disturbance of motorized vehicles. Old logging roads , pipeline right - of- ways , abondoned railroad grades, and seasonal County roads represent resources £or snowmobile trails. The vacation home is an important economic £actor in tourism-recreation . Be- cause Emmet County has vast areas of land oriented to water resources, the vacation home is and will continue to represent an increasingly important element of local recreation - both £or working and retirement families . A Bureau of Outdoor Recreation Study for the Northern New England States revealed that v acation homes averaged $10 , 659 in that area , ranging from a value of $2, 100 to over $18 , 000 . 1 In addition, the vacation home family spends about $1, 900 Mr . Kenneth Dorman , Manager , Upper Michi gan Touri st Association, Iron Mo unta in , Michi gan . SOURCE : Iron M o untain News , January 12, 1970. - 17- �,t I I I I I I I I I I I I annually in the community for household goods , taxes , maintenance, and local 1 travel . While Emmet County may not be New England, the gravity of metropolitan growth in Michigan plus the stature of ski resort and lake attractions, make the areas comparable . tory is for seasonal homes , with higher proportions in individual townships. A major concern with the recreation home is that itbe developed into the lands c ape and des i gned so as to minimize the visual depletion of scenic resources. Clu ster development concepts will promote this obj ective because it allows dev elopment on a more compact scale with more open space.- around and between clusters . I I Community utility services also are more feasible by this design approach . BROAD SCALE RESOURCE INTERPRETATIONS The bas i s for much of the County's Recreation Plan is formulated from a review of existing conditions , The Plan takes into consideration : Regional setting Existing resource areas (broad scale resource characteristics, potentially developa ble or not, etc). I I I I I Roughly one-third of the County's housing inven- Topography Forests Marshland Riv ers , streams and flood plains Shorelines Farmlands Wildlife 1 Department of Interior , Bureau of Outdoor R e creati on, Northern New England V a c at i on Home Study, 19 6 6 . -18 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I Exi sting recreational facilities County residents Tourists Needs and limitations The following secti on discusses the resource elements embodied m the Recreation Plan . Resource Inventory The resource inventory 1s an essential step in recreation planning. likened to a stock investor's working capital. in part , based upon his present assets . It may be That is, his future investment is, "It is easy to talk about environments in generalities , but the task of protecting and enhancing the remaining attributes that provide diversity, requires in the first place, the task of identifying, evaluating and locating the attributes in the real , living landscape. Without under- standing where they are, wq.ose back-forty or urban block they are in, the nature of the owner , in what county, state or nation they are located, etc., little can be accompl i shed in creating new design criteria for their enhancement, nor implementation tools for their protection." 1 Two i mportant sources of resource information in Emmet County are the U.S. I I I I I I Soil Conser v ation Service and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. These agencies can provide valuable data and management guidance on soils, wildlife , fish , rivers and streams , forests and related resources . Because of t i me limitations and the scope of this study, the resource inventory as included in th i s report , is primarily comprised of available basic data supplemented by a vi s u al reconnaissan c e . More pre c ise basic data would strengthen the in - v e ntor y and permit a more factual analysis . A c tual on site soil investigations are prerequisi tes f o r every well conceived recreational use, whether for wildlife management or facility construction . 1 Professor Phillip H . Lewi s, Jr ., Upper Mississippi River Comprehensive Basin Study, U . S . Department of Inter i or, Nati onal Park Service, 1968 . - 19- �.. • ••••••• C £ CI L -~ ST(IRGEON 8 A Y ~ 'lt, t ' (, ~ II I I ---,, -- '"; ; ~ li ========i_J[ . j ·I"'r-:7rf""" ! rl L __ l , : ---,,----:I ~. ' C --1 I " IUI D "·---' .JI. • I [JI ' [~J.fi ··~-.. I \ f',, r-rJ~. \\: • ----\f ______~ .. -i . Jr::::\_,. I' ~~ : • =. ~ I . 1. \ : " ' .i •·-- :! "-·· i~~---· I • ······ ;;:f"osa'·,f-;·-p··· ~~~ :\ I II . • " ~ ' " yCL . ~ !~ .I '\ I I 1 1•jl .. 1: _..J~ ~:::,.=>====" I ~'i. '1o•.•· - "- i "" "-· .~.. II ~ ... .. - l.. J---,~-·-,;-----~ .. ;i • \ .. l ' ,. - - - - i_ "' Sc " l I T Tl £ TRAVERS£ 8 A Y ,_,_,._ PRINCIPAL DEER DRAINAGE BASINS YARDING AREAS TO P QUALITY SECOND TROUT STREAMS QUALITY TROUT a TRIBUTARIES STRE AMS 8 TRIBUTARIES TOP 8 SECOND QUALITY WARM WATER GAME FISH STREAMS + _____ ...... --·.....______ ,.-. ............... ..._ . _..... .... __ ... .... _ , .... , _ ... - HI - • , -·. -............._,.,.,_,. .,_,..,_,. , ,.,., 0 8 _" ..... vilicon · lemon a assoc. Inc plonninQ consultonh CANOEA BLE STREAMS " ,_., , . .. _ WITH LIGHT RIVERS DEVELOPMENT TO HEAVY DEVELOPMENT I 12 011 MOR£ D£\IELOPM£JH!I S E L E C CTQEU D R E S Q LJ R C E NT Y EMMET STREAMS t 2 TO II DEVELOf'M[NTS PER MILE I MEOJUM ~~~t.1:,r,:IY~~,~~;~(\•.T I 8 DEVELOPMENT o, PEIi MILE) IUTUIIAl IIUOUl(U , UYlOlltl Ott INVENTORY �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Resource Characteristics Some of the landscape characteristics that influence the recreational potentials of Emmet County are listed below. These should be viewed as standards to guide the actual development of recreational attractions. Historical Characteristics and objects. Significant in association with past cultures They stimulate one's imagination as well as remind us of our pa st heritage. Relief Characteristics - Monotony must not prevail. Whether moving from city to countryside, forest to farmland, or hill to plains, the transition should not be filled with clutter but rather delineated by contrast. Aesthetic Characteristics - Beauty is sought in many respects whether scenic vistas, streams, water bodies, yegetation, topography, wildlife or man ma.de developments. Scientific and Educational Characteristics - Features that have far-reaching value with regard to the evolution of civilizations, bogs, marshes,. and wildlife areas fall into this category as ecological factors. Archaeological ex- cavations, geologic formations, and fossil remains must also be included. Protective Characteristics - Methods to obtain relief from sun, wind , snow and rain are sought by man and wildlife. Shelter belts, forest plantations and ridges are among those features that make up this resource characteri-stic. Sentimental Characteristics aside from beauty. Landmarks and symbols of local significance Popular affection is a strong factor in perpetuation and maintenance of many natural and man-made features. A wood lot, historic building, scenic overlook, or unusual sign may fall into this category. - 20- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I - BROAD SCALE RESOURCES OF EMMET COUNTY Water Water is an integral feature in the recreation economy of any area. Emmet County not only has 71 miles of Lake Michigan frontage, but also has a wide selection of rivers, streams and inland lakes. of surface water in the County. There are some 10,400 acres Lake Michigan frontage is important as a factor in regional tourist drawing power. Therefore, development along the lake should be designed to permit observation, public access and retention of its highly aesthetic image. Evening sunsets· over Lake Michigan are a particularly scenic natural phenomena attraction forces. Inland la:kes, rivers and streams are secondary regional However, the nearness of metropolitan centers has given some inland lake areas prir'nary,attraction fore es ( e. g., Walloon Lake). Whether for wildlife management purposes or for outdoor recreation activities, all of the County's water resources must be protected from pollution to retain its purity and natural environmental image. Fish and Wildlife Fish and wildlife resources are fafrly aboundant in Emmet County. As a recre- ational activity, -as sanctuary or preserve, as a business or aesthetic setting, the fish and wildlife are an integral part of Emmet County's environment. Hence, wildlife management practices have a direct bearing on tourism recreation and the tourist economy. To be most effective, wildlife management practice must be extended to involve the vast acreages of private recreation land. the following species: The wildlife of the County include white tailed deer, elk, fox, rabbit, grouse, woodcock, squirrel and waterfowl. Black bear also inhabit areas of the County. major fish species · include: Trout, (brown, brook, rainbow and lake), Salmon, Bass, Bluegills, Perch, Pike, and others. -21- Some Coho �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Government Land An important recreation resource in any region are state and federal lands. Although private forest-farm lands fulfill open space and recreation needs, they are not as permanent as public owned land. Private lands may move into or out of recreational use in terms of the economic needs of the moment. G o vernment lands, therefore, can be regarded as permanent features of outdoor recreation and they are more likely to come under Comprehensive Resource Management. About 100 square miles of land in Emmet County is state owned . This is roughly 20 percent of the County's land area, and exceeds all local acreage standards for recreation land needs . However, the area I s recreation market includes metro- pol i tan centers in the Midwestern states and Canada, hence, comparisons with numbers of County residents is distorting . Topography The analysis of the County's physiography is limited in respect to detail. U.S. G. S. data on a County-wide scale at the 20 foot intervals is effective as a general reference for slope data but cannot illustrate the variety of slope change that can occur within a given 20 foot interval. Topography in Emmet County cannot be described in simple terms, since there is relief variety and contrasts in each of the sixteen ( 16) 'townships. H o wever, the predominant steeper slopes may be found in the centra l portions of the County and in the southeast. The east and north areas are generally flat, while the entire west side has slopes ranging £:vom gently rolling to rolling. Again, m- stances of different slopes may be found in most regions of the County . -22- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Land Being the northermost County in the Lower Peninsula, Emmet County has a relatively open character, interesting land forms, square miles of government land. scenic woodlands, and many These combine to establish a "land resource" that is coming under increasing pressures for recreation - resort development. As the intensity and density of development increases, the open space character will diminsh as will the broad scale resources that make the County attractive. W o od lots will be cleared for building purposes, hills leveled and acreages subdivided into smaller and smaller units . It also means hunting pres sure, sanitary and refuse disposal problems, and ecological imbalance conditions. By and large the land resource must be protected with zoning, us es encouraged to adopt progressive development concepts , and community efforts made to place critical scenic and wildlife resources in public or protective ownership. The two maps which accompany this section of the County Recreation Plan, inventory the important resource and recreation features of the County. The map "Selected Resource Inventory 11 illustrates basic County resources which adapt to broad scale recreation uses and include deer yard areas, trout streams, canoeable waters and basic dra i nage patterns. proposed for broad scale The map 11 These can be regarded as areas resource and game management. Selected Scenic and Recreation Resources 11 inventories specific recre - ation facilities and areas with potential for recreation development. Public lands, state forests , public access sites, local parks and playgrounds are mapped. addition , special or unique recreation pbtentials are listed. In These include such f e atures as potential impoundment sites, historic interest areas, scenic view 1 areas , and related features with recreation - tourism significance . lField inventory work was supplemented by preliminary data from the draft report by the U . S. Soil Conservation Service , An Appraisal of Potentials for Outdoor Recreational Development, Emmet County, Michigan . Also, the report by : Northwest Michigan Resource Conser v ation and Development Project Steering Committee, Project Plan, dated 1969, prepared by the U . S. Soil Conservation Service. - 23 - �eil MACK I NAW BRIDGE HISTORIC FORT ]MI CH ILI MACK INAC C E CI L rL~~~'i~~ l PROJECTS T.JtN. 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FOREST H!~foR.fH .,,,,~ . . , • .'<C N P -- r·- I\ • =>=--' 11 ;) ,:' · " n i,,, II .. ._,-~ul ; -,-- A I __J~ I • l JL_J,I •JI- R /o• \ -;, !' l • J 1 11 V I " ~- r---, LJ ~ E ,'l ,~, :: l{J-~;---- .. 1/ E-. _J _"___ _, 'INLAND -- -t- ,_J;;t fu•' . , l 7 ,;►i'-.>cc:.~ .ll ·J~J:.~~~-j 'ti L WATER ..!!.Q.J!.TE rC~R~O~O~K~E~D~ ~:l[~---J~ • -~ITT! ,,,. ""'"'"' -·~LJl ::~gm\ I~" l : T. .MN RP'; ~h~.-.r ~-- \.- ,=-..o """'- 1'\/J 111 ... • I i'LJ : • •,1 - --- 11 p '~·;,_"~~ r-.:-=-- ' ---, ~I. -,l~ ._jLJ ,-,, ,. " r L]'' .--~ :~"f . /... ,\~~:II I..\L... I ' ...,. ~ J4 j-j.I,...~ .) ~. ~.,~~,,) ~ - 1,h=:-'>~ ~~'°'!,: t C' , • . . JJ [_ RIVER H LOCKS <.q;_ ') ~v I""_~ .... G "" ~~~!T ,,: T 35N . I -.J i .di I I ~ . I I t I C ~NRTUEST nc=.=-:)W ._; ~-=·J: ~:in ..LJ . .J~~1,-~ ~, . L~. _Tl E I slo jw . jr::r R • "1r.----G:_]. ,r 8 , i •• T ....... ~, . , . ··' • J~[l□ · 1· . .. ~ 11 · ~ /4;:,. , l .• ~~ .. I ; H 1 _ r.lC.,v--J,c ~LE~E!~ ' L J.~~ ~ I I I '-~ 1 .d ,· V • . . e." - . , ,o I ~ ::,, 0 <>6 >': ,,.J I . ,,,t:;· :- T 54N. . i h·L.· ! 1/ ~ ~ ' - I - ·fl ~ L--1--rLJ~, .~~~r:r:J· R. 6W. " ~v !I ~ HARLEVOIX ~ "itti~(E__- I j: ~~·Ji, 1rf:•?J \~\ ,/'' 0 ... -,:; .. ,-+ . · ,. ,, 1, -~\l_ . • '\1(1 j " ' · DD -. 0 jd~~ rr· J:\ . i~~~l.~: I. \L. l. ~ -. \ ~.3 ~~~l46JL II AR ~ •• LJC~~ ' - -j1 . ' ""' . JL_ ~... IJL:_J\ .·JH HISTORIC II GEOLOGIC ~ 1 ~~ O"; ,1, 4'""' i "' ... * ~;-'Jt\.~I 0 " RECREATION LA NO RESOURCES CJ PUBLIC LAN OS (COUNTY, MUNiCiPAllTY, II SCHOOL) ~ STATE FOR EST * - TIil Pl0AIArl0N o, 1KIS C-,VMIC .. ~ • W_.S f!NANCIAUY AIDlO THI O UGH A FIOU_.,l GIANI ,_0,._ !Hf 00,UHtUll t<O'JIIHG ANO un... N OfVHO,NfHT. UNDU !Hf UI• UN ,lANNUtG AUllUNU ,1oou-. AUI HOIIUO n llC TIOH 701 o, Tt<f "OUSIHGACT Of lf>• , A) 1'""lHOlD AO/IIINlllfUO IY THl #l CIUGAN 01, .... ,,.,tH Of cO ... M!UL~ o, u SOOD IOOO IOOCI ""' .. .... vilican . ieman a assoc. inc. planning ca n1ullanll PUBLIC ACCESS SITES II ROADSIDE PARKS PARKS II PLAYGROU NDS (SCHOO L SiTES - 5 ) SCENIC ViEW RESOURCES MAJOR PRIVATE II SEMi·PRIVATE RECREATION S e Ie c t e d Is C E N I C a RECREATION EMMET COUNT y RESOURCES 11 �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I - The recreation features on the scenic and recreation resource map should also be regarded as proposed recreation developments, subject to feasibility analysis and implementation. -24 - �COUNTY RECREATION ANALYSIS Local Dimension �I I I I LOCAL The Comprehensive Recreation Plan -for Emmet County must also consider local demands for recreational facilities. While it is true that broad scale recreational resources are critical elements of tourism-recreation, local community environment, and economic development, measures of local service needs are also I presented. I I I I CONCEPTS AND STANDARDS I RECREATION DIMENSIONS Specific types of recreational facilities in a community may vary appreciably from facilities found in another. Population numbers, resources, tourist demands, philanthropic bequests, advance planning, and citizen attitudes all bear on the quality of a given park and recreation system. Even though there are differences in recreation systems, there are some basic facilities which serve all communities. These include: Home Yard Assured through zoning, the home yard is an important recreational facility for I I I I I I I I the pre- school aged child. It also accommodates outdoor family activities. Yard sizes vary. Tot Lots In high density residential areas and mobile home courts, tot lots usually contain space for games, limited apparatus, a sand box and benches for supervisory adults. Size varies with available space. Playgrounds Usually adjacent to the elementary school, playgrounds serve elementary school age children and may contain: Playground apparatus, a shelter area and rest rooms, open space for active play, paved areas and perhaps a tot lot area. 2 to 5 acres, plus 1 acre per 100 pupils. Size: A minimum of 3. 5 acres when a school is included. - 25- �I I I I I Neighborhood Parks Neighborhood parks are intended to serve residential areas in a community. They are often combined with playground sites and are an excellent means for preserving natural features in subdivision areas. These facilities are characteristically quiet and emphasize landscaping, walkways, open lawns and scenic beauty. Size: one acre per 1, 000 population. I The accompanying illustration portrays the heighborhood -·schbol-park . conc~pt. I Playfields Oriented toward the recreational needs of high school age and adult age citizens, I I I playfields are developed to meet the active recreational demands of the community. Ball diamonds, athletic fields and recreation buildtngs are typical playfield uses. Often these facilities are located in conjunction with a high school. Community Parks less space for other required facilities. I Regional Parks I I ' ~ 10 acres minimum, plus 1 acre per 100 pupils. I I I I Size: Intended to serve all community groups, especially the family, community parks offer diverse recreational facilities and strive to preserve or enhance outstanding natural features. Typical. facilities may include swimming, picnicking, scenic views, landscaping and similar attractions. Size: 1 acre per 100 population, Regional parks serve persons from a wide geographic area and may be developed to include some community park functions, but usually emphasize resources and conservation. State, national and county parks typify regional parks which pre- serve nature, offer camping, have outstanding scenic views, and/ or afford hunting, fishing, winter sports, etc. Size varies by type of facility, sponsor, regional demands for park space, and the nature of the facility. - 26- �......................... ______ _ ,.__....__ P A R K - - - - - - - - - PARK B~:~·p-~~ FIELD SPORTS AREA GREEN AREA FAMILY AREA PICNIC A ~ QU IET RE 10 BASEBALL BASKETBALL VOLLEY BALL TENNIS u 0 rz II IT11 IJ 11 uuSCHOOL NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL-PARK CONCEPT I vilican-leman planning a assoc. inc. consultants �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I COUNTY POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS Emmet County had a total population of 15, 904 per sons in 19 60. to increase to about 18,000 persons in 1970. This is estimated By 1990, the total County may have 22, 500 citizens depending on the success in attracting additional jobs in industry, retailing, and tourism recreation. Because of tourism recreation the County Recreation Plan assumes importance beyond that of providing local recreation services and facilities. In 1959, the median family income in Emmet County was reported to be $4, 694. This compares with a Michigan average of $6, 256, which was 33. 2 percent higher than the County median. Although ten years out of date, it is reasonable to con- clude that an income gap still exists between the state average income and the County average. The income of tourists and families who visit the County for recreation purposes is probably well above the County average. The population density of Emmet County varies significantly from one area to another. For each resident, there are 16. 2 acres of land in the County, How- ever, in certain village and city locations (selected blocks) the density equals any typical Midwestern . community. The overall density question is distorted some by the influx of large numbers of summer-winter tourists who compete with local residents for land resources. The age group structure of the County indicates some imbalance with general state trends. Significant differences include : (a) higher proportion of ;persons over 64 years of age ; (b) slightly higher proportion of persons in the mature family group (ages 45 to 64); (c) a low proportion of young and middle aged families (ages 25 to 44); (d) slightly more persons in the school age group; and (e) fewer pre-school children. For the pµrpose of long-range planning, the recre- ation service must consider all population groups regardless of the community age profile in any given year. Individual projects, however, may emphasize ser- vice to a given age group, depending upon available financing, citizen desires, and/or basic lack of facilities for that age group. -27- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I INVENTORY AND DEMAND A general measure of recreation need 1s the standard figure of 1 acre per 100 population. If this formula is employed in Emmet County, there would be a recreation land need for 180 acres of community-neighborhood park land. This would increase to perhaps 225 acres by 1990. There are 405 . 0 acres of local park and school recreation land in Emmet County. All of this land is owned by local governmental units in the County as there are no County owned parks . In addition, there are 7, 273. 1 acres of land in major regional parks (e . g. Wilderness State Park), roadside parks, public access sites and related recreation resources. State lands, largely in the Wilderness State Forest contain some 90 square miles of land . It is noted that the existing local park acreage is the estimated area of use and not necessarily the total land owned by the community. There are another 2, 755. 7 acres of recreation land in private and semi - private ownership, plus private cottages, ski chalets, recreation farms, and hunting acreage. The population- acreage ratios readily point up the inadequacy of attempts to apply a ratio standard to ascertain basic facility needs. tials are immense ; Open space park poten- hence, the local recreation need will largely relate <--l d 'i.m- proved parks, expanded parks and structural facilities for recreation. However, added local park purchases or acquisitions should be encouraged as a means '. to preserve natural resources and potential recreation sites that might otherwise be lost. For the purpose of recreation planning and the County-wide Land Use Inventory, the park acreages listed on 'TABLE : 2, Inventory'' apply . - 28- , "Public Recreation Land �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I TABLE PUBLIC RECREATION 2 LAND INVENTORY Emmet County Communities 1. 2. Bear Creek Township Bliss Township Recreation Feature Recreation Acreage by Ty:ee Local Regional Total Senior High School 29.0 Rotary Park Roadside Park (US 131) Bay View Parks Petoskey State Park Round Lake Public Access--- 2. 9 3. 5 16. 6 273.0 2. 0 29.0 298.0 Wilderness State Park Township Park 6,925.0 34.7 34. 7 3. Carp Lake Township Public Access Paradise Lake Lincoln Park 2 Roadside Parks Center Township Larks Lake Public Access Youth Center Ballfield (Larks Lake) Cross Village Township Boat Ramp on Lake Michigan Wy Camp Lake Public Access Cross Village Park (Historical) Cross Village School 2.0 2. 2 53.3 5. 0 .5 5.5 5.0 11. 0 2.0 2. 0 . 2 1.0 1.0 -29- 6,959.7 .2 6.0 5. 6,925.0 51. 1 51. 1 4. 327.0 4.2 5.2 �TABLE 2 Continued [ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Local 6. Friendship Township Roadwide Park Regional 1.0 1.0 7. Little Traverse Township Conway Beach Conway Ballfield Littlefield Township and Alanson Alanson School Playground near School Alanson Ballfield Alanson Roadside Park and Tennis Court Alanson Public Fishing Oden Roadside Park Oden Lake Access Oden Park Oden Ballfield Pickerel Lake Public Access- ship, Pellston (pt. ) ' Brutus and Levering Pellston High School Pellston Auditorium Public Access on River Pellston Elementary School 2.5 .5 .p .3 .1 4.0 2. 0 Pellston Field Perhton Tennis Courts Roadside Park 11 . Pleasantview Township None 23.6 2. 0 4.0 2. 0 8. 5 1. 0 1. 0 7.3 6.0 .3 6.3 -30- 3.4 2. 1 .4 6.5 10 . Maple River Township , Pellston (pt.), and Van 2.5 7. 0 2. 5 4. 1 20.2 9. McKinley Town- 1. 0 .5 2. 0 2. 5 8. Total �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I TABLE 2 Continued Local 12 . Readmond Township Lake Michigan Park Historic Park (Council Tree) Roadside Park 1.5 .5 2.0 1.0 3.0 4.0 Wawatam Township 14.0 1.0 4.0 Pickeral Lake Access 2 - Public Access 5.0 15. 12.0 10.0 10. 0 14. Springvale Township Total 10.0 10.0 13. Resort Township Resort School Waloon Lake Access Roadside Park - US-31 Regional Cecil Bay Park 2.5 (Mackinaw City) High School 17.7 Michilimackinac Park Cecil Bay Public Access (State) French Farm Lake Public Access 5.0 15. 3 3.0 2. 0 20.2 20.3 40.5 Total Townships and Villages Total City of Petoskey Total Harbor Springs 197.5 147.4 60. 1 7, 273 . 1 7,470.6 147.4 60. 1 Grand Totals 405.0 7, 273. 1 7, 678. 1 16. West Traverse Township None SOURCE: Vilican - Leman & Associates, Inc. Land Use Inventory, Emmet County, Summer 1968, and aerial photographs. -31- �LOCAL RECREATION PLAN Statistically, there is a sizeable local park surplus in Emmet County, both under current population levels and foreseeable projections through 1990. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I statistical needs are not equally divided among the local units of government. Hence , the conclusions drawn from TABLE 3 should be related to individual communities rather than from column totals . The TABLE 3 "Local Recreation Needs" , shows that the local recreation surplus i s mainly the result of large acreages in Bear Creek, Bliss and Carp Lake Townships . The Cities of Petoskey and Harbor Springs also reflect large surplus acreages . Between 1970 and 1990, local park needs will be felt in the Townships of Cross Village , Friendship, Maple River, Pleasantview, Resort, Springvale and West Traverse . Following is an outline of local recreation developments that may be pursued. The locations of specific features are presented on the County recreation plan map titled ''Proposed Recreation Features. 11 There are two predominant recreation development recommendations that apply to all communities within the County, as well as the County. 1. These are: Develop parks, improve parks and provide recreation services to satisfy the needs of all age groups. 2. Acquire , promote, and/or assist in the reservation and preservation of outstanding natural resources that exist in the County. These involve scarce waterfront lands , scenic timber stands, unique topography, wildlife habitat areas and the like . - 32 - f However, the �- TABLE ._. ._._. - - 3 LOCAL RECREATION NEEDS Emmet County Community or Local Recreation Acreage Needs Community_ 1. I w w I 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . Existing Acreage Bear Cre·ek Township Bliss Township Carp Lake Township C e nter Township Cros.s Village T ownship Friendshi p Tow nship Little Traverse Township Littlefield Township & Alanson McKinley Township & Pellston (pt) Maple River Township & Pellston (pt) Pleasantview Township R e admond Township R e s o rt Township Springvale T ownship Waw atam and Mackinaw City (pt) West Traverse Township Sub Totals 17. 18 . City of Petoskey City o f Harbor Spr i ngs Totals 1 29. 0 acres 34.7 51. l 6. 0 1.0 2.5 20.2 6.5 6.3 10.0 10 . 0 20 . 2 197 . 5 acres 147 . 4 60 . 1 405. 0 acres 1990 Need 1 1990 Surplus(+) Deficit(-) 50. 5 acres 2. 5 5.8 1.0 1.4 3. 2 7. 7 10. 4 8.4 3. 4 2. 0 2. 5 23 . 8 5. 7 4. 5 4.0 - 21. 5 acres + 32 . 2 + 45.3 + 5. 0 .4 - 3. 2 + 5. 2 + 9. 8 - 1.9 + 2. 9 - 2. 0 + 7. 5 - 13.8 - 5. 7 + 15.7 - 4. 0 136.8acres + 71. 1 acres 75. 2 17. 5 229. 5 a c .1· e s + 72 . 2 + 42.6 + 185 . 9 acres T o wnshi ps w ith a proje c t e d p o pulat i on decline show a 1990 need based upon th e 19 6 0 populat ion . �Bear Creek Townshlp - Project-ions show a mlnlmum need for 21 . 5 acres of local recreat l on land by 1990 . Th-is is a local need that should be provlded for general Townshl p recreatlon purposes and does not relate to nelghborhood needs dlscussed I -in the Petoskey Area Plan . Some development objectives that should be pursued are : I I I 1. A cqulre the federally owned radar stat-ion property in Sect-ion 23 for recreation and general community use. Th-is fadlity is in an excellent recreation resource area . 2. Encourage the development of hlstorical and cultural features, that characterlze the area, and speclfically the proposed Indian Museum and Indian Cultural Center near the Petoskey State Park . 3. Work with the state agendes and adjacent communitles to promote canoeing o n the Bear River . A potential impoundment of the Bear River would also create opportunitles £or township park development. 4. It appears that the Townshlp could use some community ballfields, outdoor skating rinks and related community recreation features . The only local recreation feature i s the high school, and this serves more than the Township area . 5. Some suggested locatl ons for specific active community recreation features are : Near the Townsh ip Hall As a buffer between resldentlal lands and the buslnes s us es on Mitchell Road at Divi s -ion On Pickerel Lake Road at a trans-it-ion po i nt with the proposed freeway, proposed industrial area , and/or trailer housing areas . With planned school locations I I I I On the s i tes of larger community and reg i onal parks - 34 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Locations to consider for general community parks, that may or may not have active sport features include : In the Bear River Valley area On Round Lake to preserve open space Among scenic wood lots, forested -ar,eas and rolling hills in the community - as at the radar site On hillsides or sites offering outstanding panoramic views such as from US-131 south of Petoskey and from Pickerel Lake Road Bliss Township - Statistically Bliss Township will have a substantial local park surplus by 1990, as projections indicate that the permanent population will remain stable or decline somewhat. The 30 acre park on Lake Michigan provides ample recreation space according to standards, however, some recreation projects may include the following : 1. Encourage the state to expand W_i..lderness State Park southward to include the sand dune areas along the Lake Michigan beach. This scenic, sandwooded area is unsuited to small lot subdividing because of the erosion hazards from the sand dunes. It is also a valuable area-wide natural resource and tourist attraction. There are some 2 miles of beach that should go into regional park ownership, be it federal, state, county or township. Cottages could be developed in planned clusters off of the immediate beach area. From 2 to 10 acres of land should be provided for local recreation use (ballfields, skating, sledding, etc . ) . This should be in a central location, perhaps in the vicinity of the Township Hall or in Bliss Center . 3. Consider other recreational facilities oriented toward Wy Camp Lake, e x isting publicly owned lands (state or county) and scenic topographic features . -35- �I I I I I I I I I I I I Carp Lake Township - This community has a relatively low total population, but receives large numbers of tourists in the summer months. tour i st attraction, has a large number of private and tourist accommodations. Some recreational projects may include : 1. Retain the 50 acre Lincoln Park site on Paradise Lake in public ownership , and add recreation facilities in the nature of a general community park. Minimize tree cutting to retain its natural character and improve access roads into the site . 2. Protect the scenic recreation and resource potentials of Carp River. is a valuable canoe water and fishing stream. 3. Poor soils on the south shore of Paradise Lake (Sec. 23) suggest that residential - cottage development be avoided so as to control sanitary pollution to the lake and shorelands . This area should be used £or wildlife management purposes , as well as to retain some open space image on a lake that is now used very intensively. Public ownership or scenic easements are two methods of retaining the open space character. 4. Because there are no improved local recreation areas 1n the Township, it would be desirable to develop some general recreation areas £or active type sports. This may be done at Lincoln Park, although undesirable tree cutting may be necessary, or space could be provided near the Township Hall, which is in a more central location. 5. A future park- recreation area may be established with·9- potential water 1mpoundment on Carp Creek . Center Township possible declines. I I Paradise Lake, a big This Center Township is sparsely populated, and projections show I£ so there will be a 5. 0 acre park surplus by 1990. 1. Ma i ntain and impro v e the community ballfield near Larks Lake. Other active sports facilities may be developed at the Youth Center and/or the Township Hall. More diversified recreation apparatus could also be provided. 2. I£ the Township i s able , acquire land on Larks Lake to preserve open space and scenic resources for local residents , cottage owners and visitors. Enco u rage cluster cottage development concepts. Seasonal home markets will accrue from access potentials to canoeable waters, ski resorts, and open space areas. - 36 - �3. Local and community recreation services may be provided at the Township gravel pit , as a re - use of community resources. 4. Protect the natural and scenic qualities of the Maple River. It is a canoeable trout stream that should not be polluted, or over developed with vacation homes . Cross Village Township - Relating population to available or potential recreation land at the Cross Village School , no significant added local recreation area is indicated . 1. Either at the school or on church property in the Village, recreation apparatus, ice skating ponds and related active play facilities can be provided to meet local demands, 2. The outstanding scenic views of Lake Michigan suggest that efforts be made to keep vistas from the highway open for scenic drive reasons. Scenic easements and/or government owned land can meet this need. 3. Cross Village has the potential to develop a marina and harbor on Lake Michigan . A marina would be an excellent complementary facility to the scenic beach. 4. Either through state , county or township resources, the sandy beach area in and near the Cross Village harbor area should be developed for recreation purposes , emphasizing scenic and open space characteristics. Some facilities and recreation apparatus could still be established. 5. Other recreation opportunities may relate to Wy Camp Lake and/or -future re - use of the Township's sanitary fill area for recreation. 6. Encourage the restoration, reconstruction or replica development of Cross Village during the early Missionary - Indian Era (cir. 1700 - 1850) . This could be a highly interesting focal point for tour i st visitation and would preserve a valuable cultural heritage . Friendshi p Township - The only public recreation area m Friendship Township is a small roadside park near Middle Village . As a minimum, standards suggest a need for 3 . 0 acres of recreation area by 1990 . - 37 - �• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1. Work to acquire frontage on Lake Michigan for township park-recreation purposes , as well as to acquire lands which are becoming increasingly scarce, Public access to Lake Michigan should be reserved before the frontage is lotted ofL 2. Active sports recreation area for Township residents is being provided in part by the Five Mile Creek Community Center, formed by a group of citizens, General public recreation sites may be developed at the Township Hall location, near Stutsmanville, or in the vi:cinity of the co1nmunity building, 3, The Township owns 80 acres of land one mile south of the Township Hall. This is an excellent potential recreation area. It is wooded, has gently rolling topography, and is at the base of a very rugged topographic area, that probably should be in broad scale recreation - open space use . 4. Other recreation potentials may be developed among the numerous scenic, topographic and wooded areas of the community . Little Traverse Township - Based upon the 1990 projected population Little Traverse Township may need at least 5. 2 acres of added recreation area. All existing local recreation area is in Conway, and includes a small beach access on Crooked Lake and a ball field along the railroad . Residents and tourists in Little Traverse have access to recreational facilities in Harbor Springs, Bear Creek Township and Petoskey. The Township also borders the private ski resorts in Pleasantview Township to the north . Local recreation may include the following : 1. Expand equipment and land near existing parks, and/or consider the development of a new community park for active play (5 to 10 acres). 2, Attempt to acquire recreation land or access easements to Little Traverse Bay , This will enhance local recreational opportunities and preserve outstanding scenic resources . -38 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I J 3. A scenic community park can be developed in and near state owned lands in the center of Section 11 off the Chadderdon Road. Rolling topography, wooded areas and large open space can be adapted to a variety of recreation services. 4. Other recreation sites may be developed in conjunction with the Township Hall or other community buildings that may be provided in future years . 5. If the Township develops into an urban area, some small neighborhood parks may be necessary to serve smaller areas. Littlefield Township and Alanson - Elementary school and playground facilities in Alanson, and a ballfield north of Oden give the residents of Littlefield Township a fairly good recreation inventory. According to projections there will still be a 9. 8 acre park surplus by 1990 . Some local recreation objectives may include : 1. Continued improvements and expansions at the four local park-playground facilities in Alanson. If the areas population increases substantially beyond projected levels some additional neighborhood recreation sites may be needed. 2. Although there are several parks, the individual facilities are on comparatively small sites (except the school), ranging from. 1 to 4. 1 acres. Hence , new recreation services may require additional la:rid areas. 3. New recreation facilities may be expanded on one or both of the large school land ownerships ( 120 acre tract and 68 acre tract). These would provide ample acreage to meet foreseeable demands and both have a good central location . 4. As a means to protect floodplain areas and low lands near Crooked Lake, Pickerel Lake and along the Crooked River, attempt to acquire scenic easements and/or public ownership of the lands in question. This will increase open space resources as well as act to reduce lak:e - river pollution possibilities . 5. The sanitary fill site north of Oden may prove satisfactory for recreation usage after fill operations are completed. J J - 39- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 6. Encourage recreation developments in relationship with the Crooked River's potential and use as an inland water route to Che9oygan. 7. A special feature with tourist appeal is the State Fish Hatchery west of Oden and the historical marker dedicated to the now extinct Passenger Pigeon. McKinley Township and Pellston (part) - About half or more of Mckinley Town- ship is in government owned l a nd, including state forests, University of Michigan forest research lands, and the County Airport. The Township also contains the populated areas of Pellston Village, Brutus, and Levering. All of the local recre- ation acreage is associated with school buildings, including an auditorium facility in Pellston. By 1990, there will still be a statistical recreation land surplus of 3 . 1 acres. 1. The Pellston High School, new Pellston Elementary School, and the Pellston ballfield and tennis court provide a variety of existing recreation services (ballfield and tennis courts are in the Maple River Township portion of Pellston Village.) These recreation services are among the more diverse available to non-city residents in the County. Facility improvements and expansions should be promt:>ted at each existing facility, because they are in areas of local population concentration. Because the Leve ring School has been closed, a small play area should be developed to serve this area of the Township. 2. The small communities of Van and Levering have no public recreation area. However, a small park area for casual recreation use, ice skating~ etc., may be desirable to serve families in these areas. 3. Broader scale recreation developments should include promotional efforts to protect G-anoeable' waters and trout streams from pollution and over development. 4. A potential water impoundment exists on Van Creek and may be a good source for establishing a general community recreation area. 5. Promote the development of historical features, perhaps reconstructing features of the old lumbertown in Pellston. -40- �::..---=--·-,-_ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Maple River Township and Brutus - Maple River Township has experienced past population declines, but some stability or slight growth may prevail through 1990 . If so , the community recreation inventory should be held to the existing acreage and perhaps increased. All existing local recreation sites are in Pellston Village (ballfield and tennis courts), since the Brutus school was closed and sold. 1. The Township Hall at Brutus is in good central location, and active recreation facilities may be satisfactorily provided at this location. This could replace the recreation services of the former Brutus School. Local recreation facilities may also be provided on Maple River Road and/or Woodland Road,, as these are populated Township areas. There is very little state owned land in the Township. School district and county forest lands along the Maple River, and the Town~ ship ' s sanitary fill area are resources for possible recreation use and development. A broad scale recreation objective should be to protect the Maple River from pollution and over development. This is a canoeable water and quality trout stream o f importance to local residents and visitors . Most of the r i ver courses through private lands, hence, zoning standards should be established to offer some minimum protection to the resource . Similar protection should include the Crooked River. Pleasantview Township - Some two-thirds of Pleasantview Township is rn state forest and ma j or ski resort ownership . Hence, the community supports a very h i gh volume tourist population which includes skiers, hunters, fisherm:en, snowmobilers and motorists . The demands on land resources are high and increasing rapidly . In contrast to the high tourist visitation, Pleasantview Township is one of the smallest communities in the County , showing a statist i cal need for only 2 . 0 acres of local recreation land by 1990. At present , there are no official local public parks . - 41 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I L In view of the population total and the vast areas of state forest land, there may be no need for local park facilities during the planning periodo However, some community recreation play area ought to be available and the minimum 2 o 0 acre need may be a reasonable goaL 2o Future local recreation area may be provided at the Township Hall location; this being a central geographi c locationo Local active play areas may also be dev eloped at the Chalet Village communiti es near Nubs Nob and Boyne Highlands. 3o Broad scale recreation objectives relate to the protection of the Maple River (q u ality trout water), su.·stenanc~· ; of deer yarding areas and other wildlife habitats. 4. The Harbor Springs School District owns lfi>0 acres of land west of Boyne Highlands . This tract borders the ski resort and state forest lands and could provide recreational opportuni ties to Pleasantview, Little Traverse and West Traverse Townships . Readmond Township - South of Cross Village, Readmond Township has frontage o n Lake Michigan which has attracted numerous cottages along the shoreline. A .fa i r proportion of the Township is in state forest ownership. Although there are many tourists who visit the community, the permanent popula ti on has declined in past years and only favorable conditions will prev,ent further declines through 1990. Readmond Township maintains one of the very few local parks on Lake Michigan, outs i de of Petoskey and Harbor Springs. Statistically the community will have s u rpl u s local recreation acreage through 19900 L Impro v e and add fa c ilities to the Lakefront Township Park. If possible, attempt to keep the park in a natural character , emphasizing trails and broad s c ale recreation uses . E x pand park frontage on Lake Michi gan as £ea sible . - 42 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 2. Provide active type recreational uses at off- the - lake sites in the Township. (Ballfields , skating areas , playgrounds, etc .) . Some locations may relate to state owned land, private lands possibly bequeathed to the Township, or by local citizen groups . A good central location would be with the Township Hall . 3. Promote broad scale recreat i on concepts in terms of game management, shorel ine protection , and pollution control. 4, Encourage the maintenance restoration and accessibility of cultural h i stor i cal features related to Indian populations and early missionary act i vities . Resort Township - By 1990 , Resort Township may be the third mo st populous c ommunity in the County and therefore will generate comparatively large demands for recreational services. acres by 1990 . Stati stically, there may be a park land deficit of 13. 8 Existing recreation services are provided by the Resort Sc-hool and larger parks in Petoskey, Currently , there is only one small public access site on Walloon Lake and none on Lake Michigan. Resort Township Recreation Plan entails the following : 1. For general Township recreation, the acreage requirements by 1990 may be satisfied by expandi ng the school site. An active sports recreation area may also be located with the fiTe station on Intertown Road. 2. Long range neighbIDrhood recreation areas should be developed in terms of the recommendations of the Petoskey Area Plan . Parks may be sited with elementary schools , unless there are scenic natural features (woods, waters , topograpp.y, etc.), in the neighborhood that should be reserved as public open space. 3. In an effort to broaden the recreational resources of the community, seek to acquire park- recreation areas in one or all of the following locations : On Little Traverse Bay, at the north end of Townline Road On Walloon Lake , perhaps in the vicinity of the Manthei Veneer Mill - 43 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I On the north end of Walloon Lake at the south extremity of Cemetery Road Enlargement of the public access site on Walloon Lake at ResortPike Road, Other scenic Township areas with a potential for diversified outdoor recreation , preferably to serve all seasons of the year. 4. Protect the scenic image of the T o wnship and the broad scale resource areas for wildlife management and large scale outdoor recreation of a passive nature, 5. A second potential recreation resource oriented to Little Traverse Bay may involve future land re-claimed from quarrying activities by the Penn-Dixie Corp , This is a long term future possibility. Springvale Township - This community is expected to have a slight to moderate increase in population through 1990 , Major recreation resources include state forest land, Pickerel Lake, and the Minnehaha River, Currently, there are no Township park facilities and there will be a statistical need for 5, 7 acres by 1990, L Local park and recreation area may be developed near Epsilon to achieve a good central location, A facility on Ellsworth Road or east Pickerel Lake Road would also be near populated areas. 2. In order to enhance public access to broad scale recreation resources, park and recreation areas should be provided on Pickerel Lake and/ or Crooked Lake, Existing state public access sites on these lakes could be enlarged, 3, Protect the Minnehaha River from over de v elopment and pollution, Estab lish scenic corridors along the river to retain the natural scenic attractions for canoeists and fishermen, 4, Reserve some rolling topograhpic areas for local recreation - hiking, sledding, etc , Some steeper slope areas may have ski resort potential. - 44 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ' Wawatam Township and Mackinaw Village - Modest population increases have been projected for the Wawatam - Mackinaw community. With existing local recreation areas, this will leave a 15. 7 acre surplus by 1990. Community recreation areas now include Mackinaw City's park on Cecil Bay and the Mackinaw High School. Well over half of the Township's land area is in state forest land, and the principal access to Wilderness State Park is through the Township. L The nature of Wawatam Township in terms of projected growth, land use, land ownership and traffic pattern suggest that there are no basic local recreation deficiencies. Moreover , the major portion of the local recreation demand can be met with facilities in Mackinaw Village. 2, Local recreational facilities in Mackinaw Village may be increased if the rate of population growth increases and new industry is attracted into the area. Neighborhood parks and community recreation areas should then be provided in accessible locations. On the basis of broad scale recreational resources, additional park land should be acquired on Cecil Bay, before it is entirely subdivided. Seasonal home subdivisions should then be designed in cluster developments off the immediate shore areas. 4. Other community recreation may be developed on the state owned lands, school forests , and perhaps on former sanitary fill lands. The Township owns 125 acres of land north of French Lake that has broad recreation use potential. 5. Tourist recreation in the Wawatam - Mackinaw community is greatly enhanced by Fort Michilimackinac. This outstanding historical attraction is an authentic re-creation of the old fort community and is a model culturalhistorical-educational facility. Mackinaw Island, the Mackinaw Bridge, Wilderness State Park, and the Straits of Mackinaw combine with the iFort attraction into a major tourist complex. 6. Broad scale recreation resources in the area can contribute to tourist stayi ng power. Frenchman ' s Lake in Wawatam Township is the site of a wildlife flooding project and proposed state campgrounds. The Carp Lake Riv er should be protected as a canoeable trout stream and vacation activity area . Most of the Township is important as a deer yarding region. - 45 - �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I West Traverse Township - Because there are no public parks, West Traverse Township will have a statistical need for 4. 0 acres of community parks by 1990. Actual acreage need could go beyond this if the Harbor Springs community experience substantial amounts of new growth. This could necessitate one or two neighborhood parks. Tourist visitation and seasonal home developments are quite advanced in the Township. The Land Use Inventory showed 135 seasonal homes and 110 one family homes. The community's ready access to ski resorts, harbor facilities and state forests makes it attractive for recreation. Also, there are scenic woods, some steep topographic areas, and panoramic views over Little Traverse Bay. Some local recreation actions may include: 1. Provision of open space resources in developing residential areas to: break-up the urban pattern, provide neighborhood play areas (sledding, skating, picnicing, etc.), protect scenic resource areas in their natural or wilderness images. 2. Attempt to secure Lake Michigan frontage for Township recreation uses. Open land along the shoreline is scarce and it may take years to establish a significant public open space resource on the Lake. 3. Consider developing a central community recreation area in one or more of the following locations : (a) the 80 acre Emmet County Winter Park (privately owned) in Section 3, if it becomes available; (b) on lands now utilized for sanitary fill purposes at Houghton and Quick Roads; (c) perhaps in Sections s ·and 32, at the _west end of MiadLe. Road . 4. Another recreation resource for Township residents is the 80 acre tract owned by Friendship Township, one-half mile north of West Traverse Township. This tract could be jointly owned and operated for recreation purposes by both communities. If the Township Hall is ever moved or reconstructed on a larger site, it could be located on a recreation area to provide community building services as well as a large town hall site. -46- �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Cities of Petoskey and Harbor Springs - Both of the incorporated Cities have statistical park land surpluses through 1990. population . Both are expected to increase in As a part of the County Recreation Plan, the separate recreation plans prepared for these two communities are hereby declared to be a part of the C o unty Comprehensive Recreation Plan. The separate Plans are referenced as follows : 1. Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc., Recreational Facilities, Petoskey Area Planning Commission, January, 1969. 2. Williams and Works, Comprehensive Plan, Harbor Springs, Report 1, 1969. Because of the vast land and resource potentials of Emmet County, it is difficult to foresee every specific local recreational need that may; evolve in the ye a rs ahead . Hence, it is expected that the County Recreation Plan may be amended from time to time to reflect the optimum needs of the moment. These may relate , to population •g rowth, new town developments, desire to preserve a resource not now inventoried, and/ or to accept land bequests from philanthropic persons in the community. Also, the evalvement of a county park system could reli·e ve the individual '. townships of some recreation responsibilities, or may supplement e x isting township parks. -47- �C £ C I L . -~ 8 ~G . . A r T.HN. ,.► ~ 8 STllHGEON ~ .. y 8 r r ~ ~ ~ j ' t ~ ~ -"~~--~ '. I_ ' 1 71 ~ jf T 57N. : I I I I I J□ -J L_ ~ --~:, ---- -- u- : '~~ U 1 :; H It H i -.._..,, I h' .'\~. 01. ii lr. , I T ~: I . : . ;if---=--=--=-~3-~::~~, , J~p :;P ,, ll i! ••,,........ ji v,l~w;n• ~==~ ~ . r . T ' ' l--~ - ~ ~ L _JI . ,_---~:~~: __] T. 36N I 1,., In JI 1, .....::;:~~ ~ n1 ;D~[ u - - c~~-_- .~ I \I I -"(~.g; ~... ,. 1.. ' ·i' _ . \I_'._ r=-=,1 ~ __, lJ -· .. I [- ~ .. .,,J..L ,, - ---- : : -: - ..::,rr L=-· ,. _~ ,GJ ~nf]-- -------1 ,1.~ut De ,ii~D'l□C______. .U 4~ - ,~"=-.· 1: I -<>- -<>- .....,..,... • ~I 1 :=1• ~ I ~%,:- - _J _: _;- II ~"'~ 'i!i,~. - • . - 'if~ - >f'."'-~ w E :--] ~~LW~ -· L 1 0-.-, 1 T 1 - - · -· L j , I , ; ·]I •• .~ I • 1. lra; . 1JI' - : ~ nnl ,r 1 ~~~_::- . t.., ~~ ~ "' 11 dl··--J----~1 t "J T 30N. '{ .J LITTLE TRAVERSE 8 A Y ... ... 4P:-, ,F',7 '--.- · I" .1 j~ 1 s " • II • 1CT--=dr -- ... "'=l I ,' (\~1'' ' \ ~ : J-!□ I ! · 1 ~cu=~- • \; - 2.__..!l! ., 1I ,~ ~ ~L I, _.. LJ-1'~LJ~]l ~s-o ~~~:·__!i j~~-· _ ... • ·!. , 1n1 · .', -~ 1:=J. l- .-1-~--r__..:In ,,_ .- : -~ -~ _,-. 2J_l --~~ -R di ~l ~"=='===='Jo·-· ~ =;r= -- - --,~ E l A ._J -, , • · E' 1 '""" ~o- 7 1/ ~~ P> • I I ~"-----:_. __. ' a• l'.c= ~ H(( \\ n .... I ~ ~ ~'IL ,,I'/ ~ r# I.L~&• • ,1 Of ..-,. ~ rt ~ ""°" --- ---=----,........._~ ,... --•:i•.u-~ "'!.II ......... •4' ~ · : J l ~ N C - - - N'll"a~ . ~r-«-.. LIM ~ UUS"......cl ~ ~ • OIUE n MCTIQll'9l ;:Jl f"!!ill«-IIJ-c.6"Ta.t•S.. U .......~ ~ l ' l 'r!C ~ ~.~ CJI~~ - -• ~ ~ ++ • vifico11 ~ lemoa a oasoc.. ii,c.., p l oa11 i 119 co111allon11 I RECREA TION EMMET M \\ ~ -~ - ~ - - :~J - ~ COUNTY [ ' "' PLAN II ,. 11. COUNTY R 4W HARDWOOD STATE FOREST PROJECT BOUNDARY (modifl•d tom•what to r•f l•ct land ownu1hlp a u /1t lng usu ) EX IST ING REG IONAL PARK· RECREATI ON AREAS EX IST ING LOCAL RECREAT ION l comrnuni ty a ac hoo I PROPOSED REG IONAL a COMM UNITY -WI DE RECREA T ION (rtur 1tr•am corridor, , lake accH1, a ruou rce protect ion) POTENT I AL LOCAL-COMM UN I TY RECREAT I ON AREAS ( i ncl udu ol ternatt 1i h1} POTENTI AL WILDERNESS I MAGE ACCESS TO STATE PARK + )\ II \\. !., r ,. ~ r I �---, COUNTY-WIDE RECREATION PLAN RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS 1. County Entrance Points There are four key roadway access points that can be regarded as County entrances, Entrance points may feature information centers, attractive landscaping, and/or coordinated sign treatment, as they give visitors an immediate image of the County. Harbor areas and airports are also entrance areas that need beautification attention. 2. I ~ 00 I SUGGESTED ACTION Either the County or interested groups within the County should initiate a program to beautify County entrances. Similar action should be taken by the larger communities so that uncontrolled billboarding and unsightly land uses are avoided. Countywide zoning or local zoning ordinances should support the concepts of attractive entrance points. Historical Sites Emmet County has significant historical areas to interest tourists and enrich the cultural characteristics of the County . Both Catholic and Protestant missionaries pioneered early County development through their work with the Indians. Some dominant historical areas which hold a potential for increased tourism-recreation development include : ( 1) original Indian mission sites, and early churches ; (2) Indian burial grounds and Indian village sites ; (3) lumbering history; (4) the cottage of the Hemmingway family, and (5) the passenger pigeon. Former mission communities, historical villages , and lumber towns can be successful tourist attractions, and would complement Fort Michilimackinac. The County should work with religious faiths, local historical groups, the State Historical Commission and others, to evolve a strong inter-related historical recreation complex. It is advantageous that the strong history of the County relates closely to the natural attractions of the Lake Michigan shore. Measures to safe- guard existing nistorical features should be explored as well as methods for financing developments . Cross Village has a particularly strong Indian-missionary history that can be enhanced by historical development projects. Other points of interest along the Lake Michigan shore can be worked into the historical area known as L'Arbre Croche Country. �- - 3. Parks and Public Access Sites Emmet County, as a unit of government does not own or maintain any parks. The State, individual townships, and municipalities own and operate existing facilities for outdoor recreation. Fort Michilimackinac, Wilderness, and Petoskey State Parks attract most of the tourist oriented recreation, although ther-e are other public access sites and campgrounds, . Each park site and recreation area should have a development plan which respects the carrying capacity of the land. As the demand approaches the park 1 s carrying capacity, then the next phase of planned development should be implemented, and/ or another park area established. The attraction features of each park should also be multi-faceted, so that there are items which can interest all age groups. A campground, for example, will function best if it can provide scenic trails, playground apparatus, historical features and monuments, and unique natural features (rock strata, wiidlife, pla::i:r.t life, etc.). I .i,. '° I 4. - The County can appoint a committee(s) to evaluate the aesthetic and recreational qualities bf _all existing park sites. Recommendations for improvements, expansions, and broadened services should be made to the appropr-iate sponsoring agency. Although Emmet County has a comparatively low total population, it would be well to investiget:e the desirability of establishing a County Park system, perhaps under a County Recreation Authori_tv. County parks could then be developed in critical _ , recreation and resource areas where state, township or village governments may not wish to act or cannot act. This would broaden the County 1 s resources to develop recreation areas and preserve scenic attractions. Game and Fish Management County support of State fish and game management practices is important to the encouragement of hunters and fishermen. Land developments and land uses which infringe upon game longevity should be avoided. In addition to the problems of stream bank erosion from improper building and tree cutting, and the extension o f highways through hab itat areas , snowmobile operators should be restr ic ted from game areas de eme d vital for gan1e management success. Game management programs should encompass three major land owner ships : ( l) the Hardwood State Forest , (2) other public lands , and (3) private recreation-forest acreages. Timber, fish and game management practices are essential elements of ecological balance, a concern which extends into adjacent counties as well. With the assistance of the particular agencies respons i ble , periodic reports should be available on area resource management. Moreo v er , the retention of productive farms should be recogn ize d as an i mportant element of game management. �5. The Wilderness or Northern Image Emmet County is unique from metropolitan areas, because it is 11 up north'' and has the aura of a great outdoors and wilderness. Although there are more primitive regions in Michigan, Emmet is readily accessible by land, water and air from metropolitan areas. Hence, the image of a woods, waters, open space character must be maintained in the face of pressures to over develop. I (JI 0 I 6. Wilderness type areas in Emmet County are in the WiLderness State Park, Wa Watam Township, the region between Larks Lake and the ski resorts, and in the lower half of Springvale Township. Woods, rolling topography, and swamp areas ensure this image at present. The state and private forest owners will be most responsible for determining the extent and use of wilderness type areas. Tree cutting on hill sides and along the roads are key areas of concern. Canoe waters should be given high priority for scenic easement protection and efforts made to identify and promote canoeing as a significant recreational feature of the County. Streams must also be protected for their value in producing fish and their role in game management. Topographic Resources The region including Emmet County is unique for its rolling-hilly landscape. Of importance is the fact that there are numerous scenic overlooks and commanding views of Lake Michigan and wooded country side. There are broad valleys and wide vistas in many interior county areas. Scenic views offer exceptional recreation potential with a high attraction for tourists and visitors from the flat land regions of most metropolitan centers in the Midwest. The County should pursue a long- range program to develop and/ or promote access to strategic hill tops. Boyne Highlands and Nubs Nob are examples of economic use of topographic features. Hiking trails should follow carefully planned routes to offer variety in terms of occasional views from ridge lines, land form, game areas, and forest types. Scenic views from highways should also be protected from urban development. One example is on US - 131 as it enters Petoskey from the south (Rotary Park area.) �7. Winter SE_orts Snow and climatic conditions in Emmet County have proven the potential for a long winter sports season. Current activities include skiing, snowmobiling, and skating. Winter sports activity is heavily oriented to the major ski resorts of Boyne Highlands and Nubs Nob. Where feasible, smaller hills in Township or City areas should be reserved for casual winter play activity. A good example is Petoskey' s Winter Sports Park. Sledding, tobogganing and skiing would be permitted. Too often the topographic resources become developed for cottage-resort use, and the community at large has limited access. Snowmobile trails should be extended throughout Emmet County and into adjacent counties to fit into long cross-country trails. Utility easements (power lines and natural gas) offer good potential for long distance trails. Cross country skiing and snow shoe routes also afford good active outdoor recreation. Perhaps the Wilderness Golf Course and recreation subdivision in Ca_!p Lake Township could be diversified into a snowmobile resort complex. I U1 ..... I 8. Geologic Points of Interest and Minerals A significant recreation attraction to area visitors are land forms which differ from the visitors I home area. Their importance is demonstrated by the efforts of the N~tional Park Service to acquire and develop the Pictured Rocks area near Munising. Emmet County has geologic attractions, most notably the cliffs along Lake Michigan and the limestone quarries. The "Petoskey Stone" is a product of geologic time and is commemorated - by an historical marker in Petoskey. Lake Michigan sand beaches are another highly attractive resource. Geologic and physiographic interest items should be catalogued, mapped, described in terms of unusual features, historic importance and accessibility. Efforts should also be made to reserve and preserve scarce resources , such as the sandy beaches which extend from the Cross Village area to Wilderness Park. Some undeveloped lake front still exists in the area . �9. Private Recreation Enter.E_rises The variety of resources and nearness to metropolitan areas opens the door for private recreation enterprises for all seasons. Boat marinas, lake trolling, recreation farms, dude ranches, guided tours, camping areas, canoe liveries, vacation homes, and ski resorts hold varying potentials for individual investment. Moreover, transportation factors are improving and metropolitan centers continue to expand, increasing the demand for outdoor recreation. Private recreation must be part of the comprehensive recreation picture and the concept of multiple use encouraged. Abandoned farms, marginal farms, and productive farms may offer year around recreation services for hunting, camping, hiking trails, vacation farm activity, snowmobiling and the like. Boating and canoeing are also popular activities. I u, N I 10. Research and Education The University of Michigan operates a forest research facility near Pellston that encompasses several square miles of land. Within the research area are two important streams -- Van Creek and the east' branch of the Maple River. Private outdoor recreation is needed if the area is to reap economic benefits from the field of tourismrecreation. Public parks and access sites represent only part of the required services. To the extent feasible, individual (e.g. groups or persons) developments should work into the total County theme for recreation and must form at least one segment in a complex of recreation opportunity. For example, golf course locations should consider their role in the establishment of vacation home sites, retirement villages, resort developments and related. Therefore, public parks, historic attractions, and private tourist attractions must recognize the importance of their facility in terms of its total attraction potential. Will the facility be attractive and of quality, is it self- supporting, can it also promote the use of other facilities, does it contribute to wild life management and resource conservation? Answering these basic questions will decide whether or not a recreational facility is part of a comprehensive recreation system. On- site tours would prove to be an educational experience for tourists who may have little prior knowledge of forest management practices and ne-w methods being employed. A complete educational complex may include an operating sawmill, examples of timber grades, and related aspects of the timber industry. Private wood using industries in the County could add to the forest industry tour to demonstrate the facinating aspects of this industry. The recreation of a logging town (perhaps Pellston) can also promote some of these objectives. �11. Trails The physiography of Emmet County is highly adaptive to the development of scenic trails as these are necessary to complete the access sytitem to the area's recreation attractions. Depending on the particular site and season, wooded trails may be designated for hiking, snowshoeing, bicycling, horseback riding, cross- country skiing, snowbwbiling, motorcycling, and jeep tours. One trail cannot practically satisfy all modes of transportation, but trails should be designated for most types. 12. I (JI I.,.) Cooperating groups and agencies concerned with Emmet County and its environs, should act to develop a diverse trail system . With renewed interest in bicycling, it may be unique to develop a bicycle path through part of a timber stand . The same trail could be used in winter for snow-·shoeing or crosscountry skiing. Equestrian pack trains into the Wilderness Park area could be an attractive ~_tourist experience. Of interest would be historic explorer routes, Indian trails and the cross-country routes -of early missionaries. Several of these must exist between Petoskey, Harbor Springs and Mackinaw City. (L'Arbre Croche County) Lakes, Ponds and Rivers Water oriented recreation is a major area attraction for tourists, summer home residents and sportsmen. As a rule there is less water access in resort areas than there are tourists. Over use and over development is therefore a problem. Protecting the water resources of Emmet County will be a major implementation objective, and involves the State,. County, , and private land developers . The public concern should be to encourage better development practices so that pollution does not occur, and water recreation opportunities are not limited to the privileged few. The concept of.cluster developments is one means to achieve both pollution control and resource preservation. Public ownership or community control of shorelines, river banks, and scarce sandy beach areas is the best preservation measures provided an allowance is made for private development needs. At the present time, there are undeveloped beach areas, river valleys, lakes, and ponds that should be preserved for broader public enjoyment and not subdivided into small lots. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Emmet-County_Comprehensive-Recreation-Plan_1970 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970-03 Title A name given to the resource Comprehensive Recreation Plan Description An account of the resource The Comprehensive Recreation Plan for Emmet County was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. in March 1970. Subject The topic of the resource Comprehensive plan publications Recreation--Planning Emmet County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/85fab6fe71b758fc296fd0860e3139a9.pdf 2d0f1f3dc9e5996037a4204566844efa PDF Text Text EMMET COUNTY MASTER PLAN 1971 �- JI I I I I I FUTURE LAND USE PLAN EMMET COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION I Emmet County, Michigan I I ,~ I I I April, 1971 Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Community Planning Consultants 29621 Northwestern Highway Southfield, Michigan 48076 I I I I f f r The preparation of this report was financially aided through a Federal Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, under the Urban Planning Assistance Program, authorized by Section 701 of the Housing Act of 1954, as amended, administered by the Michigan Department of Commerce. �CONTENTS 1 INTROD\.JC: ION 2 2 4 ;o, tJL~ ;ICN lRENDS ;~Cc (_;F~OUPS f'fl () JECTIOl\!S 5 OTHE H CHAti.ACTE R IST ICS 6 9 E XIS r1NG LAND USE: 11 12 14 16 16 riESGl.l~li:S . . su;,.s TO?() !~ RAPH / W.C. Tt:R .A.lJ R It. U l Tl JRE 8f:SIDEhl !'I.AL 19 19 20 21 22 26 . UR8.;N DE:'JE LOPM ENT PROCESS CCNCEPTS DEMANDS . Rl:: SI DUl1" IA'._ ARl:::AS PL.AN i=iE:.COMMF:NCA TIONS 28 32 33 34 .i Hi:Or1 ET!C~ t.. l'JEl::D SCHnOL f'L.AN~; RECOMMEND ATIONS 36 37 39 40 f-kCR[,!l.-r ION . . RfUlf:ATIQN Rt.SOU RCES ,_oct.,.!.. NrEDS . . . RECO MM EN D;\ 7" 10NS . �-I ,~ I 1I I I 1I . ,. ··r-.. I I' ,, 'I I -r\ 'l , COMMUNITY FACILITIES COMMUNITY BUILDINGS COURTHOUSE AND JAi L 48 48 49 FAIRGROUNDS MEDICAL FACI LIT! ES 50 51 ROAD COMMISSION LIBRARIES NORTH CENTRAL MICHIGAN COLLEGE 52 53 53 AIRPORTS . . . . . . . . . . WATER AND SEWER UTI LIT! ES LAND FILLS . . FIRE STATIONS 55 59 59 COMMERCIAL . . THREE COUNTY REGION SEASONAL VARIATION IN SALES EXISTING RETA! L CENTERS RETAIL CENTER PLANS 62 62 63 64 65 INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT . . . EXISTING INDUSTRY INDUSTRIAL PLAN 70 70 73 THOROFARES . . . THOROFARESTANDARDS REGIONAL ORIENTATION 79 79 79 THOROFARE DEMANDS THOROFAREPLAN 81 82 FUTURE LAND USE PLAN 88 54 74 �TABLES 1 History of Population Growth (1900-1970) 2. Population Trends: 1930 to 1970 3 4 ' '":ounty Population P:·ojections Sumrnc. ProJections for County Civil Divisions 5. Existing Land Use 6. Countv Soil Resources 7 Selected Farm Ctiaracter 1stics 8. Public School Capacities 9. School B1Jild1ng Data 10. Theoretical School Building Needs 11 . Projected K-12 Public Scho ol DE:mands 12. REcreatI on Land Inventory 13. Local Recreation Needs 14. Seasonal Variation of Comparison Retail Sales 15. 1960 Occupational Ctiaracteristics 16. County industrial Characteristics . 17 . Potential Industrial Land Areas 18. S:reet Classitications and Standards 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 30 31 32 34 39 40 64 71 75 77 81 �'Jr' -,. , ._ -·: I FIGURES POPULATION IN CRITICAL AGE GROUPS . . 3A EXISTING LAND USE . SA SELECTED RESOURCES AND INVENTORY . 10A SOIL RESOURCES . . . . . . . . ·12A TOPOGRAPHY . 14A RESIDENTIAL AREAS PLAN . 22A RECREATION PLAN . 35A SCENIC AND RECREATION INVENTORY . 37A COMMUNITY FACILITIES . 61A . . . . . EXISTING COMMERCIAL LAND USE . 618 MINIMUM CONVENIENCE CENTERS ALANSON CENTER CARP LAKE CENTER . 67A . . . 67B CROSS VILLAGE CENTER . 67C PELLSTON CENTER . -67D POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL SITES . 75A TRAFFIC FACILITIES AND GENERATORS . 82A THOROFARE PLAN . 86A FUTURE LAND USE PLAN . 87A I, -I I I Ir--\ I I f I I \ I I r I J �COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION WARD H WALSTROM, Chairman DONALD HODGKISS, Vice Chairman CHAR LES WILLS, Secretary ROBERT CILKE, JR JAMES C ESTERLINE THOMAS FAIRBAIRN SEBERON LITZENBURGER HARRY PINTARELLI ROBERT TRACY COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS HUGH HEYNIG, Chairman HUBERT BACHELOR ROBERT Cl LKE, JR AL FOSTER ROBERTJ GREENWELL ERNEST KUEBLER DONALD D . JARDlf\' ERNST MANTHEI FRANK SCHMALZRIED J. H VvEBSTER E S. WIXSON HARRIET L KILBORN, County Clerk �I 10 I I I I I I I I I I I I I FOREWORD This report summarizes a series of Comprehensive Plan reports prepared for Emmet County, under the terms of both a " 701" Urban Planning Assistance Program and a Farmers Home Administration Comprehensive Water and Sewer Planning Grant. Titled "Future Land Use Plan", this publication embodies the findings and conclusions of twelve plan reports . Following is a list of the supporting plan reports prepared during the course of the program . These contain much of the detailed concepts, data, and alternative plan recommendations considered to be part of this Future Land Use Plan: Grant Program Work Element Date Commercial Economic Base Resource Inventory March, 1969 April , 1969 HUD HUD (part) FHA (part) Land Use Inventory Population Analysis October, 1969 November, 1969 FHA FHA Residential & School Plan January, 1970 HUD Community Facilities Recreation Plan January, 1970 HUD HUD Housing Study (No. 1) March, 1970 March, 1970 HUD Industrial Economic Base Thorofare Plan December, 1970 HUD January, 1971 HUD Housing Study (No . 2) April , 1971 Water and Sewer Plan April, 1970 HUD FHA When application was made for the HUD "701" Planning Assistance Grant, a supplemental planning program was funded by Farmers Home Administration to prepare a County-wide Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan. The activation of this two-phase planning program resulted in a more comprehensive approach to County planning. This Land Use Plan is more complete because it benefited from I the plans developed under the FHA work . Conversely, the FHA Plan is more complete because of the research completed for this plan . The two programs dovetailed well from a technical point of view, and both were coordinated under the auspices of the Emmet County Planning Commission. -i- [ �-I INTRODUCTION I I I I I I The Emmet County Planning Commission was created by Ordinance under the terms of the County Planning Commission Enabling Act, No 282, of the Public Acts of 1945. With the signature of the then Governor of the State of Michigan, the nine (9) member Commission was officially established on Apr il 26 , 1967 (O rdinance No . 2) . According to the terms of the Enabling Statute, the Commission membership " . .. shall be representative of the important segments of the economic, government and social life and development of the County of Emmet . . . " Guided by the broad language of the Enabling Statute, the County Planning Commission membership represents major areas of interest in Emmet County . Creation of the Emmet County Plann ing Commission was a formal recognition of the need to establish long-range guidelines for development. These guidelines were deemed necessary to coordinate the planning endeavors of rrany County interests, I. government. Hence, the Comprehensive Plan portrays basic development policies ··r\ related to : I. I f I I I I including business, industry, recreation, community services and local Recreation and scen ic resources Industrial patterns Commercial facilities and tourist accommodations Community services Planning and development services Effective traffic ci rcu la ti on Citizen information Work on the Comprehensive Plan began on May 1, 1968, under the financial auspices of a Federal Comprehensive Planning Assistance Grant, funded under Section "701" of the Federal Housing Act. Emmet County provided one-third of the costs in order to participate in the planning program . Or iginally a two-year planning program, funding delays have extended the work over a three-year period, and considerable work remains in the area of development controls (zoning, subdivisions, etc .). -1- �- , POPULATION In November of 1959, a Comprehensive Analysis and Report of Population in Emmet County was prepared with F.H.A. Planning Assistance Funds. The conclusions from that report are summarized and updated herein, so that the findings will properly relate to this Comprehensive Land Use Plan . TRENDS Emmet County's population in 1960 was lower than it was in 1950. Also, the County's population in 1930 was only slightly lower than the 1960 total . However, the 1970 Census reports show a 15.3% increase over 1960. Desp ite this recent gain, the County reached its peak population in 1910. The history of County population change since 1900 is summar ized in TAB LE 1. TABLE 1 HISTORY OF POPULATION GROWTH 1900- 1970 Emmet County t Census Year 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 •....:., lf1u • I 1~~ >.:: I.....: County Population 15,931 18,561 15,639 15,109 15,791 16,534 15,904 18,337 Emmet County's past growth represents a long period of population stability, despite two World Wars, a major depression and other volitile national growth influences. In the decades from 1930 to 1970, the population increased 14.6%, yet the 1910 population was 230 persons higher than in 1970. Emmet County is composed of sixteen Townships ranging in size from 185 citizens to a population of 2,450. The past growth pattern of these communities varied from one another, some increasing gradually while others lost population . • -2- -J. �TABLE 2 illustrates the recent history of population growth among the communities of the County . Only four townships have increased in population in each Census year between 1930 and 1970 These are the townsh ips of Little Traverse, Littlefield, Resort and Springvale. Bear Creek Township and West Traverse Township have experienced consistent growth since 1940. Between 1950 and 1960, eight townships reported population decreases. Since 1960, six townships reported declines. TABLE 2 POPULATION TRENDS: 1930 - 1970 Emmet County & Civil Divisions 60 to 70 Townsh ips : Bear Creek Bl iss Carp Lake Center Cross V illage Friendship Little Traverse Littlefield McKin~ly Maple River Pleasantview Readmond Resort Springvale WaWatam West T raverse Change Number Percent 1930 1940 1950 1960 1,227 399 374 442 323 336 440 691 1,121 538 165 362 656 298 298 270 1,204 421 431 425 290 428 481 835 980 540 207 440 708 371 343 245 1,756 355 524 307 228 297 575 842 845 415 114 352 387 397 319 1,859 298 464 215 140 318 602 906 843 335 198 246 748 467 368 326 591 -16 -25 134 45 78 383 360 -8 80 -74 -12 251 196 63 94 31 8% -54% -5 4% 62 3% 32 .1% -24 .5% 63 6% 39 7% -0 .9% 23 .9% -37 4% -4 .9% 34 9% 42 0% 17 1% 28 8% 2,450 282 439 349 185 240 985 1,266 835 415 124 234 1,009 663 431 420 7,940 8,349 8,440 8,333 1,984 23 8% 10,327 287 1,429 330 1,423 319 1,626 290 1,433 72 229 24 8% 16 0% 362 1,662 283 810 5,740 326 562 6,019 365 442 6,468 336 429 6,138 -6 -1 8% 40 204 9.3% 3 3% 330 469 6,342 7,169 7,442 8,094 7,571 433 5 7% 8,004 15,109 15,791 16,594 15,904 2,427 15 3% 18,331 727 1970 Cities & Villages : * A lanson Harbor Springs *Mackinaw City (pt) *Pellston Petoskey City NOTE : Villages indicated with * are included with their respective Townships, and not added under the category subtotals for ··c1 t1es and villages" �L - ,.- :,..,.. y·~ r:• -;_:;j 1,; __ ·- ~~ l:.~ r :· - r.... ~,J ·- . ·-· .J C.. ....... . :..-"...:....· -; ~ ),:.,........._ .. I;~~- ·- L .J -:~ r·. --r ....~ [_ ' 1•• ~~ i, · , I I ! 50 ~ 40 ---·- EMM E T CO U NTY S TA TE Of 50 MI C HI G AN 40 "' Cl .._ ....., ::, '· C) 0.. 30 30 ., .._" ... ... 20 "'"' "<t "'0.. 10 Cl C, 19.0 9 .3 / ~/,l __,, - ~ __,,/,:j -1/~ /~/41 ....,../41_..,/.A-~,-1 1950 19 50 ..... ....,..~~/,,I ~ ~ ....,.. ~/~/,,I ....,..~~/21 20 -- o~--- 0 1940 1950 1960 UNDER -5 PR E - SCH O OL A GE 1960 19 4 0 15 - 2 4 5 - I4 ELEME N TARY SC H OO L 1960 A GE HI GH 1950 1960 1940 2 5 - 44 S CH OOL FA MIL Y 45 - 6 4 FORM IN G MA T URE FAM ILI ES AN O POPULATION IN CRITICAL EMMET COUNTY 19 4 0 I 65 6 OVE R RETI R E ME NT AGE YOUN G AOUL T S . 10 19 5 0 AGE GROUPS MICHIGAN 1960 ' �Population losses since 1960 occurred in the townships of Bliss, Carp Lake, Friendship, Mc Kinley, Pleasant View, and Readmond Those that experienced increases, exceeded the growth rates of the cities and villages Little T (·averse and Center Townships increased by a rate over 60%. WaWatam Township had the lowest percent increase at 17 .1%, which exceeded the County average of 15.3% . In the order of importance, the largest numerical population gains occurred in Bear Creek Township, Little T raverse "Township, Littlefield Township, Resort Township, Harbor Springs, Petoskey, Springvale Township and Center Township AGE GROUPS Some of the population age group data which characterized Emmet County in 1960 1s described below This data should be re-evaluated when the results of the 1970 Census become available . 1. Pr-eschool Age (Under 5 Years) In 1960, 12 4% of Michigan's population was under five years of age . West Traverse Township had 16% In the order of highest percentage, Springvale, Bear Cr-eek, WaWatam, Resort and F-·iendsh1p Townships also exceeded the State average P:easantv1ew, Center and C'. oss Village Townships reported fewer than 6% of the population 1n this age group 2. School Age to Young Adults (5 to 24 Years) Both the County and S1ate have 33 .7% of the ir population 1n the school age - young adult group . E:even of the 16 townships have higher than average proportions, with Readmond, F~1endship, West T·averse, B;iss, Center, and Resort Townships exceeding 36% 3. Family Forming or Young Labor Force (25 to 44 Years) A consistent population disparity with State averages in northern communities is the family forming or young labor force population groups The S1.ate reported 26 .5% of the 1960 population 1n th is group, v;hile Emmet County reported 21 8% . Only Pleasantview Township exceeds the S 1 ate average, with 53% of the population aged 25 to 44 years In contrast. C· oss Village and Center Townships have less than 16% of their population 1n this age group -4 - �- , (1 . I rn 4. Nearly 21% of the County population is aged 45 to 64 years, which compares closely with the State's proportion of 19.2%. Township proportions range from the low 11.6% in Pleasantview to the high of 26 .5% in Center . In general, Northern Michigan communities have the higher Jq:.:.J IJ In (] li2 ·• -1 ._r-; I] Mature Family Group (45 to 64 years) proportions of mature family aged groups and Emmet County reflects this pattern. 5. Retirement Age Group (65 and over) Emmet County has a significantly higher proportion of retirement age citizens than the State ( 12.1% compared with 8.1%) . Only two townships have percentages lower than the State average: Pleasantview with 3% and Friendship with 7.9% . Cross Village has the highest proportion with 27 .1%. A large proportion of retirement age citizens is also typical of northern area communities. PROJECTIONS r'-, ( (- I ;:_~ For the purposes of the Emmet County Comprehensive Plan, four population projections to 1990 were completed for a 22 year projection period, beginning with 1968. These were done before 1970 Census data was available The results of the various methods are summarized in TABLE 3. .I -_ . TABLE 3 ' ~ l SUMMARY OF COUNTY POPULATION PROJECTIONS EMMET COUNTY :··1I ; : ""' Projection Method I:'. IrJ I~ I,: r . Long-Term Ai·ithmetic Long-Term (Dept of Commerce) Short-Term Arithmetic Short-Term Ratio Apportionment Average • ;__J 1970 1990 Population Projection 15,904 15,904 15,904 15,904 18,331 18,331 18,331 18,331 16,700 18,180 21,890 22,000 19,940 l I ,__, I 1960 Population -5- �If the four projection methods are averaged, the 1990 population would total 19,940 persons. As a general conclusion, the short-range projection techniques appear to be the most accurate in view of the 1970 total population . It the current pace of growth continues, the 1990 "average'' projection figure will be reached by 1980. It was assumed that the Michigan Department of Commerce projections for the Civil Divisions of Emmet County would be reasonable working estimates of future population. These are presented along with the adjusted population for communities in the Petoskey Area on TABLE 4, "Projections for County Civil Divisions." The 1970 population Census strongly indicates that many Civil Divisions are growing more rapidly than the Department of Commerce figures indicate . In any event, it should be recognized that projections for smaller community areas are tenuous and more subject to inaccurate results A lso, the process of apportioning a total County population of less than 20,000 persons among 18 communities is always a questionable procedure With the adjustments made for Petoskey, Bear Creek Township and Resort Township, the total projected 1990 County population is 22,500. This figure will be used for the purposes of the Comprehensive Plan . It is reasonable, but slightly conservative in view of the 242 .7 person per year growth experienced since 1960. OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 1. Commuting Patterns According to the 1960 U.S . Census of Population, 262 workers commuted to jobs outside of Emmet County (5 5% of the employed workers) Comparative commuting rates in adJoinint Counties are: 6 0% 1n Otsego, 7.5% in Cheboygan, and 11.3% in Charlevoix . It may be concluded that a comparatively high rate of persons who work in the County live in the County. Hence, a new employment source in Emmet County will attract employees and families into the County as well . 2. Density For each resident in Emmet County, there are 16.2 acres of land Considerably less per capita area is available when the influx of tourists is included . Based on an analysis of selected residential blocks, density reaches the following levels by community: -6- �TABLE 4 PROJECTIONS FOR COUNTY CIVIL DIVISIONS EMMET COUNTY County Civil Divisions I; ' I: 1960 Population Bear Creek Township Bliss Township Carp Lake Township Center Township Cross Village Township Friendship Township Little Traverse Township Littlefield Township (Alanson) McKinley Township Maple River Township Pleasantview Township Readmond Township Resort Township Springvale Township WaWatam Township West Traverse Township Harbor Springs (City) Petoskey (City) Total County 19901 Projection 1990 Projection2 Adjusted for Petoskey Area Projections 1,859 298 464 215 140 318 602 906 843 335 198 246 748 467 368 326 1,433 6,138 2,630 247 582 94 65 238 770 1,040 810 226 165 150 860 565 450 400 1,750 7,138 5,050 2,380 Low 3,165 Low Low 7,520 15,904 18,180 22,502 Low Low 4,387 Low Low 1Michigan Department of Commerce ProJections. The 1970 U.S. Census provides a basis for re-evaluating the projection results for Civil Divisions. 2Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc., ProJect1ons for the Petoskey Area Planning Commission, and comments based on 1970 Census findings . -7- '· I..... �Selected Community Land per Dwelling 10,000 sq .ft . 12,500 SQ ft . 7,650 sq ft 15,000 sq ft . 6,600 sq .ft . 9,720 SQ ft . 12,860 SQ ft 6,000 SQ ft . 12,500 sq ft 15,000 sq .ft . Alanson Brutus Conway Cross Village Pellston Levering Oden Pon-she-wa-1 ng (Oden) Paradise Lake Van Dwellings per Acre 4 ,3 35 57 2.9 66 4.5 34 73 3.5 2.9 The foregoing density 11st is based on sample blocks 1n areas where there are no community water or sewer systems. W1th1n each community area, 1nd1v1dual homes may be sited on either smaller or larger sites Households and Family Size In 1960, there were 4,696 households 1n Emmet County as reported in the US Census of Populat ion Dividing the population 1n households by the number of households gives an average population per household of 3 33 persons This compares with other commun,ties as follows : Community Average Number of Persons per Household in 1960 1950 to 1960 Percent Change 3 42 3 33 3 35 349 3 31 +24 .9% 2.1% · 03% + 6 5% +21 3% The State of M 1ch1gan Emmet County Charlevoix County Cheboygan County Grand Traverse County Comparat ively, the County has a low population per household, and had been decreasing through 1960 This trend may or may not be continuing through 1970, but is probably influenced by: fewer young people l1v1ng on farms, increased retirement age population, high proportion of retirement age citizens, and the in-migration of students at North Central Michigan College -8- �~Lr,-===== J'itaU::: · ~.ci~ .·-~0 · , ..• u . ~ ,gc<~~~w AlNno~ ,.,,,, :{r:: .- · ◄ ,) • • . i . ~ l1 ..... , u ► .."• ..• .. ' J ◄ ..•" .• ... e 0 % ..,~ ..~" J ., " • ..,ll ...!."' 0 ~ .., 0 % ~ J J ► ► :, 0 ◄ "' •• ..-" u ◄ :, u i 0 .." " 0 ► L :, :, ~ "0 •:," ► z . ..,., .... ., .; " .., .., 0: ~ u " ◄ u 0 z "' "' ◄ 0 :, , .. ..., " ..,... : " .. "' " ., ., ◄ .,.., .... .., "' "'.."' ....," "' .. .. ., .. ◄ ·z ., z 0 2 Cl ◄ u 0 u ::; :, ~ :, ◄ u :, ll ll 0 u ◄ i :, 0 ! w en :::> 0 z <t _J "' "' >(!)~ ~ "' ... .... ~ .. ~ ~ ~ .. z::, .. 0 -u t- ... .., C/)t- ~ ~ x2 -LI.I w~ .. ....0..x::" .,_ .~ C , 0 ·I I :; ~~ / ·••1 / 7 C 0 . .. 0" E .! ... ." c·c .~: !;~ �- I I - EXISTING LAND USE I - The accompanying map prepared under an FHA Planning Grant program, illustrates the generalized land use pattern of Emmet County . TABLE 5 summarizes the acreages and proportions of uses by township areas and I city-vi II age areas. It is noted that, whenever city-vi IIage data is statistically - included . No land use data for the Cheboygan side has been tabulated; however, it I - l I portrayed, only that portion of Mackinaw City which lies L Emmet County is was inventoried on field maps. Data for Petoskey and Harbor Springs were taken from land use studies prepared for those communities under separate "701" Urban Planning Assistance Grants. Inventory Techniques The study of land use in the Comprehensive Plan has several obJectives related to understanding the County's present development and guiding future planning decisions. Foremost, the land use inventory provides both a graphic and statistical picture of the County, emphasizing the impact of man-made features. TABLE 5 EXISTING LANO USE EMMET COUNTY r I in All Townships Cities & Villages Total County (acres) (acres) (acres) Percent Developed Total 1,391 778 2,357 2 .754 7.372 203 429 374 4,830 703 _ 37 154 301 206 129 114 102 635 2 ,094 815 2,511 3,055 7,578 332 543 476 5,465 9 .1% 3.6% 10.9% 13.4% 33.1% 1.5% 2.4% 2. 1% 23.9% 20,488 2.381 22,869 100.0% Vacant, Farm & Forest ,453 Surface Water 258,932 262,415 9,485 301 88.9% 9,756 3.3% Grand Total 288,905 6,135 295,040 100.0% Residential Seasonal Homes P•.i blic Quasi-Public Recreation Commercial Industrial Rai lroads Roads Total U~es 7.8% SOURCE : Vilican-Laman & A;;sociates, Inc .. f9rmers Home Admin istrat•on ComP!ehensive s.,wer and Water Plan for Emmet County, Aoril, 1971. Field data current through November, 1969. -9- �-1 '. I The inventory of existing land use was accomplished by field inspections, conducted during the summer of 1968 However, the map was not published until October, 1969 Each use of land was recorded on field maps and later transcribed to base maps . The field inspection technique is not 100% accurate, since all uses ,n buildings are not apparent from the street and there may be uses 1n wooded areas and on large private properties generally inaccessible by vehicle Common limitations are accurate counts of apartments vv1th1n multiple-family dwellings and seasonal homes 1n forested areas Overall, however, the field inspection technique is a valuable means of assessing the character of uses, and it consumes less time and cost than other inventory systems (such as reviewing all tax records or photographic interpretation). Nevertheless, aerial photographs, U.S.G .S maps, and interviews of local officials were used to resolve questions on property usage . It should be noted that the use of land changes continually 1n all communities; hence, the data must be viewed in terms of the date 1nventoried ~ Emmet County 's total land area 1s 461 square miles, which ~& squ11.,e1l~lalt to 295,040 acres . Of this area, less than eight percent 1s used for housing, business, ~ industry, community services, recreation, and transportation. Another three percent is in major surface water area, including inland lakes and the c,ooked River Some 88 .9% of the County 1s land classified as Vacant, Farm and Forest . Vacant, Farm and Forest lands are most apt to be consumed by other uses as the County develops. Soils, topography, land ownership and the economic strength of farming will determine those lands that will be consumed first . As an illustration of existing County development, all of the County's roads, highways, railroads, parks. airports, and other land uses, except farmed or forested land could roughly fit into the area of one Townsh,p (McKinley, for example) . At the present time, the cities and villages of the County have over 3,453 acres of undeveloped land . It future permanent housing were to concentrate in vii Iage-city areas where central utility services may be available or could be provided, the County could absorb nearly 8,000 new families without losing one acre of farm land. The townships, of course, have vast areas of open land that could be developed . The character of land use in the County 1s strongly oriented to tourism recreation; however, the County also reflects some diverse development conditions For example, the County is a thinly populated rural area, yet there are highly sophisticated developments (major ski resorts, exclusive vacation home developments, jet air service, freeways, and selective retail stores) that function 1n close proximity to farming enterprises, forest industries and mining . · -10- �c( r.·] ' r~ '-- \ ' .l ::J Emmet County has a diverse resource base that is well adapted to year-around recreation attractions. Th is fact, plus the increasing accessibility of the County to tourists from metropolitan centers will cause accelerated development pressures on the existing resource base . The momentum of rising tourism, crowded metropolitan centers, new highways, and irrproved air service may well precipitate local development related to industry and factors other than tourism recreation . Emmet County's resource base must be viewed as an important element of the _~ ecological structure of Michigan and the Upper Midwest. Deer hunting, fishing, ~ natural scenery, other outdoor recreat ion, and clean waters represent major ~ attra~~ ~ ~11::'!~~iv-~· factors in the local economy and are demands upon the r environment . AsJ\~ ~ o rth fre m ~ end fsl et1 e~t . on the County can be expected to increase substantially . tu...e ~ ~ J ' I The accompanying map, "Selected Resource Inventory," illustrates deer yarding 1-... areas, trout streams, warm water fish streams, canoeable rivers and principal drainage basins. Generally, deer yarding areas, canoeable waters and quality trout ~ . i •• 1 streams are concentrated in nearly the same County locations These resource areas also provide habitat for other game species native to Northern Michigan. The drainage patterns on the map relate rivers and streams to their principal watershed areas It 1s important that land users in the County recognize these drainage patterns as certain activities may contribute to stream pollution- ~ resource depletion . The County cannot afford these losses if it is to retain ~ Northern image so attractive to urban populations which tour the United States. -11' . ' �I • 'I SOILS The accompanying "Soil Resources" map illustrates a refinement of the County's Land Type map, and presents ten ( 10) relatively homogeneous soi I groups. These soil classifications are based upon their general physical similarity . Soils in a group have similar capacity to sustain urban uses and resources development. This map gives a broad picture of the distribution and comparative quantity of County soil resources. Because of the generalized nature of the mapped information, it is II I I applicable to County planning as an overall development guide or reference. More detailed soils surveys and/or on-site investigations are needed for specific uses and site planning . In determining the general suitability of soils in their nature state for various uses, the following criterion are applied by soil scientists of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service : 1. Adaptability for Agriculture 2. Adaptability for Housing (subdivision type) 3. Adaptability for Woodland and Forest Use 4. Adaptability for Recreation A summary rating of the ten ( 10) generalized Soi I Resource Arnas is presented on TABLE 6. It is pertinent that about 70% of the area of Emmet County has soil conditions suited to urban development uses. This also 1mpl1es a general suitability for forestry, agriculture and recreation . r-- :~:~; } t~n~ ,::~r d~::~:p:~~~,~~:,hi:v~~~~~.~~::~.~~%t~:~h;i~:i~i;~e:~i;: expected to absorb most of the projected urban development in the County . However, 1t is unfortunate that many of these same soils rated very good for farming and forestry and c; ~ :~g: ~ l~ ~ e~ ~ L ( . L J ) £ . .~ . ~ devel~,r;p~ means that -:,;ki @nsle-ts aAd e development can procee~with /(~ soil lim~ s. However, the :re are other planning considerations necessary to assure that..-ReW developments do not destroy the quality of the natural environment., vY•l=~·rel:i---gen-era1e's demanEls--f-o ~ Deer- yarding area~ ~ (}A.I~~~~ µ_J- ~ ~ - - - . . .½ st land areas in the central and west central portions of Emme_t C untyl\.are well suited for .,J ~'11 !!:f!~ r - l i K , will 1999g_ ~~ AtJ\5/tWH .?'I .d+t- ~ ~~ .-12- 1 I �I TABLE 6 COUNTY SOIL RESOURCES EMMET COUNTY I I Use Rating or Adaetabili!l'. ' Agriculture Subdividing Woodland Recreation G0od Fair-Good Fai r-Good Poor Poor Good Good Good Good-Fair Fair-Good Hardwoods Hardwoods & Pi ne Hardwoods & Pine Poor Poor Good Good Good Good Fair-P.:>o r Good Good Good Fair-Good Fair Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Fair-Poor .Poor Poor Poor Poor Pom Poor Fair Poor Poor Fair-Poor Good Fair-Good Fair-Good Game H3b1tat Poor Good Poor Poor Poor .I 1 .1 1. Sandy Loam 2. Loamy S'3nd 3. Deep Loamy Sand 4. Deep A cid Sands 5. Sand & Gravel 6. Sand Gravel over Bedrock 7. Sand D11nes 8. Silts, Clays, Sand 9 . Si lty Clay Loam 10. Organic Soil D~ SOURCE : U.S. Soil Conservation Service, Boyne City, M ichigan Crooked Lake, Pickerel Lake, and the Crooked River V positioned among wet soils rated fair to poor for intensive resort-cottage area, pollution control measures will become increasingl y necessary and a strong need is alread y apparent . The Cross Village area is divided among several so il types: Sandy loams, loose sand, and organic soils. The organic soils are generally in St ate ownership and hence, may not be a development problem . However, the loose sands, which occur in dunes and ridges have many development limitations in terms of drifting _ j sand (wind, erosion) and difficu lty in establishing and maintaining cover . Development of these soils will reduce the high scenic value of the area, as many dunes will be leveled and existing tree stands will gradually be reduced. The Mackinaw City area and WaWatam Township are on limestone formations and cobbly soils. These are generally unsuitable for urban development in the ir natural state. Carefu l and deta iled so ils ana lysis can reveal the nature of development l1m1tations on particular sites __, A large proportion of the soils unsuited for development are in the north areas of the County . Also, much of this land is currently in State of Michigan ownership, as part of the Hardwood State Forest. -13- �I TOPOGRAPHY The accompanying topography map illustrates the slope characteristics of Emmet County's landscape. From a County-wide view, there is a great deal of variety in land formations, wh ich include: level lands, gently rolling, rolling to steep, and very steep slopes. Elevation gradually increases from north to south, with some of the highest hilltops in Pleasantview and Springvale Townships. I •' • .1 The discussion which follows describes the topographic characteristics of each Township in the County . As a general statement, there are a number of areas that have limitations to urban density development. However, these limitations become scenic attractions in communities that cater to tourism-recreation activities . Topography in Resort Township is gently rolling with picturesque contrasts between cultivated farm land and patches of wooded area . Some steep landscape follows the Lake Michigan Shoreline, mostly in the Resort - Penn-Dixie mining area, where extensive deposits of limestone are found . Land forms in Bear Creek Township tend to be more severe than in Resort, but most of the steep topography lies well south and southeast of Petoskey. Bear Creek - Except for areas generally within two miles of Crooked Lake, Springvale - Pickerel Lake, and the Minihaha Creek Valley, Springvale Township is influenced by steep slopes Moderate to steep slopes exist in the extreme northwest area, but overall, there are few serious slope limitations. Littlefield - Little Traverse - Southern sections in this Township are generally level or gently rolling, with incidences of steep slope . A large area of steep topography affects the northeast area . West Traverse - West Traverse Township varies from roll ing to steep and is steep in most sections. The roll ing and gentl y rolling land is found north and east of Harbor Springs., Friendship is characterized by moderately steep topography . There are inc idences of level and gently roll ing land . Friendship - -14- to steep I I �I: ' I ~~ ~ ~ ti ~ _. Pleasantview - A band of nearly level land extends north-south through the community . Steep to very steep topography is found in the areas where Boyne Highlands and Nubs Nob are located . Moderate to steep slopes are also present . Maple River - The west one-third of this community has moderate to moderately steep topography but few steep areas . The land character in the east sections is level with some incidence of swamp . The western third is moderately steep . McKinley - Swamp land is positioned along the east line and level drier sections extend along the south line. Some moderately rolling land exists in the northwest area . Center - A wide band of level land (high incidence of swamp) traverses the community from southeast to northwest, and this is flanked by moderately steep slopes . Readmond - Readmond Township is characterized by moderately steep slopes and there are incidences of swamp .Gently rolling and moderate slopes are found in the north and west areas. Cross Village - Steep topograph y is limited to the McCort Hill area in Section 5 and in portions of Sections 2 and 3 A steep ridge parallels the shore of Lake Michigan from the south to the Wycamp Lake area . Roll ing sand dunes are found in the northern sections . _J Bliss Township is predominantl y level to moderate with incidences of swamp and steep slope . Bliss - 1 --l ., q d Carp Lake - Gently rolling to moderately rolling topograph y is present in the southwesterl y sections. The remainder of the community is re lativel y level . WaWatam - The topograph y map reveals onl y a gradua l fal l in elevation from the southeast to north and northwest . ..,.. -15- �1 The foregoing analysis of the Couniy's physiography 1s limited 1n respect to I • detail. U.S.G.S. data on a County-wide scale at the twenty-foot contour interval is effective as a general reference for slope data, but cannot illustrate the variety of slope change that can occur w1th1n a given twenty-foot interval . WATER In Emrnet County, a prime use of water resources 1s for recreation, mainly in terms of swimm ing, boating, fishing and wildlife management However, water resources are necessary for. municipal water systems; 1nd1v1dual wells, and .I irr1gat1on Hence, 1t is essential tl-1at the County'~ w1ter resources be protected trom pollution and depletion Lake Michigan 1s a major Vvater reserve for recreation as well as a potential municipal water supply . At. present, all domestic water supplies 1n the County are from wel I resources. On the basis of general state-wide data prepared by the Water Resources Comm1ss1on of the M 1ch1gan Department of Natural Resources, most of the area of Emrret County 1s in glacial deposit areas with fairly high yields of ground water Low yield areas are found mostly 1n Resort Townsh,p , IN:JWatam Township and northern Bl •ss 'T ownsh1p . However, 1nd1v1dua1 wells 1n specific locations may have h,gri or low yields depending on local geologic cond1t1ons. In addition to Lake M 1ch1gan and ground water resources, Emmet County has seven (7) inland lakes, of which three are positioned 1n urban growth areas (Round Lake. C:·ooked Lake and Pickerel L3kel A !so, the US Soil Conservation Service has 1dent1f 1ed n·ne (9) potent,al water 1mpoundment locations on the rivers of the County . AGRICULTURE Farming and agr ,cultural act •v111es have two maJor influences on each community F 1rst 1s the income derived for rural families and other serv ices tha1 are supported by farming . Second 1s the value of farms as a resource for open space, wildlife support, and environmental break w•th developed urban areas Farming has become a h ighl y complex operat,on requiring skilled operators and huge investments 1n mechanical equ 1pment and land This ,s evidenced by the fact that the average value of farms in Emmet County increased 135% between 1954 and 1964. -16 1/'\ �..: . . . . .. . .... ... ,.;.. -· --· - -- . '7 I I • Part of the trend in agriculture can be observed from TABLE 7, which summarizes selected farm data for Emmet County . In the ten years between 1954 and 1964, the average size of farms increased by nearly fifty acres or 32% . Overall, there was a 51% decrease in the number of farms in the County . In :__J Employment also decreased markedly . In 1950, the U.S. Census listed 632 persons employed as farmers and farm managers. Bv 1960, th is occupation group declined to 228 for a percentage loss of 64% . The results of the 1970 Census will be interesting. While farm size has been increasing and the number of farms and total acreage has been decreasing, farm production has been increasing along with the average farm value . This is a good index of the economic advantages of the large-scale farm and why this tend is taking place - better and more productive ye ilds. TABLE 7 SELECTED FARM CHARACTERISTICS EMMET COUNTY Farm Census 1954 1964 Farms by Size 1--; l ;·i ' ! "L0' 1~. ' G 1954 to 1964 Change Number Percent 1 - 99 acres 100 - 499 acres 500 - 999 acres 1,000 acres and over 382 439 13 145 247 17 -237 -192 +4 -62% -44% +31% 3 4 +1 +33% Total 837 413 -424 -51% 123,478 80,841 42% 27% 148 196 Land in Farms Percent of County Land in Farms Average Size of Farm in acres Average Value of Farms Farm Operators residing on Farm Persons in Farm Operator Households -35% +48 +32% $7,019 $16,698 +$9,680 +136% 512 389 -123 -24% 1,682 SOURCE · U.S. Census of Agriculture I k i -17- I I: �I ~ Between 1959 and 1964. the value of farm crops sold increased nearly 38%, compared with 23% t or the State of Michigan . The trend since 1954, however, Is not as optimistic as there was a decline from 1954 to 1959, and an increase between 1959 and 1964. Of the two categories, livestock and crops, It Is evident that livestock farms are most valuable . Between 1959 and 1964, I 1vestock farm product sales increased $528,000 compared with $208,000 for crops. Dairy and poultry were the most important growth factors, as other livestock increased slightly Field crops accounted for over 60% of the sales increase among crops Forest products and vegetables gained some, while fruits and nuts experienced sales decreases A f inal assessment of the value of agriculture to Emrnet County can be established from a general rule of thumb, that each dollar earned In farming turns over 2 3 times Hence. the $2.07 mi ll Ion produced from farm sales in the County nas an estimated multipl ied impact of some $4,761,000 Tn•s ,s a s1gn 1f1cant loca l economic factor that should be retained to the extent possible 1,. is reasonable to conclude that the value of farm land wil l increase as a result of tourist demands tor rural land . This will cause farm acreage to decline further, lessening the impact of agriculture as well On the other hand , national-international demands for farm products may gi ve new economic incentives for preserving and expanding vital agricultural act IvIty In terms of the relative importance of agriculture , Emmet C.:-unty ranked 57th among the 82 counties In farm product sales Hence , 57 count,es are agr ,culturall y more significant Another index shows that Emmet County has a high oercentage of non-farm income to supplement farm product sales ( 17th of 82) l his inde x shows decreasing re!iance upon farming act 1vIty for basic income 18- ~ ' 'I I -I I ~. • • I • J :·,~~ �I I ! ! ~ I RESIDENTIAL By intent, the Residential P!an is quantitative to the extent of accommodating j projected housing demands. It. is qualitative in that residential areas should be I desirable places to encourage home investment and provide a sound family living environment. I I I URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROCESS ] I l1 ·' ; I·, I The development of Township areas begins with the influx of nonfarm dwellings which locate along paved County roads, usually on one to five acre lots. This gives the roadside an appearance of being developed, but most of the land behing the homes remains undeveloped for long periods of time, perhaps farmed or forested The problems of the rural nonfarm developments which are distant from an urban center relate to planning for resources and community services. Homes developing along County roads are spread over a wide area, and the smaller lots w ith driveways create numerous access points from the roadway . This reduces the traffic efficiency of the County road by slowing vehicles, generating on-off turning movements, and multiplies the accident potentials. In time, the solution may be expensive road widening or by-pass proiects . I; The scattered growth pattern compl icates the problem of providing schools, and I-· 1·1 shopping services. School bus services must be increased, perhaps two marginal retail stores are required when one economically eff icient store would offer better services, and there are public conflicts involved 1n locating school buildings, parks, churches, and the like Each family desires to have the service nearest his home . _,j Ii l The problems of resource development and resource conservation are also complicated by scatered rural nonfarm housing . When homes are scattered , community sewer and water systems become too costly; thus, septic tank effluent increases and has a greater opportun ity to enter streams and lakes resulting 1n I·: pollution . Moreover, the 1nabil1ty to offer central utility services reduces the area's potential to attract industry and business O! significance is that the ~ fract1onalization process may impact qua li t y farm and forest land and reduce the _, __, County's ability to produce food and fibre for local and national markets. I.! .. ·, I I -19 - �CONCEPTS Emmet County's total population approximates the conceptual size of four or five urban ne ighborriood units; hence, the strict application of neighbortiood planning theory has less meaning than 1n urban areas Nonetheless, the principles and objectives embodied in the concept are applicable as guides 1n nearly all community housing situat ,ons, particularly •n and near the c 1t1es of Petoskey and Harbor Springs. I Bv defin1t1on, a neignborhood unit 1s a cont iguous residential area w ith sufficient population to support one centrally located elementary school The school facil ity should be designed with a park and playground Heavily traveled streets. ra ilroads and nonresidential land uses should not be located w 1th 1n a neighborhood un it, although these uses of land may serve as logical ne ighborhood boundaries A ,though there are many ind•v1dual concepts and desi res regard•ng the ideal home, most famil ies demand rousing that has urban ut il it ies, ,s near schools, 1s close to shopping, is protected from through traffic, and ,s accessible to hosp itals. places of wo' k and related conven,ence factors Tr,e residential areas proposed for Emmet County are intended to meet th•s demand The d 1scuss1on of res •dent1al concepts 1n terms o f ne ighborhood units 1s only partly appl 1cab le to Emmet County , because of the rura l nature of the County and the recreation qualities of the non -urban areas There 1s tar more potential res idential land in Emmet County than what can possibl y be developed w1th1n the foreseeable future, and substantial demands will accrue trom vacation homes Therefore, ,t wou ld be good policy to consider th e following development cond1t1ons · 1 Recogn ize the fact that all land 1n the County will not and should not be developed That which is developed should f it into logical service areas for schools, parks. shopp ing and related 2. Scenic resources are integral elements of the County 's economy These should be protected so that the characte r of the County remains attractive and desirable for both permanent residents and v, s1tors 3. Wtld l1fe 1s important 1n Emmet Co unty as are forest and vegetative resources Hence, swamp lands. wooded areas, streams. and related resources must be protected from pollution and dep letion -20 - J ··.:i �t: 11,.J~ . 1 ~ ~ ~ 4. View existing undeveloped lake-river frontages as resources to be protected . Encourage water oriented development to form in cluster patterns, rather than parcel off the frontage on a 100% ind 1vidual access basis 5. County roads provide access to farms and nonfarm homes in rural areas . Development usually follows existing roads until the frontage is used up and large internal vacant areas remain . Preferably, minor service roads and cluster , .1 developments snould extend from the County road rather than serve i,J individual unit frontage . The recreation community of " Hidden Hamlet" at Nubs Nob is an example of this development concept. 17 . 1 DEMANDS In 1960, Emmet County was a community of 15,904 persons who occupied 4,696 households (3.33 persons per household) . Since 1960, the County population increased by 2,427 persons for an estimated 690 dwelling units In the past ten years (69 per year) . Population projections for Emmet County show a possible 22,500 persons by 1990. This will generate a demand for some 1,380 dwellings in the next twenty years . Past growth trends suggest that most of the permanent housing demand wi ll impact the urban areas around Petoskey and 17 Harbor Spr ings In 1960, Emmet County's housing census reported 2,560 seasonal housing units. This represented some 32% of all hous ing in the County The rural nonfarm areas had 47% of their housing class1f 1ed as seasonal . Comparable data on seasonal dwellings constructed since 1960 is not readily available; however, a substantial number of seasonal homes were constructed In Chalet Villages near ski resorts, on inland lakes, and along the Lake Michigan Shore . Some of these may wel l convert to year-around residences for permanent families of either retirement or labor force age . For res1dent1al planning purposes, it can be expected that urban residential demands will be greatest of in and near P8toskey, moderate in the community areas Harbor Springs and A lanson, and slight 1n the outlying rural service communities and Mackinaw City . The type of home most in demand is tor th ree bedrooms and over (80% to 90% of I the market). Only 10% of the market Is for etf1c1ency, one-bedoom and/or j L , two-bedroom units. 1 There Is a strong demand for three and four-bedroom homes for famil ies with incomes under $6,000 per y ear 1Mr . Ken Peterson, Realtor and Mr Cy Jordan, from questionnaire interviews assessing the real estate market 1n the five-year period prior to January, 1969 ' . ...... -21- �~-1 I Recreation home demands will be strongest in those areas that have multiple recreati on use potential. Hence, a vacation home that can offer ready access to skiing f acilities, swimming beaches, scenic views, forests, hunting and fishing, will be in greatest demand. RESIDENTIAL AREAS PLAN The "R esidential Areas Pian " map illustrates several factors that will influence the configurations of future housing areas in the County .These are : Resource areas that should remain in ~~ t -I I a natural condition to support broad scale resource management programs, and ecological balance . ,1 A highly tentative alignment for a future express type highway through the County . (See the County 's "Future Land U:-e Pian" Map for the suggested alternate .) The basic County road - State Highway network which interconnects the functional land use areas ot the County . Key resort attractions and facil 1t1es wherein seasonal home construction 1s likely to continue Exi sting urban communit ies and concentrated housing areas The above factors vvere rrepped and evaluated 1n terms of soil resources, topography, deer yard areas, quality fish streams and existing land use On the basis of the above, a general 1zed pattern of logical future housing areas evolved. lri the communities of Petoskey, Bear Creek Township, and Resort T ownship, the R8s1dential P.an is based on Neighborhood and Residential P,ans for those communities 1 These Petoskey A '. ea tina,ngs are cons idered to be a part of the Emmet County Residential Pian, 1nclud1ng any mod1f1cat1ons and amendments that may be made from time to time On the "County Residential P; an " map, long-range urban neighborhood areas were comb ined to form larger community areas Each ot the community 3reas may be further d1v1ded into one or more neighborhood units The number of neighborhoods will ultimately be determined by the density of population w1th1n each un it and the geographic size of the community / 1 V il1can-Leman & Associates, Inc, Residential Areas , Petoskey Area Planning Com - mission, January, 1969. 22- I ~I �. . . .... -. . .::.. 1·1 • J ,11 ,1 Ii 11 Following is a discussion of the general community areas mapped on the "Residential Areas Plan" : 1. rJ Petoskey Area Area 1 Altogether, there are nine residential areas in and near the City of Petoskey ;_J and the Townships of Bear Creek and Resort. These units were not delineated in expectation that they will be fully developed within twenty years. It may be appropriate to view the neighborhoods as basic long-range residential areas Persons who build homes and purchase lots in the neighborhoods have the knowledge that they are in logical home areas. On a long-term basis, they can expect to be w ithin a reasonable distance from planned elementary schools, local recreation areas, and community water-sewer-utility services. 2. Harbor Springs A rea Areas 2, 3, 4, and 5 The Harbor Springs A rea Residential Plan is presented in four (4) basic areas. 1 Area 2 can probably be divided into two neighborhood units, centered on a large resource area for open space recreat ion . Area 3 has the potential of being divided into four neighborhoods. The exact number will depend on actual growth, the ratio of seasonal homes to permanent residences, and the acreage devoted to recreation-community uses. Area 4 encompasses most of the exist ing developed lands in Harbor Springs. Area 5 is positioned along Little Traverse Bay and is predominantly a recreation home area at this time . Development will be attracted to this area by the scenic qualities of Little T !'"averse Bay . Some negative aspects relate to the flight path of the Harbor Springs Airport and the rather narrow shape of the .....: area . Overall, Areas 2 through 5 indicate the probable impact areas for future high density residential development. As in the Petoskey area, the capacity !~ i......: population of these areas exceeds the projected growth . 1f.JeJghborhoods were interpreted from the residential areas illustrated in the Harbor Springs Comprehensive Plan . -23- i: �f I I ' 'I. . J 3. ~ Round Lake Area . , Areas 6, 7, and 9 The Round Lake Area of Emmet County Is a sort of development crossroads where the urban izing influence of Petoskey, Harbor Springs and A ianson tome together. Round Lake also generates development influences by virtue of water oriented recreation, home sites, the Petoskey State Park, the Harbor Sp rings Airport, Conway and Highway interchanges. Planning and arranging land uses in the Round Lake area is complicated by the narrow highway corridors (U .S -31 and M-131) created by Lake , ,I I I Michigan, Round Lake and Crooked Lake . Added to this is a general mi x of existing land uses, an incidence of poorly drained soils, and absence of urban utility services. Al so, the potential routing of a north-south freeway through th is area wi II resu It In accelerated demands for land 4. I Crooked Lake Area ;_-) Areas 8, 10 and 11 Crooked Lake is an estab lished tourist housing area The most concentrated recreation home areas are found along the north shore In and near Oden Pickerel Lake to the east Is also developing with seasonal homes. I I The entire C:--ooked-Pickerel Lake area Is limited for development by poorly drained soils. The problem is particularly acute along the shorel ine where the demand for lake front home sites is greatest As a result , quant ities of sewage effluent on the surface of the ground and in the lake have reached a poi nt of serious pollution hazard . This is an area wh 1ch clearly demonstrates planning deficiencies in terms of : Carrying capacity of soils and land resources Substandard and outmoded development standards Inadequate traffic routes to serve local and regional traffic Disregard for land use relat1onsh1ps (mixed uses). Fai lure to implement central utility services prior to IntensIve use of land The above points underscore some major problems affecting the Oden-C:ooked Lake area, and it will likely result in expensive community improvements to correct past mistakes -24- •I ,.. �5. Alanson Area Area 12 Retail services, the Crooked River, and a new school will attract additional development in and near Alanson . The Valley of the Crooked River in Alanson is characterized with soil and drainage conditions similar to areas near Crooked Lake . Poor drainage and swamp conditions establish unstable building cond itions that will become more acute unless community sewer and water systems are installed . Utility studies are currently in progress. I:J! 6. Pellston Area Areas 13 and 14 l -1 Pellston is important because it is adjacent to the Emmet County Airport; . ·• hence, a potential source of added economic development for the County as 17 1-, well as a major transportation terminal in the northern lower peninsula . One manufacturing plant has located adjacent to the airport, and others may in ; I the future. A problem in accommodating residential growth is relating to existing community service facilities, while avoiding the flight paths of major runways. There 1s also a land squeeze in Pellston, because the existing Village is surrounded by public lands, poor soil areas, a major highway, and airport _J 1-, -1 . '----' approach zones. It is difficult to cluster new housing around the new l ·-1 elementary school because of the factors Iisted above . l 'I.. ! I-.~ 7. Mackinaw City Arna Area 15 Mackinaw City supports a relatively low year-around population because of the seasonal nature of the econom y . The demand tor residential land in Mackinaw City will be determined by success in developing industrial land, especially those activities that require access to Great Lakes shipping lanes. Also , the extent of tourist services will bear on added employment to sustain a larger year-around population . -25- �1 8. Cross Village Area Areas 16 and 17 Cross V i llage Is located in a highly scen ic area with a commanding panoramic view over Lake Mich igan . Cross Village is also an historic Indian M1ss1on site. Significant year-around employment opportun ities in Cross Village may be difficult to real ize . Highway access is l1m1ted, there are no railroads, and existing community services are oriented to rural and tourist markets. 1, Add itional seasonal home deveiopment is the most likely economic impact that can add to the commun ity . C:-oss V i llage has excellent Lake Michigan orientation and it lies between the attract ion forces of Wilderness $ ;ate Park and the ski resort areas to the south .1 Since pleasure boating on Lake M ichigan Is a h ighly attractive tourist activity, riarbor, beach and lake front park developments at C:·oss Village could enhance community development potentials 9 1 -I ~ ~, ·- Other Residential A reas Even though tt-ie Res1den11aI Plan outlines a w ide number of potent ial res1dent1al areas that can be planned and serviced to house concentrated patterns of development, a large proportion of new homes (!:>easonal and non-seasonal) w i ll locate on tracts of land throughout tarm and nonfarm areas . Although this scattering development shouid not be promoted as a planning principle, it can be less of a problem with careful attention to ground water resources, soi Is, and overcrowding The problems of overcrowding and the mixed use character of developments on C:-ooked L3ke and Paradise Lake must be avoided on the other inland water resources of the County 1, develope rs anticipate high density subdivision act Iv1ty, then immediate concent must be given for community water supplies and sewage treatment services RECOMMENDATIONS Encourage the establishment of a County Housing Commission to . det;;iil the housing needs of Emmet County, coord,nate research and ;mpIementat1on programs with the ex Ist1ng Housing Commissions, and cooperate with the housing needs of l r,d 1an tam ,hes Some low-,ncome housing assistance may be necessary In several non -City locations and trie need may be either for repairs or new un its . -26- I I I I I I I I I �17 - .J I '..I Promote minimum County-wide Zoning Regulations as a means to protect the environment of permanent and seasonal housing areas. Guide new housing developments in accordance with the principles of the Comprehensive Pan . Th is will avoid the postponed costs associated with unplanned growth so that services can be economically provided . Planned residential areas will be a more convenient place for families and will offer a safer environment . As feasible, tie new housing developments to central water and/or sewage treatment facili ties to avoid resource pollution and a more efficient use of land. l~i 1...: l ' I·: 1.-,. . , ~_, I.' ;I ·, • > . ' \': ~ . ' _, 1 ~1 : ~ ._; I ~~ I I: -27- �I ' ~ I" l ~ I __J SCHOOLS Emmet County has five K-12 Sc:hool Districts to serve its population and some adjacent areas in adjoinint townships. In addition, there is one K-6 School District to serve Cross Village Township . Four (4) of the K-12 Districts are in the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District . The Mackinaw City Schoo ls serve portions of Wa\t\tltam Township, but these schools are officially in the Cheboygan Intermediate District. ENROLLMENTS School enrollment data for Emmet County is not completely comparable in an historical context because of changes in some district boundaries. A lso, some school enrollment is drawn from beyond the immediate areas of Emmet County . However, there are some significant trends that can be observed for overall planning purposes. 1. The K-12 pub I ic school enrollment in the Petoskey District increased by 587 between 1960-1961 and 1968-1969. This is an annual rate increase of 73 4 K-12 pupils. At this rate, the Petoskey district will be serving nearly 3,900 I( I·; iJ L.J pupils by 1990. 2. annual increment of 12.9 pupils, for a total proJected 1990 pupi I load of 1,040. 3. It ~ -.J t, --" The Littlefield School District has experienced gradual K-12 enrollment increases between 1960-1961 and 1968-1969, at the rate of 12.1 pupils per year. By 1990, the total K-12 enrollment would be 650 pupils (at the 12 1 rate) or 266 above the 384 enrolled in 1968-1969. l 1~ -; Kindergarten through high school enrollments in the Harbor Springs District increased from 655 1n 1960-1961 to 758 in 1968-1969. This represents an 4. The Pellston Schools have been affected sorrewhat by annexation The K-12 enrollment in 1968-1969 was some seventeen pupils fewer (630) than 647 pupils enrolled in the 1960-1961 school year. However, the present K-12 enrollment stands at 700 . It is significant that enrollment has increased gradually since 1966-1967, and this trend rray continue The 1960-1969 rate of growth averaged 5.9 K-12 pupils per year. -28- �5. The total school enrollment In Mack inaw City was 292 in the 1960-1961 school year . The current enrollment stands at 277 , resulting 1n a pupi l loss rate of 1.7 per year . For planning purposes, the 1990 enrollment Is assumed to be 300 pupils In the past two school years, enrollments increased . 6. Cross Village 1s a small K-6 School D1str1ct which had a total enrollment of I 24 in 1960-1961 . The current enrollment Is 23, representing a highly stable pupil enrollment. For planning purposes, the 1990 enrollment Is assumed to be 24 . Based on the 1970 population census, th ,s estimate may well be conservative. In 1962, a C1t1zen School Study was conducted In Emmet County under the d1rect1on of Michigan State University, College of Education 1 This report I I compiled school enrollment and school census data for County schools, evaluated building needs, projected enrollrrents and recomnended various reorganizational actions. I nclud1ng projections, the report encompassed the years 1960 through 1967-1968. Since that time, school services In the County have changed dramatically, particularly In terms of new buildings The map, "School Facil1t1es'' illustrates the K-12 School District boundaries In Emmet County, 1n addition to other pertinent school service data Petoskey, Pellston and Mackinaw City D1str 1 cts serve rural areas beyond the area of Emmet County . A !so illustrated are schoo l bu tidings that serve each of the districts Most of the operating schools are 1n good to excellent physical condition, and are good educational facil1t•es TABLES 8 and 9 summarize pertinent informat ion on eacn school building serving at least some portion of Emmet County Tne most s1gn1f1cant overall conclus,on is that the urban area schools have enrollments which range from near capacity to over capacity enrollments Petoskey appears to have the most pressing need for new and/or expanded school fact11t Ies, part,cularly In the elementary grades Not only is t he enrollment IncreasIng at an equivalent rate of three classrooms per year (73 pup ils), but facilities are now In ma xi mum use 2 A t present , the elementary school has design space for less than twenty add •tional pupils; hence, it 1s near capacity W•th an established growth rate of seven K-6 pupils per year, the school will exceed its effective capacity •n the near future . The h1gh school has a greater surplus capac,ty and may not reach design capacity for five to ten years. 1 Emmet Coun1 y Education Citi zens Committee, Ci r .zens Schoo l Stud y, Michigan State Un 1ve rsIty, June, 1962 2The enrollment impact does not produce an ImmedIa te demand for 3 classrooms, because the increases are spread over a twelve grade educational sy stem w ith many ex 1st Ing classrooms to absorb the en ro !I ment -29- I I I I �,~: I '\ TABLE 8 ; ~ PUBLIC SCHOOL CAPACITIES EMMET COUNTY ~1 1, IJ Enrollmmt Design Capacity Surplus Capacity Enrollment Overload •-1 I,] 17 Petoskey Area ( 1969) Ottawa, K-6 Sheridan, K-6 Lincoln, K-6 Central, K-6 Resort, K-5 Jr.Sr. High School,7-12 26 24 17 30 286 224 217 355 125 1,004 260 200 200 325 125 1,225 221 396 362 415 400 19 38 384 425 41 '·. L. 1.i L..J l :1 Harbor Springs ( 1968) Elementary, K-6 High School, 7-17 Littlefield ( 1968) K-12 School ', . j Cross Village ( 1970) t: 1:·_ ;, j ·i d j-i... i~l t~ K-6 School 22 Elementary, K-6 High School, 7-12 156 121 180 130 24 9 350 350 360 450 10 100 4,352 4,735 480 Pellston Schools ( 1970) Elementary, K-6 High School, 7-12 Total t..J ... i· : i: . _, 18 Mackinaw City ( 1970) ~ I~ '' 40est . -30- 97 �TABLE 9 il SCHOOL BUILDING DATA EMMET COUNTY Year Constructed Site Remarks Enrollments Conditions 1964 1958 1951 1929-58 1960 Adeauate Aoeauate Lim ited l f!adeauate Adeauate L imote0 O - er Ci!Pacity O. er Capacity Over Capacity Ooer CaPacoty A : C0Pac1ty A ; C=Pacity Good G::>oO Good Fair to Gcod Good Gc od 1955-59-68 1915-68 Aoeauate Lim •ted Near C3pacity N 2ar Caoac •tv Good Gc oa K-12 Sch oo l 1957-66 Adequate Under CaPac •ty Good Elementary High School 1969 1932-39 Adequate M,n,murn Near Caoacitv Goo0 u~oe• Capacity Fa, r 1900 Adeauate Ur ae r C3oacity Fa or to Pc or Recent Min,mum Adeauate U"der C~Pac 11y F3 ,, to G-:.o0 u ,_oer Caoac •ty G?od Petoskey Ottavva Sheridan Lincoln Central Resort High Sc hool Harbor Spr ings H .S. Elementary H .S. Higli Sc:l, ool l J J Li t tlef ield Cross V illage K-6 Elementary M3ck inaw City K-6 Elementary H,gn Scli ool The Littlefield K-12 School is currentl y operating with an enrollment below it s design capacity . However, at the current rate of growth, capacity will be reached I I I I in four to five years, earlier if growth rates increase Past growth in the Pellston District has tended downward, but in recent years has increased slight ly Enro llments are well above the 1960 level , having increased at the rate of 5.9 pupils per year. There is now substantial capacity at the high school In 1960-61, there were 24 pupils attending classes in the C•oss Village School . Currently ( 1969-1970), there are 23 pupils enrol led, one of wh ich attends classes I I I in Harbor Springs . No added schoo l capacity is needed in the foreseeable future . -31- I �11 I Ill l. ~ 11 •...J The Mackinaw City School District had a total 1969-1970 enrollment of 277 pupils, down from the 292 in 1960. Both of the District's schools have some capacity to absorb enrollment i ncreases. The high school could go over its design capacity with slight growth . THEORETICAL NEEDS Theoretical school needs were determined by appl yi ng the desirable school attendance levels to the existing and projected public school enrollment .1 The conclusions are considered theoretical in Emmet County because the standards do not reflect limitations imposed by travel distance, existing school plant investment, School District boundaries or the desires of indiv idual citizens . TABLE10 THEORETICAL SCHOOL BUILDING NEEDS EMMET COUNTY ~j K-6 Elementary 1~1 t1 7-8-9 Junior High School 10-11-12Seni or H igh School I-: 1990 Theoretical Building Need Number of Existing Schools 3 .370 5to9 schools 10 1 ,685 1 to 2 scriools 5 1,685 1 to 2 scnools 5 6 ,740 7 to 13 schools 20 Curriculum (14 by count) 1969-1970 Enrollment 1970 Theoretical Building Need 1990 P1·ojection 2,343 3 t o6 scnools 1.063 1 to 2 schoo ls 1,016 school Tota! 4,422 5 to 8 schools NOTE: The future closure of an y ex isting private schools w i ll largely impact the communities in the P,;,toskey Area and Harbor Springs. However, it may be Possib le for the Public School D istr ict s to purchase , lease, or otherwise util ize the privat e scnool builo ings. According to TABLE 10, Emmet County has 14 school buildings and th is exceeds the theoretical 1990 maximum need by one This is also si x buildings beyond the existing theoretical need . Viewing these comparisons, it appears that the County l.d will not require addit ional structures if onl y enrollment factors are taken into account. 1Refer to th e Preliminary School Plan report di scussi ng Schoo l Design Standards . -32- �I SCHOOL PLANS Plans for public schools in Emmet County have been prepared by three local planning groups. The first Comprehensive Study of County School Services was prepared under the direction of Michigan State University, College of Education ( 1962) . During 1968-1969, a school plan was prepared for the Petoskey A rea, as a part of the Neighborhood Unit Plan .1 Public schools were analyzed for Harbor Springs during 1969, as a part of the Comprehensive Plan.2 The purpose of the County School Plan is to review area-wide school needs on a long-term future basis. Existing plans and recommendations are included as applicable . TABLE 11 summarizes the enrollment projections for 1990, with comparative data for 1960 and current enrollments. There are several options or alternatives to school services in Emmet County . Hence, depending on the structure of school districts, there will be different school plans implemented . Even under a single County School System , it would not be advisable to plan for only one Central County Senior High School because of population growth , driving distances, and winter climate . J J J I I I I I I I I 1Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc., Residential Areas, Petoskey Planning Area January, 1969. 2williams and Works, Engineers, Harbor Springs Comprehensive Plan, Report No 1g59 _ -33- I • �I TABLE 11 PROJECTED K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOL DEMANDS EMMET COUNTY Projected 1960 1968-69 1969-70 1990 Enrollment Enrollment Enrollment Enrollment Petoskey Harbor Springs Littlefield Pellston Mackinaw City Cross Village 1,694 655 285 647 292 24 2,281 758 384 (630) Total 3,597 School Districts 4,423 700 277 23 3,900 1,040 650 824 300 24 6,738 SOURCES: County School Reports, School District Superintendents, and the Petoskey Area Plan. High school pupils in Mackinaw City could be transported to St . Ignace or Cheboygan, but probably not Petoskey because of distance. Elementary schools should be located to serve "rural areas" in existing centers of population . The new schools in Alanson, Pellston, and 1\/sckinaw City would be retained to meet out-County K-6 needs. An elementary in Cross Village should be retained . RECOMMENDATIONS From an overall planning point of view, an optimum school system in Emmet County should probably function with one or two School Districts. If so, the following school building plan should be evaluated for acceptance by citizens in the County, and modified in detail as necessary . i-·~~ 1. Essentially follow the school plan recommendations for the Petoskey A rea as presented in the Petoskey A rea Comprehensive Pian . 2. Retain a central high school and junior high school in Harbor Springs . Unless there is substantial unanticipated population growth, one elementary school wi 11 be able to meet demands I: , 1-; .....: -34- �3. There should not be more than "one additional" high school program outside of Harbor Springs and the Petoskey A rea . 1here are now three. It Mackinaw City elects to educate high school pupils in Emmet County, then Pellston would be a logical high school location to serve the area of A anson, Pellston and Mackinaw. Levering would also be a good central location for a north County District if Alanson were part of the Petoskey or Harbor Springs Districts. • 4. Assuming a high school in Pellston, A lanson could become a central elementary school service community . Some other options would apply in the Alanson-Pellston communities with regard to junior high and elementary services. 5. I .-I Reta in elementary grade facilities largely in their present locations The Cross Village fac ility could require reconstruction 1n the foreseeable future . The School Plan for Emmet County entails relatively few changes in elementary school service areas regardless of future consolidation efforts Some final plan decisions may depend on action at the State level with regard to further K-12 District ing. Also, the question of whether or not the Mackinaw Schools become part of the Emmet County system :I ·-1 I I I -35- �-1~ Jl ~ ,1 ll . RECREATION The purpose of the County Recreation Plan is to serve as a guide in the maintenance, creation and perpetuation of resources, both natural and man-made, as they relate to the recreation environment . Emphasis is placed not only upon resident use and enjoyment, but on the attraction potential for tourists as wel I OBJECTIVES The future of Emmet County as a regional focal point recreation will depend on successes in in the area of outdoor achieving the following goals: ' • Accurately inventory existing recreational facilities . Familiarize County residents and potential developers with existing resources and environmental advantages . Guide in the identification and reservation of desirable and needed recreation sites, recognizing that many unique areas can be diverted to other uses. Propose design standards for preserving and developing the County's natural resources. Guide future development based upon a design concept to unify the recreational elements of the County. Insure an equitable distribution of parks, recreation areas and facilities to serve al I areas of the County . Encourage comprehensive outdoor commercial and public levels. 11 recreation planning at private, Point up the need for various means of control in natural resource development. i,.J The proposed County Recreation P!an is a synthesis of the inventory, adaptable lJ4' recreation features, and the overall concept of recreation applicable to the County . I; ..,,,. u -36- �RECREATION RESOURCES Emmet County's Recreation Plan is a logical planning study in which to relate the knowledge of natural resources and environmental conditions to all forms of land aj use. Experience shows that it is not sufficient to plan specific recreation uses or attractions The community must also reconcile overall policy decisions on the use of a!I lands as they relate to the total environment of the area Decisions are needed on matters of uses permitted on a recreation site, the degree of development allowable in resource areas, the key areas that influence community character, and the ,mplernentation of development controls to attain higher environmental standards A brief description of the County's broad scale resource I characteristics follows : WATER In addition to some 71 miles of Lake Michigan frontage , Emmet County has sorre 10,400 acres of surface water. Since Lake Mich igan is important as a factor in regional tourist drawing power, development should be designed to permit observation. public access and retention of its highly aesthetic image Evening sunsets over Lake Michigan are particularly scenic . Inland lakes, rivers and streams are secondary attraction forces and the County 's accessibility to metropolitan areas give the inland lake primary attraction forces as well J. .I Whether for wildlife management purposes or for outdoor recreation activities, all of the County's water resources must be protected from pollut ion to retain purity and a natural environmental image. FISH AND WILDLIFE As a recreational activity, as a sanctuary or preserve, as a business or aesthetic setting, fish and wildlife are integral features of the County's environment Hence, wildlife management practices have a direct bearing on tourism recreation and the tou nst economy To be most effective, wildlife management must be extended to involve the vast acreages of private recreation land Wi ldlife in the County includes : white tailed deer, elk, fox. rabbit, grouse, woodcock, squirrel and waterfowl B1ack bear also inhabit some areas of the County I I I I ·I �.:. ... . . ' .,... .. _ . ·- .I,.-··-·~-· . '~ ~ -I Lo • ~ • • ,. .. .. GOVERNMENT LAND Although private forest-farm lands fulfill open space and recreation needs, they .. are not as permanent as public owned land . Private lands may move into or out of •• J recreational use in terms of the economic needs of the moment . Government lands, therefore, can be regarded as permanent features of outdoor recreation and they are more likely to come under Comprehensive Resource Management About j 100 square miles of land in Emmet County are State owned . This is roughly ~j twenty percent of the County's land area. I: TOPOGRAPHY Topography in Emmet County cannot be described in simple terms, since there is 1-, wide relief contrast among the sixteen ( 16) townships. However, the predominant steeper slopes may be found in the central portions of the County and in the IJ I-~ southeast . The east and north areas are generall y level, while the entire west side has slopes ranging from gently rolling to rolling -·j LAND I _· i 11 I; ~ Being the northernmost County In the Lower Peninsula, Emmet County has a relatively open character, interesting land forms, scenic woodlands, and many square miles of public land . These combine to establish a "land resource" that is coming under increasing pressures for recreation -resort development . As the intensity and density of development increases, the open space character will diminish . Wood lots will be cleared for building purposes, hills leveled and acreages subdivided into smaller and smaller units It also means hunting pressure, ~; sanitary and refuse disposal problems, and ecological imbalance conditions . I-~ The map, "Selected Scenic and Recreation Resources", inventories specific :....~ ~ ,~ 1,. ~ i-~--; I: recreation facilities and areas with potential for recreation development Public lands, State forests, public access sites, local parks and playgrounds are mapped . In addition, special or unique recreation potentials are listed . These include such features as potential impoundment sites, historic interest areas, scenic view areas, and related features with recreation-tourism significance . TAB LE 12 shows that there are 405 0 acres of local park and school recreation land in Emmet County . All of this land is owned by loca l governmental units in the County as there are no County owned parks. In addition, there are 7,273 .1 . . ... i.:.....: -38- �acres of land in major regional parks (e g., Wilderness State Park), roadside parks, public access sites and related recreation resources State lands, largely in the Wilderness State Forest contain some 90 square miles of land Another 2,755 7 acres of recreation land is in private and semi-private ownership, plus private cottages, ski chalets, recreation farms, and hunting acreage TABLE 12 RECREATION LAND INVENTORY EMMET COUNTY Recreation Acreage by Type Local Regional Total Recreation Sponsors Townships, Villages and Schoo l Districts City of Petoskey City of Harbor Springs State of Michigan 197 5 147 4 60 1 23 5 7,249 6 221 0 147 4 60 1 7,249 6 7,2731 7,678 .1 Totals 4050 i ~ I SOURCE · Emmet County Comprehensive Recreation Plan LOCAL NEEDS Statistically, there is a sizeable local park surplus •n Emmet County, both under current population levels and foreseeable proJections through 1990 However, the statistical needs are not equally divided among the local units of government I ·I 'I Hence, the conclusions drawn from TABLE 13 should be related to individual communities, rather than column totals I TABLE 13 shows that the local recreation surplus is mainl y the result of large acreages 1n Bear Creek, Bliss and Carp Lake Townships Th e Cities of Petoskey and Harbor Springs also reflect large surplus acreages Between 1970 and 1990, II I local park needs will be felt in the Townships of Cross Village, F ·iendsh1p, Maple River, Pleasantview . Resort, Springvale and West Traverse -39 �•-r . - • , · ~ • , . - .....•:~~••••:,;••• . - i. - •• ........ --,.. ....••,..u.--........ •• .:,. ~, -···- ............. . •,•:-"" Ji, ' ~~ TABLE13 ~ LOCAL RECREATION NEEDS EMMET COUNTY Ii -ll 1 ;__. L1 Existing Acreage Community 2.5 50 .5 2.5 5.8 1.0 1.4 3.2 7.7 -21 .5 +32 .2 +45.3 +5 .0 -0.4 -3.2 +5.2 20.2 10.4 +9 .8 6.5 8.4 -1 .9 6.3 3.4 2.0 2.5 23 .8 5.7 +2.9 -2.0 +7 .5 -13 .8 -5 .7 20 .2 4 .5 4.0 +15.7 -4.0 Subtotal 197.5 136.8 + 71.1 1--i 17. City of Petoskey 18. City of Harbor Springs 147.4 60 .1 75 .2 17 .5 +72.2 +42.6 I _-; Total 405.0 229.5 +185 .9 , -l (:L-. j 1~ ' 1.,--..~-;. 1-; :I 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. l ~'.J 11 . 12. 13. 14 15. 1-. ,_, tJ . Bear Creek Township Bliss Township Carp Lake Township Center Township Cross Village Township Friendship Little Traverse Littlefield Township and Alanson McKinley Township and Pellston (pt.) Maple River Township and Pellston (pt.) Pleasantview Twp . Readmond Township Resort Township Springvale Township WaWatam and Mackinaw City (pt.) West Traverse Twp . 10.0 10.0 ·, ha I-. ......., ii R7 • 16. 29.0 34 .7 51 .1 6.0 1.0 Community or Local Recreation Acreage Needs 1990 1990 Surplus (+) Need1 Deficit (-) !. 1Townships with a projected population decline show a 1990 need based upon the 1960 population . The recent 1970 Census shows some townships with larger population increases than what was experienced up to 1960 . RECOMMENDATIONS l l Emmet County has vast resources upon which to plan a highly diversified and coordinated recreation system . Demands can be satisfied in terms of citizens, tourists and others who may visit the County . The apparent abundance of recreational opportunity makes it impossible to anticipate every public or private -40- �recreational service that may 9ccur in the years ahead Hence, the Recreation P•an must be amended, updated and broadened or detailed from time to t ime Following is a summary of the major recreation proposals that relate to Emmet County and the communities within the County (see map oeg.nn1ng this se:;"t10, , "Recreation Plan " MISSIONARIES - Promote the historically important role of the Missionary in Emmet County . Acquire historic sites, build replicas of former missions, churches, shrines, trading posts, Indian cultural centers, and related points of interest INOIAN CULTURE - The life, habits and history of the Indian people are high ly interesting facets of any area's history, especiall y Emmet County The shores of Lake Michigan and commun ities of Petoskey, Harbor Spr ings, Midd le Vill ag e, Cross Village and Mackinaw Cit y al l have a strong history in lnd ,an culture Historical markers, reconstructed Ind ian V illages, museums and re lated means can be used to express Indian history to the educational-cultural advancement of tourists and citizens Wycamp Lake has an historical site listed in the Nationa l Register of Historical Places. I AGRICULTURE - Since the County has some excellent agricultura l land , w ork toward the cont, nuance of farm Ing enterprises Farms are necessary for basi c food product ion , they are important economic forces, they support a higher level of wildlife for sportsmen i SCENIC EASEMENT - Scenic easements are a means of preserving scenic areas without taking title in fee Easements would be most log 1cal along rivers where the natural image is important to canoeists and/or fishermen A 1so, along scenic roadways where panoramic views may become obscurred by development I I COUNTY PAR KS - A County level interest in recreation may well lead to the establishment of one or more County parks I· so , these shou ld be coord inated into the recreation system so as to supplement and operate 1n harmon y w ith I community parks and State parks Some recreat ional opportunities may on ly be established through County level action I LOCAL PAR KS - Recreation for County residents will evolve from County features and tourist facilities However, each community w ith ;n the Coun ty w ill have specific local recreational demands to fulfill County , School District , Township and Village lands should be given pri or• ty considerat ion as reso urces for local recreationa l fac ilities -41 - II �. • -II -I . -I: . . . -· .-~~ - ... -,.__. . , l j j ; .. , J .,·I FUNDING - Because of the limited funds available for recreational facilities, the County should encourage the development of recreational facilities through private enterprise and other public agencies. Some sources include: Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service and others DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS - Standards of design should be developed and incorporated into local development controls and where possible, applied on a County-wide basis. (zoning, subdivision regulations, scenic easements) . TOWNSHIP AND COMMUNITY RECREATION · There are three basic recreation objectives that should apply to all communities in Emmet County . These are: Develop parks, improve parks, and generally meet the recreation services of residents in all age groups. :1 I: , 1~ Acquire, promote, and/or assist with the acquisition of and appropriate level of i of local recreation resources, natural features, historical-cultural interest areas, and related . Give priority consideration to the expansion or development of recreational opportunities on lands already in community ownership and use (State, County, Township, Village) 1-. Ii development Some suggested locations for community park and recreation features include: I ~ I-; ·. ~ -' ~-; l ~ .. ? '-' 1. I I 1. Bear Creek Township Near the Township Hall. . On Pickerel Lake Road at a transition point with the proposed freeway , proposed industrial area, and/or trailer housing areas With planned school locations, and/or · on the sites of larger community and regional parks. In the Bear River Valley area . On Round Lake to preserve open space L.... -42- _, ·- - ..... _,· ........ :... �Among scenic wood lots, forested areas and rolling hills in the community, especially in planned neighborhood areas . On hillsides or sites offering outstanding panoramic views such as from US-131 south of Petoskey and from Pickerel Lake Road 2. Biiss Township . Encourage the State or County to expand Wilderness State Park southward to include the sand dune areas along the Lake Michigan Beach d -I I . Provide for local recreation use (ballfields, skating, sledding, etc), perhaps in the vicinity of the Township Hall or in 8 1iss Center 3 J Carp Lake Township Retain the fifty acre Lincoln Park site on Paradise Lake In public ownership, and add recreation facilities Protect the scenic recreation and resource potentials of Carp River . This is a canoe water and fishing stream . . Establish some local recreation areas in the Township, perhaps near the Township Hall which is in a more central location 4. Center Township . Maintain and improve the community ballf1eld near Larks Lake Facilities may also be developed at the Youth Center and/or the Township Hall. . Local and community recreation services may be provided at the Township gravel pit, as a reuse of community resources 5 Cross Village Township .I I I I I I I Either at the school or on church property in the Village, recreation apparatus, ice skating rinks and related active play facilities can be provided to meet local demands . Develop a marina and/or harbor facility on Lake Michigan A marina would be an excellent complementary facilit y to the scenic beach -43- 1 �. The sandy beach area in and near the Cross Village harbor area should be used for recreation purposes, emphasizing open space characteristics. 6. Friendship Township . Work to acquire frontage on Lake Michigan for Township park-recreation purposes. . General public recreation sites may be developed at the Township Hall location, near Stutsmanville, or in the vicinity of the Five Mile Creek Community Center Develop recreation uses on the 80 acres of land one mile south of the Township Hall. ~ 7. 11/ Little Traverse Township Expand equipment and land near existing parks, and/or consider the development of a new community park for active play . . ' . ! I Attempt to acquire recreation land or access easements to Little Traverse Bay . . A scenic community park may be developed in and near State owned lands in the center of Section 11 off the Chadderdon Road. . Other recreation potential sites may be developed in conjunction with the Township Hall or some similar community areas of importance. 8. Littlefield Township and Alanson Continued improvements and expansions park-playground facilities in Alanson and Oden . at the small loca l . New recreation facil ities may be expanded on one or both of th e large school land ownerships 9. McKinley Township and Pellston (part) . The Pellston High School, new Pellston Elementary School, and the Pellston ballfield and tennis courts provide a variety of ex isting recreation services (ballfield and tennis courts are in the Maple River Township portion of Pellston Village) . '._. l -44- �. Van and Levering have no public recreation areas; however, small parks for casual recreation may be needed . A potential water impoundment exists on Van Creek and may be a good rl source for establishing a general community recreation area 10. Maple River Township and Brutus . The Township Hall at Brutus is in a good central location for community recreation facilities . . Local recreation may also be provided on Maple River Road and/or Woodland Road. . School District and County forest lands along the Maple River are resources for recreation 11 . Pleasantview Township . ::-... .: Local recreation areas may be provided at the Township Hall location; this being a central geographic location. The Harbor Springs School District own 160 acres of potential recreation land west of Boyne Highlands 12. Readmond Township Improve, expand and/or add facilities to the lake front Township park . Provide active type recreational uses at off-the-lake sites, as near the Township Hall Encourage the maintenance restoration and accessibility of cultural-historical features related to Indian populations and early missionary activities 13. Resort Township . An active sports recreation area may be located at the Resort School and/or with the fire station -45- ·I ·I I I I I I I I �11 ' I· t 11 Ir 11 11 11 I ,, .I I I . Long-range nei ghborhood recreation areas shou ld be developed in terms of the recommendations of the Petoskey Area Plan . Some scenic natural features in the neighborhoods are indicated as future public open space. . Seek to acquire park-recreation areas in one or more of the following locations. On Little Traverse Bay, at the north end of Townline Road . On Walloon Lake, perhaps in the vicinity of the Manthei Veneer Mill. On the north end of Wal loon Lake at the south extremity of Cemetery Road . Enlargement of the public access site on Walloon Lake at Resort-Pike Road . Other scenic Township areas with a potential for diversified outdoor recreation, preferably to serve all seasons of the year. 14. Springvale Township . Local park and recreation areas may be developed near Epsilon for a good central location . A facility on Ellsworth Road or east Pickerel Lake Road would also be near populated areas. . Reserve some rolling topographic areas for local recreation sledding, skiing, etc. hiking, 15. WaWatam Township and Mackinaw Village . Local recreational facilities in Mackinaw Village may be increased if the rate of population growth increases. Community recreation areas should then be provided in accessible locations for homes. . Community recreation may also be developed on the State owned lands I I I and school forests. The Township owns 125 acres of land north of French Lake that has recreation use potential . -46- �l l 1 I 1 I J ''· MEDICAL FACILITIES Emmet County is well endowed with medical services and facilities . The most significant facilities include: General Facility Location Capacity Petoskey 177 beds Petoskey 70 beds Harbor Springs 80 beds Petoskey 80 beds Little T raverse Hospital and Associated Burns Ciinic Lockwood Gene ral Hospita l County Medical Care Unit Beverl y Manor (nursing home) 407 beds Total In addition to the foregoing, plans are being readied for the construction of an eighty bed convalescent home in Petoskey to care for ambulatory patients those not requiring acute care medical services A 1I of the maJor hospital service facilities are in the urbanizing areas of the County Families who live in the northern areas of Emmet County have a cho ice of coming into Petoskey for medical service or going to St . Ignace or Cheboygan The L itt le T•averse Hospital in combinat ion with the Burns C inic, establishes a focal point of medical services. This is the largest hospital 1n the County and draws patients from an area which extends from Bella ire to Newberry in the Upper Pen insula P1ans for expanding this hospital inc lude a proposed six -story w ing behind the existing structure Capacity wi ll increase from the present 177 beds to an estimated 325 beds in ten or fifteen years Services at the County hospital are influenced by two characteristics of the area Tourists have a significant impact as demonstrated by the high month usage in July and August Moreover, 600 to 700 persons are treated at L 1ttle T -averse for skiing injuries each year . The County also has a higher than average senior citizen population Th is 1s evidenced by existing and planned facilities classified as nursing homes or convalescent homes I! retirement village developments increase in Em met County, additional medical care type services will have to be provided The trend toward higher proportions of elderl y c1t1zens will likel y continue -51- I I I I I I I I �I 1.i \ l ~ I ROAD COMMISSION A critical service provided 1n every County is the planning, maintenance and construction of County roads primarily in township communities. In Emmet County, the road maintenance problem is multiplied during winter months. Annual snow fall levels, plus the influx of winter sports enthusiasts demand that I '"' traffic move over the County road system under al I weather conditions. Added to this is the continual expansion of the County road system for seasonal or vacati )n I·j :._J home developments. Permanent home owners in townships must also commute to Ii.J . work in nearby cities and villages . ' Emmet I, Administrative offices and the main vehicle service garages are located in the City County's Road Commission operates from two basic facilities. of Petoskey . Some garage and storage faci Iities are also located in Levering to provide ready access to the northern portions of the County . Emmet County is It Ii If J responsible for maintaining some northern portions of Interstate 75 in adjacent Cheboygan County . Because Petoskey is in the southern area of the County, the administrative offices I .; ·'! • and main vehicle garages are not centrally located . Hence, it would be desirable I and more efficient to operate one large County Road Commission service complex at a more central location According to the County Road Engineer, such a complex may require from forty to eighty acres of land sufficient to consolidate all major services. I I The Levering garage would probably be retained for at least winter months use in order to serve I-75 . 1·u1 A central location for County garages involves some balance between a geographic -- I .! I· ~ center, and the center of County road mileage. The approximate geographic center is one mile south of Robinson Road and one mile east of Pleasant View Road in Pleasantview Township . This exact location is inaccessible by road and is among swamp lands Also, this site may be too far north in view of the County Road mileage in the southern townships I ~ Ji I, . I. It becomes apparent that the most suitable location would be within an area defined as being · ' . ;_, .__, l-: ;__! East of Harbor Springs . At or south of the Pleasantview Township Hal l . -52- �.. , ·. -l -l West of the Fish Hatchery . North of Round Lake LIBRARIES In Emmet County, there are four (4) public libraries, not counting libraries or reading rooms in the local schools A lso, there is a small library in Mackinaw City (Cheboygan County) to serve northern County areas The four Emmet libraries are located as follows : 1. 2 City of Petoskey City of Harbor Springs 3. 4 Village of A lanson Village of Pellston These four libraries provide reasonably good geographic coverage in the County if their services are generally available to non-residents (either by fee or other agreements) . Rural and township library services may be provided by a "book mobile" system . Aiso, there have been some successful experirrents with mail order library services in other rural counties Small libraries and/or reading room facilities may be provided with township halls, community buildings, and in a local school The Pellston and A anson libraries are quite small compared with the larger services in Harbor Springs and Petoskey . An urban area standard used as a guide to library needs, states that one ( 1) li brary is needed for each 15,000 to 25,000 persons in the community This is for a full and complete library and suggests that no new libraries will be needed in Emmet County prior to 1990, if existing libraries serve rural areas . A County-wide library system can ensure the ava ilability of complete services to all County citizens, as well as coordinate the resources of existing libraries NORTH CENTRAL MICHIGAN COLLEGE North Central Michigan College is sited LlPOn 255 acres of land io the south-central section of the City of Petoskey The present enrollment is near 700 students and functions as a two-year community college -53- -I I .I -I I I -I I I II II II III ~ �. . . .... .. 1-: -i l '11 lljtJ l ;1 u 1{·1 u l -:1 . ' In recent years, the college has been drawing about fifty percent of its student body from Emmet County and another forty percent from surrounding counties. The remaining ten to twelve percent came from beyond this area of the State However, this out-area percentage has risen to about twenty percent in recent years. This increase is partly attributable to the provision of dormitory space The college projects its enrollment to approximately 1,000 or 1,200 students by 1980, with no need for additional land This projection has been based on the growth trends generally reflected in the area, since it is a community college service . In view of the planned population holding capacity of Petoskey and its surrounding neighborhoods, enrollment demands could lead to a sizeable increase in the enrollment of the college, possibly bringing about a change to a four-year institution. A four-year college would attract large numbers of non-local students. 1. .-j I The skiing, swimming, and outdoor resources of the County should prove highly attractive to prospective students. Given the curriculum, it is not unreasonable to think of a "University" with a strong resort atmosphere . It this evolved, the area could look to a college-university facility with land requirements of one square < .,/ - I mile or more and enrollments ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 An expanded site is mapped on the "Future Land Use Pian" AIRPORTS 1-. I ;-l.. I·~ ~ 1,-: ;__, Emmet County has three public airports· the County Airport at Pellston, the Harbor Springs Airport east of Harbor Springs, and the Mackinaw City Airport north of Carp Lake 1. Pellston The County Airport at Pellston is the only scheduled commercial air service ,-,: facility 1n the County, and it serves a five-county area Existing terminal . the larger fan jet aircraft and increasing numbers of people who use air travel : ..;_j facilities are inadequate to serve the increased passenger traffic generated by service . Runway extensions are underway to accommodate 100 passenger jets, and a new east-west runway may be necessary in the next twenty years. A conservative projection of traffic shows a 1,000 daily passenger load by 1973 Ii I This is a volume comparable -54- L.., to existing loads at the Bay �-I City-Midland-Saginaw Airport, _ some 160 miles to the south. A new terminal building is now under construction and will have a large lobby and lounge with seating for 140 persons Restaurant services and parking lot expansions are also planned . ·. The Pellston Airport will likely remain and expand as the area's major air traffic facility . IT Is important, therefore, that residential, industrial and recreation developments recognize the impact of jet aircraft and runway approach zones when locating in the area ) I I .. ' .· \ 2 Harbor Springs The role of charter type airports is rapidly expanding throughout the nation The Harbor Springs airport is conveniently located near Little Traverse Bay, major ski resorts, and concentrated areas of recreation homes This produces a year-around market for private air service between Emmet County and ·I major metropolitan centers . As private executive-recreation air traffic continues to expand at the Harbor Springs Airport, there may be increasing conflicts and hazards created with surrounding lands The combination of features that make the airport attractive to air traffic, also affects land development. Hence, industries, homes and seasonal-resort dwellings are attracted to the Bay area and are clustering within a short distance of the airport AdJacent lands in glide path areas should be kept free of development or developed with very low density uses 3 Mackinaw City The Village of Mackinaw City owns some 320 acres of land north of Paradise Lake (also Carp Lake) that has been used for private-recreation air traffic Having sod runways and no improvements, this landing field receives very minimum use . The future of the airfield 's development Is not optimistic and casual private use may be the extent of future demand WATER AND SEWER UTILITIES A complete review of water and sewer services in Emmet County is contained in a companion report, "Comprehensive Water and Sewer P,an", April, 1971, funded with a Farmers Home Administration planning grant 1 A "-Ummary of the plan's findings Is included herein 1Engineering aspects of the Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan were provided by McNamee, Porter and Seeley, Consulting Engineers, Ann Arbor, Michigan -55- ·I I I I I �I 1 SANITARY SEWAGE A number of waste water treatment facilities are being planned in Emmet County . They include : -I- 1. The City of Petoskey recent awarded contracts for the construction of a new 2.5 million gallons per day waste water treat ment plant wh ich Is to be :.J located in Magnus Park In the City . The existing treatment plant wil l be abandoned and the waste water pumped to the new plant by means of a pumping station to be constructed near the ex ist ing site I \ :.: .j '- 2. Bear Creek Town sh 1p has obtained the serv ices of Wi 111ams and Works. Consulting Engineers, to study waste water co llection and treatment In the Township 3. The City of Harbor Springs and Little Traverse Township have joined together in the format ion of a waste water treatment author it y The authority has recentl y received bids on a new treatment facil 1ty T·eatment will be an aerated lagoon type followed by disinfection and spray irrigation The location of the 320 acre treatment site is shown on the "Future Land Use Plan" map . 1· I Idi 4. Harbor Point and Wequetons1ng have contracted with the City of Harbor Springs for waste water greatment 5. Waste water from the Conway area w•II be treated at the Harbor Springs Little Traverse Authority' s facil :ty 6. 1·. ; Because of problems around Crooked Lake and along the Crooked River, the Village of Alanson and Littlefield Townsh 1p have jointly obtained the services of Williams and Works tor the purpose of making a study for waste water collect ion and treatment Work on this stud y w as begun recent ly and no recommenda1Ions have been presented to date The feasibility of Aanson and Littlefield Township 10In,ng the Harbor Spr ings- Little T ··averse Authority is be ing evaluated. ,/ . ·, ILi 7. The firm of Johnson & Anderson , Consulting Engineers for Mackinaw Cit y, is preparing plans and spec :f1cat1ons for a new waste water treatment facility I-: Current plans are to abandon the existing treatment plant and pump th e waste water to a new t reatment facility to be located on a six ty -ac re si te southwest o f th e Cit y (re fer t o " Future Land Use P;an" map) -56 LJ �I' 8 Aithough the Village of Pellston is not planning sewer improvements at the present time, it is recommended that they be considered in the near future, should financial assistance be available. DOMESTIC WATER SUPPLIES I -1 Safe and abundant drinking water is a most fundamental requirement to our existence There are two sources available for obtaining this water. These are surface water sources such as lakes and rivers, and ground water sources such as artesian and drilled wells. 1. Petoskey 's water is supplied by an infiltration well, 17 feet deep, and a :I pumping station located on the shore of Little T·averse Bay within the City . The water 1s chlorinated and fluoridated prior to entering the distribution system I t is believed that the infiltration well is recharged from ground wate.- flowing from the south , rather than from Little T•averse Bay, as the normal water level 1s above that in the Bay The Petoskey water supply is of I a good quality and not so hard as to warrant a softening plant at the present time 2 I I The Harbor Springs water system Is supplied by four wells and one 335,000 gallon ground storage reservoir In a 1966 revision of the City's Master Pian by Williams and Works, it was recommended that three additional wells be installed 3 One e1ght-1nch well approximately 200 feet deep and one ten-inch well 296 feet deep supply water to the Mackinaw City system It is estimated by the City that these wells have over double the capacity of that being utilized at the present time Storage is provided by one 100,000 gallon elevated tank ·I ; 4. Boyne Highlands operates a private water system which is supplied by one six-inch well, one eight-inch well and one ten-inch well Storage is provided by a 2,000 gallon reservoir and the water is reported to be of a very good quality 5 There 1s an existing water system in Hidden Hamlet, a development of recreational homes located at the Nubs Nob ski area The system is privately owned and operated by the Hidden Hamlet property owners. The system is supplied by four 4-inch wells and one 6-inch well . There are no fire hydrants .57. I . �., . -- ....-· . . --· - I Ii~ 1 d 11 6. .1 Ii·--· 11 11 '--J ~ ~ 11 L'Arbre Croche on Little Traverse Bay between Petoskey and Harbor Springs is constructiong a private water system which is to be supplied by two 350 feet deep wells The new system will be hydro-pneumatic. 7. Although the Village of Pellston does not have a public water supply, the Village maintains three (3) wells for fire protection 8. Wequetonsing and Harbor Point have water systems supplied by the City of Harbor Springs Bay View also has a water system and 1s included in the Petoskey service area The remaining area of the County is served by private wells. It is recommended that the existing water distribution systems in Petoskey, Harbor Springs and Mackinaw City be extended as required in the future to serve 1·~1 the areas approximating those to be served by their waste water treatment facilities . Problems will be encountered in expanding the present systems because of the varying terrain of the County Booster pumping stations and reservoirs will 1·1 be required to maintain adequate pressures 1n the areas of higher elevation _:/ l·i/ Because of potential problems within the Village of Pellston, caused by the small lot sizes, it is recommended that thought be given to a pub I ic water supply for the __ .} I: I: iLd: I: _j I·: . '! ~ IlJ~, Vi I lage . Considering relative costs, it is recommended that a water system be given priority over waste water col lect1on and treatment P:·1vate developments sou th of Pellston may encourage some joint utility service connections with the Village A public water system should also be considered in A:anson However, a waste water collection system may be given priority at the present time It would be desirable to have all dwellings in the County provided with waste water collection and treatment and/or pub I ic water sui:;pl ies. However, this may not be economically feasible even with substantial outside financial aid I I is recommended that the non-urbanizing areas of the County continue with private septic tanks, drain fields and wells for the present As further development occurs or as potential problems arise, additional sewer and/or water systems should be studied . .. Some rural areas that may require new or expanded services because of increasing I~ Shores, Cross Village and the ski resort areas 1n Pleasantview Township Demands development include : Walloon Lake , Paradise Lake, La rks Lake, Mackinaw in the rural townships of West T : averse, Friendship, Readmond, c,oss V illage, i,. _. I·; ......., -i -58- �.. .:• -· ' B11ss, and WaWatam would probably arise in areas near the Lake Michigan shore. The other townships may remain more rural, and serivces may never be feasible except in a few instances where concentrated development occurs. Levering, Carp Lake, Brutus, and Van may be affected under these conditions Springvale Township could have some potential utility service area near Crooked Lake and Pickerel Lake ... ' ; In general, there 1s an abundance of potable ground water in Emmet County . LAND FILLS Land fil l sites are 1nd1cated on the "Community Facilities" map . When needed, additional land fill sites can nrobably be developed with ",elative" ease, because of the rural and undeveloped nature of the County However, it may prove effective to operate land fills in areas where land reclamation could prove beneficial to recreation developments or other extensive use adaptations. Notw1thstand 1ng these objectives, care should be exercised to ensure that land fill sites have m 1 n1mum nuisance affects to home areas, tourist facilities, and scenic resources . O her methods of solid waste disposal, such as incineration, probably would not 1 be considered unless serious pollution and nuisance hazards occur from existi ng methods, or unless technological aevelopments render other methods more feasible FIRE STATIONS In Emmet County, there are si x (6) tire stations located in Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Pellston, Mackinaw City, Resort Township and Carp Lake Township (refer to map, ··c ommunity Facilities") Forest fire equipment and surveillance is provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (Pellston , Mackinaw .I I I I I I and Indian River ) hie community fire stations provide fire protection to some I 461 square miles of land and all are rrenned by volunteers. Ru ral fire protection systems rarely achieve favorable insurance ratings because of the wide geographic area to be serviced, lack of public water system, perhaps less sophisticated equipment, and lack of full-time personnel For example, a township can qualify for a special "r-,1 ne protected" c1assification, if it furnishes • fire apparatus and maintains at least twelve trained volunteer firemen under the superv 1s1on of a competent fire cr1 1ef However, only those areas within five (5) public road miles of the fire station will be classified as protected 1 1commun 1t y fire pr otection systems are rated on a scale from 1 to 10 A one rating is the r1 ghest poss ibl e rating , and a nine would be considered a minimum protected classtf ,cat ion 1 -59J �t :·:. . ~. :. . '- ·.- .,::- -- I I~ •I I II URBA N AREA FIRE PROTECTION ;) ~ The number of fire stations necessary to serve urban areas in southern Emmet County may be minimized through mutual site planning If fire stations are too I 11 .J stations may be req u ired to complete the coverage This could be costly to citizens who must then finance duplicate facil ities . -1 .:J 11 I - i, Ii I: close together, there will be excessive overlap to protected areas and additional TOWNSHIP FIRE PROTECTION In Emmet County, township development is sparse and generally scattered over a wide area. Growth projections indicate that 1t will be some years before significant new development occurs 1n rural areas, which are heavily influenced by recreation uses, farms, and forest land . Hence, a greater reliance on fire protection agreements with nearby urban communities . Existing township fire stations are located 1n Carp Lake and Resort Township . . ) Like the City-Village stations, these are manned by volunteers and have service I -' areas extending well in excess of the standards advocated by insurance underwriters However, rural fire stations are provided more for basic protection purposes than for lower insurance rates FOR EST FI RE PROTECT ION 1-, ,..z:/ l~j-1 i·, . ·1 Fo rest fire protection in Emmet County 1s primarily the responsibility of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources However, the nature of forest fire hazards requires extensive cooperation with private industry, local government and the cit izens in general . FIRE STAT ION PLAN ;,.,._,) I·: Considering the variables 1n rural fire protection systems, the following fire station plan may provide optimum protection: 11 1. The urban area fire protection system proposed 1n the Petoskey A :ea, appears to give adequate protection to the area expected to receive most of the County's new growth and development 2. It development continues at a strong pace in the area between Harbor Springs, the Ski Resorts, Oden, and the Petoskey State Park, a new station is '-1 •r ~ 'I J i-~ : i I likely to be needed somewhere north of the Harbor Springs Airport •_ ; ' c.. -60· �r,T 3. Continued growth and development in the Alanson Area will increase service demands on the existing fire station It the existing fire station is ever displaced, a new station can be located in almost any area of the Village. However, a better location might be on the west up-land areas. 4. The Pellston Fire S~ation affords excellent coverage to the County airport and the built-up portions of the Village . Rural area coverage encompasses ~l most of the immediate influence area of the Village and three-mile coverage includes those areas proposed for future residential development on the -I Residential Areas Pian 5 The Carp Lake Fire Station prov ides rural area coverage. There is excellent -1 rural protection overlap with the Pellston station and the two stations operate on a mutual agreement basis High value coverage reaches the shores of Parad ise Lake, and three mile protection is afforded to nearly all lakefront development 1n Carp Lake Township Fire service agreements extend westerly to serve C•oss Village J 6 Mackinaw City's new fire station will be adjacent to the old station in the extreme easterly area of the Vil Iage Despite this easterly orientation, there is very good rural area coverage to WJWatam Township . ;I 7. The northwest portions of Emmet County are without effective fire protection A stat ion in C·oss Village could fill some of this void. The prime function of a C· oss Village station would be to provide minimum rural area coverage, and this could extent five-mile protection into Readmond Township and portions of Center and B!iss Townships. 8. Springvale Township has a geographic service gap . Substantial new growth and development in the area of Pickerel Lake, East Pickerel Lake Road, and Epsilon could generate a need for a Springvale facility The need for fire stations in any area should ultimately be determined by the most effective respon se capability -61- f• ,':,.--: J I ,I I I I ' · ..,. ,l • •·'I I _j �.,.., . . . :~; ' - . ~ ~ - t ' ' I t _l Ii' '- 1 I.J Ij I J I COMMERCIAL Emmet County's major convenience trade area was determined to be coterminous with the political boundaries of Emmet County 1 Hovvever, the regional comparison trade area encompasses Emmet and Charlevoix Counties, most of Cheboygan County and the northern edge of Orsego County Within the County , however, there are three minor convenience trade areas based upon the drawing power of Petoskey, Harbor Springs, and Cheboygan-Mackinaw City . The three trade areas are superimposed on the map of "Existing Commercial : 4 Land Use" in this section of the plan I THREE COUNTY REGION 1-. Cheboygan Coun ty and Charlevoi x County are located adJacent to Emmet County in the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula These counties have similar ~A ·.·l development influences related to regional character, transportation, tourism, natural resources, agricultural, and industry This three county region housed some 43,900 persons In 1960 11 was estimated that the 1969 population of this region is about 50,000 persons, a figure verified by the 1970 US Census Since Emmet County's Prel im inary Commercia l Base Analysis was completed, the I I 1967 U.S. Censu s of Business was publ ished Without adjusting for inflation, the sales data compare as follows: Sales in $1,000 1958 1963 1967 Percent of Three County Sales in 1967 Emmet County Charlevoi x Cheboygan County $24,930 $13,165 $19,738 $29,977 $17,385 $22 ,374 $38,109 $19,390 $28,900 44 1% 22 4% 33 5% Total $57,833 $69,736 $86,399 100 0% A ll of the counties experienced sign1f1cant and consistent retail sales increases, with most of the sales volume accruing to Emm et County In 1958, Emmet ... L., 1Vilican -Leman & Associates, Inc, Central Bus iness Di strict Study, City of Petoskey, August. 1968, pages 3 and 3A \.......· I L -62 - �-· • _.._ ___ ~-•·--' - "I J ,· • ., ,.. accounted for 43.1% of the regional sales volume . This share increased another one percent by 1967 As indicated from the following data, the City of Petoskey has regained its dominant 1958 retai I position in 1967 by accounting for 79.9% of Emmet County's retail sales Census of Business Years 1958 1963 1967 County Sales as a Percent of three-county region 43.1% 43.0% 44.1% Petoskey Sales as a Percent of county sales 79 .0% 75.8% 79 .9% $5,229 $7,243 $7,654 Non-Petoskey Sales Volumes (in $1,000) Sales in areas of Emmet County that are not 1n Petoskey increased slightly between 1963 and 1967 After discounting for inflation, there may have been little or no increase in the more rural areas SEASONAL VARIATION IN SALES The exact impact of summer residents and tourists on local retail sales cannot be precisely ascertained . Ari estimate of seasonal variance does, however, portray a significant tourist contribution . The estimate depicted in TABLE 14 shows that in Emmet County and the five surrounding Counties' "comparison" retail sales run approximately 20% higher during the months of June, July, August and September than the Srate or Detroit Sr.andard Metropolitan Statistical Area . The percentages were derived from 1966 Michigan sales tax records . • •w I ·..!-.-_.•·• • .:: . JO... ' • ., I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I i l -63- �'• I I~ .l Ij Ij I I~J I. ' I TABLE14 SEASONAL VARIATION OF COMPARISON RETAIL SALES ~ .,, .J I Five Surrounding Counties Emmet County January February March April May June July August September October November December Total State 5.3% 6.5% 4.9% 10.9% 4.9% 7.2% 59% 4.2% 7.1% 7 8% 89% 8 2% 13 4% 7.4% 48 1% 14.7% ·464% 8.0% 9.4% 8.4% 7.6% 8.3% 7 6% 9.0% 10.3% 14 1% 5.0% 4 .7% 5.1% 6 .0% 7.4% 9 .0% 13.4% 16.1% 9.6% 7.5% 7 3% 9 .0% 100 0% 100 .0% 32 .0% 100.0% SOURCE: Michigan Sales Tax records, Treasury Department. EXISTING RETAIL CENTERS Emmet County's retail uses are illustrated on the map, "Existing Commercial Land Use" . Uses in the Cities of Petoskey and Harbor Springs are not included on 1-, • i 11 11 I; ~j . ·, " ;,_" I~ u l -1,.. r , • II } the map because the bu si nesses are concentrated in too small an area to show on a County-wide map . Separate planning studies for these communities detail commercial uses. Commercial uses are reasonably concentrated in rural areas, where in some instances, the entire shopping function is represented by a single general store Some scattered and strip commercial is evident along US-31 between the Mackinaw Bridge and A lanson . Beginning near Oden, the incidence of development increases, becoming densely developed from Petoskey's CBD 10 the Harbor Springs Road . Similarly, commercial has developed along US- 131 south of Petoskey and on US-31 to the west. Major concentrations of commercial uses 1n Emmet County occur in the areas with the most year-around population Highways linking the urban centers and rural service communities support restaurants, motels, gasoline stations, and gift -64- . ' -' - - -- -- - - ~ - - - - - - -- ~ ~ - - -- - �I shops. The fact that the rural service centers are quite small is evidence that tourist sales alone are not sufficient to support a wider range of business service in outlying areas. The picture of commercial use suggests that the tourists gravitate toward the larger centers of Petoskey and Harbor Springs for all but minimum essential purchases . RETAIL CENTER PLANS Future retailing in Emmet County cannot be measured with the same accuracy as past and existing trends. However, all of the projection indices of metropolitan growth, local population increases, and tourist business projections establish a sound economic basis upon which to plan retail center improvements. The actual impact of future development within the major trade areas of the County will determine which centers can be improved or expanded to the greatest degree. ' ·I I I Retai ling in Emmet County has a bright future in terms of the following : The County is a geographic terminus for tourist travel in the northern Lower Peninsula. It is a major destination area . Interstate freeways link the region with growing metropolitan centers. There is good access from Detroit and Chicago and these routes are continually being improved . The County is centrall y located within a complex of major ski resorts and benefits from year-round tourist business on a high level. Local population growth is progressing at a reasonable rate, and gains have occurred in diversified rranufacturing . I I I I I Although the County has experienced growth, much of the development has concentrated in the Petoskey-Harbor Springs area . Several northern townships are expected to hold a stable permanent population, with some slight growth. If past trends continue, a few rural townships may lose population. Following is a summary of retail center plans for Emmet _County: 1. Petoskey CBD Plan The long-range development plan of Petoskey's Central Business District is described and illustrated in detail in the report a_nd , plan,~ of Pe.toskey's -65- I I I I I �ICentral Business District, a separate "701" 1unded report. The overall objective of Petoskey's CBD Pian is to create ·a central community area that is attractive and can function as the comparison shopping and governmental focal point of a wide regional area 2. Harbor Springs The City of Harbor Springs has a sound base upon which to plan future retail center improvements. These relate to the high value investments in seasonal homes in and adjacent to the City, large marine facilities and services, and the increasing popularity of winter sports act ivities in nearby areas. In the County Plan, Harbor Springs is classified as a major conven ience center and has a large convenience trade area . It is expected that th e Cit y will expand as a major retail center in the County and probab ly w ill progress to include more comparison shopping functions. Specific plans for Harbor Springs' retail center have not been prepared as a part of this report , since the Cit y is engaged in a separate comprehensive planning program . 3. 1--_. Although the central retail area of Mackinaw City is not in Emmet County , this community and the City of Cheboygan exert a strong trade influence in I- the northern townships of Emmet . For the purposes of County 's retail center plan, it is assumed that Mackinaw City will pursue programs to plan and improve retail areas . I;I l,.: .,. Being positioned out of the County , no specific retail center for Mackinaw City has been prepared . l ;:-1 ► Mackinaw City l 4. Minimum Convenience Centers 1 ---. ....... lr..1. 'L-:..t 1.~ In addition to the larger City retail trade centers, there are several villages and unincorporated places that provide minimum retail facilities . These centers provide services ranging from a general store to several shopping center uses, as in the Village of Alanson . In addition , the minimum convenience centers are supported by touri st lodging facilities and perhaps some general commercial activity as wel I L• I ' .. I:· . ' '_, [ I -66- �- -· I. . . . . . . . .__ Following is a description of six Minimum Convenience Centers in Emmet County. The basic design principles expressed in these plans relate to : ·I Consolidation of scattered retail uses into expanded retail shopping centers. Provision for off-street parking to increase retail sales capacity . -i The addition of landscaped areas and street trees to make the centers more attractive. a. Alanson Center The Village of Alanson is the third largest retail center in Emmet County . Alanson's retail activity should be concentrated on US-31 with parking behind the stores. If possible, a large community park should . J be developed along the Crooked River. This would attract tourists, boating enthusiasts, and fishermen who use the River. A large central parking lot would be able to serve the retail stores as well as the park . b. Carp Lake Center Retail services in Carp Lake are largely tourist oriented, and there are numerous tourist lodging facilities situated around Paradise Lake . Existing uses include: Gasoline stations, marina and boat livery, sporting goods and hardware store, a grocery store, and several motels and cabin courts. The existing pattern of development is crowded, with little room for expansion . Future expansion at the Carp Lake Center will be difficult and expensive to achieve because of existing development. However, if an expanded market is desired, two critical objectives must be reached. First, the retail area must be enlarged to provide room for building expansion and off-street parking . Second, some landscaped open space should provide open views of Paradise Lake. c. Cross Village Center I I I I I ·I The retail potential of Cross Village is strongly oriented to the summer tourist season . It is reas6nable to expect some lake lot subdivisions to result in year-around resort dwellings. Also, there are a number of farms located in the surrounding area to support basic services . -67- I I �.,. L____ r··.:... .• J •r· -- ,, - -i..·~--J ~ ..~..•:·-,.... ('.... ... ~ r·· r·. i.....__ .... _ - .. --- - - ~- -·- ·- . -· ·---~ .J--· ., ., . ··!,: .• t ·; ,J\ '·_ ·' . .. . -,-- ~ ·- --·:- ---')) _ __ ~ ~ ~ ---.. , , .. . ,. , ,.~~ ".. ~. !,... I" . 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IDfD JHlOUOH A HDU#ll OtloNI i'tOM T+U Df,llt lMUH HOUSIMG ANO Utl,U• DIYIIOh•fNI \INOU IHI UI loll'<I t'lAHNtNG ASSIUANCI t'IO(;t.A/1\, AUINOl l lfO If SfCIION 101 Of THI HOU,1"1G A(1 o, lt'j~ A$ AHINOfO , AO,.tl'<li,1u10 If 1Hf flll(IOGAN o, ... .,,.(NI o, (0"11 .. 0ct - o, RESIDENTIAL 8 PUBLIC VACANT OUASI PUBLIC ( I · CHURCHES I BUILDINGS SHACKS HISTORICAL 0 SI TE s- CARP CONVENIENCE EMMET ... .. ... .) ~ -- - 500 ,,PROJtlMAl[ LAKE MINIMUM :.- USE SHOPPING ...... , - ,..____ CENTERS COUNTY , MICHIGAN I • IOOO Fl a SC ALE vilicon · lemon a assoc . Inc. plonnin9 con1uttont1 ..'..,!) _ . �C: -- r-·-··----r ~ L ~ - ~ r . ') - -~ . -; ,......· _..'..._.,. ·-· j: ,~.,.... ,.· -... ..... L:·- -, • · , _ , .. ;·-· -· ' ... ,_ ___ -~ '_;_ _. . ~ - L~ :..:__·- L ~ 1...:..:....·- - ) ,· ... I •. -~ r. ◊ ~ :v;~ ~ · ~ ~ ~ . .½ ◊ ,, , -;,,"' .,, ; ' '1. ~ .. 0- • ~ LAND r. USE LAND USE SH OPPING ~ ' , .,r . - ~ i' ' PROPOSED EXISTING ~S) / or-- 0 0 '- ' ~. _,.oo" '.... .,.•---- ◊ . " l - '. ... :,,,. ',0 "" .,, . ~~ L. ~~o ~ ~ ...,~~~ o _,~. ~ <_<i.\ ' . '\' C EN T ER COMMERC I AL r - - - - ..., I ~ TOUR I ST ~ EATING ' LODGING 6 f::0::::::3 PROFESSI O NAL 9 -- __ ., P I ~:Tu1@ DRIN K ING COMMERCIAL OFFI C E '-- ( □ - CABINS) ~ GENERAL SHOPP I NG SHOPPING CENTER COMMERCIAL CENTER BEAUTIFICATION PARKING AREAS 1 HI ,.,, ......,,10M 0, IHI$ c;u,rtuc w ... , IIH,.NCIAUY A. 1010 l>l•OUO H 4 HOUAl GU.I'll rtOM THI Ol'" UMf NI O f "4!)0 5 1HO AiND UII AM OI YU O•l'tlHI , UHOU UII UI , ~ I NDUSTRIAL 8 ST ORA GE U,M ,uNM INO .. u, u .-.wc f ., oc; ■.., .... 4 Uli• O• ;lt0 11 Of IU ♦ Ai•U•U•IOtO . AO/ltlNI SllUD IT IIU MtCHIO U• 0 "01Mf N I O f C0MMI I C L UCUO N 101 O f I H• HOllll>«J "' " !::::::::::::::<:::::::j ~ RES 10 EN T I AL PUBLIC co VACANT X S HAC K S * ll QUASI PUBLIC { t- CHURCHES) BUI L DINGS HISTORICAL o !IOO ,IPPfl0 • 1MAT £ SITE CROSS • 10 00 n S C.t.L [ VILLAGE MINIMUM CONVENIENCE CENTERSI EMMET COUNTY , MICHIGAN vilicon · lemon 8 assoc . Inc. plonn i nQ c on1ullonll 1' �I II ~• □ □ o,r: . 11111111 I ~ □ □ Ill ~~~~ LIBRARY E3 ; ti ., v□ I .. ill: r. El l 00[ •.r,r, .• Cl 1 p :' □□□ 'o CJ I I 0 G ID IC!I I XX X EXISTING - LAND X PROPOSED CENTER TO U RI ST LOO G I N G IO - CA 81 N S I ~ EATING II ~ GENERAL COMMERCIAL !:=:=:=:=:~ OFFICE PROFESSIONAL ~ c=J ffiW.~~ 8 LAND SHOPPING ,----, I P t "-----.1 ~ DRINKING INDUSTRIAL . . SHOPPING USE CENTER COMMERCIAL CENTER BEAUTIFICATION PARKING AREAS 1.: '"JHf ,u,AU,TIOH Of 1HIS GU,tlUC STORAGE WAS flNANCIAlLY AIOtO IHIOU GH A HDflA\ GU.NI H,JM !Hf o,, . . u1o1,1H Of HOU51H0 ANO UOAN O[Vfl0PM(Nf . UHOfl THf Ut- lAN P~ANHIHO ASSISU,NCI ,_OGIA"l AUJHO.lllO If SfCTIOH 70 1 Of THt H0U5 1N0AC10f 19'4,,U,U>fHOfO, RESIDENTIAL 8 PUBLIC D=:J VACANT X SHACKS * - COMMERCIAL !•:•:•:;:;:::~ 8 I. X USE SHOPPING I I O I AOMIHISIU[O l'l'THf MICHIG,.N 01'-l,UliHHT Of COMfOIUCL- QUASI PUBLIC (I - CHURCHES I BUILDINGS 0 HISTORICAL APPROXIMATE: PELLSTON ' CONVENIENCE MINIMUM '5 500 SITE •.• . l i-~ ~ i:.MM ET ~· ;'.1;!.-., _._I CENTERS COUNTY , MICHIGAN -· . . . '_j!: ___ • IO00 H . SCALE vilicon • lemon ll assoc. Inc. plonnino con su I ton ts ·_,--·,; . ? j ..... �.,~ ·. -. . --- ·:., '~ 1: . . ·~ .... ._,. "" -- .. I The plan for future development illustrates a gradual "filling in" of retail uses between existing uses. Off-street parking is located so as to serve the retail stores and act as scenic turnouts for views over Lake Michigan . Landscaped setbacks are suggested for State Road to evolve into a scenic route to the sand beaches and boat landing, which may be expanded into a larger marina or harbor. d. Levering Center Retail services within Levering are limted although several commercial services are located on US-31 . Levering's plan is based on the possible attraction force of a "Ghost Town" . The original retail shops are mostly vacant, as former retail enterprises have ceased or moved to US-31 . Another possibility is the development of a pre-1900 retail street Existing buildings could be restored to their original design . Main Street could be cobblestoned and made to function like a pedestrian mall . All parking would then be provided behind the stores. The restored buildings could be used for actual retail services. It the Old Town theme does not evolve, retail services will probably continue to develop on US-31 . e. Pellston Center Pellston is the largest village in the County and has the largest concentration of permanent homes outside of the Petoskey-Harbor Springs area. The future plan for retail development is uncomplicated emphasizing basic retail concepts. These relate to retail use concentrations, off-street parking, and a beautification plaza or mall to act as a focal point. Added to this would be architectural improvements and pleasing center appearance . :_j I 5. Other Minimum Shopping Facilities The previous paragraphs described various shopping areas in Emmet County. In ~ddition to these, there are other possible commercial locations which may include shopping center type uses -68- �--1 Based upon the distribution and composition of competing retail areas in the County, ten ( 10) other locations have been mapped to suggest possible long-term future retail center development. The location of the ten potential retail centers are illustrated on the map, "Existing Commercial Land Use." Roughly in the order of their development importance, these locations are listed below : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Boyne Highlands - Nubs Nob Area Wlderness Park Larks Lake Bliss Center Resort Township (lntertown and Resort Roads) Good Hart West County Line on US-31 Brutus Epsilon Stutsmanville The actual priority and timing at which these centers may develop, will be dependent upon the rate of future County growth and the distribution of that growth among the sixteen townships .. ' -I I -I .. ...... :_ I I rt ~, -69- I I �I INDUSTRIAL Emmet County's industrial base is closely related to the industrial characteristics of the northern area of the Lower Peninsula. Although the limits of a region's economy do not necessarily limit economic development in a particular community, there is usually a close relationship between a region's indust rial character and the ability of local units of government to industrialize . By and large, the region influences the type and character of industry which is most likely to be successfu I. The intent of the Industrial Plan is to identify community areas which have physical and locational characteristics adaptable to industrial use. Parallel to this objective is the value of local industrial information to be used in programs of industrial promotion, including the development of planned industrial districts or parks. EMPLOYMENT In terms of employed labor force, TABLE 15 indicates the breakdown by occupation within the Coun ty . These figures are converted to percentages and compared with the State of Michigan . Those occupations contingent to farming 1 1 are somewhat higher than the state average. Craftsmen and operatives are lower than the State. This was also found to be true in the City of Petoskey . (See "Petoskey Industrial Study", March, 1969) Managers, Officials, and Service Workers have higher proportions than that of the State . This reflects in part on the motel and tourist trade in the region . The remaining categories are relatively similar to State averages. The categories most oriented to manufacturing industries (craftsmen, operatives, laborers), have a smaller percentage of the employed labor force than the State average This is partly attributed to the dominance of retail employment to serve recreation tourist services, as well as the general lack of industrial activity . :..... I I.' An overall analysis of regional industrial characteristics shows a relative industrial disadvantage for the northern counties of Michigan, since actual employment levels declined . Emmet County's 1950-1960 decrease was at a rate equal to the northwest region of the Lower Peninsula Petoskey 's loss was slightly greater than the Emmet County rate. Some re-evaluations o·n the basis of 1970 Census statistics should be completed . -70- �..: • . ..: - . -· i TABLE15 1960 OCCUPATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS Emmet County Michigan Number Percent Percent Major Occupational Groups Professional, Technical and Kindred Farms & Farm Managers Managers, Officials and Proprietors Clerical and Kindred Sales Workers Craftsmen, Foreman and Kindred Operatives and Kindred Private Household Workers Service Workers Farm Laborers and Foremen Laborers Not Reported Total Employed Relatic,n to State 550 228 10.6% 4.4% 11 .5% 2.2% Same Higher 632 581 411 12.2% 11 .2% 7.9% 7.3% 13.9% 7.4% Higher Lower Same 666 681 254 635 · 78 326 132 12.9% 13.2% 4.9% 12.3% 1.5% 6.3% 2 .6% 15.4% 22.2% 2.2% 8.7% 0.9% : 4.0% ' 4.3% Same Much Lower Higher Higher High~r Higher 5,174 100.0% .-.I J' 100.0% SOURCE: U.S. Census of Population, 1960. Of the eleven ( 11) cpunties in the Northwest Economic Development District, Emmet County has the fourth largest labor force ranking behind Grand Traverse, Manistee, and Wexford Counties. I Among these four largest labor force counties in the region, Emmet ranked : I First In : Private household workers Second In : Construction Other Personal Services Communications Food Eating & Drinking Hospitals Other Professional -71- �-· ...- .,··. -. ,·:...:..... I -; Third In: · Agriculture Other Transportation Wholesale Trade Other Retail Entertainment Welfare and Religious Industry Not Reported Fourth In: Forestry and Fishing Mining Manufacturing Railroads Trucking Utilities Bu siness Services Repair Services Education Public Administration Finance and Insurance INDUSTRIAL PLAN ELEMENTS Based on the existing employment characteristics of the County and general 1_j economic conditions related to manufacturing industry, it can be concluded that: The area's economy is premised on a retail-service trade with emphasis on tourist spending . The labor force of Emmet County is oriented to service-retail occupations and is lacking in the manufacturing skilled labor . The region is removed from the major metropolitan centers of the State and 11 '~' '1 ' I ~ I~ . thereby removed from large labor markets, major transport sy stems, and market areas. Labor diversity is a limiting factor in attracting industries that are able to function in this economic area of the State . Future industrial development may occur on isolated parcels until some basic changes in transportation sy stems of the area are completed . -72- i.....! �,· •,.:.·. _ --.!... .:~ •,. ·.: ..... .• ~..... _ .. 1••:··.:....!_.;_ -1 -1 Future population growth will be affected by future industrial development as well as increased tourist recreation services. It may be possible to see small scale machine shops, fabricating plants, electrical machinery and similar industries come to Emmet County at a gradual pace as in the past. The diversity and pace of future industrial development will be affected by the following : I I There may be a natural trend toward industrialization in the smaller urban areas as an answer to problems of overcrowding in major metropolitan areas. The future US-131 freeway will provide better access to the southern parts of the state and wi 11 enhance transportation efficiency . I Open lands suitable for industrial development near the Pellston Airport may spur substantial economic growth in this central region of the County . The provision of new community water-sewer systems as well as the expansion of existing systems . EXISTING INDUSTRY For the purposes of the County Comprehensive Plan, industrial uses include a variety of activities related to manufacturing, processing, storage and transportation . However, the key area of industrial promotion and industrial development involves manufacturing and fabrication processes . From industrial questionnaires, a fairly complete list of locally manufactured and processed material can be presented . The list below illustrates the diversity of the County's industry and it can serve as a guide to industrialists who may wish to supply materials or utilize local products. Welding Services Custom machine work Wire products (steel) Automotive wire assemblies Decorative hardware for automobiles Die casting and plating Electrical controls Sheet metal Foundry Products Molded Aluminum castings -73- Die and design of molds Building blocks and concrete products Laminated hardwood products Bakery products Threaded fasteners General manufacturing (custom jobber) Limestone for cement industry Cement Gravel extraction Components for Industrial conveyor systems I ""I I I I I I I ~, I I �.) • .~ ... - ·• . .J'I'"'.,. ·-- ~- ~~ -· I Ir"\ j II I I.. l TAB LE 16 summarizes the results of the industrial questionnaire conducted in late 1968 and early 1969. It is noted that only one industry began operating in the County since 1960 and two date back to 1900 and earlier. Th is suggests a high degree of permanence and stabi I ity among existing manufacturing plants. Also, the average employment is 84 per plant indicating the County's reliance on small industries. The Penn Dixie Cement Corporation is the _j largest industrial employer with some 230 employees . 'i INDUSTRIAL PLAN I I 1 A favorable trend for future industrial development in Emmet County is the recent view by government and industry, that pressures in metropolitan centers can be reduced by encouraging rural area development. It industry is encouraged northward, does Emmet County want it, and if so, where should 1t be located? The accompanying map illustrates potential industrial areas in Emmet County These lands are outlined for their general industrial site characteristics, and not immediate economic feasibility Criteria used to delineate potential sites include: Reasonably close access to region serving highways and airports; Proximity to railroad services as a factor to serve industry as well as compatible use relationships; Level to moderately rolling topography; _j I . ; l,..·_j Soils that are generally well drained and capable of withstanding structural loads; Existing industrial uses, or uses compatible with industrial activity . Lands that do not conflict with other planned uses and offer minimum conflicts with farming. I -74- I: I: • ! �TABLE16 COUNTY INDUSTRIAL CHARACTERISTICS EMMET COUNTY Plant 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Greenwell & Sons Curtis Wire Products Petoskey Manufacturing Control Engineering Perm Alum Northern Concrete Michigan Maple Block Michigan Bakeries McLaughlin Company Circuit Controls Div. Barnum Brothers Fibre Penn Dixie Cement Total Employment Transportation Need Year moved Rail Highway Air into County 3 60 60 125 54 8 avg. 5% 15% 60 27 5% 107 180 100 230 - - +90% +90% 900/4 10% +80% +20% 90% 100/4 5% 90% 5% 800/4 900/4 5% 95% 5% 100/4 900/4 +900/4 1946 1947 1946 1965 1952 1936 1881 1900 1958 1959 1946 Primary Market Area Michigan Michigan U.S.A. International U.S.A. N. Michigan U.S.A. Michigan Midwest Canada & U.S.A. Canada & U.S.A. .J 1,014 Total SOURCE : Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc., County Industrial Questionnaire, 1969. The above criteria form the basis for selecting potential industrial areas. Within these, there are specific tracts or sites with varying qua I ities that wi II affect the type and character of industry to locate therein. These qualities can be considered competitive features for industrial uses, both within the County and the surrounding influence area. Site qualities that will affect industrial development include the following : Ownership characteristics (1.D.C. or individuals) Community water and sewage services Proximity to labor resources, housing areas and other community services Existing site improvements (grading, clearing, filling, etc.) I I Compatibility with surrounding uses and scenic recreational value Rail-highway and/or air access characteristics . The map, "Potential Industrial Sites", illustrates general areas wherein industrial uses may be accommodated. Some ..areas will rate higher in an industrial land market because of public water and sewage disposal services, fire protection and other municipal services . City and urban area industrial parks would rate higher than rural locations. -75- ' �The map also outlines broad community reference areas for orienting industrial developments. These are the areas of : Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Alanson, Pellston, and Mackinaw City. TAB LE 17 summarizes the gross industrial acreages associated with useable land areas within the broad potential industrial area boundaries (Refer to Pian Map) . If all of this land were developed with manufacturing industries, it would provide over 35,000 industrial jobs at the low density of ten workers per acre .1 To this would be added service industries and other uses to support such a vast industrial complex . If Emmet County actively pursues a program of industrial development, the following program should be considered: Encourage the formation of an active industrial development corporation . If organized at the County level, the group would have wide flexibility to sell the industrial potentials which best adapt to a given industrial operation . This could be done without regard for the normal limitations imposed by municipal boundaries. Some particular industrial desires may include: ' r .j on-rail or off-rail locations forest research environment agricultural environment r tourist-recreation access airport or landing fields From within the County select prime potential industrial sites, considering the following: - immediate short-range development - potential full services (water, sewer, rail, highway, air, etc .), if even at a reasonable future time - avoid outstanding scenic resources and productive farm land 1 For comparison, the City of Flint reported some 37,000 jobs in manufacturing enterprises in 1960. -76- - -- - -~ -- - --~ - - -- - - ----------- .=-- �TABLE17 POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL LAND AREAS EMMET COUNTY Area of Community Orientation Gross On-Rail Acreage Gross Off-Rail Acreage Total Acreage Petoskey Harbor Springs Alanson Pellston Mackinaw City 230 None 250 600 420 480 1,000 None 660 230 710 1,000 250 1,260 650 Total 1,500 2,370 3,870 .I I I SOURCE: Industrial Plan Map NOTES: 1. Acreages are gross estimated useable areas and allowances must be made for scattered existing homes, industrial uses, and future internal streets and railroad spurs, if warranted. 2. The County industrial questionnaire reveals a comparatively low level of dependence on rail transportation among the sample industries. However, the railroad right-of-way can continue to be· regarded as a site location factor for planning purposes. Detail information relative to existing industrial potentials: buildings (size, facilities, services, etc.) favorable soi Is site size utilities and access I I I I Plan the details of an industrial park development. Such a plan would: - Illustrate existing parcels of industrial ownership and adjacent community areas which influence the industrial district. - Outline modules of land adaptable for industrial developmmt, assuming that the modules can be further subdivided if necessary . A single large operation may consume an entire module. -77- I �I _j ~ - Propose thorofares for the industrial district, giving due concern for the traffic impact in adjacent areas. The industrial and community traffic pattern must be linked, yet be functionally self contained . - Beautification treatment along boundary thorofares and in transition areas . - Provide for manufacturing and non-manufacturing, deed restrictions and zoning . - Acquire options, ownership or development rights to the key parcels, and implement a promotional program to attract development. The development corporation can be selective in locating manufacturing and non-manufacturing uses so that lands are utilized effectively and efficiently - Seek assistance from governmental agencies in funding programs to build industrial sites, and install vital utility services. The County Industrial Plan is intended to illustrate the overall industrial characteristics of the County . The specifics and f inal details relating to industrial development will rest with County-community groups interested in industrial promotion and economic development. ~-' ! I,.! ! .l ! : ijr"\ ~ < 'J J ,'' I -78- . 1 ~-~ - - -- - - --- . �,·. - , - -••.• ~, ~ ~ . I THOROFARES Thorofare planning recognizes that there are two principle types of traffic : local and through. Functionally different, these types of traffic should be physically separate, but designed into a unified overall traffic system . THOROFARESTANDARDS Future thorofare needs in the County will depend on the ultimate amount of future growth and development. Also, the intensit y of tourist traffic, both current and future, will influence requi rements Agencies responsible for street and highway construction vary in their recommendations relative to the dimensions that should characterize differing street types. TABLE 18 indicates the basic purposes and desirable features of the various thorofare types that were described previously . It is desirable to have center strips on all major thorofares to allow for left turns and to separate traffic for safety reasons. Collector streets should have an 86 foot right-of-way width . They could have more than the four lanes if less space were provided for sidewalks and planting in urban areas. However, it would be better to widen such a route to major thorofare standards if traffic demands warrant . REGIONAL ORIENTATION Emmet County serves regional traffic in primaril y a north-south capacity East-west traffic through the County is restricted to the west by Lake Michigan, and there are few major east-west traffic destination points. With the exception of Interstate 75 at Mackinaw City , there are no freeways located in Emmet County . However, 1-75 does parallel the County line some five _to six miles to the east through Cehboygan County . Even though Emmet County is not well served by 1-75, because of circuitous connecting roads, the facility is :. i rr\ (l irrportant in bringing tourists and others into the County's influence area . The regional highways which currentl y serve Emmet County are all two-lane trunklines, and there are no immed iate plans to construct freeway s. Long-range State Highway plans do show prelim inary concepts for ext end ing US-13 1 as a -79- �• i , . j J Freeway route northward into Emmet County. The final alignment and extent of this proposed Freeway have not been fully resolved as of this writing , and it will be a major County responsibility to work out detailed route location plans with the Department of State Highways. J l Some regional traffic flow conclusions follow : 1. Highway 1-7.5 from down state areas carries substantially higher average volumes than other highways which serve Emmet County . 2. US-131 carries slightly less volume than US-31 based on the annual counts. Their importance are nearly equal, excepting peak tourist season demands (winter skiing and summer). 3. , County access from 1-75 appears to be greatest via State Highways from the Gaylord interchange. Nearly all major community areas in Michigan are less than a five-hour drive from Petoskey. Within a forty-mile variance, Toledo, Chicago, and Ironwood are about equidistant from Petoskey . I I I ~. I I -80- I I I I ~I I I �I' I. TABLE 18 STREET CLASSIFICATIONS AND STANDARDS Analysis Elements Expressway or Freeway Arterial or Major Thorofare Collector or Secondary Thorofare Local or Minor Primary Primary (!=unctions 1 & 2 are eaual) Secondary None Secondary Long Distance Major Regional Land Uses None Long & Intermediate distances Major municipal & regional uses Limited Short in urban areas Municipal Uses Unlimited Individual Uses Unlrmrted 4 & Over 4-6 2-4 2 None 12 feet 4-25 feeta · 300-350 feet 0-2 11-12 feet 24-60 feetb 120-150 feet 2 10-12 feet 1. Function of Movement 2. Function of Access 3, Principal Trip Length 4. Land Uses Served 5. On-Street Parking 6, Number of I. M:,ving Lanes Primary Short 7. Number of Parking Lanes 8. Width of Lane 9. Median Width 10. Right-of-Wly Width 1.: I None 86 feet 1-2 9 feet None 60 feet : r-"'\ NOTES : a. Four feet is the minimum and should be used only with an unmountable curb and intervening barrier. Since turn i ng movements are not allowed, these medians may be narrower than on major thorofares. Twenty-five feet is considered desirable as it permits emergency pull-off on the meoian. b. Sixteen feet may be used in instances where turning movements are l•m•ted However, twenty-four feet is a minimum reservoir area for left turns. S•xty (60) feet allows for inside merges W!th opposing traff ic flow. Wnere flush or painted medians are used, this distance may be reduced to tne normal width of a moving lane ( 11 - 12 feet). I __ J' 1_ I~ 1 '· r~ -.,., THOROFAREDEMANDS :.-! . 1 1- Based on volume, traffic demands in Emmet County appear to be minimum, except for certain critical areas in the southerly urban portions. Moreover, there ' are several forces in the nature of modern traffic that suggest the need for higher capacity thorofares even if volumes do not give strong justification particularly true in respect to the following : 1. Increased number and use of private automobi les 2. Decline and ceasation of passenger railroad service . 3. Long hours and inconvenient schedules characteristic of commercial bus services -81- ~ This is ----=---~- �... ~ .. ... ·• •,. - . · .-~ -: ' .... .I :1l ·1 : 4. Trends toward a motoring vacation rather than spending longer periods of time at a single location . 5. I The heterogeneous mix of vehicles, their sizes, speeds and purpose . • ~ . 6. ! ' I Increased reliance on highway freight rather than rail transportation. I The above characteristics of modern traffic are for the most part applicable to many regions of the nation . However, the impact in Northern Michigan may be more severe in terms of seasonal fluctuation and declining bus-train services and the nearness of major metropolitan centers. Some basic traffic information is illustrated on the rrap, "Traffic Faci lities and Generators." I I '· I I THOROFAREPLAN ---:--:-:1 .. ' Emmet County is a comparatively small community of 18,331 persons, according to the 1970 Census of Population . Projections to 1990 suggest further increases at a moderate rate, to a population of 22,500 . Based on the foregoing, it can be stated that the County's future thorofare needs, I ~ ,:_i I including County Roads, will be to correct existing physical deficiencies, continue I roadway maintenance, and seek continuing improvements to the regional highway system. I I US-31 FREEWAY (Proposed) This is not an entirely firm project by the Michigan State Highway Department. There are tentative plans, but these are long range unless accelerated funding becomes a reality . Also, there is no decision as of this writing whether the ~ Freeway would traverse the entire length of Emmet County or even miss the County . A recent State map shows a Petoskey bypass to Alanson . There are three basic Freeway corridors that Emmet County can consider for future implementation . These are described below: Corridor A This corridor alignment bypasses the Petoskey Area to the east, extends northerly just west of Conway and then northeasterly to old US-31 bypassing Oden and Alanson (See "Future Land Use Plan" map) . -82- ~ �, . ·• I- I- I- - I- - - - - - I- - - - '~ ~ -· - ro: Uf\PER PENINSULA tl CANADA C £CI --{O ...~~ L 8 A Y 'tUN. STURGEON 8 A Y I ---------,I L~~--r-~------Th · ,,___JI s " t ..... l~ □ L ll . ~:-----L-d~~ 't (:, t r. ~ ~ · ~. . ' I l ~ ~ ~f--·-f--· I T. 37N. I I C I II ' ~----t· -:.,---7 I I I a,.-~-l·,~, I :: E R . N f: ~ S ;-~"=:~: u:: I r}··-.,·····,: 11 ' ~1"1 1' ' P .. ~•t1• r ' !: 1,. I "'r~11• N J_J 1 -- ' , I' , , " I " - : ; - : -======~.~-:---·===Jr========= L •••• I : " E W: . ' " • ~ t? t==,.;:,,<c~L__Jt_J O-·,s~,o;r--1 11 ---,.-----~~ [JI • ''-----'I 1 ~\ · LJ V ---..-- -- -T'I ] ""' ~'""'"' ·-", T . L" E .. .. ~ ! ___ Ji! !~:=:•-'°~=="="~~ p :: II --4r.=,==li,====!:!:o.!. ' ~ ~---- II"~ r- n : )~..~ [l r 1, D ' I \~~~ F .... ~.... I ·\~~L=,.J~~---------.1;,;-,, ! ' ; ,,,, u : I :: L· i"J•u: I I ,,,, ,, NII : It ~ L 11 ":_\ I •1 TI II II II " T I-· l,L~L,-J) E \\ LAKE . . . . :=Ie!!'~'!!:11= il =!==;)~-MH~-=~1='3:l=s=!,!~'... --'II ·;1 "''. □,,=I=-=·==:i l--~~---, v,1 -:;{:_~=,~~: ~! < . fs. ···-f-.~-·~l: ..+--i. . . ,~_,_ . ' rr T R A E R \~\E :~ -·. ~ r,/1 I --,·--~~~:;-~\ '.;~,: ;1 \/ . : 1l. I L D II ""... LITTLE II INDIAN RIVER 1 · 75 a, BURT LAKE I l r Tl/AVERSE 8 To : 1.40011 -',I ... -.J l . HN. T ,... A Y KT ·-lJ TO : CHARLEVOIX E A J R ··· · · ··· j···-· ···· ·1 G -· :~1 · r-· .1 V A L IE 1 L "Jw·,! "i:$CJ, , •• :/ffii?:D~ I )1 "-:-l•~" ~'Tft c-= ""-"".:---.... •••· / iW J,.-.. ' .. Jt• • •• 1 11 ~ 1 11;~ .;t:k~Rg,,TY 8,300 • 67,,. 1969 ADT VOLUME a z < eTO : gWOLVERtNE .. ... T. ~N. ~81·75 COUNTY rw 'I. INCREASE SINCE 19~9 PAVED ROADS 8 STREETS • EXISTING -not ,........no.. Of fM1$ G •A•MK w ..., ,it,041+(;1,t>IU AIOCO , ...OUG.. "flOUAl g.a,. .., rHt t>l,.Atl/11,lHT Of ~SUtG .\NO un.... OfVll~......1, UNIIII IHI l/41. UH 'IANNIMG A$$1$T41+Cl r•oG•A-.. AI.HftO .. uo U ,ao,,. UCHON 701 Of TIO ..OUIINC:H,Cf 0, I U.\. A$ "''°'"'OIO, ._""'HtHIO• IT Tltl MfC,110""' 0t,AUIIIIMJ 0, Co.Mftcl.• ..... yilicon • lemon a ouoc. inc. plonnin9 con aullonh ! €lJtg URBAN AREA TRAFFIC COMPLE~ POTENTIAL 0 SPECIFIC TRAFFIC GENERATORS : RETAIL CENTER 2 2 INDUSTRIAL 3 3 PARK 8/0R RECREA TION TRAFFIC FACILITIES 8 GENERATO·RS COUNTY EMMET I �£ C I C L II A y -en~~ UM, -••-••d T A ll AW A .•' -➔- - - ~ sruRGEON B u T +f~ ~ - ----•--f - A • .,,._,_.,_ l l : •- •-,;' . ~ ~ ~ ~ _ _ • • : •!.-- _lllJ 111: --------:+--~ .... : _....--,:--,t---- I : I 1 • I ----,--- . ~- ~-- . s ': s L....,.------- i l • ' \i ~ iI L 11 II - - .. 4 r= l II B t~...- #f{ ·,_J,-:, i, •a () ' - ~ + \: - , .. - ~+ r ' l - I n:; - I . . . -- I - -.;- : ' I : ' • ·- f . -+i ~ · - II - - - " ,, ___ _\,,,, ,_ •. 111.- - - - ·i , - 1 - - - - - _________J\_ \.~ . , ~---• ..,, -~ T·s..,_, I I • ""~ I r· 1, I I .._ __ _ T i --i------" : ••,._ r---:~ ~ ~ _Ij ___ I l} I J==-· al [ E .. ·-+1~r l\..__ 11 l . 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JI J - '\' S \\E •1; 11 :~--- :!I l!-~~-f;J ·----,----r: : i :: ~ 1---......-~- ... ~ : '~.:~---.;1 1 ----f----·. :~ 11 I • ::l . 1• ~-- \~- - tt \!) :ii~ ~;.---·- ---·l ~~ ..::.. - -;...._ __ ____ ---.---.---1·r--, 11 T. . r---: T >c ... .... Ll77L£ TRAVERSE tJ A T •1 . .,. . ·.,~J: • - -··- - -- - ':N C T I ~" lj I I . /___ ___ -tI _______ __ !_ ___ _: j, ___ L A ,t ~ • 'I · Ji: • I [ ..... - , I I :1 -... .... ...... .... STATE TRUNKLINE COUNTY HI GHWAYS MAJO,. THOROFAR(S a P'RIMARY COLLECTORS tH, TO IZ:0 'EET OP lltl.HT - OP•WAT) .,,,.. _...,.ltON 0, - ~ OTHER STREETS WU -..C•••.H _ _ .. ,........ 00.....i •-""'°'"'"·'N\'tt~Oft. - a ROADS (Al MAl",ED) ...,.'°°",,,,._..,......._....,. .,,,.-c1 ,-oo•- ,..,,- ,n• u oP ,._ . _ SUGGESTED ROUTE EXTENSIONS , CHANGES REALIGNMENTS MC1t00t , . , Of,. . "°"J»G ..CTDf 1,,.-. •lA•f•O. .. .._ •..._.,..,.,.-c_N+.,,_,o,, co---c:1.· a /OR ..... willco•. lelllCHI • OHOC. Ille. ploaal111 co•••llo11ts I THOROFARE EMMET COUNTY PLAN ~ .3 )! 0 �-I I I I I I Corridor B Corridor B suggests a limited route in Emmet County . The facility would approach Petoskey from the south, then swing easterly through Bear Creek and Springvale Townships to 1-75 in Cheboygan County. Corridor C A complete Freeway extending from the south County line to 1-75 in WaWatam Township . This route is longest, fully bypassing all populated areas, and is illustrated on the "Residential Areas Plan" map . From planning work completed to date, it appears that Freeway Corridor "A" would provide the optimum needed services to the County (State-Regional needs I congested old US-31 from Bay View to Alanson is bypassed . I, US-31, PETOSKEY TO ALANSON may vary) . This is true because Petoskey is effectively bypassed, and the highly Existing US-31 from Petoskey to Alanson is now the most inefficient link in the 11 County's traffic system . Traffic volume east of Bay View averaged 8,300 vehicles per day in 1969, and 8,700 at the City Limits of Petoskey . With the introduction of new land uses (Giantway, Wicks, etc), plus existing uses, the volume will easily reach 9,000 vehicles in 1971 Hence, there is an existing demand for a four-lane thorofare . Some planned solutions include: Widen the present route to four lanes, and/or implement some phases of the US-31 Freeway Corridor "A" . This could begin as a County Road or State trunkline (cost factors) The Hiawatha Trail south of Round Lake may be feasible to develop as a trunkline thorofare, as it is not developed with uses like the existing route . It may also serve as a one-way parallel with existing US-31 . l·i Local bypass corridors behind Bay View and the Country Club can reduce congestion in the most critical high volume traffic area . -83- �The implementation of an improved Petoskey to Alanson corridor will ultimately rest with State Highway Department funding and planning programs. However, statements on preferred routings by City, Township and County Officials will have a bearing on final route choices. US-31 BAY SHORE TO PETOSKEY The present route of US-31 from the West County Line to Petoskey is relatively efficient for the volume carried . The current A.D .T . volume of 4,100 at the City Limits is not expected to exceed 9,000 vehicles in the foreseeable future. The major congestion points are in the City Lirrits from the west line to Mitchell Street. Because east-west traffic flow must pass through developing Township areas and Petoskey, there is merit to considering a "functional" bypass route around Petoskey. This bypass may be established as follows : Link US-31 with lntertown Road via Lake Grove; add two (2) miles of new roadway to continue lntertown east to Valley Road; Valley Road carried northward to Atkins Road, where one mile of new road would link Boyle Road or Manvel Road with existing US-31. Four to five miles of new road would complete this Petoskey circumferential route . US-131, SOUTH COUNTY LINE TO US-31 IN PETOSKEY Traffic on this trunkline has increased 53% in the past ten years. When the new Holiday Inn is open , the volume can be expected to increase substantially from tourists, conventioneers and others. The present route of US-131 is being improved by tbe Department of State Highways. However, if a 131 Freeway is not in the foreseeable future, this road should be four lanes or improved with passing lanes on hill or curve areas . M-131, CHIMNEY CORNERS TO HARBOR SPRINGS This State Trunkline is generally adequate to handle the current volume of traffic (3,600 ADT) . However, volume increased by 75% from 1959 to 1969 and may continue as ski-resort operations expand and seasonal home developments continue . Land uses along the route are tending to mix . The only major route change on M-131 that may evolve Is in Harbor Springs where the City's Master Plan shows M-131 bypassing the City, interconnecting with Lake Street immediately east of the City Line. -84- -~ �--I I I I I: •. ! I The highway could be kept efficient by controlling access, providing parallel service roads, and establishing passing lanes in critical areas. M-131, HARBOR SPRINGS TO CROSS VILLAGE Although M-131 carries fewer than 700 (A.D .T .) vehicles, this portion of the route is an impressive scenic highway with panoramic views over Lake Michigan, a strong forest wilderness image, and a rolling landscape that changes continuously . Future plans for M-131 are mainly in the area of development policy , so that future land uses and zoning regu lations respect the scenic value of the roadside and adjacent natural resources . At the north end of M-131 (also Lake Shore Drive) in Bliss Township, the scen ic road function should continue easterly to connect with Pleasantview Road and US-31 at Carp Lake . US-31, ALANSON TO MACKINAW CITY The highway from Alanson to the Bridge has been characterized by a dec lining traffic volume, ranging from -7% at Alanson to -41% at Carp Lake . With declining volume trends and a 1969 A.D .T . volume of 3,100 in Alanson, major route developments are not likely to be necessary in the foreseeable future . However, if a US-131 Freeway terminates at US-31 (near Alanson), US-31 should be widened to four lanes. Limted access status might be considered for US-31 before all of the route is developed with scattered uses. PLEASANTVIEW ROAD 11 . I This road runs north-south through the center of Emmet County and is most important as a recreation service road for Boyne Highlands, Nubs Nob, and recreation home sites in the area . '-"-' -85- I �Functionally, Pleasantview _ Road should be a recreation route. It is scenic, and in addition to serving some important land uses, would be excellent for tourists who have traveled Lake Shore Drive or US-31, and wish to return by an alternate route (or vice versa). STATE ROAD, HARBOR SPRINGS TO CROSS VILLAGE State Road is a direct inland connector between Harbor Springs and Cross Village. No major design changes are foreseen, except to maintain safe traffic flow . Normal design activity would center on sight distances, curve radius and the like. OTHER ROUTE IMPROVEMENTS Other alignments and route changes that may be considered are illustrated for : Atkins Road extended into Petoskey Howard Road extended south from the North Central Michigan College area . Wilderness Park Drive at Mackinaw City . It may be desirable to develop a new park access road with stronger wilderness image qualities. New County roads will evolve with the design and development of residential subdivisions and industrial districts. The "Thorofare Plan" map illustrates a County-wide system of roads, streets, and State trunkline highways that comprise the key elements of an overall traffic system . Whether or not all of the planned routes should be major thorofares (minimum 120 feet of right-of-way) or Collector Street (minimum 86 feet of right-of-way) should be a matter for consideration and adoption in the years ahead . In general, it will be difficult to acquire rights-of-way beyond the existing 66 feet in most instances where the roadways are already developed with even a few scattered homes. Nevertheless, there are some priority routes and portions of routes that should be widened to assure future traffic capacity, efficiency and safety . The mapped portions of the following routes should be given priority designation for action to implement wider rights-of-way . -86- �Suggested Right-of-Way Width in Feet t t 120 120 120 120 86 86-120 86-120 86 120 86-120 120 120 120 120 120 Lake Grove McDougal I ntertown Manvel-Valley Alignment Howard Sheridan Atkins Division Mitchell Pickerel Lake West Conway La ke State Pleasantview Resort Pike . ' It is assumed that the State Trunklines will be 120 feet or over. Freeways would have some 300 feet of right-of-way . lj I:. ,,, 1:~ 'I.~;: ·- · I.....~ -' I I- -87- �_.. ri rr' _, FUTURE LAND USE PLAN 1-~ ~ ~ I Emmet County's Comprehensive Land Use accompanying · "Future Land Use Plan" ~ Plan is illustrated on map, which portrays the the recommendations, concepts and development goals presented in the preceeding ~ chapters of this publication . The Plan map also summarizes the findings of twelve lJ County development. (12) preliminary plan reports and a Comprehensive Sewer and Water plan. Also considered are the years of discussion at Planning Commission meetings and the concensus of thought developed from the analysis of specific problems affecting The completion of the Comprehensive Plan, however, is only the first step in the Enabling Statutes directive to "make a plan" for the future development of the -J County . Now the plan must be studied and evaluated for adoption . The County, through its Planning Commission, must embark on the continuing tasks of t I. ...:.; implementation, re-evaluation and perhaps amending basic plan contents from time to time. ....... 1-J Many aspects of a County Plan fall outside of the specific jurisdictional limits of the County . The City of Petoskey , the City of Harbor Springs, the Villages, each of the sixteen townships, the School Districts, various other governmental and private fl fr 11 1·i 1·l '--L ___ j f :J -i development interests, w ill r· in the long-term implementation process. However, the County should maintain a leadership role by encouraging sound development proposals, enlarging the spirit of inter-community cooperation, and participating in programs that need or would benefit from County involvement . Such developments as the County Zoning Commission, a proposed County Department of Public Works and/or County Housing Commission are examples of vehicles through which the County Plan can be implemented Emmet County was among several Northern Michigan Counties that increased in population between 1960 and 1970. This factor adds a measure of optimism to the planning process because it reflects the workings of positive economic forces . Moreover, the County is rich in natura l resources related to water, topography , and timber, and it will be a major challenge to guide future development along patterns that will protect a natural environment that is becoming more valuable each year. I ·Jr---, (: play a major role -88- �- - - - - •~~ MACKIN AW CIT ?-r.t·=---~.._. .. C E C I L ---~ ~ t>••· ·~OA'f\•",.; ~.;-=· c..-, .. /.L tit'.,.. STURGEON · o" 'it:~IL.rl l:l:~ ___., ~/ lf;,~t,;(:0 v -~d,'rl' •:9 B ,< y )((.> 0 ~.. ..' v ~ ~ I s lL--~ lr7LJ[ n -, .I~ ... I., II_ •B j L 1 ·-:-~cs - . ,r· •.,;;_. I ' ·== t ~ . ")l i,;; " ' 0, ~ ... . ~~ r; ~ H S.:::: I 1~:tl1_q~ ~ n .. r~l)e. ' i;.o,\ , 0+, . 71 c7 :· c.l • !le .:,·.,;, J - ~ - J •J~..,c. t&u '-"'•!:;·'. ..:,,, .;, ' , 6:"'Vu e .:> "-~ ·•_,~<>c."'1"1:; '~ :.,, ~ .{;; ~D_~ C. "'-• ~t.Y C ~ ~ - ·- I.),, T. 37N . 'r.' r.. {,t. "' ---'..a.-,.C..,c;, (. ;--.c- .., " ~ , ~ c. e ,.,"',,. t.. <? ,> ~ <. L- Ir--"'= : ·c.."c.~_t.;; (7, ~0...., (! IJl _.._.. '""' · - . , , ,..., E R ~-/'"I" ~".') (>,'=) c-;, <, '-' € • ,..,..,DI::" n N'~ ~~,, -•L' • . '-· l1 . ,,,, ""¥'···,; .. &-f;=-==:,;;:_, L -~· ,, ·s~~..:, _; = t~~ . C .€~;:- ---: :~=-=-~', ;,s=====,I l~--.:-= :, '" ,, II ,I ~ . Hr'r::'hl • (, - '- • - (;'.lj II C "' ' s r j !; ~ . : C (' . Ce,~\ , ____ _ j"_ _ _ ,ll .. II• '•sc=~:--=-=-.:)l__JU R I:: T E , lr' I T ... II :: 1, Ii 11 ll II i-::: i~~~ ~&.:~ -;·r~· , ►~ ··t.a."'wr .I," ~~ ~ f~i : I ~(;,~k~ . ','J A'.:l!"j L D T ... " LlrTLE r R A V E R SE B A Y TM• ( . ..... I t•:•··-=-~ ED '"TtOI - ···''°" Of -. c.-.. "'"4; W A S ~ P'U8LIC a lt[CJHATION OUAII • P'UeLIC ,-011111..l Cl,.TIU.lr. ltOAD CDIHttSSION a41u.ar. . . . ,-OTUnlAlr. Atltl"'OltT (ll,-ANIH>N Olt elr.101 PATN COJIITIIOL .-,u. AI ff . ... •AJtlttAI 01,..., _.., oP .... K • \.I • t IXIITlttl a Ea ,ulLIC SCHOOLS - COMWEltCIAL ~ TOUJttST S[ltYIC[S tl"'IIOl'OIIED l'ITOSltlEY A•ll• lLtMIJtT4•Y I C1400LI a ...... c .. . a ltlSOIIITI 1911 I FUTURE LAND USE PLAN EMMET COUNTY P'All'llt • ITATI ,oll'[ST Altf.AS , 01t[ST 8> l1t0,,-1Na 'IIT wiliCQII • 1•111011 a ouoc. i11c. plo1111l11g • co1111tllo11t1 ~ ~ OTN[ft OP'f.11 SP'AC( lt(SOU,.C[I. SC [NIC lttYUt · LAil( COJUIDO,.S,au,,t,u . AND COMMUNITY lt[Clt[ATION ~TINTIAL P'ltOPOltO) ~ INDUIT-IAL •• HOP'OltD IHJOft TMOttOP.,t(I a COLL[CTOltl ~ lt[IIDENTIAL P'UILIC P'AltKS • o ,,u , ,_,,.,.. - '"~ .. "°'·""'ef"*'~••""'· °"'""" ,-o- ''"- C>f,,...,...,~ _ ,,..to..,,... - c C:o-.cKt.· IXIITINe 11.IJOlt TMOttO,.Alt[I • COLL[CTOltS LOW TO M[DIUM OlNIITT •ISIO[NTIAL lt[Clt[.ITfON Of MOV~ . _ 1,1. . . . ,. ~ MN ..,_..,...., _ ••t•SI •...C l P-001'4' AWTl+C»IUD U U CJ IOl,l 1 .1 Of fNI '"04./ IIIOG AC fOf lH,, Al••l - ..... MEDIUM TO Mf8M DDtStT, •rstDIN'flAL ~ lm!1m ~ TNIS "'-.AN IS IJt T lt:titOID TO SMOW &INIIULIZID L41t0 MSI 4NC> .. JIIOT IIIITUtOID TD IIIIDIC4Tt ,..tClll l lZl, . ... ,.., N DflillltSIOfil. T N[H P•OPOl•L S •tP''-lC:T fJVTllltl LA•UH,131 lt[C-O••U•D•TIC>kS •NO DO ttOT 1111c11•••1LY 1......T SWC>ltT " • - c •1zo••·· PltOPC,S.ALI. ~ � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Emmet-County_Master-Plan_1971 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-04 Title A name given to the resource Future Land Use Plan Description An account of the resource The Future Land Use Plan for Emmet County was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. in April 1971. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Emmet County Planning Commission (consultant) Subject The topic of the resource Master plan reports Land Use--Planning Emmet County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/828d504edced82039eb677e6c65c3048.pdf b95d05fe5fa2e5b6a5d9ed5620559edb PDF Text Text MASTER PLAN · LAPEER MICHIGAN Future Land Use • A Policy Plan �,,, FROM THE LIB RARY OF •~tanning & zon ing Cent.er, Inc. MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE A POLICY PLAN PREPARED FOR : City of Lapeer PREPARED BY : Vilican-Leman & Associates , Inc . Community Planning Consultants , Landscape Architects 29621 Northwestern Highway Southfield, Michigan 48034 �TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION i POPULATION AND HOUSING TRENDS 1 HOUSING MAINTENANCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE CONDITIONS 7 EXISTING AND POTENTIAL RETAIL AND OFFICE CONDITIONS IN THE CBD 11 CBD PARKING PROBLEMS AND POTENTIALS 20 RECREATION NEEDS, CONDITIONS AND POTENTIALS 25 TRANSPORTATION CONDITIONS 29 COMMUNITY FACILITY NEEDS 34 THE FUNCTION OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 36 GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS 38 GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: BUSINESS AREAS 42 GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: INDUSTRIAL AREAS 57 GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: PARKS AND RECREATION 60 GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: TRANSPORTATION 67 GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: COMMUNITY FACILITIES 74 MASTER PLAN OF FUTURE LAND USE 78 IMPLEMENTATION 80 �LIST OF TABLES Page 1 2 Current Market Share and Future Floor Area Requirements - Lapeer CBD 14 Inventory of Lapeer Area Recreation Facilities 27 LIST OF MAPS 1 Existing Land Use 10a 2 Lapeer Trade Area lla 3 CBD Analysis 19a 4 Parking Space Needs 20a 5 CBD Expansion 6 Lapeer Area Recreation Facilities 26a 7 Future Land Use Plan 79a , 23a �INTRODUCTION Over the course of the last few decades the City of Lapeer developed and refined its Master Plan of Future Land has Use. This Plan has been updated several times to reflect changing community policies, physical themselves condition a reflection of the changing economic of the City. The most recent and Master Plan update is now over 12 years old. Over the past two years the City Planning Commission began process of reviewing and updating the Master Plan. involved in conditions Two key tasks the update were obtaining information (physical, social and economic) and, the on existing based on an understanding of these conditions, the development of basic goals for the City and the objectives that will help the ' goals be attained. This report, Plan then, map itself community goals. is a summary of these tasks with the being the Through objectives of the community, which the Commission graphic clear statement of other the of goals basic and the Plan provides guidelines within City's decision makers and representation Master boards - City and Commission, commissions Planning - can more objectively select among competing interests. GOALS SUMMARIZED The Master Plan for Future Land Use focuses on eight goals in six general areas: i �Preserve RESIDENTIAL AREAS: residential and continuously improve areas and provide for a cross section quality housing suitable for all segments of the of high population while maintaining emphasis on the single-family home . BUSINESS AREAS : Goals are developed for the three main types of business areas : Highway Business Areas of Main and Genesee Streets as sound business areas and attractive entrances improving to To enhance the image and operatio~ to the City while maintaining the retail and service nature of these provide for the needs of both local as and frontages resident and transient traveler . Shopping Centers - Maintain and improve the City's shopping centers on their existing sites . these planned The vitality of centers should be strengthened in order to discourage the development of additional centers which would weaken the market support for all existing business developments in Lapeer . Central Business government-private growth District (CBD) business cooperation, opportunities to enable it dominant retail center in the Lapeer must done be in - Through to ii enhance the CBD's continue service a fashion sensitive to extensive the as area . small the This town �character assuring that each new of the City, development contributes to the economic vitality, service capability and attractiveness of the CBD. INDUSTRIAL AREAS: upgrading older To provide space for new industry industrial areas in order to expand City's employment and tax base thereby providing opportunities tax base to which while the employment all age/educational levels and provide will allow for high levels of a community services and facilities. RECREATION : be enhanced Recreation and open space opportunities by improvements to and increasing should cooperative use of exi 2 ting facilities while maximizing opportunities to acquire and develop new public facilities, conserve areas of natural beauty with particular emphasis on system, floodplains and wetlands and encourage the river development of new private sector facilities . 10 acres of park land per 1,000 perso~s should be In view of the fact that floodplain lands have limitations as to surroundi:.; use townships, and the user this acreage A goal of not less than population inLl~~es goal will need to be pursued. monitored closely and updated accordingly. TRANSPORTATION: adequately Provide an arterial street system that will separate traffic with a destination outside Lapeer from local oriented trips , and service major land use trip generators such as industrial areas, business districts iii �Said arterial street system and residential neighborhoods. should be supplemented by a local street system to enhance the residential nature of the City's neighborhoods. service facilities namely sewer and water, public works City-wide COMMUNITY FACILITIES: including utilities, facilities and such as Department of Public Services including . community yards, City Hall, centers and civic buildings center needs police and fire facilities should be continually monitored as to their service capability and upgraded on a continuing basis to meet the needs of a growing region. should The recently instigated capital improvement program be improvements utilized as the key instrument to program within the City's ability to pay without over- burdening the residents of the City. The above c0nsists of eight goals in six areas of to the City which can be achievable, rational document identify also in many instances, land use planning and management. establishes the detailed through The following objectives the City's aim in each of these six specifies significance that areas. Plan further The policy guidelines as vehicles for achieving Plan the goals and objectives. Goals and objectives, by their generalized nature tend to remain fairly constant over time. various policies However, their implementation through is highly changeable. iv These changes are the �result and of . emerging and declining community needs, social environment , and the variety of the economic legislative and financial tools and incentives available to the community at any particular point in time . PLAN FORMAT The Plan Existing document basically consists of three main Conditions Guidelines; and single which map policies . Analysis; Goals, components: Objectives the Future Land Use Plan, and Policy as summarized is the physical embodiement of many by of a the These components are supplemented by a description of potential and applicable implementation alternatives . The relationship among goals, objectives, . policies and alternative implementation techniques is as follows : Goal - Goal is a destination , community seeks to attain . of policy makers. and It a final purpose a A goal is the most general level by itself is not very helpful needs which further refinement to to decision assist decision makers to reach their selected destination. Objective general - An terms (destination) objective is the route which the way (route) can be reached . by which specifies the in goal An objective indicates kinds of actions that should be used to achieve the goal. V the �Policy · - A policy is a means of transportation route. It is a course of action which, achieve an objective. along if followed, the will A policy is more detailed than an objective and can be readily translated into specific action recommendations or design proposals. Implementation Alternatives - These are the specific recommendations commonly used subdivision site-specific suggested by implementation ordinances, policies. Among techniques are action the more zoning and capital improvement programs, and proposals or programs. A plan will suggest alternative ways to implement policies. City officials must make ihe choice of which implemen~atioD techniques to actually use. vi �EXISTING CONDITIONS ANALYSIS "Fixing (goals and) objectives is but one phase of planning. Another phase situation. is For a clear comprehension of the existing only by measuring the gap between what now have and what we want, we can we fix the true magnitude of the job to be done through administrative action." John D. Millet, The Process and Organization Government Planning, N.Y., Columbia University Press, 1947. of �POPULATION AND HOUSING TRENDS RESIDENTIAL BASES Knowing or estimating the number and composition of people may living be in a community in the future is of that critical importance when developing a Master Plan. Population size, age group composition, and household size affect the demand and need for educational, services and facilities. Thus, recreational and community they are an important influence on a city's policies. Population Trends One of the population the located Center, in Elba Township the City's and in Lapeer . with the downsizing of the Center was a related direct (at the Center) and indirect (spin - off) the area . on size has been the downsizing of the resident base Oakdale Associated in most significant recent influences loss employment in Institutional population at the Oakdale Center as of year - end 1985 is 481 - a decrease of 469 persons since 1980 . By the be 390, end of 1987 the population at the Center is projected to according to its director . Roughly one-third of this population is located within Lapeer. Institutional the gain, population (and associated employment) will be on however, in the Lapeer area once a 500-bed prison , now under construction, opens in Elba Township . 1 Thus by 1990, total �institutional population in both Lapeer and Elba may be close the 1,043 experienced in 1980 - and remain near that level to into the foreseeable future. Lapeer's non-institutional population has stable in number over the last 20 years, portions growth and of adjacent townships. remained despite annexations Outside Lapeer, has occurred in the communities of Elba, Mayfield Townships. relatively population Oregon, It has been most heavily of Lapeer focused in The relative Mayfield to the north and Oregon to the northwest. lack of employment and shopping opportunities in the more rural communities near the City has created an enhanced reliance on the City for continue outlets these given functions. the This reliance presence of a is anticipated sizeable · number of to retail and services as well as a growing employment base in the City. Household Size Trends While new the population of the City had begun to stabilize by 1970, residential added to recently of the development continued and new City. The most significant households change which occurred to Lapeer's population base was in the persons per household. In 1960, were has number the household size was 3 . 0 persons. However, by 1980, the average household contained 2.47 persons. If this trend persists, at least to some extent, then despite moderate future increases in housing units and households in the City, levels. the City's population could remain near its present �Age Trends While the persons An City's total population has since 1960, remained its age composition has radically examination 0f the stability of the resident that population distribution the around mobility as much as a base City: altered . indicates changing because of varying birth/death rates 6 , 200 age is group impacting the City's population is experiencing a fairly rapid turnover . This experienced when construction or, type a of population community is seeing when movement is substantial due to an aging population in usually new a home stable community, older available attractively families . It is this latter factor that appears to be among the prime causes Because of residents die or retire out of the area making priced for young of the City's changing age group has begun to increase . composition. formation The increasing proportion of older Lapeer is also anticipated to create opportunities for Lapeer was and the number of pre-school children adults to move into the City in the next decade . 1980, adults high proportions of persons in the family age group in the City in 1980, residents homes young Thus , while in characterized by a high proportion of young adults and seniors and a low proportion of children, it is a City in the process of change. prospects are for increase in younger For the near future, higher near term greater housing school age 3 turnover children and more in rapid Lapeer. �Population Forecast Given be the present age and housing composition of the City it can anticipated trends will forecasts trends . that for at least the next persist . A were prepared , variety of 5-10 years , longer-range recent · population reflective of various past and recent Each projection accounted only for the population likely to reside within the City ' s corporate limits as they were defined in 1984 . With this limitation in mind it is anticipated that by the 2005, City's population will increase to near 6,800 versus the 6,200 persons found by the Census in 1980. IMPLICATIONS OF ANNEXATION Should lands be annexed by the City which contain residents , additional population opened access growth would be added to the Further, should major new land areas forecast of 6,800 persons . be institutional up for development by annexations· and gain to municipal services, even more population potential growth may occur before 2005 in these new areas . With or without annexation , surrounding communities development. important The certain portions of the adjacent relationship immediately to Lapeer appear "ripe" of these lands to the since development in these areas will have for City is immediate impact on the City's own development patterns. The following adjacent these to ~Yeas, map provides an illustration Lapeer considered to be key growth of those areas . priority development aieas are indicated. 4 areas Within It is �these latter areas believed to have most imminent development in the next ten to 20 years. prospects The entire of area designated on the map is considered to be that area which is most influenced by and which has the most influence on the City of Lapeer. HOUSING BASE The stock of housing units in the City increased between 1970 and 1980 by 33 percent despite a population decline of two There were, increase in 1980 almost 2,600 dwelling units in the City. came an increase in renter units of Along with an increase in multiple-family family housing is rental. housing The in multiple-family housing accounted for 65 percent the new housing gain. housing percent. However, occupancy; most multiple- since there are more rental than multiple-family units, it appears that a sizeable proportion of single-family homes are also being rented. The proportion substantially of rented since 1970. single-family homes increased This pattern is typical in a city of older housing stock and with an aging population. While than are 42 percent of Lapeer's nousing is 10 percent of the housing in the multiple-family. Rental multiple-family, four less adjacent townships prices in the City ~re generally sn~ewhat lower than in other Lapeer area communities as are sales prices. 5 home �Lower priced and/or multiple-family housing is older childless households, parent families. ability families. retirees, attractive young adults and to single- The lower value of homes in the City creates an for the City to serve the starter housing needs of young Substantially higher incomes are required to meet the higher housing values in the surrounding townships. 6 �HOUSING MAINTENANCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE CONDITIONS In the survey a housing and environmental summer of 1984, conducted was throughout the conditions City's res.ident ial The purpose of the study Pas twofold: to obtain a neighborhoods. general, objective evaluation of the City's housing stock and to evaluate the general street and sidewalk conditions and the general "housekeeping" on individual lots. A rating system was utilized in both surveys and tabulated and mapped. geographic the the results Quality levels were assigned to the five areas considered as neighborhoods for the purpose study. of These five areas are the five enumeration districts defined by the Census for the City. Ratings Each residential categories. blockfront structure Following was 1. classification, calculated "Housing Conditions" map. was classified and an into one average graphically of four for each recorded on the or no The classifications were: Sound Structures - Inclusive of buildings with few minor observable structural deficiencies. 2. Stable and minor Conservation - Inclusive of buildings characterized by minor physical decay, most likely reparable by their owners. 3. Major Conservation not generally - Includes buildings decayed to a correctable by maintenance. 7 homeowners through point normal �4. Substandard in - Structures this require category a combination of major repairs beyond a reasonable and prudent Generally, the repair costs would represent a major point. proportion of the property value after repair . In addition to street, environmental Among the sidewalk and housing inadequacies, other problems were found scattered throughout the City. most common of these were litter, junk cars and inadequate trash storage . Full discussion of the findings of the survey as well as supportive maps can be found in the Memorandum dated August, 1984 "Housing Conditions." However, some major highlights are as occupancy of single-family homes does not appear to follows: Renter directly affect housing and environmental neighborhoods conditions. The with the highest proportion of home ownership appeared to have equal or more (litter , junk cars, environmental deficiencies trash storage inadequacies) than those with high renter proportions . Further, several multiple-family based This where areas is renter dominated single-, (usually conversions appeared to be in the particularly from process two- and small single-family) of the case in areas north of some of the City's oldest and largest and formerly single-family housing is located. 8 upgrading . the CBD single-family �The greatest proportion concentrated percent in the of residential City's southeast of the housing is in need of deterioration quadrant major where repair. is 49 This neighborhood contains a high concentration of older, smaller homes on small lots, intermixed with industrial uses in some areas. Further, it has a high proportion of streets in poor repair and has poorly maintained or no sidewalks in several areas. This neighborhood concentrations has has one of the of senior citizens in the City and yet a wide distribution of other age groups. fact highest Despite that its median household income is second highest also the in the City, it is also characterized by the highest proportion of households on public assistance and social security. This great diversity indicates that within the neighborhood, there are concentrations of maintained housing units, many located on poorly streets these with older, inadequate sidewalks. "pocket" areas also contain smaller less repaired It is estimated the majority well of that the neighborhood's lower income families and households. Street and neighborhood City, sidewalk conditions are quality. deteriorating environment and In often predictors the southeast quadrant housing, poor street and found in the same areas. 9 negative sidewalk of of the · residential conditions are �It was concluded from the housing and environmental surveys that programs of housing conservation and neighborhood infrastructure maintenance and repair are needed. The following Existing Land Use Map identifies the locations the City's various residential areas. 10 of �35 36 O ftEC:ON TOWHS HI I' . .., 2 t_ --1 I I .:·· :,::-.,, £] L A P E E R H O M ::::: ..::: 02 •, . E 11 t,:::;:;:;:;:;::J SI N GLE t:'.:'.:::1 MULTIPLE - COMMERCIAL 8 TWO FA M ILY RESIDENTIAL FAMILY RESIDENTIAL ~ OFFICE ~ INDUSTR I AL - SCHOOLS ~ PARKS 8 OPEN SPACE ~ PUBLIC B, g CHURCHES - PARKING 1!1111 UTILIT I ES SEMI - PUBLIC B, I NSTITUTIONS 16 EXISTING LAND USE CIT Y OF LAPEER MICHIGAN I O ,oo tOOO 1500 SC A Ll IN r((T JANUAlt V, 19811 vi li can • 1,man a a11oc iat11 inc . commun i ty plann ing conaultanu �EXISTING AND POTENTIAL RETAIL AND OFFICE CONDITIONS IN THE CBD A retail and office market analysis was undertaken to areas of strengths and weakness within the CBD. identify The result of the study was the identification of potential land area needs for future retail and office uses. analysis This was then linked to a design of the CBD regarding potential expansion opportunities. Basic findings of the study are summarized below. The memorandum report "Retail and Office Market Analysis for the Lapeer Business District," dated February 4, 1985, Central provides additional detail beyond that herein summarized. THE LAPEER RETAIL TRADE AREA The trade area of the Lapeer CBD is quite small with respect its draw of potential convenience store customers county-wide relative to comparison shoppers. does not contrast, comparison retail the convenience centers in the ~ity and the fact that have any significantly sized Lapeer CBD has the convenience largest shoppina facilities in the county. almost This difference is due to the presence and proximity of three competing oriented and to the CBD store. In concentration of The draw of such stores fades, however, as the distance from the CBD increases and the distance to other comparison center opportunities decreases. The convenience and comparison market boundaries are portrayed on the following map. 11 �I : ! ,--,~;~ :----------,----------1 D•'"' ! T U S C IQ L 0.NMARK i JU IV / ArTA I :---------- ~vASU" I I I : I NO I ANF I ----------r------ 1 r+-i I : TUSCOLA VASSAR I : 1 FR£MONT : I : I ~COMPARISON MARKET ARBELA ! [] /# I ,, I l I : THETFORD : , I I : I• 1 Is I OLIJ MI I A'I IL.t.( : o oeGOIV: I E E 1 1 IT/; 1 <LMoR ~-:.. 1: • : L Ii I L:2J I "O"H' I I &IIIANCH 7' L[Tt[ I I I 1 FLYNN I • -~J-: ------r-·--+ "" ~ t--; • MAPLE I ---~----- -l---:--- -----I MA YF1,: o ~!}•1 EJ"'" ; : NORTH BRANC~ :r- •~•• EL~ I : i tCONVE,PIENCE MARKET; l I I 0££RF I ELD I : WAr,RrowN 1- -'----------7----------- ,--' I : SUR I NGTON\f--- ~ :::.-.-::.::.-1---'.' .':'.' .'. __ I-- -~--/·L-·~· -A-\~ t-: ---G:E N E [E],u •_____ )_l5lCT ____ J I 1 I iMARA TriON :I [J : RICH ~ : A C : 1 ' 1 CLIHOltO ' - I I OTTER 1,..t.K[ FOREST ~A L,rr, -~-_z ! MI LLINGTON~ :,• t [tf, I cusr,R ::, L N : : _J - · - · - - - · I KOYLTO~• ·•-- ➔-• - - - • ~....• : 't#A;ERTOWN. : : DAYTON .. a, viu. 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E L A N D : fMMff""" : R ILEY ' 0Al(LAN0 , •• , 0 I • ~ -------- '-- I I sRuc, : WALES w[111 1i>~1s •--;- ARMADA A001s0N I ORION I I I w-z~• : :1NOEP£NO£NC£ 1 I BERL I N 111 ~ f--- .DJ,•,,+----. -- _ll _--------T ::~~'.---+------- -t,. I9 L I ,, OXFO: : : ' " • ~ l I METAMORA I I : I 9, ..o•• : : M· 2 1 ATT I JA I SR~:::·r-- ~ . . I .I HAOLU : -·~--- I ·,,, AT LAS : I ~ I I ~i RIC>fMONO ,Q : -----,r;;-c- -o-jM-a-- ,·-----• im ~ I WASH I NGrrN I I I RAY LENOX I I VILie.AN LE'4AN &: ASSOCIATES. INC. Com_,,..,,,~ ,u.,,..,.. c-""',..,.n 0 I t ! 4 COMPETING RETAIL CENTERS CONVENIENCE CENTERS I. ANCHOR STOR[ : KROGfRS 2. &NC HOR STOfl[9 : 1(-MAIIT, HAMAOV ,000 C[NT[R 3. ANCHOR STOR[S : 30 DISCOUNT, HAMAOY BROTM[RS FOOD IORK[T 4. COLUM81AVILL£ CENTRAL BUSINESS OISTRICT 5. fr\lOATH BRANCH CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT COMPARISON CENTERS A ANCHOR STORES : A a P, 0 a C VARIETY, PERRY DRUGS a HOME CENTERS I MLAY CITY CENTRAL BUSIMESS DISTRICT a COLUMBUS C OXFORD CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 0 EASTLAND "IALL, ANCHOR STORES: J, C. PENNY, THE FAIR M · 24 CO MMERC IAL E CARO CENTRAL BUSINESS OISTIIIICT F llilARLETTE CENTRAL BUS l ~ESS DISTRICT G GENESEE VALLEY WALL LAPEER CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT TRADE AREA ~ 6 �Consumer Demographics The convenience market contained, in 1984, an estimated 7,000 persons with 55,300 persons in the larger comparison market. 2005 these areas respectively. may contai ~ over 9,800 It and 87,000 By persons, is from the larger comparison market that the greatest share of CBD sales will be derived. Expenditure potential is dependent upon a variety of data which are income, tenure, age, race, number and age of children, housing education potential retail of among and vehicle The ownership. market area residents was examined uses appropriate to a central business the potential for auto sales, expenditure for types of Thus, district. car wash, car repair, lumber yard, nursery and the like was not examined. expenditure The potential per person, multiplied by the population of the market areas, divided by estimates of sales per square foot, markets. When yields the retail floor space supportable then provides one of the market is allocated factors gauged. bases for evaluating the in order for the to gauge whether CBD type uses the should present future be This land area expanded. Other examined which impact projections of future market share are the historical strengths and weaknesses of the City's sales This share and thence floor space potential of the CBD. done the compared to the existing floor space in the CBD, the present "market share" held by the CBD can be share by and anticipated changes in shopping habits markets changing demographics. due retail to the �Future Space Requirements The it following table provides a summary of retail floor space existed in the summer of 1984 in the City future composition by 2005. and its as likely The rationale behind the forecasted increase or decrease in retail floor space is briefly highlighted below . Food Stores parking and difficult store - While full line supermarkets have loading area requirements to provide in most downtowns , potential Consisting of which buildings, render there is a niche which can be developed in specialty food stores, possibly them food- the CBD . with some limited in-store ,dining space, such stores are complementary uses to office and active comparison stores in the CBD . 13 �TABLE 1 CURRENT MARKET SHARE AND FUTURE FLOOR AREA REQUIREMENTS LAPEER CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT Future 2005) Current 1984) Floor Market Floor Market Share Space(Sq.Ft.) Share Space(Sq.Ft.) (2) (1) CONVENIENCE STORES Food Hardware Drugs Personal Services Other Convenience Total COMPARISON STORES General Merchandise Furniture & Appliances Apparel & Accessories Other Comparison Total AUTOMOBILE PARTS ENTERTAINMENT EATING & DRINKING GRAND TOTAL 4,100 24,900 4,000 34,900 16 %-CV 72 %-CM 53 %-CV 51 %-CM (2) 9,000 24,900 4,000 27,700 (2) 25 %-CV 45 %-CM 38 %-CV 30 %-CM 65,600 67,900 14 %-CM 67 %-CM 21 %-CM 36 %-CM 45,800 39,600 41 ·, 500 44,800 45,800 51,300 63,000 59,500 9 %-CM 55 %-CM 20 %-CM 30 %-CM 219,600 171,700 14,500 37 %-CM 14,500 23 %-CM 5,300 33 %-CM 5,300 21 %-CM 16,200 14 %-CM 36,000 20 %-CM 341,000 275,600 CV = Market share taken as a percent of convenience area supportable floor space. CM = Market share taken as a percent of c omparison area supportable floor space. (1) Provided by the City of Lapeer. Includes basement and upper floors when actively used as storage or sales space. However, gross floor area may be overstated due to inclusion of inefficiently used space as storage. Areas rounded to nearest 100 %. (2 ) Estimated a n d for ec asted b y Vilica n -L e man & Associat e s, Inc. 14 �Hardwares - The two CBD stores which now exist are the hardware total in town, stores are among the only four comparison market, in areas and are estimated to be the As the in sales throughout the county. dominant in . change. this competitive situation may the most outlying the county develop and gain additional stores their own, only of Thus, no future floor space for this use is forecast in the CBD. Personal Services Lapeer CBD is facilities. in - This type domin~ted by of retail three service commercial in recreation These account for 48 percent of all floor space personal service establishments. The three outlets represent the full range of health/exercize facilities. is unlikely increases this the that even with future market area population the CBD could support additional floor nature. In fact, It space there may be some decline of of the present space if consumer leisure preferences change. Drugstores replaced four - The CBD's sole drugstore has by another non-drugstore retailer. in the City, county. The and one of several more presence of numerous the market area somewhat reduces prospects for a additional drugstore space been It was one of throughout other throughout however, recently the drugstores the in potential the CBD, drugstore should be located in the CBD to most centrally serve the concentrated nearby residential area and as a convenience to other CBD shoppers. 15 �General Merchandise Stores throughout their - Full line stores of this type Michigan have been gradually converting more floor space to apparel and accessories. Many of have shifted their hardgoods sales to a catalogue-only basis - or dropped them altogether thus becoming a different class retail . Given facilities County, at these tren i s centers near and the Flint extensive and of shopping northern Oakland no increase in general merchandise type floor space is anticipated in the CBD . Furniture and Appliances gradually lost sales - Both City and county category . in this retail have This is anticipated to continue , at least at full line appliance and furniture stores. However, a market niche exists for an increase in floor space for specialty · home accessory stores in video, the CBD . Such stores, featuring computer, shelving, may good expansion potential. have lighting, antique, china and similar acces s ories An increase in floor space to include these specialty stores is thus anticipated . Apparel and Accessories majority most CBD is the focus of the City and market area's apparel likely apparel - The will continue to fill this role . of the stores and The CBD's stores have exhibited a greater sales strength than other similar stores in the county. It is estimated that it would be feasible for the CBD's mix of apparel stores to substantially be augmented with a greater mix and diversity of these retail store types. 16 �Other Comparison - Given the anticipated increase in leisure time, income and education of the market area residents, the present likely wide mix of other comparison increase. Among stores should, most key areas offering potential specialty jood stores such as health foods, are foods, gourmet liquor, and the like. Eating and Drinking - For the same reasons that the increase in other increased comparison stores is anticipated, demand so too is an for restaurants forecasted for the CBD provided such facilities are well designed, promoted, have convenient parking and are well managed . A "restaurant within a district" can create an downtown. image of vitality The presence of the majority of the county's retail and office space in the CBD offers a natural day ti~e and weekend market base for CBD restaurants. Retail Employment Based future could on a survey of current space utilization in the retail space needs, increase by 2005 retail oriented CBD employment from the estimated 1984 level of 490 persons 750 persons . 17 and to �OFFICE MARKET ANALYSIS A total of 153,900 square feet of private office space exists in the CBD. An additional 103,800 square feet is owned and occupied by the City and county. was The 1984 vacancy rate of private space The 1984 rate for commercial space less than five percent. was also near this amount. Office employment is an aspect of the rapidly economy which includes restaurants, recreation, business services, growing service. health clubs, personal care, legal and .medical services, and the like. It is estimated that, in 1984, the CBD contained 30 percent of the private sector office employment in the county (approximately 400 persons). gaining an Office increasing anticipated homes service employment proportion of all is employment. that growth in this employment sector will in the CBD as well. private related rapidly It is continue However, because of the inclination of many office employees to work close to or even in their own and the prospects for small office growth in the county as a result, no further increase in CBD share of office employment is anticipated. Even wide at the present 30 percent share, gain, 760 total private with a forecasted county- office employees could anticipated in the CBD - an increase of 350 over current During the basic work week, at any one time, 329 employees. 18 be levels. the gain would be �At an average employee of 285 gross square per main work shift, space is needed. feet per private sector 93,800 square feet of new · office Including public sector employment in private office space, the total new space needed is 99,000 square feet. Since almost all present vacant office space is fully reusable, the net demand for new space is for roughly 92 ; 000 square feet. LAND AREA REQUIREMENTS With an additional 65,000 square feet of retail space and almost 92,000 square feet of office space forecasted as needed by a total land area of 8.3 acres may be needed. This 2005, area is inclusive of parking, loading, setbacks and building ground floor area. CBD EXPANSION OPPORTUNITIES The following conditions in map provides a graphic analysis of the CBD and the opportunities for the CBD needed to accommodate future retail and office space. section existing expansion The next of this report links this analysis to present and future parking needs and solutions. 19 �Ga~Strc.dur6 •f""' qua-lirq shwld ts (81M • Co~wnef;;J fX/?!:':f'~ !/wl5rtlffl w- ~ P.IAl {;;lei£ f-,,11fr. epsfi,1 ~ Bndf ~~ WJJ iJflll,?77/llt ~>~ffi{@h '/JLLLLJll1/L l) a~ S@ II vfD- 1(1/ue ~idarice _ _ _,,... :i'dfir~a~3. S'tn.dws . !J!Ji/~;;;~# ~1 - ~ - - - C/6'.Jran:.e. f,a) izJ H 'o ~ CE N TR AL B US I N ES S D I ST R I CT AN ALY S I S CITY OF LAPEER MICHIGAN �CBD PARKING PROBLEMS AND POTENTIALS EXISTING PARKING SITUATION Based in on a comparison of existing retail and office floor space the CBD to the number of parking spaces needed to efficiently serve that floor space, the following three main problem areas can be identified: An insufficient number of parking spaces provided to meet present demand (a 688 space shortfall). An inadequate balance in the proper distribution of spaces (demand and supply are often separated parking by great distances). Unfavorable or improper use of key parking spaces in the CBD (the use of spaces most attractive to customers by employees). The following map provides a summary of present needs compared to the present supply of spaces. employee vehicles, Additional the report parking The location of as derived from a City survey is also noted. maps and discussion of these issues may be entitled space "Parking Study Business District," June 6, 1985. 20 for the Lapeer found in Central �. . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ; ~ .....,,,.~--------+-,'-'T --....----~,-------....;. ~"""!!""-.....iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~~,.,.. ~~ 557 6 0 0 22 C 8 17 f 16 48 41 (7 ) 9 ~ I l ~ I■ D I W~,, I ()JJH-H-l-ld 78 @ '"~ 1D g0 UtU ~ .,.,.,. . . . . . .-.-. -:-,-:D· D :I~~usI: I t_:::_·•• ;:_: ·.-.·.• ... . . ·-·-· ·.-.-. · ·· ·· .. · ._,"_ ,, _ _,._., 88 , I ■ WllH'l 1 @ 2.97 58 (239 v) ■ - ■ -■-------■;;;.. ■ -:-• ~ -•-■,'-'!_■ -■• 1 ]J 80 I 205 61 134 98 -72II 36 ■ [ i~ :J_:::t::·:::m _ ® ( 11 3) ~• ---• I ::-:::.W{) -•·.-•,. ,1:-_1 ·_,IL,,__·lhlJ , ■ ■----·r:-■:: c:i8CJ=i.,■c;: :c:i. . ,-f1Jf 1!~1 :::::::: :, 20 1 128 ILJII . • ■ ■ ■ - ■ ~ : ., -------1-66- ■ bJJ1 ~ tmU4J:t:l H~ BLOCK BOUN DARY BLOCK NU MB ER BLOCK ANALYSIS 00 00 00 PARKING NEED · rs ~~~~-~ - ._;;;;;.;;.._-II-,.c•=- =...;;;;_=•=-.:.~_,.,-,-~,,.,._,.;:: ~';-~--.L. :, ~-7=-:i:;~~=-;;;===±:--=~ t=~~~i~='~----~ ____:-'==~ =n ~ =-;:;::,~:=.~;:r: :~.~=-«-1"■- ~-_-_-_-_-=-=~---_'.:.:_~ ,: .., • • ' I •· ' p■ EX I STING PARK I NG EXCESS (DEFICIENCY) ■ -I B BLOCK GROUP BOUNDARY .:: 375 BLOCK GROUP LETTER F BLOCK GROUP ANALYSI S 000 · 000 0 00 PARKING NEEO EXISTING PARKING EX'i:ESS (DEF IC IENCY) E MPLOYEE OCCUPlED PARKING 82 SCALE 1": 100 ' PARKING SPACE NEEDS CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT PARKING STUDY CIT Y OF L AP E ER M ICHI GAN 4 40s @ 143 .u,r13iu+Httt11HHf1tMtHHHTHlHif1 J:U.rt.U:U·J---n:tmmnn+lll l:'IJ'Ht H:f:f:lf:I:fl fil .:J VILICAN ·LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. Com!f\un lty Prarining Con,ul tan ts �FUTURE PARKING NEEDS The retail and office market analysis for new businesses. A indicated future support · With such businesses , comes parking demand . need for 621 future parking spaces will result from these or will expanded uses . total maximum The present and anticipated space deficiency by the year 2005, impractical to new fully 1,309 spaces . While provide all 1 , 309 spaces in it the may be CBD, a ~£fort toward achieving these spaces is needed in order to maintain and enhance the CBD's viability and vitality . The Central Business District Analysis map identified directions of growth for new retail and office floor space supporting parking areas . appears to be the most this reasonable along with concept is to create, over time , a some more configuration as opposed to a long rectangular one . will more make a and Basically a north-south growth pattern expansion east to take advantage of riverfront views . of potential efficient and, therefore , more slight The intent square CBD The square effective downtown. ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS While the obvious solution to numerically insufficient parking is more parking, providing more parking in a developed area is highly involved and expensive undertaking . 21 a �Also providing impact of additional parking may still poor distribution and conflicts. Yet, the of too few spaces. impact locating the resolve long-term/shdrt-term the park~ng resolving these latter two problems can lessen Further, if care is taken in new spaces to place them in the areas of greatest need, problems of distribution and numbers partially resolved. the not can be, at least, The three problems are thus inter-related to point that careful resolution of one can positively impact the others. New Space Development Two basic alternatives can be taken to resolve the problems of too few spaces and inadequate distribution: Building new surface lots. Building a system of parking ramps in conjunction with new surface lots. The main difference between these two alternatives is convenience versus cost. However, in highly developed areas like CBD, developing sufficient both the distribution and numbers problem would cost much as the combined system. of Lapeer's new surface parking lots to impact nearly as Further, with a surface only system the scale needed to serve the CBD, arise: 22 several land use problems �Parking areas might preempt areas better used for new CBD growth. Large surface parking areas can create major interruptions thereby discouraging pedestrian in extensive shopper movement, shopping trips since the cohesion of the retail core would be reduced . Large surface residential lot development may relocation problems result and in substantial contribute destabilization of contiguous residential areas impacted to by such lots . The most likely, least expensive locations for large surface lots are away from the CBD core, resulting in greater shopper inconvenience. A mixed, phased , surface lot-ramp system offers a reasonable use of land while maintaining the compactness of the it can CBD . Further, take advantage of the river-ward slope of the southerly CBD fringe for both parking ramp and retail/office uses . The following map presents a graphic portrayal of the surface lot - ramp system. of Also shown are potential locations/configurations future commercial and office uses. This display highlights the significance of Farmer's Creek and links both the creek the adjacent park area to the CBD. 23 and �r--, LAW I I I I I I I ill.LI ():11:1:1111~ ® Q) ~~~~=~--~~---,.; w z E::J~ 111111111 [I COMMERCIAL/ EXPANSION ~ii:ii:ii:ii:ii:~i-=--.:::---<J I J / ----- ~-4 ... a: ::, 0 I.> @ ::: : ill:::::::::::::::::: i I POTENTIAL OFFICE a RETAIL I ~ VILICAN·LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. D SCALE t"• 100' CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT EXPANSION CITY OF LAPEER MICHIGAN Community Plannina Consull~nts �The surface lot - ramp alternative locations for retail and mercial uses Further, it would occur core, and takes advantage of the CBD's creekside presumes that much of the new in a new retail center, visually retail adjacent to and physically linked to the com- proximity. construction the existing core through various architectural treatments. Selective Use Of Parking The conflict between short-term space users (shoppers) and long- term users (employees) can only be partially alleviated new parking space development. through While it is recognized that CBD employees also shop in the CBD, they are not the principal source of business generation for CBD businesses. Prov iding a sufficient number of well distributed spaces must be coupled with a program for effective use of those spaces before problems can be resolved. for all three Otherwise, the most convenient spaces shoppers (those located nearest the stores) would still be generally unavailable for shopper use. A variety Combinations of solutions of meters, exist fines, to resolve this parking permits and problem. designated long-term parking areas are among the possible solutions. all Key to of them is an understanding by CBD businessmen that employee use of convenient spaces is a problem, to carry out the solution s e lect e d. 24 coupled with a conviction �RECREATION NEEDS, CONDITIONS AND POTENTIALS EXISTING CONDITIONS Lapeer's dominance in the as well as county seat City-owned influence while parks. is the county as a retail and office also affects the population served by its From a recreational standpoint, greatest on the four 1980 center Census adjacent lists the City's the City's townships. Thus, population as 6,198 persons, the City provides a major support base for almost 30,000 people. A variety provide of regional, school district and private recreational opportunities for the City's facilities residents in addition to approximately 122.5 acres of City-owned parks. Within an hour's drive of the City are several county parks, regional facilities of which three offer water-based twelve State recreation facilities and ten State four major recreation, game areas. These large recreation areas total in excess of 135,000 acres. Within the immediate Lapeer area, recreational field games, opportunities, court eight public schools primarily provide consisting of areas games and gymnasium play. There are for ten private recreation facilities in the area of which six are in the City. With the exception of one establishment specializing baseball/softball facilities, offer not elsewhere duplicated at public facilities the private facilities. 25 recreation in concerns or school �Among the center, City's own facilities are nine and a travel trailer park. parks, a recreation Almost one-half of all City park land is located within floodplains or wetlands with much of the land unusable for portions of the year as a result. Usage the of City the school recreational facilities is and schools, coordination. Because requiring extensive This is community-based the fall season, a particular concern in and usage is high. community access be afforded until the evenings and even then some arise. between cooperation of this dual scheduling, Because school programs have priority use, not shared the indoor programs in the gymnasiums. may conflicts scheduling of Also, during heavy demand is placed on all available field areas by football and soccer enthusiasts. The City has the only formal park system in the immediate As a result, area. each fair weather weekend, Cramton and Rowden Parks are host to family gatherings and reunions . While non-resident fees can help defray program costs, such an approach to park and facility use is not always possible. The following map identifies the location of the City, school and private recreation in the Lapeer area and Table 2 facilities at each site. 26 describes the �j II] ---------... _____ _ I I I I I I I -- -7 I I ·------7 i I I i i I I KEV: 0 □ ◊ I PARKS AND RECREATION AREA i SCHOOLS PRIVATE RECREATION I I I I_ ______ _ ..a... I I LAPEER AREA RECREATION FACILITIES I L_______________________ L I O m 600 SCALE 1200 IN FEET 1800 I I ! I I c ,-T v· a i=-'tA p EE R--M ic-Hi G-AN �TABLE 2 INVBNTORY OF LAPEER AREA RECREATION FACILITIES I -g I Ij ~ I .c C1J ..-t .-I Cl 0 0 p., s;:: H I ,-I Cl) .0 µ I I C/) C/) I 'O s;:: 4-1 0 I I C1J P'.l ::, I C1J C1l .0 ,..:i µ Cl) Cl) ~ 0 r/) s;:: C1J C1J u P'.l C1J E: s;:: ·rl C1l Cl) E: I-< 0 s;:: 0. I en r/) eC1J r/) :>, c., u ::i:: ..-t H ::, .-I ·rl µ s;:: < 0 Cl) r/) 'O I-< s;:: < 0 .c ..-t bO C1J l ~ I p., I I ..-t C1J e ::, p., bO ;,-, ,.,H C1J Cl) ,-I Qi ~ p.. I Audobon Park_ _ _ _ _ _ _-+--~--+----t--•-I I 3 . Cram ton Park I_ • -· 4 E. Annrook Park I I - • -5 - , -H_e_n_l~y Rec. Ctr. (1) - · - - - • I 6 I Rotary Park 2 --l I I -- ~ 2 _ • ! • 0 C/) ...__ s;:: s;:: ·rl µ C1J ~ C/) ..-t I I !I µ I .-I .-I C1J bO ..-t I I s;:: E: E: 'O 'O .D Cl) ,-I C/) 0 0 ..-t ~ C/) µ I I r/) ;l I-< ::, 0 u r/) Cl) Cl) 0. I-< .-I .-I C1J u ...__ .D ~ I-< Cl) u ,-I r/) C1J C1J C1l I-< H Cl) ;3 I P'.l .D C1J H Cl) ::, p::: ::i:: I I "O ,-I "M u H ~ _ _______ - - - r - ___ ~ _,_____ e 1 I - ~ - I • I 2 • I 3 ___ _ _ ___ - µ µ u I I-< 0 0 'O ::, p., bO I > 0 ::, ::, p., ~ 4-1 I - • ,_ •• •• • I ,- I µ µ µ ,--1 0 c., 0 bO C1J I I 0 I I-< 0. 0. < ..__, s;:: ·rl µ µ «I C/) I P'.l ti I I I ---=---~.::.=..:..:..::~.:....c::..::.::::..:__ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8 ,_ 9 I 11 I ,_____ 12_ _ -; I I 5 1 2 I L ____.__ I ---------+I--+---' l -+-I ' -1 - ;-,______;_ - •· I 2 I I 4 2 12 i ~m::;;r 7 4 5 3 ~ 1 7 11 I ---,---------'--4--1 --·.=:-· t~=-l.__J_-+,~- __;_-_-_---"-f_:-----'---t~-'.- - - -_-·::==+-----~-~~ ::::i_e _s _ _ _ _ _-+-- 2 - - - + - - - - - • - _____ -+----~---1-I 4 ,---, 3 -,~- I I Zemmer Jr. High I I 1 ,.._2 3 4 Bishop Kelly (2) Subtotal Private Facilities I . - --Woody's Gym __ __ _~ Lapeer Healtl_l Sp!:_ _____ ! Lapeer Country Club Lapeer Court Club I , 4 ' 2 8 - 6 I I • ~ +--f----_, : _ ----f----J----J-- 6 1 =.· J L_l - ~8 2 3 2 I -- J _I 1 8 122.5 _ ----l-----t-----1,-- ______ 1, I -, ->-- - ----· ,____ -- - ----- I ....-- 7-=__ I I 3- J_ _ 1 >- ·= ~ J,_--.'-~=:-_- lf-1L ~ --i -=~='~ - - {' / __ _ J 1 - - - - j - 7 - -4-:- I - - - -4 ~ - ---,, • 7 65 __,_I -- _ t- _____ -1-- · I 52 i - 62 -- 9.7 ~ 47 - -I - - 'I ~- (3) 8 - I 13 1- 1 -T -== <3 > 1 191.7 I J - One hundred year old former church. (2) Private schools. (3) Shared grounds. SOURCE: City of Lapeer Parks and Recreation Department. (1) • , I .f---- 1---7:;___-=S-=ch =-1=. -c=--=k=-=l=-e--=r--=-::::E'le :-'-- m - .- -----c!--+---..!.l---+-----+I----L!_ _ji!__•----+I----L;-_jll-----1-l--'---= • -+--+--+------1i------+---+---t--+----+--+--+---+I-----=_ 8 - -5 I I ~-..__-1----- -- · - -- ___ • -+-----r--- - - ~_ -7 . I I 1 _J _ _ , I • I __.___ -,-1- ' I I ---+---+---+---+---;1---'5:c-_ _1-:Ic-rw _ i_nc-::-::E-:l--=e:--=m_._ _ _ _ _ _ _-'---I--+--+!__-·1_•_+--_l:___i:___il__---!l----!--+-~-•- i-----t--+--+--+--+- _---+----i------i------i---~11 6 ' Turrill Elem. , I I ! i • I -4 < P'.l 12 __._I --- ----'----+-~--+----4--,_____,______ 1 ----+------+------+---t - + - ..___ ~-'--__._, I u ~ • 7 Rowden Park I J__ - - - _ __,__ --f----!---f----!f----'----'---f---+---+--+--+-----1---t---t----1--f---f---+---t--+----t---t---t---+--+-.:.+---'----t-• • • • • • •• • • Water Tower Travel I ' I • • Tr ail er Park --------1----+---1.---+---1--'----i-----'-----+-----+--_J..._• _--l._: _-_-+-':--:_-_--++---_-_--1+---_-_-;_-_-_-;_-_-_-:_-_-_--,+_-_-_-_+;_-:_--++-------=f---+--+-_-_-J+'==_:_-•-++_-_-_Perkins Park • • •I _J • I ,___l_O_~I_A_m e_r_i_c_a_n_ L_e_g_i_o_n_ F_i_· e_ l_ d______ _J ~ ]-___,,--___ I j- !t --' 1 Memorial Park -1- ~-. I -~ --J J ---i- • P_a_r_k_ D_e_p_t_._ O~p_e__ n_ Space _ __ j __ Subtotal ! <---<--- - ~ p::: X I j __ J --,- -+---+------:------1------1-----,r---+---+---1_ 2 ! ____ I_ I . ,-... X Cl) 0 0 p., Qi <ll ;l 0 P'.l 0 0 p., r/) I I I I Qi ·rl .-I O' u C1l ~1 .-I µ .c µ Cl) r/) Cl) .D C/) µ C1J H .-I .-I C1J C1J s;:: Cl) I ~ ·rl s;:: I ,-I I e I 12 ::, bO Map City Parks And I I Code Recreation Facilities 1--=--l=--=--=-A - n-n=--rc.::oc.::oc.::k--=--=P:..:ac.::r:..:k~-=-=~::..:---=----+--------'-1----!f---t--+---+----,---J;----;--• _=..=__ _ _ I 2 i - Cl) 0 ..__, I I u u bO 0 0 0 H u ·rl s;:: u !> Cl) I I I-< µ Cl) I f H 0 0 'O I I H Cl) ::, I Cl) I .j I . u s;:: ,-I .c µ u ,...., .-I .-I .-I C1J H 0 0 'O ,-... I I --- �Deficiencies An examination of applicable national recreational standards was made and present program participation levels were reviewed to identify the following City-level facility deficiencies: Modern 1. indoor pool and recreation The center. present center is quite old with inadequate parking areas ard a pool unsuitable for competitive use. 2. Development of a major park capable of multiple facility use. 3. Park land acquisition, since roughly floodplain half or other than wetlands and floodplains, of all City park wetlands, limiting its land is useful designated development potential. 4. Heavy diamond programming has not been able to keep pace with demand. Ball diamonds, soccer fields and ball tennis courts all operate at capacity and more are needed. 5. Special interest facilities - such as outdoor volleyball courts, senior citizen activity areas and the like are often mentioned facility shortages by area residents. A variety of neighborhood level deficiencies were identified the brief adopted Lapeer Park and Recreation Plan (of which this is summary). The reader is referred to that Plan additional detail on this and other areas discussed herein. 28 by a for �TRANSPORTATION CONDITIONS THE THOROFARE NETWORK The location of Lapeer at the crossroads of east-west interstate freeway I-69, M-24, makes and one of the major north-south State trunklines, the City readily accessible centers to the south (Pontiac-Detroit), to major population west (Flint), east (Port Huron - Sarnia, Canada) and north to the thumb agricultural and to Michigan's northern lakes and recreation areas. this area However, excellent location brings with it the problems generated by heavy traffic demands. The completion of I-69 has helped to alleviate traffic conflicts between The To businesses and through traffic for east-west travelers. same cannot be said for the north-south travelers adequately on M-24. address traffic needs of the through traveler well as those of local residents the overall roadway network Lapeer and its immediately surrounding area needs to be as for planned to accomplish the following: A thorofare system that affords maximum convenience, safety and efficiency in the movement of people and goods. The development and integration of local residential streets with a system of major and regional thorofares serving urban and rural areas. 29 �The provision of a system of thorofares within the City of Lapeer a~d its planning area which segregates commercial and through traffic from local residential streets, thereby implementing the objectives of planned communities. The goals streets and objectives to effectuate a planned and thorofares as well as other modes of network of transportation are more fully outlined in a later section of this report. THOROFARE STANDARDS In order to determine how streets should be must be a basis upon which to classify them. the basis determined of right-of-way from the amount widths of classified, there This can be done on which, in anticipated turn, traffic can and be the resultant number of lanes needed. Type Number of Moving Lanes Purpose Rightof-Way (a) Expressway High speed, long distance movements where traffic is heavy 6 or 8 (b) 300' - 350' Major Thorofare Long distance movernents where expected traffic is less than expressway, or where traffic demand is heavy for short distances 4, 100' - 150' Secondary Thorofare Through movements where traffic is relatively light 2 or 4 6, 8 86' Minor Access or service 2 60' or 66' (a) Figures in this column do not include service drives or parking lanes. (b) In rural areas 4 lanes generally sufficient 30 �THOROFARE PLAN Expressway its - The I-69 Freeway traverses the City of planning interchange the Road area in an east-west direction. Lapeer The and existing on Lapeer Road (Main) will afford access to and from A second interchange at CBD and the City. Lake will afford access to potential industrial, Nepessing commercial and residential lands in that area. Major Thorofares - To accommodate potential through traffic, traffic generated by proposed and existing land uses, and provide continuity to the existing street system, are proposed planning area. the following streets as major thorofares in the City of Lapeer and Each should have a 120 foot North-South Major Thorofares Lake Nepessing Road Millville Road Suncrest Lapeer (Main) Road (M-24) Saginaw - Clark Road Meyers, Morris East-West Major Thorofares Oregon Genesee (M-21) Demill, McCormick, Peppermill 31 right-of-way . its �The accomplishment of this major thorofare network will the extension require of Suncrest Road southwardly to connect with the extension of Denill Road, the extension of Denill Road westwardly to serve the vacant lands west of Main Street to Lake Nepessing Road and the connection of McCormick Street to Peppermill between the railroad and Saginaw Street. Secondary Thorofares - The secondary thorofare may carry traffic but would primarily serve local areas . to Their purpose is collect traffic from local streets or areas and move this the major thorofares. be through determined by to Consequently, future traffic volumes will traffic generated by adjacent land Normally these streets will require an 86 foot right-of-way . following are designated as secondary thorofares . North - South Collectors Hayes Road Farnsworth Road East-West Col l ectors Davis Lake Road Turill Road 32 uses . The �The remaining streets and roads would primarily function as local streets or minor thorofares. Programs for the elimination of through traffic in residential areas should be developed wherever possible. streets patterns . Such programs should jnclude the closing by creating cul-de-sacs, Bicycle of or otherwise modifying and pedestrian facilities, protected automobile traffic, should be created in appropriate areas . 33 minor street from �COMMUNITY FACILITY NEEDS One of which the features that makes Lapeer a desirable community to live and work is its attractive small town Community services desirable place. quickly slip into a state of decline. facilities atmosphere . play a significant role in making Without - adequate services a in Lapeer community a can Improvements to community must be a continuing on-going program . The recently initiated Capital Improvements budgetary program is an essential step in planning ahead within the community's spending ability to assure the continued maintenance of all of tl1e infrastructure structure needs of the City. UTILITIES The City enjoys an adequate source of water excellent sewage treatment plant . Objectives for improvement Community and and operates As outlined in the Goals Facilities, a program a continuing program for separation is a high priority item. of an and watermain storm/sanitary sewer The City will also need to address solid waste disposal for future years in consort with the on-going county planning effort . A regional solution for solid waste disposal is needed . Public Works Facilities - The City ' s public works facilities generally well improvement Services storage to area located the is and adequate appearance needed. of for the their purpose . Department The addition of indoor of are An Public space for of equipment and exterior landscaping would enhance the DPS site and provide a better neighborhood setting. 34 �Public Safety can offer - One its Residents of the most important services a residents is protection should from community crime enjoy not only actual security, and fire. but also its perception - they must not only be safe, but feel safe as well. Police and currently fire service in Lapeer is operates properly and in facilities efficiently growing communitv. at that a are high not level. It adequate to administer the services needed in a A new structure is needed in which all public safety operations can be consolidated. City Administrative Offices - Efficient city government a good working environment. located with structure. made available area area, is an inadequate in City Hall if police and fire services can The building should be renovated with especial p~eserve building to ~ts service centrally Adequate space for administrative personnel could be relocated. to respect Lapeer City Hall though requires its unique historic character. should include the provision of Renovation of attractive be care the pedestrian treatment and landscaping for the exterior of the building. The new post office site, across Nepessing Street from City Hall, should also receive landscape treatment in harmony with the Hall site. 35 City �GOALS & OBJECTIVES Establishing goals and objectives is the implementation of a rationally developed plan . first step toward �THE FUNCTrON OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES In undertaking the Lapeer Master Plan update it is essential that clearly defined goals element be established. well explained Minneapolis - 1. Goals by and objectives relative to each plan The particular value of setting goals is Arnett W. Leslie in Goals for Central Its Function and Design: give direction public facilities, to those responsible for planning enabling them to prepare plans in closer accord with community desires. 2. They help to avoid confusion of basic issues with questions secondary or details and thus help achieve clearer and more pointed discussion of each. ' 3. . They can necessary create a common ground of agreement which when .many individuals and groups are is so actually involved in preparing and achieving plans. 4. They can prepare unwarranted, the way for achievement by Johnny-come-lately criticism warding when the off time comes to put a plan into effect. Over the course of the planning program, were these a variety of held with area businessmen and residents. sessions workshops The results are a series of goals and objectives which, of if implemented through the policies and implementation alternatives presented in this plan, will assist the realization of the plah. 16 �Thus, the plan preferences itself is a reflection of the attitudes of the City's residents and businessmen. In and other words , "Experts can make plans and directors can enforce them, but . in the long run, the only planning that will succeed is that which the public wants." Journal of the Town Planning Institute . 37 (Sir George Pepler, �GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS Lapeer's residential maintained and signals , neighborhoods on the whole possess the amenities for good however, are becoming are well living. noticeable. The Danger five pressing problems existing in our neighborhoods include: most (1) Some deterioration in both the maintenance of dwellings and in outside housekeeping in older neighborhoods; Some overcrowding ( 2) in housing areas as a result of conversion of older single dwellings multi-family into neighborhoods Incompatible use; resulting land A (3) in uses, lack parking of on lawn particularly neighborhoods abutting business areas and in parking at curbs, some areas; the edges thorofares, an adverse impact on quiet residential living; high quality street surfacing, in ( 4) of resulting (5) A lack of gutters ahd sidewalks in some neighborhoods of the City . In recent years Lapeer has made significant progress in advancing its planning strengthening maintaining program, building municipal modernizing and housing services . its Zoning inspection These Ordinance, services, programs must and be continued, but all problems of deterioration cannot be avoided by these measures alone . GOAL PRESERVE FOR A SEGMENTS AND CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVE RESIDENTIAL AREAS AND CROSS OF SECTION OF HIGH QUALITY HOUSING SUITABLE POPULATION WHILE MAINTAINING SINGLE-FAMILY HOME. 38 EMPHASIS PROVIDE FOR ALL ON THE �OBJECTIVE I. Maintain and enhance the residential character of existing neighborhoods. POLICIES 1. Private action improvement to achieve of existing adequate properties maintenance can best accomplished through individual and neighborhood and through pressures of public opinion. superior efforts will require an effective and To be pride insure educational campaign. As part of implementing this policy, prepare the City should and regularly distribute information brochures explaining v',hich improvements can be made to property without increasing property taxes. 2. Through its action, the City must demonstrate an awareness of the construction gutters, need to improve of street sidewalks), neighborhoods. improvements as well planting and street maintenance, (paving, The curbs, as a program for tree should be foremost in this effort. 3. The City should provide the highest affordable level of City services to all residential areas of the City. 4. Residential areas should be protected from encroachment by incompatible land uses through careful of the Zoning Ordinance. 39 application �5. Through its housing assistance program the continue its active role in City should encouraging the rehabilitation of older housing in the community. 6. A visually attractive environment in residential areas The City should sponsor an annual should be promoted . paint-up/fix-up week with special emphasis on The City should continue housing and building code in- residential areas. 7. spection and enforcement for multi-family dwelling units. OBJECTIVE II. the Stabilize multiple-family) segments of housing mix (single-family, two-family, to provide housing opportunities Lapeer's present and future for residents all while maintaining the single-family character of the City. POLICIES 1. 2. Limit the conversion of single-family dwellings multi-family use in older single-family neighborhoods. Provide areas for new housing development with to a diverse housing stock for all income and age groups and with particular emphasis on single-family detached and attached (cluster) housing. 40 �3. zoning Develop standards to allow an efficiency apartment or a one bedroom apartment in older of the City as a special condition use in sections an owner- occupied single-family dwelling unit. 4. A housing mix dominated by single-family dwellings with no more than 40 percent multiple-family dwellings should be the year 2005 target for the City. OBJECTIVE III. Preserve and maintain structures of significant historical value and their immediate environment. POLICIES 1. Promote historic programs and matters. preservation information Brochures on which through historic contain educational preservation information historic preservation should be developed and on provided residents. 2. Continue Commission to support the efforts of the City's Historic in its preservation efforts in the older residential neighborhoods of the City. 3. The City should assist property owners to obtain public and private funding for use in restoration and preser- vation of historic structures and places. 41 �GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: BUSINESS AREAS There are three distinct types of business areas within the City, each with The CBD is its own basic function: shopping core and office center for the County; the comparison the two shopping centers are major convenience uses for tre Lapeer area; highway business areas provide for fast-food and general shopping opportunities for the City and the larger and the retail county-level market. CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT Lapeer's serving central business district is the dominant retail center a population in excess of 53,000 people. functioned The CBD well in recent years following the extensive has renewal activities of the early 1970's. The continued three strength of the CBD is of key importance business areas since its draw keeps shoppers coming town past the shopping centers and highway businesses, facilitating to the greater exposure of these less all into in effect concentrated retail uses. To continue region to serve as the prime retail center for some already apparent problems will need to be and room for growth will be necessary. need to be addressed include: improved; growing corrected Some of the problems that (1) A need for additional parking for both shoppers and employees; be a (2) Access to the CBD needs to (3) Pedestrian linkages need to be strengthened in 42 �some areas of the CBD; designated; (4) Space for future growth needs to (5) Store fronts and particularly the rear of stores need more unified treatment; the (6) Remodeling of pedestrianways and expansion of pedestrianway street furniture, be be undertaken; treatment (pavement, provision of public restrooms, T~e (7 ) lighting, etc.) needs to CBD needs to function as a management practices (business hours, unit with advertising, events, etc.) similar to those provided at shopping centers. Because of what ails it, improved without expansion, store decoration, for the central business district cannot be investment of private modernization, instance, must funds. Business landscaping and all be undertaken area exterior by private owners investing their own money. Furthermore, certain public remedies should have the support business interests. change and of Proposals to eliminate overhanging signs; to provisions of the zoning ordinance as it affects the CBD; to modify traffic routes have all been opposed by downtown businessmen in the past and have sometimes been defeated. Finally, to improvement justify the expenditure of public funds in the of a land area as large as that taken up by · the CBD, it must be shown that the investment will be worthwhile and not a losing proposition. arteries, provision Street closings, building of circumferential of off-street parking facilities, construction of pedestrian malls all cost a great deal of 43 and money. �Even such relatively inexpensive items as street trees, waste receptables, thousands street lighting, and potted designed plants cost of dollars and would be hard to justify in the absence of private investment in the future of the CBD. GOAL THROUGH ENHANCE EXTENSIVE GOVERNMENT-PRIVATE BUSINESS THE CBD's GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES TO ENABLE IT TO AS THE DOMINANT RETAIL CENTER IN THE LAPEER SERVICE MUST OF THE COOPERATION, AREA. BE DONE IN A FASHION SENSITIVE TO THE SMALL TOWN THE CITY, CONTINUE CHARACTER ASSURING THAT EACH NEW DEVELOPMENT CONTRIBUTES ECONOMIC VITALITY, THIS TO SERVICE CAPABILITY AND ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE CBD. OBJECTIVE I. ACCESSIBILITY east should - Access from the south and west as well be improved and the actual route to the as CBD should be better identified. POLICIES 1. FROM SOUTH a. Saginaw Street should be upgraded and the Saginaw Street bridge should be widened. b. The intersection of Saginaw and Genesee should analyzed for improvement of traffic safety. 44 be �2. FROM WEST a. Court Street is an important feeder from the and the south . west Left turn movements from Genesee Street should be improved to facilitate access to Court Street . 3. FROM EAST a. Turning movements at Pine be and Nepessing should from · a traffic standpoint relative a ~ alyzed to CBD access from the east. b. Signage north for traffic entering the CBD from via Oregon Street and from M-24 by way the of Park Street should be improved. OBJECTIVE II. CIRCULATION - An analysis of traffic flow in and around the CBD should be undertaken. POLICIES 1. AUTOMOBILE a. Traffic light timing should be coordinated . b. Alternatives to turning blo c ks should be studied . c. One way street alternatives should be analyzed. d. Expansion of the CBD must be carefully planned to the north and south to minimize traffic pedestrian conflicts on Park and Clay Streets . 45 �2. SERVICE VEHICLES a. Alley blockage by service vehicles should be hazards and water runoff problems at corrected . b. Winter ice service areas should be improved. 3. PEDESTRIAN a. Pedestrian should access to and from the rear of improved be from a stores traffic safety standpoint. b. Pedestrian crossings of CBD streets should be signalized as more stores are added to the CBD . c. Pedestrian interior access between stores through accessways should be use explored. of Second floor connections may also be feasible . OBJECTIVE III . PARKING convenient - Every effort should be made to increase customer parking with the emphasis first placed on providing at-grade parking . POLICIES 1. EMPLOYEES a. Continued effort must be made to discourage use of prime parking spaces by employees in the CBD . Among possibilities which may resolve these issues are: low Locating employee parking in remote lots at cost or no cost to the employee with possible 46 �shuttle system bus varying (employees at higher rate than providing (for providing a service; a both parking ramp for long employees and customer); term downtown cost parking residents); increasing meter rates to encourage more turnover near shops; or a combination of the above. 2. CUSTOMERS a. Prime parking space should continue to be metered until adequate space is available and convenient to all sections of the Central Business District. b. Prime location surface parking should be expanded wherever feasible for customer use. c. Areas of parking distribution deficiency on the north side of Nepessing should receive the highest priority for adding parking as suitable properties can be acquired. d. Various alternative methods of merchant parking validation should be pursued. e. Should parking decks prove financially feasible, the~r design to should be coordinated take advantage of topography changes and to assure that they do not have a negative impact appearance of the CBD or abutting areas. 47 on the �OBJECTIVE IV. SIZE OF CBD - The CBD will need to expand to keep pace with Future growth should be concentrated as market area growth. a compact business area conduclve to walk-in business and to provide for the continuation of the small town character that typifies Lapeer's CBD. POLICIES 1. WALKING DISTANCES a. Walking distances maximum of should be no greater 400 feet between stores and than a parking lots. b. The CBD should be lbnited in length to its current 1,400 foot dimension (Mason to Saginaw Street). 2. CBD GROWTH AREAS a. Future CBD growth to the north should be limited to the blocks abutting Park Street. b. Future CBD growth to the south should be limited by the river and park land. c. Advantages of a river and park-like setting should be pursued in expanding the CBD to the south. d. Possible pursued additional CBD expansion should be on existing parking lots provided parking can be replaced and expanded. 48 �3. CBD FRINGE a. The east side of Saginaw Street, of south should Nepessing, and business office uses both north be to and developed in the complement activities of the CBD. b. The west end of the business district containing the City Hall and new post office provides a entrance to the CBD. good The design and treatment of open spaces in this area is of prime importance. c. State and Federal offices should be encouraged to locate in the CBD and in the CBD fringe to create more shopper traffic as spinoff during lunch hours and after office hours. 4. OTHER BUSINESS GENERATORS a. The as Lapeer County Court House should be preserved a key downtown aesthetic Lapeer. and Ways historic should feature be found in for a fuller utilization of this structure and grounds. b. The court removed. house annex should For the short term, eventually be this structure may need to be utilized for office or commercial use. c. Office uses on the main business streets should be encouraged to utilize 2nd floor space or located so as not to utilize prime retail space. 49 be �A d. program property tenants should owners be to instituted lease space encourage to to who will be an asset to the appropriate retail core and to offices that help support the main function of the CBD. OBJECTIVE V. CBD APPEARANCE efficient and tasteful environment that will enhance the Central Business District as a - Provide a clean , place to do business and as a place in which all the citizens of Lapeer can take pride. POLICIES 1. ARCHITECTURAL a. The architectural style of the CBD should the the reflect City's historic character and should preserve old structures architectural style provided meet safety and building codes of such the City . b. No single motif should be promoted; however, the style of the early tradition of the City should be respected as it relates to any new construction in the CBD . c. Color coordination in both new construction and in remodeling old structures is essential . 50 �d. The rehabilitation of historic structures should be encouraged in every way possible. e. The provision of a downtown restroom facility should be explored. 2. THE SHOPPING STREET a. Additional decorative paving should be installed. b. Additional street tree planting in downtown should be undertaken. c. Parking lots should be beautified. d. Additional street furniture should be provided, including bike racks. e. Additional pedestrian lighting is necessary for both utility and for its decorative appeal. f. Both public controlled · should and private signage throughout the area. be discouraged. Parking needs to Flashing lot be signs locations should be distinctly signed. g. A study of the feasibility of relocating the present overhead power lines underground should be undertaken. h. A continuing improvement emphasis should be placed of rear store facades and on the entrances, including landscape treatment where appropriate. 51 �i. Alleys should be considered as pedestrianways and the use of alleys by trucks should be controlled. j. Merchants and property owners, in partnership with the City, should assist in the control of vandalism to both public and private property. k. Maintenance of public areas should be programmed on a regular basis. 3. RIVERFRONT a. Protection and beautification of the river and the integration of a park-like river setting for CBD expansion should be encouraged. b. All development near or adjacent to the river must respect the preservation of water quality and setting of this important natural feature. HIGHWAY BUSINESS AREAS At present, promote access appearance of these business streets does an appropriate image for the City to hazardous. to the and from businesses is of confused Lapeer. and not Traffic occasionally There is a lack of coordination of parking and access parking between businesses. The conversion of dwellings business use does little to promote a business street image. 52 to �Mixed land uses, such as businesses of a heavy, almost industrial character volumes intermingled of with customers, retail activities serving promote an unstable and often high unsightly business atmosphere. GOAL ENHANCE THE IMAGE AND OPERATION OF MAIN AND GENESEE SOUND BUSINESS WHILE MAINTAINING SERVICE STREETS AREAS AND AS ATTRACTIVE ENTRANCES TO AND IMPROVING UPON THE GENERAL THE AS CITY, BUSINESS NATURE OF THESE BUSINESS FRONTAGES TO PROVIDE FOR AND BOTH THE LOCAL RESIDENT AND THE TRANSIENT TRAVELER. OBJECTIVE I. Improve upon the appearance of business streets. POLICIES 1. Encourage owners private action by businessmen to improve and buildings and sites to property promote a better image for the business streets of Lapeer. 2. Businessmen for and property owner improvement committees both Genesee and Main Streets should be formed to actively pursue an improvement program. 3. Promote the development of vacant properties clearance of properties containing and the dwellings to facilitate suitable new business uses. 4. Discourage uses in the use of existing dwellings for business areas unless the dwellings historic significance. 53 business are of �5. Promote the removal of noncompatible uses of property in areas zoned for business use. 6. Continue to P-nforce strict sign controls submission of and sign proposals as a part of require site plan review procedures. 7. Prepare an improvement plan for both streets to include beautification measures. OBJECTIVE II. Improve traffic access to and from parking lot access and improve businesses, parking coordinate lots in both appearance and utility. POLICIES 1. Pursue the provision of marginal access connector drives between properties wherever feasible . 2. Promote joint driveway access wherever feasible between abutting access parcels points in order to reduce the number of from the for turning movements to and major traffic artery. 3. Require the provision of adequate off-street parking for all new construction and encourage the provision of adequate parking in areas where shortages now exist. 4. Require the surfacing and maintenance of all lots. 54 parking �5. Encourage tree planting and beautification of parking lots. SHOPPING CENTERS Lapeer's similar two shopping centers exhibit a number of to those of the general business streets in problems Lapeer. A more unified architectural theme at each center would improve the appearance and enhance the entrance to the City from the west and from the improved south . at Further, both centers Additional environment. landscape as does definition treatment the needs general to be pedestrian of parking versus traffic movement lanes is needed to both enhance the center's safety and to create a more conducive shopping environment . GOAL MAINTAIN, AND IMPROVE EXISTING SITES . THE THE CITY's SHOPPING VITALITY OF THESE CENTERS CENTERS ON THEIR SHOULD BE STRENGTHENED IN ORDER TO DISCOURAGE THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADDITIONAL SHOPPING CENTERS WHICH MIGHT WEAKEN THE MARKET SUPPORT FOR ALL EXISTING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS IN LAPEER . OBJECTIVE I. Provide a safe traffic pattern entering and leaving these centers as well as a safe internal circulation pattern. POLICIES 1. More clearly define traffic circulation, parking spaces and pedestrianways in shopping centers . 55 �2. Adequately maintain parking lots during all seasons of the year. 3. Enforce barrier-free parking areas. 4. Provide shopping cart corrals to reduce cart/parking space conflicts and facilitate quicker cart pickups. OBJECTIVE II. Improve the appearance of shopping center buildings and their surroundings. POLICIES 1. Create more pleasant pedestrian areas utilizing street furniture, decorative paving, lighting and plantings where appropriate. 2. Encourage both an centers treatment of exterior facade study for renovation by the all owners . stores A unified in each center of up-to-date should be provided at these two important entrances to the City . 3. Signage within each center should be controlled by the businessmen to eliminate excPssive window signs. 4. Promote a tree planting program within parking lots . 5. Provide collected daily daily outside and housekeeping - litter snow removed from winter months on at least a weekly basis. 56 the to be site in �GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: INDUSTRIAL AREAS Industrial area development in Lapeer and the immediately surrounding is of prime importance to the vitality of the City both an employment base for residents and as a tax base which as assists in providing for essential community services such as schools and other public facilities . The growth of industry in recent years in the Lapeer area has been steady and substantial . GOAL TO PROVIDE SPACE FOR NEW INDUSTRY AND TO UPGRADE OLDER INDUSTRIAL AREAS IN THEREBY LEVELS ORDER TO EXPAND LAPEER'S EMPLOYMENT AND TAX BASE AND ASSIST IN PROVIDING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES TO ALL AGE OF OUR WORK FORCE WHILE PROVIDING A HIGH LEVEL OF COMMUNITY SERVICES AND FACILITIES . OBJECTIVE I. Develop new sites for planned industrial districts . POLICIES 1. Industrial development should take place only in that will not be incompatible with existing or areas future residential development . 2. A mix of site sizes, large and small, should be available within planned industrial developments . 3. Access by means of direct thorofare connection to freeway should be achieved. 57 the �4. Full utility services should be provided to and within planned industrial parks. 5. Industrial park private covenants and site appearance, gc~erning building signage and landscaping should be encouraged. OBJECTIVE II. Maintain and upgrade existing industrial districts. POLICIES 1. Provide adequate industrial street access to all industries. 2. Discourage the use of residential streets for industriAl traffic. 3. Provide a high level of maintenance to all streets utilized by industrial users. 4. Promote a visually attractive environment in existing industrial areas. 5. Promote a high level of exterior maintena.::1ce and encourage landscaping for existing industries. 6. Provide for the proper screening of industry in those areas where housing is in close proximity to industry. 58 �7. Outdoor view storage by areas should be screened from landscaping or, where landscaping is sufficient not available, public area by means of for walls or screening fences. 8. Where mixed land uses exist in industrial areas, support efforts to consolidate parcels for industry. OBJECTIVE promotion III. Industrial and the incentives to encourage industrial development should be supported within a balanced framework for all other land use and service needs of the City. POLICIES 1. Support the efforts of Lapeer's Corporation (EDC) in its Economic efforts to Development attract new industry to the area. 2• Encourage the EDC's effort to retain and expand existing industries in Lapeer . 3. Encourage in Lapeer transportation oriented industries to locate yet also continue ongoing efforts to diversify Lapeer's industrial base . 4. Make areas fiscal incentives to industry and available within the framework of Capitol Improvements Program. 59 to industrial a city - wide �GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: PARKS AND . RECREATION The Flint River, Farmer's Creek and Hunters Creek provide a natural setting for Lapeer that is one of its most distinguishing features. part The river system provides the framework for a major of the Lapeer park system and, in addition to providing attractive recreational visual assets. setting is one of the City's an overall The preservation of the river system and adjacent lands is of prime importance to the City. Lapeer has services been a park and recreation to its population and to provision leader surrounding in providing townships. The of parks by the City has had its advan~ages in that it strengthens the identity of Lapeer as the center for the region. This advantage n~eds to be weighed; however, as it relates to the cost of services provided to a large population base with payment for capital costs as well as ongoing maintenance confined to City of Lapeer residents. Leisure time and the use of park and recreation facilities increasing and will continue to increase. lands pace Some expansion to park and improvement to existing facilities is needed with different to keep recreational demands and to accommodate the needs age groups. Recreation programs flexible enough to accommodate these demands. 60 are need to of remain �The on-going school cooperative arrangement between the City and the district should continue to be nurtured as it relates to use of facilities. The shortcomings of corrected whenever Floodplain lands periods to dual use demand a are feasible must be recognized alternative an unreliable can resource be during and found. flooding as are school sites when both the City and schools utilize additional facilities active at the and same passive time. The recreation need provision lands need of to be ENHANCED BY explored to alleviate overload problems. GOAL: AND , RECREATION IMPROVEMENTS AND INCREASING COOPERATIVE USE OF EXISTING WHILE MAXIMIZING OPPORTUNITIES TO ACQUIRE AND DEVELOP FACILITIES NEW TO OPEN SPACE OPPORTUNITIES SHOULD BE PUBLIC FACILITIES, CONSERVE AREAS OF NATURAL BEAUTY WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON THE RIVER SYSTEM, FLOODPLAINS AND WETLANDS AND ENCOURAGE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PRIVATE SECTOR GOAL SHOULD HAVE OF FACILITIES. NOT LESS THAN 10 ACRES OF PARK LAND PER BE ATTAINED. LIMITATIONS SURROUNDING AS TOWNSHIPS, 1,000 PERSONS IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT FLOODPLAIN TO USE AND THE THIS ACREAGE USER GOAL MONITORED CLOSELY AND UPDATED ACCORDINGLY. 61 POPULATION WILL NEED A LANDS INCLUDES TO BE �OBJECTIVE: I. Improve on existing City-wide recreation facilities to maximize their effective utilization. POLICIES: 1. Continue to improve Rowden Park in accord with the 1985 Master Development Plan. 2. Develop additional facilities at Rotary Park with particular emphasis on senior citizen activities. 3. Add restrooms, picnic areas, and play structures and pave parking lot at Annrook Park. 4. Improve 5• Maintain Cramton Park by adding a natural ice rink. coordination facilities in provision of recreation and programs utilizing both city and school properties. 6. Prepare master development plans for all park sites with particular emphasis on new park lands acquired. 7. Continue with an ongoing Tree Maintenance/Planting Plan including a City Homeowners Guide/Brochure. OBJECTIVE: II. Expand City-wide recreation land and facilities. POLICIES: 1. Acquire land adjacent to Legion Field for field expansion. 62 sports �2. Acquire riverfront land in areas that are not currently developed Genesee (particularly Streets) areas southwest of Main and for retention as a natural area and for riverfront improvement. 3. Construct a competition size indoor swimming pool . 4. Acquire the American Legion building for use as a community facility and for recreation offices. 5. Acquire property for a community center. 6. The existing Recreation gymnasium accommodations Center) should be maintained and (Henley improved until such time as a new facility can be provided. 7. Develop a section of the recently acquired Waste Water Treatment property into grass areas for soccer fields . OBJECTIVE: III. Improve maximize on existing neighborhood recreation their effective utilization . facilities This should include updating old playground equipment and existing lights at: 1. Cramton Tennis Courts 2. Rowden Softball Field 3. Legion Softball Field 63 to �POLICIES: 1. Improvements to existing parks to neighborhood recreation facilities need to be made Rowden, Rotary, Annrook and provide Audubon additional Parks in at the northeast section of the City . 2. The northwest section of facilities neighborhood at the C~: y is several served school Improvements need to be made to Perkins Park at by sites. Oregon and Lincoln Street. 3. Neighborhood at Cramton recreation facilities need to be expanded Park and adjacent to the County Center Building to serve the southeast quadrant of the City. 4. Improvements to the American Leg : on property should be made to to include neighborhood recreation facilities serve the southwest section of the City. OBJE CTIVE : IV . Expand neighborhood recreation land and facilities . POLICIES: 1. In the northwest neighborhood section of the park develop park land to serve the Silver Maples Village West Apartment complexes . mini City, to serve Rolling developed . 64 and A small neighborhood Hills should also be �2. A neighborhood tot lot should be provided in the southeast section of the City in the vicinity of Hunter Woods Apartments. 3. The holding pond area off Oregon between Silver and Village Maples West should be planned and developed for neighborhood recreation . OBJECTIVE V. Through provision good development design practices, of encourage open space and recreation facilities in the new housing developments throughout the City. POLICIES : 1. Through site plan review procedures, assure the development of adequate open space for recreational use in all new residential developments . 2. Encourage the use of "open space plan subdivisions " and " one-family cluster hou s ing option" for development of re s idential areas to assist in providing park land . OBJECTIVE VI. Encourage and coordinate private recreation facilities in the and supplement to City surrounding area as a needed public facilities . POLICIES: 1. Encourage service clubs to continue recreation activities in the City . 65 to support �2. Gifts of land for park purposes should be encouraged. 3. Private recreational facilities and recreational businesses that supplement public facilities and do not require tax support should be coordinated with local public facilities. OBJECTIVE VII. A method relates of financing park and recreation activities payment (It addressed. 30,000 people for is facilities to estimated that a utilize city parks . users, needs population The City that to of of be some Lapeer population is 6,200.) POLICIES: 1. User fees should be established for participation in some activities or for utilization of facilities . 2. Participation by local units of government in financing facilities should be explored . 3. Establishment of a regional park system or integration with the county system should be explored. OBJECTIVE VIII.Coordination eliminate of park planning with the County and State duplication of facilities and to work to toward provision of maximum recreation opportunities for the Lapeer region should be continued on a regularly scheduled basis . 66 �GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: TRANSPORTATION Lapeer lies at the crossroads of two major highway routes, and M-24, and is served by a major east-west rail line. of Port Huron and Sarnia, accessible by way of I-69. within 20 minutes of Canada to the east The City of Flint, Lapeer via I-69. To I-69 The City are readily to the west, the is south, the industrial complex surrounding the northern Detroit suburbs is half hour's brings drive from Lapeer . The City's excellent with it the problems of moving large volumes traffic, while arteries, a location of through providing service to local businesses on traffic protecting and residential neighborhoods from encroachment by through traffic. In addition to through traffic demands , Lapeer is also faced with an aging throughout for street infrastructure both in the City. residential areas Many of Lapeer's streets were constructed a society less dependent on the automobile and for much lighter than those in use today. past, a street adequately Today , had maintained and vehicles When constructed, in years a life expectancy of 35 years, and its expectancy could extend to 50 if years . many Lapeer streets need repair and improvement to handle modern-day traffic demands. The areas of Lapeer that are planned for additional growth, particularly new industrial and housing areas, will need adequate collector streets to channel heavy traffic loads to major arteries without disrupting the living patterns of residents. 67 �As well as auto and truck access, be also needed as growth alternate modes of transit may of the area continues . Rail transportation continues to be important to the City and provides an a dditional incentive to the economic development of the Bus transit mobility is increasing in importance as a means to all service to relieve traffic age groups, particularly the and within the business districts of and parking congestion as well to area . provide elderly . Bus the can City as provide a convenient service to residents. GOAL PROVIDE AN ARTERIAL STREET SYSTEM THAT WILL ADEQUATELY TRAFFIC WITH TRIPS, A DESTINATION OUTSIDE LAPEER FROM SERVICE AND AREAS , INDUSTRIAL NEIGHBORHOODS . SAID MAJOR LAND USE TRIP BUSINESS GENERATORS DISTRICTS ARTERIAL LOCAL STREET AND SEPARATE ORIENTED SUCH AS RESIDENTIAL SYSTEM SHOULD SUPPLEMENTED BY A LOCAL STREET SYSTEM TO ENHANCE THE BE RESIDENTIAL NATURE OF THE CITY'S NEIGHBORHOODS . OBJECTIVE I. ARTERIAL STREETS streets flow - Strengthen the ability to serve their primary function : of allowing a smooth of high traffic volumes within and through providing for traffic safety, beautification of such streets . 68 and arterial the facilitating City , the �POLICIES 1. On arterial streets with business frontages, limit turning movements and strive for combined entrance exit points between abutting businesses in and order to reduce traffic conflicts and bottlenecks. 2. Provide left-turn lanes on all arterial streets, wherever feasible. 3. Enforce land use policies on arterial streets that abut residential areas to discourage the development of high volume traffic generators such as business or office developments. 4. In areas where new arterial streets are proposed, undertake a program for development of such streets . 5. Encourage transition the development of landscaping areas on arterial streets buffers that residential areas to provide noise and visual or abut barriers as may be appropriate. 6. Encourage the beautification of all arterial street entrances to the City . 7. Provide sidewalks on both streets. 69 sides of all arterial �OBJECTIVE II. COLLECTOR STREETS - Provide a network of collector within residential growth areas industrial neighborhoods, to allow for convenient traffic streets areas movement arterial streets while preserving the residential and to character of neighborhoods. POLICIES 1. Encourage traffic that originates or terminates in Lapeer to utilize collector streets wherever possible. 2. Place high a priority on improvement the and maintenance of collector streets. 3. Develop new collector streets in areas in which new economic development activity is imminent: a. A feasibility potential and study of an industrial east-west areas betweeen Main Lake Nepessing Road should be determine access attention paid crossings, and to soil Street undertaken a specific route location with conditions, environmental impact on to to special stream natural areas. b. The connection of McCormick Street with Peppermill Road between the railroad should be explored. 70 and Saginaw Street �c. A collector street from Oregon to Demill Road the vicinity provide Main a of needed to north-south traffic collector west of Street. required Creek This Drive collector is street to cross both the railroad in lands. Suncrest in and an area with environmentally Care should be taken to will be Farmers sensitive mitigate the environmental impact of the new street. 4. Existing a. collector Saginaw street streets Street should be should be upgraded improved. to collector standards including consideration for widening of the the bridge at the south entrance to the CBD. b. Oregon Street, from the east of Main Street to the City limits, should be upgraded. C • The county should be encouraged adequate right-of-way widths for the to provide continuation of collector roads into abutting township areas. 5. Sidewalks should be provided on both collector streets. 71 sides of all �OBJECTIVE III. LOCAL STREETS safety of - Maintain neighborhoods the residential while character improving local and street conditions arrd providing a high level of street maintenance. POLICIES 1. Provide curbs and gutters on all local streets. 2. Improve local street pavement where nonexistant or parking in residential areas in where warranting replacement. 3. Encourage off-street order to provide for safe traffic movement. 4. Provide sidewalks on at least one side of each street where gaps exist in the sidewalk network. 5. Upgrade sidewalks where deterioration is evident. 6. Undertake a tree planting program for all streets. OBJECTIVE IV. OTHER TRANSPORTATION MODES residents who, - Enhance the by choice or necessity, are mobility of dependent on other than private automobile transportation. POLICIES 1. Continue the support of rail and bus access to and from Lapeer. 2. Continue to provide park-and-ride persons employed outside Lapeer. 72 facilities for �3. Consider for the development of an internal transit system persons transportation , not adequately particularly served the by elderly existing and the handicapped . 4. Encourage the use of manually powered (bicycles and walking) . 73 transportation �GOALS, OBJECTIVES, POLICIES: COMMUNITY FACILITIES As the City of Lapeer and the surrounding area continue to grow in population, needs for community-wide facilities such as public works facilities, Hall) and the community centers , government offices (City the utility system will also require changes to demands essential of to the the time. Intergovernmental continued growth of the meet cooperation· is area and to the provision of necessary services for all of the Lapeer area . GOAL CITY-WIDE AND SERVICE FACILITIES INCLUDING UTILITIES, WATER, NAMELY SEWER PUBLIC WORKS FACILITIES SUCH AS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES BUILDINGS AND YARDS, COMMUNITY CENTERS AND CIVIC CENTER NEEDS INCLUDING CITY HALL, POLICE AND FIRE FACILITIES SHOULD CONTINUALLY TO THEIR SERVICE CAPABILITY GRADED ON MONITORED A THE REGION . AS CONTINUING BASIS TO MEET THE NEEDS RECENTLY INSTIGATED CAPITAL OF AND BE UP- A GROWING IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM SHOULD BE UTILIZED AS THE KEY INSTRUMENT TO PROGRAM IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN THE CITY ' S ABILITY TO PAY WITHOUT OVERBURDENING THE RESIDENTS OF THE CITY. OBJECTIVE I. Utilities, upgraded both sewer and water, should be continually to provide the maximum in service to all of the community . 74 segments �POLICIES 1. Upgrade sanitary replacement sewers through cleaning and where lines are not adequately serving the community. 2. Rehabilitate sanitary sewer lift stations to assure adequate service. 3. Continue on a yearly basis to program for separation of sanitary and storm sewers . 4. Provide for new sewer lines as necessary to accommodate community growth . 5. Complete expansion projects at the Waste Water Treat- ment Plant . 6. Storage facilities for equipment at the Waste Water Treatment Plant should be built . 7. Undertake a water hydrant replacement program on a yearly basis . 8. Replace aging , deteriorated and under capacity water mains . 9. A City - wide water meter replacement progra~ should implemented . 75 be �OBJECTIVE II. The appearance facilities example and serviceability of works public needs to be improved upon in order to set a good for orderly appearance as well as to provide a ma ximum of service for revenues expended . POLICIES 1. Provide an addition to the Department of Services building to allow for indoor storage Public of al~ 9PS er:Iuipment . .., .:... :, ImprovP- t J,e Services ~ppearance yard to be of the Department more compatible of Public with nearby residential area . OBJECTIVE III . Public service both safety, and needs police and fiLe, to be kept at a is a most high level critical in both maintenance of facilities and in service . POLICIES 1. Build a new structure adequate to house all police, fire and parking division personnel and equipment . 2. Improve the building currently used to store apparatus . 3. Update public safety communication systems . 4. Replace all parking meters with modern meters. 76 fire �OBJECTIVES IV. City administrative inadequate. and offices as they currently exist are Efficient government requires sufficient space arrangement of such space to allow for proper administration of City busiw:::ss. ?Oi..,ICIES 1. Rehabilitate the existing City Hall building to provide more efficient administrative space and to better serve the public. 2. Rehabilitation preserve efforts should make every the historic qualities of the Hall structure. 77 effort existing to City �FUTURE LAND USE PLAN Planning, thoughtfully undertaken today, can help bring a better tomorrow. �FUTURE LAND USE PLAN The Future Land Use Plan, a as shown on the enclosed map, presents composite of all the land use decisions that resulted from the foregoing plan analysis. more It is a gu~de which seeks to obtain the desirable and efficient plan for industrial areas, public streets, commercial facilities and services and the and best residential environment possible. Planning is well established in Lapeer. goals and objectives set Achieving the long-range forth in the Future Land Use Plan requires that planning be carried out on a continuing basis. Planning Commission must continue to take an active role reviewing each new development in light of the long-range tives of the Plan. continual a in objec- The planning program must also provide for reevaluation of the Plan to take into account changing conditions, remain The trends and technology. dynamic In this way, instrument for guiding the the Plan will development and redevelopment of Lapeer. The total city planning process, but one part, involves a of which land use planning continuing program of is assessing development and redevelopment projects that bring about change to the existing fabric of the community. The objectives of communities change over time and unforeseen events sometimes make the best plans obsolete. to guide The process of plan making should the direction and rate of change in keeping overall goals and objectives of the Plan. 78 with try the �The planning (1) It process thus becomes time oriented in three is continuous, without termination. (2) affect and make use of change, future land short ranye It ways: seeks to rather than provide for a static use plan. (3) It is expressed in part in programs of action programming. 79 through long and capital improvements �IMPLEMENTATION The Future Land Use Plan for Lapeer is of little value unless can The first and most important be realistically implemented. factor in effectuation independent developers the Plan is reflected who buy and sell Overall, property, homes, businesses thereby the and lending Other factors which can serve as means to them. the the Plan will serve as a framework within these individual actions can take place, stability in actions of the people who live in Lapeer and by industries. which of it for implementing the Plan include: ZONING ORDINANCE The zoning available ordinance most powerful legal instrument the City for controlling the development of land. The proper administration of a sound zoning ordinance will bring about a pattern of development called for in the Future Land Use In addition, Plan. and to is the lot structures, building best zoning regulates the density of sizes and coverage of lots setbacks and off-street parking, ordinance by buildirigs, in order to serve the interests of the community at large. zoning population The City's is structured to assist in proposed acr~mplishing the broad objectives of the Future Land Use Plan. SUBDIVISION REGULATIONS In a community subdivision implementation that regulations of areas still has can the Future be an yet important Land Use Plan. 80 to be developed, tool The in the subdivision �regulations building will lots implements regulate the manner in which new are created from vacant tracts streets and land . It of plans for major thorofares and highways by requiring coordination of new streets with existing and planned thorofares. The standards assure for lot sizes, their layout and the most advantageous development of street land. design Subdivision regulations, if correctly applied, will secure orderly growth and development assist of the City's remaining vacant areas as in guiding proper layout of tracts to be annexed well as to the City in the years ahead. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM There are three basic purposes for having a capital improvements program : of (1) To assist in the development of a realistic program capital spending relating proposed projects fiscal ability to support such ventures. to the Therefore, all proposed projects must be related to the City ' s debt outstanding , base, and the wealth of the community. City's the tax (2) To coordinate the various public works projects and improvement8 with one another . (3) accomplish To providing the community ' s Future Land Use the improvements contemplated therein in a Plan in practical, economic and timely manner . Capital improvements programming must be a part of the continuing planning should process . The 1987-1993 Capital Improvements program be updated each year to reflect new projects and to serve as a score card for objectives accomplished . 81 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Lapeer_Master-Plan_1986 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1986 Title A name given to the resource Master Plan for Future Land Use: A Policy Plan Description An account of the resource A Master Plan for Future Land Use: Policy Plan for the City of Lapeer was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. circa 1986. Subject The topic of the resource Master plan reports Land use--planning Lapeer (Mich.) Lapeer County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/67622540a5da97e5865b4d33ff1040e9.pdf b226bbd7edaac5a3e935f91a24f7ceb8 PDF Text Text City of Milan , Michigan �FROM THE LIBRARY OF Planning & Zoning Center, Inc. 'i I I I I I I I I I MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE CITY OF MILAN, MICHIGAN ADOPTED DECEMBER 16, 1975 I I I I I I I PREPARED BY VILICAN-LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. COMMUNITY PLANNING CONSULTANTS 29621 Northwestern Highway Southfield, Michigan 48076 �II Ill •II II • • •II • • • • • • • • • • TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PURPOSE PLANNING AREA 2 GOALS 3 INVENTORY EXISTING LAND USE 5 POPULATION 7 ... Population Trends 7 Population Projections 7 STRUCTURAL CONDITION OF HOU SING .10 RESIDENTIAL AREAS PLAN RESIDENTIAL AREAS PLAN .12 Neighborhood Unit Plan .12 Residential Densities .13 Residential Unit Plan .14 Elementary-School Playground Need .16 Neighborhood Parks .16 RECREATION .18 RECREATION Neighborhood Recreation .18 Community Recreation .19 Milan Middle and Senior High Schools .20 COMMUNITY FACILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITI ES Civic Center . . . . . .21 .21 Housing and Community Center .21 Library .22 . . . . . . . ..... .22 Department of Public Works .22 Fire Stations . . . . . . .23 Middle and Senior High Schools .24 Utilities .25 Police Water Supply .25 Sanitary Sewer .26 Sanitary Landfi 11 .26 �Ill •II II II II •II II • •II • • •II • • ECONOMIC BASE COMMERCIAL AREAS Market Analysis .27 .27 Commercial Areas Shopping Center Commercial .28 .28 Existing Commercial Land Use .29 .29 Commercial Areas Plan .30 Noncenter Commercial Central Business District Inventory . . . Improvement Plan . . . .32 .33 .33 INDUSTRIAL AREAS PLAN INDUSTRIAL AREAS THOROFARE PLAN THOROFARES Local Streets . . . . . . . . . . .37 .40 .40 Secondary Thorofares .41 Major Thorofares .42 . . FUTURE LAND USE PLAN FUTURE LAND USE PLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 �Ill Ill Ill II II II Ill II II II II II • • TABLES . . . . . . . . . . 5 2 3 Existing Land Use, 1960-1973 . . . . . . . . Population Trends in the Mi Ian Region, 1940-1973 6 7 4 5 Population Projections, 1980-1990 Population Projections - Milan Region 1 Existing Land Use, 1973 6 Development Capacities by Residential Units 7 Classification of Commercial Uses . . . . . 8 Estimated Commercial Square Footage Needs 9 Existing Commercial Acreage . . . . . 10 Commercial Square Footage and Acreage Needs, 1974-1990 11 Central Business District Parking Need 12 Proposed Future Land Use 8 9 .15 .27 .28 .30 .31 .35 .45 GRAPHICS 6A Existing Land Use Map . Structural Conditions Map 11 A Neighborhood Unit Concept 12A Residential Areas Pian Map Neighborhood School-Park Concept 14A 16A Community Facilities Plan Map Retail Trade Area Map Commercial and Industrial Area Plan Map Generalized Central Business District Plan Map Tolan Pedestrian Mal I Marvin Street Extension Central Business District Facade Study Industrial District Concept . 21A . 27A . 30A . 35A . 36A . 36B . 36C . 38A Transitional Details Transitional Details . 38B Thorofare Concept . 38C . 40A Thorofare Plan Map . 41A Future Land Use Plan Map . 45A �II -II II -II II II II • • • • • • • INTRODUCTION �Ill Ill •II II II • •II • • • • • • • • PURPOSE The overall purpose of a Master Plan is to set forth a general plan that w ill serve to guide the long-range development of land in a defined area. A prime objective of the plan is to achieve a balance of land uses that economically, physically , and socially benefit those persons residing in and about that defined area . In 1965, a General Land Use Plan for the Milan Region* was completed by th e Washtenaw County Metropolitan Planning Commission. The plan set forth generalized land use policies and proposals for the region as a whole . The plan that follows sets forth a Futu re Lana Use Plan specifically for the City of Milan and its respective planning area The plan is the result of two years of study by the Milan Planning Commission and planning consultants, Vilican-Leman and Associates, Inc. *The Milan Region consists of the City of Mil an and the Townships of York, London, Augusta, and Milan . -1- �II II •Ill Ill • • • • •II PLANNING AREA The development of a Future Land Use Plan for a specific community and the surrounding area may have a direct effect on land use proposals and policies . Since Milan is surrounded by four townships, it becomes necessary to overlap planning efforts in order to effectuate sound land use transition between abuttirg communities. Also, the City's policy to eventually extend urban services outside the present City limits deems study of surrounding land uses necessary Therefore , a planning area, as shown on the Residential Areas Plan Map, was delineated and used as a basis for study . Reference will be made to the City of Milan proper, and to the City of Milan and its planning area throughout the study . It should be noted that the two are distinct areas, interchangeable . II -II 'I I -2- and should not be considered �II .. -.. .. .. 11 11 -11 • • • • •I GOALS In the formulation of a Future Land Use Plan, the planning comm1ss1on is required to set forth policies concerning the future of the community. Such a task requires much study and review by the commission, as well as an objectiveness by which decisions made benefit the community as a whole . Therefore, to aid the planning commission consisting of the commissioners, two board representative, the committee to set in their endeavors, a Goals Committee was formed following: two City Council members, two planning local residents, a chamber of commerce member, school city administrator, and city planner. It was the purpose of forth a list of goals and objectives to serve as guidelines in the Planning Commission's formulation of the Future Land Use Plan. Following are the goals as listed by the committee : The City of Milan should strive to provide a well balanced residential land use plan. This should include a full range of residential densities and encourage a variety of housing types . The existing and proposed school sites, where feasible, should be used and developed jointly by the City and School District for both passive and active recreation purposes_ The recommendations of the existing Parks and Recreation Plan should be incorporated into the proposed Master Plan . The existing Central Business District should be rehabilitated to the extent that is both realistic and feasible The existing plans and timetables (County, regional and others) to provide water and sewer should be reviewed and analyzed t o determine the impact on future growth of the City and surrounding area . Growth should be encouraged (the extent of which depending on the conclusion of No. 5 above) and coordinated with the neighboring townships . The Master Plan should encourage the location (as it relates to the yet to be defined City of Milan Planning Area) of future school sites in relationship to the population to be served . -3- �Ill •Ill Ill • • • • • • -I The vehicular traffic circulation system within the City should be improved, with a major emphasis on the north/south movement. The Master Plan should recommend sites on which the City could develop a Civic Center complex to house new governmental and administration buildings The Master Plan should recommend potential areas for the development of Senior Citizen housing The thorofare approaches to the City should be aesthetically improved . Industrial development shou Id be encouraged . The Master Plan for Future Land Use should recommend the elimination of incompatible land uses . The City should undertake and the Master Plan should encourage the development of a forestation and reforestation program The City should take steps to insure that all inferior structures in the City be either removed or rehabilitated so as to conform to minimum Code and Ordinance of the City 4- �"II " "• -I INVENTORY �-II II II II II Ill II II II II II II II II II II I EXISTING LAND USE The existing land use survey serves to provide basic information concerning the quantity and types of land uses in the community as well as reveal incompatible land use situations. TABLE 1, on the following page, provides an acreage tabulation for twelve land use categories. As can be seen, 71 percent of the City is occupied with 29 percent still vacant. Of Milan's total land area, road and railroad rights-of-way are the largest users of land with almost 28 percent of the City in these categories. Residential development accounts for the second largest use with almost 20 percent of the land area. TABLE 2 compares existing land use in 1960 to that of 1973. In the past 13 years, the City, through annexation, has gained 407 acres, or increased its total land area by 39 percent . The most significant increase in land use was industry gaining 220 percent from 31.4 acres in 1960 to 96.6 acres in 1973. Also, within this 13 year period, road rights-of-way increased 167 percent . TAB LE 1 EXISTING LAND USE 1973 Use Acres Single- and Two-Family Multiple-Family Office Commercial Light Industry Heavy Industry Public Schools and Parks Quasi-Public Road Right-of-Way Rail Right-of-Way Water Bodies Vacant TOTAL 265.7 18.7 2.4 27.7 10.6 86.0 56.6 111.7 8.4 368.5 38 .1 43.6 416.8 18.2% 1.3% 0.1% 2.0% 0 .8% 5.9% 3.8% 7.7% 0.6% 25.2% 2.7% 3.1% 28.6% 1,454 .8 100 .0% SOURCE: Field Inventory - July, 1973 Aerial Photographs - 1971 -5- Percent of Total Land Area �'• -II TABLE 2 EXISTING LAND USE 1960 - 1973 Increase in Acres 1960-1973 Percent of Change 1960-1973 284.4 30.1 96.6 45.5 2.4 63.8 19.0% 8.7% 194.5% 189.3 176.7 -12.6 - 6.7% Net Developed or in Use 488.7 587.8 99.1 20.3% Road Right-of-Way Rail Right-of-Way Water Bodies Vacant 137.9 43.6 35.0 342.2 368.5 38.1 43.6 416.8 230.6 -5.5 8.6 74.6 167.2% -12.6% 24.6% 21.8% 1,047.4 1,454.8 407.4 38.9% Use Residential Commercial Industrial Public and Ouasi-Publ ic TOTAL 1960( 1 ) 1973(2 ) 238.9 27.7 32.8 ( 1lGeneral Land Use Plan for Milan Region (2) Field Survey, 1973 • • •II • • -6- �d [ TT ift~~t~~~~, SINGLE-FAMILY ~ MULTIPLE- FAMILY ~:ttm OFFICE - COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL RESIDENTIAL ~ PUBLIC am QUASI le SCHOOLS ~ LIGHT llllm HEAVY [===1 VACANT PUBLIC 8 PARKS .... INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRIAL LOTS (CROP LANO INCLUDED) SCALE EXISTING LAND USEI CITY OF MILAN MICHIGAN 1N FEET vi llcan · lemon a a11oc iate1 Inc . community plann l nQ conaultanh �'• • • • • • •II Present and projected population levels aid in providing a basis for determining such facility needs as schools, parks, playgrounds and libraries by indicating the general rate of gorwth a community is experiencing and is likely to experience in the future. POPULATION TRENDS Population trends for the Milan Region from 1940 to 1973 are depicted on TABLE 3. Since 1940, the City has increased numerically from 2,340 persons to 4,280 persons in 1973. This represents an 82 percent increase, whereas the region as a whole only increased 60 percent in the 33 year period . Compared to the townships in the region, Milan's growth has surpassed Milan and York Townships by significant amounts in the period between 1940 and 1973. However, the growth rate for Augusta and London Townships has surpassed that of the City within the same period II II -.. .., ii POPULATION TAB L E 3 POPULATION TRENDS IN THE MILAN REGION 1940 - 1973 Civil Division City of Milan Milan Township Augusta Township York Township London Township Milan Region Percent Change 1960 Percent Change 1970 Percent Change 1973 1940-1973 Percent Change 1940 1950 2,340 1,419 1,966 5,268 1,273 2,768 1,566 2,778 6,870 1,591 18.3 10.4 39.2 24.9 24.9 3,616 1,72 1 3,754 7 006 2,422 30.6 9.8 35.1 1.9 52 .2 3,997 1,890 4,378 6,217 2,522 10.5 9.8 16.6 -11.1 4.1 4,260 1,930 4,500 6,200 2,780 82.0 36.0 125.4 17.6 118.3 12,296 15,571 24.1 18,519 18.1 19,004 6.8 19,670 59.9 SOURCE: 1940-1970 data from U.S. Census of Population 1973 data from SEMCOG estimates POPULATION PROJECTIONS Population projections are made with the intent of providing a general guide for future facilities planning . It should be noted that although population forecasting techniques are helpful in determining future needs, they are also subject to a degree of error and uncertainty, especially in smaller size communities such as Milan. -7- �• Two sets of projections have been made for Milan for the years 1980 and 1990. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) projections show that although Milan's 1970 population was 3,997 persons and has been steadily increasing since 1940, the population will decrease in 1980to2,929personsand then rise again in 1990 to 3,575 persons. These projections appear somewhat questionable based on Milan's past growth record . The second set of projections by the Monroe County Planning Commission are based on three separate assumptions : "Limited utility construction will take place within the area in the next few decades, and population growth will continue at its present rate ." Assumption A - Assumption B - "State Act 342, which allows townships and municipalities without bonding powers to indirectly use the bonding powers of the county, will be extensively used in the future. Assumption C - ." " . .. maximum probable projection of the Monroe County Regional Planning Area's population growth if a high rate of utility construction is witnessed ... " The following TABLE 4 indicates each respective projection and related assumption: TABLE 4 POPULATION PROJECTIONS 1980 - 1990 CITY OF MILAN PROPER, MICHIGAN Assumption A Assumption B 5,484 6,648 6,359 8,496 8,240 17,759 Assumption 1980 1990 C SOURCE: Comprehensive Development Plan for the Monroe County Region -8- �• " " Based upon the above three assumptions and the past population trends of the City, Assumption A, predicting a 37 percent increase over the 1970 population, appears the most realistic of the three However, based upon Milan's past population trends, this figure appears somewhat high TABLE 5 provides population comprising the Milan Region projections for the various civil divisions From 1973 to 1980 the Region is expected to increase 23 .3 percent, and 26 7 percent between 1980 and 1990 These projected increases compare favorably to the Region's historical growth as shown on TABLE 3. TABLE 5 POPULATION PROJECTIONS MILAN REGION 1973-1990 Civil Division City of Milan (3) Milan Township (3) Augusta Township (2) York Township (2) London Township (3) MILAN REG ION 1973(1) 1980 1990 4,260 1,930 4,500 6,200 2,780 5,480 2,000 5,900 8,000 2,870 6,640 2,190 8,100 10,800 3,000 19,670 24,250 30,730 (1) 1973 SEMCOG population estimates . (2) Washtenaw County Regional Planning Commission, July, 1973. (3) Monroe County Planning Commission, March, 1974 -9- �STRUCTURAL CONDITION OF HOUSING Housing is one of the most important assets of a community and oftentimes determines a community's overall desirability . The purpose of this analysis 1s to identify the condition of housing in the City of Milan In determining condition of structures, ind1v1dual homes and their basic components were observed including cond1t1on of roofs, walls, foundations, steps and porches, chimneys, doors, windows, general outside housekeeping, and other exterior features Ratings were made on a " half-block " basis. The following classifications were used in rating such "half-block" areas : Sound Substantial masonry or wood frame structures of adequate construction and size; probably not more than twenty-five years in age; no observable deficiencies; excellent maintenance of structures and yards 2 Sound - Scattered Deficiencies Substantial masonry or wood frame structures of adequate construction and size but older age; good maintenance of structures and yards; some structures show minor def1c1enc1es; age beginning to present problems of obsolescence and need for continuous maintenance; also some newer homes, but of less substantial construct ion and size, and therefore exhibiting more limited durability and life 3. Minor Deterioration Older, fairly substantial stru ctures; good to fair maintenance of structures and lot, most structures have some def1c1encies observable, a few structures have numerous def1cienc1es. Blocks may have mixed structure types and/or quality, but a majority beginning to ' 'show their age ' 4. Major Deterioration Less substantial structures of older age with fair to poor maintenance ; some of inadequate original construction Blocks may contain mixture of -10- �structural conditions with maJority in poorer state; most structures have minor to major deficiencies in structural components; 20 percent or more are substandard structures not appearing feasible to rehabilitate. The Structural Conditions Map, following, reveals graphically the results of the survey . Below is a summary of each area of classification : Sound - Primarily the northern areas of the City north of Michigan between York and Dexter, the area bounded by Michigan, Lee, Maruin, and Lafayette as well as other smaller areas throughout the City Sound - Scattered Deficiencies - Pr ima ril y the single-family subdivision located south of Main Street and east of Platt Road , the area on either side of Dexter Road between Phillips and Just south of Lafayette, the area east of the Ann Arbor Ra ilroad Tracks on the south side of Ma in Street about half way to Wabash Street , and various other small pockets th roug hout the City . Minor - Deterioration - The area backlotting First and Hurd Street properties on either side of Ideal from US 23 west to Marvin including the area south of Ann Street, as well as the area west of Tolan south of Michigan to Ash Street . Major - Deterioration - Primarily tne area from the northern side of First and Hurd Streets to and including the southern side of Main Street roughly from the Ann Arbor Railroad to the Wabash Railroad and the area north and south of the Ann Arbor Railroad/Wabash Railroad Junction -11 - �# TT [2l2filj SOUND E:::::::::::j SOUND-SCATTERED DEFICIENCIES ~ MINOR-DETERIORATION mm MAJOR-DETERIORATION .... STRUCTURAL CONDITIONS CITY OF MILAN MICHIGAN I SC.I.LE IN FEET l(PTt:• ■ l:JI , 19T) vilican • lemon a a11oeiote1 Inc. community planninQ con1u1tonh �RESIDENTIAL AREAS PLAN �RESIDENTIAL AREAS PLAN NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT CONCEPT The neighborhood unit might be considered as the basic residential planning unit. The Neighborhood Unit Concept has as its purpose the goal of providing a pattern of residential neighborhoods that is pleasant, safe and efficient . Ideally, the neighborhood unit should be a self-contained residential area . In addition to homes, 1t will contain basic service facilities that make it self-contained, including an elementary school, playground, neighborhood park, and local street system . The elementary school should be centrally located forming the nucleus around which the neighborhood is developed . Convenience shopping needs should be provided at the edges or corners of abutting neighborhood units, or in larger shopping centers to serve neighborhood needs. Neighborhood unit boundaries should coincide as much as possible with the service area of an elementary school The neighborhood population and area should thus be designed to produce an optimum sized school enrollment. This will normally mean a population of 3,000 to 5,000 and an area ranging from one-half to one square mile or more, depending on the dwelling unit densities proposed for any given neighborhood The boundaries of the neighborhood are normally created by such physical barriers as major traffic arteries, natural obstacles or other man-made obstacles. The street system serving the interior of the neighborhood will provide for only those vehicle movements having their origin and/or destination within the unit. Although traffic movements should "skirt" the boundaries of the neighborhood, land uses detrimental to the neighborhood are, in this way, eliminated from within the residential area . This concept is Illustrated on the following page . In the planning of residential areas, natural and man-made features that create geographic limitations are considered in the determination of density and unit boundaries Such physical features include topographic and soil conditions, water courses and water bodies, thorofares, railroads, and existing land uses. Density is, perhaps, the key factor in planning residential areas for it establishes the "planned" physical limit, or number of dwelling units to be developed in any given area . The number of dwelling units, in turn, establishes the population expectation of the area and generally fixes the numbers and types of community facilities needed to adequately serve the population 12- �THE CITY A COMPLEX OF PEOPLE, BUSINESS INDUSTRY, CIVIC AND CULTURAL CENTERS ALL INTERCONNECTED BY A CIRCULATION SYSTEM. THE CITY PROVIDES THE BASIC SERVICES IN ADDITION TO FACILITIES PROVIDED AT THE COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBORHOOD LEVELS . ONE OR MORE COMMUNITIES COMPRISE THE CITY. THE COMMUNITY HAS AS ITS SERVICE AREA THE HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT OR THE COMMUNITY CENTER. THE COMMUNITY IS SERVED BY A MAJOR SHOPPING CENTER AND IS PROVIDED WITH ONE OR MORE COMMUNITY PARKS. NEIGHBORHOOD c_ THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS THE BASIC PLANNING UNIT. IT CONTAINS A POPULATION LARGE ENOUGH TO SUPPORT ONE ELE MENTARY SCHOOL AND NEIGHBORHOOD PARK. THE RESIDENTIAL STREET SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO ELIMINATE THRU TRAFFIC WITHIN THE RESIDENTIAL AREA. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND PARK ARE LOCAT ED AT THE CENTER OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITHIN SAFE WALKING DISTANCE OF ALL SCHOOL CHILDREN. NEIGHBORHOOD UN!T CONCEPT I vilicon • lemon 6 assoc . inc. p'onning consultants �RESIDENTIAL DENSITIES Discussed below are the various densities utilized in the determination of the Residential Areas Plan for the City of Milan: Low Density: Such designated areas will permit development of 2-5 dwelling units per acre. This represents lots ranging from 21,780 square feet to 8,700 square feet. The low-density lim it of two units per acre is intended to distinguish between residential areas that are to be served with pub I ic v\ater and sewer facilities; and those intended to be served by private on-site facilities. From the economic standpoint of the area, a 21,780 square foot lot is the largest lot that should be sewered. As can be seen on the Residential Areas Plan Map, it is the City's policy that urban residential development occur in the northwest portion of the planning area with public water and sanitary sewer systems even if sewage pumping is necessary. Medium Density : Such areas would permit developments of 5-10 units per acre. This density provides flexibility in that single-family, multiple-family, cluster housing, or similar developments can be permitted. Such areas may also serve in two capacities : 1. As buffers or transition between lower-density residential and nonresidential uses such as commercial and industrial. 2. As "problem solvers" in low and/or wetlands areas, or odd-shaped parcels where conventional single-family plats do not conform. This density provides the flexibility needed to utilize land otherwise unsuitable for development. High Density: These areas wil I permit 10-15 units per acre. The only area designated as such is the existing Pines development on Platt and Main Streets. -13- �RESIDENTIAL UNIT PLAN In applying the Neighborhood Unit Concept to the Milan-Planning Area, it should be noted that previously discussed concepts are " ideal" and cannot reasonably be applied in all instances. Each community is unique with its own predominant features and cannot be readily applied to the concept. What is important, however, is that in a general way these concepts are recognized . To effectively relate the concepts to the Milan planning area, the City' s small geographic size and rural nature< the Saline River and Ford Lake with respective wet and low lands, the intersecting Ann Arbor and Wabash Railroads as well as many other natural and man-made features were considered in unit boundary delineations. The Residential Areas Plan Map depicts five planning units and three subunits. TABLE 6, entitled Development Capacities ·by Residential Units, provides · a unit by unit analysis of the expected development potential for the City of Milan at ultimate development. The analysis includes estimates of future population and elementary school enrollment and future school and park acreage needs. To arrive at the holding capacity figures shown, ex isting dwelling units and buiidable single-family lots, plus all existing medium-density units were counted within each residential unit. Vacant acreage, available for residential development, was converted to dwelling units according to the densities discussed above. To arrive at population and K-5 estimates, factors were applied to the- estimated dwelling units. The factors used to aid in determining population and K-5 pupils is a product of household size. A review of past trends·for the number of persons per dwelling unit 1s shown to have remained stable for Milan only declining 0 .1 from 3.1 persons per unit in 1960 to 3.0 in 1973. Therefo re, this ratio seems a reliable factor in which to estimate population In like manner, K-5 pupil estimates are a product of a pupil per household ratio determined by dividing the number of future dwelling units by the number of K-5 pupils residing in the City of Milan . An average of .43 pupils per household was derived . In applying this ratio to future pupil levels, .43 pupils per low-density units and one-half the potential medium-density units was utilized assuming these to be single-family . The remaining med1um-dens1ty and the total high-density units were applied to a factor of 20 pupils per household recognizing that higher-density or multiple-family units generate fewer elementary schodl children. -14- �L_ '' L_ '11··•~-~~,~';.• _·_·'=- ✓TT C:, RESIDENTIAL PLANNING AREA 3.1 134 24,075 TOTAL ULTIMATE K-5 PUPILS TOTAL ULTIMATE POPULATION l'tl'i?Hj LOW DENSITY RESIDENTIAL 2-5 DWELLING UNITS /ACRE (::::::::] MEDIUM DENSITY RESIDENTIAL 5-10 DWELLING UNITS /ACRE ~ HIGH DENSITY RESIDENTIAL 10 - 15 DWELLING UNITS/ACRE ~ EXISTING SCHOOL ~ ~ PROPOSED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OPEN SPACE ~ PROPOSED PLANNING AREA RECREATION .&_ PROPOSED MIN I PARK ~ S CAL[ IN AUGUST, RESIDEN .T IAL AREAS PLANI C I TY OF M I LAN M I CHIGAN l' E[ T I I?~ vilicon · lemon a a11ociote1 Inc . community plannino con1ultont1 �--TABLE 6 DEVELOPMENT CAPACITIES BY RESIDENTIAL UNITS I 11 ( 1) Residential Units 2 3 4 5a 5b Existing Platted Lots 862 29 5c 33 1,125 (31 (41 Existing High-Density Units Buildable Residential Acres Low Medium Density Density 70 201 6a 6b TOTAL (21 (2) Existing Medium-Density Units 17 113 305.3 249.3 286.9 146.5 192.8 28.0 130 70 1,208.8 (51 3.0 34.1 89.1 17.9 11 .8 107.2 65.8 328.9 1,069 873 1,004 513 675 98 4,232 (71 (61 Dwellings From Potential Acres Medium Low Density Density 23 256 668 134 89 804 494 2,468 Total Potential Units Medium High Low Density Density Density 1,069 1,074 1,004 1,375 704 131 5,357 23 70 273 781 134 89 804 494 2,598 70 Total Potential Units (81 (9) ( 101 ( 11) Total Potential Population Total Potential K-5 Pupils SchoolPlayground Need School Playground Neighborhood Park Need 1,069 1,167 1,004 1,648 1,485 134 89 935 494 3,207 3,501 3,012 4,944 4,455 402 267 2,805 1,482 460 483 432 677 548 42 28 309 155 2.4 2.4 2.3 2.9 2.8 8,025 24,075 3,134 15.2 2.4 7.2 7.4 7,0 8 _9(11 8.4 2.5 2 .5 7.2 2 .5 53.6 3 .2 3 .5 3 .0 4 .9 4.5 2 .8 21.9 ( 1) Existing Paddock Elementary deficient in acreage. _. 97 COLUMN EXPLANATIONS: ( 1) Existing Platted Lots: The total number of platted single-family lots including those occupied and vacant . (2) Existing Medium-Density Units: This figure represents all multiple-family units to be retained within 5-10 units per acre. Units: Includes only 70 units of the Pines (8) Total Potential Population : The population that would result from the total dwellings in Column 7 utilizing a household ratio of 3.0 persons per household. (9) Total Potential K-5 Pupils: The K-5 population that would result from the low-density and one-half the medium density units times .43 pupils per household ; and remaining half of medium-density units plus high density units times 0.20 pupils. This assumes a higher ratio of pupils for lower density units characteristic of single-family and higher density for multiple-family un its. (3) Existing High -Density development. (4) Buildable Residential Acres: The gross unplatted land area available for residential development with in the unit boundaries per respective density . ( 5) Dwellings From Potential Acres : The number of low-density and medium-density that would result if all vacant acreage were developed utilizing an average of 3.5 units per acre for low-density and 7.5 units per acre for medium-density . (10) School-Playground Need : The K-5 elementary school need is determined as 5 acres plus 1 acre per 100 pupils. Of this, 75 percent is utilized for playground needs and 25 percent for building and parking. Units 5b, 5c, and 6b will be served by a school in an alternate subunit, but has been proposed to have a 2.5 acre minimum active park facility . (6) Total Potential Units: The total number of units for each density designation , both existing and potential . ( 11) Neighborhood Park Needs: Park need is based on a national standard of one acre per 1,000 persons . (7) Total Potential Units: Total of Column 6 representing the total number of potential dwellings at ultimate development. (8) T �From the table, it can be seen that at ultimate development, the City and its respective planning area is expected to have approximately 8,025 dwelling units housing 24,075 persons and generating 3,134 K-5 pupils ELEMENTARYSCHOOL~LAYGROUNDNEED Once the expected number of K-5 pupils are estimated, future elementary school needs can be determined The Milan School District has four elementaries with Paddock Elementary presently serving the Milan planning area With an estimated 3,130 K-5 pupils, it can be concluded that five additional elementary school playground facilities will be required at ultimate development. According to the Milan Area School District, school enrollment trends for all grade levels have remained relatively stable the past five years. Therefore, no additional elementaries are needed in the short-range, unless an extraordinary "building boom" in the area were to occur. However, the school needs as shown on the Residential Area table and map provide for fa cilities at a point of total development which at this time is unknown . The concept, on the following page, illustrates the elementary school -playground-ne1ghborhood park concept . Based upon ideal capacity standards of the Milan School District, pupil enrollments should range from between 500 and 600 pupils per school . Based on a standard of 5 acres plus 1 acre per 100 pupils, approximately 70 acres will be needed for elementary school-playground facilities As shown in TABLE 6, this acreage figure represents 75 percent for playgrounds and 25 percent for building and site needs. Of the total 70 acres needed, 7 5 acres for mini parks at 2.5 acres each have been proposed in subunits 5a, 5b, and 6a These parks are intended to serve the active play needs of the elementary school pupil within a safe walking distance of the home. This Is due to the school -playground 's prop osed location outside the subunit. NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS Recreation facilities at the neighborhood level are intended to serve recreation needs within a safe, convenient walking distance of the home ; therefore, they are ideally located adjacent to an elementary school -playground where economy in site development can be achieved Such areas should contain shaded, landscaped areas, and space for semIactIve games not requiring much space Neighborhood recreation should be provided at a standard of 1 acre per 1,000 persons -16- �... •• ••• • GAME FIELDS Passive Recreation Outdoor Educat ion Active Recreation Group Activities ~ • ••• • •• Pe ••• • PLAYGROUND Play Equipment 4 .. ••P•• Direct Relationship tor Supervision & Contra .... g .. •• f.JB: . ltJ .. ••- • • •;•r:lIIlillI!lllll~llI Elementary School~::::::::::::::::::::::::::: E._._._._._._._...._._._.~_ , ..........-.-.-.-, ,.......... NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL-PARK CONCEPT I v i li can • le man plann i ng a ass oc. inc . c onsult a nts �This converts to a need for approximately 22 acres for the total planning area. TABLE 6, shows the neighborhood recreation need per residential unit. In some communities where Planned Unit Development (PUD) and subdivision open space is practiced, many parks, playgrounds, or open space areas are developed by the developer of the project and then maintained by the homeowners association. This type of development, if encouraged, could relieve some of the City's burden of providing such recreational facilities . -17- �RECREATION �RECREAT ION Recreation facilities within the City are planned to accommodate neighborhood and community levels and to satisfy both the passive and active recreational needs of all age groups. NEIGHBORHOOD RECREATION The concept of neighborhood recreation ,s directly related to the basic Neighborhood Unit Concept. Within each unit, recreation facilities should compliment the elementary school. Typically, recreation within a neighborhood unit would include the following· Neighborhood Playground - This area is primarily intended to provide for the active play of the elementary school-aged person Generally, the neighborhood playground is considered as the exIstIng elementary school playground and thus, is usually centrally located w1th1n the neighborhood unit. It should include an open space for such things as softball, apparatus areas, paved areas and a shelter house although the school building can meet this latter need if it is on the same site The needs for those of preschool are are normally met in their own yards. In the more densely developed areas, such as apartment districts, the provision of on-site "tot lots" for this age group will often prove desirable A "tot lot" is a small, fenced area equipped with play apparatus for the age group involved and with benches for the mothers Neighborhood Park - This Is the neighborhood facility for older persons and, in concept, is intended to meet their "passive" recreational needs from within the immediate neighborhood unit This area should contain shaded, landscaped areas and space for sem1actIve games not requiring much space, horseshoes or shuffleboard, as examples A portion of such "passive use" areas could be developed in such a manner as to serve as nature study and outdoor educational areas during school periods, thus serving a dual purpose. As shown on the Residential Areas Plan Map and reflected in TABLE 6, six neighborhood parks are needed, totaling 22 0 acres, which have been proposed located adjacent to the proposed or existing elementary schools where applicable. Each elementary school should be developed with an adequate playground to serve the active play needs of the elementary pupils -18- �In subunits 5b, 5c, and 6b where schools are not proposed within the subunit, mini parks, a minimum of 2 5 acres, should be provided for the active play needs of the K-5 pupil . COMMUNITY RECREAT ION Children above the elementary school age, teenagers, and most adults require larger areas for recreation Whereas neighborhood recreation facilities should be located on interior residential streets, community recreational facilities should be located on through streets to allow for ease of accessibil 1ty. The following are the basic forms of community recreation : Community Playfield - These are primarily for the active recreation needs of those beyond the elementary age level, and are normally the facilities at junior high and high school sites. There should be space for organized sports such as baseball and football with facilities for spectators, landscaped areas, areas for such activities as tennis, indoor recreation and shelter houses. Community-Wide Park - This type facil 1ty 1s for both the active and passive use of the entire family, and hence, may include several activities not found elsewhere . Any area of special interest such as prominent stands of timber, bodies of water, or other outstanding natural features that possess great potential for recreation should be preserved in the City park system. Generally, a City attempts to provide one or more of the following within a facility of this level . Picnic Centers Outdoor Theatre Swimming Pool - Bathing Beach Golf Fac1l1ties Bicycle Routes Skating Rink Winter Sports Playfield Playground Apparatus Pavilion The following discussion provides a summary of the community park proposals of "The Master Plan for Parks and Recreation" for the City of Milan completed in 1972 by Ellis, Arndt and Truesdell, Inc Central Park - This proposal includes the development of three areas to be integrated as one park development. -19- �Ford Lake area consists of the area between Wabash Road and Ford Lake, and the island in the lake's center It 1s recommended the lake be made navigable with a boating facility available for rowboats, sailboats, pattleboats and canoes. Up River consists of the area lying between Platt Road and the Ann Arbor Railroad . The area is proposed to have p1cn1c, playground, boat launching, nature trails, and parking fac1l1t1es Wilson Park, located east of Wabash Road north of the Saline River, 1s suggested to provide a large paved area for multi-purpose games, storage and exhibition building, picnic area, playf1eld, music shell and archery range City Complex was to be improved as the C1v1c Center site. Down River, southeast of the Wabash Railroad, 1s proposed to provide sandlot softball, extensive nature area , h1k1ng and biking trails, area for day camp activities, arboretum and sensory garden, and possibly the provision of sledding or tobaggan1ng at tne sanitary landfill site if ever abandoned. MILAN MIDDLE AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS The "Master Plan for Parks and Recreation ·' suggests that the sports areas at both schools be improved. Also proposed 1s the prov1s1on for two community parks, one at each school, to include p1cn1c area, st-,elrer, restrooms, and playground apparatus. 20 �COMMUNITY FACILITIES �COMMUNITY FACILITIES To properly .and effectively operate a community requires the prov1s1on of numerous services and facilities. Public facilities are those physical improvements required to provide public services to the neighborhood and community population. The following community facilities are considered : civic center, library, police station, fire station, department of public works, community and housing center, and utilities. The Community Facilities Plan Map illustrates the proposed location of each facility . CIVIC CENTER The civic center, as part of the Future Land Use Plan, is important in that this center should form the focal point of the City . The concept of the civic center implies a complex for civic and governmental activities. The key advantage of a civic center is the grouping of compatible public uses in a single, recognizable area. Such a facility may include governmental offices, police station, fire station, library, community buildings and recreational facilities. The advantage of this campus-like center is the economy realized through the development of jointly used facilities such as parking, drives, landscaping, lighting and the close proximity afforded interdependent offices. By planning a civic center as one coordinated site plan, an aesthetic focal point for the City can be accomplished that will reflect local pride and progress. The present Civic Center site, located south of the Saline River east of Wabash Road, contains City Hall, the library, department of public works, and two historical buildings. It is suggested that the City Hall and library remain at this location, but that increased floor area be provided for each use. A site plan for landscaping, parking areas, drives, and possibly integration of the two historical buildings would provide a guide for the site's future improvements. HOUSING AND COMMUNITY CENTER A housing and/or community center primarily for use by senior citizens is recommended on the approximate two acre site, owned by the City, located north of the Central Business District . The potential need for senior citizen housing in Milan has not been determined , but should be investigated prior to any definite decisions to locate such housing in this area . -21- �l_ '' L_ TT -- PUBLIC CD ® @ @ @ @ PROPOSED CITY HALL PROPOSED FIRE STATION - POLICE STATION PROPOSED DEPART M ENT OF PUBLIC WORKS SAN ITA RY LANDFILL WATER TO WER WATER WELL (J) SEWAGE PLANT @ PROPOSED CO MM UN ITY 8 HOUSING CENTER .... SCALE IN AUGUST , COMMUNITY FACILITIES CITY OF PLAN MILAN MICHIGAN I f'EET 197$ villc a n · l e mon a 01 1oci a tes in c . co mmun i ty p lonnin Q con1u lt ont1 �LIBRARY The Milan Public Library currently operates within the City Hall The number of volumes is adequate to meet the present needs of Milan residents, however, the library is deficient in floor area It 1s recommended a full library facility be accommodated at the present City Hall site either in a new building or expanded in its present building . Based upon an ultimate population holding capacity of 24,075 persons and a standard of O 55 square feet of library floor area per person, ultimately, the Milan library should be 13,240 square feet in floor area . POLICE An essential element of community service 1s that of police protection. To function effectively, the police station should be central to the population it is intended to serve. This provides for greater efficiency in normal patrol activities as well as dispatching standby vehicles. The City-owned site south of Main Street and west of the Wabash Railroad is the designated site for the development of combined fire and police station facil1t1es However, the purchase of additional acreage in this area is questionable Therefore, 1f add1t1onal acreage cannot be acquired, it is recommended the police station be located at the Civic Center site DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS The Department of Public Works (DPW) 1s charged with the respons1bil1ty of servicing and maintaining the public street and park system as well as the collection of refuse. At the present time, the DPW fac1l1ty is located at the City Hall site. Due to the trucking, repair, and storage operations associated with DPW functions, it resembles most closely an industrial activity . Further, the non-office portion of t he DPW does not normally generate v1s1ts by the general public and, thus does not require proximity to adm inistrative facilities or a central location Based on these characteristics, it 1s felt DPW facilities are best located in an industrial district where its operation would be compatible and similar to adjacent land uses. The school district vehicle yard, located south of the Milan Middle School on Redman Road and the City boundary, has adequate acreage to accommodate a City DPW facility . This location 1s logical due to the nature of the school's -22 �existing yard, and the industrial zoning south of the site Should this land become available, the City should acquire acreage for a DPW site Alternate locations within the City should be chosen from industrially zoned or planned districts. FIRE STATIONS The Milan Fire Department provides protection on a volunteer basis to not only the City, but all of Milan Township and parts of York and London Townships. The service area is essentially the Milan School District which comprises approximately 55 square miles in land area. The Insurance Service Office of Michigan, an organization sponsored by the State's fire insurance companies, sets forth standards for evaluating fire protection service. These standards are then reflected in the fire insurance rates as determined by the Public Protection Department . The Milan Fire Department is rated seven on a one to ten scale, one being the ultimate in fire protection . A number of factors are involved in the ratings su ch as travel time to a fire, the number of residential and nonresidential structures In the community, and the availability and adequacy of water supply, fire fighting equipment, and fire fighting personnel At the present time, Milan has the highest rating it can achieve without a full-time department One of the most important factors in rating a community is travel time for fire equipment in relation to the type of development serviced The Insurance Service Office recommends a one and one-half mile maximum running distance for residential development which is an ideal standard affording the City's residents the greatest fire protection . A one mile running distance is standard for high value areas such as commercial and industrial districts. The Milan Fire Department is located on the triangular parcel of land formed by the County-Main Street intersection . Ideally, one station, centrally located, could adequately serve the City's fire protection needs However the intersecting Wabash and Ann Arbor Railroads create a transportation problem for the existing station . Therefore, a two station approach, one in the west and one in the east, would alleviate the potential rail blockage and provide guaranteed fire protection 100 percent of the time . However, the possibility exists that the Ann Arbor Railroad may be abandoned In which case, one station could adequately serve the City. Therefore, location of a fire station south of Main Street, in coordination with the police station, would provide good fire protection coverage. -23 �If the Ann Arbor Railroad 1s not abanaoned, review of fire station locations should be made MIDDLE AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL S At the present time, one senior high and one middle school serve the City of Milan and its planning area as well as the entire Mila n School District. Utilizing 1970 Census data for middle and senior high students, per dwelling unit ratios were 0.204 middle school pupils per dwelling and 0 156 senior high school pupils per dwelling These ratios as of 1970 are based upon primarily low-density single-family residences character1st1c of higher student per household ratios than medium or higher density multiple-family Therefore, due to the incidence of medium densities in Milan, an adJustment of one-half in the student per dwelling unit ratio has been made Secondary school enrollments resulted in the following : Middle School Ultimate Dwe il1ngs 6 555(a) XO 204 = ' 1,369 (b) x 0 102 = 1,358 140 1,498 pupils Senior High Ultimate Dwellings 6,656 X O 156 = 1,369 XO 078 = 1,038 107 1,145 pupils (a) Represents all low-density dwellings and one-half the medium-density dwellings as shown in TABLE 6 at ultimate development (b) Represents one-half the medium density and all h1gh-dens1ty dwellings as shown in TABLE 6 at ultimate development The capacity of the existing high school 1s 850 pupils, therefore, additional capacity will be needed at ultimate development to accommodate sutdents within the City and its planning area Either expansion of the existing facility or a new development site would be appropriate A high school with pupil capacity of -24- �1,500 to 2,000 on approximately 45 to 50 acres would be adequate to serve not only the planning area population, but other areas within the school district as well . Present capacity of the middle school is approximately 1,000 pupils, however, this facility can be expanded on its present site in order to serve the larger enrollment expected at ultimate development. UTILITIES Existing and future land use is greatly influenced by the extent of public facilities that serve land uses. The availability of water and sewer facilities contributes to a more diversified and dynamic community structure. The future service areas for water and sewer facilities will be determined by the anticipated distribution and density of population. In order to effect the greatest economics, new land development should be encouraged in areas having existing service or in areas adjacent to serviced areas. Dispersed development can only be serviced at a high overall cost to the community. Generally, urbanizing development should progress gradually in areas where utility services, streets, schools, etc. can be provided at the least total cbst to the community. It is not the intent of this section to discuss in detail water and sewer facilities due to its engineering nature. However, statements are made concerning the future use and capacity levels of each. Water Supply Water service to the City is provided by the Milan Water Department. The City obtains water from four pumping wells, three in the Wilson Park vicinity and one near Allen, and Wabash Roads. A city-owned water tower exists in Wilson Park with plans to construct a second tower in the vicinity of Main and Piatt Streets. In total, the Milan water system has a capacity of 3 million gallons per day which can provide water for about 12,000 persons. This figure is derived by dividing the capacity figure by a factor of 2.5 to estimate the average capacity flow. This average is then divided by 100 gallon per person usage per day. This figure accounts for normal water consumption for industry and commerce and does not consider extraordinary uses. -25- �According to engineering reports, the City has an abundance of ground water adequate to serve the City for many years in the future . Sanitary Sewer Almost 100 percent of the City is served by sanitary sewers. The ex1st1ng wastewater treatment plant is located south of the Wabash Railroad and east of the Saline River. The plant, which is capable of processing a flow of .45 million gallons per day, is operating and treating .65 million gallons flow per day . The plant is able to accommodate this overage due to: (1) over capacity being available (2) (3) plant having above average trickling filter plant having good pollutant removal process A technical study entitled, "Report on Wastewater Treatment Plant Additions," September, 1969, by McNamee, Porter and Seeley proposes the expansion of the Milan Sewage Treatment Plant to accommodate 12,000 persons by 1990. Although a figure of 12,000 persons is utilized, this includes sewage needs by the Federal Corrections Institution, commercial and industrial land uses. Ultimate population holding capacity was calculated to be approximately 24,075 persons. This means that by 1990, sewer service could be available to one-half of the expected ultimate population and that service should be available to areas outside the present City limits if expansion were undertaken . However, due to the City's low grant application status for federal monies, it appears plant expansion will not be achieved for some time thereby limiting growth to the City limits. It is difficult to estimate when funds will become available for such a project . SANITARY LANDFILL The City's sanitary landfill is located south of the Wabash Railroad and Saline River intersection . The landfill is operated by the City and utilized by the DPW for refuse disposal . However, it is the City's policy that the regional landfill facility be utilized whenever possible and eventually when the City is assured of long-term usage of the regional landfill, the City's be permanently covered. -26- �ECONOMIC BASE �COMMERCIAL AREAS MARKET ANALYSIS The Commercial Market Analysis is undertaken in order to provide the community with realistic guidelines which relate to the magnitude and physical placement of commercial areas as part of the overall land use plan . The types of businesses analyzed include all establishments that sell retail merchandise such as those in TABLE 7, but does not include such establishments as wholesaling, theaters, hotels and motels, and services that are oriented to primarily serve the needs of other businesses. TABLE 7 CLASSIFICATION OF COMMERCIAL USES Catetory Representative Uses Comparison Department stores, clothing stores, furniture stores, specialty stores such as jewelers and sporting goods. Convenience Food stores, drug stores, eating and drinking places, miscellaneous retailers such as tobacco shops and newsstands and personal service establishments which include barber and beauty shops, dry cleaners, and similar uses. General Commercial Auto dealers, gas stations, hardware and building supply stores. The primary step in the Market Analysis is the delineation of a retail trade area as shown on the following page . A 2-4 mile radius was used commensurate of commercial centers with 100,000-150,000 square feet of commercial floor area such as the City of Milan . The method by which commercial potential is determined is shown in TABLE 8. The estimated number of households within the trade area for 1974, 1980, and 1990 is multiplied by the sales per household as obtained from the U.S. Bureau of -27 - �----- MILAN PLANNING AREA TRADE AREA BOUNDARY RETAIL TRADE A R EA MILAN MI CH I GAN 0 SCALE MAY, I IN MILES 1974 ,il,can · lemon a osaocioln inc . community planning con1ultant1 �Labor Statistics: Consumer Expenditure Data . The resulting figure is the total retail spending potential for the trade area. To convert this figure to square footage needs, the typical sales per square foot, from the Urban Land Institute is divided into the retail spending potential of the trade area yielding commercial square footage needs for 1974, 1980, and 1990. TABLE 8 ESTIMATED COMMERCIAL SQUARE FOOTAGE NEEDS 1974, 1980, AND 1990 Commercial Use Sales/ Household Retail Spending Potential Annual Sales/ Square Foot Commercial Needs 1974 1980 1990 ComparisoR General Merchandise Apparel Furniture & Appliancei; Other Total 1,340 410 350 280 2,380 3,316,500 1,014,750 866,250 693,000 5,890,500 70 85 65 85 47,400 11,900 13,300 8,200 80,800 55,600 14,000 15,600 9,600 94,800 79,200 19,900 22,300 13,600 135,000 Convenience Food Drug Eating & Drinking Other Total 1,680 300 460 280 2,720 4 ,158,000 742,500 1,138,500 693,000 6,732,000 125 85 70 70 33,300 8,700 16,300 9,900 68,200 39,000 10,300 19,100 11 ,600 80,000 55,600 14,600 27,200 16,500 113,900 General Auto Dealers Gas Stations Hardware, Building Supply Total 1,490 500 270 2,260 3,687,750 1,237,500 668,250 5,593,500 55 75 55 67,100 16,500 12,200 95,700 78,700 19,400 14,300 112,300 112,000 27,600 20,300 159,900 TOTAL RETAIL 7,360 18,216,000 244,700 287,200 408,800 COMMERCIAL AREAS From the standpoint of land use planning, there are two basic forms of commercial development : Shopping Center Commercial Consists of comparison and convenience outlets and personal service activities primarily oriented towards the pedestrian shopper. Included in th is category -28 - �would be the "planned" shopping center -- designed as a single site, and the "unplanned" shopping center such as a municipality's central business district . Shopping centers may be categorized under two general headings: Comparison Centers and Convenience Centers. Classification of Centers The convenience center serves to provide for the day-to-day shopping needs of local citizens (e.g., groceries, meats, drugs, services) and is usually dominated by a supermarket. The comparison center contains a cross section of retail and service uses, offering those items purchased less frequently (e.g., apparel , household furnishing, appliances) . The comparison center thus affords the customer an opportunity to "shop around ." Noncenter Commercial In addition to shopping center uses, there are numerous other businesses that are considered to be noncenter commercial in character. Included in this grou p are various automotive sales outlets, drive-in establishments, boat and trailer sales, open air sales uses and the like. Existing Commercial Land Use Commercial land uses are found scattered throughout the City within five major concentrations : The Central Business District located at Wabash and Main streets, is the largest of the commercial concentrations containing approximately 13.5 acres and occupied by a varied mix of land uses. The second largest concentration is that of a modern convenience type shopping center housing a chain grocery store, laundromat, hardware, and drugstore. This center, located at Platt and Main Streets, comprises 5.3 acres. This center is the Central Business District's main competitor . It provides well placed and adequate off-street parking, landscaping, and the placing of stores within a cohesive unit. Within the Dex ter - County Road intersection is a general convenience type of noncenter commercial area . This area contains gas stations, a car dealer, -29- �laundromat, and a small grocery store . The uses in this area are for the most part scattered and do not form a close cohesive shopping area . The fourth concentration located north of Phillips and Dexter Road intersections is primarily in general commercial uses in a strip commercial configuration . Included are gas stations, car dealer, equipment sales, plumbing outlet, motel, grocery store and restaurant. In the southern portion of the City at Redman and Wabash Roads, is a commercial area offering general commercial uses such as hardware store, lumber yard, etc. In total, approximately 30 .0 acres are ex1st1ng in commercial land uses. The following breakdown is given for each commercial use type: TABLE 9 EXISTING COMMERCIAL ACREAGE CITY OF MI LAN , MICHIGAN Acres Percent Convenience Comparison General Office 7.5 1.0 19.7 1.6 25.2 3.4 66 .1 5.3 TOTAL 29.8 100.0 SOURCE : Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Field Survey, May, 1974 Commercial Areas Plan Prior to formulating a Commercial Areas Plan , an estimate of the future commercial acreage needs should be derived. TABLE 10, converts the square footages estimated in TABLE 8, to acreage needs. Comparing TABLES 9 and 10, it can be seen that existing commerc ial development almost equals the current 1974 need . The projected acreage needs fo r 1980 are 35.3 acres and 50.3 acres for 1990. The Commercial and I ndustr1al Areas Plan Map depicts areas where -30- �,, TT - CENTRAL BUSINESS DI STRICT 1111 GENER A L CO M MERCIAL ~ CONVENIENCE COMMERCIAL ~:::::::::::::::) EXPRESS WA Y SE RVICE 11111 INDUSTR I AL ~ OPEN SPACE BUFFER ~ ~ COMM ER C I AL 8 I N DUST R I AL ARE AS PL A N CITY OF MIL AN M IC HIGA N I SC:Alf IM , t[T •uoun . ,.u villc a n . l emon a auo cl a t u Inc . co mmu nit y pl a nnin g con1u lt a nt1 �commercial development should be guided and located at ultimate development. It should be noted that areas shown on the map are not intended to depict acreage proposals and need, nor infer any time reference. There are four types of commercial uses proposed: Convenience Comparison General Freeway Service TABLE 10 COMMERCIAL SQUARE FOOT AND ACREAGE NEEDS 1974 -1990 CITY OF MILAN, MICHIGAN 1974 1980 Sq.Ft. Acres 1990 Sq.Ft. Acres Commercial Use Sq.Ft. Acres Comparison ( 1) Convenience (2) General (3) 80,800 68,200 95,700 1.9 6.3 22.0 94,800 80,000 112,300 2.2 7.3 25.8 135,000 113,900 159,900 3.1 10.5 36.7 244,700 30.2 287,200 35.3 408,800 50.3 TOTAL (1) To convert the estimated square footage needs for comparison commercial uses a ratio of 1· 1 (one square foot of land per one square foot of building area) was utilized. It was, therefore, assumed that all comparison commercial uses will be located within the CBD where landscaping and parking are not provided individually by each tenant. (2) For convenience commercial use, a ratio of 4: 1 (4 square feet of total land area for every square foot of building area) was utilized. This rato is consistent with the Foodtown Center on Platt and Main Street and is considered sufficient to provide adequate space for both parking and landscaping on convenience commercial sites. (3) For general commercial uses, a ratio of 10:1 (10 square feet of total land area for every square foot of building area) was utilized. This ratio is typical of many general commercial uses such as gas stations, lumber yards, auto dealers, where the building is significantly smaller than the uses respective lot area. -31 - �Four convenience commercial areas are proposed at ultimate development : Existing center at Platt and Main Street Intersection of Platt and Redman Roads Intersection of Oakville-Milan and Sanford Roads Intersection of Platt and Arkona Roads The three additional centers are proposed to serve the day-to-day shopping needs of the residents residing in the surrounding neighborhoods with such possible facilities as a small grocery-party store, bakery, drugstore, cleaners, etc. Comparison commercial is proposed only within the Central Business District -where major shopping facilities are usually located when possible. Increased comparison commercial within the CBD, offering increased merchandise selection would aid in retaining additional tax dollars within the City. General commercial is proposed at Dexter north of Phillips where this type use currently exists. The area directly east in the island between Dexter and U.S. 23 freeway is also proposed for general commercial uses. The triangular parcel bordered by Dexter and County Streets and the Ann Arbor Railroad is proposed to remain as general commercial . The fourth proposed commercial use is freeway service commercial which would be located on land parcels adjacent to U.S. 23 and would serve the transient or passerby motorists. Since this type of commercial development would not serve the Milan Trade Area population, it was not considered in the market analysis. Two primary areas are suggested . land at the northern freeway ramp outside the City limits and a parcel currently zoned commercial at the Main Street ramp located within the City limits. This type of commercial use would contain such uses as hotels, motels, restaurants and gas stations, i.e., those uses that provide service to the freeway users. CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT Due to the importance of the Central Business District in terms of community tax base and community image, the following section is devoted to the identification of principal problems in the CBD , and their potential remedy. -32- �Inventory Four major areas of concern are identified as follows: ( 1) Land Use: Existing land uses range from single-family to industry lacking the relatedness of many modern shopping centers. (2) Vehicular Park ing : Parking layout design of off-street City lots are marginal. On-street metered parking, for the most part located on Main Street, the City's main arterial, tends to create traffic bottlenecks as wel I as safety hazards for pedestrians. (3) Circulation : The following identifies the areas that tend to disrupt efficient vehicular movement in Milan's CBD: (1) the three-way "jogged" intersection at Tolan, Main, and Wabash Roads, (2) the obtuse intersection where Main and County Streets merge, and (3) lack of service area in the rear of buildings. (4) T he -fo llowing impairments within the CBD: Visual Environment: is intended to identify visual (1) many buildings are in need m rehabilitation (2) many signs project from buildings over the sidewalk creating a cluttered street appearance many sidewalks are in disrepai · (3) (4) pedestrian crossings are poorly designed (5) the CBD lacks attractive street furniture such as trash receptacles, benches, lighting, and landscape treatments (6) there is an overall unmaintained appearance in alleys and rear buildings Improvement Plan The purpose of the proposals for improvements that follow are to set forth a realistic and feasible plan that can be effectuated by the City, merchants, and residents. Each of the four areas discussed in the inventory section are provided below with im provement proposals. -33- �Land Use: The major obJect1ve, in terms of land use, should be to establish a cohesive unit of commercial and office uses that can be well defined in a CBD. In terms of land uses, the area proposed as the CBD should permit primarily comparison, convenience and office uses on first floor levels. Discriminate review should be given to general commercial uses permitting only such uses as theatres and bowling alleys . Second floor areas could be used primarily for apartments and offices. Thus, commercial and office uses should not be permitted to emanate outside the periphery of a defined CBD boundary in order to ensure stable retail development. But at the same time, commercial and office uses should be given almost exclusive locational rights within the CBD with discriminate review of noncommercial uses. Vehicular Parking: The most important concern to vehicular parking is that it be provided off-street only; and that no on -street parking be permitted within t he CBD . This, in turn, requires that off-street parking be located at an accessible, convenient distance from businesses for the shopper, as depicted on t he Generalized CBD Plan . At the same time, the provision of adequate off-street parking would relieve the need to park directly to the rear of buildings allowing these rear areas to be used exclusively for loading and unloading areas. In areas where no rear loading area currently exists, part of the proposed parking areas can be reserved for these uses. With the elimination of on-street parking, the usable road width of Main Street, would be increased by approximately 18 feet improving both vehicular and pedestrian movements, and also enhancing the visual appearance of Main Street. Based upon the estimated usable retail floor area within the CBD, there will be a need for 640 parking spaces. TABLE 11 below, depicts the basis for determining parking need -34- �TABLE11 CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT PARKING NEED 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Square Feet - 1st Floor Square Feet - 2nd Floor Square Feet - Total - Gross Percent Floor Area Usable Total Usable Floor Area - Net Square Foot Standard per Parking Space Parking Spaces Needed 294,725 49,025 343,750 .65 223,438 -=- 350 640 T otal square footage of all first floor buildings in CBD. Represents one-half of total square footage on second floor areas for office uses. Remaining one-half assumed to be utilized for multiple-family dwellings and therefore is not calculated as needed CBD parking. Total of (1) and (2). Sixty-five percent utilized as the percent of usable floor area. In more modern buildings, usually 80 percent is utilized . Usable floor area is defined as that area used for the sale of merchandise or services or for use to serve patrons, clients, or customers. Such floor area as hallways, storage, or utility or sanitary facilities are excluded. Result of multiplying (3) times (4) . Standard for computing parking is 350 square feet per parking space This figure includes area not only for the parking stall, but drives, maneuvering lanes, landscaping, and curb areas. Result of dividing (6) by (7), thus representing the total parking area and office uses shown on the Generalized CBD Plan . Converting t he areas shown on the Plan for parking spaces approximately 670 spaces can be generated, 30 spaces above the need A s shown on the Generalized CBD Plan, buffer or transition strips are proposed between proposed parking areas and residential land uses. They are suggested in order to protect residences from potential noise and light that may occur . These str ips could be provided by means of heavy planted strips, walls, berms, or combinations of each, depending upon the land use situation and relationship. T hese, buffers and transitions are also proposed between commercial land uses. -35- residential and �'------~L SPINK [ ANN LAFAYETTE SECOND .......... . ......................... . ... .... ......... ..... ::::::::::::::::::::::::: ·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·.· ·.·.·.·,·.·.·.·.•.•,•,·.· ::::::::::::::::::::::::: :,:,:-:-:-:,:-:,:,:.· COUNTY ~ CO MMER CIAL C:=J PARKING Wt;£~ OPEN SPACE f:t)~:):. J SINGLE-FA M ILY RESIDENTIAL ~ MULTIPLE ·F AMIL'I' RESIO[NTIAL ~ PUBLIC &m QUASI · PUBLIC 5C:A PROPOSED CIRCULATION ( ,,. NOY[lll.[lt GENERALIZED CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT PLANI vll1con CITY OF MILAN MICHIGAN f[[T , 1 174 lemon a assoc,otes inc community plann1ng consulton1s �Circulation : The proposed circulation plan for the Milan CBD consists of the following : 1. The elimination of on-street parking on Main, Ferman, Tolan, and Wabash Roads in order to increase the width of moving traffic lanes. 2. The closing of Tolan Street in order to eliminate the "jog" intersection of Tolan - Main - Wabash; and the development of Tolan Pedestrian Mall in order to increase pedestrian movements and accesses A plan for the design of a pedestrian mall is shown on the following page . 3. The extension of Marvin Street through to Main Street to aid in channeling Main - County Road traffic in a more defined manner. Thus, from the Marvin Street extension west on County, a two-lane one-way route is proposed as the access point to Main Street In turn, traffic on Main Street desiring to travel east on County Street would use the Marvin Road extension to gain access to County Street from Main Street. The resulting triangle is desirable for landscaping as shown in the design treatment that follows. 4. The location of a cul-de-sac directly north of the Gay - Main Street intersection would alleviate confl1ct1ng turning movements. Gay would then become a service drive for the proposed commercial and multiple-family uses abutting the streets shown on the Generalized CBD Plan. 5. The realignment of First and Th ird Streets to insure smooth transition between the two streets when Tolan 1s developed as a pedestrian mall. Visual Environment: A large part of improving the downtown's appearance can be a reiult of initiating the above proposals such as: removing on-street parking and providing adequate off-street parking developing the Tolan Pedestrian Mall and alleviating the "jogged" intersection extending Marvin Street and landscaping the resulting triangular island . These proposals will create an improved appearance as will the restoration and rehabilitation of existing buildings both fr ont and rear, repaired sidewalks, and provision of street furniture . -36- �\~\ \ \ ~ \\ I TOLAN STREET SECTION SCALE 1'=10 I □ I □ I ' u TOLAN PEDESTRIAN MALL COMMERCIAL Jru)]J1£fj (CoJ:IDoIDJo"' 9 VILIO\N ·LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC EXPANSION PARKING I --~,,, . ..... 1 I~ - - ~ 1 1:r1 11 If ,J,,. .. ) 1... ..J ·. r ♦ PEDESTRIAN ACCESS . l MAIN - ✓ ~ SERVICE DRIVE ~ z ~ ~ a: w u.. �0 [§ §§ 0 z g 0 0 - V, zw ~ X w ~ w w ~ ·~ ,._ -~ w -' ..: (.J CJ) ~ ~ V, ~ ~ d z H > ~ -<( ~ 0 b Vl LJ..J ~ s V) <( eel z<( ~ UJ -,J z 0 ::J ~m 5 �Im! FACADE STUDY OOIIIL&~ CCoIIDoIIDo S VILICAN LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, 11\.C. �INDUSTRIAL AREAS PLAN �INDUSTRIAL AREAS The provision of adequate industrial acreage for industrial development is important for future employment opportunities within the City and for providing a strong tax base to help support community services. Milan's geographic location, in terms of transportation facilities. is excellent. The U.S. 23 Freeway crosses the eastern portion of the City providing good freeway access en route to Toledo, Ann Arbor, and Flint, as well as alternate freeway systems such as 1-94 and 1-96 Two active railroads, the Ann Arbor and the Wabash, traverse and intersect in the City's geographic center. At the present time, there 1s an abundance of vacant industrially zoned land located primarily in the east and southwest portions of the City Of the 291 acres zoned for industry, only 97 acres are developed Although 97 acres seems minute in terms of total City development, industrial development has increased 220 percent from 31 acres in 1960 to 97 acres in 1973. This increase has been due primarily to the plant locations of Fruehauf, Owens-Illinois, and Inland-Scholz. The Future Land Use Plan proposes inaustr1al development to continue in the east and southwestern portions of the City as shown on the Commercial and Industrial Areas Plan Map In total, approximately 500 acres of land is being reserved for industry The plan, for the most part, recommends industrial development within the areas of the City presently zoned industry with some modi f i cati ans No distinction is made between light and heavy industry Light industrial areas would serve the limited needs of a particular 1ndustr1al land use type which, by their limiting nature, can serve as an effective land use transition between the less restrictive industrial land uses ana the proposed res1dent1al areas beyond . Heavy industrial areas represent areas in which the least restrictive industrial land use types may locate. However, much special consideration has been given to areas where proposed industry abuts noninaustrial land uses The following comments pertain to policies the City has endorsed concerning such land use relationships: That although land in the eastern portion of the planning area is prime industrial acreage, it is recognized that it is the City's responsibility to protect the existing single-fam ily residences at Sanford and Plank Roads -37- �from industrial land use intrusion Therefore, precautions should be taken so as to carefully buffer the two incompatible uses. This may be accomplished by means of earth berms or natural open space areas as shown conceptually on the Commercial and Industrial Areas Plan Map . A later section wil I discuss, in greater detail, industrial development concepts that may serve as guidelines. The proposed industrial areas in the southwest portion of the City, although proposed abutting medium -density residential rather than single-family, should be given careful site plan review when developed so as to minimize adverse affects that may occur through poor site planning. Following is a discussion of various industrial development concepts related to the above proposals. Industrial areas shou Id be protected from intrusion by non industrial land uses. Businesses and residences should be excluded from industrial districts, inasmuch as such uses can easily jeopardize the attractiveness and appeal of an industrial district. In other words, industry should receive exclusive zoning, as do residential and commercial zones. In addition to the basic goal of achieving exclusive industrial districts, there are design concepts for an industrial district itself. These are illustrated on the accompanying sketches. Not all of these design principles will be adaptable to small districts containing only one or two plants, but the high points may be outlined as follows: Buffering or insulation between industry and residences can be achieved by: Greenbelts, earth berms, and/or obscuring walls developed along the property line. Major thorofares, with res1dent1al or industrial lots backing up to the thorofare. Buffer zones of transitional uses (1 e., parks, office uses, multiple housing districts, off-street parking areas, etc. ). To keep congestion to a minimum, industrial districts should be adjacent to major surface arteries, or to special routes giving ready access to the area-wide highway network .33. �DEVELOPMENT RESIDENTIAL - REAR OF FREEWAY ON L OTS FREEWAY .•.-:-:-:-:.·•· CARS~ TRUCKS~ n : ;~~:~~:i~~ •:• i~ i :~:;: '.: '.: 1 !l!i \ ~i~!~i~:11:~!~!i i\i ! I .. ~Ii i ~ i !;!i: I~ i iii i: l;l: i! ;~ n; ~; ~; □ -~ ~ i ~~HU~ Iu~ ~ ~ !~; nji I! i ~ :~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ i ~ ~ !~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ ! !~ ~ ~; :~ II II CARS__. w Q: ~ 0 Q: 0 ,._:r I}~~~~I~~ ~ 1 1 1 Illi ilil l!l!i l i!l!I il i l i!! !!i~llllllllllil !!11[1! ! 1!1l!!l!l il l l !I! ~ Q: .,0 :Ii \///\//? c( 2 MAJOR RESIDENTIAL I NDUSTRIAL DISTRICT THOROFARE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT I vil i con • lemon planning a assoc . i nc . consultants �I I :; ~; j ..l <I ! ~ 7: - i i i ;l ~ ~ ~~ ~6 j ~ ; I- ~ i t dl ~ ~~ ~~ ~ t~ !i '>J i6 ~i 11 -- I ~ ?; .lii! ~D ~ I ~ 1 i u I ~a g I- ~'~~ 8 ~ ~l --- ! - .... J ~~ ~D ~~ J'i 1i -~ ~ z Ill rl -~ i i D C) I\{) ~ z· ~; �~ i 3, I I),:' i 'G -z I I I ~ i y~ ~ UJ ;~f l ~ ~ ! lz i! I I 1-i If' D K i ~~ ~ i I ~ i~ ~~ ~11~ _\ ~ z() i <1 i ! -- - I ~ Im I I L -- ~:::) i II ~:z if\ II\ ~ <1 Ii ~ ~fl _j ~ !~ l= IJ) I ' ~ ~> ~ �In addition to manufacturing plants, an industrial district should have adequate space for : Employee parking Truck loading, storage and warehousing Future expansion Landscaping The facilities should be arranged in the most efficient manner possible . In a large district, a sound design approach is to have alternate streets for cars and trucks as indicated in the concept sketch. The former wou Id be fronted by parking facilities, the latter by loading docks. In locating and planning industrial developments, care should be taken to insure that the space is adequate and usable. For instance, if a parallel rail line and major thorofare are too close together, the space between can lose appreciable value. Also, it might be difficult to serve facilities across the highway with rail spurs without creating points of congestion -39- �THOROFAREPLAN �THOROFARES An overall network of thorofares, analyzed in accordance with land use patterns, is an important element in the Future Land Use Plan. A basic objective of 2n efficient thorofare plan is the maximum separation of local and through traffic movements. Local streets should be designed so as to avert through traffic and to serve only the traffic of local residents. However, through traffic should be provided means of movement by secondary and major thorofares that surround the residential areas. Three basic street types of importance to the Future Land Use Plan are: Local Streets: Local neighborhood streets, industrial service drives, and the like, are for local traffic only and provide direct access to abutting property. They are indirect in alignment in order to discourage through or fast moving traffic. Public right-of-way widths are normally 60 feet. Secondary or Collector Thorofares : Through streets which collect vehicles from local streets and distribute them to either local destinations, or higher type arteries. Right-of-way widths are normally 86 feet. Major Thorofares: Along with freeways, major thorofares serve as the principal network for traffic flow. Major thorofares connect areas of principal traffic generation, as well as serving the interurban connectors. Generally, right-of-way widths are 120 feet or greater. The following proposals of the thorofare plan are influenced by future residential, public, commercial, and industrial land use proposals of the Future Land Use Plan . LOCAL STREETS As stated above, local streets provide direct access to abutting property and are intended to serve only local traffic. It is not the purpose of this plan to propose, in detail, local street accesses and extensions. Efficient development controls exercised by the respective City bodies can assure proper local street extensions and accesses. The scope and number of all such proposals are too vast to show -40- �MAJOR ClNTO \:'"'"' D IJ'??, FREEWAYS THE FREEWAY OR tx,REIIWAY IS OESIGNEO FOIi THE lilOVEIIENT 0, THROUGH TRAf''IC HTWUN AND THROUIIH URBANIZED AREAS . ALL DIRECT ACCESS TO ABUTTING PROPERTY 18 PROHIIITED. IN ADOITION TO HANDLINt LARGE TRAF,iC VOLUMES WITH A HltH DEGREE OF unn, FREEWAY SYSTEMS ALSO IIEET lilORE ADEQUATELY THE TRAVEL TIii£ DESIRES 0, USERS. 0 D 0 0 COLLECTOR STREETS ~ THIS SYSTEM PROVIDES FOR THE COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF TRAFFIC BETWEEN MAJOR THOROFARES AND LOCAL STREETS AND IS COMPOSED OF THOSE STREETS USED MAINLY FOR TRAFFIC MOVEMENT WITHIN RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL, AND INDUSTRIAL AREAi . LOCAL STREETS LOCAL OR RESIDENTIAL STREETS PROVIDE DIRECT ACCESS TO ABUTTING PROPERTY . THEY ARE INDIRECT IN ALIGNMENT IN ORDER TO DISCOURAGE THROUGH OR FAST MOVING TRAFFIC. THOROFARE CONCEPT I vilican · lemon planning a THOROFARES MAJOR THOROFARES TOGETHER WITH FREEWAYS (WHERE THEY EXIST) SERVE AS THE PRINCIPAL NETWORK FOR TRAFFIC FLOW . THEREFORE, MAJOR THOROFARES CONNECT AREAS Of' PRINCIPAL TRAFFIC IIENERATION AS WELL AS SERVINt A8 INTERURIAN CONNECTORS . THESE STREETS PROVIDE FOR THE DISTRIIUTIOII AND COLLECTION OF THROUGH TRAFFIC TO AND FIIOIII COLLECTOR assoc. inc. consultants �graphically on the Thorofare Plan Map It is intended, that those shown, do not constitute the full extent of such proposals. The thrust of local street planning should occur during the development of respective parcels of land at the time of platting and site plan review. SECONDARY THOROFARES The following roads are suggested as secondary or collector thorofares : Division Street and its extension west to Platt Road will provide access through the proposed medium-density area as well as serve traffic generated from the Milan Middle School . Platt-Dexter connection, north of Sherman Road, is proposed in order to provide secondary access between these two major thorofares to serve future land use proposals. Wabash Road, south of Division Street, is one of two north-south routes. Although the intersection of Wabash with the railroads is cumbersome, improved design and signaling should improve the crossing. There is alsb the possibility that the Ann Arbor Railroad may be abandoned, in which case, Wabash would only intersect one railway . However, should activity on the Ann Arbor and Wabash increase significantly, the possibility of realigning Wabash to include Division, Anderson, Anderson extension, and realighment with the Wabash as a direct southern route should be considered . Dexter Road , also known as Carpenter Road, travels in a north-south direction providing interchange access to the freeway. At the present time, Dexter only travels south as far as Main Street. It is a proposal of this thorofare plan that Dexter be extended south to Sherman Road. Such an extension wou Id serve adjacent land uses by permitting north-south movement to one of two freeway interchanges without having to circle west through the CBD and by creating an additional bridged access over the Saline River. In this way, persons who live on Allen Road could utilize Dexter to gain access to County Street rather than using Wabash Road. The proposed route, as shown on the Thorofare Plan Map, represents route location number 3 per the "Dexter Street Extension Study" by McNamee, Porter and Seeley, Engineers, in 1973. As stated, the extension of De xter Road will relieve the Wabash Road traffic as well as downtown congest io n. However it sh ould be noted that if -41- �--------· --►-----• d ,--- ,,,, ,, ,, ------ / L. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ' L.. r1·· : I I ' '' L_ .•••••......•. ♦---• ♦ DESIRABLE STREET ACCESS DESIRABLE STREET EXTENSION ••••• SECONDARY THOROFARE - MAJOR THOROF ARE * INTERCHANGE IM PROVEMENT T H OCITY R O FA RE P LAN OF MIL AN M IC H I GAN I .. SCAL[ I/Ill f[[T AUGUST, lt'IS vlllcan · loman a auac lalu In c . community plannlno conoullanta �development east and south of the Wabash Railroad occurs much in advance of the Dexter Road extension, the traffic volumes of existing surrounding arterials would be greatly increased . Therefore, careful planning and phasing of development is essential. Redman Road, between Platt and Wabash Roads, serves as a collector street for the medium-density and industrial areas traffic. Allen Road, between Wabash and the proposed Dexter Street extension, will, in the future, serve the medium-density residential areas. MAJOR THOROFARES The following roads are suggested as major thorofares: County Street provides the City 's main point of access from the east and merges with Main Street in Milan 's downtown area . The portion of County Street east of the City limits becomes Milan-Oakville Road which links Milan and the rural area of Oakville. Reg,onally, this route connects with Telegraph Road at the Monroe-Wayne County lines to the east. Existing land uses along County, within the planning area, include industry, as well as being planned for additional industrial uses. Therefore, County Street as a major thorofare will serve primarily the industrial uses as well as provide bridged access over U S. 23. Main Street currently functions as a major thorofare carrying the bulk of area traffic in a diagonal pattern through the City . To the northwest, beyond the City limits, Main splits into: the Sal ine-Milan Road which links the Cities of Saline and Milan; and Moorev1lle Road which connects Milan with the rural area of Mooreville . To the southeast, Main becomes Plank Road connecting with the rural area of Mayer . Plank Road currently provides one of two interchange points with US. 23 making this road an important regional thorofare providing freeway access to Milan and its surrounding areas. Platt Road provides north-south t ravel in the western portion of the City, as well as bridged access over the Sa line River . Ultimately, the area is planned to develop with residential uses, and in turn , to be served by this major thorofare. -42 �From a regional standpoint, Platt connects with Michigan Avenue (M-12) to the north as well as continuing further north to Washtenaw Road in the City of Ann Arbor. To the south, Platt continues the extent of Milan Township, terminating at Day Road . Redman Road traverses east and west originating at Wabash Road in the City and traveling west to Ridge Highway. Redman is proposed to serve as a major thorofare from Platt road west. Arkana Road presently linking Platt Road and US. 23 is proposed to be extended westward to the Saline-Milan Road. This route would provide continuous northerly access to the freeway, as well as serve the planned northern residential area . The minor realignment, as shown on the Thorofare Plan Map, of Arkona Road west of US 23 is proposed by the State Highway Department so as to provide additional acreage for the improvement of the interchange. The State is prepared to acquire acreage at the present time, but has no construction plans in the short range . N. Wabash Road currently serves two large traffic generators: Wilson City Park and Milan City Hall . Also, Wabash Road provides one of two bridges over the Saline River . For these reasons, N. Wabash will remain a major thorofare. Sanford Road extending north and south will, in the future, serve the planned industrial uses as well as the Milan Federal Correctional Institution and proposed golf course. Santora Road is proposed to be extended from Plank south to Sherman to provide greater continuity . Sherman Road traversing east-west along the southern boundary of the planning area will serve as a major thorofare for future land uses and will intersect with Platt and Sanford Roads . Dexter Road , as previously discussed in the Secondary Thorofares section, travels in a north-south direction provia1ng interchange access to the freeway. Its designation, north of Main Street, as a major thorofare is important due to the access it provides to the north over U S. 23 . Dexter Road also serves as one of the main points of access into the City of Milan in the vicinity of Dexter and Phillips Road . It Is proposed that Dexter be realigned between Lewis and Michigan Streets in order to provide straight line continuity without the median access between U.S. 23 and Dexter as currently exists. This suggested improvement will requi re cooperation between the City a11d State Highway Department , and most likely require initiation of such investigation by the City -43 · �FUTURE LAND USE PLAN �FUTURE LAND USE PLAN The Future Land Use Plan represents a composite of all the land use elements: inventory of existing land use, population, and housing conditions, residential areas, community facilities, commercial and industrial areas, and a thorofare plan . The purpose of a Master Plan as stated in the introduction is to set forth a general plan that will guide the long-range development of land. In so doing, each specific land use has been analyzed and represented as shown on the Future Land Use Plan Map. TABLE 12, provides an acreage and percent breakdown of each land use. Rights-of-way have not been included within the table, but are included with the respective land use in which they relate. It can be seen that residential land use is planned as the largest user of land with 54.5 percent of the total land area. Industrial uses total 16.6 percent ranking second, and recreation and open space third with 12.2 percent. In summary, the ultimate holding capacity of Milan and planning area is estimated at 24,075 persons generating 3,134 K-5 pupils housed in 8,025 dwelling units. -44- �TABLE12 PROPOSED FUTURE LAND USE CITY OF MILAN AND PLANNING AREA Acres Percent Residential 1,340.8 288.6 44.8% 9.6% 4.0 0.1% 12.0 13.4 9.4 41.8 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 1.4% Industry 497.9 16.6% Recreation & Open Space 365 .3 12.2% 63.6 2.1% 267.8 8.9% Quasi- Public 16.5 0.6% Water 73.2 2.4% 2,994.3 100.0% Low Density Medium Density High Density Commercial Convenience Comparison General Freeway Service Schools Public TOTAL *Total greater than 100% due to rounding. -45- �\ ·- ',,,~ < ;:,:: ~ M IL AN FEDERAL CORRECT IO NAL IN ST ITUTIO N J,i ;,-~r::{~~ •"----7 !~/ ',~ m i:!r~:1r/~.~ _iH·t~"~' i :'•fti;!.-rt':') 1·• (?\~1~ -..:t;-.rr,'~',.J\.~~ ~~:1,-:;{.') ~.,,,,.,~r,w1· •• r;:<. ..,, . ~,.... ....,~ I I ,,,_,:~;;..,,,,, ___J k.-(7,.:''i,'(",-:-_...\.4'"· l ~f~si~! I I l. I - --- :-;~~:~~,;:~·?:~~ ~ -~-. :,-•t<;#:-1-9◄ ~? !}f.'{.'C}/~J. '""'iii .··.•.•;•~;,: - ~:tt:?t:tr I I :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: .!!! ~ !~ !i ~ ijj jjjjjj jj jj jj ~ jjjj;~ ...... .... .............................. !~;: - ........................ .......... ....................................... ...................................... ...................................... ..................................... . . " ..... . -:-:-:•· · · rs .... . ·.·.·.·.·.·. ;.,;....:.. Y:·((;j➔ • •• J: i -1 i-----------------------•-----■■■■-• I ••--·~···················· T H OROFARES +--- PUBLIC DW ELL NG UN I TS PER ACRE} (10 · 15 D W E L LI N G U N ITS PER ACRE) ml ~ ~ !lHlli:::'.l . ...... , ., Ir PUB LIC PROPOSED CITv ~A1..~ 0 ® '~~_;_ -· • ■ ... ; I I I ! I -f-1__ .•••••••••• ........................ ......................................•••••••• . .. . . . . . ::: I I I I I I 1 ~ PROPOSED FIR" DESIRABLE STREET AC CESS DESIRABLE STREET EXTENSION ,TAT CN • POLICE STAT I ON @ PROPOSED DEPART'AF.NT © © © 0 SANITARY JoF SECONDARY P UBL IC w ~ lir< S M AJOR LANDF 1..L WAT ER TOWER THOROFARE THOROF AR E INTERCHANGE I MPROVE M ENT WATER WELL SEWAGE PLAN s PR2 POSED COMMUN ITY 8 HOUSING CE NTER SCHOOL ENTARY ELEM PR OPOSED ~ RECREATION B OPEN ~ SPACE PROPOSED RESIOE~T AL ~ECREAT ION CE M ETER Y FU T U E LAND USE PLAN CI TY OF MILAN MICHIGAN � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Milan_Master-Plan-for-Future-Land-Use_1975 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975-12-16 Title A name given to the resource Master Plan for Future Land Use Description An account of the resource The Master Plan for Future Land Use for the City of Milan was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. and was adopted on December 16, 1975. Subject The topic of the resource Master plan reports Land Use--planning Milan (Mich.) Monroe County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/14d05e069de126da788d41497b67bbda.pdf 48f0d0e08f72a664da6b1ce01b73cc09 PDF Text Text AMENDED MASTER PLAN TOWNSHIP OF RICHMOND Township of Richmond, Macomb County Michigan �AMENDED MASTER PLAN TOWNSHIP OF RICHMOND PREPARED FOR: Richmond Township Planning Commission 75701 Memphis Ridge Road Richmond, MI 48062 PREPARED BY: Vilican-Leman & Associates Inc. Community Planning Consultants, Landscape Architects 28316 Franklin Road Southfield, MI 48034 November 12, 1991 �TOWNSHIP BOARD Mr. James McKiernan, Supervisor Mr. Gordon Fuerstenau, Clerk Ms. Claudia O'Conner, Treasurer Ms. Grace Leach, Trustee Mr. Keith Rengert, Trustee TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Ms. Nancy Kulman, Chair Mr. Thomas Montgomery Mr. Keith Rengert Ms. Alane Rowley Mr. Paul Stewart Mr. Leland Storey Mr. Russell Williams CONSULTANT Vilican Leman & Associates, Inc. �CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................. 1 EXISTING LAND USE THE STUDY AREA ........................................... 2 EXISTING LAND USE ........................................ 2 THE PRESENT MASTER PLAN ...................................... 4 THE AMENDED MASTER PLAN ...................................... 6 PLAN IMPLEMENTATION ...... . ................ . ......... . .... . ... 9 TABLES TABLE 15 (Revised from 1978 Document) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 GRAPHICS EXISTING LAND USE MAP (Study Area) . . . . EXISTING ZONING MAP (Study Area) . . . . . . 1978 MASTER PLAN MAP (Study Area) . . . . . AMENDED MASTER PLAN MAP (Study Area) AMENDED TOWNSHIP MASTER PLAN MAP . ........ ............. ..................... ............. ........ ..................... ............. ..... ... 2-A 3-A 5-A 7-A 7-B EXHIBITS f f f r r ~ MINUTES OF PUBLIC HEARING ............................... E-1 ADOPTING RESOLUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E-2 �INTRODUCTION In 1989 the Richmond Township Planning Commission received a request to rezone vacant land located near the northwest corner of Lowe Plank Road and Armada Ridge Road, from single family residential to multiple family residential. Ultimately, before the request could be formally heard before the planning commission at a public hearing, the applicant withdrew the request. The request was withdrawn because the applicant discovered that the soil content of much of the site would not support a septic system for a multiple family residential development. There are no public utilities serving this area and none are expected within the foreseeable future. The request did generate concern for the area around the intersection, in that the request was in contrast with the recommendations of the Township Master Plan, which proposes the land for single family residential use. Concern was also expressed that existing land use in the area and current zoning in the area is not in concert with the recommendations of the master plan and perhaps it was time to reevaluate this area relative to its future land use development potential. For these reasons as well as others which are noted in this document, it was decided that the area should be studied to see if there was justification to amend the Township's adopted Master Plan for the area. The findings of the study and the conclusions drawn by the Township Planning Commission after discussing various land use alternatives with the residents of the area, are revealed in this report and on the master plan maps contained herein. r r f r r ~ 1 �r ~ EXISTING LAND USE fi THE STUDY AREA ~ The area of Richmond Township involved in this study is the area around the intersection of Lowe Plank Road and Armada Ridge Road, extending east to the City of Richmond, south to 32 Mile Road, west 1/2 mile and north 3/4 mile from the intersection. ~ The Township's current master plan contains a section which maps and describes in general terms, land use in the Township as it existed in 1973. A comparison of the information contained in the 1973 map with the current land use information contained in the MAP of EXISTING LAND USE on an accompanying page, reveals the following information. ~ ~ 1. ~ ~ Land use within the study area has not changed that much between 1973 when the original land use map was prepared and 1990, when the map of current land use, contained in this report, was prepared. 2. The area now as then, contains what is probably the most diverse and intense land use development in Richmond Township. 3. It is a mix of residential and non-residential land use that unfortunately, does not enjoy the type of land use relationships that can permit such uses to exist next to one another without one potentially impacting the other. ~ ~ ri r r f f r r' r I The type of land use relationships desired between residential and non-residential land use are at best rear lot relationships, or at the least, side lot relationships. With respect to the latter relationship, a residential use which side lots a non-residential use should do so only along one lot line. the other side of the residential lot should be next to a residential use and the use fronting it across the street should also be a residential use. The uses extending down the street from the first residential use, adjacent to a nonresidential use, should also be residential. This is not necessarily the case in this particular area. Some residential uses are sandwiched between non-residential uses and in other instances, residential uses front into a non-residential use across a street. The MAP of EXISTING LAND USE on an accompanying page, indicates that most of the land within the immediate study area consists of single family detached homes on individual lots. This is particularly true of the area east of Lowe Plank Road, along both sides of Armada Ridge Road. From the intersection of these two roads, eastward to the City of Richmond's corporate limits, the frontage is exclusively single family. This particular frontage should remain unchanged in that it is nearly all developed and is zoned for single family use. 2 �r _J f ~ ·• ~ ~ • ~ I.! I I o ~ ~---,--..-----t r----------....a. a: II. 0 ~ >- 1(.) ~ ~ r r If f ~ r f r r r 32 MILE RD. I LENOX TOIWNSHIP ~~I VACANT AND Ir AGRICULTURAL '----'-----'I ,.______,I COMMERCIAL - QUASI-PUBLIC SINGLE I I FAMILY RESIDENTIAL .______,] INDUSTRIAL r f Existing Land Use LOWE PLANK/ ARMADA RIDGE AREA RIC HMOND TOW N S H I P, MICHIGAN �~ r ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ r r r r r f r r r r It is the area west of Lowe Plank Road along Armada Ridge Road and along 32 Mile Road, and to a lesser extent, along Lowe Plank Road near the rail corridor, that contains the greatest mix of land use. Of these areas, it is the frontage along Armada Ridge Road, and 32 Mile Road, west of Lowe Plank Road, that presents the greatest potential concern. Along Armada Ridge Road, commercial and industrial land use exists between single family uses and along 32 Mile Road, single family homes exist between industrial land use. These land use relationships could be further compromised by the fact that land at the southwest corner of Armada Ridge Road and Lowe Plank Road is vacant and is presently zoned for industrial use. The map of EXISTING ZONING and the EXISTING MASTER PLAN MAP, which follow the EXISTING LAND USE MAP, reveals one of the areas of greatest potential concern for this area of the township and one of the primary reasons that the mix of land use that exists in this area, has taken place. Existing zoning in the area is in contrast with the recommendations of the present master plan for the area. The Township Master Plan proposes land within the study area between the rail corridor and 32 Mile Road for single family residential use. However, within the confines of this area there presently exists three separate areas of non-residential zoning. These areas include; • The area lying south of the rail corridor, north of Armada Ridge Road and along both sides of Lowe Plank Road. This area is presently zoned for industrial use and is occupied by two industrial uses. • An area along the east side of Lowe Plank Road, between the rail corridor and Armada Ridge Road. this site is presently zoned for office use and is vacant land. • The area between Armada Ridge Road and 32 Mile Road, extending west from Lowe Plank Road. This area is presently zoned for industrial use and contains a mix of residential, commercial and industrial uses. It should be noted that the frontage along Lowe Plank Road north of the rail corridor presently consists of a mix of residential and non-residential land use as well. The principal difference here however, is that the physical relationship between the single nonresidential use, which is located on the west side of the Road near the rail corridor, and the developing single family homes to the north, is an acceptable relationship, at the present time. The potential concern with this particular area is that the Township Master Plan proposes the frontage along both sides of Lowe Plank Road, from the rail corridor north to 33 Mile Road, for industrial use. This includes the area that is currently developing with single family homes. Only the area containing the existing industrial use is presently zoned for industrial use. The balance of the land in this area that is presently master planned for industrial use, is zoned for agricultural use, a district which also permits non farm oriented single family residential homes. It was recognition of the development of single family housing within this area of the Township, proposed for industrial use, that also prompted the Planning Commission to undertake this study. 3 �A A • I I o I! I ~ ~ ~ - - . - -.... i-------.J-➔ ...~ 0 >- 10 r r r r r r A AGRICULTURAL R-1 S I NG LE FAM I LY 0-1 0 F F IC E P R O F E S S IO NA L M-1 LI G HT R ES I D ENT I AL I N DU ST R I AL a Existing Zoning Districts LOWE PLANK/ ARMADA RIDGE AREA RICHMOND TO W N S H I P, MICHIGAN �THE PRESENT MASTER PLAN On June 13, 1978, the Richmond Township Planning Commission formally adopted its current master plan. The plan is entitled the Master Plan for Richmond Township. The master plan document is composed of nine sections, or chapters. These chapters are listed as follows; Chapter 1 - Regional Setting Chapter 2 - Existing Land Use Chapter 3 - Natural Resources Chapter 4 - Population Chapter 5 - Economic Base Chapter 6 - Goals and Objectives Chapter 7 - Land Use Plan Chapter 8 - Thorofare Plan Chapter 9 - Community Facilities Plan In addition to the above chapters the master plan document contains an appendix, tables which portray statistical data pertinent to the community, the area around it, and maps. Among the various maps contained in the document is the Master Plan Map. This map portrays future land use patterns through out the township and is intended to serve as a guideline for the orderly and functional development and preservation of the Township's most critical asset, is rich farm lands. r Preparatory to developing the master plan map, the Township Planning Commission undertook a number of background studies. Each of the chapters above noted represents one of those studies. The intent of these studies was to familiarize the planning commission with land use as it existed in the community at the time, to what extent the township consisted of natural resources and areas of environmental significance, how many people lived in the township at the time and how many people could be expected to live in the township in the future, and what the future needs of the community likely would be. With this information in hand, the planning commission could develop a master plan for the Richmond Township of the future in which the effective management of growth and development would protect and preserve its single most important asset, its fertile farm lands. 4 �Among the most important elements of the master plan is that part which established goals and objectives. These elements are contained in Chapter 6, which commences on page 55 of the 1978 master plan report. Within this section of the master plan are set forth goals and objectives developed for the purpose of carrying out the recommendations of the master plan. There are three general goals (referred to in the master plan text as general character), for which a number of objectives were developed to achieve these goals. The three general goals of the master plan are noted below. 1. Place the general welfare -of the community ahead of the purely economic interest of development. 2. Encourage development that is attractive and aesthetically pleasing. 3. Preserve the historic and natural resource features of the Township. To achieve these goals within the guidelines of the master plan, objectives were developed under a series of headings, each of which was intended to help realize the above noted generals. The individual headings included, • Preserving the natural resources of the Township, including its agricultural heritage. • Preserving and protecting open space and recreation in the Township. • Encouraging qualitative residential and non-residential development. • Promoting development of an efficient and effective infrastructure in the community, including transportation systems, and public services. Throughout this section of the master plan the theme that ran universally through the various objectives was the desire to see quality in the community and to preserve the community's natural resources and its agricultural heritage. r f r It is the intent of the Township Planning Commission to maintain the goals and objectives of the 1978 master plan while developing the amended plan map. In fact, it was the desire of the planning commission to maintain the goals of its 1978 master plan through the implementation of its objectives, that led to their undertaking this study. 5 �32 MIL RD . I 11 LENOX TO,WNSHIP [ :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:] M E D I U M +• I I Ir 9 DENSITY RESIDENT IAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL• PARK LIGHT INDUSTRIAL r r I r r Existing Master Plan • LOWE PLANK/ ARMADA RIDGE AREA RICHMOND T O W N S H I P, MICHIGAN �THE AMENDED MASTER PLAN Actually, the amended master plan deals more with changing the land use proposals of the master plan map then changing the text of the master plan document. Again, the area of concern to the planning commission and the area of the Township which received its concentration is the area extending out from the intersection of Armada Ridge Road with Lowe Plank Road, east to the City of Richmond, south to the south corporate limits of the Township ( 32 Mile Road ), west one half mile and north to a point one quarter mile south of 33 Mile Road. Once the Planning Commission had become more thoroughly familiar with the details of this area, through review of current land use and zoning within the study area, they were ready to consider new planning policy(s) for the area. Over a period of months, five separate but similar land use planning alternatives were developed and discussed. Commencing with Land Use Plan Alternative No.1, which emphasized preservation of the existing single family area by maximizing much of the rest of the land area for single family use and minimizing future non-residential use of the area, the Planning Commission developed four other land use plan alternatives, each with greater land area devoted to non-residential use and less to residential use. Upon completion of Land Use Plan Alternative No.5, which depicted nearly all the land area west of Lowe Plank Road, From north of the rail corridor to 32 Mile Road, for industrial use, the residents of the area were invited to attend a meeting to review and discuss the five plan map alternatives. The result of the meeting was a clear consensus from the residents and from the Planning Commission members, that; 1. The present master plan for the area should be revised and, 2. The amended master plan should show a strong emphasis towards preserving and enhancing the existing residential housing stock in the area by continuing to emphasize the area for new residential development as envisioned by the present master plan and, 3. Any further encroachment of non-residential development in the area, particularly industrial uses should be discouraged by removing some land areas now proposed for industrial use on the present master plan map and diminishing the area of other lands proposed for industrial use in the study area. 4. Certain non-residential land use in the area must be considered as land use "fixes" and though these uses should be minimized, they should be buffered to the extent possible, to protect them as well as the residential uses around them. 6 �With these planning policy statements in mind, the planning commission concentrated its further review of the area on the recommendations of Land Use Plan Alternative No.1. It is the land use proposals of that alternative which appear on the two master land use plans which accompany this section. The first master plan map is a larger scale map involving only the study area. The second map is the amended Township Master Plan Map. This second map is the original master plan map, adopted by the Township in June, 1978 and which has been revised to reflect only the changes illustrated on the plan map of the study area. The amended Master Plan Map has been changed to reflect the following land use planning policies. • The area from just north of the rail corridor to 33 Mile Road, from Lowe Plank Road to Welding Road, has been reoriented from industrial to agricultural and residential use. Approximately 266 acres of land is involved in this change. • The area from the rail corridor north to 33 Mile Road, between Lowe Plank Road and the City of Richmond, has been reoriented from industrial to agricultural and residential use. Approximately 105 acres of land is involved in this change. • Areas along the south side of the rail corridor on both sides of Lowe Plank Road, have been reoriented from residential to industrial use. Approximately 14 acres of land is involved in this change. • The area along the west side of Lowe Plank Road, between Armada Ridge Road and 32 Mile Road, has been reoriented from residential to restricted office non-residential use. Approximately 5 acres of land is involved in this change. • An area between Armada Ridge Road and 32 Mile Road, west of and adjacent to the restricted office area, has been reoriented from residential to industrial use. Approximately 6 acres of land is involved in this change. 7 �... 0 ► !:: u 32 II MILE RD. _ _ _ LIGHT INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE .___. . I. LOW DENSITY RES . - - - MAJOR THOROFARE !:::::::::::(:)::::{~ 1110111111 ..__ f MEDIUM DENSITY RES. SECONDARY THOROFARE _. OFFICE Amended Master Plan LOWE PLANK/ ARMADA RIDGE AREA RICHMOND TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN �• • 36 __ ____ .,. _ _! a: w ...J ...J 31 32 ~ a: __,,.,._ BORO MA N § 3: .,'1 33 "',; w "' 36 I ' ALPINE (/) g; ...J ST. 0 r- - AGRICULTURE ~ NATURAL CARROLL WEB ER I C). LOW 0 0 MEDIUM IN 13 . OA'v TON ==~==tr¥:r¥~+:iF~~~~-~-;;;;;;;;;;;;;~---_jjL_ _.. _____~~~-T-~~-=== ~ ,,.,_,.'41;_;_.;;_;_;_;Ji"!'llll'•t::::"::':±--=i2~0_---+_-~l.--=------J, ---~ ; DENSITY DENSITY ~ LIGHT ~ HEAVY RESIDENTIAL RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL HIGHWAY INDUSTRY MANUFACTURING OFFICE SCHOOL - ELEMENTARY PARK CENTER - TOWNSHIP CIVIC PARK THOROFARE --■■ MAJOR ~ 1---+--'u o<-ll---.-J RESIDENTIAL CONVENIENCE • I DENSITY HIGH •• •+• 9 RESOURCE THOROFARE -••• SECONDARY 19 ---- COLLECTOR VJ VJ :::, a: UNDER ••• CORRIDOR STUDY 30 25 \ PLAN MASTER 36 31 RICHMOND MACOMB TOWNSHIP COUNTY , MICHIGAN RICHMOND TOWNSHIP PLANNING -,.,:;:. Adop ti on 6 Oa{• . NC)vatBER 12 1tl1 •• •• . In •:: VT an-Leman & Associates, c. ■: . . .. . .: ~"-'",oltlO(UIJULT.fJffl•~.-.aounctS .. . . . t4 t, "" . uo 111• (Ollfft'T .,. u 1111,11t COtltl tlllOII COMMISSION �In the Township's adopted Master Plan Document of 1978, on page 64 of that report, exists a table which provides a generalized breakdown of acreage allocations for the various land use categories illustrated on the 1978 Master Plan Map. That same table is reproduced below and updated to reflect acreage allocation by land use category for the amended Master Plan Map. TABLE 15 MASTER PLAN: ACREAGE ALLOCATIONS Richmond Township - 1991 LAND USE PERCENT ACRES Agriculture Natural Resources Residential Low Density Medium Density High Density Sub Total 4,605 383 225 Commercial Convenience Highway Sub Total 26 1 .1Q Industrial Light Industrial Heavy Industrial Sub Total 23 190 69.8 1,765 7.4 19.2 1.6 0.9 5,213 21.7 0.1 * 36 24,000 Less then 1/10 of one percent. 6.0 Acres of which are proposed for office use. 8 0.2 0.1 0.8 213 TOTAL * 16,773 0.9 100.0 �PLAN IMPLEMENTATION It is important to understand that the preceding changes to the amended master plan, if implemented in a prudent manner, will substantially reduce the inventory of industrial oriented land in the study area. One might not get that impression from reading the individual areas of change outlined in the preceding section. Three of the five areas of change noted in the preceding section, actually re,Jriented land previously planned for residential use on the 1978 Master Plan Map,to non-residential use. One must refer back to the existing land use section of this document and compare the land use proposals of the amended plan to the existing zoning map, to realize the substantial reduction in acres previously proposed and presently zoned for non-residential use, within the study area. From these comparisons it becomes obvious that the two principal objectives that must be reached if the Planning Commission is to realize the recommendations of the amended Master Plan Map, are; 1. To adopted the amended Master Plan Map as the Township's new Master Land Use Plan. 2. To thereafter reorient the present land use districts in the area to bring them into conformity with the proposals of the amended Master Plan Map. These objectives can be reached by the Planning Commission holding a public hearing in accordance with the guidelines setforth in the Township Planning Act-168 of 1960, as amended and thereafter initiating the rezoning of those lands that are contrary to the recommendations of the amended Master Plan, to zoning districts that are compatible with the plan. The one additional objective is to endeavor to implement the land use proposals of the amended Master Plan Map, by discouraging land use development any where in Richmond Township, that would be contrary to the intent and purpose of the Richmond Township Master Plan and the goals and objectives setforth therein. 9 �EXHIBITS �SUPERVISOR TRUSTEES JAMES McKIERNAN 31680 fuer11enau Riclvnond, Ml 48062 727-7282 GRACE LEACH 71~ Welding Rd. Richmond, Ml 48062 727 -7041 Richmond Township 75701 Memphis Ridge Richmond, Michigan 48062 727-7134 CLERK GORDON FUERSTENAU 73727 Lo- Plank Riclvnond, Ml 48062 727 -71 ◄ 5 KEITH RENGERT 34080 Annada Ridge Ri clvnond, Ml 48062 727-7682 CONSTABLE DEAN BRUYNEEL TREASURER 30640 School Section Richmond, Ml 48062 784-8278 CLAUDIA O'CONNER 2620 Prinz Road Armada, Ml "41005 784-93118 RICHMOND TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Minutes of the Richmond Township Planning Commission Regular Meeting and Public Hearing November 12, 1991 at 7:00 pm Richmond Township Hall. Members Presenl: Nancy Kulman, Tom Monlgomery , Keith Rengert, Paul Slewart , Russ Williams, Peggy Spencer Members Absent: Leland Storey Others Present: Jim McKiernan, Gordon Fuerstenau, Charles Cairns, Grace Leach, Nelson Leach, Mr. Cherry New Planning Commission Member Peggy Spencer was sworn in as a newly appointed Planning Commission Member by Gordon Fuestenau, Township Clerk. Peggy Spencer will replace Alane Rowley's seat which she resigned from in November 1991. Nancy Kulman will fill in as Secretary for Alane Rowley until the end of her .I term as Secretary. Public Hearing of Proposed Amendment of Master Plan Gordon Fuerstenau noted that proper notice has been given for the Public Hearing. Charles Cairns, Township consultant, presented the proposed amendment to the Master Plan. The proposed changes would effect sections 34 and 35, more specifically; The area just north of the rail corridor lo 33 Mile Road, from Lowe Plank to Welding, has been reoriented from industrial to agricultural and residential use . Approximately 266 acres of land is involved in this change. The are from the rail corridor north to 33 Mile Road, between Lowe Plank and the City of Richmond, has been reoriented from industrial to agricultural and residential use . Approximately 105 acres of land is involved in this change. Areas along the south side of the rail corridor on both sides of Lowe Plank, have been reoriented from residential to industrial use. Approximately 14 acres of land is involved in this change. The area along the west side of Lowe Plank, between Armada Ridge Road and 32 Mile Road, has been reoriented f~om residential to rest~'cted office non-residential use. Approximately 5 acres of land are effected 10 the change. · An area between Armada Ridge Road ~d 32 Mile Road, west of and adjacent to the restricted office ares, has been reoriented from residential to industrial use. Approximately 6 acres of land is involved in this change. Public Hearing Open to Public E-1 �I I I Page 2 Gordon Fuerstenau suggested that the "landfill" site on Fuerstenau Road , of 80 acres be looked being changed to a Township Park on the Master Plan. It was noted that the current location of the Township park is not centrally located and there is lack of available land. The 80 acre "landfill"site is centrally located and is a fuU 80 acres with a wooded area and a wetland area. Mr. Cairns stated this was a possibility but would need to be justified by statistics etc. Mr. Cairns said he would check into and let us know how to investigate and proceed if we want. Keith Rengert /ad.)motion to adopt the proposed amendment to the Master Plan and send to the Township BoarMr final approval. Motion was seconded by Russ Williams. Roll call vote of member present was unanimous. A copy of the amendment will be sent to the Macomb County Planning Commission to accept, they have 45 days . Richmond Auto Salvage I ( A letter was sent by the Macomb County Road Commission to Richmond Salvage on September 30, 1991 in reference to the right-of-way having people dropping off salvage goods on the roadside in front of the Salvage yard. Since the letter there appears to be no improvements in the roadside litter. Keith Rengert noted there is still a pile of tires in the yard , fence and boundary lines have not been maintained and various types of litter on roadside. Mr. Cherry, owner of Richmond Salvage, responded that he does not want people to drop off these salvage items on the roadside but, he is not able to monitor the site day and night. Keith Rengert made a motion to request the Township Board to petition the County to post a sign for No littering, violators would be ticketed in front of Richmond Salvage. Motion was seconded by Russ Williams. I There being no othe'r business a motion was made by Nancy Kulman to adjourn, motion wa:\econded by Russ Williams. , I Respectfully submitted by, r r r r r r r ~~ Secretary E-la �- I ADOPTING RESOLUTION I At the conclusion of a public hearing at which a quorum of the Planning Commission of the Township of Richmond, Macomb County, Michigan was present, the following resolution was offered and adopted. Moved by member Keith Rengert Seconded by member Russell Williams THAT THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION BE ADOPTED: - WHEREAS: The Richmond Township Planning Commission has diligently pursued the development of an amendment to its Master Plan Map for the Township of Richmond, and: - WHEREAS: Said Master Plan Map amendment has been reviewed in Planning Commission sessions with members of the Richmond Township Board of Trustees in attendance as well as the general public, and: - WHEREAS: On November 12, 1991 a public hearing duly advertised in accordance with the guidelines of the Michigan Township Rural Planning Act 168, as amended, was held, at which time a quorum of the Richmond Township Planning commission was present and at which hearing public comment pertaining to the proposed master plan map amendment was heard, now: 'I I - I I I I THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED: That the contents of this document togather with all maps attached thereto and contained herein, are hereby adopted by the Richmond Township Planning Commission, superseding the former Master Plan Map of June 13, 1978, and that this plan document shall be called the AMENDED MASTER PLAN MAP, TOWNSHIP of RICHMOND. ROLL CALL: Yes 6 Absent l No 0 Abstain 0 RESOLUTION ADOPTED I, Nancy Kulman , Secretary of the Richmond Township Planning Commission, hereby certify that the foregoing resolution is a true and correct copy of a resolution adopted by the Richmond Township Planning Commission at a meeting held November 12, 1991. E-2 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Richmond-Twp_Amended-Master-Plan_1991 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-11-12 Title A name given to the resource Amended Master Plan Description An account of the resource The Amended Master Plan for Richmond Township was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. with assistance from the Richmond Township Planning Commission and was adopted on November 12, 1991. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Richmond Township Planning Commission, Richmond Township, Macomb County, Michigan (consultant) Subject The topic of the resource Master plan reports Richmond Township (Mich.) Macomb County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/387938678ce216827bf1f72a142bd082.pdf a9cc0cf5a9e5105dcdebb301d9550b58 PDF Text Text JEROME R . K ISSCORN r, CITY MANAGER \ ' CITY OF TECUMSEH 309 EAST CHICAGO BL VD TECUMSEH . MICHIGAN 49286 (517) 423-2107 d t~ TECUM!iEH M C HIGAN Reftigeratlon Capital of the World �... (I 1· C L I II T O" ". f., '., T t CU III It H T w "· CL I ff TO 11 1' • I" T (CU• St N ft CUM 11" T "" '' I n.....;=:::,:,,:::':;::=:::!:;:!~-;:;!:!:cg~ I III I II ~ PQMlllU\mJA . f PfYE..OPNfflI AREA -f-K I L=:!:5,£1 - •=-~cm~,,, __ ,_, I I 1 I I r7Tl n77 ~ MULDPLf BfSIPENDAL '' ·.~-=-~ . IJBJP CONNeBQA.L :;;;;.~~~.. 0-Cno ~ ~ •l.O'T110,~0IIT,.., _,_,.M •~ffwooot,.,. ' . . , u w ......,... ..... _ n,QOQet,,AJN COBR!DOft -~~OIi!>....-~ ·--~c-.••n...lOOOMII ,_,.._,_ ._. ~™-~~ ~-_..,no-I • _____,.~.._••n•I.MftD ~ ~ c c w t l l O U . . . W'ITLNIO ..........,,."°"llffl~ACTIIIJI BESIPfHD,1.1 MU •~~~"'°°' .•eooe-~ ·--I.Nloa.UC--.t.l. PMKJIYUl!M ~~ ... ,, ... --+1-----''-----''-'l_:C_:_U ~ It N IIIA I S I II -~. .,_.,.,...,., Mlll1.1o011.0,~ T• I' -~,. .n.,_...._...,.,_,u,oco, .,_,.,_.._Cl4.,_T.vft,(;T _,,,_ ntlsnl(INQ~-- - - ~·- - - - < ~ - ...... CITY OF TECUMSEH A PLANNING OVERVIEW TECUMSEH MICHIGAN I tCA~l Ill , . I l JANUAftY 1989 i,lllcon · lemon a auoc , inc. planning con1ultonts I �.,.. In addition to the historic homes, there are also homes which are older, but not of significant architectural value. These homes were generally constructed in the period shortly after World War II through the early 1960's. The homes tend to be smaller and more modest than many of the homes in other areas of the City. Although some scattering of poor maintenance is evident, over-all maintenance of these homes is very good in the majority of the City. Maintenance problems are most prevalent in the southwest corner of the City. A tree planting program, continuing code enforcement and the provision of curbs and gutters could bolster the appearance of this area and bolster homeowner's investment in their property. The newer developments have generally occurred since the mid 1960's and exist in the outlying areas of the City. The homes tend to be somewhat larger with more attention to detail than those constructed during the post-war era. The appearance of these areas is very neat with obvious attention devoted to development of the right-of-ways. Street trees are prevplent and most areas contain sidewalks. Multiple Family Residential The multiple family areas appear as pockets of development usually placed as transitional uses between non-residential and single family uses. In several instances the multiple family developments are isolated from single family development by intense natural buffers. However, attention is needed to landscape details and parking lot buffers to assure proper land use relationships between multiple and single family uses as well as multiple and non-residential uses. Commercial Areas The commercial areas can be divided into two categories; the west end business district and the central business district. The west end business district is the area which contains the newest commercial developments. Shopping centers, fast food restaurants more intense business uses are located in this district. Sign control is evident. Circulation through the district could be improved through the elimination of unnecessary curb cuts, drive connections and marginal access drives. Parking lot setbacks would provide additional room for landscaping as well stacking space within the entrance drives. A tree planting program could benefit the appearance of the area. The central business district contains a number of historic buildings; most of which are in good condition. However, the historic character of the area should be further emphasized. The uses within the area are generally of a retail nature and are less intense than those within other commercial areas. Transition to adjacent residential uses is lacking in some areas and improvements should be considered. A streetscape design should be considered to unify street features and introduce a common theme to the district. 4 �Industrial Areas There are two industrial areas within the City, both located in the southeast quadrant. The oldest portion of th'e industrial areas is centered around the Tecumseh Products Company facility. The edge between the industrial and residential uses meanders and the transition zone is somewhat blurred. The industrial uses in general lack landscaping and buffering. The industrial park contains a number of vacant sites at present but as additional development occurs, it should be reviewed to assure that sufficient buffering is utilized. The second industrial area within the City is the site of the Lenawee Stamping plant. This is a very new facility located at the corner of M-50 and Rogers Highway. Although the building is massive, its visual impact is lessened due to generous setbacks and landscaping. Floodplain Corridor The floodplain corridor provides a substantial green buffer through the City that should be preserved through government ownership and regulation. Development should be limited through floodplain controls and wetland preservation (1979 PA 203). Ordinance should be considered to provide mechanisms for preservation. The area could be used as active or passive recreation including bike paths, jogging trails and possible boating. A map of flood prone areas is included on the following page. i - I - 5 �CITY OF TECUMSEH MASTER PLAN prepared for: THE CI1Y OF TECUMSEH prepared by: VILICAN-LEMAN & ASSOCIATES, INC. COMMUNITY PLANNING CONSULT ANTS 28316 FRANKLIN ROAD SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48034 SEPTEMBER 1990 �"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don't much care where -- "said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go, "said the Cat. Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland �CITY COUNCIL GARY DUNBAR - MAYOR HAROLD EASTON VERA GARDNER CARL POLING NADINE SEITZ ROBERT TOOMAN STANLEY WISE PLANNING COMMISSION MAC GONSER - CHAIRMAN DENNIS BOWMAN ROBERT FOX LYNN COOK JAMES VAN BUREN LAWRENCE WOLLENHAUPT JOHN KRZVZANIAK DAVID MALMQUIST CHARLES MANLEY i- CITY MANAGER JEROME R. KISSCORNI ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER L. MARK D. VANDERPOOL �• CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 PURPOSE 1 SCOPE 1 METHODOLOGY 2 BACKGROUND ANALYSIS 3 VISUAL IMPRESSIONS 3 EXISTING LAND USE INVENTORY 6 LAND USE TRENDS 7 POPULATION 8 GENERAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS 14 NEIGHBORHOODS 18 COMMERCIAL AREAS 25 CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 25 WEST CHICAGO BUSINESS AREA 35 INDUSTRIAL AREAS 38 COMMUNITY FACILITIES 40 PUBLIC FACILITIES AND SERVICES 40 RECREATION 44 SCHOOLS 48 TRANSPORTATION 50 HISTORIC PRESERVATION 54 FUTURE LAND USE PLAN 58 �GRAPHICS TABLES TABLE 1: EXISTING LAND USE: 1989 6 TABLE 2: LAND USE DISTRIBUTION TRENDS: 1967 TO 1989 7 TABLE 3: POPULATION OF TECUMSEH AND SURROUNDING URBAN NODES 8 TABLE 4: RECENT GROWTH OF LOCAL URBAN NODES 9 TABLE 5: POPULATION GROWTH TRENDS FOR THE CITY OF TECUMSEH 11 TABLE 6: AGE GROUP TRENDS FOR THE CITY OF TECUMSEH 11 TABLE 7: SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS 15 TABLE 8: HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS: 1980 19 TABLE 9: SCHOOL ENROLLMENT TRENDS 49 TABLE 10: HISTORIC LANDMARKS (As of March, 1988) 57 MAPS I. PLANNING OVERVIEW 3a FLOOD PRONE AREAS 5a EXISTING LAND USE 6a CBD DESIGN SKETCHES 27a COMMUNITY FACILITIES PLAN 40a FUTURE PARK LOCATIONS 44a REGIONAL ROAD NETWORK 50a THOROFARE PLAN 53a HISTORIC DISTRICT MAP 56a MASTER PLAN OF FUTURE LAND USE 58a ��INTRODUCTION PURPOSE I. In the excerpt from Alices Adventures in Wonderland shown previously, Alice didn't know exactly where she was. That was one reason she didn't care much where she went. Her dilemma illustrates the circularity characteristic of muc.h deliberative action. To know where you want to go and what you want to do, you have to know first what your present status is and what is wrong with it. Or, to put it another way, before problems are solved, they must be identified. The elements included in the background analysis portion of this document help to identify problems and gain an understanding of the City's current status. The Master Plan as a whole, serves as a policy manual to provide direction in making land use decisions. The master plan illustrates, "where the City is going." It serves in this capacity in several distinct ways. First, it provides supporting language which both reflects the public wishes and justifies land use decisions. Second, it provides a list of goals, objectives and policies which can be used to shape the community in a planned manner. The Land Use Development Plan, which is included within this document, serves as a framework for the physical land use distribution within the City. SCOPE As stated previously, this document is a policy manual. One of the tools to accomplish these goals is direct public actions. However, some of the most powerful and useful tools are the Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations. These documents were updated in connection with the update of the master plan so that there is clear and consistent coordination. However, it is important to recognize that the master plan merely supports the Zoning Ordinance. State Zoning enabling legislation specifies that zoning should be based on a plan. This master plan provides the framework for the Tecumseh Zoning Map. Additionally, the plan considers the broad goals of the community and provides suggestions as how to achieve these goals. r 1 �METHODOWGY '. In January of 1989 a field survey of the City was performed to record visual impressions of the City. These impressions were recorded and discussed with the Planning Commission, and thus started the master plan process. Other background studies were also conducted at this time including an inventory of all land uses within the City and a demographic analysis. Excerpts from these are included within the master plan, but their main purpose was to provide necessary information essential for many different elements of the plan. Broad community goals were then discussed and prepared. Objectives and policies were established in conjunction with the specific goals for the individual land use elements. The relationship among goals, objectives, policies and alternative implementation techniques is as follows: Goal: A Goal is a destination, a final purpose which a community seeks to attain. A goal is the most general level of policy and by itself is not ve,y helpful to decision makers. it needs further refinement to assist decision makers to reach their selected destination. Objective: An Objective is the route which specifies in general terms the way (route) by which the goal (destination) can be reached. An objective indicates the kinds of actions that should be used to achieve the goal. . Policy: A Policy is a means of transportation along the route. It's a course of action which, if followed, will achieve an objective. A policy is more detailed than an objective and can be readily translated into specific action recommendations or design proposals. As the process continued, various elements were analyzed and discussed. Goals, objectives and policies for each element were discussed and reworked. During certain stages of the process, press releases were published in the local paper to assure that there was adequate public awareness and to allow for direct public input into the process. Coterminous with the master plan process, the Recreation Plan was also updated. The Recreation Plan itself constitutes a complete plan but excerpts are included in the master plan within the community facilities portion. Likewise, the background studies conducted in association with the master plan were heavily utilized during the development of the Recreation Plan. Upon completion of the analysis of the individual elements, and the setting of goals, objectives and policies, the individual elements were condensed, compiled and coordinated to form the master plan document. 2 ��L BACKGROUND ANALYSIS VISUAL IMPRESSIONS , The initial step in the master plan process involved a field survey of the City to gather impressions from an urban planning and landscape architecture standpoint. A map titled, Visual Impressions, which records these initial findings is included on the following page. The following text is not intended to be all-inclusive, but places some of the initial findings into categories to facilitate discussion. Community Entrance Points There are three major entry points into Tecumseh. The most prominent is along M-50 (Chicago Boulevard) at the east end of the City. Because M-50 has a direct link to U.S.23, it serves as a major transportation route into the City. The community center and Mill Pond, which are about a quarter mile within the City limits, present a striking visual image upon entry into the community and it is at this point that a sense of arrival is first recognized. Although the view is diminished somewhat by a lack of screening at the utility sites on the south side of M-50, this could be remedied through the placement of additional landscaping. The west entry along M-50 provides a lesser sense of entrance. This is largely because of its commercial character. Although M-50 provides a direct route to M-52 west of the City., the west entry is of lesser significance than other entrance areas. M-52 is a State Highway providing a regional link to areas north and south of Tecumseh and because it serves less populous areas, is less dominant as a transportation artery than U.S.-23, which is east of Tecumseh. Another major entry into the community is from Tecumseh-Clinton Highway to the north. From this direction the entrance zone is somewhat unclear. The most prominent sense of entry is at the point where the Raisin River crosses the road. Prior to this, there is a rural character to the area. Single Family Residential Areas The single family residential areas can be roughly broken into three categories; the historic district, older homes and new development. The historic district appears to be particularly active and most of the homes are well maintained. Mature trees and the restoration of many historic homes of good architectural character help to make this a very desirable area and continued support of historic preservation in general should be encouraged. Although some homes of historic character exist in outlying areas, they tend to be clustered near the center of the City. 3 �, C 0 0 0 0 _J LL iGhi, . ... I ,N I ! .. ► . - " .. ► , . u =L= u ► MJS-N-n)JA. �. EXISTING LAND USE INVENTORY An inventory of the existing land uses within the City began in the fall of 1989 and were subsequently recorded in map form on an updated base map. The map is included in the plan on the following page. The method of inventory involved driving and walking the streets of the City and recording the use of each lot or parcel on the updated base. Upon completion of the field work a large scale base map was created. Using this, area calculations were performed for each parcel and summarized in the table below by major land use categories. TABLE 1 EXISTING LAND USE: 1989 - -- - - Residential 43.6% 904.3 29.6% single-family (796.3) (26.1%) two-family (32.1) (1.0%) (1 .5%) multiple-family (68.8) (2.3%) (3.3%) mobile home (7.2) (0.2%) (0.3%) Commercial and Office 93.7 3.1% 4.5% Industrial 195.7 6.4% 9.4% Public 41.8 1.4% 2.0% Parks 170.9 5.6% 8.2% Schools 64.5 2.1% 3.1% Quasi Public 89.6 2.9% 4.3% Vacant and Agricultural 83.4 32.2% Water 169.5 5.5% 8.2% Rights-of-way / transportation 342.6 11 .2% 16.5% TOT AL DEVELOPED LAND 2,072 67.8% TOTAL LAND 3,056 Source: Field survey conducted in the fall of 1989. 6 �, ------ 1··C I- I H T ON C LIN TON T W • \ ' T[CUMIS[N T [CU Ml I [ H T ■, r \ T (CU .. I [ H ,t.t.lllH T ~ w, I I T <<••~ II A IS I H 1 w, _l____~ m - f~:~:~:}~:3 G SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL 1111 TWO FAMILY AESIOENTIAL SCHOOLS f lLl ■ lllU.tn ICMOOL JH ,1,u1101t •u•" 1CM00L 1H 1(111011 Ml.II ICMOOL MULTIPLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL ~ ,MOBILE HOME PARK PUBLIC I,. l••1tAllf ........ CH C:IT't 10,LL - OFFICE - 8U$1NESS - INDUSTRIAL - PARKING ~ PARKS ~ , - " " l ITUIOII QUASI - PUBLIC "f. ,,.t,ltOCMIAl (L(N(ll1'Aln ICNOOL H MO ■ ,iUL D t SCAll fl[LO IU,IIYU ; IU,ll(N 1•H CIM(t(U VACANT 8 1Nrt11 AGRICULTURE EXISTING LAND TECUMSEH us EI MICHIGAN vilicon · lemon l!I assoc. inc. planning consultants �,. LAND USE TRENDS An inventory of the existing land uses within the City began in the fall of 1989 and were subsequently recorded in map form on an updated base map. The map and area figures can serve as a valuable tool for the City. The table below compares the land use distributions of 1989 to those of the past. TABLE 2 LAND USE DISTRIBUTION TRENDS: 1967 TO 1989 :i:J: 1: : :jljljljJ:J:J:1:1iljJjimij!i;ii:i;rA■llllfii: :iltli)\]i(J1ililjlJ:j:J::ii i1i :ili: : : : :i 1:Jjjg il: : : j: :]:i: : : 111:: : 1: : :j : 1:; ;;::j: : jilili ji!i i lil Residential I ' 611.4 862.9 904.3 single-family 572.3 805.1 796.3 two-family 28.0 34.1 32.1 multiple-family 6.2 16.5 68.8 mobile home 4.9 7.2 7.2 Commercial and Office 36.8 57.8 93.7 Industrial 102.8 126.5 195.7 Public 12.6 Parks 56.6 Schools 65.7 64.5 Quasi Public 24.7 89.6 Vacant and Agricultural 1,487 1,228.3 83.4 Water 169.5 169.5 169.5 Rights-of-way /transportation 308.5 331.2 342.6 2,875.6 3,014 3,056 TOTAL Sources: I' I 41 .8 111 .3 170.9 Tecumseh Master Plan (1968 and 1974), Vilican-Leman & Associates (1989). The previous table shows an array of numbers comparing land use trends in 1968, 1974 and 1989. However, the figures do not necessarily lend to a direct comparison. Due to the scale of the maps used, there will be some measure of error in the computations. Furthermore, the uses included in the land use categories varied for each study. Where possible, either adjustments were made or categories combined to provide a measure of comparison. 7 �1 . . POPULATION General Population Cl;laracteristics There are four cities located within Lenawee County: Adrian, Tecumseh, Hudson and Morenci. Two villages out of eight in the County, Blissfield and Clinton, had considerable population bases in 1980. Of the twelve cities and villages, Tecumseh ranks second in population. To more thoroughly understand the size of the City of Tecumseh's population in relation to surrounding urban nodes, the following tables have been created. TABLE 3 POPULATION OF TECUMSEH AND SURROUNDING URBAN NODES Detroit 970, 156 10.57% Ann Arbor 109,252 1.19% Jackson 36,950 0.40% Monroe 21,973 0.24% Adrian 21,186 0.23% Hillsdale 7,639 0.08% Tecumseh 7,398 0.08% Blissfield 3, 166 0.03% Hudson 2,552 0.03% Clinton 2,463 0.03% Morenci 2,315 0.03% Source: 1990 U.S. Census, Preliminary Figures. 8 l I �TABLE 4 RECENT GROWI'H OF LOCAL URBAN NODES City of Adrian Source: 21,186 21, 186 0.0% City of Tecumseh 7,320 7,398 1.1% Village of Blissfield 3,107 3,166 1.9% City of Hudson 2,545 2,552 0.3% Village of Clinton 2,342 2,463 5.2% Tecumseh Township 1,480 1,536 3.8% Raisin Township 5,499 5,637 2.5% 1980 U.S. Census Region 2 Planning City of Tecumseh Growth Trends (1930 to 1980) ,. Since 1930, the City's population has consistently increased. In 1930, 2456 people resided in the City. By 1980 this number had more than doubled to 7320. This is an increase of 5,044 people or approximately 205% over the period between 1930 to 1988. Although every decade has experienced an increase in population, the rates of increase over this period have varied. The period from 1930 to 1940 showed a relatively constant rate of growth. From 1940 to 1950 to 1960, the population growth increased at an accelerated rate. In fact, from 1950 to 1960 Tecumseh experienced its largest numerical increase in population and its fastest rate of increase (75.2%). From that time to 1986 there has been a relatively mild rates of increase, ranging between one and four percent. However, between 1980 and 1987 there were approximately 200 building permits issued for residential construction and based on this an estimate of 7,500 people may be conservative. 9 �Population Distribution Sex: According to 1980 Census data, the male-female mix of Tecumseh residents is nearly equal. Of the 7,320 residents in 1980, 3,818 were female and 3,502 were male. As a proportion, 52 percent of the population was female in 1980. Race: The City contained one black and 244 people of Spanish origin in 1980 according to 1980 Census data. As a proportion, this relates to O percent and 3 percent respectively. Employment Trends: The Tecumseh area has had a healthy economy in recent years. Although unemployment increased with the closure of the General Motors Inland Division Plant in Raisin Township, the imp~ct on the City was compensated by the construction of the Lenawee Stamping Plant in the City and the entry of Orbital Engine Company USA, which now occupies the once vacant GM plant. The Michigan Employment Security Commission (Bureau of Research & Statistics, Field Analysis Unit) supplied the following employment statistics for the City for April of 1990: Labor Force Employed Unemployed Unemployment Rate 3,700 3,550 175 4.6% 10 �TABLE 5 POPULATION GROWfff TRENDS FOR TIIE Cl1Y OF TECUMSEH ,,i:;;;;;;;;,if:;::U hi: m:•:•:m:i;: :; ;: : ;,;: :ti: ,;,:~@ggj;]!■w: : i;: :;: :i ,:i: ; :; : : : ,: :,:i if :;i i i;:~:; : : ,: ;: :j~;~siiiii ifa;: : : : :. 1930 2,456 1940 2,921 465 18.9% 1950 4,020 1,098 37.6% 1960 7,045 3,025 75.2% 1970 7,120 75 1.1% 1980 7,320 200 3.7% 1986 7,310 - 10 0. 1% 1990 7,398 BB 1.2% 2000 8,627 (forecast) U.S. Census. Estimates by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Forecast by Region 2 Planning. Sources: TABLE 6 AGE GROUP TRENDS FOR TIIE Cl1Y OF TECUMSEH 0-5 9.8% 10.8% 10.6% 9.5% 10.5% 10.3% 6 - 13 13.1% 11.3% 11.6% 13.9% 12.9% 13.9% 14 - 17 6.9% 5.0% 4.1% 7.9% 6.3% 5.4% 18 - 20 4.5% 3.4% 2.8% 5.6% 4. 1% 3.4% 21 - 24 6.2% 5.2% 4.4% 6.6% 5.7% 4.8% 25 - 34 18.0% 20.8% 20.JOA> 15.8% 17.0% 16.0% 35 - 44 9.8% 10.3% 10.3% 11.3% 14.3% 15.9% 45- 54 10.8% 10.0% 11.4% 9.S°A, 8.9% 10.0% 55 - 64 11.1% 12.3% 12.7% 9.5% 9.4% 8.9% 65 plus 9.9% 11.1% 11.S°A, 10.2% 11.0% 11.4% median age 30.0 32.0 33. 1 29.1 31.2 32.6 Sources: 1980 U.S. Census and Urban Decision Systems. 11 �Population Trends Between 1960 and 1970, and again between 1970 and 1980, the City's population gradually increased. This increase was less than 100 persons in the 1960's while it was t • 200 persons over the most recent census decade. The most recent Census population estimate available indicates that the City's population has stabilized since 1980. In contrast to the relatively stable population characteristic of Tecumseh, Lenawee County as a whole had a population gain of almost 4,200 persons between 1960 and 1970 and almost 8,000 in the most recent Census decade. However, through 1986, according to recent estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, the County saw a slight decline in population. This decline is not anticipated to be permanent, according to forecasts by Region 2 Planning and the Michigan Department of Management and Budget. By the year 2010, the County is forecast to have almost 96,100 residents, compared to a 1980 total of 89,948. While the Census has estimated that the County as a whole has had a population loss, some gain has been experienced in various communities near Tecumseh. Much of the recent growth within Lenawee County has occurred in the Townships. In fact, both Raisin nor Tecumseh Townships, which surround the City of Tecumseh, have been estimated by the Census to have gained population in recent years. These two townships are estimated to have had a population increase of 194 persons, a combined increase of 2.8 percent. Age Group Composition Median Age: In 1980, the median age of Tecumseh's residents was 30 years. By 1987, this may have increased to around 32 years and, over the next five or so years, it may increase to more than 33 years. This increasing aging trend is similarly reflected in County statistics although residents of the county as a whole tend to be slightly younger than those residing in Tecumseh. Pre-School and School-age Children: Recent age group estimates prepared by the Michigan Department of Management and Budget and by Urban Decision Systems, Inc. both indicate. that for the County as well as the City, there has been a decline in schoolage children over levels found in 1980. This pattern of decline has been reflected by school district enrollment trends. The number of persons between six and 17 years of age is anticipated to decline from 1,465 in 1980 to around 1,100 children in this age group by 1992. Throughout the School District, the decline of children of school age is not as great as it is within the City since new residential construction is occurring at a more rapid rate throughout the balance of the District, particularly in its southern portions (Raisin Township). Nonetheless, the average number of children per grade in the district has decreased since 1980. 12 �It is possible that much of the recent decline in enrollment in the School District may have occurred as a direct result of the out-migration of families following the recent closure of the General Motors Inland Division Plant in Raisin Township. The plant had peak employment levels of near 1,200 persons, many of whom may have had children in the School District. This impact on the City and District has been compensated by the much smaller Lenawee Stamping Plant recently constructed in the City and the entry of Orbital Engine Company USA, which now occupies the once vacant GM plant. Senior Citizens: As of 1980, the City contained 722 persons of retirement age. It is estimated that this may increase to over 850 persons by 1992. According to several interviews held with school district and other community officials, it appears that the City may be receiving a slight in-migration of persons at or near retirement age. Many of these new residents have relocated from the suburban Detroit or Ann Arbor area, desiring the intimacy of a small town atmosphere. Of a sample of 20 new families that have moved into town, three (15%) contained persons of or near retirement age. Households containing older persons generally do not have young children. This is in contrast to households with younger adults that may contain school age or pre-school children. With only 188 new dwellings constructed in the City since 1980, this gradual turnover of portions of the City's housing stock to new but older residents could act to create a decline in school enrol~ment. Older residents of a community often tend to oppose tax increases or renewals for which they perceive no direct benefit. Since they have no children at home, and since a growing number of such persons may not even have long term ties to the City's school district, there may be a pressure by the increasing number of older persons in the City to reduce that portion of the property tax burden associated with schools. This of course, could have a major impact on the school district's ability to continue to offer a wide range of quality educational and recreational opportunities to the youngsters who remain in the district. Family Forming Age Group: In 1980, the City contained almost 1,800 persons in the family forming age group (21-34 years). This age group may increase slightly by the early 1990's. Associated with that increase is an anticipated slight rise in the number of preschool children. As a result, by the mid 1990's, enrollments in the City's schools may see a slight increase by mid-decade. However, this increase should not result in a need for additional classroom space over current offerings. While the City is receiving an in-migration of older residents, it is also the focus of a larger in-migration of persons in their family-forming years. According to information provided by the Tecumseh Welcoming Service, over the past two.years, of those new households interviewed by the Service, the majority appear to be headed by persons in their early to middle 30's. Most of these new households contain two wage earners, generally with both employed outside the Tecumseh area. 13 �This outward orientation of new residents could create both a negative and a positive impact on the City. Since the majority of the new residents have children, most of school age, and since these new household heads generally have college degrees and are employed in professional, technical or managerial occupations, it may be that there could be an increasing pres~ure on the School District to meet their educational expectations for their children. Such new residents may, thus, be more supportive of millage enhancements. If sufficient concentrations of such in-migrants move to the City, then, over time, they may be able to counteract the lesser school millage support of the older resident and the longer term City resident. Outside of the anticipated decline in school age children over the next several years, a slight rise in the number of persons in their family-forming years and an increase of senior citizens, a relative stability appears to characterize the other age groups in the City. Most will either increase slightly through the early 1990's or decrease slightly. The biggest change is occurring at both ends of the age spectrum. As a result, community and private facilities will need to become even more responsive to the shopping, service and recreational needs of the growing elderly population. At the same time, for the sake of the City's economic vitality and stability, attention must continue to be paid to the educational and recreational needs of its younger residents. GENERAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS Not only does an area's housing stock and the age and household composition of its residents impact that area's needs for community services and facilities, but the employment pattern of its residents, their income and educational levels all interact to determine the overall character of an area. Table 4 provides an overview of selected socioeconomic characteristics of Tecumseh, compared to Lenawee County as a whole. The data shown on Table 7, on the following page, uses 1980 Census information. Since then, the socioeconomic composition of the City may have changed. According to interviews with new residents by the Tecumseh Welcoming Service, the City's newest residents appear to be strongly professional, technical or managerial in occupation. Thus, over time, the proportion of higher income white collar employed City residents may increase compared to levels found in 1980. Whether this increase is at a rate faster than that being experienced throughout the County is not possible to determine at present. f. Family/Non-family Households - In 1980, there was a slightly higher incidence of households in the City considered to be "non-family" households compared to the County. A non-family household is one in containing just one resident, or one in which there is a two or more residents unrelated by blood or marriage. This latter situation is typical of shared living arrangements such as roommates. ,- 14 �TABLE 7 SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS: 1980 22.6% 21 .1% 3.19 3.34 1 person 19.3% 18.4% 2 person 33.8% 30.8% 3-4 person 35.3% 35.5% 5 + person 11 .6% 15.3% 2.75 2.91 ProfjTech 14.1% 12.9% Mgr/ Prop. 8.2% 7.8% Clerical 13.2% 13.0% Sales 6.7% 8.5% 42.1% 42.2% Crafts 15.9% 13.4% Operatives 23.7% 23.1% Service 12.2% 13.5% Laborer 5.0% 4.5% Farm Worker 1.0% 3.3% 57.9% 57.8% 12.5 12.4 26.9% 24.9% 12.6% 11 .6% 35.1% 34.4% 52.3% 54.0% 59.2% 55.8% Non-family households Average Family Size Household Size Average Household Size Occupation Total Wh ite Collar Total Blue Collar Education Median Yrs. School Any College Wage Earners/ Family 0 2+ Stability Source : 1980 U.S. Census of Population . Data compiled by Urban Decision Sciences. 15 �Almost 22% of the City's households were non-family compared to 21% for the County. Similarly, among the City's families, proportionally fewer had children at home (55%) compared to the County at large (57%). This situation, coupled with the overall differences in average fc\mily and average household size (smaller in the City than the County), indicates that there is a greater need for provision of dwelling units oriented to the particular housing needs of households without children and smaller households. Among such housing types may be condominium townhomes or apartments, and attached and detached condominium cluster housing units. For the independent elderly (those needing no nursing or other care and who can live fully independent lives), a common approach is low rise, often one story multiple-family dwellings or either a rental or condominium tenure type. Household Income - In 1980, slightly under 20% of City households had incomes less than $10,000. In the County, this proportion exceeded 23%. At the other end of the income scale, 4.3% of City households earned over $50,000 compared to only 3.1 % of County residents as a whole. In general, City incomes are higher than those found throughout the County such that in 1980, the average household income of City residents was almost $21,700 compared to an average of around $20,600 countywide. Occupation - In large part, the income differential between City and County households may be attributed to the greater incidence of City residents employed in the higher paying professional/technical/managerial occupations or as sole proprietors ((22.3%) compared to County residents as a whole (20.7%). It is these type of upper income, white collar occupations for which employment opportunities tend to be more stable during times of economic disruption. We also note that in 1980, there was a higher incidence of persons employed in the skilled crafts in the City than in the County. Such occupations tend to be higher paid and while more subject to economic disruption, persons so trained are more readily able to find new employment than unskilled laborers or machine operators. Education - While, in 1980, there was hardly any differential between the median years of education of City versus County residents, we note that a higher proportion of City residents had one or more years of college. This trend has persisted to today, according to the City's welcoming service. The majority of family householders who have recently moved into the City have some college education. Further, many such persons are employed in professional or technical specialty positions. The implication of this recent in-migration of well educated, highly paid professionals is that there may be increasing pressure on the School District to continue to upgrade its facilities and program offerings. 16 �Workers Per Family - The Tecumseh Welcoming Service has also noted an increasing number of families moving into town having two wage earners, rather than the more traditional single earner family with wife at home with children. This is a change over the pattern found as of the 1980 Census, however. In 1980, 52.3% of the City's families had two or more wage earners compared to the County's 54%. We also note that in 1980, there was a higher proportion of families in the City which had no persons employed compared to the County. Lack of an employed person in a family can generally be attributed to two main causes: families living on welfare and families whose income earners have retired. It is our estimation that there is a blend of both in the City. The presence of apartments, many of which are senior citizen in orientation, may be one of the prime contributors to the higher incidence of families with no persons employed in the City. Additionally, the presence of a variety of housing arrangements, particularly the availability of two-family homes and multiple-family homes affordable to female-headed families, some of whom may be on welfare, is another contributor to this situation. Stability/Turnover - At least in 1980, it appeared that residents of the City were more stable in their residency than those throughout the County. Over 59% of persons five or more years of age in 1980 resided in their same residence in both 1980 and 1975. In contrast, the proportion was 55.8% for the County as a whole. This type of stability creates a stronger sense of community and civic investment than in areas in which the population is more transient. I I. 17 ��RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS Tecumseh's residential neighborhoods on the whole are well maintained and possess the amenities for good livirtg. Some danger· signals, however, are noticeable. The most pressing problems existing in our neighborhoods include: (1) Some deterioration in both the maintenance of dwellings and in outside housekeeping in older neighborhoods; (2) A lack of off-street parking in some neighborhoods resulting in parking on lawn areas; (3) Incompatible land uses, particularly at the edges of neighborhoods abutting business areas and in isolated pockets of housing in industrial areas, resulting in an adverse impact on quiet residential living; (4) A lack of high quality street surfacing, curbs, gutters and sidewalks in some neighborhoods of the City. Household Size - In 1980, the average number of persons per housing unit in the City was 2. 75 persons. By 1986, based on an analysis of building permits, occupancy levels and U.S. Census current population estimates, the average is estimated to have decreased to around 2.61 persons per household. This decline in household size is due to a variety of factors among which are the increase in divorce rates whereby what had been at least two persons living in one household becomes, at the minimum, two persons each with their own household. Additional factors are the fact that those born during the "baby boom" period of 1946 through 1964 have generally delayed their marriage and childbirth in proportions unknown to the previous generations. The higher cost of living, particularly with respect to the incomes needed to afford purchase of homes, has created a need for more families to contain two wage earners, rather than the traditional single earner. Families with two wage earners generally have fewer children. An additional factor affecting household size is the increased life expectancy being experienced by persons throughout the nation. With a longer life span, the tendency for a family to "mature" and have its children move outside the home, creates a large number of families with no children at home. Again, on the average, this causes a decline in household size. Table 8 on the following page provides a profile of the City's housing characteristics for 1980, compared to that of the County. Tenure of Occupancy - Whereas owner occupied housing in the City accounted for over 72% of all occupied units, this proportion was near 69% for the County. The County had a vacancy rate which was almost four times greater than that of the City: 10.3% compared with 2.6%. 18 �TABLE 8 HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS: 1980 2,723 33,750 Occupied Units 2,650 30,044 Vacant Units 2.6% 10.3% Number of Housing Units 216 Vacant Seasonal Units 97.3% 89.0% Less than $20,000 6.4% 13.2% $20,000 • $24,999 6.4% 10.7% $25,000 • $29,999 9.6% 10.9% $30,000 • $34,999 12.2% 11.7% $35,000 • $39,999 13.0% 10.3% $40,000 • $49,999 23.8% 17.4% $50,000 • $79,999 24.7% 21.5% $80,000 • $99,999 2.6% 2.9% 1.3% 1.4% $43,367 $40,235 Less than $100/mo. 10.2% 14.0% $100 • $149 10.7% 15.2% $150 • $199 22.5% 28.6% $200 • $249 38.9% 27.4% $250 • $299 10.3% 10.5% 7.3% 4.4% 209 192 76.1% 85.2% 2 7.3% 5.8% 3+ 16.5% 9.0% 46 1,689 46.6% 52.9% 5.7 5.88 Owner Occupancy Housing Value: Non Condo Units $100,000 + Average Value Rent Levels $300 + Average Contract Rent Units/Structure Mobile Homes Built Prior to 1950 Rooms/Unit (Occupied Units) Sources: 1980 U.S. Census of Population and Housing. Data compiled by Urban Decision Systems, Inc. 19 �Vacancy Levels - Of those units suitable for year-round occupation which were vacant in the County, almost 60% (2,025) were vacant for occasional use (generally summer homes). An additional 214 units were vacant and were suitable for only fair-weather occupation. In contrast, the City contained only one year-round unit classified by the Census as vacant for. occasional (seasonal) use and one summer-only unit vacant seasonally. With the large number of homes throughout the County which are seasonally used, it is estimated that businesses in Tecumseh can reap benefits by pursuing sales opportunities during the peak summer months. Housing Values and Housing Condition - In 1980, housing values in the City averaged $43,367 compared to a lesser value countywide of $40,235. However, within the City, 224 of the City's 1,745 total number of owner-occupied dwellings were valued less than $25,000 (12.8%). The 1990 average home value has risen considerably since 1980. According to the City Assessor, the average assessed value is between $30,000 and $35,000. This relates to an average market value of $60,000 to $70,000. An examination of rental levels found in the City and County indicate that like owneroccupied housing values, rent levels in the City are higher than those found countywide. We note that there are also several instances of very low rent which may be indicative of potential housing quality problems. With respect to a specific examination of housing quality as determinable from the Census, 38 units in the City had either no bathroom or access only to a half bath (toilet and sink) and 33 units lacked complete kitchen facilities. While these numbers are not major proportions of the City's housing stock, the deficiencies they represent, when coupled with a large number of older homes, low value/low rent homes and the like, could indicate potential problems in need of resolution. We do not mean to paint a bleak picture of the City's housing stock. Rather to merely point out potential problem areas. We note that our field observations of the nature and character of the City indicate that on the whole, the residential neighborhoods appear to be quite well maintained, with only a few scattered instances of dwellings appearing in need of substantial maintenance. According to interviews with representatives of the Tecumseh Welcoming Service, most of the families purchasing homes in the City who work outside the City selected the City because of its affordable housing. According to realtors in the area, housing values have increased rapidly both in and near the City. However, they remain significantly lower priced than comparable units in such communities as Ann Arbor, Pittsfield Township, Saline, and the Northville/Plymouth area where many new residents are employed. 20 �Size of Housing - We next turn to an examination of the "fit" between the sizes of the City's housing stock and its households. When there is a mismatch between the number of rooms in a home and the number of persons residing in that home, there may be problems of overcrowding. Conversely, a trend toward smaller family size, when compared to a housing stock characterized by large number of bedrooms may indicate that over time, there may be need for provision of smaller size housing units (in terms of bedroom count). Thus, a "lack of fit" can indicate either conditions of too large households squeezing into too small dwellings - or a mismatch between large homes and small families. With respect to the latter condition, such mismatch may create pressures to convert single-family homes into two-family homes, or cause a gradual decline n the quality of the larger single-family homes as their owners may not be able to afford to keep current with their maintenance. Generally, in communities like Tecumseh which contain a sizable number of large, older (and often historic) homes, both heating costs and maintenance levels for these older homes may be prohibitive for their residents. Bringing these older, homes to modern day standards of electrical, plumbing and heating facilities, coupled with provision of supplementary insulation can substantially reduce the costs of operation, making them more affordable, and thus less likely targets for sale or division into two-family units, or outright demolition. Over the years various State or Federal programs have offered low cost loans or outright grants for home modernization. The City should continue to take advantage of same in order to continue to assist its residents to maintain/enhance the City's housing stock Within Tecumseh, utilizing a standard of one person or less per room as the "ideal", it can be observed that there was, in 1980, overcrowded conditions found in only 49 housing units. Thus less than two percent of the housing stock was overcrowded. With respect to the match between bedrooms and household sizes, we observe that there may be a deficiency of smaller size housing units relative to the nature of households living in the City. In particular, there may be a greater demand for one and two room dwellings than is available. Such bedroom configurations are usually found in multiple-family as opposed to single-family housing while three or more bedrooms is typical of single-family housing. Housing Type - In 1980, the City contained almost 2,050 dwellings that were classified by the Census as one unit structures or over 76%. From 1980 through 1987, 44 new singlefamily homes were constructed in the City, 12 two-family homes and 132 multiple-family homes. Thus, recent construction trends appear to be gradually moving the City's housing stock toward a better balance between housing unit size and household size. During this time period, no homes were demolished. Thus, the total supply of dwelling units in the City is estimated to have increased from 2,723 to 2,911 units. Among the main factors which effect the demand for different size and types of housing units is population age composition. Young singles either live at home, on their own or with roommates. Young couples without children generally first reside in multiple-family 21 �housing and later, either after their incomes have increased, or after their first child is born or both, move to single-family homes. Often the initial home purchase by these young families is for small scale homes with two or three bedrooms. As incomes increase along with family size, larger homes may be purchased. However, once children are grown, the need and desire for a ' larger house may decrease. Instead, a smaller, more readily maintained home may again be the housing preference. The above factors which affect housing preference is an oversimplification of the wide variety of factors which impact demand for various styles and sizes of dwelling units. However, from this portrait, it becomes apparent that an understanding of the age group and household composition of the City's residents may provide an indication of its future housing needs. Tecumseh has made significant progress in advancing its planning program, enforcing its zoning and building codes, and in maintaining a high level of municipal services. These programs must be continued, but all problems of deterioration cannot be avoided by these measures alone. GOAL: Preserve and continuously improve residential areas and provide for a cross-section of high quality housing suitable for all segments of population while maintaining emphasis on the single-family home. OBJECTIVE I: Maintain and enhance the residential character of existing neighborhoods. POLICIES: 1. Private action to achieve adequate maintenance and improvement of existing properties can best be accomplished through individual and neighborhood pride and through pressures of public opinion. · To insure superior efforts will require an effective educational campaign. As part of implementing this policy, the City should prepare and regularly distribute information brochures explaining which improvements can be made to property without increasing property taxes. 2. Through its action, the City should continue to demonstrate an awareness of the need to improve neighborhoods. The construction and maintenance of streets (paving, curbs, gutters, sidewalks), as well as a program for tree planting, should be foremost in this effort. 3. The City should continue to provide the highest affordable level of City services to all residential areas of the City. 22 �4. • 5. Residential areas should be protected from encroachment by incompatible land uses through careful application of the Zoning Ordinance. Screening with earth berms, walls and landscaping should be provided where nonresidential activities abut residential properties. The City should take an active role in encouraging the rehabilitation of older housing in the community. OBJECTIVE II: Stabilize the housing mix (single-family, two-family, multiple-fami y) to provide housing opportunities for all segments of Tecumseh's present and future residents while maintaining the single-family character of the City. POLICIES: 1. Limit the conversion of single-family dwellings to multi-family use in older neighborhoods. 2. Provide areas for new housing development with a diverse housing stock for all income and age groups and with particular emphasis on single-family detached and attached (cluster) housing. 3. Special concern will need to be given to provide housing for newly forming families and for the elderly in keeping with the City's demographic profile. 4. Single-Family dwelling should be dominant housing type in the City. OBJECTIVE Ill: Preserve and maintain structures of significant historical value and their immediate environment. POLICIES: 1. Promote historic preservation through educational programs and information on historic preservation matters. Brochures which contain information on historic preservation should be developed and provided residents. 2. Continue to support the efforts of the City's Historic Preservation Commission in its preservation efforts in the older residential neighborhoods of the City. 3. The City should assist property owners, through the Historic Preservation Commission, to obtain public and private funding for use in restoration and preservation of historic structures and places. 23 �OBJECTIVE IV: Preserve the natural features of a site (topography, woodlands, wetlands and floodplains) to be developed for housing. POLICIES: 1. Promote the integration of natural features of a site as a useful part of future housing developments where such developments contain natural features through careful and imaginative site planning and site plan review. 2. Require developers of property to provide accurate location of natural features when presenting plans for review. 3. Establish a special natural features review procedure for sites containing such features. 4. Strengthen ordinances as may be necessary to assure preservation of natural features. 24 ' I. I ��COMMERCIAL AREAS Tecumseh is adequately and well served with retail facilities in two commercial areas, the Central Business Distri'Ct and the West Chicago Business Area. A broad range of convenient retail facilities and services exist in these two business centers. The CBD provides a somewhat more specialized array of goods and services which attract customers from the immediate area as well as from considerable distances away. Whereas the West Chicago complex provides many of the day to day needs for people in the immediate region. The importance of both business areas of Tecumseh should not be underestimated. Both provide unique services and functions. For this reason each area is given special attention in the planning process and separate goals and objectives for each area were developed. CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT The Tecumseh CBD is a special place. It has historic significance as well as utility and it is framed on all sides by pleasant residential neighborhoods. It's preservation and enhancement as both an image element in the fabric of the City and as an important business place is paramount. To assist in establishing a long range plan for a continuing prosperous central business area a field reconnaissance of the visual assets and liabilities in and bordering the CBD was undertaken. These observations are portrayed on the accompanying graphic Central Business District - A Planning Overview. The planning overview was followed by workshop sessions involving all interested public and private groups and individuals. Among others this included the City Council, Planning Commission, Downtown Development Authority, City Administrative Personnel, Business Association, Chamber of Commerce, interested Citizens and the News Media. A primary goal for the downtown area and seven basic objectives have been defined as a result of workshop sessions and planning commission deliberation. An extensive list of policies are stated to reinforce the effectuation of the goals and objectives for the continued improvement of downtown Tecumseh. GOAL: Through business, property owner and governmental cooperation, maintain the small city character of the central business district while encouraging its improvement in order to continue to attract quality businesses with the prime concern of serving the residents of the market region and beyond. 25 �This will be done in a fashion sensitive to the existing established character of the downtown area with emphasis on enhancing and preserving the historic character of the business area and its surroundings. , Each new development or improvement will be expected to contribute to the economic vitality, service capability and attractiveness of the central business district. A need to build upon and improve the small city historic character of downtown Tecumseh is a major part of the primary goal statement relative to downtown Tecumseh. Through the efforts of the Downtown Development Authority and Planning Commission initial efforts are being made to plan for physical enhancement of the central business district. This effort is primarily oriented toward the physical improvements that need to made in a coordinated style in keeping with the historic character of the City. Every effort will be made to keep the best from the past, make the most of the present and provide the maximum future. The sketches, which are included on the following · page are suggestions for the enhancement of the CBD. An ongoing effort is continuing with the ODA in the design and selection of materials for the improvement of pedestrian areas and the encouragement of restoration of historic structures in and around the CBD. This is a major effort which will not only be of benefit to the business community, but should provide an improved environment for the enjoyment of all of Tecumseh's residents. The following objectives and policies are geared toward assisting in the realization of the major goal for the Central Business District. OBJECTIVE I. Accessibility - Improvement to the attractiveness of access streets, and route identification from all directions to the CBD should be undertaken. POLICIES: 1. From the North a. Direct and attractive access to the CBD on North Evans is provided, however, improvement of the appearance of properties at the entrance to the City (airport area) can be accomplished through provision of additional landscape planting. b. An attractive City of Tecumseh entrance sign should be erected. c. Changes in use of properties should be closely monitored on North Evans to assure compatible and attractive reuse of land and buildings that will not detract from this important entrance into the City and the downtown area. 26 �2. 3. d. Through truck traffic should be discouraged from traversing through the CBD. e. Truck routes should be signed. f. A traffic study by qualified traffic experts should be undertaken relative to all aspects of vehicle traffic into, within and through th~ Central Business District. From the South a. Access to the CBD from the south is for the most part through industrial areas of the City. The appearance of industrial areas can and should be improved through more intensive landscaping and tree planting, particularly large parking lot expanses and yard and storage areas. b. Maumee should be considered as a major access to the CBD. c. Signage that gives direction to the business district is needed. This should be provided on Russell Road at Adrian, Evans and Maumee Streets. d. Attractive entrance signs should be provided at strategic locations on the south side of the City. e. Trucks entering Tecumseh from the south should be routed to utilize both Evans and Maumee in order to reduce the impact on any one street. f. Truck routes should be signed. From the East a. The eastern entrance to the City of Tecumseh and the CBD presents an attractive entrance which should be carefully monitored to assure a continuing pleasant, well maintained image. b. Mature street trees should continue to be maintained and replaced as times and conditions warrant. The green tree canopy effect on Chicago Boulevard is an attractive feature which adds significantly to ambience of downtown. 27 �1tI™lIID§11ltfi(Q)ml. . cc.Im.cdl. cc@ir® . - - L O O A H _ _ _ ._..._ 0 @m ca IJ rrm -=:~..... 111111 ~[Mri r---"\I .i . 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Every effort should be made to find an alternate truck by-pass route. (See policy 1.1 f.) d. An attractive City of Tecumseh entrance sign should be erected. From the West a. The five block area from Evans Creek to Pearl Street provides a green canopy, large historic home setting atmosphere which is one of Tecumseh's most attractive features. The maintenance of this atmosphere is essential and provides an excellent entrance setting for the downtown area from the west. b. Efforts should be made to re-route through truck traffic from the west. (See policy 1.1 f.) c. An attractive City entrance sign should be erected. OBJECTIVE II. Traffic Circulation - Downtown streets should provide easy access and smooth traffic flow for the downtown visitor and shopper with a minimum of traffic conflict. POLICIES 1. Vehicular (See policy I. 1 f.) a. Speed limits on Chicago Boulevard should be evaluated relative to a possible speed reduction in heavy pedestrian use areas. b. Traffic signals in the CBD should favor the pedestrian. c. Turning movements and traffic direction on CBD streets need to be identified. Pavement arrows should be explored in addition to signage. d. Traffic egress from the CBD on Ottawa Street past both the library and .school needs to be monitored relative to speed and safety to pedestrians. e. Alleys should serve for parking lot access, service vehicles and should be designed to provide shopper safety. 28 �2. Pedestrian a. A comfortable, safe and inviting pedestrian atmosphere is essential to all shopping streets in the CBD and should receive the highest priority for enhancement of features that promote these aspects. b. Street pedestrian crossings should be visually identified {by brick pavers, paint, or other means). c. Signalization of cross walks should favor the pedestrian on all streets and particularly on Chicago Boulevard. d. Pedestrian safety in parking lots and at rears of stores should be evaluated relative to night lighting. e. Vehicle conflicts with pedestrian access to rear store entrances should be minimized. OBJECTIVE Ill. Parking - Every effort should be made to provide convenient, safe and attractive customer parking. Emphasis should be placed on increasing parking where a deficiency in parking exists. POLICIES 1. Employees - A continual effort should be made by business owners to discourage use of prime parking spaces by employees in the CBD 2. Customers a. Parking areas should be expanded wherever feasible with particular attention to the core area of the CBD. b. Removal of some existing structures located within parking lots should be considered to allow for additional parking and smoother traffic flow. c. Customer walking distances should be no greater than 250 feet between any store and a parking facility. d. The improvement of existing parking lots should continue to be made with particular emphasis on landscaping and screening to lessen the visual impact of expansive areas of parking and to provide an attractive appearance in keeping with CBD character. e. Parking lot lighting should be evaluated to assure a safe atmosphere for the parking lot user. 29 �f. Rear store improvement and access should be encouraged to provide convenient access to stores. g. Parking meters should be modernized. h. The City owned building in the parking lot between Pearl and Evans should be removed for parking expansion. i. Signage giving direction to parking lots should be improved. OBJECTIVE IV. Size of CBD - The CBD will need to expand to keep pace with market area growth. Future growth should be concentrated as a compact business area conducive to walk-in business and to provide for the continuation of the small town character which typifies Tecumseh's CBD. POLICIES 1. CBD Growth Areas a. The major retailing activities in the CBD should be concentrated in those blocks from Pearl Street to Maumee Street along Chicago Boulevard and with additional depth to the north and south in the core area between Pearl and Ottawa. b. Under-utilized buildings with retail user potential within the CBD should be upgraded through land and building assembly and marketed for uses that will strengthen the CBD. C. New businesses for the CBD should be sought which are in character with the historic image of Tecumseh. d. The side streets in the downtown area, particularly Evans and Ottawa have potential for additional business development that would strengthen the overall market pulling power for the CBD. e. A market analysis of the CBD and its potential retailing strengths today and for the future should be undertaken. 30 �2. 3. CBD Fringe a. The protection of abutting residential areas and the encouragement of the maintenance of residential properties adjacent to the CBD is essential to the continued high quality image of the CBD. b. The potential for utilization of dwellings to the rear of stores on Pottawatamie Street for retail specialty shops should be encouraged provided the living environment of dwellings which wish to remain can be assured through proper site planning and building utilization. c. The conversion of single family dwellings to two-family dwellings should be discouraged. Other Business Generators a. The CBD should be an activity center for various areawide events. b. Ongoing activities and new events which promote the ambience of downtown should be encouraged. OBJECTIVE V. CBD Appearance - Provide a clean, efficient and tasteful environment that will enhance the Central Business District as a place to do business and a place in which all the citizens of Tecumseh take pride. POLICIES 1. Architectural - The whole of downtown Tecumseh creates a small town character which should be preserved and nurtured through all possible means including: a. Individual existing building architecture should reflect initial building design. Store front remodelling should not reflect the latest design fad but should provide a unifying architectural theme. b. Promotion of the historic restoration of significant downtown structures should receive special emphasis. c. No single motif should be promoted; however, the style of the early tradition of the City should be respected as it relates to new construction in the CBD. 31 �2. d. Color coordination in both new construction and in remodeling is essential. e. The two-story character of downtown, particularly along Chicago Boulevard, should be preserved and encouraged for both building remodelling and new developments. f. Efforts should be made to promote the use of second floor space for activities which will lend support to downtown's primary retail function i.e.; offices and dwellings. g. Awnings which obscure building facades or obliterate the true nature of the building design should be discouraged. h. Awnings which serve as signs should be discouraged and should be carefully scrutinized under the City's sign ordinance for compliance with sign size provisions. i. Awnings when provided should be so designed as to provide a unifying effect to the downtown area. The Shopping Street a. A program for replacing pedestrian area paving should be undertaken. b. Decorative paving should be incorporated into new downtown walkways. c. A street tree planting and replacement program should be scheduled. Additional street tree planting in addition to that on Chicago Boulevard needs to be undertaken. d. Downtown pedestrian level lighting in keeping with the historic character of downtown should be considered for Chicago Boulevard and for additional downtown streets and for streets bordering the CBD for both its utility and its decorative appeal. 32 �3. e. Well designed street furniture (benches, directional kiosks, trash receptacles, planting areas, etc.) should be provided at appropriate locations throughout the downtown area. f. Street and traffic signage should be effectively located and be distinctively designed to give direction and not create excessive clutter in the downtown area. g. The use of a distinctive "Historic Tecumseh" street banner should be considered for the CBD area and major approaching streets. Any such banner should be professionally designed. h. Directional signage fqr side street businesses should be provided (possibly on sidewalk directional kiosks). Alleyways a. A continuing emphasis should be placed on the improvement of rear store facades and entrances to the rear of stores providing convenient access to parking facilities. b. Alleys at the rear of businesses should serve for both service access and as an attractive and safe pedestrian area. c. A long term program should be instituted to place all overhead utility lines underground. d. Trash receptacles should be screened from public view. OBJECTIVE VI. CBD Maintenance - It is essential fo keep a neat, orderly and safe downtown which attracts and keeps high quality businesses and maintains a comfortable retail atmosphere for the shoppers. POLICIES 1. Every merchant will maintain both front and rear of his/her business establishment on not less than a daily basis. This will include both public and private pedestrian and service areas. 33 �OBJECTIVE VII. 2. Maintenance of public access (streets, alleys and parking areas) will continue to be programmed on a regular basis. 3. The screening of trash receptacles should be undertaken whenever feasible. 4. Merchants and property owners, in partnership with the City, should assist in the control of vandalism to both public and private property. Effectuation - Every available tool for the improvement of downtown Tecumseh will be pursued. 1. The continued strong leadership and support in improving downtown by the Mayor and City Council is essential. 2. The Downtown Development Authority is a pro-active body that has maintained a positive working relationship with the City. Continued support for the Tecumseh Downtown Development Authority's improvement program is essential. 3. Efforts of the Tecumseh Planning Commission as a recommending body to the City Council in support of downtown improvement is essential. 4. Support for programs and activities which will assist in improving downtown including the following among others will be pursued: a. Programs for financing building improvements. b. Continued institution. c. Continue the use of P.A. 260 of 1984 on Downtown maintenance, promotion and operation. d. Provide information relative to historic preservation and the potential for tax credits in the restoration of historic structures in the downtown area. Community Revitalization Tax Act. 34 assistance in financing from lender �WEST CHICAGO BUSINESS AREA At present, the appearance of this business street does not promote an appropriate image for the City of Tecumseh. Traffic access to and from businesses is confused and occasionally hazardous! There is a lack of coordination of parking and access to parking between businesses. Mixed land uses, such as businesses of a heavy, almost industrial character intermingled with retail activities serving high volumes of customers, promote an unstable business atmosphere. However, the West Chicago business area provides a significant portion of the daily needs shopping facilities for the immediate region. While there is some duplication in retail activity between the CBD and West Chicago areas, a major segment of large site retail such as food stores, farm supply stores, automotive and passerby oriented facilities predominate in the West Chicago area. This is for the most part a good split of business activity as many of the businesses on West Chicago would not find adequate space within the CBD nor would activities be compatible with the pedestrian oriented nature of the CBD. The following series of goals, objectives and policies for the improvement of the important business area were the result of workshop sessions with West Chicago business and property owners and the Tecumseh Planning Commission. GOAL: Enhance the image and operation of West Chicago Boulevard as a sound business area and as an attractive entrance to the City while maintaining and improving upon the general business and service nature of this business frontage to provide for both the local resident and the transient traveler. OBJECTIVE I: Improve upon the appearance of the business street. POLICIES: 1. Encourage private action by businessmen and property owners to improve buildings and sites to promote a better image for this important entrance to the City of Tecumseh. 2. A business person and property owner improvement committee of the Chamber of Commerce should be formed to actively pursue an improvement program including: a. b. c. 3. Pursuit of low interest property improvement loans. Retention of a design professional to coordinate the architectural treatment of buildings and to review new signage. Coordination of marketing and sales activities with the Chamber of Commerce. Promote the development and redevelopment of properties to enhance the business area. 35 �4. Promote the removal of incompatible uses of property in areas zoned for business use. 5. Continue to enforce strict sign controls and require submission of sign proposals as a part of site plan review procedures. 6. Prepare an improvement plan for the street to include beautification measures such as pedestrian level lighting, identification banner signs, and provision of street and parking lot trees. 7. An attractively designed "Welcome to Tecumseh" sign should be installed at the west entrance to the City. OBJECTIVE II: Improve traffic access to and from businesses, coordinate parking lot access and improve parking lots in both appearance and utility. POLICIES: 1. Pursue the provision of marginal access connector drives between properties wherever feasible. 2. Promote joint driveway access wherever feasible between abutting parcels in order to reduce the number of access points for turning movements to and from the major traffic artery. 3. Require the provision of adequate off-street parking for all new construction and encourage the provision of adequate parking in areas where shortages now exist. 4. Require the surfacing and maintenance of all parking lots. 5. Provide curb and gutter construction wherever feasible. 6. Explore the feasibility of providing pedestrianways or sidewalks on West Chicago Boulevard. 7. Explore with the Michigan Department of Transportation the feasibility of reducing speed limits on West Chicago and the feasibility of a left turn signal and a no turn on red signal at Occidental. 36 �OBJECTIVE Ill: Coordinate development activities on West Chicago Boulevard with Tecumseh Township. POLICIES: 1. Establish a rapport with Tecumseh Township relative to planning, zoning and development activities in this business corridor in the Township. 2. Business promotion activities for the West Chicago business district should include the businesses located in the Township. 3. Coordination of zoning and planning standards that will result in a well planned business district should be pursued by both units of government. 37 ��INDUSTRIAL AREAS Industrial development in Tecumseh and the immediate surrounding area is of prime importance to the vitality of the City both as an employment base for residents and as a tax base which assists in providing for essential community services such as schools and other public facilities. The growth of industry in recent years in the Tecumseh area has been steady and substantial. GOAL: Upgrade older industrial areas and provide space for new industry in order to expand Tecumseh's employment and tax base and thereby assist in providing employment opportunities to all age levels of our work force while providing a high level of community services and facilities. OBJECTIVE I: Maintain and upgrade existing industrial districts. POLICIES: 1. Encourage the in-fill of industry on available industrial sites in the City. 2. Provide adequate industrial street access to all industries. 3. Discourage the use of residential streets for industrial traffic. 4. Continue to provide a high level of maintenance to all streets utilized by industrial users. 5. Promote a visually attractive environment in existing industrial areas. 6. Promote a high level of exterior maintenance and encourage landscaping for existing industries. 7. Provide the proper screening of industry in those areas where housing is in close proximity to industry. 8. Outdoor storage areas should be screened from public view by landscaping or, where sufficient area for landscaping is not available, by means of walls ·or screening fences. 9. Where mixed land uses exist in industrial areas, support efforts to consolidate parcels for industry. 38 �OBJECTIVE II: Continue to develop new sites for planned industrial districts. POLICIES 1. Industrial development should take place only in areas that will not be incompatible with existing or future residential development. 2. A mix of site sizes, large and small, should be available within planned industrial developments. 3. Industrial area access by means of direct thorofare connection to State trunklines (M-50 and M-52) shoula be achieved. 4. Full utility services should be provided to and within planned industrial parks. 5. Industrial park private covenants governing building and site appearance, signage and landscaping should be encouraged. OBJECTIVE Ill: Industrial promotion and the incentives to encourage industrial development should be supported within a balanced framework to assure that the service needs of the entire City are met. POLICIES: 1. Continue to support the efforts of the efforts of Lenawee Tomorrow in its efforts to attract new industry to the area. 2. Encourage Lenawee Tomorrow's effort to retain and expand existing industries in Tecumseh. 3. Encourage transportation oriented industries to locate in Tecumseh and also continue ongoing efforts to diversify Tecumseh's industrial base. 4. Make fiscal incentives to industry and to industrial areas available within the framework of a city-wide Capital Improvements Program. 5. Explore the potential for the Development of a Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA) under Act 281 of 1986 for the development of new industrial areas. 6. Promote the area - network to let people know what we have and what our potential for development is, particularly as it relates to high-tech. industry. 39 ��COMMUNI'IY FACILffiES PUBLIC FACILITIES AND SERVICES One of the many features, which in combination make Tecumseh a desirable community in which to live and work, is the high level of municipal .facilities and services. The City has an abundant source of water and operates an excellent sewage treatment facility. Public buildings are generally well located and adequate for their purpose. Police and fire services and their facilities, though in need of expansion, are well suited to the needs of Tecumseh's residents. Refuse disposal, adequate for the next decade, will present some problems for the community in the next 1O to 20 years. GOAL: Provide in the most efficient manner those public facilities and services - public safety, public works, government facilities and services - that maintain Tecumseh as a desirable community. OBJECTIVE I: Maintain public safety throughout the community. POLICIES: 1. Continue to provide superior police services by improving the existing police station at its present location in the City Hall with particular emphasis on the following : a. Provide separate facilities for male and female personnel and for detainees. b. Improve detention area. c. Provide secure armory facilities. d. Provide additional storage area including stolen property storage. e. Provide additional administrative space and office for special personnel. f. Additional parking for both public use and for police vehicles should be planned with the improvement of police building facilities. g. Consideration should be given to providing police vehicle weather protection either through garages or car ports. 40 �I-- 0 400 SCALE COMMUNITY FACILITIES PLAN 800 IN FE ET 1200 �2. Continue to adjust Police Department programs, training and policies to meet changing conditions. 3. Strive to maintain and upgrade the City's favorable fire rating. 4. Relocate the fire station from the downtown business area to a site that will still offer maximum protection to high value areas as well as serve all areas of the City without excessive distance runs. A new station should include adequate expansion space for state of the art equipment. 5. The feasibility of providing training facilities such as fire tower and other specialized equipment and facilities should be explored with the possibility of intergovernmental participation between nearby communities. 6. Provide additional storm warning sirens as may be needed to adequately protect the residents of Tecumseh. 7. Continue to adjust Fire Department programs, training and policies to meet changing conditions. OBJECTIVE II: Maintain a high level of efficient governmental administrative services. POLICIES: 1. City administrative offices and any expansion thereof should continue to occupy the present centrally located site. 2. City Hall building space will need to be expanded in order to assure a good working environment for personnel and to provide for necessary modern day services with particular emphasis on the following: a. Space for both administrative personnel and future staff such as engineering, should be provided. b. An additional conference meeting room is needed. c. Existing storage space should be improved and expanded. d. An adequate computer room will be needed to maintain and improve on efficient administrative practices. 41 �An employee's lounge shall be provided. f. Handicapped access throughout City Hall is essential. 3. Parking for City Hall needs to be expanded for both employees and visitors. 4. Expansion of facilities on the existing City Hall site should include provision of a high level of landscape improvement which will be in character with the adjacent downtown area improvements plan. OBJECTIVE Ill: A high level of sewer and water services for the City should be maintained and improved where feasible. POLICIES: 1. Water pressure should be maintained by looping water service wherever feasible. 2. Expansion of wells on existing site should be undertaken where feasible. 3. A program for acquisition of future well sites should be undertaken. 4. Provision of an additional water storage facility, either an elevated tank or ground level tank, should be constructed in the northwest quadrant of the City. 5. Sewage treatment capacity and facilities are adequate for expansion of development but should be monitored to assure continued adequacy for growth in the area. 6. Sewage lift stations should be upgraded to reflect existing and anticipated demand and up to date technology. r II . ;· e. OBJECTIVE II: Maintain public streets, parking areas and all public works and services consistent with high standards and within reasonable fiscal constraints. POLICIES: 1. An adequate public works site and buildings, well located to serve the City, exists at its present location. A long term plan for utilization of this site should be prepared. 42 �2. Explore the potential for providing additional facilities such as a paint booth and a sign shop. 3. The City should remain vigilant in its program to assure a high level of street and sidewalk maintenance and improvement. 4. New street improvements and other public facilities should be accessible to handicapped persons. 5. Refuse collection and disposal alternatives should be evaluated regularly. 6. The City should promote the conservation of energy and resources in the delivery of public services. OBJECTIVE V: Continue to provide a high level of cemetery services and maintenance at the City's cemetery. POLICIES: 1. The 13 acres of unused cemetery land provides adequate cemetery space for the foreseeable future. 2. A master development plan showing roads, burial plots and other site improvements should be prepared. r- OBJECTIVE VI: The Civic Auditorium provides a community facility which should be nurtured as a unique community asset. POLICIES: 1. Explore the utilization of site space at the auditorium as a possible recreational facility. 2. Evaluate long term building space needs and optimum utilization of the facility. 3. Continue to explore funding sources for the operation and maintenance of the facility. OBJECTIVE VII : Health services are essential to the high quality of life in Tecumseh. POLICIES: 1. The City should encourage and enhance opportunities wherever feasible for the continued growth of Herrick Memorial Health Care Center. 2. The long term needs for additional hospital site and support facilities should be based upon a master plan for the hospital. 43 �3. The City's Future Land Use plan should reflect site expansion needs for all facilities including support facilities, parking, street needs and their relationship to the abutting residential neighborhood. RECREATION As a component of this master plan, a complete recreation plan was developed. The Recreation Plan is a separate document which itself is complete and should be referred to for information specifically regarding recreation. However, to substantiate some of the land use decisions portrayed on the Master Plan of Future Land Use the Goals and Objectives and the maps of Existing and Future Recreation Sites is provided. PRIMARY GOAL: To continue to provide a wide range of recreational opportunities for existing and future Tecumseh residents of all ages. GOAL I: The provision of land for recreation in quantities sufficient to meet the existing and future recreation needs of the Tecumseh population. OBJECTIVE I: The improvement of under-developed parks. POLICIES: 1. The preparation of a plan for Shady Lane Park to improve its use. 2. The development of the Hotrum Promenade Park site as a minipark. 3. To construct a pedestrian bridge across Evans Creek to link Patterson Park to vacant recreation land west of the creek and thus provide area for a full neighborhood facility. 4. The preparation of a plan for vacant land adjacent to Douglas W. Bird Kiwanis Memorial Park. 5. The preparation of a plan for the improvement of Elliot Park to provide amenities suited toward neighborhood use. 44 �1·· CLIN,ON , CL I If ' 0 • ,._. .. T l CUM I l M -· .. -·· f (CU a,• l M Tl CUM I l M T W, T W, _J r ,lr \J\. /'" ' I ~ I~ .. , H~ * : I ] l : I I \__ I .--/ l :......·.:.~i.."",., .. ...I 'I _ffl '!I! I! IIII11111 II:::'! L= .. ~t1-I I 11I 11 I I I I I 111 I ~.21~111 ! \ I\_1 )I)) ) I I ,1,, . . . . I / .~I I I f[CUMllM ltA 111 M • , ... TW" l'i :Al~ __ J,__ - SERVICE * * ** • MINI . ____J -~~ AREA BOUNDARY PARK NEIGHBORHOOD COMMUNITY PARK ~ PARK 0 POTENTIAL PARK UNOER • O[V[LOP[O SIT[ PARK F U T LJ R E PA R K L OCAT I Q NS TECUMSEH MICHIGAN I •OO tChl •oo lfOO IOI ' l i t ,llicon • lemon a ouoc. inc. plonninQ consultonll �OBJECTIVE II: The acquisition of additional land for park use. POLICIES: GOAL II: OBJECTIVE I: 1. The acquisition of at least five acres of land in neighborhood unit A for the future development of a neighborhood park. 2. The acquisition of roughly 25 acres for the future development of a community park and the immediate development of a neighborhood facility in neighborhood unit B. 3. The acquisition of at least five acres of land for the immediate development of a neighborhood park in neighborhood unit C. 4. The acquisition of at least five acres of land for the immediate development of a neighborhood park in neighborhood unit D. 5. The acquisition of land adjacent to Mill Pond to maintain walking trails which link Satterthwaite Park and Standish Dam. 6. The acquisition of at least five acres of land for the eventual development of a neighborhood ·park to serve neighborhood unit I. 7. To ask developers to donate land for recreational use. To provide sufficient recreation facilities to meet the needs of the Tecumseh residents. To increase the public awareness of programs and facilities. OBJECTIVE II: To create new recreational facilities. 1. To purchase, improve and maintain a trail system and nature walk linking Satterthwaite Park and Standish Dam. 2. To create two regulation softball diamonds. 3. To create two additional basketball courts designed to regulation standards. · 4. To create additional soccer fields. 5. To provide additional ice skating facilities. 45 �OBJECTIVE Ill: To purchase new equipment. POLICIES: 1. 2. To provide at least eight additional picnic tables at various parks in the system . • To purchase picnic tables, grills, play equipment and a pedestrian bridge for Douglas W. Bird Kiwanis Memorial Park. 3. To purchase and replace equipment as needed to continue recreation programs. 4. To purchase equipment as needed for under-developed and undeveloped parks. 5. To investigate the development of a walking trail from Evans Creek to Standish Dam. 6. To pursue the development of an indoor recreation facility. OBJECTIVE IV: Maintain and upgrade existing facilities. POLICIES: 1. Upgrade and renovation of athletic fields/diamonds. 2. To examine the suitability and potential of the Community Center for either continuing recreational purposes or adaptive reuse. 3. Repair /rebuild the bridge surface at Standish Dam. 4. Provide additional paved parking at Cal Zorn Park Recreation Center. 5. To repair the tennis courts at Tecumseh Park. 6. Provide park signs for all City parks. 7. To continue existing cooperative arrangement organizations and pursue additional joint ventures. 46 between �SCHOOLS The Tecumseh School District encompasses an area much broader than the City of Tecumseh itself. Still, the majority of the services and the greatest population concentration is within the City. The City of Tecumseh is the heart of the School District. From a planning standpoint it is important to grasp the relevant trends within the District to understand the implications for future land use needs. Past Trends Within the past five years the school district has reduced the amount of vacant land that it has held in reserve within the City. This is largely in response to the past trend of a relatively stable population base within the City. Furthermore, there is a national trend toward fewer children per household. Thus, even with a growing number of households, large increases in the number of students would not be expected in the immediate future. The table on the following page summarizes enrollment trends from 1980 to 1987 and illustrates a general decline in total enrollment. The amount of land within the City that was held by the School District has fluctuated over the years. The largest decrease in school owned land was due to the trading of about 120 acres located on the south side of M-50 that is now the location of the Lenawee Stamping Plant. As a component of the swap, land adjacent to Tecumseh Acres Elementary was obtained. Another large parcel, about 20 acres in area, was sold that was located at the south side of Conklin Road. Also, a smaller parcel that was adjacent to Patterson Elementary is now owned by the City for cemetery use. Existing School Sites Within the City of Tecumseh, there are three public elementary schools; Herrick Park Elementary, Patterson Elementary and Tecumseh Acres Elementary. A junior high school, and a senior high school are also located within the City. In addition to the school sites, the District owns the public library. There is one private school within the City. Future Needs According to the School District, the existing elementary sites have sufficient land to meet their immediate and projected needs. However, the junior and senior high schools will need room to expand. The high school is situated with Evans Creek running along its north and west property lines and Maumee street is located directly east. The only direction for the high school to expand is south. Currently, there are homes located in this area, some of which have historic architectural characteristics. Movement of these homes to another suitable location could be one means of obtaining land for the school while preserving the historic assets of the community. 48 l ---=- - -- �~ TABLE 9 SCHOOL ENROLLMENT TRENDS I 270 230 249 252 202 210 278 271 288 282 313 15.9% 280 248 220 231 236 205 212 217 209 240 232 - 17.1% 2 244 256 237 211 228 220 203 215 223 213 230 - 5.7% 3 240 232 253 236 205 227 221 203 206 220 229 - 4.6% 4 297 232 233 238 232 199 218 213 205 214 226 - 23.9% 289 298 231 228 245 238 193 223 216 215 230 -22.8% Kindergarten I I 5 6 I 259 277 286 220 238 253 240 197 225 226 226 - 12.7% Total Elem. Students I 1,879 1,773 1,709 1,616 1,586 1,552 1,565 1,539 1,572 1,690 1,686 - 10.3% 7 I 242 251 275 279 226 238 242 239 213 213 229 - 5.4% 8 252 239 252 272 285 233 245 241 232 245 248 - 1.6% Total Jr. High Students 494 490 527 551 511 471 487 480 445 458 477 - 3.4% 9 255 260 247 243 271 293 238 271 264 245 252 - 1.2% 10 I 275 255 244 235 247 276 292 241 245 245 234 - 14.9% 11 I 271 256 224 220 220 240 263 282 216 221 236 - 12.9% 233 228 229 206 211 216 235 234 250 201 228 0.4% Total Sr. High Students 1,034 999 944 904 949 1,025 1,028 1,028 975 912 950 Total Students In the District 3,407 3,262 3,180 3,071 3,046 3,048 3,080 3,047 3,052 3,079 3,113 12 I 8.1% - 8.6% Note: Kindergarten, 1987 Includes both Readiness and regular kindergarten students. Only full-time , non-special education students were included in this table. Source : Tecumseh Public School District. 49 ��TRANSPORTATION Tecumseh lies near the cross roads of two major state trunkline routes, M-50 which bisects the community in an east-west direction and M-52 a north-south trunkline some 2 miles west of the City. The U.S. 23 Freeway is 14 miles east of the City connecting with M-50. This freeway connects with Toledo a short distance to the south and with Ann Arbor, 20 miles to the north. Detroit and Metropolitan Airport are easily accessible within less than one hour driving time from Tecumseh. Close proximity to Ann Arbor, Toledo and Detroit has made Tecumseh a prime location not only for industrial and commercial development but also as a unique, desirable and upscale small town residential community. The areas of Tecumseh that are planned for additional growth, particularly new industrial and housing areas, will need adequate collector streets to channel heavy traffic loads to major arteries without disrupting the living patterns of residents. As well as auto and truck access, alternate modes of transit may also be needed as growth of the area continues and to provide mobility to all age groups, particularly the elderly. Regional roads that serve major industrial types of land uses outside the City will need to be upgraded to adequately serve heavy industrial traffic and to provide traffic access on thorofares that do not unduly disrupt established business and residential areas of the City. A map depicting the relation between the regional road network and Tecumseh is included on the following page. A thorofare plan for the City is also included and follows the Goals and Objectives· portion of this section. GOAL: Provide an arterial street system that will adequately separate traffic with a destination outside Tecumseh from local oriented trips and service major land use trip generators such as industrial areas, business districts and residential neighborhoods. The arterial street system should be supplemented by a local street system to enhance safe and quiet residential neighborhoods. OBJECTIVE I: Strengthen the regional highway network in order to serve the region around Tecumseh with adequate traffic movement to, from and around the City. 50 �~<'c;. I-------------- "'.r~ STAIB I I '<- ~1,~ I I N ,n ALLEN I I I :I .,, I !1 ;I . ;1 I I I I I ...a:: I I ► ..,.., :Ii I ID I TECUMSEH •,•,•· ......t r··•=:;•;:;•··· RUSSELL :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- ·=·=== I I I I I I I .., ~ ...z 0 N ,n u u :Ii' 0 STATE TRUNKLINE REGIONAL CONNECTOR ----- I I I I ::11 ... gl a::1 I I I 0 1/2 MILE LINKAGE ROAD REGIONAL ROAD NETWORK �POLICIES: 1. Major regional highways that serve Tecumseh should include: M50, M-52, Tecumseh-Clinton Road, Raisin Center Road, Occidental, Rogers Highway, Billmeyer, Allen and Russell Roads. 2. • Four regional roads that will provide important connections to major arteries should be maintained at a high level of service. These are: Matthews Road, Staib Road, Macon Road and Roger Highway. 3. Upgrade Russell Road west of Occidental to M-52 to serve as a major east-west connector to serve the industrial areas of the City. 4. Upgrade Billmeyer Highway and Allen Road to provide a north- south connector from M-50 north to Allen Road and Allen Road west to Tecumseh/Clinton Road. This will enhance access for industrial traffic having need for north-south traffic movement in the Tecumseh area. OBJECTIVE II: Strengthen the ability of local arterial streets to serve their primary function: allowing a smooth flow of high traffic volumes within, around and through the City, providing for traffic safety, and facilitating the beautification of such streets. POLICIES: 1. Local arterial streets should include the following: Occidental, Evans, Maumee, Rogers, Macon, Chicago and Russell. 2. On arterial streets with business frontages, limit turning movements and strive for combined entrance and exit points between abutting businesses in order to reduce traffic conflicts and bottlenecks. 3. Provide left-turn lanes on all arterial streets, wherever feasible. 4. Enforce land use policies on arterial streets that abut residential areas to discourage the development of high volume traffic generators such as business or office developments. 5. In areas where new arterial streets are proposed, undertake a program for development of such streets. 6. Encourage the development of landscaping buffers or transition areas on arterial streets that abut residential areas to provide noise and visual barriers as may be appropriate. 51 �7. Encourage the beautification of all arterial street entrances to the City. 8. Provide sidewalks on both sides of all arterial streets. OBJECTIVE Ill: Provide a network of collector streets within residential neighborhoods, industrial areas and growth areas adjacent to the City to allow for convenient traffic movement to arterial streets while preserving the residential character of neighborhoods. POLICIES: 1. Collector Streets in Tecumseh should include the following : Burt, Brown, North Union, South Union to Patterson and Patterson from S. Union to Maumee. 2. Encourage traffic that originates or terminates in Tecumseh to utilize collector streets wherever possible. 3. Place a high priority on the improvement and maintenance of collector streets. 4. Develop new collector streets in areas in which new economic development activity is imminent: 5. Sidewalks should be provided on both sides of all collector streets. OBJECTIVE IV: Maintain the residential character and safety of neighborhoods while improving local street conditions and providing a high level of street maintenance. POLICIES: 1. Provide curbs and gutters on all local streets. 2. Improve local street pavement where nonexistent or where warranting replacement. 3. Encourage off•street parking in residential areas in order to provide for safe traffic movement. 4. Provide sidewalks on at least one side of each street where gaps exist in the sidewalk network. 5. Continue the on.going program to upgrade sidewalks where deterioration is evident. 6. Undertake a tree planting program for all streets. 52 �OBJECTIVE V: Enhance the mobility of residents who, by choice or necessity, are dependent on other than private automobile transportation. POLICIES: 1. Consider the development of an internal transit system for persons not adequately served by existing transportation, particularly the elderly and the handicapped. 2. Encourage the use of manually powered transportation (bicycles and walking). 53 �I C LIN T ON I" , w, C ~ I Ill T O " .. \ .. '' .. ~ 1_·· : ' T ll Cu II ti I It - -- (' 9 I I .. ,.~ ... ,.. _J MAJOR THOROFARE ••••••••• SECONDARY THOROFARE THOROFARE MICHIGAN P L AN TECUMSEH I .,, . , "'"'' AUUtlT IUO vlllcon · lemon a ouoc. Inc. plonninQ conaullonta ��HISTORIC PRESERVATION The City of Tecumseh is, blessed with a wealth of historic architecture resources which are key elements in the City's visual character and unique identity. The basic purpose of including Historic Preservation in the Master Plan is to bring significant historic architecture and other cultural resources into the City's planning process so that they are recognized in the decision making processes that may affect their future. The City's culturally significant historical and architectural resources are irreplaceable. They continue to provide information about the past which can be useful in the future. They combine with the rich natural environment to provide a distinct sense of place. Without maintaining this sense of place, the City would lose its unique identity. Historical architecture and other cultural resources allow us to recall the contributions of early settlers and past residents, who through hard work and determination, have helped to make the City the attractive living environment which it is today. Field analysis and previous studies have shown that there are significant examples of the following architectural styles: Greek Revival, Italianate, Early Victorian Vernacular, Gothic Revival, Late Victorian, Queen Anne, French Second Empire, Dutch Colonial Revival, Bungalow, Grand Bungalow, Collegiate Gothic, Early Twentieth Century Vernacular and others. Also, there are some fine examples of carriage houses, barns and other outbuildings from throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Careful consideration should be given to all culturally significant historical and architectural resources whenever ownership development or maintenance threaten their future. The federal role in historic preservation expanded with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966. The Act established a review process to protect historic buildings threatened by federally funded projects. Under Section 106 of the Act, the head of any federal agency must take into account the effect of the project on a site included in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register before approving the use of federal funds. A corresponding provision, Section 110(f) of the Act, requires federal agencies to undertake planning and actions necessary to minimize harm to that landmark and afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation a reasonable opportunity to comment on the undertaking prior to approving the project. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is an independent federal agency within the Executive Branch which advises the President on historic preservation policy and comments on federal and federally assisted projects which affect historic properties. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 also protects historic resources. Section 102(2)(c) of NEPA requires the filing of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for "major federal actions" which affect the human environment. "Environment" was defined to include natural and cultural resources and Section 101 (b)(4) noted the need to" ... preserve important historic, cultural and natural aspects of our natural heritage." 54 �Section 4(f) of the Transportation Act of 1966, prohibits federal agencies within the Department of Transportation from approving any project requiring the use of an historic site unless: • 1. There is no feasible and prudent alternative to the use of such land; and 2. Such program includes all possible planning to minimize harm to such ... historic sites resulting from use. Executive Order 11593 issued on May 13, 1971, directs all federal agencies to protect and enhance the cultural environment. Agencies must inventory all historic and archaeological properties under their jurisdiction or control, nominate potential properties to the National Register, and exercise caution to ensure that historic properties are not altered or destroyed in the interim. During environmental review of federally funded, licensed, or assisted project, agencies must ask the Secretary of the Interior if any property including the environmental impact area is eligible for the National Register. The Historic Preservation Section of the Michigan Bureau of History was established in the Michigan Department of State in 1966 to carry out the national preservation program, as required by the National Historic Preservation Act. One of the major responsibilities of the Historic Preservation Section is to carry out Section 106 review of all federally funded projects in the state which affect properties listed or eligible for listing on the National Register. The Bureau also administers federal historic preservation grants. The historic preservation fund provides federal grants for historical surveys, nominations to the National Register, planning, public education, project plans and specifications and archaeological projects. Educating the public about federal and state historic preservation programs and assisting local governments with developing local historic preservation programs are other responsibilities of the State. The Bureau also directs and conducts a statewide survey of historic properties and maintains an inventory of these properties. Through. the survey program, the state coordinator provides technical assistance to communities that wish to perform a local survey. This inventory of historic properties is the first step towards enacting an historic preservation program. Michigan register, the State Register of Historic Sites, was established under PA 10 of 1955, MCL 399.151. Applications for the State Register and Marker programs are reviewed by the Michi,gan Historical Commission - a lay body appointed by the Governor. These programs are honorary, placing no restrictions on property owners, and 55 �designation offers no tangible benefits. The Act does provide for state grants to preserve and restore certain State Register properties, but no money has been allocated for this purpose since 1980. The National Historic Preservation Act also requires each state to prepare and implement a comprehensive statewide historic preservation plan. Michigan's historic preservation plan was first prepared in 1975 and updated in 1985. It is currently being revised to reflect new directions in historic preservation policy. The preservation, restoration, rehabilitation or adaptive reuse of every historical architecture example in the City of Tecumseh is not realistic. There are hundreds of structures more than 50 years of age. That is why only those buildings which possess integrity and a high degree of originality, with little or no major alterations, are those which we speak to. The significant examples of historic architecture in Tecumseh are those which are eligible for State and National Register listing as individual Historic Structures or as contributing elements to Historic Districts. The City of Tecumseh, through the efforts of the Historic Preservation Commission, has adopted a local historic district ordinance and has designated individual historic landmarks and districts. A map which illustrates the boundaries of the district and points out individual landmarks is included on the following page. Each year the Tecumseh Area Historical Society conducts the annual historic home tour known as "Promenade the Past." In conjunction with the homes tour the Historical Society selects and totally restores a historical home each year with the help from a wide variety of community groups and individuals. In that manner, the awareness of historic preservation and its importance to the overall character of the community is being demonstrated to the public. Historic sites and buildings are irreplaceable resources that serve to physically show the evolution of the City's early development. They are more important as key elements of the City's visual identity and unique character. While many represent specific architectural styles and historical periods, they each have their own distinct character variations and setting. Their continued use and maintenance will play a major role in protecting the atmosphere that has given the City its identity. These values, if not properly protected or planned for, can be seriously eroded as development patterns change. Local coordination and cooperation between preservation advocates, citizens and city government can successfully preserve these valuable resources for future generations of Tecumseh residents. 56 �- CURRENT HISTORIC DISTRICT [!] LANDMARKS o H IS TOR IC AL D IS TR I CT S a L AN D MARKS TECUMSEH MICHIGAN I •oo H• L l •oo !ZOO I N r[(T u.-TtWl(ft lttO ;ii'~cnoii~~emon c~noss~na~",\ �., TABLE 10 HISTORIC LANDMARKS (As of March, 1988) • 301 N. Union Street E.C. Coryell House Wesley & Theresa Powers 401 W. Chicago Blvd. Anderson-Beardsley House James & Mary Perry 511 W. Chicago Blvd. S.W. Anderson House Eric & Judith Douville 508 W. Chicago Blvd. Adolph Heesen House Gail and Judith Shinall 212 E. Kilbuck Street George Kempf House Randolph & D.L. Regal 216 N. VanBuren Street George Ketchum House William & Cheryl English 108 W. Pottawatamie William Hayden House Lynelle Cook 217 N. Evans Street Eccles House Paul & Eleanor Johnson 509 E. Logan Street G.P. Sparks/Carson Small Farms George & Suzanne Harvey 302 E. Chicago Blvd. Old Stone Church City of TecumsehjT.A.H.S. 703 E. Chicago Blvd. Hayden-Ford Mill City of Tecumseh 102 W. Chicago Blvd. Bidwell Block Peter & Mary Barhydt 301 N. Union Street J.S. Hendryx House Brian & Linda Bird 311 W. Logan Street E.B. Wood House (first) Glenna & Bill Stroud 416 W. Chicago Blvd. John H. Osborne House James & Janis Schuster 515 W. Kilbuck Street Wilson McClure House James & Sandra Curth 405 N. Union Street John McConnell Farm Harold & Julie Rhora 116 W. Chicago Blvd. Union Block James & Barbara McCann 409-411 E.Logan Street Musgrove Evans House Robert Langmeyer 213 E. Shawnee Street Albert Anderson House Alan & Mary Chriscinske 115 W. Shawnee Street Samuel Temple House Roy Banks 21 O S. Oneida Joseph E. Hall House Magdalena Saling 904 W. Chicago Blvd. Bacon-Cairns House Gary & Judy Hicks Source: Historic District Study Committee, June 1988. 57 ��FUTURE LAND USE PLAN The Master Plan document represents a compilation of textual and graphic information, • both of which play an important role in the formulation of land use policy. The preceding sections of this Plan have established goals and objectives for various components of the Plan. These goals and objectives are the direct result of much discussion and study. The Future Land Use Plan which is included on the following page is a composite of the previous sections. Although it attempts to encompass all of the ideals offered from the written text, its graphic nature makes it impossible to do so completely. Thus, it should be clearly understood that the Future Land Use Plan must be accompanied by its supporting text to be of full value. The Plan is based on information gathered at the present time given the existing circumstances. If the circumstances which shaped this Plan change in the future, the Plan may need to change as well. It is not a rigid document. It should be allowed to change to adjust to new trends and information and to allow for alternatives which may be desirable. The Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations are the primary tools through which the Plan can be implemented. As development and redevelopment continues, these land use tools will help to provide compatible land use relationships between uses and motivate quality site design. It is therefore the responsibility of the Planning Commission to carefully review proposed developments to assure that they meet the requirements of the Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations. Capital Improvements Programming can also be very useful in implementing the Master Plan. In this instance, particular attention should be focused on specific goals, objectives, and actions in the Plan. The Plan must be reviewed to determine a priority for various items. The priority in which the actions will be realized is a product of need and budget constraints. Beyond direct monetary input, there are other mechanisms through which the Plan can be implemented. There are many local groups that are actively involved in the improvement of the community and their past performance confirms their value. Donations, from developers and other private interests have also proven invaluable. Lastly, the involvement in State and Federal programs should be pursued where applicable. The Future Land Use Plan and the Master Plan document, as a whole, will prove a useful tool in guiding land use decisions in the future. It helps to provide direction to the City and to the public for land use issues. 58 �MASTER PLAN OF FUTURE LAND USE CITY OF TECUMSEH --- LEGEND Single-Family Residential PRUD\Cluster Residential Multiple-Family Residential Office General Business Central Business District Recreation\Open Space School E - Elementary J - Junior High -- ~ S - Senior High Public Industrial Commercial Industrial For specific details regarding flood plain boundaries, community facility locations and planned thoroughfares, see other maps within th is document. ~ thal puraan1 lo t h e ~ d Ad 285 d the Mic:hlgan Pubic Add 1931, a --.ded, the C11y d T ~ Plannlngeor,,mloolon.t,a,;fngdutfheld apubOc '-mg onlhe Maolllf Plan aFuwreLw,d u.., doNhefeby cfflc:lally lldopt 111d Matt« Plan d Future lN1d UM. We -ury that the ronQOing ,-olul1on , _ duly adopt-.! Ill a mNllng d heidonfha 12. ;;.,-dayd~- f/41,,:) /11, /j_tl:!.,i1J,) rman ~ Clly cl T..,..,,_, Planning Com-, <Jc~ Ar m,J,,it,,;J., Secnta,y VILICAN-LEMAN & ASSOCIATES , INC. COMMUNITY PLANNING CONSULTANTS AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Tecumseh_Master-Plan_1991 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-09 Title A name given to the resource City of Tecumseh Master Plan Description An account of the resource The City of Tecumseh Master Plan was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. in September 1990. Subject The topic of the resource Master plan reports Tecumseh (Mich.) Lenawee County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/05125a4b45def7e5bf0c16ebb057ca24.pdf d7cb10fb5e3b6ef62ea316d1cf1a5d14 PDF Text Text A Plan For Wyandotte 's CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT �• • • • • • • • • • • . FR_QM H LI ~RA~V OJ!) Planning & Zoning Center~ Inc• A PLAN FOR WYANDOTTE'S CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT prepared for: THE CITY OF WYANDOTTE prepared by: ■ ■■□■■ Vilican■ □oo■■ Leman □□□■■ . □□□■■ & Associates, oo□o■ Inc. ■ COMMUNITY PLANNING & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE • 28316 FRANKLIN ROAD SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48034 • (313) 356-8181 FEBRUARY, 1991 �II II • • TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO. INTRODUCTION ANALYSIS BACKGROUND ..................................... 1 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ASSETS AND LIABILITIES OF THE CBD ........................... 2 PRIMARY GOAL ............... . ............................ 3 SPECIFIC GOALS .... . ...................................... 3 DIAGNOSIS OF THE CBD CBD AREA ACTIVITY CENTERS : ................................ 5 VISUAL ASSESSMENT ........................................ 5 DESIGN STUDY CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL AREAS ......... . .................. 9 OFFICE COMMERCIAL AREA ...... . ................. . ........ 11 CBD CORE AND BIDDLE AVENUE . . . ............ : . .' ............ 11 PORTSIDE MARINA AND SOUTH RIVERFRONT AREAS .. . . . .· . . . . . . . . . 12 EFFECTUATION MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE ........ ... ............ . . DEVELOPM ENT CONTROL .................. ... .............. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMMING ........ . ........ . ...... PLANNING - A CONTINUING PROCESS ....... . ........... . ...... 15 15 17 17 MAPS EXISTING LAND USE . . ..... . .......... . .................... 1A LAND/ BUILDING VALUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1B CBD AREA ACTIVITY CENTERS ................................ 5A PLANNING OVERVIEW - VISUAL IMPRESSIONS .................... SA C.B.D. DESIGN PLAN ...................................... 14A ELEVATIONS - CBD DESIGN PLAN ............................ 14B ENTRANCE DESIGN STUDIES ................................ 14C BIDDLE AVENUE - STREET PARKING STUDY . .................... 140 EUREKA AVENUE EDUCATIONAL AREA ........................ 14E APPENDIX DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MARKET POTENTIAL ........ .. .... ·. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PARKING NEEDS ....... . ......... . . . ...................... C.B.D. WORKSHOP SURVEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE (CBD AREA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A B C D E �THE DDA's CHALLENGE AND MISSION • • •II II II THE CHALLENGE While the Wyandotte CBD cannot hope to directly compete with large scale regional oriented, enclosed shopping malls like Southland or Fairlane, it can serve a separate need. Most of the current shopping center complexes in the downriver area are of contemporary design and unspecialized in tenant mix or "theme." This mass appeal meets many needs. However, a shopping area attuned to its rich architectural history, ethnic diversity and waterfront access such as the Wyandotte CBD can also meet shopper needs for the "unique," the "colorful" and the "different." THE MISSION A combination of well designed store facades, a complementary streetscape, adequate and convenient parking and a strong linkage to the CBD's unique natural resource - the riverfront, coupled with vigorous self promotion by CBD businessmen should enable the CBD to expand its commercial base while retaining its urban small town atmosphere. Reference: Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. 1983 Downtown Wyandotte Study COD 11 /21 /89 �INTRODUCTION �., Iii •II • •II II -II II II I II •I I I INTRODUCTION Within the Wyandotte CBD and its immediate fringe some 500,000 square feet of retail space services a sizeable portion of some 200,000 people who reside in Wyandotte's primary trade area. The continued health and prosperity of the central business district is a prime concern in providing a direction for present and future uses of land in and around the CBD. Central Business Districts throughout history have represented the "lma;Je of the City." In a sense it is "Everyone's Neighborhood" and should be preserved and nurtured to be a source of pride to all of the City's residents. Over the past few decades (1960, 1970, 1980) strong inroads have been made by new shopping centers in competing for the retail shopping dollar. While the ·wyandotte CBD cannot hope to directly compete with large scale regional oriented, enclosed shopping malls like Southland or Fairlane, it can serve a separate need. Most of the current shopping center complexes in the downriver area are of contemporary design and unspecialized in tenant mix or "theme." This mass appeal meets many needs. However, a shopping area attuned to its rich architectural history, ethnic diversity and waterfront access such as the Wyandotte CBD can also meet shopper needs for the "unique,· the "colorful" and the "different." A combination of well designed store facades, a complementary streetscape, adequate and convenient parking and a strong linkage to the CBD's unique natural resource -the riverfront, coupled with vigorous self promotion by CBD businessmen should enable the CBD to expand its commercial base while retaining its urban small town atmosphere. ~ A strong sense of community exists in downtown Wyandotte as is evidenced by efforts to keep the CBD not only a strong retail center but also through a continuing program to make it an attractive activity center. Building maintenance, streetscape improvements, pleasant lighting and a solid business/government partnership have all played significant roles in the preservation of downtown Wyandotte and in making it more than just a regional retail center. Past accomplishments with regard to the improvement of the CBD, while laudable, should not lull the community into a false sense of security regarding the well being of downtown for the years ahead. Times and conditions are constantly changing . ANALYSIS BACKGROUND At the outset of planning for the Wyandotte CBD area, several basic studies were undertaken. These studies, summarized in the appendix relate directly to the potential for additional market growth, anticipated demographic trends and parking needs to support a sound business district. The existing land use and building/land values on a block by block basis are indicated on the maps which follow. 1 �• E XI sT I N G L AND DOWNTOWN CITY OF • . -- - usE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY WYANDOTTE _ ,, JANUAOY IHI · MICHIGAN - DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AREA �~1;1:1:1:111 11111 L_J L_J _J LJ LJ LJ LJ .__________. LJ L__J L__J LJ LJ L LJ l_J [__J LJ FIFTH :t: 1:1:: 1::: r1: 1 :i:11:: 1 It : 1i { 1: : r 111r~111111111 1 ::::::::[,I II [ Jl ~ Bi 111 il l ~ 1 !1:: : : ~ l]ill ~ ~ ~ I□ I[ ] ~ 1:l: 1 1 ::::: =====:=: ::::::: ::=:::= ::::::== 1 1 ]: ::=::::: :=:::== :=:=::: =:::=: ::::=== ::::::= _=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=j m:mnw ~:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=l 1 FOURTH 1 :1:1:1:1:1~1:1:1:::11::::::1 Q. ::::::: : ::=::::: 0 :::::::: ::::::: 1:1:::1:: ::1:1:: W :::::::: 1:::::1 u, :::::::: :::::: 2 1:1:1:1: 1:::::::1:1:::1:1 1:1:1:::11i:1 1::1::::::111:: ::::::::1::::::: ::::::: ::::::: W ::::::: :::::::: 0 U ::::::::: :::::::: • •.•.; . :,;,:.;.;.;,:,:.; SECOND ~ ■ ■ ■ l!lll!l!I ~ -·-·-:;:::::=:: 1:1111111 ■ 11111 ·II. •,..· [c v:,Fi!l!l!li ............ ~ !litH O • 30,000 ~ 30 001 ' 60 000 ~ 60 , 001 90,000 ~ 90,001 120,000 ~ 120,001 150,000 1111 150,001 a OVER ~ EXEMPT BLOCK BASED ON li!i!l!ll:!l!i!l! [ ............. . FIRST ~ > u, DD l\tIt:11\:t:( 1)/tt I/}tt 1/f : 1 : : 1 II II [ ti· II I@ OW THIRD J~{)\\f l~f ((t/ <ttilil]J' ::::::: ~ ' • D f: r ......___ I/ 0 r I w•·-:-:•:•:-~ 0:::-:-:::::: (;-:-:-:-:•.·.·.·.·.· .;.;:~;~\~:;:1 ■ c [ I/ I i , 1989 f: I/ ASSESSEO 114LUE IN DOLLARS LAND VALUE PER ACRE _J L_J L_j L__J LJ L . . _ __ _ _ _ , LJ LJ LJ LJ LJ LJ L_1 L_J l_J L L_J LJ FIFTH 1 ■ ]l: : : -: -:-:-:-: 1:1 WJLJ : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :;: : : ,11i!l,l1 ■ [ 1 !lil:!ili! l1!ilil 11:::::: !i!/i!i!l111!!:lii 11::ltl~lj/j l li1ii1tliliji/ll/ }llllt{_ 1::::1:1: FOURTH ■ g~ ■i~ ■ ~ 1li ! il l l ~ l{(•1::::::: ■ !~ ■ ~□![ ] w1:11:1:::t~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ {) i ){ ; ::i:::::!:i:i:l ]:!:l:::!:l:! /} (} ; THIRD J•~~~-==~ □0 111 ■■ ■ [ 1trtH a . 200.000 [ : ;: ;:;::\ 200,001 300,000 ~ 300,001 400,000 ~ 400,001 500,000 ~ 500,001 6 OVER ~ EXE M PT BLOCK BASED ON •, , I/ 0 ~ ~ ! II t 7 r I Ii I v 1989 {' I/ ASSESSED VALUE IN COL " \RS 0 LAND VALUE PER ACRE PLUS BUILDING VALUE CENTRAL BUSINESS CITY OF W YANDOTTE MICHIGAN ~ 20 0 ~ <00 fl auoun "" DISTRICT VILICAN-LEMAN&ASSOCIATES, INC. C ~ r , ~ ( 0,,.WA l ...,.,t, ~ '1Kl•IIC1 ) 1 11 1 1!!! !/l!l/lil ll �•ill • • • •Ill -Ill -Ill •Ill GOALS AND OBJECTIVES �• • • • • GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Imperative to the success of any planning effort is the assurance that a proper direction or goal is established which if achieved, will provide a desired and acceptable end result. Part of the answer is found in the process by which goals are set up. If offered from on high, they may seem too abstract, too idealistic and romantic, and their presentation may be resented or ignored. Worse yet, they may fail to truly represent what the community wants. One road to clarity, then, is procedural : it lies in having all interested parties or their representatives take part in the process of drawing up the objectives. A series of public workshops sessions were conducted with the City Council, the Downtown Development Authority, the Planning and Rehabilitation Commission , city administrative personnel, Chamber of Commerce, business and property owners, news media and the public. During these sessions, workshop participants were asked to identify what they felt were current assets and liabilities of the C.B.D. These are included in the appendix, however, the primary assets and liabilities identified during this session are as follows : LIABILITIES ASSETS 1. The riverfront 1. Inadequate parking (patrons and employees) 2. Camaraderie of existing retail shops 2. Lack of an anchor store 3. Appearance of downtown; historic character / cleanliness 3. Biddle truck traffic 4. Friendliness of merchants 4. Poor commercial diversity 5. Small town ambiance 5. Accessibility to downtown 6. Appearance of vacant/ blighted buildings Goals and objectives were then explored and defined for the improvement of the Downtown area. The objectives of establishing goals is stated as follows : GOALS GIVE DIRECTION TO THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR PLANNING PUBLIC FACILITIES - ENABLING Tf:-IEM TO PREPARE PLANS IN ACCORD WITH COMMUNITY DESIRES. 2 �THEY CAN CREA TE A COMMON GROUND OF AGREEMENT WHICH IS t.ECESSARY WHEN MANY INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS ARE ACTUALLY INVOLVED IN PREPARING AND ACHIEVING PLANS. THEY CAN PREPARE THE WAY FOR ACHIEVEMENT BY WARDING OFF UNWARRANTED - "JOHNNY-COME-LATELY'' CRITICISM WHEN THE TIME COMES TO PUT A PLAN INTO EFFECT. It is essential to achievement of goals that they be clearly stated. For this reason, it is often advantageous to develop two sets of goals for the future development of a central business district. First, a fundamental, underlying goal toward which all programs developed later presumably will be directed. And second, subsidiary and more specific goals that grow out of the underlying goal. PRIMARY GOAL FOR WYANDOTTE'S CBD Through government, business cooperation enhance CBD growth opportunities to enable it to continue as the prime retail, service and community event center for the downtown area. This will be done in a fashion sensitive to the existing character of the downtown area with emphasis on river access and proximity. Each new development will be expected to contribute to the economic vitality, service capability and attractiveness of the CBD. SPECIFIC GOALS A series of eight specific goals in support of the primary goal were developed which were further supported by numerous objectives as enumerated in the appendix. The specific goals were established as follows: GOAL I: ACCESSIBILITY- Access from the south and west as well as north should be improved. Routes to the CBD should be distinctively identified. GOAL II: TRAFFIC CIRCULATION - Downtown streets should provide easy access and smooth traffic flow for the downtown visitor and shopper with a minimum of pedestrian and vehicle traffic conflict. GOAL Ill PARKING - Every effort should be made to increase convenient safe and attractive customer parking particularly in areas where a deficiency in parking exists. GOAL IV SIZE OF CBD - The CBD will need to expand to keep pace with market area growth. Future growth should be concentrated as a compact business area conducive to walk-in business and through careful interaction with developers provide for the continuation of 3 �• • • • • - • • • • the unique character which typifies Wyandotte 's CBD. An additional 50,000 square feet of retail and supporting business activity in the Wyandotte CBD should be achieved by the year 2000. GOAL V CBD APPEARANCE - Provide a clean, efficient and tasteful environment that will enhance the Central Business District as a place to do business and a place in which all the citizens of Wyandotte take pride. GOAL VI THE RIVERFRONT - The Detroit River is Wyandotte's most attractive natural feature. Every effort should be made to make the river accessible to the public with particular emphasis on tieing the downtown area more intimately to the river. GOAL VII CBD MAINTENANCE - It is essential to keep a neat, orderly and safe downtown which attracts and keeps high quality businesses and maintains a comfortable retail atmosphere for the shopper. GOAL VIII EFFECTUATION - Every available tool for the improvement of downtown Wyandotte will be pursued. 4 �DIAGNOSIS OF THE CBD �-II Ii II II II II Iii DIAGNOSIS OF THE CBD CBD AREA ACTIVITY CENTERS The current land uses which occur in the Central Business District are identified in eight activity areas. They are: The CBD Core shopping area, residential usage area, civic activities area, office/commercial area, historically significant area, parks/recreation area, and a potential marina/waterfront usage area and the Roosevelt High School Campus area (see concept diagram). These are further defined as 11 land use sectors in the Master Plan for the CBD Area listed in the appendix. An analysis of each area leads to a stronger suggestion for greater identification of its own inherent characteristics and most importantly, identity through its connection with all areas, i.e., linkage.· In the course of the workshops conducted, key word-concepts like connection, access.linkage, internal and external nodes, and edges were used repeatedly to describe how the CBD might best function as a unified whole. It is through these spaces that the movement of people occur. It has been proven that people become more secure in their environment when specific usage areas are less jumbled, and confusion is reduced. Briefly these terms can be described as follows : Nodes: Are centers where usage areas meet and where edges join typically identified intersections or special places of use. Linkages: Tie nodes together by connecting them in such a way that movement is a pleasurable experience. Why? to get people out of the automobile and on their feet where the access to goods and services are convenient. Edges: Are the fringes of areas. abutting neighborhood. For example, preserving the integrity of an It is through careful integration of these land use applications that a long range plan for downtown Wyandotte emerges. It is a process of bringing the whole CBD picture into focus . VISUAL ASSESSMENT The current function and appearance of the CBD is the result of historical trends relating to economic conditions, geographic location and political decision making. In order to identify · the current elements that provide us with both positive and negative visual impressions of the CBD, a reconnaissance survey was performed that serves as an overview of current problems relating to land-use relationships within the CBD and 5 �.,, IL••••~• •l•: m J□·oo·oo~oo· t..,.'" ST. CAMPUSAREA RESIDENTIAL ) NEIGHBORHOOL.J ITT' I s1 xrH f-srl llllor--.~r SIXT.., e:1111 , ,. p 1, , I 11 ~ 9 In "'n- - - - - n --- _ FIFTH ■ ~......._.._~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . , , . . . . . . , . . . . ST •• ••u... civic I _ I _ i!_____ __ _ ST _ ____ _ _ __ ·s ·i..--..10 ~~ - - "-- 0 0 DD DD DD Ld bci e ,7 . ~ ~ O ~ -~ ! a: ~ g Q. a O er ~ " 1 eus_1N~~~-- E FIRST s=-----: v __ . --□ DD DD - ~ LJLJENWLJLJ D.W Jg"[ . r, CENTRAL R I _ I I RESIDIII :NTIAL Wl=lr.l-lR( ---- -- ---->RHOOD THIRD · ( 1G "-;;-,;;M_l M,_ 1--1• ---om- -- , - ~ II,, -•--- ~- - - •< ~LJI ~~;n .,I HIGH SCHOOL THIRD Li~ ~I:==- ' .ix II Q. JD DD DD DD DD Pr■, JD DD DD 0[100 10 JD DC LJLJ LJLJ o . 3 ]D~oo ~ egh i ~ riu~++ ii 0 a: lJl. 1 XI ST ~ ~ ~o~ - □□►D, ... i 7 J i : FIRST L--JL--J ~ J Q. ooc::i, ~==ID C ER LJ OI I .,..,-......._ ---------o ' CBD AREA ACTIVITY CENTERS I VAN 6, : : 11 p ALSTYNE PARK 1 1 I n C] I �impressions of the primary transportation corridors into the City. This information is presented on the "planning overview" map at the end of this section. Further assessment of the primary transportation corridors into the city is provided below. NORTH ENTRANCE: The Ecorse bridge landmarks the boundary and separates Wyandotte from the City of Ecorse to the north. The area, south of the bridge has a pleasant pastoral character that should be protected. The idea is not to create a grandiose entry presentation but to encourage the preservation of well established trees and good housing stock with ample setbacks which provide for an entrance statement of its own. Further refinement of entrance identification could consist of a center landscaped median in Biddle Avenue. This approach would complement the existing character, reduce the scale of the road and benefit the abutting residential community as a whole. The Ecorse bridge structure, if improved, would enhance the entrance image to the City. Such improvements should consist of repairing the facial damage and broken pediments that reveal the aging and weathering that has occurred over time. Further study could produce a new color scheme with supportive street graphics and amenities that introduce a nautical theme as an attachment to the bridge while being careful to avoid overstatement. The Biddle Avenue landscape changes dramatically beyond Clinton Avenue. Between Clinton and Perry Avenue the similarity to the several blocks at the entrance to Wyandotte ends . Boat storage racks, chain link fence, concrete hardscaped surfaces crowd the right-of-way edges. The tree stock is dwarfed as a comparison and offers little value to the overbearing elements behind their branches. It is not that the character of this space cannot be reworked to bring out positive values, it can. This area lacks transition and continuity. The transitions in this space are sharp, abrupt and allow for visual bleed-off into unsightly pockets. Further study needs be conducted to identify inherent improvement opportunities of this entire area. The visual character begins to improve from Perry Avenue to Ford Avenue. At Ford, a sense of urban character takes shape. Large trees and historic building facades return to the streetscape. The space between Ford and Superior Avenue has been defined as an opportunity for historic preservation and is discussed in another portion of this report. SOUTH ENTRANCE: Wyandotte 's south boundary is defined, by Pennsylvania Avenue. The greatest exposure to the community is via Biddle Avenue. At this junction the Wayne County waste treatment plant to the west, a Detroit Edison transformer sub-station on the southeast corner and the Penn Walt Company to the east dominate this entrance. Some changes are currently underway to improve the image of this area. These efforts have been 6 �focused on landscaping the lot immediately south of the Nichols Vending site, and in addition, the city is currently completing the construction of a planting median on Biddle Avenue from Pennsylvania to Grove Street. While these efforts are good, they also need to provide consistency iii selection of materials, consideration for size and scale of the right-of-way, and the impact on future land uses currently projected for the waterfront. EAST ENTRANCE: A great deal of discussion in workshop sessions centered on Wyandotte's opportunity to connect with the resources of the Detroit River. The City's eastern edge runs the entire length of the river's shoreline. Historically this land has been dominated by industry. Vacant properties now exist for sizeable portions of this area. It is of immense importance to the CBD and the people of Wyandotte that new development of this riverfront property be utilized to provide public river access wherever feasible. Currently, Bishop Park is the only sizeable public access pQint on the riverfront in Wyandotte. WEST ENTRANCES: Eureka Avenue provides the major east-west connection to the Central Business Area from east of Fort Street to Biddle Avenue within the heart of the CBD. Eureka Avenue is appropriately under study for improving its business function and its visual quality. Eureka Avenue is a major commercial corridor linking the communities to the west with Wyandotte. The prominent features of Eureka are its generous right-of-way, the railroad bridge structure, Roosevelt High School which is just east of the bridge, and the intersection with Biddle Avenue within the CBD. The Fort and Eureka Intersection is the gateway into Wyandotte from the west. As a gateway it should function to extend to commuters who would normally pass by without notice, an invitation to participate in community activities. This intersection serves as a doorway into the City. This means that the intersection must take on a form consistent from one side of the right-of-way to the other; one that communicates "welcome" and induces movement into the City, (see Entrance Design Studies, Concepts A and B). The "communication" can be festive or subtle yet dynamic, thematic or even inspirational. Whatever characteristic this gateway emulates, it purpose is to set up a level of expectation for the events that are to occur once past this point. Ford Avenue which parallels Eureka to the north, is smaller in scale and has some commercial activity east of the railroad tracks but changes into residential character between the tracks and Biddle Avenue. For this reason increased traffic volumes could have a negative impact on the character of Ford Avenue. 7 �II • • •II II - EUREKA BRIDGE: Continuing concern is expressed for the improvement of the railroad bridge to stop its overall decay. Potential exists to improve its image and to utilize the bridge as an entry introduction to the Central Business District. The bridge presently serves the interest of Conrail Railroad and Detroit Edison. The west side face of the bridge is owned and maintained by Edison and is open to any proposals for improvements including the attachment of structural signage. In this study a concept has been developed to embellish this structure and the adjacent slopes, (see Entrance Design Studies, Concept C). This concept is an attempt to work with some elements that exist and combine them into a design that perhaps represents a current trend. Much refinement would be required to make this idea feasible, but the intent allows for a graphic image to bring together colored panels for interest, a nautical flavor by the use of flags and a symbol previously developed for the CBD storefronts. Supporting plants should be new materials, further adding to a fresh appearance. Although this approach is a bold one, the conquest for bridge refinement combined with signage is justifiable given the opportunity to promote the CBD to the east. Additional improvement opportunities should be given further study. 8 �• • • • • ,__ PARKING • PRIVATE PARKING LOT DOMINATES Tl1E AREA • INTERNAL PlAHTING IS ADEQUATE • SUGGEST BEA MING AREAS BETWEEN ROAD AND PARKING TO DEFINE EDGE AND LIMIT VIEWS ACROSS LOT • RECENT STREET CLOSURES HAVE PROVIDED EXTRA PROTECTION BY ELIMINATING EXCESS TRAFFIC • HOUSING COMPOSED OF OLD SINGLE FAMILY AND MULTIPLE (LOW TO MID-RISE) PRIMARY PEDESTRIAN ZONE----' • NEED LINK TO RIVER CE NTR A L BUSI NESS DISTRICT 0 to0 • .-00 VAN ALSTYNE CLOSED TO Tl1ROUGH 'TRAFFIC AT Tl11S POINT •OO"'f A PLANNING OVERVIEW CITY OF WYANDOTTE M ICHIGAN RIVER FRONT PEDESTRIAN USE AREA NEEDS A TERMINATING FEATURE ON SOUTli END • INTENSELY USED RIVER SIDE PARK. POSmVE FEATURE FOR THE c 11.l). AND NEIGHBORHOOD ' • LINK TO RIVER WALK EAST OF lHE C.B.D. COULD BE STRENGTHENED, SUGGEST EXTENDING RIVER WAIJ(llfTO PARK. AMERICAN LEGION NEEDS TO BE RELOCATED TO ACCOMPLISH l,JNK �II ii I • • • • • •II • • • •■ •~ • DESIGN STUDY �•I I •II II II II II II • • DESIGN STUDY It is the intent of this design study through simulating an overlay on the described usage areas and, by careful interaction between nodes and key linkages, that the Wyandotte Central Area urban fabric begins to knit together. A design concept is presented representative of only one way to create such an environment by the positioning of in-fill development, parking structures and streetscapes using all of the existing commercial buildings where they presently stand. These spaces are meant to encourage positive relationships between usages, provide convenience to shoppers, and create a stimulating environment for city dwellers. This is a process of bringing the whole community picture into focus with our objective of making the CBD area "everyone's neighborhood ." CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL AREAS There are many historic features in Wyandotte worthy of historic preservation such as home sites, church spires, historical monuments and artifacts relating to the City's early history. Wyandotte 's Historic Preservation Society is a non-profit organization that has been granted stewartship over the protection of these elements. It's principle objective has been to provide a sense of identity to the community and strengthen it's cultural heritage. Presently the Ford-MacNichol house and the museum is the nucleus for a potential historic district. The location for this district is on Biddle Avenue between Walnut and Chestnut Streets. Encouraging the growth of the historical society includes building up it's endowment and also strengthening the image of the district to provide a historical gateway into the city from the north. A district of this nature and location communicates to others that Wyandotte has dimension, is preserving its cultural heritage, and is selective about the types of development that are to occur . Because of the close proximity to Bishop park, the historic district has direct linkage to open space which is vital to conducting public awareness programs. Current programs include: the historic festival, preservation week and the christmas program. These types of functions bring people into the CBD area. Additionally, a historic theme in this location compliments the residential areas to the west and south by preserving the harmony and integrity of each land use. In this historic entry area, Elevation C depicts Biddle Avenue without curb and gutter with a raised center planter. These elements are intended to slow down vehicular traffic, discourage Biddle avenue as a trucking route through Wyandotte and heighten the awareness of motorists for pedestrian safety. The parking lot between the library and the high-rise apartment building has been converted to a pedestrian access corridor creating courtyards orienting the entrances of both structures inward while linking this area to Bishop Park. Vehicular parking has been shifted across Van Alstyne into a parking 9 �structure to supply parking for the high rise apartments, the library and park visitors. The tennis courts :. re now located on the roof top of this parking facility . Additionally a new Recreation/Cultural Center is depicted adjacent to the River Towers further strengthening the concept of a Cultural Area. EDUCATIONAL AREA How much is Wyandotte willing to invest in the future of it's young people? What would be an ideal learning environment for the high school student of Wyandotte? These are very important questions to ask of Wyandotte's citizens relative to the use of land within the vicinity of the Roosevelt High school area. The high school is a significant part of the central area of the City. Daily some 2,500 students and there parents converge on its premises. Additionally, this learning center encourages students and the community to indulge in the arts, sciences and the humanities on a continual basis. Why wouldn 't it make sense to develop this area into a campus environment, a place where students can find an extension of the classroom out into the real world? Opportunities for employment, pilot programs for student/private business enterprises, a student operated bank, and a plaza for public forum and exhibition of academic accomplishment, are examples of a place used for human development within a cultural context. Why not contain community supported educational activities and possible student employment within a campus atmosphere as an alternative to aimless vehicular loitering throughout the city? This educational, trade learning, and employment complex, envisioned specifically for three blocks of Eureka Avenue from seventh to fourth streets, would be a high school nucleus capable of supporting a wealth of community resources. Immediately east of the high school lies a vacant parcel of land. This parcel of land is visualized as a potential campus plaza that would be used for art display, cultural exhibits, exchange of ideas and information. This proposed plaza provides for the display of expressiveness through the arts , sciences and humanities. It also proposes the installation of a snack shop and bookstore on the east side of the plaza area. This concept has tremendous potential and will require well conceived policy and action to carry it's conception into reality. CIVIC AREA Currently the city hall complex occupies valuable downtown real estate. When Federals Department Store left the downtown, a void was created that was filled by the city offices. Currently, this use functions to draw people into the CBD area, however it occupies a valuable site in the center of an important retail block. Over time consideration should be given to conversion of this site back to a retail activity. The CBD plan proposes the relocation of civic oriented activities to a fringe area of the CBD on the north east corner of Eureka and Third Street. This new position provides gateway identification to the urban core for those entering the city east bound on Eureka. Furthermore, the location has a compatible relationship, through linkage, with the educational complex envisioned to the 10 �I I I I ii . • • •I I ii ii • • • • • west and the commercial office area envisioned to the north. This concept couples a new civic building to a parking deck directly east, closer to the CBD. The civic complex provides an opportunity to expand and tie-in with the yack arena area and to provide shared parking for the civic complex and for the CBD. OFFICE COMMERCIAL AREA This concept encompasses a rectangular area bounded by Maple, Oak, Second and Fourth Streets. A commercial office complex mixed with mid-rise housing is compatible with the civic activities proposed directly south and also serves as a use that buffers the residential district from the CBD. A plaza space connects the civic center to a mid-rise housing structure by a pedestrian mall that would otherwise be an alley. Three new office buildings that are integrated with existing buildings are proposed on the block between Third and Second and Maple and Elm. The placement of office use in this area implies greater emphasis on Second Street to make connections with the CBD. Every opportunity to invite direction east towards the CBD area is made and is further encouraged by the cross street enrichment paving and interior mall through ways. Downtown housing is preserved and integrated into this scheme by working with the existing housing units. The addition of a mid-rise housing structure on the east side of second Street between Maple and Elm, improves the population base in the downtown which supports retail activities and community vitality. With the addition of housing and the increase in office and commercial activity comes a greater demand for parking. A new parking deck is indicated on the south side of Oak street between First and Second streets. This deck located next to the Wyandotte theater would also serve the parking needs of the merchants on Oak street and in the whole retail core of the CBD. CBD CORE AND BIDDLE AVENUE The CBD core includes activities of major retailing, commercial services, financial institutions and offices. This area is vital as the major focal point of the community for the provision of retail goods and services to residents and its contribution to the community's tax base. Well designed and healthy commercial areas are a tremendous asset to any city, while incomplete, unhealthy and poorly designed areas can pose many land use problems and greatly hinder effective community preservation and development. This concentrated retail core area is the focus for the entire CBD study area and will continue to serve as the prime retail, service and event center for the Downriver area. Continued attention to maintenance and improvement is essential to its further prosperity . VAN ALSTYNE RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS A great deal of discussion has evolved around Van Alstyne. This block of residential houses offers some of the most desirable housing units in Wyandotte. The plan for the CBD recognizes the importance of preserving this small residential neighborhood. Linking 11 �i i ■ i 11 ■ II II II II • • • • • • • the CBD to the proposed marina development south of the CBD and to Bishop Park makes a great deal of sense when community vitality is at a premium. The sketches indicate a connection of the CBD by a tree lined pedestrian way on Elm, leading to Bishop park and focused on a fountain at Elm and Van Alstyne. This fountain is aligned to the center of Elm and is intended to draw people towards the river. It also serves as a terminus to the north end of Van Alstyne. The fountain is a focal point from all directions and ties a look out pier on the rivers edge to Biddle Avenue. Directly west of the Van Alstyne residential blocks is the alley and the back side of the CBD. The sketch (see elevation B) indicates a connection from the south through the alley to the park and represents an opportunity for businesses to establish dual exposure. A "privacy separation" between this improvement and the rear of residential properties on Van Alstyne would be made possible by a decorative wall. Further connection between the south area and the park is made by a suggested pedestrian oriented center island proposed through Van Alstyne (see elevation D) . EUREKA AND BIDDLE AVENUE INTERSECTION One of the most repeated comments made by workshop participants was that Wyandotte needs to capitalize on the Detroit River. The Eureka and Biddle intersection is vital to the CBD because it is ttie arrival zone to the CBD core and provides the first glimpse of the river for the east bound traveler. This zone welcomes, influences, directs and provides a sense of orientation and evokes participation in CBD activities. Expanding the properties on the east and south sides of Biddle and Eureka to include arrival and identification is highly recommend by this design study . This intersection is strategic to the CBD because it allows direct pedestrian access to the Detroit river and the developments to the south. A riverfront promenade and look out pier further embellishes this connection. PORTSIDE MARINA AND SOUTH RIVERFRONT AREAS Potential for developments south of Pine Street bordering the river are continuing to be explored. Environmental pollutants have hampered development feasibility and it is still questionable whether this site can perform to the extent of marina, housing and recreation purposes proposed in a recently completed Riverfront Study. If indeed these activities are implemented based upon the assurances of protecting the health safety and welfare of its occupants, the potential positive impact of this development for the CBD are significant. Public access to the river front via connections north and south have been explored and has been highlighted in the Riverfront study. It is envisioned that a direct link along the river front to the CBD without the impedance _of noise, and visual obtrusion of the 12 �I I I I I I • • • • • • " "• • • • automobile, would be an asset to the public and retail establishments. Additionally the open space environment that the riverfront setting offers is a prime location for festival and fair oriented activities which would provide additional shoppers for the CBD. The on-going construction of marina and housing units on the north side of Pine Street in the portside area is a positive development. This demonstrates that high quality waterfront projects can be successful for those with imagination and the initiative to pursue them. BISHOP PARK Bishop Park has been utilized for fishing, picnicking and festival space. A fishing pier was recently constructed for public use and is actively used. This CBD design plan depicts a redesigned configuration of the parking lot to allow for an arbored promenade, central sculpture and extension of an additional sea wall north in the direction of the fishing pier. This extension engulfs a new port of entry for Wyandotte for pleasure craft. This concept indicates a day use boat dockage although longer term stays may also be accommodated. Improvements to the American Legion facility and a joint agreement with the city would allow for the sale of goods and services catering to boaters and park users. The American Legion structure is the most visible element in the park as seen from the waterfront. If this structure can be viewed as a resource to the community and if the American Legion organization would be willing to participate in a program that supports marine activities, a day use boat dockage facility could provide an effective way of capitalizing on the transient boaters (see elevation A) . The extension of an additional pier would also mark a position for the dockage of an entertainment cruise vessel along the south edge of the park's waterfront. People in route from lower southeastern Great Lakes and Canadian communities would port temporarily and become a potential market group for the CBD . To accommodate increased demand for parking in this area, a parking structure is proposed where the tennis courts presently exist. The tennis courts would be reestablished on the roof top of this parking deck. In addition, some park frontage would be taken to allow for the boat slips. A study should be conducted to determine how much frontage is necessary for the special demands of the boaters. These waterfront proposals strengthen Wyandotte 's position in the boating community and provide opportunities for CBD merchants to capitalize on increased activity by providing goods, services and entertainment needs. PARKING Parking on Biddle Avenue has continued to be an issue focused on convenience. During recent holiday shopping seasons, Biddle Avenue has supplied a portion of the demand by allowing parking in the center of Biddle A,;,enue. A special design sketch was requested to depict the integration of center street parking, pedestrian safety and design 13 �I I I I I I I I I II II • • • • • • • • amenities, (see Biddle Avenue Street Parking Study). In this sketch, mid block crossing with depressed curbs, bollards and changes in paving materials and patterns at the intersection will help to ward off risk of accident. These elements provide a clue to the driver that they are in a highly pedestrian oriented zone and to proceed with greater awareness. Speed limits within these blocks should be reduced to further encourage safety. Within these blocks are planter boxes constructed of light weight concrete. The use of trees in planter boxes in the street adds significantly to an urban streetscape feeling by softening the hard environment and aids in increasing motorist awareness. These tree planter boxes are designed to be removed by truck so streets can be cleared for parades and street fair activities. PARKING STRUCTURES During the inventory and analysis phase of this study and in workshop sessions the project team observed that issues of parking convenience, supply and identification are most important. The merchants confided that many employees park in adjacent lots and at curbside all day, discouraging their use for potential customers. This problem can be corrected through each proprietors better management of staff parking needs. Additionally, rear store entrances could provide important access to the shopping street and store owners are encouraged to improve the rear entrances where parking accessibility can be improved. Shops that do not desire rear entrances could still benefit from an enhanced area that contributes to an improved parking environment. The cost-benefit of parking structures is directly linked to the vitality of businesses in the downtown. According to the presentation on parking structures by Carl Walker and Associates, these facilities are considered viable when a healthy market place exists and continues to provide a revenue base that can fund the expected debt service and maintenance. As a demand for more retail space increases the potential for conversion of parking lots to parking structures may prove feasible . 14 �• L THIRD ST. SECOND ST. · ltt:<tJ EXISTING BUILDINGS I 1 INFILL BUILDINGS 11111111 INTERIOR MALL SPACE \111\1111111111! POTENTIAL SKYWAY CONNECTION FIRST ST. a: 0 C 0 0 a: ~ C. z w ::::, (/') w > a: :5 Q. 0 Q. OK OUT LOOK OUT PIER-t-~- A SCULPTURE-_;;;_,,.c......._...- @iluW §IF ~IBilllQ)(Q)lfil~ VAN ALSTYNE -r1--PARKING DECK WITH ROOF TOP TENNIS BUFFER PLANTING �• • • •Ill ~~ ~ !(\ " 111· • •II • • • • ~ Iil I i IilltI I(gJ ~ .... ~ . .: ~ I d] TI@ @ @ i ~ t::l ~ i ~ Ib ~ i d] lfilIJ �• • . ■ ■ II • • •If • • • • • • • ~ \ m1r~~(g§ §~TI@JINIJ ~lfCUJ[g]D@~ �•ill •iii \\ -,~ ,-~ ~~U-~~>A ~ \ ~~, ~?--~- -=:;: .~ _-"}\\_ r--,---_ A:::.'✓--_E.-:::_-z:_-_~~,l ~-,- ,~•---=, ~~---.,1ff~" 11 I B== ID.::,D1l l--..-1 w ~ a: w a: ...J <( <( 2 ::::> w 1111 w a. 0 (.) >en Iii Iii ill w, '", 2 w ...J 2 ~@~~u ~ :it, CONCRETE BANDS D~ ~ -a DEPRESSED CURBS tr ,:,' EXISTING PLAN ~:~ ill Iii iii ~Q~~~Q> tJ MID-STREET CROSSING li'I' &' Ii ~ I(,' e,' 1111 BRICK PAVING EXHIBIT A 52 SPACES Iii 111111 EXHIBIT B 56 SPACES ~ II �~r t- ~ ALLEY :c l w > w en l~cc ::> 0 u. LL - -- ART DISPLAY ~ ENRICHMENT PAVEMENT ~ OUTDOOR CAF~ RDCSEVELT PLAZA PLAN~:~ §llJJ~l§IK~ ~~IgIRJJlUJ{§ §§llJJ@~1fIJ(g) .4--..--..... Ji p ~ �EFFECTUATION �• • • • • • .. • EFFECTUATION The most important effectuating tool centers around cooperative interaction between all of the players who are committed to preserving, improving and bringing new development activity to the Central Business Area. A strong cooperative spirit between City government and the business community exists in Wyandotte. As is expressed as one of the goals of the downtown area plan, various interests including the Mayor, City Council, Downtown Development Authority, Planning and Rehabilitation Commission and the Merchants Association will cooperatively continue to work toward improving downtown area. THE MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE The Master Plan For The Central Business District Area as adopted by the Wyandotte Planning and Rehabilitation Commission sets a policy framework for the long term land utilization of properties in the CBD area. It also reflects the goals and objectives for the downtown area established through numerous workshop sessions involving widespread community interests. A number of public hearings conducted by the Planning and Rehabilitation Commission provided further input prior to adoption of the plan. The plan is based on information gathered at the present time given the existing circumstances. If the circumstances which shaped this plan change in the future, the plan may need to change as well. It is not a rigid document. It should be allowed to change to adjust to new trends and information and to allow for alternatives which may be desirable. Daily decisions, as they are formed week after week, month after month, and year after year, are those which create downtown as it exists at a given point in time. There have been all too many instances of logical, even inspired plans which failed to change the community in any effective way. To be effective a plan must live in the minds of those who make daily decisions to guarantee that those decisions are constantly working toward the final goal. It must also be recognized that change is a process, not an event. it happens slowly over a long period of time. DEVELOPMENT CONTROL The legal devices for plan effectuation include zoning, and building and housing codes. Development controls are the tools by which the City directs the daily changes occurring in a community. It is important to note that such controls are a means to an end and not an end in themselves. This point is highly significant since no controls of this type can ever be successful unless they are based on a sound understanding of the community and reflect the citizens' desires, needs, and concepts of what the community should be. 15 �ZONING ORDINANCE Zoning is the most important common type of development control. It consists of the regulation by districts (under the police power) of the height, bulk and use of buildings, the use of land, and the density of population. • There are a number of objectives to be achieved through zoning. It is intended to conserve and protect property values by encouraging the most appropriate use of lands and by preventing the intrusion of objectionable or incompatible uses in any given area. Further objectives are to facilitate adequate and economical provisions of public improvements and to maintain a high quality of community living. Zoning regulations restrict the freedom of the property owner, but at the same time protect him from the uncontrolled freedom of others. They prevent development that might be objectionable to the community as a whole. It is in this way that property values are maintained. • Legally, courts have been emphasizing that zoning must be based on a plan before it can be valid . The Master Plan For Future Land Use for Wyandotte's Central Business District Area provides the plan on which the zoning district map and the ordinance are based. A review of zoning districting in the CBD Area should be undertaken to assure that zoning reflects plan objectives . BUILDING AND HOUSING CODES There are other codes which are instrumental in encouraging high standards of development. These include the building code, the housing code, fire codes, sanitation codes, smoke abatement codes, air pollution codes, and many others. Building and housing codes are separate, distinct items. The building code is designed to insure that a structure is sound from an engineering viewpoint. The technical requirements are such to adequately provide for fire protection, proper ventilation, necessary strength to prevent collapse, and similar things. Housing codes are designed to protect the occupant of the structure in a different way; their purpose is to insure that there will be no overcrowding, that there will be adequate separate sanitary facilities and adequate light and heat, and that the arrangement and design of rooms will provide adequate facilities for occupants. Administrators of these codes working closely, with the planning program, can aid in cooperative area planning and orderly development. 16 �•I •I I I • • • • • • CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMMING Improvement planning, consisting of a capital improvement program and a capital budget are prerequisites to sound planning in any community. These processes involve the orderly budgeting of community funds in conjunction with a logical scheduling of the various required community improvements. The capital improvement program is designed for a period of years (normally five years) and is prepared anew each year with a reevaluation of community needs. The capital improvement program lists those improvements required in the community and establishes a priority (timing or phasing) for their construction. The capital budget is designed to allocate funds for the right project at the right time. In private lives, people plan in advance for those large items to be bought whether it is a home, a car, or vacation. The community, too, must attempt to anticipate its needs in advance so as to plan the financial outlays for maximum value with a minimum of sacrifice to the taxpayer. Public improvements are financed through taxes, and in order to have the highest economy and utilization of tax monies, a planned budget must be prepared . Community needs are listed according to priority need, and projects are scheduled over a definite time-period, generally five or six years. These are given priority and indication is made as to what year they will be performed in whole or in part, with items of greatest urgency handled first. The Downtown Development Authority in consort with the Mayor and City Council should assure that downtown area long and short term improvements are programmed into the City's overall capital improvements program . PLANNING - A CONTINUING PROCESS As previously stated - change is a process, not an event. The downtown plan must be a continuing process through time in a community aware of its changing needs. There must be a periodic review of the plan and of the data supporting the plan, with the necessary updating of various proposals or provisions. Data of the kind used in the planning process is perishable; that is, it becomes invalid or simply obsolete as time passes. New data, therefore, must be acquired, analyzed, and integrated into a revised plan as conditions change. 17 �• • • • • • • • •II • APPENDIX �I I I APPENDIX A II II • • • • • DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE CITY OF WYANDOTTE WAYNE COUNTY, MICHIGAN NOVEMBER, 1988 �I I I SUMMARY Itemized below are the key findings and conclusions from the Demographic Profile of the City of Wyandotte. POPULATION TRENDS • • • • 1. Between 1970 and 1980 the City experienced a decline in its population base of over 7,000 persons. In the 1980-1987 period, the City's population tlad a slight gain. Despite this recent gain, longer range forecasts indicate a continuation of the historic trend of gradual population loss. 2. Among the many factors contributing to this loss is a declining birth rate, increased divorced rates and greater longevity of the population such that more older people are living along rather than as part of families with young children. These factors combine to create a shrinkage in the average number of persons per household . ·HOUSEHOLD AND HOUSING TRENDS 1. A household is an occupied housing unit. From 1970 to 1980, the City had a slight loss in the number of housing units. With this decline came a corresponding decline in the number of households. Much of this loss can be contributed to demolition activity undertaken to make way for either new non-residential construction or to eliminate substandard, deteriorated housing in residential neighborhoods. 2. Minimal new housing construction has occurred in Wyandotte in recent years. As a result, current household estimates indicate only a small household gain of less than 150 households since 1980. 3. The vacancy rate among housing units in 1980 in the City was 3%, indicative of a healthy housing market but one which also borderlines on having a shortage of a variety of housing vacant and available for move-in by persons desiring immediate residency in the City. 4. Compared to the County at large, the City has substantially fewer housing complexes consisting of five or more units per structure. The majority of the City's housing stock consists of single- and two-family dwellings, creating a relative lack of variety of housing choices. Additionally, a major portion of the two-family homes are estimated to be located in structures converted from single-family use. While many of these conversions have been done well, with good materials and design, others are less well planned. In several neighborhoods, the creation of a large A-1 �I I I I • •I proportion of two-family homes from former single-family homes has created a shortage of both on and off-street parking, over-usage of lawn areas and a general appearance of congestion which could eventually lead to blight. 5. This blight and/or the potential for it to occur also exists as a result of the overall age of the bulk of the City's housing stock, of which over 65% were constructed prior to 1950. While most of these older homes are well maintained, a large number of them are oversized or of antiquated internal design by modern-day housing standards . AGE TRENDS AND LIFE CYCLES 1. Public school enrollment has declined in the City over the last several years with continued declines anticipated. Despite this decline in school age children, households containing such children -as well as pre-school children, are anticipated to increase both in actual number and proportion of all households in the City. The growing trend toward working mothers and/or single parent families indicates that additional consideration must be given by both the City and School District toward meeting the growing need for child care programs and facilities . 2. In contrast to many other communities in the Detroit metro ·area, in Wyandotte , future trends indicate a gradual reduction of the number and proportion of households containing persons in their middle or retirement years. Households containing seniors, from the early 1970's through the present, have seen the greatest increase in numbers. This trend is now reversing. A possible reason for this reversal is the relative lack of housing types both attractive to and affordable by persons, in or nearing their retirement years who may no longer desire (or be able) to care for the large, older homes in which they earlier raised their families . SOCIOECONOMIC PROFILE 1. In comparison to Wayne County at large, Wyandotte has fewer of its residents employed as professionals, technicians, and managers than the County. These types of occupational classifications tend to be more stable and flexible, thus less susceptible to economic downturns which drastically effect areas tied to one sector of the economy. Wyandotte's large proportion of residents employed as craftsmen, operatives and laborers - many within the cyclic auto industry - is thus, more subject to economic downturns than would be the case with a more balanced resident labor force. 2. Keys for strengthening the earnings and occupational potential for Wyandotte residents may be education. Substantially fewer of the City's residents had any college education compared to the County at large. A-2 �I I DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE ,. I I • • • Knowing the characteristics of an area's population, especially with respect to its household composition and age group distribution, are of critical importance in the planning process. For example, the demand for larger or smaller housing and whether it is multiple or singe family is to a large extent dependant on the composition of households. Households with young children .generally prefer multiple bedroom homes with both inside and outside play space. Those households with older children may need additional on-site parking on a regular basis, but tend not to need large exterior play areas. Households whose members have reached or are approaching their retirement years may desire to move to new housing which is smaller and/or easier to maintain than the homes in which they have raised their families. Additionally, the changing household and age group composition of a community impacts the need for various types of commercial and community services and facilities, recreation programs and recreational facilities . These demographic factors affect the City of Wyandotte both now and in the future . As such , an understanding of recent demographic trends and future prospects needs to occur as part of the preparation of the Master Plan for Future Land Use. POPULATION TRENDS • Between 1970 and 1980 the Wyandotte area experienced a general decline in its population from approximately 41,000 to 34,000 people. An estimated loss of 7,055, this represents a decrease of 17% for the decade. As a whole, Wayne County experienced a decrease in its population base of approximately 332,500 people during the 1970's. This was 12.5% of the 1970 population base . Estimates of 1987 populations are shown on Table 1. These estimates are derived from population and household forecasts developed by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG). They show that between 1980 and 1987, both the City of Wyandotte and Wayne County have experienced slight population gains. Wyandotte, with an estimated base population of 34,720 in 1987, increased by 714 people over 1980 figures. This represents a 2% gain. Wayne County with an increase of approximately 22,900 people for the period showed a gain of slightly less than 1%. Other population estimates for the City of Wyandotte and Wayne County prepared by Urban Decision Systems, Inc. estimates a population loss for both the City and the County for the period between 1980 and 1987. This is inconsistent with SEMCOG derived estimates which show a slight temporary gain for the period from 1980 to 1987. However, both data sources project decreases in population over the next several years. It may A-3 �I I I I • • • not be possible to resolve the inconsistency covering the 1980 to 1987 period between the two data sources until the next decennial census in 1990. For the purposes of this effort of community planning, the SEMCOG population and household estimates and forecasts will be utilized. Among the many factors which have contributed to Wyandotte's gradually declining population has been such factors as a declining birth rate, delayed age of marriage, a greater longevity of the population as a whole, increased divorced rates and the increase in two-earner couples. All of these factors and many others, have combined to create a smaller number of persons per household. When the average household size decreases, unless there are major numbers of new households being formed in a community, then a strong potential for population decline exists. In fully developed communities like Wyandotte, where there is a scarcity of vacant, residentially appropriate land, little room exists for new housing construction without major redevelopment. To date, this has not taken place. As a result, with a declining household size, the City's population has declined or remained essentially stable . Forecasts project that the City of Wyandotte will have a population of 30,294 in the year 2005. This is a loss of 4,426 people from 1987 SEMCOG estimates. As a point of comparison, Wayne County is also projected to experience a . general decline in population through the year 2005. The result will be a net population loss of 5,605 people for the County over this period. With the exception of neighboring Grosse lie and Brownstown Townships and the southern end of Trenton, relatively little vacant land exists in the immediate Wyandotte area either zoned or planned for significant amounts of new residential growth. This is not the case in the western and southernmost suburbs of the County. It is these latter areas which have been the focus of the County's recent growth and the anticipated location of most of its future population gains which may be insufficient to compensate for the losses expected to occur in the more heavily developed, older communities like Wyandotte, the rest of Downriver and Detroit. • A-4 �TABLE 1 POPULATION TRENDS: WYANDOTTE AREA NUMERIC CHANGE • • •II • 1970 1980 1987 2005 1970-1980 1980-1987 1987-2005 Wyandotte 41 ,061 34,006 34,720 30,294 -7,055 714 -4,426 Brownstown Twp. 7,088 14,447 21 ,467 35,767 -11,214 3,165 14,300 Ecorse 17,515 9,320 14,249 12,810 -3,068 -198 -1,439 Grosse Isle Twp . 8,306 45,105 9,566 11 ,451 -1 ,014 246 1,885 Lincoln Park 52,984 32,058 45,292 42,503 -7,879 187 -2,789 Southgate 33,909 22,762 32,371 30,630 -1,851 313 -12,741 Trenton 24 ,127 2,337,891 23,025 24,234 -1 ,365 263 1,209 Wayne County 2,670,368 2,337,891 2,360,759 2,355,154 -332,477 22,868 -5,605 HOUSEHOLD TRENDS A household is an occupied housing unit. From 1970 to 1980 the City of Wyandotte had a slight decline in the number of households from 12,922 to 12,889. This loss was due, in large part, to demolition of homes as part of various efforts by the City toward urban renewal. Thus, either older, often deteriorated housing located in primarily nonresidential areas of the City have been gradually removed to make way for new, non-residential development, or clearance of substandard housing in residential areas has occurred as part of neighborhood improvement efforts. Over the same period of time, Wayne County also experienced a loss in its total number of households from a total of 830,441 units in 1970 to 823,484 in 1980. The net loss for the decade was approximately 7,000 households. This is a loss of slightly less than 1%. According to SEMCOG estimates, Wayne County gained 34,508 households between 1980 and 1987. SEMCOG also projects that the County will gain another 133,632 households between 1987 and 2005. This translates to a 20% gain for the period between 1980 and 2005. The substantial household gain for the County as a whole is not, however, reflected in the City of Wyandotte which is anticipated by SEMC0G to see a household increase of less than 150 new households. Table 2 provides a summary of household trends in the City of Wyandotte, its neighboring communities, and Wayne County. A-5 �•I I II II Given the extensively developed character of the City, unless existing single family or two family homes are cleared to make way for new development, or, unless significantly new residential development occurs elsewhere in the City, such as along vacant or redeveloped former industrial areas of the Detroit River front, it is unlikely that this forecast of new household growth will be exceeded - or even come to pass. Indeed, household projections by Urban Decision Systems, which are based on recent U.S. Census estimates and projections, anticipate a gradual decline in the number of households in the City. In order to prevent the potential loss of population and housing from having a negative impact on the City's existing and planned industrial, commercial and office base, a serious attempt must be made to encourage the retention of the types of housing attractive to the City's present and future residents. An improved housing stock can substantially aid the City's potential support for its business community. Housing that is attractive to persons of middle and upper incomes, can retain or bring such people into the City. Thus, the extent of retail sales dollars that the City's merchants can pursue will be increased and the vitality of the City's downtown improved. Attractive and suitably designed housing can draw corporate decision makers into the City who desire to locate their businesses near their homes. Finally, attractive neighborhoods, containing appropriate mixes of housing with a range of value levels and structural characteristics will appeal to a range of lifestyle needs, enhancing the City's vitality and its quality of life. · TABLE 2 HOUSEHOLD TRENDS: WYANDOTTE AREA NUMERIC CHANGE • 1970 1980 1987 2005 1970-1980 1980-1987 1987-2005 Wyandotte 12,922 12,889 12,908 13,053 -33 19 145 Brownstown Twp. 2,039 6,070 7,098 15,285 4,031 1,028 8,187 Ecorse 5,326 5,076 5,140 5,477 -250 64 337 Gross Isle Twp. 2,167 2,976 3,235 11 ,451 809 259 8,216 Lincoln Park 15,999 16,583 16,650 17,358 584 67 708 Southgate 9,189 11,032 11,795 13,444 1,843 763 1,649 Trenton 6,530 7,691 8,155 10,590 1,161 464 2,435 Wayne County 830,441 823,484 857,992 991,624 -6,957 34,508 133,632 Source: U.S. Census; SEMCOG A-6 �I I TABLE 3 HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS I 1980 Total Housing Units I CITY OF WYANDOTTE I WAYNE COUNTY 13,287 875,018 3.0% 5.8% 12,889 824,267 Owner Occupied 67.3% 62.6% Renter Occupied 29.7% 31.6% 2.63 2.80 $35,058 $32,597 $195 "$166 One Unit 72.9% 68.5% Two Units 12.9% 11 .6% Three-Four Units 4.8% 3.7% Five+ Units 9.3% 16.2% 1970-1980 4.2% 10.1% 1960-1969 7.7% 12.2% 1950-1959 22.6% 23.9% 1949 or earlier 65.5% 53.9% Stability 66.7% 60.9% Turnover 6.6% 7.4% Estimated Occupied Housing Units 12,908 849,347 Estimated Persons Per Household 2.68 2.75 Percent Vacant Occupied Housing Units Persons Per Household Median Value Owner Occupied Non-Condominium Units Median Contract Rent Units in Structure Year Built • 1987 Source: U.S. Census; SEMCOG A-7 I �I • • • • • • • • • • TENURE OF OCCUPIED HOUSING 1980 70% ~ I b ~ ~ 50% renter 40% Fig. 1 30% 20% 10% 0% W'r'/>NOOTI[ WAYNE STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS 1980 ~ 5 • owner 60% ~b ~ 80% W',1',,@A 70% one fan ~ 60% two fan ~ 50% m.Jlti. fern 40% Fig. 2 30% 20% 10% 0% W'r'..ANDOTTE WAYNE �•I ii • • HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS HOUSING TENURE AND VACANCY LEVELS Table 3 presents an overview of some key 1980 housing characteristics for the City of Wyandotte and Wayne County. The table indicates that the City of Wyandotte has a vacancy rate of approximately 3.0%. This is almost half of Wayne County's 5.8%. The fact that Wyandotte has a greater percentage of owner occupied housing may be the reason for its lesser vacancy rates as compared to Wayne County . A vacancy rate within a range of 3 to 5% is indicative of a stable residential situation. Levels below this would correspond to a very tight housing market. This can have the ill effect of forcing people out of a community should they desire to change residences, due to a relative lack of available homes to buy or lease within their same community. The citywide vacancy rate in 1980 of 3% was about the lowest rate acceptabl~ for a healthy housing market. STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS • • • The Census concept of the number of units per structure does not provide a complete count of what is defined by urban planners as two-family housing. The planning definition of such a term is a housing situation in which there are two dwelling units, structurally connected in some fashion, located on the same parcel or lot. However, for the purposes of this planning effort, the Census definition of two units per structure is presumed to be the same as the planning definition. This is despite the fact that the Census definition would not consider side-by-side attached units, each with separate entrances from front and rear, as a two-unit structure. These type of units, commonly known as a townhouse or attached ranch style of units fall within the planning definition of two-family homes. The Census would consider as two-unit structures those cases in which one dwelling is located over the other (a flat arrangement) or situations in which a single exterior door leads to separate lower and upper units or to separate side-by-side units. Since these latter two situations are estimated to account for the great majority of the two-family housing situations found in Wyandotte, the Census count of two-family units is considered acceptable. The distribution of dwelling units by structural type, as shown on Table 3, indicates that there is a general similarity between the City and the County. The main difference which can be observed is the percentage of structures containing five or more units. 1980 Census counts indicate that only 9.3% of the City's total housing units were in structures containing five or more units compared to over 16% of units county-wide. This differential between City and County could be indicative of several situations. First, it may imply that the market has not shown sufficient pressure in Wyandotte for the construction of larger forms of multiple-family housing. At the same time, it may mean A-8 �•I I • that a market may exist in Wyandotte of which area residential developers may not have taken advantaye. Another reason for this differential may be the lack of sufficiently sized parcels in the City to accommodate larger multiple-family buildings. It should be noted that from a demographic standpoint there is a need .directed towards households containing fewer people. One possible means of accomplishing this is through the construction of multiple-family housing. Another means, and one which appears to have been extensively followed in Wyandotte, is for the subdivision of larger, former single-family homes into structures containing two or more dwelling units. If done effectively and well, with high quality of construction and design, and combined with adequate on-site parking and open space, this latter solution can positively contribute to the vitality of a community. If, however, converted units are poorly designed, constructed and located on undersized parcels of land, neighborhoods can begin to deteriorate as problems of structural deterioration and parking problems escalate. HOUSING TENURE Multiple-family housing is generally, either condominium or rental property. Figures show that there are more single-family homes in Wyandotte than homes which are owner occupied. When the number of homes for sale is included in the calculations, there is still a large extent of single-family homes not owner occupied. This indicates that there is a large number of such homes being rented. Estimates are that the proportion is about 7.7%. Thus, there are two possible conclusions. One, is that housing which cannot be sold is being rented. Given the low vacancy rates this is probably not true. The other conclusion, is that there is a need for rental housing which cannot be sufficiently met through the types of multiple-family housing now existing in the City. AGE OF HOUSING STOCK • • • The City of Wyandotte contains a large amount of older housing. In total, 65.5% of its housing was constructed before 1949. This is well above Wayne County's 53.9%. Older housing can be of great benefit to a community. If well maintained, it lends character to a community. Also, ·homes of this era tend to be of very solid construction with a number of homes being architecturally significant. At the same time older housing is, all too often, a disadvantage to communities. It tends to be much larger, suited to a larger or extended family lifestyle that is now obsolete. Thus, older housing may be abandoned or unkept which can lead to a blighting affect. Additionally, the presence of concentrations of such older, larger homes can create an impetus toward conversion to two-family homes in response to market demand and the financial needs of the owners. The next largest segment of the City's housing stock was constructed during the 1950's. An estimated 22.6% of the City's housing falls within this range, a proportion similar to A-9 �• • • • • • that of the County as a whole. This concentration of housing built in the 1950's is a reflection of the post-war housing boom and the large suburban growth characteristic of the 1950's . The City's housing stock appears to have few homes dated post 1960. Only 7. 7% of the City's total housing was constructed during the 1960's. Only 4.2% of the housing was built between 1970 and 1980. At a total of 11.9%, this lags behind Wayne County's post 1960 construction of estimates of 22.3% . PERSONS PER OCCUPIED HOUSING UNIT For the City of Wyandotte in 1980, there was an average of 2.63 persons per household. This is somewhat smaller than the figure of 2.80 persons per household in Wayne County. According to calculations based on SEMCOG estimates, the figure slightly increased over the period between 1980 and 1987 to 2.68 for Wyandotte. Wayne County 's figure declined to 2.75 persons per household. This slight increase for Wyandotte represents a slight bend in the curve but not a continuing trend. Projections from both SEMCOG and Urban Decision Systems, Inc. show a gradually declining number of persons per household for the City of Wyandotte as well as Wayne County. HOUSING VALUE • In 1980, housing values in the City of Wyandotte were significantly higher than comparable values in Wayne County. The median value of owner occupied , noncondominium units in the City of Wyandotte was $35,058 in 1980. This is about $2,500 above the median value of $32,597 in Wayne County. The 1980 median contract rent in Wyandotte was also higher than that for Wayne County as a whole. STABILITY AND TURNOVER Stability is a measure of the proportion of an area's households living in the area who also lived in the same house five years earlier. Thus, it is a measure of a neighborhood's transience . In 1980, the City of Wyandotte had a 66.7% stability rate. This is 5.8% above the rate for Wayne County. A high stability rate represents commitment to a community. It suggests job stability and faith in the community's future. • In contrast to the five year period measured by "stability," the term "turnover" is a measure of the percent of households who have moved into their residence within the single year prior to the Census. The turnover rate of both City and County are similar: 6.6% and 7.4 %, respectively. A-10 �•I I • • • • • • • • AGE TRENDS AND LIFE CYCLES Changes in the number and proportions of various age groups that make up the City's population can affect the housing needs, recreation needs, shopping preferences and other community concerns. The following is a discussion of Wyandotte's age and life cycle trends and their implications for planning and community development. Included are tables and graphs to help illustrate and summarize specific aspects of the analysis . PRESCHOOLERS In recent years, the number of preschoolers has remained relatively stable with only a slight decrease in both number and percentage between 1980 and 1987. Table 5 indicates that households containing very young children are anticipated to remain a relatively stable proportion of all households in the area. It is projected that after 1987 the number and proportion of preschoolers will increase until they represent 8.15% of the population in 2005. This is not a sizeable difference, but it demonstrates that a continuing community concern with facilities and programs directed to this age group is a necessity . (See Table 5 and Figures 1 and 2.) With the number of working mothers on the rise , daycare and other programs directed towards the very young have been a growing concern. The abiiity to provide good programs and services for preschoolers is not just a social, but an economic issue. It is in the best interest of the community to keep employed those who demonstrate an ability and desire to work. Through greater provision of preschool care programs by the School District and zoning standards in the City's Zoning Ordinance which encourage the development of well planned daycare facilities, the City can work to ensure that the needs of its citizens are met in a safe and responsible manner. SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN Citywide, total public school enrollment has declined from over 4,900 children in 1980 to less than 4,700 in 1987 as shown on Table 6. The lowest enrollment in the elementary grades K-6 since 1980 was in 1982, when 2,352 elementary school children attended the City's schools. Since 1982, however, the trend for elementary enrollment has been steadily upward such that by the 1987-1988 school year, the number elementary school children surpassed that found in 1980-81. We note, however, that since its peak in 1984, the number of kindergarten children has been decreasing and is now far less than 1980 levels - though still in excess of its lowest level, experienced in 1981. Recent enrollment at the City's junior high schools (grades 7-9) remains below that found in 1980. However, even at its lowest levels in· this decade, found in 1984, the total number of such children was only 133 less than the 1980 level. This is largely due to the A-11 �• • • • • • • • • fact that although the population is gradually declining, the proportion of school age children that are between the ages of 5 and 14 is increasing. In the near future , the growth at the elementary levels may soon be reflected in the junior high grades . High schoolers continue to decline in numbers in the City, from a 1980 level of over 1,200 children to 1,024 in 1987. While the rolling increase found at the elementary levels may eventually make its way forward to the high school grades, in the long run , there will continue to be an overall decrease of school age children in the City . In sum, while the sheer numbers of school age children in the City are anticipated to decline, households containing such children will account for an increased proportion of all households in the area. As a result, the possible willingness of residents to have the City and School District increase expenditures for child related programs and facilities , may increase over present levels . Because the overall decline in the number of children, the pressure to accommodate them in existing schools and city parks will decrease from current levels. Thus, there may be opportunities for alternative uses of school sites and small scale, neighborhood oriented, city parks for other than child related purposes . TABLE 4 HOUSEHOLDS BY LIFE CYCLE WYANDOTI'E 1980 • 2005 NUMBER PERCENT NUMBER PERCENT NUMBER PERCENT Head aged less than 35 yrs. 1,915 14.86% 1,782 13.81% 1,788 13.70 Head aged 35-64 yrs. 4,239 32.90% 4,035 31 .26% 4,102 31 .43% Head aged 65 + yrs. 2,460 19.09% 2,422 18.76% 2,148 16.46% 8,614 66.85% 8,240 63.83% 8,038 61 .59% Youngest less than 6 yrs. 1,904 14.78% 1,987 15.39% 1,966 15.07% Youngest 6 + yrs. 2,367 18.37% 2,682 20.TT% 3,046 23.34% Total with children 4,271 33.15% 4,669 36.17% 5,012 38.41 % Total Households 12,885 100.00% 12,908 100.00% 13,050 100.00% LIFE CYCLE • 1987 Households without children (by age of household head) Total without children Households with children (by age of youngest child) Source: U.S. Census SEMCOG Small Area Forecasts, 1984 A-12 �•I I I • • • • • • TABLE 5 AGE GROUP DISTRIBUTION WYANDOTIE 1980 AGE GROUPS 1987 2005 NUMBER PERCENT NUMBER PERCENT NUMBER PERCENT 0-4 2,377 6.99% 2,361 6.80% 2,470 8.15% 5-14 4,478 13.17% 5,069 14.60% 4,631 15.29% 15-19 3,023 8.89% 2,784 8.02% 2,307 7.62% 20-34 9,074 26.68% 8,326 23.98% 6,250 20.63% 35 -44 2,934 8.63% 4,524 13.03% 4,466 14.74% 45 -64 7,935 23.33% 7,362 21 .20% 7,288 24.06% 65 + 4,185 12.31% 4,296 12.37% 2,878 9.50% Total 34,006 100.00% 34,722 100.00% 30,290 100.00% Source: U.S. Census, 1980 SEMCOG Small Area Forecasts, 1984 FAMILY FORMING The age range between 20 and 34 years is labeled the family forming group. This group has seen a steady decline since 1980. This decline is anticipated to continue through the year 2005. In 1987, persons in this age group represented almost 24% of the population ; a decrease of about 3% since 1980 . MATURING FAMILIES The age range between 35 and 64 years old constitutes the maturing families group. Not surprisingly, this group has been increasing in number and proportion. Included in this age range are persons in the age group commonly called "baby boomers." Born in the period between 1946 and 1964, such persons are an inordinately large proportion of the nationwide population. It is this age group which is generally presumed to have entered their peak earning years, in contrast to younger adults and retirees whose incomes generally fall at lower ends of the economic scale. As they age, they will cause an increase in the proportion of persons in older age groups. SEMCOG estimates that by the year 2005, the age range from 45-64 years will constitute 24% of the City's population. The entire "maturing families" group will constitute almost 39% of the population by 2005. A-13 �I I I I •■ • • • • HOUSEHOLDS WITH CHILDREN CITY OF WYANDOTTE ~W"ff/43 <6 yrs. ~ 6+ yrs. Fig. 3 1980 1987 2005 BY /J.Gf. 0::- YCUNGEST 011..D AGE DISTRIBUTION TRENDS CITY OF WYANDOTTE • ~ 5-14~ W/ff/ffff/21 15-19~ ~ 20-34~ t1///ff//1//41 35-64~ 65+~ 1980 1987 ,t,,G£. GRCX.JP BY YEAR 2005 Fig. 4 �•II •I • • • • • • • •II • SENIOR CITIZENS Since 1980, the number and proportion of senior citizens has remained relatively stable . The number of seniors rose slightly from 4,185 in 1980 to 4,296 in 1987. Projections, however, show a decline in the number of seniors to 2,878 for the year 2005. This is a loss of 1,418 people from levels found in 1987. At the same time, the proportion of seniors in the City's population make-up is also projected to decrease from 12.37% in 1987 to 9.50% in 2005 . SOCIOECONOMIC PROFILE An area's housing stock and the age and household composition of its residents impact that area's needs for community services and facilities. Additionally, from an economic standpoint, the employment pattern of its residents, their income and their educational levels all interact to determine the overall character of the area. Table 7 provides an overview of selected socioeconomic characteristics of the City of Wyandotte as compared to Wayne County . The City of Wyandotte, according to 1980 Census data, has a greater median income than Wayne County. According to 1987 statistics prepared be Urban Decision Systems, Inc. , based on Census data, this trend, though somewhat narrowed,·has continued. The City has a higher proportion of households with incomes between $10,000 and $35,000 in comparison to the County. The high number of households with incomes under $10,000 for Wayne County is one reason that Wyandotte's median income is higher. Furthermore, although Wayne County does have a slightly higher number of households in the upper income range, (greater than $50,000), it is not enough to compensate for the abundance of lower income households and lack of mid-income households. In terms of occupations, the City of Wyandotte has fewer people in the professional, technical, managerial and clerical areas than Wayne County. These jobs tend to be more stable and flexible and thus, less susceptible to economic downturns which drastically effect areas tied to one sector of the economy. Wayne County as a whole is still very dependent upon the automobile industry. Wyandotte, having a large segment of its population within the crafts, operatives, and laborers occupations may be especially susceptible. It is in the best interest of the people and the economy of the community to diversity industries and occupations. Keys for strengthening the earnings potential of Wyandotte residents may be greater education. The correlation between education and occupation is apparent from 1980 Census data. In the City of Wyandotte, only 19.0% of the population over 25 years of ·age has had some college education. This compares to the Wayne County statistic of 26.2% (a 7.2% difference). A-14 �I I •I •I • • • • • • • • • • • Greater education and job training can enhance job skills and create greater job flexibility. A variety of training programs exist, both for school age children and older persons , at public schools in the Downriver area at the Wayne County Community College , the Downriver Community Conference, and at area vocational specialty schools as well as through local school districts. Widespread distribution of information about such programs and financial assistance and/or child care assistance might assist Wyandotte residents to enhance their job skills and thus their earning potential. While such programs are not typically part of a Master Plan for Future Land Use, they form an integral part of a community's overall approach toward maintaining and increasing the quality of life and the economic climate within the community. A-15 �• • • • • • • • TABLE 7 CENTRAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHARACfERISTICS: 1980 I I CITY OF WYANDOTTE Income : Median Household $19,463 I WAYNE COUNTY $18,629 Income: Distribution (Household) Less than $10,000 26.1% 28.9% $10,000-$19,000 25.2% 24.4% $20,000-$24 ,999 13.5% 12.0% $25,000-$29,999 11 .8% 10.1% $30,000-$34 ,999 8.9% 7.7% $35,000-$39,999 5.7% 5.6% $40.000-$44,999 6.2% 6.2% $50,000-$74,999 2.1% 4.1% $75,000+ 0.4% 1.0% 12.17 ·12.32 19 26.2 Professional , Technical , Managerial 16.8% 22.2% Clerical 16.9% 19.1~ Sales 8.6% 8.5% Crafts 17.3% 12.3% Operatives 19.4% 17.9% Service 14.4% 15.5% Laborer 6.3% 4.2% Other 0.4% 0.3% 28.4% 28.2% Median Years of School Completed Any College• In College 1980 as % of persons 18-34 yrs. Occupation Non Family Households * Based on persons 25 + years. Source: U.S. Census A-16 I �• • • • • • • • • APPENDIX B AN OVERVIEW OF THE MARKET POTENTIAL FOR DOWNTOWN WYANDOTTE SEPTEMBER, 1989 �• • • • • • • COMMERCIAL MARKET ANALYSIS This commercial market analysis is undertaken to provide the City of Wyandotte with realistic guidelines by which to determine the future course of commercial development in the City's Central Business District. Such planning will enable the City to meet the challenges of a strong business climate by providing ample land area, good parking and a good circulation system capable of attracting new businesses to the CBD while retaining viable existing businesses . EXISTING COMMERCIAL LAND USE Before the commencement of any demographic or economic analysis of the CBD's commercial potential, a land use survey was conducted to ascertain the extent of the existing commercial base. Commercial uses were divided into four main categories ; convenience, comparison, and general commercial, and restaurants & taverns. The following table presents an accounting of the gross floor area associated with almost 120 commercial establishments located in or near the Wyandotte CBD. It should be noted that floor area has been allocated to the CBD and to the "fringe" area. The latter is the commercial area that lies outside the main clustering of commercial development within the CBD . • • B-1 �• • • • • TABLE 1 EXISTING COMMERCIAL FLOOR AREA WYANDOTTE CBD AND FRINGE GROSS FLOOR AREA I I I CBD FRINGE I TOTAL I Convenience Establishments Food 14,568 2,157 16,725 Drug 18,510 -- 18,510 Personal Service 5,596 3,020 8,616 - - -- 38,674 5,177 43,851 General Merchandise -- -- Furniture, Appliances 131 ,612 Apparel 40,413 Shoes 4,605 Other Comparison 77,349 ----- 253,979 -- 253 ,979 General Commercial 149,434 14,984 164,418 Restaurants and Taverns 91 ,137 -- 91 ,137 533,224 20,161 553,385 Hardware TOTAL Comparison Establishments TOTAL GRAND TOTAL SOURCE : 131 ,612 40,413 4,605 77,349 Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. field survey, April 1982 - Wyandotte Assessor's records, May, 1982. PRIMARY MARKET AREA One of the first steps involved in a commercial market analysis is the determination of the Primary Market Area (P.M.A.) of the area under study. Generally, shopping centers that contain a mix of convenience, comparison and restaurant establishments of a scale similar to Wyandotte's will have a trade area extending five to ten miles. The former distance is believed to be applicable to Wyandotte's CBD due to its lack of a major name anchor in the form of a department store. This estimate was confirmed by interviews with selected CBD retail businessmen who indicated ttiat roughly 70- 80 percent of their trade appears to be drawn from within !ive miles. B-2 �I· 94 TAYLOR •Iii • • • • • • • ....• ll) ..... I : ·- , WOODHAVEN 0 2MI. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!5iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil TRADE AREA �Ii II Ii II Ill Ill II II The P.M.A. of the Wyandotte CBD contains all or portions of twelve communities. However, nine communities form the bulk of the P.M.A. These communities include: Wyandotte, Allen Park, Ecorse, Grosse lie Township, Lincoln Park, River Rouge, Riverview, Southgate and Trenton. MARKET SHARE The sales potential of the P.M.A. 's residents was estimated and translated into supportable floor area. This floor area was then compared to the floor area of the CBD to obtain an evaluation of the CBD's strengths and weakness. A similar operation was conducted with the sales potential of the City of Wyandotte's 30,000 + residents. Table 2 presents the results of this analysis. Due to the widely diverse nature of general commercial uses and their relatively low ties to specifics of geographic location, no market share is computed for these uses nor are sales estimated for their respective supportable floor areas at this time. Table 2 is the result of comparing the floor area existing within the CBD to that supportable by the residents of the two different geographic areas (City of Wyandotte and P.M.A.) . •II ii 8-3 �• • • • • • • • ~ TABLE 2 CBD MARKET SHARE OF SUPPORTABLE FLOOR AREA CBD MARKET SHARE* CITY OF WYANDOTTE PRIMARY MARKET AREA Food 10.1% 1.6% Drug 47.5% 7.9% Personal Service 14.6% 2.5% -- -- 14.1% 2.3% General Merchandise -- -- Furniture, Appliances 345.9% 53.6% Apparel 89.5% 13.9% Shoes 60.7% 9.4% Other Comparison 104.3% 18.0% 77.4% 12.3% 78.1% 12.4% 53.5% 8.3% Convenience Establishments Hardware TOTAL Comparison TOTAL •II • • • Restaurants and Taverns TOTAL SOURCE: Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. from estimates of sales from Urban Decision Systems; 1977 Census of Retail Trade; 1977 Census of Selected Services; and Dollars and Cents of Shopping Centers, Urban Land Institute . * Includes market share attributable to CBD core and fringe area. ANALYSIS CONVENIENCE MARKET Generally, convenience stores in a CBD serve the residents and employees of a fairly restrictive geographic area (two - three mile drive). To the extent that other supermarkets serve the same geographic area, the population of that area must be larger since its sales potential is "shared" between the different stores: 8-4 �• • ■ ■ ■ ■ • • Therefore, it becomes obvious why the convenience stores in the CBD are small and do not exert a suustantial draw to either P.M.A. residents or to the City as a whole . The presence of full sized conveniently located competition probably contributed to the closure of the CBD's only grocery. There are five specialty stores within the CBD and two in the fringe area. These food stores are generally small party stores as well as a limited few food specialty stores selling baked goods and the like. The other convenience stores are generally scattered throughout the CBD and the fringe area. It appears that the CBD does not exert strong convenience commercial draw to an area much beyond its boundaries. Unless the resident population of the CBD were augmented substantially, most likely through the development of high rise housing, and that augmented resident base were of at least moderate income, significant additional convenience floor area would not be warranted although the total convenience floor space may increase over time with uses shifting in nature and to new locations . It is likely that over a period of time, several of the smaller family run personal service establishments and food stores may close. Since several of them are surrounded by single or two family residential uses, their reuse for residential, rather than commercial purposes, is desirable. COMPARISON MARKET It can be seen from Tables 1 and 2, that while the CBD no longer offers P.M.A. and City residents a department or general merchandise store, its mix of other comparison uses is strong. With recent retail trends creating a shift in demand away from traditional department stores to discount and catalogue stores and to small specialty shops, the CBD's concentration of miscellaneous comparison stores, apparel and shoe stores should continue to prove quite viable. In addition, when a percentage of market share is greater than 100 percent, it means that the CBD's floor area is providing more space than that directly supportable by the specific geographic area, indicating a substantial draw beyond that geography. Thus, the 345+ percent share of the City's furniture store potential suggests that the CBD's draw of sales is to an area well beyond the City limits. To take advantage of the trend away from the department store's impersonal service to the individualized attention found at many smaller specialty shops, additional comparison floor space could be developed in the CBD, such as more shoe and specialized apparel stores. The CBD's proximity to several downriver marinas could act as a theme promoting boating wear and fishing equipment stores. The recent and apparently pervasive emergence of the trend toward jogging or running for recreation lends support to the establishment of an athletic footwear stor~. B-5 �• • • • • •II • •.. II • •II • • • • • As indicated in Table 2, the unusual strength of the CBD's furniture stores warrants the opportunity for furnishing accessory establishments such as art galleries that offer sculpture, glass and wall hanging and other related accessories that would serve to complement furniture stores. These facilities could be developed either as entirely new stores or expansions of present stores . As noted earlier, restaurants and taverns play a large and growing role in the CBD's commercial base. As the City of Plymouth, in northwestern Wayne County, has grown into a major furniture, specialty store and restaurant center, capitalizing on its historic structures and viable residential base, it appears Wyandotte's CBD is becoming the main non-shopping center commercial force for the downriver area . FUTURE POTENTIAL Over the next two decades, regional planning officials at SEMCOG have projected a continuing decline in the P.M.A. population while, at the same time, an increase in actual number of households. This seeming discrepancy is a direct result of decreasing household size resulting from a variety of factors. Generally, while fewer people mean a lower aggregate sales volume of some goods and services, the potential sales volume of other goods and services may increase, being tied not to population but to households. Types of commercial establishments such as furniture and home furnishing stores are generally not as adversely effected by a population decline as food stores when such population decline is coupled with a household increase. However, the amount of furnishings and scale of such materials sold to smaller households is generally less. Thus, the overall aggregate sales of furniture stores might decline unless the product mix is changed to match the changing market. Table 3 presents projections for the floor area supportable by the projected population of the P.M.A. for the years 1990 and 2000 and Table 4 shows potential targets of market share for such floor area compared to the current market share . It should be noted that all projected floor area targets are approximations of what could happen provided sufficient land area and parking were available. Neither the projected floor area nor the market share are hard and fast numbers. This is especially true with regard to the distributions of floor area among commercial subcategories. Instead, the numbers are intended to reflect the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the CBD so that recommendations regarding the future direction of growth can be made . B-6 �• • • • • •II • • • • • • • •II • TABLE 3 PROJECTED SUPPORTABLE CONVENIENCE AND COMPARISON COMMERCIAL FLOOR AREA WYANDOTIE CBD PRIMARY MARKET AREA COMMERCIAL CATEGORY CBD & FRINGE EXISTING FLOOR AREA (SQUARE FEET) SQUARE FOOTAGE, PRIMARY MARKET AREA 1981 1990 2000 Convenience Establishments Food 16,725 1,023,400 948,400 944,300 Drug 18,510 237,400 220,CXXl 219,000 Personal Services 8,616 347,CXXl 321 ,500 -:. 20 ,100 - 111 ,500 103,400 103,000 43,851 1,719,300 1,593,300 1,586,400 General Merchandise - 1,046,300 969,600 965,400 Furnitu re, Appl iances 131 ,612 245,500 227,500 226,500 Apparel 40,413 291 ,CXX) 269,700 268,500 Shoes 4,605 48,800 45,100 44,900 n ,349 430,500 398,900 397,200 253,979 2,062,100 1,910,800 1,902,500 91 ,137 736,900 682,900 680,CXXl 388,967 4,518,300 4 ,187,CXXl 4,1 68,900 Hardware TOTAL Comparison Establishments Other Comparison TOTAL Restaurants TOTAL SOURCE: Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. estimates. NOTE: It should be noted that the 1990 and 2000 projections represent a conservative projection solely based on per capita sales. The changing character of the population and its households will most likely increase the sales potential somewhat in at least the comparison categories since children's clothes, furnishings, etc. are generally less expensive than those for adults. Children will represent a smaller proportion of the population than at present. Also, drugstore sales will increase since an older population generally requires more pharmaceutical goods. Personal services will also likely be higher than projected since older persons tend to use tailors, barbers, beauty shops, dry cleaners and the like more frequently than younger persons . B-7 �ii • • •Ill -ii •II • •II II • • • TABLE 4 PROJECTED MARKET SHARE TARGETS WYANDOTIE CBD OF THE CBD PRIMARY MARKET AREA 1990 1981 I I SHARE I SQ.FT. I SHARE I 2000 SQ.FT. I SHARE I SQ.FT. I Conven ience Establishments Food 1.6% 16,725 2.3% 24,000 2.5% 24,000 Drug 7.9% 18,510 8.4% 18,500 8.5% 18,500 Personal Services 2.5% 8,616 2.2% 7,000 1.7% 5,600 - - - - - - 2.3% 43,851 49,500 3.0% 48,1 00 General Merchandise - - - - - - Furn iture, Appl iances 53.6% 131 ,612 61 .1% 139,100 64.4% 145,900 Appare l 13.9% 40,413 17.8% 48,000 19.4% 52,000 Shoes 9.4% 4,605 14.6% 6,600 22.3% 10,000 Other Comparison 18.0% TT,349 21 .7% 86,700 23.9% 95,000 12.3% 253,979 14.7% 280,400 15.9% 302,900 12.4% 91 ,137 13.9% 95,100 14.6% 99,000 8.6% 388,967 10.2% 425,000 10.8% 450,000 Hardware TOTAL 2.8% Comparison Establishments TOTAL Restaurants TOTAL SOURCE: Vilican-Leman & Associates , Inc. It can be seen from Table 4 that an additional 36,000 square feet of floor space is recommended for development by 1990 followed by 25,000 by the year 2000. The higher increase by 1990, then between 1990 and 2000, reflects the reuse of the 11,200 square foot Lucky Strike Market for convenience commercial. The distribution of CBD (and fringe) floor space will shift to a higher proportion of comparison uses over time. The increase in floor area for food is somewhat misleading since instead of "new" convenience space, it included retention of the Lucky Strike Market as a food store or grouping of food stores. B-8 �There are almost 43,000 1 square feet of first floor building area vacant in the CBD. Much of this floor space may be too small, in poor condition or too far off the main commercial streets to be suitable for many commercial uses. It is anticipated that at least one-quarter of this vacant space can be used to meet the projected targeted floor space. Utilization of this area would then leave approximately 50,500 square feet of additional floor space to be developed by the year 2000. It is further anticipated that over a period of time some of the existing general commercial uses in the CBD will be phased out. While these floor areas may offer expansion potential for other commercial uses, the extent cannot be readily projected. = II It is concluded that at the minimum, to meet the expansion/relocation requirements of present CBD businesses and allow for new concerns, a minimum land area capable of accommodating between 40,000 and 50,000 square feet of commercial floor area be designated for such use. Determination of the amount of land required depends on analyzing the parking and other site plan requirements for business uses. Further, this analysis is closely allied to the examination of parking availability for present commercial uses. I II II II •II II II -II • This included the Lucky Strike Market which was vacant at the time this study was undertaken. 8-9 �•Ill •II •II II •II •II • •Ill • • •II • APPENDIX C AN OVERVIEW OF PARKING NEEDS FOR DOWNTOWN WYANDO'ITE DECEMBER, 1989 �• PARKING NEEDS II •II II II II II II II This element of the design study of the CBD will review and discuss the following basic parking concerns relative to the Wyandotte CBD . 1. Existing parking need to meet present demands. 2. The proper distribution of parking. 3. Providing adequate parking to meet projected development. commercial growth and The attached parking study map provides peripheral lines involving two basic areas of study. These two areas include the delineated critical CBD core area and an overall study area. The overall study area contains 46 blocks and extends from Orchard Street to Superior Street, between Fourth and Biddle; from Eureka Road to Poplar Street, between Biddle and the Detroit River and from Superior Street to Mulberry Street, between First and Van Alstyne. EXISTING PARKING INVENTORY Within the designated study area there presently exists a total of 67 off-street parking lots. These lots range in size from two and three car parking areas adjacent to an individual business, to large improved lots containing hundreds of marked parking spaces. • • •II II , At the present time there exists a total of 3,683 parking spaces within the total study area . The numerical breakdown between on-street and off-street parking is as follows: II C-1 II On-street parking Off-street parking - 1,238 2.445 3,683 Most of the off-street parking lots are improved lots and contain marked parking spaces for vehicles. Several parking areas are not improved lots, however. These parking facilities are less efficient since random undelineated parking exists which results in fewer usable parking spaces and poor vehicle circulation. The unimproved off-street parking lots are small lots which lie outside the CBD core, towards the periphery of the study area. �~ ~ ~ -I II II II i I UJ ~ 0 C z <t i I II • • • • ~ I <t UJ a: <t > C :::, t- en C, -z ~ a: <t C. �I • ,• • • - EXISTING PARKING - WYANDOTTE CBD �•I II I II II Ill • I • • •I • EXISTING PARKING NEEDS Parking needs within the designated study area, and more particularly within the CBD core area, can be determined in part by applying the off-street parking standards of the City 's Zoning Ordinance to the collective square footage of applicable floor area that presently exists within the study area. For the purposes of this study, applicable area includes retail commercial, office and public land uses. The parking to floor area ratios that were applied to the various uses were, as noted, taken from the Wyandotte zoning standards. These standards include: Retail Commercial Uses - One (1) space for each 150 square feet of usable floor area. Office Uses - One (1) space for each 400 square feet of usable floor area. Public Uses - One (1) space for each four (4) seats, or in the case of a public office, i.e., City Hall, the ratio for offices was uses. These standards were then applied to the known square footage of ·floor area data from the commercial market analysis. As such, the exercise of determining parking need in this manner must be regarded, to a certain extent, as theoretical in its approach . The theoretical technique provides us with a numerical evaluation of parking needs, it cannot and is not intended to provide a practical evaluation of what may ultimately become the number of parking spaces that can be provided. Nevertheless, the theoretical evaluation provides a technically sound methodology for determining parking need and a basis from which to plan actual parking capability. Actual parking development, of course, will be based on what the community can afford to spend on new parking areas and the physical limitations that exist with respect to locating future parking with the least disruption of existing land use. As an example, the block in which the Yack Arena is located can be used to provide a comparison between theoretical need and what can ultimately be provided from a practical standpoint. Theoretically, the total numerical parking need for this block (C-2) is 1,055 spaces . However, since most of the activities held in the arena are held in the evening after the stores and offices are closed, the entire 216 parking spaces available for the block can be used by both the arena as well as the stores and offices. Furthermore, the arena can also count on the 255 car parking capacity of the block to the south and the 95 car offstreet parking capacity of the parking lot north across Maple street from the arena. This brings the total potential existing parking for Yack Arena to 566 spaces. This exceeds the C-2 �. . lllt - - - •• •• • • • ..... JDD DD DD DD DD Do dD DD DD DD-E9 PD DD DD DL rn DD 5I] DD DD [I] DD DD DD og [ · · ·□·t3.;w-~ ~n n~ ~ □□ DD DD DD ttJ w , [ J ·;· ~ J: I~': l~,[]J!tE{E:FlJiDD DD DQ [ jl]i~iDD,G□irn --~---.:......._ ~ ::::.i·'.; .............,. :g • ~ ' 0 .· • ~ . u=LJ:J 45 " 1 DD.. 1 E· 1 1 .. , ~~Nl2 CIO ~ " _ - ·, 11-?A lh I , ~ " ",,. O:tSTINI •a•11tNe L0TS STUDT - · - STUOT aftta 1ou•o•t1tT -.;, ••• 11 •• 11 - ---·-- ~c!!] ro 63 0 ..., ~ ~ ,,. , ~ -·- ,, , • ' •• ". -- ~5 _:¾t [!]6 ;ae , 33 ,1 I~---+-' e,p ~ - NI ~~ - ·- -, d , --.. -~ ... 0 - '•••ovr• •••• 0 -••• 11 t ••••• ••• 3 .' Alt(A OUAOIUNU c-c .. , •• ,. • . ,. . "~· . . . . . . ,. I 4 2 e :,.----- - ~ _ -,. 000 0NU11tt1:Tl'AltlllNG 000 OIi Sflll(T l'AltKING 000 TOUL l'A/IIKINO IY ILOCIII: c:::J c:J ~'ff~ pWYAHOOTT[ A R K ING AN A Ly s I s C(NTRAt. 8US I N[SS DISTRICT ICIOI ....._ --~- --"" - I J~: rp-==~·. l' - .........- �• •I • • 550 space numerical parking need noted above. Hence, parking for the Yack Arena may be adequate at this time. This conclusion is, of course, based on the premise that the arena's programs are held at times when the stores and offices within the designated CBD core area, and particularly on blocks C-1 and C-2 are closed. When programs or activities are held during store and office hours, then an obvious shortage of parking capacity for the arena and the commercial uses of these two blocks is going to exist. The question is whether or not it is practical to provide the theoretical number of parking spaces to meet the combined needs of all these uses. It would seem to hinge on the frequency of activities at the arena going on during store and office hours . CBD CORE AREA The core area of the CBD as noted previously consists of 14 blocks located near the geographic center of the designated study area. It is within this core area that the greatest concentration of commercial floor area exists. It is also the area in which the greatest lack of adequate parking exists. At the present time a total of 1,548 parking spaces exist within the core area. Of this total 449 are on-street parking spaces. The remaining 1,099 spaces are in off-street parking lots located within the CBD core. Table 5 indicates that there is a theoretical need for 2,069 parking spaces to meet all needs. Based on the preceding discussion of the Yack Arena parking , a possible 550 space need reduction still leaves a theoretical need for 1,519 parking spaces. This represents a need for nearly twice as many parking spaces as presently exists within the core area. I I I I Table 6 further indicates that there are five blocks within the CBD Core that have the least amount of convenient parking available to them. These blocks are nearly built up with commercial land use, leaving little area available for convenient off-street parking. The lack of parking for these blocks is further complicated by extensive ancillary use of the parking lot on Van Alstyne between Elm and Oak. The frontage along the west side of Van Alstyne between Eureka Road and Oak Street has been considered in the past for off-street parking and some small lots have been developed in this area. The feasibility of expanding these lots should be explored. The addition of expanded on-street parking on Biddle also deserves consideration to help alleviate the shortage of convenient parking space in the key shortage blocks in this area. Even with these areas being utilized for added off-street parking , it may ultimately be necessary to consider the construction of a parking deck. The great advantage of parking decks is their ability to provide a maximum number of parking s·paces on minimum land area. This approach to resolving the numerical parking problem as well as the problem of convenient distribution is being used more frequently in many older downtown areas similar to Wyandotte's throughout the metropolitan area. I I I C-3 �-----------------1111111111-- • I I I ' I f c:::l BLOCKS WITH SHORTAGE THEORETICAL PARKING SHORTAGE - BY BLOCK �• Ill PARKING DISTRIBUTION In order to more easily discuss parking distribution throughout the designated study area, the area has been divided into the four quadrants previously noted. These quadrants include: The CBD Core Area. The North Area - being the area of the CBD lying north of Oak Street. The West Area - being the area of the CBD lying west of Third Street between Oak Street and Eureka Road. The South Area - being the area of the CBD lying south of Eureka Road . THE CORE AREA For the east side of Biddle, off-street parking lot expansion on the west side of Van Alstyne from Eureka Road to Oak Street should be pursued. This parking corridor will provide for convenient access either directly into the rear of the stores or via the block ends and into the front of the stores. The re-routing of through truck traffic from Biddle Avenue would offer the opportunity for the wide street right-of-way of Biddle from Eureka Road to Oak Street to be used for increased parking . The street could take on the proportion of a large elongated parking lot with local traffic movements only. This would create more parking spaces immediately in front of the stores along both sides of Biddle. The other major resolution of the numerical as well as the parking distribution problem is geared to serving the blocks within the CBD west of Biddle. This improvement involves the expansion and improvement of the parking lot located at the northwest corner of Maple and Second. This lot would be expanded northward to Elm. Ultimately it may become necessary to erect a parking deck in this general area to meet increased parking demand for those blocks. In addition to customer parking needs a concerted effort must be made to provide convenient employee parking. Should a parking deck be feasible in the downtown area a portion of the deck could be set aside for employees. As an interim solution some of the more remote CBD parking lots should be utilized by employees and a shuttle bus service provided to places of employment. THE NORTH AREA The north portion of the designated study area _is composed of 19 blocks. This area contains the greatest number of residential uses as well as public and quasi-public uses within the total study area. C-4 �• Based on the data provided in Table 5, there exists a total of 1,070 parking spaces within the 19 block area. There is a present numerical need for a total of 873 spaces. This would indicate a numerical excess of some 138 spaces. In other words there are 138 more parking spaces within the north area than is theoretically needed to provide adequate parking. Even though there is numerically sufficient parking to serve the north area, its distribution is limited. Those uses near the park, including the City Museum should be provided with adequate off-street parking facilities. This is particularly true of the mid-rise co-op apartment building next to the public library. Possibly an off-street parking lot for the apartment building can be developed south across Superior Street from the co-op. The co-op 's present lot at the corner of Superior and First Streets could then be made available for public use. Providing adequate nearby parking for the co-op should in turn make the library parking lot adequate for library parking needs. This will also free the diagonal parking spaces for park use. THE WEST AREA The west portion of the designated study area is the smallest of all the quadrants. consists of four blocks in which the predominant use of land is residential. It The four blocks combined presently provide a total of 105 parking spaces. All of these parking spaces are on-street spaces with the exception of a 23 car parking lot at the northwest corner of Eureka Road and Third Street. The estimated numerical parking needs for this area is 47 spaces. In the case of this area, existing parking is well in excess of existing need. It should be noted, however, that these blocks lie directly west of Yack Arena making these parking spaces accessible for arena parking. I At the present time no extensive future commercial growth and development is expected to take place in this area. This is not to say that the dwellings located along the west side of Third Street may not become commercial or office oriented in time. Providing adequate off-street parking to serve these conversions could then become a problem. • • A more practical use of this four block area could be for expanded off-street parking at the east block ends for the Yack Arena. Conversions that may take place within the four block area near expanded arena parking would be able to utilize these parking spaces in much the same manner as appears to exist within the CBD core, that is on a nonconflicting shared basis . SOUTH AREA The southern portion of the designated study area is composed of nine blocks, much of which contains the newer commercial and office· uses within the study area. C-5 �• •II • There are presently 1,037 parking spaces available within the southern portion . This represents an excess of some 370 spaces over the estimated numerical need of 697 spaces. Since the bulk of the south area contains newer land use, adequate off-street parking is provided on site or near these newer uses. As noted previously much of the parking within this area, particularly at its north end, is used by the Yack Arena on a shared basis. With the exception of some scattered commercial uses, the five blocks west of Third Street in the south area are residentially oriented, with much of the parking consisting of on-street spaces. However, should the residential dwellings fronting Third Street convert, in time, to commercial or office use, sufficient on-site parking will need to be provided . This may require the assemblage of two or more parcels together in order to provide adequate on-site parking . PROJECTED PARKING NEEDS II •II • The preceding study element dealt with an analysis of the CBD's market capability and its future growth and development potential. This report estimated that approximately 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of additional comparison and convenience commercial floor area could be added to the present commercial floor area of the CBD . Based on the off-street parking ratios presented earlier in this report, the following additional parking spaces would be needed to properly accommodate the new floor areas . 40,000 sq. ft. of floor area = 267 spaces 50,000 sq . ft. of floor area = 333 spaces Based on these figures , the overall numerical parking needs of the CBD could range from 5,408 to 5,474 spaces . II • II C-6 �.. .. - - .. - • - •• - • • llt. TABLE 5 PARKING HEEDS WYANDOTTE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT PERIPHERAL AREA nirr. Existing Ex ls tine Retail Existing BLOCK OH StrHt HO . Parking Exist Inc OFF Street Parking TOTAL PARKIHO Commercial Floor Area BLOCK HO . Exlstlnc Office Floor Area TOTAL FLOOR AREA -Other- --- Com mercial Parkins HHd Ex ls tine Olllca Parkins ~ BLK . HO. TOTAL COMM/ OFFICE PARKIHO HEEDS Detw~~n Public Use Perkins Heed TOTAL PARKING HEED Ex ist ing Parklnc & Par~lnc :-feed HORTH AREA 0 51 0 HI 0 0 0 0 0 HI 0 0 0 0 ' 23 0 H2 b 0 0 0 0 HZ 0 0 0 ·o 31 13 1,941 H3 0 0 1,941 13 0 Hl 13 0 13 •50 2 20 0 H4 1,314 0 1,314 0 3 H4 3 0 3 • 11 2 44 41 0 HS 0 (C) 0 0 0 HS 0 0 0 +46 21 5 33 2,014 HI 0 0 2,014 14 0 HI 14 0 14 •19 - 48 HI 51 H2 14 H3 32 H4 11 HS HI H7 21 4 25 HT T,161 0 15,384 55 II HT 13 0 13 HI 32 90 122 23,531 HI 3,751 0 27,211 1$1 I 165 0 166 - 44 H9 23 13 105 13,542 H9 1,211 0 14,850 91 3 94 0 94 •12 SI 13 HI Ht HID 11 0 71 •4 Hll 99 0 99 •13 -121 1,191(0 HID 35 40 TS HIO 5,078 0 13,191 HII 11 95 112 14,111 Hll 0 0 14,111 Hl2 22 31 59 21,953 H12 0 0 21,953 " 0 110 0 Hl2 110 0 110 Hl3 35 S9 104 Hll 11,'50 (Fl 11,HZ 40 30 Hll 10 11 91 ., Hl4 34 49 u Hl4 0 0 11114 0 0 0 •13 23 0 u 0 HIS 0 0 0 HU 0 0 0 •23 31 0 35 0 HU 0 0 0 HU 0 0 0 •35 Hl7 19 0 19 172 HIT 0 0 0 0 172 0 HU HU 0 0 0 0 s 0 HlT 5 0 5 •14 NII 30 0 30 0 HU 0 0 0 0 0 HU 0 0 0 +30 Hl9 • 33 0 33 1,524 H19 0 0 1,524 ST 0 HU 57 0 57 - 24 l,T22!el 1,032 · 0 WEST AREA W?O 20 0 20 W21 15 56 11 W20 0 0 2,912 20 0 W20 20 0 20 0 0 W2l 0 0 0 0 0 W21 0 0 0 •II 5,281 0 0 W22 0 0 0 •JO 4,078 27 0 W23 27 0 27 •13 •26 2,912(k) 5,281(1) W22 30 0 30 0 W22 0 103 17 23 40 4,071 W23 0 S24 10 27 37 1,270 S24 0 2,151 S24 11 0 11 21 5 33 2,910 S25 0 0 2,910 ' 2 S25 u 0 S25 II 0 19 •14 S21 29 31 1,190 S26 0 0 1,190 13 0 S26 13 0 13 •II ... 0 SOUTH AREA S27 27 34 1,722 S27 0 0 1,722 12 0 S27 12 0 11 •22 S21 33 82 115 1,310 S21 0 0 1,310 0 0 S21 0 0 0 •72 S29 27 123 21,544 S29 1,718 0 30,332 144 22 S29 IU 0 166 - 16 S30 17 250 150 211 26,353(a) S30 5,922 0 32,285 171 IS S30 191 0 191 +76 S31 5 203 201 17,131 S31 10,500 0 27,631 114 27 Sll 141 0 141 •67 S32 19 4 23 0 S32 3,003 0 3,003 0 I S32 8 0 8 •15 512 551 1,070 115,IIT 30,541 0 145,651 16' 1' 145 21 873 12 19 171 7,0IO 0 5,261 12,321 41 0 47 0 4T TOTALS: Horth 11tst • 116 South 115 703 .,, 79,210 29,101 0 IOl,311 530 14 604 0 604 •294 Core 499 1.099 1,541 372,416 144,251 0 515,174 2,414 360 2,144 773 3,117 - 2,069 GRANO TOTAL 1.231 2. 449 3,517 573,803 203,900 5,261 712 ,971 3,130 510 ◄ ,340 801 5, 141 - I .SH ♦ 124 �- 'illl~ - ~ .. , , .. .. _ _ -- - - - lllllf T/\llLF. 6 P/\Hl{ING NEEl1S WY ANDO1TE CENTHAL £1USINESS DISTRICT CORE AREA Existing BLOCK ON Street NO. Parking Existing OFF Street Parking TOTAL PARKING Existing Re tell Commerciel Floor Area BLOCK NO. Cl 49 206 255 C2 45 171 216 CJ 31 95 126 C4 31 42 73 cs 43 126 cs 54 82 C7 26 0 26 11,433(c) C8 29 2 31 54,080(d) C9 30 128 158 44,934(g) C9 Cl0 30 4 34 56,248 Cl0 Cll 33 54 87 l5,912(h) C12 19 23 42 Cl3 2 0 C14 -11. Core 499 0 Other TOTAL FLOOR AREA Existing Office Perking Need BLK. NO. TOTAL COMM/ OFFICE PARKING NEEDS Public Use Perking Need TOT/\l, P/\Hl<ING NEED Dirr. Between Existing Purldng & l'orking Need 54,361 0 54,361 0 136 Cl 136 0 136 •119 C2 3,102 (B) 77,579 497 8 C2 505 550 1,055 -839 7,189 C3 0 (G) 7,189 48 0 C3 48 0 48 •78 12,25~(j) C4 3,500 15,759 82 9 C4 91 0 91 -18 169 26,428 C5 0 0 (E) 26,428 176 0 cs 176 19 195 -26 136 41,463(i) C6 21,344 0 62,807 276 53 cs 329 0 329 -193 C7 4,151 0 15,584 76 10 C7 86 0 86 -60 CB I 2,947 0 67,027 361 32 C8 393 0 393 -362 20,050 0 64,984 300 50 C9 350 0 350 -192 20,972 (D) 77,220 375 52 Cl0 427 79 506 -4H Cll 3,831 0 19,743 106 10 Cll 116 0 116 -29 27,993 Cl2 0 0 27,993 187 0 C12 187 0 187 -145 2 0 Cl3 0 0 0 0 C13 0 0 0 •2 166 193 _ _o 0 C14 (A} 0 0 0 C14 0 125 125 •68 1,099 1,548 372,416 0 516,674 2,484 360 2,844 773 3,617 -2,069 74,477(b) Cl Existing Office Floor Area Existing Commerciel Perking Need·- - - ~ _ _o_ 144,258 �• • APPENDIX D CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT ASSET & LIABILITY RESPONSES II II CBD WORKSHOP SESSION JULY 18, 1990 II I I I I I I I I Conducted by: Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. �WYANDOTTE C.B.D. WORKSHOP SURVEY· 7/18/89 RESPONSE COUNT PERCENT OF TOTAL 1 Accnalblllty (neighborhood and " - Y pa,tdng p,oxlmlty) 3 3.3,t, Ael&tMI MClu•lon 1 1.1,r, ' 4 .4,t, ASSET RESPONSES ii ACCESSIBILITY TOTAL GOVERNMENT • II II Concemect and eflact,,.. mayo, (and gowm....nt) 2 2-3 Crty..-..d utllttln r -11 run) 2 2-3 Public lalety 2 2.2'!1. a 11.8'1. TOTAL BUSINESSES Frler>dty buolneu / owner r.lalionahip a 8.11%' Variety of buslnMMI 2 2.2,r, Bu•lneu community concem 1 1.1,t, 9 9.9% TOTAL APPEARANCE His1oric 7 1.1•w.1 Appearance of dowr>t"""' (and ci.ar,Hnea) 8 8.8'1.' Small t°""' -boance 4 4_4,r,.S Recent -hetlc building lmp,""'""'8nll 3 3.3,t, St•-• and •-ks on good condKlon 2 2-3 Lack of vaea,,t storn 2 2-3 AdequaJ• algnage 1 1.1,r, ughtlng 1 1. 1,r, 2e 21.11% The m,eo1ront 22 24.2'!1.1 Nucleut of exi.tlng retail thope a a.a,r,1 Fn1illals and actMtln 7 7.7'143 Yack Ar- 2 2.2'!1. Major employers (Cily Hall, Hospllal, etc.) 2 2.2'!1. 41 45.1,t, TOTAL SITES ANO ACTMTIES I I I I TOTAL OTHER -Untapped potentoar p.e., gl'ffle< shop d.....ity) 2 2.2'!1. Cttlzeno 1 1.1,r, Changing land UM 1 1. 1~ 1 1.1,r, Easily manageable arH TOTAL TOTAL RESPONSES I • lr>dicatn rank order (Top r,,.. only). I I I 0-1 5 5.5,t, 91 100.00% �i • • • I I UABIUTY RESPONSES RESPONSE COUNT I PERCENT OF TOTAL. ACCESSlBIUT'Y General aceeulbttlly 5 NOi CondU91W lo pedfltnan Ira/lie; 4 5.4% 1 1.1% e e.5"- 4 4.3"'J 1/acanl build,nga 4 4.3%.l S1ore fronlt 2 2.2% Pr0•1mity lo amo•..1ack 1ndustn.. (a,ghl, odor) 2 2.2"' Cieanlll''MtU 2 22"' 2 2.2% 1 1. 1% Eureka Road blighl 1 1.1% Viaduct ayes<>r• 1 1.1% 18 20.4% lna<Mquale 1)811dng (palrona and employfftl 14 15. 1%1 On s1r- parldng (Stddl<t) 2 2.2"' Lack of par1dng 1 1.1% 17 18.3"' TOTAL APPEARANCE General appearance Ratlroed btMCltOn ol lown Visual problema cauted by lhe - ot Biddle TOTAL PAAKJNG Alff definttton TOTAL BUSINESS ot 2 22"' Bus,nes,i owner empalhy 2 2.2% Lack ol ewnlng commercial hou~ 2 2.2"' 6 8.5% Lack ol an anchor store 7 7.5%1 Poor commercial di....rslly e 8.5%) Lack ol "'AfO' food SIO<e 4 4.3"'-' Lack of adequ&1• ad\lenls,ng 3 3.2"' I.Ack ol growth a,eas 1 1.1"' Lack of an eUI aid. mantel 1 1.1"' Umiled mas1<eting area 1 1.1"' Marllel lna1al>lllty 1 1.1"' 24 25.8"' Btddle 1ruck lralfte 7 7.5%1 Building S1C1Ck quallly 4 4.3"'-' Dtsruplion al n,ghl by young people 3 3.2% Lack _,.,han1 operallonal unity TOTAL MARKET I I I I I I I I I TOTAL OTHER road■ 2 2.2"' Lack of h,gh densny housing 1 1.1% Lack of quality housing 1 1.1% Walerfron1 localion 1 1.1"' Community &lt~ude 1 1.1"' Poor Ou1side pedalrian nelwor1c (allec!ed by -••hell 1 1.1% TOTAL 21 22.8" TOTAL RESPONSES 93 100.0% D-2 I �I I APPENDIX E I I -II II I II I I I I I I MASTER PLAN FOR FUTURE LAND USE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT DECEMBER, 1990 �I I I I I I I I I INTRODUCTION .......:... Within the Wyandotte CBD and its immediate fringe some 500,000 square feet of retail space services a sizeable portion of some 200,000 people who reside in Wyandotte's primary trade area. The continued health and prosperity of the central business district is a prime concern in providing a direction for present and future uses of land in and around the CBD. Central Business Districts throughout history have represented the "Image of the City." In a sense it is "Everyone's Neighborhood" and should be preserved and nurtured to be a source of pride to all of the City's residents. Over the past several decades (1960, 1970, 1980) strong inroads have been made by new shopping centers in competing for the retail shopping dollar. While the Wyandotte CBD cannot hope to directly compete with large scale regional oriented, enclosed shopping malls like Southland or Fairlane, it can serve a separate need. Most of the current shopping center complexes in the downriver area are of contemporary design and unspecialized in tenant mix or "theme." This mass appeal meets many needs. However, a shopping area attuned to its rich architectural history, ethnic diversity and waterfront access such as the Wyandotte CBD can also meet shopper needs ·tor the "unique," the "colorful" and the "different." A combination of well designed store facades, a complementary streetscape, adequate and convenient parking and a strong linkage to the CBD's unique natural resource - the riverfront, coupled with vigorous self promotion by CBD businessmen should enable the CBD to expand its commercial base while retaining its urban small town atmosphere. A strong sense of community exists in downtown Wyandotte as is evidenced by efforts to keep the CBD not only a strong retail center but also through a continuing program to make it an attractive activity center. Building maintenance, streetscape improvements, pleasant lighting and a solid business/government partnership have all played significant roles in the preservation of downtown Wyandotte and in making it more than just a regional retail center. Past accomplishments with regard to the improvement of the CBD, while laudable, should not lull the community into a false sense of security regarding the well being of downtown for the years ahead. Times and conditions are constantly changing. With this thought in mind the Wyandotte Planning and Rehabilitation Commission, with the assistance of the Downtown Development Authority, have undertaken the establishment of a series of goals and objectives to give direction to the Future Land Use Plan (Master Plan) for the central business area of Wyandotte. E-1 �I GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR WYANDOTTE'S CBD AREA I I The Future Land Use Plan (Master Plan) for Downtown Wyandotte is a statement of basic goals and objectives to be achieved, from which a plan for action can evolve. Action toward plan implementation is often best expressed through a series of policy statements relating to overall goals and objectives. The relationship among goals, objectives, policies and alternative implementation techniques is as follows: Goal - A goal is a destination, a final purpose which a community seeks to attain. A goal is the most general level of policy and by itself is not very helpful to decision makers. It needs further refinement to assist decision makers to reach their selected destination. I -I I I I II I I Objective - An objective is the route which specifies in general terms the way (route) by which the goal (destination) can be reached . An objective indicates the kinds of actions that should be used to achieve the goal. Policy - A policy is a means of transportation along the route. It is a course of action which , if followed, will achieve an objective. A policy is more detailed than an objective and can be readily translated into specific action recommendations or design proposals. Implementation Alternatives - These are the specific action recommendations suggested by policies. Among the more commonly used implementation techniques are zoning and subdivision ordinances, capital improvement programs, and site-specific proposals or programs. A plan will suggest alternative ways to implement policies. City officials must make the choice of which implementation techniques to actually use . Goals, and objectives which shape the Master Plan for the Central Business District area and the eleven sectors relating to the CBD, are expressed as follows: PRIMARY GOAL FOR WYANDOTTE'S CBD THROUGH GOVERNMENT/BUSINESS COOPERATION, ENHANCE CBD GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES TO ENABLE IT TO CONTINUE AS THE PRIME RETAIL, SERVICE AND COMMUNITY EVENT CENTER FOR THE DOWNRIVER AREA. THIS WILL BE DONE IN A FASHION SENSITIVE TO THE EXISTING CHARACTER OF THE DOWNTOWN AREA AND SURROUNDING RESIDENT/AL AREA AND WITH EMPHASIS ON RIVER ACCESS AND PROXIMIT-Y. I I EACH NEW DEVELOPMENT WILL BE EXPECTED TO CONTRIBUTE TO . THE ECONOMIC VITALITY, SERVICE CAPABILITY AND ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE CBD. I E-2 �I SPECIFIC GOALS I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I GOALI I. ACCESSIBILITY- Access from the south and west as well as north should be improved. Routes to the CBD should be distinctively identified. A. OBJECTIVES: 1. 2. FROM NORTH a. An attractive entrance to the City is provided as you leave Ecorse however, the Ecorse Creek bridge should be improved and beautified as an entrance feature to Wyandotte. b. The appearance of marina and boat storage areas along Biddle Avenue should be improved to create a more attractive image. C. Encourage the continued improvement qf the appearance of the industrial districts bordering on Biddle Avenue. d. Intensify tree planting in all residential, business and industrial areas along Biddle Avenue from Ecorse Creek to the CBD. e. A study should be undertaken to determine the feasibility of boulevarding Biddle Avenue north of the CBD. f. CBD identification signage should be provided. g. An extension of pedestrian level lighting north to the hospital should be considered. FROM SOUTH a. Factory blight as you enter Wyandotte on Biddle Avenue provides a poor image which needs improvement. b. Street pavement conditions should be improved, particularly at the Riverview /Wyandotte entrance to the City. c. Boulevarding of Biddl~ Avenue will improve the appearance of this street from Pennsylvania to the south edge of the CBD. E-3 �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 3. d. Attractive Wyandotte identification signage and landscape treatment at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Biddle should be provided. e. Pennsylvania Avenue Street conditions should be improved to encourage traffic to utilize Biddle Avenue as an entrance to downtown. f. Additional tree planting on both sides of Biddle Avenue should be provided. g. CBD style pedestrian lighting should be extended from Eureka to Plum Street. h. CBD identification signage should be provided at Plum Street. FROM WEST a. Identification signage and downtown event announcement signage should be provided at or near Eureka and Fort Street. b. Access by way of Eureka is the most important western entrance to the CBD and needs to be improved in appearance with particular emphasis on the area from railroad tracks eastward. c. The railroad viaduct and the underpass embankments should be rehabilitated to a pleasant appearing entrance to the CBD. d. Boulevarding of Eureka with a landscaped center island between Biddle Avenue and Fourth Street should be considered. e. The improvement and parking plan for Eureka prepared in 1990 should be implemented as appropriate. f. Identification of the entrance to the CBD should be provided at or near the railroad . g. CBD style pedestrian lighting should be provided on Eureka from Biddle Avenue to Fourth Street. h. Street tree planting should be intensified on Eureka between the railroad and Biddle Avenue . E-4 �• i. I 4. II I I I I I I Both Oak Street and Northline are important CBD feeder streets and should be improved to increase their traffic carrying ability into the CBD. Excessive turning movement options on Northline appear to diminish its traffic flow potential. Excessive truck traffic should be discouraged on Oak Street. RIVER ACCESS a. Create access for boaters wherever possible, particularly as it relates to encouraging canadian tourism and trade. b. Explore the potential for ferry service to Canada. C. Pursue· the potential for the use of grassy island as a recreation facility with a downtown connecting ferry service. GOAL II 11. TRAFFIC CIRCULATION - Downtown streets should provide easy access and smooth traffic flow for the downtown visitor and shopper -with a minimum of pedestrian and vehicle traffic conflict. A. OBJECTIVES: 1. VEHICLE a. Every effort to eliminate through truck traffic from Biddle Avenue should be made. b. A study of the origin and destination of trucks entering and leaving the CBD on Biddle Avenue should be undertaken as a basis for determining alternate truck routing. c. The speed limit for traffic on Biddle Avenue in the CBD should be evaluated. d. Turning movements to and from Biddle Avenue need to be clearly identified. e. Parking lot access points need to be identified. E-5 �I f. Night time traffic looping should be discouraged. The possibility of extended signalization times, curfew hours and restricted turning movement should all be explored. g. Semi-truck turning movements create traffic blockages . Semitruck servicing of stores should be discouraged. h. Alleys should serve auto, service vehicles and pedestrians and should be designed to provide shopper safety. I I 2. I I I I I I I I I I I I PEDESTRIAN a. A comfortable safe and inviting pedestrian atmosphere is essential to all shopping streets in the CBD and should receive the highest priority for the enhancement of features that promote these aspects. b. Street pedestrian crossings should be visually identified (by brick pavers, paint, or other means). C. Signalization of cross walks should favor ·the pedestrian on all streets and particularly on Biddle Avenue. d. Pedestrian safety in parking lots and at rears of stores should be evaluated relative to night lighting. e. Vehicle conflicts with pedestrian access to rear store entrances should be minimized. GOAL Ill 111. PARKING - Every effort should be made to increase convenient safe and attractive customer parking particularly in areas where a deficiency in parking exists . A. OBJECTIVES: 1. EMPLOYEES a. Continued effort must be made to discourage use of prime parking spaces by employees in the CBD. b. The provision of shuttle bus service from more remote parking lots for employees should be explored. E-6 �I 2. I I CUSTOMERS a. Parking areas should be expanded wherever feasible with particular attention to the core area of the CBD. (Eureka, Third, Oak to the River). b. Customer walking distances should be no greater than 500 feet between any store and a parking facility. C. Parking standards as specified in the zoning ordinance should be re-evaluated particularly as they relate to business and office uses. d. The area of greatest parking deficiency, the east side of Biddle Avenue from Oak to Eureka, should receive a high priority for addition of parking. e. In order to provide early relief for areas of high parking deficiency the provision of a shuttle bus which circulates throughout the CBD should be implemented. f. The possibility of providing additional parking on Biddle Avenue should be analyzed. g. The financial feasibility of deck parking for employees and customers should be explored. h. Existing parking lots should be landscaped and screened to lessen the visual impact of expansive areas of parking and to provide an attractive appearance in keeping with CBD character. i. Parking lot lighting should be evaluated to assure a safe atmosphere for the parking lot user. I 1B I I I I I I I I I I GOAL IV IV. SIZE OF CBD - The CBD will need to expand to keep pace with market area growth. Future growth should be concentrated as a compact business area conducive to walk-in business and through careful interaction with developers provide for the continuation of the unique character which typifies Wyandotte 's CBD. An additional 50,000 square feet of retail and supporting business activity in the Wyandotte CBD should be achieved by the year 2000. E-7 �I I I A. OBJECTIVES: 1. CBD GROWTH AREAS a. The major retailing activities in the CBD should be concentrated and should include both sides of Biddle Avenue from Eureka to Chestnut and all of the area between Eureka and Oak west to Third Street. b. Through careful interaction with developers, new developments should be encouraged to relate to the river front and its park like setting. c. Under utilized blocks or buildings with retail user potential within the CBD should be upgraded thcough land and building assembly and marketed for uses that will strengthen the CBD. i I I I I I I I I I I 2. CBD FRINGE a. Close in areas immediately adjacent to the CBD serve as areas for higher ·density housi.ng and They should be developed with sensitivity to the neighborhood and which will reinforce the downtown business and services. b. CBD related and supporting activities, particularly housing, entertainment and waterfront related activities should be encouraged in the areas south of Eureka to Plum Street, west to Third and east to the river. · C. The Eureka Avenue frontage from Fourth to the railroad should be upgraded as a high school business and campus area with emphasis on the provision of activities operated by and serving the student population. d. Development of new multiple-family housing, pursuant to current zoning standards, should be considered for the area adjacent to the CBD on the west side of Third Street from Oak to Sycamore and in the area between Third and Fourth Streets between Plum and Orange. e. The north entrance t9 the CBD along Biddle Avenue from Poplar south should be carefully monitored as changes in uses occur. The preservation of historic structures in this I I I I E-8 core should office uses. surrounding market for �I I I area is essential. The area should become a special historic preservation district which emphasizes this entrance to the CBD. f. Ii I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 3. A change in uses of isolated properties which are out of character with the area in which they are located, such as general and automotive types of business, should be encouraged. OTHER BUSINESS GENERATORS a. The CBD as an activity center should be the location for varied area wide events. Not less than one major event per month should take place in downtown Wyandotte. b. Yack Arena should continue to serve as a multi purpose event center and should be a major focal point for the expansion of other civic facilities and appropriately related business in the blocks to the south and west between Sycamore and Eureka. C. The provision of bed and breakfast facilities in close proximity to the CBD should be encouraged. d. On going activities, in addition to currently programmed events, which promote the ambience of downtown should be encouraged such as: (1) Waterfront activities - In water boat shows, tall ships display, naval or coast guard ship visits. (2) Musical events in the park and at various street locations downtown. (3) Street vendors and outdoor cafes. (4) Outdoor art displays at various locations. (5) Farmers market. GOALV V. CBD APPEARANCE - Provide a clean, efficient and tasteful environment that will enhance the Central Business District as ·a place to do business and a place in which all the citizens of Wyandotte take pride. E-9 �I I I I I I a I I I I I I I I I I A. OBJECTIVES: 1. ARCHITECTURAL a. The whole of downtown Wyandotte creates a town center character which should be preserved and nurtured through all possible means including: (1) Individual existing building architecture should reflect initial building design. Store front remodelling should be encouraged to reflect a unifying architectural theme . (2) No single motif should be promoted ; however, the style of the early tradition of the City should be respected as it relates to new construction in the CBD. A chronology of building construction in the downtown area should be prepared. (3) Color coordination in both new construction and in remodeling is essential. (4) The two-story character of downtown, particularly along Biddle Avenue, should be preserved and encouraged for both building remodelling and new developments. (5) Efforts should be made to promote the use of second floor space for activities which will lend support to downtown's primary retail function i.e. , offices and dwellings. (6) Awnings which obscure building facades or obliterate the true nature of the building design should be discouraged. (7) Awnings which serve as signs should be discouraged and should be carefully scrutinized under the City's sign ordinance for compliance with sign size provisions. (8) Awnings when provided should be so designed as to provide a unifying effect to the downtown area. (9) All new permanent signs should be reviewed by a design professional or a committee of the ODA to assure compatibility with the character of downtown. E-10 �•I •II 2. I I -11 I I I I I I I I I I - 3. THE SHOPPING STREET a. Additional decorative paving should be programmed for installation on sidewalks where none now exists to add a unifying effect to all of downtown Wyandotte. b. Additional street tree planting should be undertaken. C. Downtown pedestrian level lighting in keeping with that provided on Biddle Avenue should be considered for additional downtown streets and for streets bordering the CBD for both its utility and its decorative appeal. d. Side street lighting should be restricted to pedestrian level lights whenever possible. e. Additional well designed street furniture (benches, directional kiosks, trash receptacles, etc.,) should be added at appropriate locations throughout the downtown area. f. Street and traffic signage should be effectively located and be distinctively designed to give direction and not create excessive clutter in the downtown area. g. The use of "Downtown Wyandotte" street banners should be limited to the CBD area and major approaching streets. ALLEYWAYS a. A long term program should be instituted to place all overhead utility lines underground. b. A continuing emphasis should be placed on the improvement of rear store facades and entrances to the rear of stores providing convenient access to parking facilities. C. Alleys at the rear of businesses should serve for both service access and as an attractive and safe pedestrian area. d. Alley service delivery hours should be restricted to off peak shopping hours. e. Trash receptacles behind businesses should be screened from public view. E-11 �I I I I I I GOAL VI VI. THE RIVERFRONT - The Detroit River is Wyandotte's most attractive natural feature. Every effort should be made to make the river accessible to the public with particular emphasis on tieing the downtown area more intimately to the river. A. -fl I I I I I II II I I I OBJECTIVES: 1. Physical ties to the river in the downtown area through pedestrian ways, visual access and events need to be encouraged. 2. Every opportunity for the development of a river walk, or portions thereof, should be pursued. 3. Downtown Wyandotte will be one of the major terminuses in a river walk system . 4. Encourage the development of lands near the river in the CBD area and its fringe to develop with exposure to the river which will provide for public access. 5. Waterfront activities and events should continue to be stressed as a downtown activity. 6. Encourage events and provide transportation to the CBD for people utilizing the waterfront from marina's, the yacht club, and other remote riverfront locations. 7. Bishop Park should be designed to serve as an event center including the addition of some daily use facilities such as an outdoor ice and roller skating rink, music event center, and additional senior citizen recreation facilities. 8. Improved pedestrian access from the CBD by way of specially designed walkways or sidewalks on streets leading to the riverfront (Eureka, Elm, Oak, Chestnut and Superior) should be undertaken. 9. Explore the potential for State assisted marina development. GOAL VII VII. CBD MAINTENANCE - It is essential to keep a neat, orderly and safe downtown which attracts and keeps high quality businesses and maintains a comfortable retail atmosphere for the shopper. E-12 �•I I! I I I I 5. Support for programs and activities which will assist in improving downtown including the following, among others, will be essential: a. Wyandotte Community Alliance. b. Programs for financing building improvements. c. Assistance in financing from lender institutions. d. Explore the use of P.A. 120 of 1961 maintenance, promotion and operation. e. Support efforts to revive Act 255 of 1978 Commercial Redevelopment District Act relative to tax incentives for real property improvements. f. Explore the development of a bank holding company Community Development Corporation as a possible tool for assisting in developing activities. g. Explore the potential for tax credits iri the restoration of historic structures in the downtown area. Community Revitalization Tax Act. h. Pursue the ramifications of licensing Wyandotte businesses to provide an inventory and record of active businesses and to provide assistance in code enforcement. fl I I I I I I I I I I - E-14 on Downtown �I I I! I I I II I & I I I I I I I I THE CENTRAL BUSINESS AREA FUTURE LAND USE PLAN The Future Land Use Plan for the Central Business District Area, as shown on the Master Plan for Future Land Use, presents a composite of land use decisions that resulted from studies of current land use, land and building value studies, a population analysis, a potential retail market analysis and a parking study all conducted with the Downtown Development Authority, Planning and Rehabilitation Commission, residents, property owners, business owners, City Officials and City staff. The resulting land use plan and the goals and objective statements will serve as a guide for improvement and the maintenance of a strong, growing and vital central business district. Achieving the long-range goals and objectives set forth in the Future Land Use Plan requires that planning be carried out on a continuing basis. The Planning and Rehabilitation Commission must continue to take an active role in reviewing each new development in light of the long-range objectives of the Plan. The planning program must also provide for continual reevaluation of the Plan to take into account changing conditions, trends and technology. In this way, the Plan will remain a dynamic instrument for guiding the development and redevelopment of Wyandotte. The City planning process, of which land use planning is but one part, involves a continuing program of assessing development and redevelopment projects that bring about change to the existing fabric of the community. The objectives of communities change over time and unforseen events sometimes make the best plans obsolete. The process of plan making should try to guide the direction and rate of change in keeping with the overall goals and objectives of the plan. The planning process thus becomes time oriented in three ways: (1) It is continuous, without termination. (2) It seeks to affect and make use of change, rather than provide for a static future land use plan. (3) It is expressed in part in long- and short- range programs of action through capital improvements programming. IMPLEMENTATION The Future Land Use Plan for Wyandotte is of little value unless it can be realistically implemented. The first and most important factor in effectuation of the Plan is reflected in the independent actions of the people who live in Wyandotte and by the developers who buy and sell property, homes, businesses and industries. Overall, the Plan will serve as a framework within which these individual actions can take place, thereby lending stability to them. Other factors which can serve as means for implementing the Plan include: · I I E-15 �I I i! II I I rl r. ZONING ORDINANCE The Zoning Ordinance is the most powerful legal instrument available to the City for controlling the development of land. The proper administration of a sound zoning ordinance will bring about a pattern of development called for in the Future Land Use Plan. In addition, zoning regulates the density of population and structures, lot sizes and coverage of lots by buildings, building setbacks and off-street parking, in order to serve the best interests of community at large. The City's zoning ordinance is structured to assist in accomplishing the objectives of the Future Land Use Plan. Application of the Planned Development District, as new development takes place for specific projects, will provide property use and design flexibility to accomplish plan objectives. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM There are three basic purposes for having a capital improvements program : (1) To assist in the development of a realistic program of capital spending relating proposed projects to the City's fiscal ability to support such ventures. Therefore, all proposed projects must be related to the City's debt outstanding, the tax base, and the wealth of the community. (2) To coordinate the various public works projects and improvements with one another. (3) To accomplish the community's Future Land Use Plan in providir)g the improvements contemplated therein in a practical, economic and timely manner. I I I I I I I I - E-16 �I I I! I I I I I Ii I I PROPOSED LAND USE FOR THE CBD AREA The Central Business District for the City of Wyandotte, and its immediately bordering area, is composed of 11 land use sectors. These are depicted on the accompanying Master Plan of Future Land Use Map. A mixture of land uses exist in the Central Business District with a primary emphasis on retail activity. The core retail area, sector 5, is bordered by areas having a direct impact on the core area and are considered a part of the Central Business District Area in order to provide a well integrated Master Plan which respects the effects of abutting land use activities. This large Central Business District Area overlaps to some degree the Southeast Neighborhood in Sectors 1, 2 and 3 and due to its close proximity to the CBD the Roosevelt High School campus area in Sector 11. On the north, Sector 8 exists as a sound residential neighborhood which should continue to be preserved as such. The Master Plan For Future Land Use which is portrayed on the accompanying map reflects the land utilization policy, which if effectuated, will support the Goals and Objectives established for Wyandotte's CBD. The proposed land use for the various sectors of the Master Plan are further explained in the following text: CBD AREA LAND USE BY SECTOR 1. The adopted southeast Neighborhood Master Plan recommends the revital ization of this area as a single-family residential neighborhood and the blocks fronting on the south side of Eureka from 7th to 3rd are designated as central business district. This plan proposes three blocks from 7th to 4th as part of the high school campus area with 4th to 3rd as part of a civic development area. 2. The adopted Southeast Neighborhood Master plan has this area designated for multiple-family housing. This plan proposes that single-family housing and multiplefamily be encouraged in this area. Block ends such as on Third and Fourth Streets are well suited for multi-family dwelling when properly buffered with walls and landscaping in harmony with single-family dwellings on abutting properties. 3. The adopted Southeast Neighborhood Master Plan has this area designated waterfront-mixed use; no change is proposed for this area. This is an important entry point into the CBD and land uses should compliment the CBD retail core. 4. This area is proposed to be preserved as an existing single-family /multiple-family residential area. Existing off-street parking areas are proposed to remain. I I I I I I I - E-17 �5. The CBD will be strengthened by more intense development on underutilized properties and by in filling on vacant parcels. Where off-street parking can be provided through multi level systems some current surface parking areas may be utilized for more intense retail development. New uses of property that provide retail or service to the pedestrian shopping public will be encouraged. Downtown should return to its early heritage as a place in which to "shop around." 6. Bishop Park is Wyandotte's most important public waterfront access point. Enhancement of the CBD relationship to Bishop Park and to other riverfront access points will be paramount. 7. The north entrance to the CBD on Biddle Avenue contains significant historic structures. Enhancement of this area through the elimination of non-compatible uses and promotion of a historic theme is proposed. 8. This residential neighborhood located northwest of the CBD area, while not specifically the subject matter of the current master plan revision, is viewed as a sound , low density single-family residential neighborhood which will be encouraged to continue as such. This neighborhood and all other residential neighborhoods will need to be part of further master plan analysis. 9. This predominantly single-family residential area with its close proximity to the high school, though envisioned as a high density residential area in previous plans, is proposed to be changed to a low density single-family neighborhood in keeping with the existing character of the area. Current multiple-family zoning between Third and Fourth Streets and on the Oak Street frontage should be evaluated. 10. The Yack Arena serves as an anchor element in this 3-1/2 block area. Additional civic uses will be encouraged in this area as well as CBD supporting business and office activities. 11 . A campus area expansion is proposed for Roosevelt High School with efforts made to enhance high school surroundings. Activities on Eureka that stress a high school campus orientation will be encouraged, i.e.; businesses, offices, activity centers, etc. Expansion of the high school's physical plant is not proposed for this portion of the campus area south of Eureka. Visual and environmental improvement of this important entrance corridor to the CBD will be pursued. I! I I I I I ii I i I I I I I I I I E-18 �- - - .i- -j Jo~oo~oo~oo~ ■J ■i ■1 ■i 1!1 ■1 ■i ■1 JD DD DD DD DD JD DDI DD □[10010 l.J NEIGHBORHOOL.J JD D LJLJ LJLJ ,--,,----, ]DIDO D r-,~==== . ~ E:g~. ,i, ~U~++ 21 [) ST. ST. g THIRD ST 3 ~ l____ LI ~ : 3: --...:::::::::, 11 ST . ) ■1 II I~== I.____ _ ;,.!.!,'"'" '::..------ - HIGH SCHOOL :;;.---. CAMPUSAREAi . .' .--::,___ , -- 1r1 I FIFTH i'xir I j ii ............--,L 9 ST ~ RESID~tiriA~n r ..... u u 1□ ~00~00~ i~F I ~I CB 1870000 NEIGHBORHOOD ST FOURTH LJLJEN-LJLJLJOLJLJD CIVI~ ST ..-THIRD---.. 1~=10 LIii NTRAL SINESS T .___, ~ci . - - . bci DD DD DD § nrl!nn~nn~oo~□ r-1-~h~ 1 • FIRST l==L-.{ R;vER ~-6 .......,_ CBD AREA MASTER PLAN Jg~[ THIRD 7 . L-lyj DECEMBER 1990 ■i I 1c= oYo;;..::....••----, - '---11"- RESIDENTIAL ■: • VA L-JL-J HISTORIC ENTRY N ALSTYNE 11 PARK ~ II I I I □ DO c=JI CJC I IF=~I BLVD � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Wyandotte_Business-District-Plan_1991 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-02 Title A name given to the resource A Plan for Wyandotte's Central Business District Description An account of the resource A Plan for Wyandotte's Central Business District was prepared for the City of Wyandotte by Vilican-Leman & Associates in February 1991. Subject The topic of the resource Business districts, Central Wyandotte (Mich.) Wayne County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c377846e0a2677e8ef270c823aa0539f.pdf 8cf9deb60c81f8aaabb93d4c96906b59 PDF Text Text lEUlRlEOCA AVlENUlE COlRlRRDOlR STUDY WYANDOTTE,MICHIGAN �.EUREKA CORRIDOR STUDY prepared for: THE CITY OF WYANDOTTE prepared by: ■ ■■ o ■■ Vilican­ ■ ooo ■■ Leman 888;; & Associates, oooo ■ Inc • • Community Planning Consultants 28316 Pnulltlin Road Southfield, Michigan 4803-4 (313) 35~8181 traffic engineering assistance provided by: Michael F. Kobran, P.E. MAY, 1991 �CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ . .......... . .. 1 PURPOSE ............................................................................................ 1 SCOPE ................ . ............................................................................. 1 EXISTING LAND USE . ...................................................................................... . .. 2 EXISTING LAND USE CHARACTERISTICS ..................................................................... 2 EXISTING COMMERCIAL LAND USE .... .. ..................... . ...................... . ....... .. ............ . 4 PERCEPTUAL ANALYSIS .... . ... .. ............................................................................. 6 LAND USE RELATIONSHIPS . .............. . . . ........ . ............ . ........... . ........................... 6 ENTRYWAYS ................................................................... . ...................... 7 STREETSCAPE ............................................................................. . . . ......... 8 PARKING ANALYSIS ...................... . ......................................... . .................. . ...... 11 METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 OVERVIEW OF PARKING ISSUES ........................................................................ . . 13 ANALYSIS OF PARKING DEFICIENCIES .................................................................. . .. 14 TRAFFIC ANALYSIS ......................................... . ................................................ 18 GENERAL OVERVIEW ............................................ . ...................................... 18 TRAFFIC OPERATIONS ..................................................... . ........................... 19 TRAFFIC SAFETY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 EUREKA POLICY STATEMENTS .............. . .............................. . .. . ................................ 22 LAND USE .......... . ............................................. . ....................... . .......... VISUAL IMPROVEMENT ................ . ............................................ . ................... TRAFFIC CIRCULATION AND SAFETY ...... . .......................................................... . ... . . ORGANIZATION . ....................... . ..................... . ........................................ 22 23 23 24 RECOMMENDATIONS .. . . . ............................................................................. . . . ... 25 CORRIDOR DESIGN GUIDELINES ........................................................................ . . PARKING RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................... TRAFFIC RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................... GENERAL LAND USE ...................................................... . ............................ 25 28 30 33 APPENDIX ............................................................................................ appendix contents-1 �MAPS AND GRAPHICS EXISTING LAND USE ..... .... ...... ...... ............... . .. . .......... ....... .... ......... .......... ... . ... ... 2 EXISTING LAND USE (map) .. .... ...... .. ..... ............ . ............ . ............... .. ... .... : .............. 2a EXISTING COMMERCIAL LAND USE . .................... ..... ...... .... .... . . .... ... . . ......... . . ..... . ... ... .. . .. 5 LACK OF SCREENING BETWEEN USES ............. . ........... .. . .... ................. .. ........... . .. ..... ...... 7 VISUAL ANALYSIS (map) ........................................ ....... .... .... .......... . . ... .. . ........... . 10a IS THERE A PARKING SHORTAGE ON YOUR BLOCK? .... .. .. .. ............... . . . . . .......... . .. . .... .. ..... . .... ... . 13 EUREKA PARKING ANALYSIS: NORTH SIDE ........................................................................ 14 OBSTRUCTED ALLEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 EUREKA PARKING ANALYSIS: NORTH SIDE ... ......... .. .................... ... . ... . ... ... .. ... .. .... .. ..... . . . ... 16 UNPAVED PARKING AREAS PROMOTE INEFFICIENCY ...................................................· ............. 17 TRAFFIC AND PARKING ANALYSIS (map) . . .. . .... .. ... .. ... ... ... ... . . ...................... . . . ... .. ...... .. ..... 17a TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ON EUREKA BY INTERSECTION ................................... . ........ . ............. . ... .. 19 SIDE STREET TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ............................ . . .. . . .... ...... . ..... . .................. ..... .... 20 ANGLE PARKING IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO INTERSECTION . .... .... . . .......... .. ... ... .... ... .... ..... . ... ..... .. .... 21 SCREEN WALL DETAIL ADJACENT TO ALLEYS .....................................· ... . ................. . . .. .. ... .. 27 SAMPLE BLOCK DESIGN (map) ................................................................................ 27a PARKING LOT DESIGN (map) . ............. ..... ...... . .. . ........ .... .... .... ... .... .. . ... ...... ........... ... 29a contents-2 �INTRODUCTION As the major west entrance point to the City of Wyandotte's Central Business District, Eureka Avenue plays an important role in shaping the image of the City as a whole. With the dominance of the automobile as the primary mode of transportation along this corridor, the visual perception from the roadway plays a critical role in shaping our perception of the entire community. Of equal importance however, is the functional operation of the roadway itself. In order to operate as intended, the street system must be free of vehicular and pedestrian safety hazards and provide smooth circulation both on and off-site. In order for businesses to remain viable and the corridor to function as a cohesive unit, traffic circulation must remain safe, parking and on-site circulation adequate, and a sense of visual appeal must be maintained. The Eureka Corridor, much like most areas of Wyandotte, developed prior to many of the City's existing zoning regulations. As a result, a variety of land use conflicts exist along with concerns related to sign control, setbacks and parking; and a general lack of and inconsistency with landscaping, screening, and buffering. Recognizing these concerns and the need to identify immediate and long-term solutions, the City of Wyandotte in conjunction with the Mayor, City Council, Planning and Rehabilitation Commission, Tax Increment Finance Committee and Downtown Development Authority, commissioned the study of Eureka Avenue from Fort to Biddle Streets. PURPOSE The primary objective of the study is to recommend improvements after thoroughly analyzing the corridor from a functional and visual standpoint. An in depth analysis was conducted of the existing on and off street parking situation, traffic patterns and streetscape aesthetics. In addition, two evening workshops were conducted and attended by merchants, owners, residents and elected and appointed City officials. The combined input and efforts of these individuals played an integral part in the proposed improvements recommended in this study. SCOPE The scope of the study spans, physically, Eureka Avenue from Biddle Avenue to Fort Street in the City of Wyandotte. ·• Conceptually, the report addresses, the need for parking, means of improving vehicular and pedestrian circulation and streetscape aesthetics, from a planning perspective. Assistance was provided by a transportation engineer for segments regarding traffic circulation. The analysis and recommendations in this report reflect our observations and the existing conditions as they were in the summer of 1990. 1 �EXISTING LAND USE The map on the following page illustrates the existing land use of parcels with frontage on Eureka Avenue and parcels directly behind these uses. A "windshield survey" was conducted in June, 1990 to determine the existing uses along Eureka. The total site acreage of these uses was then tabulated for the entire corridor. Although approximately 36 percent of the frontage on Eureka is devoted to Commercial and Industrial uses, a large portion of the corridor still is occupied by residential uses. Approximately 20 percent of the frontage is occupied by multiple, two-family, and single family uses. The pie graph further illustrates the existing use of land within the corridor. EXISTING LAND USE CHARACTERISTICS One and Two Family Residential: One and Two family residential units on Eureka are primarily concentrated east of Eleventh Street although units exist throughout the corridor. Some have in recent years been converted to businesses and other nonresidential uses. With few exceptions, single family residential homes exist adjacent to the alleys behind the Eureka frontage. EXISTING LAND USE JULY, 1990 Utility (0%} OJosi-A.Jblic (25%) ~1tJ11%) Office (2%) Voe. Comcl (2%} Two-Family (5%} hdustriol (1 %) SF Residential (1.3%) Vacant (5%) A.Jb Parking (7%) Multiple Family Residential: Less than two percent of the acreage with frontage on Eureka Avenue is currently occupied by multiple family units. Apartment complexes are located on the south side of Eureka at Eleventh and Third streets. Additional multiple family units are located behind the frontage parcels between 11th & 12th street and 12th & 14th streets on the north side. 2 �I I I I I. IC I I I I I I I □ <m1im1 t:::s ffi 91 t~ ~Wm ~ (QJ9 [gJ ls~ ~ t::=l @il iJ (@) -.z .-. 0 ~ 0 ~ I • �I I I I I I I I I ' ' Commercial: The majority of land on Eureka is currently occupied by commercial uses. These businesses vary greatly but are primarily dominated by automobile related uses. As expected on a high traffic volume street like Eureka, many of these businesses, such as gasoline stations, automobile and service shops, benefit from high traffic volumes. Office: Currently, offices such as banks, insurance agencies, medical and professional offices make up only two percent of the uses within this corridor. These uses are evenly distributed along Eureka Avenue from Fort to Biddle streets. Industrial: Less than one percent of the corridor is devoted to industrial uses; these include Ferro-Tech Industries located on the south side of Eureka at Fifth Street and Wyandotte Packaging located on the south side of Eureka at 15th Street. These uses are non-conforming under existing 8-2 zoning. School: The second largest use of land is devoted to public school property. Approximately 24 percent of the corridor is devoted to land occupied 9y Roosevelt High School. As the dominant land use East of the viaduct, the high school influences business uses and traffic patterns in the area. Parking: Areas used exclusively for parking currently occupy seven percent of the existing land use. Most of this parking is currently located in the lot behind the NBD Building at Biddle & Eureka and serves Yack Area and other Central Business Area uses. In addition, other areas for public parking are being considered by the City and are not currently included in this use category. Quasi-Public: The only use in this category is the Christian Mission Alliance Church located between 19th & 20th on the south side of Eureka. Utility: Less than one percent of the land is currently occupied by public utilities. The only use occupied by this category is an electric transformer station located on the south side of Eureka Avenue between 15th and 16th streets. Park: The City-owned plaza park located on the south side of Eureka and Biddle Avenue is the only park area within the corridor. The site contains the plaza, fountain and totem pole, and serves as a point of interest. 3 �Vacant Commercial: This category represents existing commercial buildings that are currently vacant. In regard to land area, these uses represent two percent of the total Eureka frontage. These buildings range in size from a large vacant automotive dealership site (between 22nd/21st. south side) to buildings with less than 1000 square feet. There are twelve buildings from Fort to Biddle Avenue that are vacant. Vacant: Approximately, five percent of the Eureka frontage is vacant land. Many of these lots are small and between existing commercial uses, making potential development difficult. However, some of these lots offer the opportunity for existing businesses to expand or provide additional parking. EXISTING COMMERCIAL LAND USE In order to get a clearer picture of the type of businesses along Eureka Avenue, all non-residential uses were analyzed independently and categori?'.ed according to use. These included all commercial, office, and industrial uses. The graph included on the following page illustrates the breakdown of the uses, representing the existing 97 businesses (including vacant businesses) along Eureka. The uses inventoried include the following: I I I CONVENIENCE: Food specialty shops, barber and beauty shops, cleaners and "rent it" stores. COMPARISON: Furniture stores, office supplies and pet stores and other retail. EATING & DRINKING: Bars, ice cream shops and cafe's. I AUTOMOTIVE: Gas stations, truck and auto sales, parts and service. WHOLESALE: Wholesale activities and commercial storage. INDUSTRIAL: Manufacturing; packaging, compounding or processing products. OFFICE: Banks, doctor offices, insurance agencies and professional offices. VACANT: Currently vacant commercial buildings. ' 4 �I I I I I I I ' r As illustrated in the graph, automotive uses dominate the corridor representing 26 percent of all businesses in the area. Most of these businesses greatly benefit from the high daily traffic volumes along Eureka Avenue. In contrast, many businesses remain viable and continue to renovate and expand. A large portion of existing commercial buildings remain vacant. At the time of our analysis. (summer, 1990), twelve percent of all commercial buildings were vacant. Many factors have contributed to this condition. While market force is one factor, it appears that insufficient room to expand and a general lack of parking have been major contributors to the existing vacancy rates within the corridor. EXISTING COMMERCIAL LAND USE JULY, 1990 'M-lClESAf (1%) GENER/IL (19%) /lJJTO'v10llVE (26%) CCX'J'vENIENCE (15%) V/lCANT (12%) NCXJSffi/lL (2%) CfflCE (14%) EAllNG & EBNKING (7%) COv!PftRISCX'J (4%) 5 �I I I I I I I I I PERCEPTUAL ANALYSIS The dominant and continually changing land use patterns along Eureka Avenue have a profound affect on shaping our image of Wyandotte; although the main functional purpose of the corridor is to provide safe and efficient transportation. The "visual quality" of the corridor will shape motorists' impressions of the entire community. As a State trunk line and as a major link to the Central Business District, Eureka plays an important role in the Downriver area and the transportation network. Parcels adjoining Eureka hold significant potential from a land use stand point due to high daily traffic volumes and general visibility. Many businesses along the corridor have been established for decades, prior to current land use controls instituted by many communities to regulate signage, facade treatment and landscaping to name a few. Today many of these elements are currently deficient creating a lack of "organizational structure" for the corridor. Individually, these elements many seem insignificant, but collectively,- their absence creates an overall poor visual quality and leaves the impression that the community does not highly regard appearance. The concerns and existing physical conditions within the corridor are not entirely unique to Wyandotte. Many Downriver communities with similar corridors are faced with commercial strips that are generally "uninviting" and bear little resemblance to the architectural styles that exist in the rest of the community. In order to evaluate the aesthetic quality of the entire corridor, the elements which make up our overall perception have been looked at individually. After numerous field visits and detailed analysis of existing conditions, some general perceptions can be made about Eureka Avenue. These elements have been defined as: Entrance Statements, Land Use Relationships, and Streetscape Conditions. The accompanying "Visual Analysis" maps on page 1Oa further illustrate these points. LAND USE RELATIONSHIPS r The primary conflicts relate to existing intense developments adjacent to residential houses. Lack of proper screening of commercial buildings, storage areas and parking spaces, adds to the negative visual response of the entire corridor. Generally, commercial development has occurred along the entire Eureka frontage with some multiple, two-family, and single family units in between these areas. Behind most of these businesses, sound single family houses exist adjacent to the alley. The lack of screening and buffering coupled with the intense use of such businesses like auto repair, collision shops and industrial buildings, creates detrimental impacts like noise, vibration, traffic and views of unsightly buildings and lots. Such a relationship provides for a difficult coexistence between varying intensities of uses and can result in subsequent devaluation of residential neighborhoods. 6 �I I I I I I I I ' ' I r" f ~ ENTRYWAYS Entryways into a community play an important role by shaping first impressions to visitors. In addition, these entranceways offer great potential to provide motorists and pedestrians information and can direct them to historical, cultural, and business centers of the community. West Entrance: For motorist traveling from west to east along Eureka, it is difficult to distinguish when one is leaving a particular community or entering another. With the same natiooal franchises scattered along the same roadway, one community's commercial corridor becomes indistinguishable from the next. This statement holds true when motorists enter Wyandotte from the west at the intersection of Eureka and Fort Streets. A strong "sense of place" is required for an identity to be established. A LACK OF SCREENING BEIWEEN USES positive identifying statement is lacking at this -important entrance. Motorists and pedestrians alike should clearly know when they have entered the City of Wyandotte. A general lack of cohesive signage, landscaping and inspiring entrance statements leave an ill defined impression for this important focal point. East Entrance: Although Eureka Avenue serves separate commercial needs from the Central Business District, each is dependant upon the other to lure shoppers to a variety of convenient goods and services. In this respect, the park-like space located on the southwest corner of Biddle and Eureka Avenues, serves a vital potential function of identifying this intersection as a major "node" between these two districts. This space holds the potential of directing movement into the C.B.D. and at the same time creates a focal point for Eureka Avenue. The park currently falls short of this potential due to the southwest orientation of the intersection. However, the existing benefits of the public space should not be discounted. Further study should be given to this intersection to promote C.B.D. and cultural activities. 7 �I I I I I I I ' I f: ri STREETSCAPE Unlike the central business district which relies heavily on pedestrian shoppers parked in centrally located parking areas, the businesses within the corridor are geared to accommodate the automobile, providing individual parking areas for each business in most instances. A secondary or non-existent concern has been given to streetscape amenities such as pedestrian walkways, landscaping and street trees. Streetscape improvements have been minimal at best and collectively their impact has not significantly aided overall appearance. In regard to individual sites, added landscaping can in fact increase visibility by creating individual identity and character. A further analysis of streetscape conditions are as follows: Trees: Currently there are over 125 street trees on Eureka Avenue. Their health and size vary greatly depending on location. In some cases trees have been removed and these planting areas have been filled in with cement. The condition and health of many of these trees show a general lack of proper maintenance. Although tree plantings have been encouraged in the parkway _areas, trees within parking lots are virtually non-existent. Parking lot trees could be used to soften the vast area of pavement in these lots. Street trees also function to soften existing buildings and other man-made structures. Even in winter months after their leaves have defoliated, the branch structure of these trees still adds definition to the corridor space. Perhaps more than any other streetscape feature, street and parking lot trees can create a sense of unity for the entire corridor and provide the opportunity to create special themes and design schemes. Screening and Landscaping: Unlike downtown businesses which share City-owned parking areas to serve customers and merchants, businesses along Eureka predominantly offer off-street parking for each individual site. These individual off-street parking areas consume large portions of land and collectively have a significant impact on the overall appearance of the corridor. Due to the large demand for customer and employee parking, many of the sites have left little room for green areas. Without sufficient landscaping, concrete and asphalt dominate the streetscape and leave a lasting impression of poor aesthetic quality. Although parking areas are essential to nearly all businesses along the corridor, their negative visual impact can be softened through application of proper screening and buffering techniques. In many instances unsightly outdoor storage of vehicles waiting for repair and equipment can be seen from the roadway. In those cases where screening measures have been attempted, broken fencing and screening often add to the visual blight. 8 ----- - -- -- -- �I I I I I I , f: In addition, landscaping can also be used to provide a transition between more or less intense uses. The predominate land use along the corridor is commercial, although a significant number of residential uses co-exist with these businesses. In order to minimize the impact to these residential uses, additional screening and buffering techniques are needed. Another important function of landscaping is to provide a visual buffer between surrounding uses and the roadway. Landscaping and screening techniques can also create a sense of identity to a site and minimize confusing parking arrangements. Most sites are in need of landscaping for these purposes, particularly near driveways to help define the point of vehicular entry. Once on the site, landscape islands can be provided to direct and define vehicle traffic and parking. This important element is severely lacking along the corridor as a whole. Pedestrian Links: With the high volume of traffic along Eureka, new and existing businesses have primarily developed to accommodate the automobile. This emphasis has often come at the expense of pedestrian amenities. Pedestrian safety should be of utmost concern _when reviewing a particular site's function and design. In some instances pedestrian walkways are ill defined from parking areas creating potential safety hazards. In addition, a lack of attention has been given to north-south pedestrian move within the corridor. Since it is desirable to have a visual connection from one side of the street to the other, concern for pedestrian movement should also be emphasized. In particular, the area around Roosevelt High School contains heavy pedestrian movement of this nature. Proven design principles need to be applied to allow safe pedestrian movement across Eureka Avenue. Sidewalks: Further analysis was conducted to identify those blocks where the existing condition of the sidewalks may present safety hazards. This was accomplished by counting each flag(slab) and evaluating them on a block by block basis. Evaluation of each flag was based upon specific criteria. Those blocks with greater than 20 percent of the sidewalk in poor condition are listed below: North Side: r 21st to 20th, 12th to 11th. South Side: 22nd to 21st, 15th to 14th, 12th to 11th, 11th to 1025 Address, 6th to 5th . These blocks are illustrated on the "Visual Analysis" maps. The criteria used to evaluate each block including the individual breakdown of each block is included in the appendix. 9 �Signage: Signage as a means of advertisement to the passing motorist dominates the streetscape of many urban corridors including Eureka Avenue. With each individual business in competition to attract the greatest attention from the passing automobile, it is no wonder that signage often competes with only itself. Numerous businesses display window signs, banners, and pedestrian level display boards which are in fact too much information for the motorist to observe when passing. Although the use of signage will remain a favorite median of advertisement for merchants, standards should be considered which address the size and shape among other features of the signage. Facade: A facade is often referred to as the facial skin of a building. More specifically, it is the front of the building that typically has received special architectural treatment. Building facades, in a sense, provide the visual walls that define the Eureka Avenue streetscape. At present, many buildings are irregularly spaced between vacant lots; lots that are often bare, or containing parking and in some instances are overgrown with vegetation. In addition lack of maintenance has deteriorated the appearance of some structures that once displayed a fine architectural character. The composite of these factors creates a negative image. The potential exists to turn this image around by refurbishing the old and building new store fronts that work together to provide a unifying effect, while at the same time expressing individuality in composition. The facade design illustration prepared for this study is for an area selected on the basis of typical conditions that can be observed almost anywhere on Eureka Avenue. This illustration suggests improvements for a combination of buildings as well as on-site and off-site parking and streetscape elements. These general recommendations can also be utilized elsewhere on the avenue. I ' Vacant Land and Buildings: At the time of this study, it was determined that approximately twelve percent of all businesses along the corridor were currently vacant. In addition, 5% of the total land area with frontage on Eureka remains vacant. Many of these areas can be categorized as "eye sores" to the community and offer little value to the overall image of the community. Although market factors have a significant effect on these conditions, community-wide efforts to improve the appearance of the corridor such as thorough tree planting programs, pedestrian amenities, and landscaping can minimize the negative visual impact of these areas. 10 n r ---------------- -- �PARKING ANALYSIS Nearly all commercial businesses along Eureka Avenue are dependant upon sufficient and accessible automobile parking for customers and employees. Increased usage of the private automobile as the primary mode of transportation, has put additional demand on off-street parking areas which serve the various business establishments. As an urban corridor which is nearly 100 percent developed, little room exists for businesses to expand their off-street parking facilities. As a result, businesses most often choose between costly expansion of existing parking facilities or vacating their current location for a more suitable site elsewhere, often outside of the community. I l I r Most new commercial developments require off-street parking areas that typically encompass between 50 percent and 75 percent of the land area for a particular site.1 With this enormous demand for land devoted to parking, existing commercial establishments along Eureka Avenue are presented with difficult challenges to meet their parking needs. In light of this challenge and additional concerns expressed among Eureka Avenue merchants, an analysis was conducted of existing parking deficiencies on a block by block basis to determine those blocks which currently have the most critical parking shortages. METHODOLOGY Mapping: The first step in the process was to develop a base map of the corridor, identifying roads, curb cuts, buildings, and parking areas. Aerial photographs were utilized in conjunction with current city base maps to provide a composite planimetric map. The location of buildings and other features were then field checked and corrections made accordingly. Data Base: A data base was created which included all commercial uses along the corridor, the square feet of these buildings and the current amount of parking available to determine parking need. In cases where the current off-street parking area was ill-defined, an approximate count of potential off-street parking spaces was determined. On-site visits, phone calls and coordination with the Assessor's office, Community Development and the Police Department was conducted to build the data base. 1 Designing Urban Corridors, PAS Report 1989, APA Press 11 �i r r I I I I I ' ' ri r Business Survey: To provide a more accurate representation of the parking situation along Eureka, a business survey was sent out in June 1990, to all businesses along Eureka. Each merchant was asked to identify the following items: number of employees they had, where customers and employees parked, the number of customers in the establishment at any one time, what days and hours parking demand is greatest, the average length of time a customer is in the establishment, and if they felt there was a parking shortage in their block. This information was then taken into account and included in the block by block analysis. Standards: Following this, parking need for each commercial use was determined. The most recent parking standards of the city were utilized in the analysis. In addition, potential parking space requirements for vacant commercial buildings were computed and added to block totals using a standard of one space per 150 sq. ft. of usable floor area. One difficulty in utilizing standards was accurately gauging usable floor area. Most parking standards are based on usable floor area rather than gross floor area. To determine usable floor area, the gross floor area of each commercial business was computed on the basis of eighty (80) percent usable. However, many older buildings have floor space that is not laid out in a manner consistent with modern practices. Therefore, space is often wasted and older buildings are not as efficient making the standard 80 percent unrealistic. In such instances, telephone contact was made and additional site visits were conducted to determine a reasonable standard. In some cases, other standards were utilized that were not dependent upon usable floor area as indicated in the city's parking standards. Such uses included barber shops/ beauty salons, churches, gas stations, and automobile services and repair shops. Parking standards for these uses were determined by using a combination of the number of employees, service bays and trucks, and meeting room space in the case of the church. Assessment of Need: The parking need was compared to the existing parking on a use by use basis and the information was then tallied for the entire block. In this way, it was possible to evaluate whether a block had a surplus or deficiency of spaces. This provided a numerical listing for comparison of each block on a corridor wide basis. However, it doesn't account for various other inconsistencies. For example, some areas currently used for parking were not necessarily located on the same lot as the business or in some cases the same block. Also, a parking area for one building may be restricted for use by an adjacent building due to the ownership and thus, cannot be counted for other uses. In other cases, a lack of clearly defined areas separating customer parking and storage of vehicles required interpretation. In these cases, storage areas were not counted for parking purposes. For these reasons and others, the section which follows provides a block by block description of the findings and conclusions that account for inconsistencies. 12 �f I I I I r r OVERVIEW OF PARKING ISSUES The corresponding tables, indicate the parking need and current deficiency or surplus of spaces on a block by block basis. The Traffic and Parking Analysis map at the end of this section further illustrates the results of the parking analysis on a corridor wide basis. For the purposes of this study a block was determined to have a "minor parking space deficiency" if there was a numerical need for one to 15 additional parking spaces. A "major deficiency" was indicated for those blocks with an additional need for greater than 15 parking spaces. As indicated in the methodology description above, deficiencies may be experienced by individual businesses along Eureka Avenue that the table does not sufficiently portray. These instances are further explained in the block analysis description. Generally speaking however, many of the existing parking deficiencie§ on an individual and block basis can be related to the following: IS THERE A PAR.KING SHORTAGE IN YOUR BWCK? BUSINESS SURVEY, 11190 YESC5") 1. Eating & drinking establishments severely deficient in parking spaces although deficiencies vary according to time of day. 2. Automotive repair shops which lack designated vehicle storage areas separate from employee and customer parking. 3. Lack of cooperation between businesses, especially relating to designated parking areas for employees and customers. 4. Unpaved and ill-defined off-street parking areas that are not efficiently used. These areas have the potential for much higher usage. 5. Lack of sufficient room for delivery trucks and loading and unloading operations which interfere with customer parking and overall vehicular circulation. 6. Businesses on small parcels with little or no room to expand parking to meet current demands. 13 �I I I I ' r ANALYSIS OF PARKING DEFICIENCIES EUREKA PARKING ANALYSIS: NORTH SIDE A total of eleven blocks were identified as containing parking deficiencies from a numerical standpoint. Of these eleven blocks, five were identified as containing major deficiencies, and six with minor deficiencies. These blocks represent approximately 61 percent of the 85 businesses in use along Eureka Avenue. This calculated deficiency is further supported by the results of the business survey, in which the business owners were asked, "is there a parking shortage in your block?" As shown in the pie graph on the previous page, approximately 59 percent of the merchants which responded to this question on the survey indicated that there was a parking shortage on their block. A description of the parking analysis for each block identified as deficient has been provided below for further explanation: North Side: 14th/12th - Major Deficiencies: The eating and drinking establishments require significant amounts of parking. The deficiency total includes a potential requirement of ten spaces for the vacant building adjacent to Prush's. An additional parking lot has been suggested between Prush's and Cozy Corner which will improve the situation. However, assuming that an additional 48 spaces could be provided, a 17 space deficiency would still exist. r, REQUIRED PARKING PARKING PROVIDED SURPLUS (DEFICIENCY) Biddle-3rd. 198 261 63 3rd.•4th. 28 28 0 4th.·5th. 4 5 1 1l th.-Viaduct 5 5 0 11th.· 12th. 9 15 41 12th.· 14th. 119 54 (65,2 14th.• 15th. 52 25 (27JJ 15th.· 17th. 52 eo 8 17th.·20lh. 85 83 12r' 20lh.·21s1. 26 32 8 2tst.•22nd. 18 37 9 22nd.·23rd. 19 63 41 23rd.·Fotd 23 41 18 BLOCK 1. Includes unimproved area behind gas ttatlon that Is also used for storage of vehicles. 2. Does not Include proposed 48 space parking lot between Prush's and Cozy Comer Bar. Includes an estimate of ten spaces ror the vacant building. 3. Does not include approximately seven spaces used 10< storage of vehicles at the Union 76 gas station . Includes nine es11mated spaces f0< the vacant building. 4. Includes V&L estimates of 14 parking spaces for tho Vacant building on this block. 15th/14th - Major Deficiencies: Major congestion primarily around the Union 76 Gas Station. A potential requirement for nine spaces has been estimated for the vacant building on this block. Generally speaking, off-street parking on 15th Street is highly congested and severely deficient. Additional parking is needed for employees, tow trucks, and vehicle storage . 14 �I I I I I I f r r t ~ 15th/17th - No Numerical Deficiency: Although this block has not been identified as containing a numerical deficiency in parking spaces, problems with distribution do exist. Most of the off-street parking spaces on the block are located on the eastern half and are intended to be used for each individual use, not the block as a whole. The existing marina sales/service and body shop requires additional room for storage further multiplying the problem. 20th/17th.- Minor Deficiencies: Primary deficiencies experienced by businesses within the eastern half of the block. The few on street parking spaces in this area are in high demand. Lack of identification of the parking in the rear, leaves customers with the impression that no parking exists. In addition, the ill-defined lots behind these businesses do not allow the space to be fully utilized. South Side: Fort/23rd - Minor deficienc{es: Furniture City is deficient in adequate spaces for customer parking subsequently placing increased demand for the spaces located on the Thrift Flower Shop lot during busy hours. 23rd/22nd - Minor deficiencies: The medical clinic appears to have adequate parking, although the other businesses on the block are generally deficient of spaces. 22nd/21st - Minor deficiencies: For the two buildings currently in use on this block, there is a ~ -7 numerical parking deficiency of two spaces. : ·· However, when the vacant dealership is accounted for, an additional 30 spaces would be required (48 spaces needed minus approximately 18 provided on oosrRuCTEo ALLEY this site). However, taking into account the surplus of 21 spaces on the block east of the site, only an eleven space deficiency would exist with the dealership building in use as a retail establishment at its maximum use. 15 �I I I I I I ' r ~ 20th/19th - Major deficiencies: A primary problem occurs when church seNice or other related functions take place. Parking requirements for the church have been estimated at 75 spaces while only eleven spaces are provided. Area businesses have expressed concern about the availability of parking spaces especially when special functions take place during normal business hours. BLOCK 19th/18th - Minor deficiencies: The body and fender shop lacks sufficient off-street parking separated from storage areas and display of vehicles. The business suNey indicated an occasional need for more parking. 16th/15th - Major Deficiencies: All parking spaces are primarily off-site. Although some room exists behind these buildings for a few additional spaces, it is very limited. Sever problems exist for employees of Royal Meat Packaging and for customers of other businesses to find spaces. This has escalated the parking deficiencies on adjacent blocks. 15th/14th -No numeric Deficiency: Occasional shortage of parking spaces between Daniel Bros. Body Shop and Rondevoux Lounge. Although no numerical deficiency has been estimated, the unpaved parking area behind the lounge is inefficient and adds to parking shortages at peak usage times. 14th/13th - Major Deficiency: General lack of sufficient offstreet parking spaces for all businesses. Additional parking is clearly needed when Marine Corp. Lounge usage is high. fl EUREKA PARKING ANALYSIS: SOI.JfH SIDE REQUIRED PARKING PARKING PROVIDED SURPLUS (DEFICIENCY) Fort-23rd. 23 21 (2) 23rd.-22nd. 44 38 (8) 22nd.-21st. 62 51 (11)1 21st-20th. 18 37 21 20th.· 19th. 83 35 (48) 19th.- 18th. 29 14 (15) 18th.-17th. 40 40 0 17th.-16th. 21 23 2 16th.- 151h. 34 18 (18) 15th.-14th. 32 35 3 14th-13th. 42 27 (15) 13th.-12th. 29 37 8 12th.• 11th. 30 28 (4) 11th.-vladuct 9 0 (9) 7th.-6th. 28 30 ,z2 6th.-5th. 21 23 2 5th.-4th. 87 18 (89/ 3rd.-8 1ddle 20 28 8 1. Includes a required pasl<ing potential of 48 spaces for the vacant car dealership and the use of 21 surplus spaces located east of the site. 2. Appro•lmately 20 spaces &e provided wtthln the "Y-N-OOr building. Includes an estimate of • I• spaces for the vacant building. 3. Includes 42 estimated p&klng spaces for the vacant buildings. 16 �12th/11th - Minor Deficiency: Unpaved parking lot behind the businesses on this block creates an inefficient parking layout. Additional parking spaces are needed especially during peak demand hours at Ron's Bar. 11th/Viaduct - Minor Deficiency: Home occupations and converted residences primarily make up the few businesses on this block. Due to this fact, sufficient room is not available for customer parking in front or behind these uses. "'T - 5th/4th - Major Deficiency: The general retail uses on this block coupled with the employee parking demands of Ferro-Tech Industries, have created deficiencies in parking for the entire block. The vacant buildings on this~ block remain at a disadvantage from a marketing standpoint without the availability of sufficient off-street parking. UNPAVED PARKING AREAS PROMOTE INEffiCIENCY r r r 17 �() ,_ f r LACK OF Cl£AR ACCESS TO THESE BUILDINGS CREATES A HOH oEM AND FOR EASILY THE ANGLE PARKING IS IPI Cll)q l'IIOXIMITY TO THE INTERSEC TION cREAlllG A POTENTIAL FOR VEHICULAfl SAFETY PROB .... ACCESSIBU PAIIKINO &PAC ES ON EUREKA UNOER-UTIUZED PARKINO AREA LACK OF CLE.AR EGRESS, INGRESS ANO DEFINED PARKINO SPACES HOHL Y CONGESTED AREA. OFF-STREET PARKINO Cl.fflENTLY OCCUPIED BY TOW TRUCKS. VOtCLES WAITINO FOR SERV1CE AND CUSTOMER PARKINO • POOR ACCESS DESIGN. INGRESS AND EGRESS SHOULD BE 04RECTED AWAY AIOM THE INTERSECTION WITH TI\AfflC CIRCULATION P!lovm PARKJNO ANO STORAGE AREAS AAE T WELL DEANED . CUSTOMER PAAKING ULD BE CLEARLY IND4CATED L AN EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF ORVEWAYS PER SITE AFFECTS TRAFRC FLOW AND ACCIDENT POTENTIAL------....- Ii l~UI □ ~ Jl □ fil •~ ~ Lu~""" ' ~ 11 ·i Cl □ □ ·r , ~ ~~fa' l l [=;l\ CJ ti ll I WALJ\ +-Q---+ EUREKA ______ .. AVENUE DUMPSTER CAN CAUSE SITE ~ WUT90UICI ,_.,......,...,..,..""""...,..-"" ..., -ir Jl~_:-= oUMPSTER LOCI\TION INTERFERES WITH PARKING AND CIIICIAAnoN ~ ~□ ~' ]~-7 l~ ~ o □ o oD ~~ a :_ ~- u ·~ : DO 'n~Al J □ □ n D ;! u ~--+ Df'!IVEWAY SPACING CREATES AND HEAVY TI\AfflC VOLUME WW~tfW§(Q)lftff§ ·,CO ~ MJNOR PARKING SPACE DEF1CIENCY MAJOR pARKJNG SPACE DEF1CIENCY • ~ ~ ~ § IM ~ ~ © (Q) ~ lg} Il rJi_j JC.At. • Ill 1a• r ~\_fFIFil@ ~IM9 10CilIN1~ ~~~~Y©IT@ ©Il7f"V @I¥5 ~ UNlMPROVED pARKJNG AREA ------+- WHENEVER POSSIBU ~ IMPROVED pARKJNG AREA , --r CONFLICTS BETWEEN VOtCLE.5 TURNING RIGHT OR LEFT FROM ADJACENT DRIVEWAYS. MARGINAL ACCESS DRIVES AND SHARED DRIVEWAYS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED THE AREA BECOMES CONGESTED AT PEAK TIMES WITH THE COMBINATION OF OFF-STREET PARKING tLlJ ONE-WAY TRAFFIC F-=====9f,: i DEFINED PARKING AREAS [!§ TRAFFIC SIGNAL a □ □ O C ='- POOR ACCESS HIGH FREQUENCY OF ACCIDENTS C 0 ~ DO'o'~QI! I!~ 0 •••• •c • ••••• ~ --n WA,,.. 00. UT~ , . . □ INUMU:R OF ACCIOENTI: 1- 1.Sl , 5 - 1 -,01 ♦ t.laT---, 1,,00'lf:"'°-ICAIACff'f(ATI.E'IB.O,.aMCII-C, NAIIROW ALLEY CREATES CONFLICTS WITH LOADINGNNLOADING&VEHICULAflCIRCULATION ~ ~ ~ IJl/11,,..,.o..l c;#t.ctrt ~f U'iB. o, SfJMCI 'C"'I TRAf'FJC / CIRCULATION CONFLICTS ('-) DISTANC E PROBLEMS M,,ll(le WMCUa (.LO.T, a0TM OIMCTIC)NS) DISTANCE PROBLEMS 0 ,,-, ~ - - -- - pAAKJNG BAYS LOCATW WITHN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE INTERSECTION CREATE SITE UNDER-VTILIZED PARKING AREA LOCATION OF ~ ~@~ 1D !\ Im rµ;p 1r 0 1n1t1• wC lg) IRl ~ lF ~ IQ) V �I I I I I I I r I f r TRAFFIC ANALYSIS An important functional relationship exists between commercial development patterns and the efficient and safe movement of traffic. A number of variables including traffic speeds, sight distances, grades, service levels, and the operational and traffic-generating characteristics of adjacent land uses, come into play when evaluating this relationship. For these reasons a traffic analysis has been conducted to identify current and potential problems before they become critical. GENERAL OVERVIEW Eureka Avenue is a five lane, east-west, arterial in Wyandotte between Fort Street (State Trunk line M-85) and Biddle (Yv. Jefferson). It is a county primary road under the jurisdiction of the Wayne County Office of Public Services. There are two lanes in each direction for through traffic and a continuous center left turn lane except in the area between 11th and 7th where Eureka goes under multiple grade separation structures and the center lane is taken out of service because of center piers for the structures. The approach to the westerly and easterly piers is constructed of rumble strips to warn traffic not to use the center lane in this area and the piers are protected by impact attenuators. The structures, built in 1927, carry the tracks of the Grand Trunk & Western Railroad (2), Conrail (2) and Detroit Edison power transmission facilities (1 ). A partial height retaining wall connects the structures on both sides. The pavement width of Eureka is a standard 60 ft. five lane cross-section except for the section just south of Fort to 23rd where the pavement was widened in 1981 to 72 ft., providing a right-turn lane to northbound Fort Street. The original concrete pavement was built in 1927 (7th to 11th) and 1932 (Biddle to 7th and 11th to Fort) . Asphalt overlays were placed between 1951 and 1956 on segments and the present overlay was placed in 1981. The surface condition rating by the County ranges from "Good" (Biddle to 11th) to "Very Good" (11th to Fort). The posted speed limit is 35 mph. The nominal right-of-way for Eureka is 120 ft. This means that, where the R.O.W. exists and the pavement is centered in it, the margins (distance from curb to property line) are 25 ft. Certain sections of Eureka take advantage of this width with attractive landscaping. In other areas parking bays have been constructed to provide on street parking for the businesses. There are traffic signals operating at Eureka and Fort, 17th, 12th, 11th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, and Biddle. The County has indicated that the signals operate on an 80 second cycle and are providing progression along the route by means of time based coordinators. 18 �I I I r I I I I f TRAFFIC OPERATIONS The latest traffic count available from the County was taken 10/30 and 10 /31 /86 and showed approximately 24,000 vehicles daily in both directions on the section of Eureka between Fort and Biddle. The peak hour westbound was from 4-5 p.m. with about 100 vehicles; the eastbound peak was 5-6 p.m. with about 880 vehicles. A road such as this has a capacity of about 750 vehicles per lane (without making a laborious analysis based on percent trucks, amount of green time allowed for Eureka in the traffic signal timing, the effect of the parking bays, etc.). This means that during the peak hour Eureka is operating with 1,000 vehicles westbound in two lanes where it could probably handle 1,500 vehicles at level of service "C". Unless traffic volumes have increased substantially since 1986 or there are concentrations of traffic in less than hour periods that "bunch up", Eureka is handling about two-thirds (2/3rds) of the traffic it could handle and probably operating at level of service "A" which describes operations with very low delay, less than 5.0 seconds per vehicle. Progression is extremely favorable and most vehicles arrive driving the green phase and do not stop at all. TRAFFIC SAFE1Y Traffic accident reports provided by the Wyandotte Police Department were used to analyze traffic safety along the corridor. These reports cover the period from January 1, 1987 through April 30, 1990 (40 months). A data base was set up to quickly summarize these accidents in two groups; those involving intersections of Eureka and a cross street and those which took place solely on one or another of the cross streets. The result is a graph for each of the groups which shows the number of accidents for either the intersection or street in the forty months. For analytic purposes the viaduct was treated as an intersection. As the graphs in this section indicate, the problem intersections, relatively speaking, along Eureka are 3rd, 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, and 17th; all signalized intersections. The problem streets are 5th and 14th. The worst intersection, 3rd, averaged a little over one accident per month and the worst street 14th, one accident every five months. TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ON EUREKA BY INTERSECTION 110 ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ w '40----- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0 ao +---a- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - C ~ ~ 20 ___,____ _ ___ - - - -- - -- - - - - a: w al :I: ::::, z INTERSECTION 19 �I I I f f It would take more information (cross street volumes, for example) to determine whether these accident rates are excessive, however twelve accidents per year at an intersection is not abnormal given the current traffic volumes on 3rd (higher volumes would increase the accident rate which is based on exposure). In light of this analysis, some design problems are evident and probably contribute to accidents. The following briefly describes these problems: SIDE STREET ACCIDENTS (1/1/89 to 4/31/90) 10 . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 9 +--- 8+---------- 7 -+----------8 - i - - -- . - -- - - - - li t - - ---1- -- - - - a: I f f f f --------------- ~ 4 t - - ---t- -- - - - - Too many traffic signals between Biddle and 12th.: Traffic 3 -t--z signals can cause accidents as well as prevent them. As 2i - -noted above, the highest nu_mber of accidents were at the signalized intersections. There were 82 rear end accidents 0 at these intersections in forty months as well as a significant 3rd number of right angle accidents, the type signals are supposed to prevent. These traffic signals may well be too close together. A quarter-mile spacing is usually optimal. In a little under a mile, there are seven signals where four might suffice. :E ::, .--- 5th 91h 7th 12th 13th SIDE STREET Parking bay design not sufficient: The existing parking bays are protected from through traffic at their ends by reverse curve projections that bring the curb line back to the edge of through pavement by the intersections. However, vehicles can enter this space at any point along the block and can pull out at any point, sometimes causing a collision. Also the cars are allowed to park too close to the intersecting streets disturbing the sight lines necessary for vehicles to spot intersecting traffic. Driveways are too numerous and sometimes ill-defined or too wide: Areas where this seems to be causing problems are, most notably, at 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 15th. These types of situations are causing some rear ends, some right angles, and some problems with backing into traffic. There are several driveways that are too wide to ensure safe and non-confusing operation. These are located between 6th & 7th, north side (Roosevelt High School - 100 ft.) ; west side of 14th, north of Eureka (65 ft.); west of side of 15th, north of Eureka (100 ft .); south side of Eureka between 16th & 17th (80 ft.) ; south side of Eureka between 22nd & 23rd (50 ft .). A maximum driveway width (two-way) of 30 ft. (two-way) or 16 ft. (one-way) is more appropriate. 20 �I I I I I I I I Side streets are too narrow or not being operated properly: The most glaring example of this is the angle parking along 14th. Angle parking is inherently the most dangerous kind since it involves backing into traffic and it is less advisable on a narrow street. Additional access problems exist with local streets in the area being used by trucks to reach individual destinations in the areas north and south of Eureka. CIAIUl1111JC1 l'MltSTIRE - . "'- ' ' ANGLE PARKING IN CWSE PROXIMilY TO INTERSECTION ' r r J 21 �I I I I I I I I' Ii f r r Ji EUREKA POLICY STATEMENTS Recognizing the issues identified in the preceding sections along with the concerns expressed by merchants, residents and employees of businesses along Eureka Avenue, general goals and objectives have been identified to guide recommended improvements. Projects identified later in this report serve as a means to attain these goals. LAND USE GOAL: Promote a viable business atmosphere through compatible commercial uses while maintaining the integrity of adjacent residential districts. OBJECTIVES: 1. Maintain frontage of Eureka Avenue for commercial businesses where designated on the future land use map. 2. Revitalize existing commercial areas by eliminating incompatible uses. 3. Require quality site development through careful integration of site plan review which encourages proper land use relationships between adjacent land uses. 4. Identify and encourage appropriate development of vacant land parcels. 5. Encourage appropriate transitional uses to interface harmoniously with residential uses 6. Improve and protect sound residential districts through appropriate land use relationships and development of regulation standards. 7. Enforce land use regulatory codes and ordinances to maintain a viable business atmosphere and to protect property values. 22 �r1 I I I I I I I I , , VISUAL IMPROVEMENT GOAL: Improve the visual quality of Eureka Avenue through the revitalization of store fronts, parking areas and the streetscape. OBJECTIVES: 1. Introduce streetscape standards which provide structure, organization, anq cohesiveness between various land uses along the Corridor. 2. Require sufficient landscaping and screening along the street frontage, within parking areas, incompatible uses to soften the dominance of concrete and asphalt. 3. Provide appropriate facade guidelines to merchants and business owners that respect the scale and function of Eureka Avenue. 4. Carefully reduce and restrict the number, type and size of signs in order to protect the motorists' view and competitive edge of each business. and between - TRAFFIC CIRCULATION AND SAFE'IY GOAL: Maintain and improve the safety and efficiency of traffic circulation through on and off-site design improvements and the careful application of development regulation techniques. OBJECTIVES: 1. Provide adequate and well organized off-street parking areas for employees and customers. 2. Preserve the capacity of Eureka Avenue through access management mechanisms which may be more stringent than the standards of the Michigan Department of Transportation or Wayne County. 23 �I I I I I I I I ,' , , , f 3. Increase safety and efficiency by encouraging shared access through connecting parking lots, rear service drives and/or marginal access drives. 4. Improve short term parking needs by the location of safe and strategically placed parking bays adjacent to Eureka Avenue. ORGANIZATION GOAL: Organize the business community, residents and city personnel to address common concerns and to set guidelines for the revitalization of Eureka Avenue. OBJECTIVES: 1. Identify a priority of the most critical projects to be undertaken. 2. Promote further cooperation of merchants to address common concerns of shared parking and site improvements. 24 �I RECOMMENDATIONS CORRIDOR DESIGN GUIDELINES I I I f In the perceptual analysis section of this report and on the graphic analysis maps, issues are identified which relate to the "visual appeal" of Eureka Avenue. These comments focus directly on the image of the street, made by landscape plantings, sidewalks, building facades, signs, fencing and paving. This image is generally referred to as the streetscape. Sometimes it is not one single element of a streetscape that accounts for the poor visual quality, in fact it may be a number of on and off site deficiencies that contribute to the total degradation. Eureka is a collection of the old and the new with buildings comprised of many different architectural forms. The presence of residential homes and vacq_nt lots mixed with commercial buildings portray irregularity; take away trees, lawn or anything green and the view becomes further blighted by the dominance of concrete and asphalt. The white to grey landscape of the winter months offers a challenge to the landscape architect. The branch structure of trees is often used to place emphasis on defining the corridor. Selected foundation elements are also used to influence space and create unity. The loss of street trees can be readily recognized by the exposure of structures intended to be softened. A well conceived streetscape improvement will return something back to the view of Eureka. It is the intent of this study to provide the impetus for change so that good aesthetics becomes the preferred choice rather than a wishful concept. The sample block study included on page 27a illustrates an example of improvement through design. The beautification of Eureka Avenue is everybody's business and the attitude that "if my neighbor doesn't care then why should I" affects everyone. Plant Materials: Streetscape beautification is needed to soften hard edges and surfaces of buildings, parking lots and the street. Plantings can provide a fresh new image to a business corridor and should be an element of high priority. The following suggestions give an indication to the types of landscape treatment that are viable for Eureka Avenue. r J J 1. Utilize trees to provide a sense of unity to the street. Replace those trees that have been removed and consider adding another row in areas where the wider parkway will allow. 2. Retain the existing species of Gleditsia (Honeylocust) and build upon this start as mentioned. Spacing should not exceed 50 feet on center. 25 �I I I I I I I r r r 3. Adopt a comprehensive maintenance program. maintenance staff to discuss its objectives. 4. Plan to design and install an automated irrigation system for all plant materials especially trees to insure that they are getting water on a regular basis. 5. Through the guidance of a landscape architect, select a plant palette (a combination of plants) that provides function, hardiness, color and flexibility, to the streetscape. This palette should be used for all planting applications on the avenue. 6. Invest in an entrance identification study. Possibilities exist for a center island planting and city identification on Eureka Avenue east of Fort street. An additional island could be positioned west of Biddle. 7. Vacant inactive lots should be seeded into lawn areas to provide a temporary greening effect until the time of development. On larger lots, a peripheral berm of lawn would visually hide the undeveloped portion of the lot and would reduce the maintenance requirements. The new Eureka business association should meet with City Facades: Building facades provide the greatest contribution to a cohesive streetscape. Although Eureka Avenue buildings were constructed over a relatively wide period of time they can work together to create this image. Today this image is nondescriptive in architectural style and lacks interest and detail. Building elevations with irregular roof lines and mismatched materials create visual discontinuity. The recommendations offered are in general terms to spur further study. Each merchant will need to explore opportunities where individual improvements will contribute to the total streetscape. A sample facade study was conducted for this analysis and is provided on "Sample Block Study" map. 1. New construction should respect the architecture (including the roof lines) of adjacent buildings. 2. Align the face of new structures to the R.O.W. line where such line is respected by existing buildings. Buildings should provide a sense of foundation and structure to the avenue. Building continuity by the continuation of facades and linkage through screen walls can knit together this foundation . 3. Streetscape elements should work to complement facades. Store fronts are merchandising tools that should not be hidden or camouflaged by plantings, signage and automobiles. 26 �I 4. Facades having historical significance should be restored to the best of their original character. Although, many of the traditional facades have been inappropriately modified, reestablishing the traditional character will produce an inviting environment. r 5. Encourage detail in all new construction. This will add interest to the individual facade while the building contributes to unified character of Eureka. I 6. Prohibit billboards on Eureka Avenue. r Parking Lots: Every business realizes the need for parking. It has a very important role in customer convenience and it is also the final destination point for the vehicle or point of transfer from car to foot. _As such the parking lot can greatly influence the impressions of the business by its aesthetic appeal. Parking lots occupy vast areas of land and are typically paved in a sea of concrete or asphalt. Lots that appear as dead spaces need visual relief from hard surfaces and connection to adjoining uses. Thus, the following recommendations are offered as parking lot treatment. (See Parking Lot Design on page 29a). I I r 1. J J f r r 2. 3. Adapt enforceable parking lot standards that require trees by the ·number of stalls or by square feet of parking lot area for existing and all new construction. Parking lot trees should be a minimum of 2 \" in caliper and should be classified according to the American Association of Nurserymen's standards as large deciduous trees. RESIDEHTIAL USE I ALLEY COMMERCIAL USE r- ·- ·-·-·- ·- ·-·-·-·- · 1I.- -- ·- ·- ·-·- ·- ·-·- ·-·-·-·-·-· I il(J!1 I I • ~ r------ -- -- ---------- --------- • :: < ... .. SCREEN WALL DETAIL ADJACENT TO ALLEYS Adapt a standard detail of installation for trees, and shrubs including the construction of the planting area that they are to occupy. 27 �I I I - 1 IUILD1HOI ARE HOH · DESCRIPT IN AACHITECTIJRAL STYLE. AHO ARE LACKING IN I l J 4 8UILDINO E\..EVATIONS CHA.NOi! OREATLY fROM BUILDIHO TO BUILDING. IRREGULAR ROOF UH!.S ESCAl.ATE UP AND OOWH ACROSS THE IKV UNE CREATING VISUAL DISCONTINUITY. CL.UR ACCESS IS OREAT\.Y NEEDED AT ENTRANCE WAYS TO BUSINESSES. fACAOE.S IHOUlD HAVE ~ IHVfTIHQ APPEAL PAflUlJNG IS DUINABLE ONLY BY THE OH· STRl!n PARALLEL PARKING ON EUREKA. MORE &PACfl AND DIRECTIONAL IHl'ORMAT10H IS HU~D E.LHWHEM. EACH BUILDING PRESENTS A OlffEAENT OUTOATEDfACAD£MATERlAL IMPROVV.ENTS SHOULD WORK TO UNIFY COMMON MATE:UALS, INTEREST AND 0£T AIL TO CRUTE ,ORM, LINE, TEXTlJM AND COLOR. I 7 THE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING DOES NOT REL.At!: TO THIS BLOCK BECAUSE Of' rrs SET II.ACK. AACHIHCTURE AND CHANGE Of ELEVATIONS fROM THE STREET TO THE flNISH '1..00R. ALL o, THE BUILDINGS LACK DETAIL AROUND THE W1NOOWS AND IN SOME CASES, THE WINDOWS DO NOT REL.AT!. TO THE STREET OR OTHER BUILDINGS. WINDOWS ARE A PRIMARY ,EATURE IN ATTRACTING HEW CUSTOMERS. Il~@IID ~ I I I I I I I 1 Rl!MOW. ALL O:ISTINQ PACAM MATUUAl...8 WHVII 9HOWN BY THIS SUTCH AHO MIHITAU. ITOHI: 0fll 'RICA.ST WAU. CAPS. SACK UQKT AWHINGI W1TH DAY a NIGHT IDe.HTIPtCATION WHEAi IHOWH. 2 CH.I.NOi! ALL DOOAS, WINDOWS I TAAHIOM WtHDOWI AHO PA.AMES WtTH MORI ATTM.CTIV!: WOOO IN ue,iHQ WITH THI! NEW IUILDfNG CHARACTUI. 3 IM,ftt)V!. PAAKINO LOT lnwttN l'AOPOIED CAPII! AHO 0 I L ll!L!CTRONICS IUILotNQ. CONITRUCT A Al!AA ~~:;~1::o'i.°i RTWl!!N 0 I l l!UCTAONtcl AHO 4 IMl'AOV!: AUZY CONDITIONS ll!TW!.!H 121h AND 1M : : , ~ o ~ ~ ~-AEAffA llUJIPtC PLOW AHO I LAHO&CAPI! TIIEATMl!NT IS N!.l!Df:0 TO SOPTt:N THI HA.110 EDO!.S AND SURPAC!I OP TH!. IUllT !NVIAONMEHT, PLANTS ALSO ,ROVIDE A PR!.IH NEW IMAOI! TO OLDER E.STAIIUSHMlNTS ,A.HO ITRUC"TVRU. I l'ROVIO!. ,f:OESTRIAN LEVEL UOHTINQ lN ,AAK»tO A.AU.SAND WALKWAYS TO IMPAOV!: I.AnTY. 7 CONSTRUCT WALLS TO SCRE(H ntl! PARKIHO lOTI PROM THE IM.\OE OP TI-ti! ITRHT ANO TO CRUTI UNIPY9H0 TIES BETWEEN BUILDINGI. �f r r r r r r r J r f r r 4. Develop guidelines for screening parking lots that are adjacent to public rights-of-way. Those R.O.W.s that front on Eureka could be treated with a low three feet high screen wall and should be offset where possible approximately three feet to allow for low growing shrub materials to face the avenue. A wall would provide a unifying tie between buildings, permit visibility into the lot and define the entrance drives (see diagram on preceding page). 5. Screen walls should be uniform in material selection and should blend into the streetscape. Avoid bright colors and overpowering textures. PARKING RECOMMENDATIONS Parking issues have been identified as a critical component of business vitality. With over 61 percent of the Eureka Avenue merchants expressing a shortage of parking spaces on their block and thirteen blocks identified with numerical parking deficiencies, further attention_has been placed on these issues. Through the parking analysis and information-attained from the business survey, an attempt has been made to identify the most critical parking issues facing the corridor. The recommendations which follow serve as a starting point from which these problems can be addressed. However, the City in close cooperation with the Eureka business community, must further establish priorities for these recommendations based on long term objectives as well as the present concerns of each business establishment. Paving of Unimproved Parking Lots: One of most immediate solutions to alleviate parking deficiencies, is to pave existing parking lots. Over half of the blocks identified as containing deficiencies, contain partial or fully unpaved parking lots. This encourages inefficient use through a confusing and ill-defined layout. These lots are also listed on the Parking and Traffic Analysis map. Currently the blocks with parking deficiencies that also contain unpaved parking lots are as follows: 1. North side - 17th/20th, and 12th/14th. 2. South side - 23rd/22nd, 15th/14th, 14th/13th, 12th/11th, and 11th/Viaduct. Use of Parking Bays: Currently, there are twelve blocks which have parking bays located in the front yard adjacent to Eureka Avenue. Some of these bays are located too close to intersecting streets adding to vehicular safety hazards. In addition, as indicated in the traffic analysis, vehicles can enter these spaces from any point along the block, sometimes causing a collision. 28 �r r r r r f r r r r r r r Another issue in regard to parking bays, is the use of time limits. Some of the current bay parking locations have one hour time limits. Although concern has been raised about the use of time limits, it appears an over all lack of parking is causing most of the concerns and not the time limits themselves. These spaces are intended for short term use, not all day parking. Through proper design, on street parking can provide a means for convenient customer parking. Although traffic safety issues must be fully addressed, there is the potential for additional parking bays on the following blocks to decrease parking deficiencies. 1. North side - 17th/15th 2. South side - 15th/14th, 18th/19th, 21st/22nd Expansion of Parking Areas: Although paving and striping of unimproved lots as well as adding bay parking in critical areas will relieve some of the demand for parking spaces, there is still a need for additional off-street parking lots on some of the blocks with parking deficiencies. Most businesses fronting on Eureka Avenue are situated on lots with widths of 50 feet and depths less than 150 feet. In many cases, buildings occupy most, if not all of the site area. With increased demands for parking, there is little room for expansion to meet parking demands. In order for the Eureka corridor to remain competitive with other commercial corridors and to promote a healthier business atmosphere for individual merchants, it is recommended that P-1 parking districts be established behind these businesses to provide sufficient parking. This is an alternative to the piece-meal approach to parking which as a whole, does not contribute to long term stability of the corridor. The following recommendations summarize these efforts: North Side - Expand parking in the rear yard adjacent to the alley between 14th and 15th streets. In addition, it is recommended that the vacant building located on the northwest corner of 17th street be removed and replaced with a parking lot to serve the businesses on this block and the adjacent block. Vacant lots located between buildings provide a good opportunity to provide additional parking. The block between 12th and 14th Streets has been identified as containing one of the greatest numerical parking deficiencies of any block on Eureka Avenue. The vacant parcel between Prush's and Cozy Corner could help to alleviate this deficiency if used for off-street parking. The "Parking Study Analysis" map on the following page illustrates this potential. With proper screening techniques and the use of landscaping as indicated on this plan, this parcel could provide much needed parking and improve the appearance in this area. 29 �r I-· r ALLEY I r I t- w w a: RKING FOR 48 t- u, r t; r r r -;t=tr=r~i:;;~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~..r=_=rJL - - - - -~~~~~- - - --\t~r--\----1----~'''~- -~---~- - - -~~~-___. [7 r • r r J: ,.... I WIDE PLANTING t- w w a: t- u, J: t- N ,.... 36" HIGH SCREEN WALL EUREKA AVENUE SHRUB PLANTING STREET TREES 0 20 40 SCALE IN FEET �I I I I I I Another opportunity exists to increase parking along 14th street adjacent to the drug store. This area is currently congested with traffic and customer parking. Closing this street from Eureka north to the alley would create the opportunity for additional parking spaces. This would help to solve two current problems; the need for more parking on both adjacent blocks and eliminate the high frequency of accidents at this dangerous side street. However, the current design and circulation patterns would have to be revised to make the operation optimal. South Side - Expand parking in rear yards adjacent to the alleys on blocks 21/22nd, 18th/19th, 15th/16th, and 13th/14th. To address the major parking deficiencies of the block between 4th and 5th Streets, it is recommended that a parking lot be constructed on the west side of 5th street. This lot if constructed, would address most of the immediate parking deficiencies for the block. However, for long term viability and taking into account the potential of all buildings on this block, parking in the rear yard adjacent to the alley should be considered as a long term objective. TRAFFIC RECOMMENDATIONS Eureka Avenue primarily serves two purposes; to move traffic safely and efficiently and to provide access to adjacent commercial and residential uses. Although traffic safety (accidents, etc.) is of utmost importance, there is a secondary consideration in the decreased attractiveness to a motorist of a business that has confusing or difficult access. If problems are left unaddressed, the corridor will never reach its maximum potential as a viable business address. In any redesign of Eureka Avenue the following recommendations should be considered. Driveway Location and Spacing: Short spacing between unsignalized access drives compounds the driving task by requiring the driver to watch for ingress and egress traffic at several points simultaneously. 2 The following basic principles of access control for driveway placement should be used whenever possible: I I I I 1. Reduce the number of driveways or increase the spacing between driveways and intersections. 2. Limit or prevent certain types of maneuvers to reduce the frequency of conflict or reduce the area of conflict at some or all driveways. 2 Transportation and Land Development, ITE, Stover and Koepke, 1988, p. 108. 30 �I I I I I I 3. Provide separate paths and storage areas for turning vehicles. The minimum distance needed to eliminate overlap of conflict areas created by a vehicle making a right turn from a driveway and entering the through traffic stream is 160 feet with 245 feet preferred. Thus, where possible, driveway access should be spaced a minimum of 160 ft. from another driveway or an intersecting street. This requirement is especially critical for signalized intersections. Where the distance between a drive and Eureka is too short, such as the approximately 60 ft. between the 7-11 drive on the west side of 3rd and the north curb line of Eureka, there are two problems that can occur. First, if more than two cars are stopped on southbound 3rd for the red light in the curb lane, they will block access to that drive. Cars trying to turn left into this drive from northbound 3rd will not be able to do so and may back into the Eureka westbound movement. Second any car turning north on 3rd from westbound Eureka does not have sufficient distance to stop if a car pulls out from 7-11 in front of it. It is recommended that the City adopt access management guidelines to address these issues. Only through proper regulation will future circulation/safety hazards be reduced. Improvements in Aesthetics of Existing Traffic Control Signing: The traffic control signs are the responsibility of Wayne County. Routine maintenance of such signs are usually neglected by most highway agencies because of more pressing concerns. The signs along Eureka between Fort and Biddle should be the subject of a comprehensive review by the County prior to a complete replacement program. It is strongly suggested that the existing word message parking control signs (which are 12 x 18 inches) be replaced with twelve inch square No Parking or No Standing symbol signs to improve the sign appearance along the street. There are existing signs that say "No Standing and No Parking". These are redundant because "No Standing" includes "No Parking". I I I Another specific type of sign that should be reviewed by the City, are the street name signs. Consideration should be given to (a) using reflectorized replacement signs, (b) reviewing the letter size and design and (c) making major cross-street signs more visible by increasing their size and/or using internally illuminated signs at these streets. The need was discussed to select a better location and a more eye-catching design for the "Welcome to Wyandotte" sign which is presently in the Fort Street median just south of Eureka. An alternative location would be in the center island median on Eureka or on the south side of Eureka at Fort street. The changeable message sign being considered for the Fort Street median will have to pass the permit approval process of the Michigan Department of Transportation. The guidelines for such signs prohibit advertising, names of local officials, and external or internal illumination or animation by way of example. 31 �I I I I I Suggestions for Location of and Access to Off-street Parking: Additional parking has been recognized as a very beneficial improvement for business properties. Improvements to parking lots in the rear yard must consider the narrow width of many of the alleys. The rear parking would have to provide circulation for parking vehicles as well as access to the business for delivery trucks. In effect the alleys have to be widened so that trucks making deliveries do not impeded circulation. The major design problem when accommodating rear parking is the potential to cut off direct local access by closing side streets at the alley. The same could also be true when an alley is relocated to make a parking lot deeper. This is detrimental to residents of such streets and may also hinder the delivery of emergency services as well as routine services such as garbage collection. Exactly which cross streets are to be left open and become the secondary collectors for the neighborhoods on both sides of Eureka is the heart of the issue. It is suggested that 22nd, 20th, 17th, 15th, and 12th be kept open between the railroad and Fort Street on both sides of Eureka. Eureka Avenue Accident Record Relative to Typical Arterials: The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments has done an as-yet unpublished report of accident rates by area, type and number of lanes. A four lane road in an urban area has a mean accident frequency of 12.02 accidents per lane-mile per year with a six-lane road having a frequency of 9.87 accidents. Interpolating for a five-lane road, we could expect about eleven accidents per year per lane mile. The section of Eureka from Fort to Biddle is 1 \ miles which means there are 7 \ lanes miles. The expected accident frequency for 40 months would be 11 x 7.5 x 3.33 or 272 accidents. The accident summaries utilized totalled 308, which could be said to have happened along Eureka or within one of its intersections with a cross street. This would mean the frequency of accidents is about 13 percent greater than the mean frequency in the metropolitan area. Certain changes to driveways and other minor design fixes would likely bring this accident frequency down to the norm for such streets. C Improve Alley Conditions: The pavement of all alleys that serve the Eureka street frontage is essential to orderly service to stores as well as for access to parking areas. In addition, the utility of the alley will be greatly enhanced by providing a smooth dust free surface which will benefit both the business user as well as abutting residential properties. At such time as alley pavement takes place, abutting businesses should be encouraged to pave service and parking areas adjacent to the alley. I I 32 �I I I I I GENERAL LAND USE RECOMMENDATIONS As uses change, Eureka Avenue will continue to play a significant role in shaping the character of Wyandotte. Sound land use relationships and development policies are important components toward achieving long range planning objectives. Eureka Avenue is made up of a variety of businesses, however the predominate uses are automotive and general commercial. The relationship of these uses to the surrounding districts should be closely evaluated. The existing intense uses located on the corridor should be carefully buffered and screened from adjacent residential districts as indicated in the design recommendations. However, a long term objective of the City should be to limit the placement of such uses along the corridor and require additional conditions for their use. Another important consideration, is the high traffic-generation potential of such uses. The side streets along Eureka serve commercial as well as residential properties. Delivery trucks and other such vehicles can be a nuisance to adjoining residential districts. The relationship between the uses allowed in each district and the current function and character of surrounding districts must be closely examined. For example, the area on the north and south side of Eureka east of Eleventh Street to the viaduct is currently zoned B-2. Some home occupations and other more intense uses occupy this area. Narrow one way service drives provide access to some of these properties and little room exists for parking. However, due to the character of the area, expanding parking into the adjacent residential districts would not be appropriate from a land use planning standpoint. The rezoning of this area from commercial to residential should be considered. These recommendations when viewed separately may appear to be irrelevant to the viability of Eureka Avenue. However, when implemented collectively, they represent a comprehensive approach that address the appearance, function , and safety of Eureka Avenue. I I 33 �I I I I I I APPENDIX EVALUATION OF SIDEWALK CONDITIONS Where sidewalks exist, each flag (slab) was counted and evaluated. Evaluation of each flag was based upon the following criteria. Condition Criteria Good The sidewalk is structurally sound. No cracks are present although there may be minor spalling (surface pits). Fair The sidewalk has minor cracks and/or moderate spalling. There may also be slight upheaval, less than one-half inch, between flags. Poor The sidewalk has major cracks and/or major spalling or a minimum one-half inch difference in height with an adjacent flag. The information was then summarized per block as sidewalk slabs in either good, fair, or poor condition. From this each block was further categorized by percentage to identify areas which may have a high percentage of sidewalks in poor condition. The blocks with greater than twenty percent of sidewalk slabs in poor condition are mapped on the preceding Visual Analysis maps. The following tables differentiate the slab totals in each condition category by block. I I I appendix-1 �I I I I I I I CI'IY OF WYANDOTTE SIDEWALK SURVEY OF EUREKA AVENUE STREET Sidewalk CondHlon 20th. to 19th. South NOf1h South North Sou1h North Sou1h Good 30 38 47 44 25 45 14 40 Fair 7 0 3 2 7 0 7 Poor 4 4 3 2 10 11 9 17th. to 15th. North Good 80 Fair 7 Poor 10 - South NOf1h - - South NOf1h Sou1h 39 80 29 5 9 14 4 5 11 North • no ramp E. aide 16th. South • no ramp W. alda 15th. North - no ramp E. side 15th. Sou1h - no ramp W. side 14th. North Sidewalk CondHlon NOf1h Good Poor - 4 9 - 43 92 2 4 19th. to 18th. South North 15 - 4 - - 18th. to 17th. South North - 34 14 2 No ramp E. side 20th. 31 34 11 29 - 8 3 - Sou1h North - No ramp W. aide 12th. 12th. to 11th. Sou1h 49 - ◄6 - 0 1 0 2 No ramp E. 1lde 17th. 1025 to 5th. North Sou1h North Sou1h North 40 -40 30 27 39 81 4 12 3 0 0 12 - 4 14 14 0 21 8 - 4th. to 3rd. No ramp E. aide 11th. 3rd. to Biddle North Sou1h North Sou1h North Sou1h 48 61 56 63 66 93 71 4 2 3 0 4 4 , 19 12 2 2 1 12 7 North - no ramp W. side 3rd . appendix-2 North 11th to 1025 Sou1h Comments South Sou1h North - no ramp E. 1lde 131h. Sou1h • no ramp W. 11de 12th. 5th to 4th. 17th. to 16th. North • no ramp E. 1lde 18th. Sou1h • no ramp Vf. aide 171h. 131h. to 12th. North No ramp E. aide 14th. - 40 North South - North Sou1h 14th. to 12th. 6th. to 5th. Sou1h 20th. to 17th. No ramp W. aide 19th. 14th. to 131h. 7th. to 6th. STREET - 3 15th. to 14th. 16th to 15th. North No ramp E. aide 20th. North - no ramp E. aide 22nd. North - no ramp E. side 23rd. South • no ramp W. side 23rd. Fair I I I 2 1st. to 20th. North STREET Sidewalk Condition 22nd. to 21st. 23rd. to 22nd. Comments Comment• I I FOf1 to 23rd. South � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Wyandotte_Eureka-Avenue-Corridor-Study_1991 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-05 Title A name given to the resource Eureka Corridor Study Description An account of the resource The Eureka Corridor Study for the City of Wyandotte was prepared by Vilican-Leman & Associates, Inc. in May 1991. Subject The topic of the resource Corridors--planning Wyandotte (Mich.) Wayne County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/199d4becdb3bae11f5af631c15e710f8.pdf 4225d8d04dfa907ab9c46b08881200ff PDF Text Text VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS Prepared By The Village Of Douglas Planning Commission �VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Prepared by the Vlllage of Do~ P1amdng Commlaalon in cooperation with the Vlllage Council in cooperation with: Coastal Zone Management Program Land and Water Management Division Department of Natural Resources and with the asststance of: Planning &: Zoning Center, Inc. 302 S. Waverly Road Lansing, MI 48917 (517) 886-0555 November 1989 �Tttejoll.owtng tndwtduals parttt:fpaf.ed In the preparatiDn of th.is plan: VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS P1anntn1 Comml.sslon Kendal Showers. Erwin Kasten. Kathy Johnson. Debra Quade, Cheryl Giller, John Haas. Bffl Schroeder, Betty Mokma, Philip Walter, and William Campion•. vma,e Council Mike Esposito, Embrtt Giles, Debra Quade, Kendal Showers, Dean Johnson, George Baker. Pat Shanahan. Joe Brady. William campion•, and Jane Mayer*. t• no longer servtng] �Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF MAPS LIST OF TABLES INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. i Chapter 1 GOALS, OBJECTIVES & POLICIES: TI-IE AREAWIDE POLICY PI.AN .....·................................................................ 1-l Chapter2 DEMOGRAPHICS......................................................................................... 2-1 Chapter3 TI-IE ECONOMY....................................................................................... ,.... 3-1 Chapter4 NATURAL RESOURCES AND TI-IE ENVIRONMENT....................................... 4-1 Chapter5 EXISTING LAND COVER AND USE............................................................... 5-1 Chapter 6 PUBLIC FACILITIES AND SERVICES............................................................ 6-1 Chapter 7 RECREATION AND OPEN SPACE ................................................................. 7-1 Chapter 8 WAIBRFRONT....................................................... ....................................... 8-1 Chapter 9 GROWfH AND DEVELOPMENT 1RENDS.... .. . ... ... ... .. . .. . ... .. . ... .. . .. . ... . .. .. . .. ... . . 9-1 Chapter 10 FlmJRE LAND USE .................................................................................... 10-1 Chapter 11 INIBRGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION ..................................................... 11-1 Chapter 12 STRAIBGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION ......................................................... 12-1 APPENDIX A References APPENDIXB Demographic, Economic and Housing Data APPENDIXC Public Opinion Survey Responses APPENDIXD Soil Types - Tri-Community Area �Vlllale of Douglas Comprehensive Plan LIST OF FIGURES PAGE Age Cohorts (1960 & 1980) -Area Age Cohorts (1980) - Allegan County .Ae Cohorts (1980) • Village of Douglas BdUcatt&nal Background In 1980 - Persons 25 and Over. Tri-Community Area Saugatuck Public School Enrollments Grades: K-12 saugatud( Public School Emollments Elementary and High Schools f3mP)oyment By Sector in 1980 -Tri-Community Area and Allegan County Aftrage Annual Employment - Tri-Community Area Monthly Employment - Trt-Commnity Area. 1988 Tourtsm Related Employment. 1988 - Allegan County Beal Property SEV. 1988 - City of Saugatuck Annual Real Property SEV - Tri-Community Ana (1980-1987) ~ In Poverty By Age - Tri-Community ,Atea.{1980) . . .,r,w,;;o Rlftr Basln M,?lrage P.lml MtpeUG,aTmi!l6 ~~- Saugatiu•.k:~ 2-2 2-2 2-2 2-3 2-3 2-4 3-2 3-4 3-5 3-5 3-5 3-6 3-6 4-2 8-7 9-2 9-2 �Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan LIST OF MAPS NUMBER TITLE PAGE Introduction =- 2.1 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.7a 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 6.3 6,4 6.5 6.6 7.1 7.2 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.5a 9.1 10.1 10.2 Location ii Streets and Roads V Lot Lines vi School DiStrtcts (note: all maps are found at the end of each Chapter) Topography Watercourses Floodplains Wetlands Basement Limitations Septic Limitations Septic Limitations On-Site Wastewater Limitations Most Suitable Soils Hydrtc Soils Groundwater Vulnerability High Risk Erosion Areas Crttical Dune Areas Woodlands Land Use/Cover Existing Land Use By Parcel Planning Areas Public Facilities Water System Sewer System Gas Mains Street Classifications Act 51 Roads Outdoor Recreation Sites Actual and Proposed Bike Paths Watersheds No-Wake Areas Saugatuck Harbor Marinas Street Ends/Parks Street Ends/Parks Residential Construction Pennits Future Land Use Entry Points �v--.e of Dougt•• Comprehensive Plan LIST OF TABLES TITLB tton (1950-1980) EducatbW status - Persons 25 and Over ~ 1 :mmoDments - Saugatuck School District lmpaet c l ~ On Allegan County. 1986 ~Qr~ ~Bylndustry'-1980 ~ By Occupat1ot1 - 1980 A~Antlmd Unemployment Rate Per Caplbl kleorlle. A County tncome -.d. Poverty Characterlsttcs 1\1.comnwoJty Atea $wnmarJ o f ~ Climate Conditions tand om.- Codes rot h)tected Wetlands &dStfnllmm uae State SM.ic Sims FacdtNcs Cid Public tntmJ Jl'Jlanned::::: PAGE 2-1 2-2 2-3 3-1 3-1 3-2 3-3 3-3 3-4 3-4 4-1 4-3 5-1 5-4 6-2 6-2 fbnproyements to 6-4 Day Ely Land Use 6-6 6-6 6-6 7-1 7-3 7-4 7-6 7-7. �9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 12.1 Percentage of Population By Density Type New Households By Density Type Future Residential Land Needs Available Acreage By Land Use Type Population 2010 - Build-Out Scenario Under zoning In Effect Recreation Facilities - Minimum Size 9-4 9-4 9-4 9-4 9-4 12-4 �i INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW • The purpose of this Plan is to provide a policy and decision making guide regarding all future land and infrastructure development within the Village of Douglas. Within the Plan, key planning issues are identified; a clear set of goals and policies are outlined; future land uses are described and mapped; and specific implementation measures are recommended. All future land uses and policies presented in this Plan were developed based on a blending of the natural capability of the land to sustain certain types of development: the important natural functions played by unique land and water resources in the area: the relative future need for residential, commercial. and industrial uses; the existing land use distribution; and the desires of local residents and public ofllcials as expressed through direct interviews. a public opinion survey, town meetings. and public hearings. This Plan was prepared by the Planning & Zoning Center. Inc., under the direction of the Village of Douglas Planning Commission. Financial support was provided by the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources, Coastal Zone Management Program. There are three critical components to using this plan as a decision making guide. First. are the goals, objectives and policies in Chapter 1. Second, is the future land use map and associated descriptive information presented m Chapter 10. Third, is the supporting documentation found in Chapters 2-9. Although this Plan states specific land use development policy and proposes specill.c land use arrangements. it has no regulatory power. It ts prepared as a foundation for and depends primarily on the Village zoning ordinance (and other local tools) for its implementation. This Plan is intended as support for the achievement of the following public objectives, among others: • to conserve and protect property values by preventing incompatible uses from locating adjacent to each other; • to protect and preserve the natural resources, unique character, and environmental quality of the area; • to maintain and enhance the employment and tax base of the area; • to promote an orderly development process by which public officials and citizens are given an opportunity to monitor change and review proposed development; and • to provide inforrnation from which to gain a better understandlng of the area, its interdependencies and interrelationships and upon which to base future land use and public investment decisions. This Plan is unique in that it was prepared concurrently with plans in Saugatuck and Saugatuck.Township. It was prepared in light of the issues, problems and opportunities that the three communities face together, rather than being done in isolation as is more frequently the norm. While the Douglas Planning Commission oversaw the production of this plan, the Douglas Village Council was also involved in Its preparation. Chapter 11 proposes that the Joint Planning Committee established to prepare a Joint Plan for Douglas, Saugatuck, and Saugatuck Township be continued and that this Plan be updated at a minimum of every five years. The contents of this Plan draws directly from previously adopted planning documents. There has been no effort made to explicitly footnote when matenal has been so used. Instead it is intended that the content of those documents continue to carry forward where they were found to be helpful in addressing the current and projected issues facing the tri-community area. In particular, the Village of Douglas Land Use Plan of 1986 was frequently relied upon in drafting portions of this Plan. A number of engineering and technical documents prepared by outside consultants over the past decade have also been relied upon. They are referenced in Appendix. A. SPATIAL LOCATION The map on the following page show the location of the Village of Douglas on the shores of Lake Michigan. This location along I-196 makes it easily accessible to travelers from across North America. The shoreline along the Kalamazoo Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �u 11 Kent County Ottawa County GRaplds Allegan County Van Buren County Barry County Gmazoo Kalamazoo County DOUGLAS Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �Hi River. Lake Kalamazoo. and Lake Michigan and the beautiful sand dunes and wide beaches make this a tourist mecca and an attractive place for retirement. The trade area for commercial businesses in the three communities is quite small. Local residents tend to only do daily and weekly shopping locally as Holland, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo are nearby for wider selections of consumer goods. Three school districts serve the area but all students within Douglas attend the Saugatuck School District. KEY FACTORS GUIDING THIS PLAN Three considerations played prominent roles in fashioning the contents of this Plan just as they do in the Joint Plan. These are based on widely held public opinions. past and present investment by public and private entities and a growing recognition among citizens of the interdependence of the three communities. First, Douglas. Saugatuck. and Saugatuck Township function as a single economic, and social unit. Many people live in one of the three communities and work in another of the three. Most people live in one and shop with some frequency in another. School children, by in large. attend the same schools. Local cultural, conservancy and retiree activities are jointly supported by residents of all three communities. Several public services are jointly provided including the Interurban bus serVice, sewer and water (at least between Douglas and Saugatuck) and fire protection. The Kalamazoo River and Lake Kalamazoo connect all three communities, as do the local road network. Sometimes it seems, only the three units of government are separate. Yet despite these interrelationships, each communit'f maintains a strong separate identity among many citizens of the three entities. Even many neighborhoods have strong separate identities (e.g. the hill. the lakeshore. Silver Lake, etc.). This provides an important richness and depth to the area, but it can also be politically divisive. Second. tourism is the primary engine driving the local economy. Despite several industrial employers that provide important diversity to the area's economy, it is the dollars brought in by tourists and seasonal residents that fuel most of the local wages and local purchasing. The environmental splendor and wide range of activities open to tourists are the primary attraction. But no less significant iS the small town character of the area. This character. often de- scribed as "cute" or "quainr by tourists. is highly favored by visitors and deeply cherished by local citizens. As a result. any intensive or poorly planned alterations to the natural environment, or homogenization of the character of the individual communities is likely to have a potentially negative effect on both tourists and residents. This Plan proposes keeping the scale and intensity of such future changes low and proposes a variety of mitigation techniques to prevent adverse impacts on the environment or on the character of the area from these kinds of changes. Third, a balance of future land uses is necessary to enhance the stability of the comm unity during poor economic times and to broaden the population base. Presently there is a significant lack of housing in the area that is affordable for families with children. That, in concert with a decline in children generally (and an increase in the elderly) has severely impacted the Saugatuck School District. If all future land use decisions were made based exclusively on minimal alteration of the natural environment or maintenance of the existing community character. then over time, the community would become more vulnerable to economic downturn, which usually hits tourist communities very hard. Th us, a balance must be sought between what otherwise become competing goals (economic development and environmental protection/ community character). This will present a serious challenge in the future. The pressure will be great to "sell the farm" for developments which promise new jobs/tax base. And while these are important. the long term impact of such proposals (in a particular location) could be very negative and not worth the tradeoff. All such decisions need to be made primarily based on long term considerations, rather than short term ones. MAPS Except as otherwise noted. all the full page maps presented in this Plan were produced using C-Map software. This is a PC based computer program initiated by William Enslin, Manager of the Center for Remote Sensing at Michigan State University. All the data on the maps was digitized either by Tim McCauley of the Planning & Zoning Center. Inc. or was downloaded from the Michigan Resource Inventory Program (MRIP) database maintained on the State's mainframe computer system by the Department of Natural Resources. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �Iv Several advantages are realized by computerizing this data. Typically, geographic information is only available on paper maps at widely varying scales, which makes it d1fficult to compare data sets for planning purposes. With CMap, all of the maps can be viewed and printed at any scale via a variety of different media (color plotter, laser or ink Jet printer, or dot matrix printer). Information can also be combined (or overlaid) so that composite maps can be created and compared in a fraction of the time and expense normally required to obtain the same results. Another major advantage of computer mapping is the ability to update maps continuously, so that an up-to-date map is always available. There are three different base maps that have been used in mapping this information: 1) a base map prepared by the DNR which was dJgitlzed from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) topographic map series for the area; 2) a lot line map created by digitizing the lots of record used for assessing purposes in the three communities; and 3) a soils base map derived from the SCS Allegan County Soil Survey. None of these base maps are exactly identical as they ongtnate from different sources. All of the land cover and use based information and topography is keyed to the DNR/USGS base map. All of the soils related data is keyed to the soils base (which was interpreted and mapped by the SCS from nonrectlfted aerial photos, so there is some distortion at the edges of each photo frame). The existing land use, sewer and water line maps are keyed to the lot line base map. A transparent copy of the DNR/USGS base map and the lot line base map follow. These can be overlaid on any of the maps in this Plan, but the "fit" will be best when overlaying information that it was used as the base for. Please note that the extent of the Kalamazoo River on each base is noticeably different and is related to the water levels at the time the inventory or survey was conducted. On the maps showing all of Saugatuck Township, we have •corrected" the DNR/USOS base map to tnclude Silver Lake, wbfcb tsmerelyshownasa wetland (not an open :water body) GD tJSGS maps. A transparency can ..a1J be made by photocopying any of these mapa kt Wdet te overJay several levels of mfor~ u.ng C.Map on a color monitor, up to - ~ mfoimatk,m can bi overlaid on the -..., mcl.udibg - ~ In on any MWmild. °be estrable when Q---~killlOiJ..-»~dl-. While the accuracy of all of this data Is very satisfactory for land use planning purposes (especially when contrasted with traditional techniques), none of it Is sufficiently detailed to be absolutely reliable at the parcel level. As a result, detailed site analyses of soils, topography, drainage, etc. are still necessary any time specific site designs are being prepared. All computerized data is on file locally and accessible via C-Map for local use and updating. Contact the wntng administrator or clerk for further information. ~ �V Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �vi r, ._. ~ ST. · i-: 1----'-_,__7'1 V) >--<~---'--+--+---'----+-+--i )~ ~ Id I,. AVE. '° .r- -------~196 I 31 129TH AV •a. ~ I: V, .-I Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan 0, OI -1 J: V, -I �1-1 Chapter 1 GOALS, OBJECTIVES, & POLICIES: THE VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS POLICY PLAN G oals, objectives, and policies are the foundation of a comprehensive plan. They address the key problems and opportunities of a community and help establish a direction and strategies for future community development and growth. Goals establish general direction. objectives represent tasks to be pursued, and policies are decision guides. The goals, objectives, and policies embodied in this plan were prepared through an extensive process of leadership surveys, public opinion smveys, meetings with local officials, and town meetings. The first step in this process was a survey of area leaders- including members of the Village Planning Commission, Village Council, prominent members of the private sector, and other citizens identified in the individual surveys. Leaders were asked their views on the major problems and opportunities facing the Village and the tri-community area, and the results were tabulated and presented to Village officials. These results served as the basis for initiating a public opinion survey. Citizen Views on local planning issues were obtained through public opinion surveys mailed to every property owner in the Village and distributed in each rental complex. Survey questions were prepared for the Village through consultations with the Village Planning Commission and Village Council. Dr. Brent Steel. Oakland University, conducted and tabulated the survey. The response rate of 4 7% in Douglas was very high considering the length (about 1 hour completion time) and type of smvey and thus responses probably represent the majority view. Most respondents were homeowners in their mid-fifties, registered to vote, who are long-term residents and plan to live in the area for ten or more years. Survey results are shown in Appendix A. Results of the citizen opinion survey and leadership survey were used to identify issues for discussion at the first town meeting. This meeting was a "futuring" session where participants were asked to imagine how they would like the community to be in the year 2000. Partici- pants were separated into groups and asked to prepare of list of their "prouds" and "sorries" in Douglas, and things from the past which they would like to preserve. The lists were compared and then all engaged in an imaging exercise where groups were established according to topic area and were asked to imagine that element of the Douglas in the year 2000. This futuring process identified key issues and community elements which were pulled together to form a vision and direction for the Village in the year 2000. A draft policy plan. with defined goals and objectives, was then prepared based on this futurtng process and the survey results. The draft was refined through a series of meetings with local officials and then presented to Village citizens in a second town meeting. Citizen comments were reviewed by Village officials and incorporated into the policy plan. Following completion of the draft policy plan, data and trends in the Village were analyzed. This analysis supported the direction of the policy plan and was first evaluated by the Village Planning Commission. and then by Village citizens at the third town meeting. Next. key elements of the plan and proposed strategies to carry it out were first reviewed by the Village Planning Commission, and then by Village citizens at the fourth and final town meeting. These goals and policies also look beyond local boundaries to the issues which affect the region. This was accomplished through the joint comprehensive planning process, where representatives of the City of Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township participated in the preparation of joint goals and policies for the region. Thus, these goals and policies are premised on a pledge to mutually cooperate in guiding development consistent with the adopted goals and objectives of the Joint Plan. Thus. the broad based input of area officials, leaders, and citizens. plus detailed analysis of local trends and land use characteristics have formed the goals. objectives, and policies that comprise the policy portion of this comprehensive plan. These goals and policies will serve Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �1-2 as a guide for land use and infrastructure decisions in the Village of Douglas. With time, some elements may need to be changed, others added, and still others removed from the list. Before amendatory action is taken, however, the impact of the proposed changes should be considered comprehensively in relation to the entire plan, and the joint plan. It is intended that the goals and policies be consulted whenever considering future land use decisions. Policy: Preserve wetlands, woodlots. and other wildlife areas wherever feasible. GROWTH MANAGEMENT Goal: Guide development in a manner which is orderly, consistent with the planned expansion of public services and facilities. and strives to preserve the scenic beauty, foster the wise use of natural resources, protect environmentally sensitive areas, and enhance the special character of each community. VJLLAGE CHARACIER Goal: Retain and enhance the quiet. scenic, and small town character of the Village. Policy: Encourage new land uses and densities/ intensities of development which are consistent with and complement the character, economic base, and image of the area, and which are sited consistent with this plan and zoning regulations. Policy: Promote site planning and design of new development which is consistent with the established character of the Village and compatible with existing neighborhoods. Objective: Improve the visual appearance of entrances into the Village through landscape designs, signs. and land development which promote the vitality and character of the Village, without unnecessary clutter or safety hazards. Objective: Explore the possibility of establishing a sign ordinance which is consistent with the City of Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township. Policy: Encourage the preservation and restoration of historically significant structures. Policy: Discourage designs which would block significant views and vistas. Policy: Encourage traditional American architectural design. Policy: Manage the trees lining Village streets to provide a continuous green canopy. Policy: Increase enforcement of existing ordinances and regulations to better preserve the established character of the Village and promote official goals, objectives and policies. Policy: Encourage development in locations which are consistent with the capacity of existing and planned public services and facilities, and are cost effective in relation to service extensions. Policy: Review all plans by other public entities for expansion and improvement of existing road and street networks for impacts on growth patterns and for consistency with the goals, objectives, and policies of this plan. Policy: Consider the impact of land use planning and zoning changes on Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township, and discuss proposed changes with the affectedjurisdiction(s) prior to making such changes. A common procedure for such communication shall be established and followed. LAND USE & COMMUNITY FACll,ITIES Goal: Promote the balanced, efficient, and economical use of land in a manner which minimizes land use conflicts within and across municipal borders. and provides for a wide range of land uses in appropriate locations to meet the diverse needs of area residents. Policy: Insure compatible land use planning and zoning across municipal borders and minimize land use conflicts by coordinating planning and zoning, separating incompatible uses and requiring buffers where necessary. Policy: Discourage sprawl and scattered development through planned expansion of roads and public utilities and through zoning regulations which limit intensive development to areas where adequate public services are available. Policy: Provide for necessary community facilities (i.e. schools, garages. fire halls, etc.) Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan ~ ~ �consistent With this plan and capital improvement programming. Policy: Coordinate Capital Improvement Programming With the City of Saugatuck and Village of Douglas. Policy: Encourage approaches to site design which take natural features of the property. such as soils, topography, hydrology, and natural vegetation, into account and which use the land most e:ffectlvely and efficiently by maximizing open space, preserving scenic Vistas. conserving energy, and any other public policies identified in this plan. Policy: AdVise developers during site plan reView to contact the State Archaeologist. Bureau of History (517-373-6358) to determine if the project may affect a known archaeological site. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Goal: Strengthen and expand upon the area's economic base through strategies which attract new businesses, strengthen existing businesses, and enhance the tourism potential of the area consistent with the character of the Village and its ability to provide needed public services. Policy: Identify potential sites for industrial development and alternative means of financing necessary public improvements and marketing of the sites (i.e. tax increment financing, special assessments. state grants and loans, etc.) Policy: Support efforts to foster tourism by preserving the scenic beauty of the environment. expanding recreation opportunities, inlproving tourist attractions, and preparing promotional materials which highlight the attractions of the Village. Policy: Promote better communication and cooperation between the public and private sector. • COMMERCIAL Goal: Encourage high quality commercial development in appropriate locations which serves the current and future needs of residents and tourists. Policy: Encourage new commercial development to locate adjacent to existing commercial areas. Policy: Encourage a compatible and desirable mix of commercial uses, including similarity in the height and design of storefronts. Policy: Encourage the design and location of neighborhood commercial centers in a manner which complements and does not conflict With adjoining residential areas. Policy: Promote the development of small, commercial centers off of major roads, rather than lot by lot commercial strips. Policy: Discourage unsafe and unsightly strip commercial development through design and landscaping requirements such as berms. planting, clustered shopping areas, and/ or shared access. Policy: Improve the quality, Vitality, and value of Village business districts through sign regulations which control the design and location of signs. Policy: Avoid separate parking lots for each business where feasible and encourage centrally placed parking lots which serve several businesses. DOWNTOWN DOUGLAS Goal: Improve the quality, Vitality. and appearance of downtown Douglas. Policy: Promote efforts to revitalize the downtown. such as remodelling of storefronts. improved storefront displays. preservation of open space, and attractive landscaping. Objective: Pursue state and local programs aimed at planning, organ1z1n.g, and financing downtown reVitalization projects, such as a Downtown Development Authority and the Main Street program. INDUSTRIAL Goal: Increase the amount of non-polluting light industry in the area to offer year-round employment opportunities to the Douglas workforce, without damaging the enVironment, spoiling the scenic beauty of the area. or Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �1-4 overburderung local roads, utilities. or other public services. Policy: Encourage new industries to locate contiguous to ex:1sting industrial areas and to cluster in small industrial parks which conform to the design guidelines contained in thiS plan and local zoning regulations. Policy: Provide land for industrial uses in locations along major thoroughfares. with existing or planned sewer, water, electric. and solid waste disposal services to m:tnttnlZe service costs and negative impacts on other land uses. Policy: Implement site plan requirements for light industries which are designed to incorporate generous amounts of open space. attractive landscaping, and buffering from adjacent non-industrial uses. Policy: Require the separation of industrial sites from residential areas through buffers made up of any combination of parking, commercial uses, parks. parkways, or open space. HOUSING/RESIDENTIAL Goal: Encourage a variety of residential types in a wide range of prices which is consistent with the needs of a changing population and compatible With the character of existing residences in the vicinity. Policy: Explore alternative measures to reduce housing costs and make home ownership more affordable, such as zoning regulations and other programs which are designed to reduce the cost of constructing new housing. Policy: Control the operation of bed and breakfast businesses through special wning regulations to preserve the character and stability of exiSting neighborhoods. ' Policy: Provide street lights and sidewalks in residential areas where there is a demonstrated need and according to the ability of residents to finance such improvements. Objective: Adopt and enforce a basic property maintenance code and building code. Objective: Improve residential areas according to an identified need and municipal means to finance such improvements. Objective: Apply for housing rehabilitation grant funds and explore the possibility of establishing a revolving loan fund for housing rehabilltation with such funds. SPECIAL ENVIRONMENTS & OPEN SPACE Goal: Protect special environments and open space, including but not limited to sand dunes, wetlands, and critical wildlife habitat, from the harmful effects of incompatible development activity by limiting the type and intensity ofland development in those areas. r'\ < Objective: Identify development limitations on special environments through a tiered classification system which classifies these environments based on their value to the ecosystem, unique attributes, the presence of endangered plant and wildlife species, and other characteristics deemed significant. Policy: Discourage the development of high intensity residential uses along the waterfront. Policy: Encourage acquisition of special environments of significant public value by public agencies or nonprofit conservancy organizations for the purposes of preservation. Policy: Provide land through zoning for garden apartments, duplexes. and medium density single family residential uses near the Village core. Policy: Require development projects deemed appropriate in and adjacent to special environments to mitigate any negative impacts on such environments. Policy: Allow only quiet, low traffic, low intensity home occupations in residential areas to preserve their stability and tranquility. Objective: Devise regulations through zoning and site plan review for land development in special environments which permit development in a manner consistent with protection objecttves and which complement state and federal regulations for special environments. Policy: Discourage the conversion of single family dwellings to multiple family dwellings to preserve the stability of existing neighborhoods. ~ Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan ~ -:'.' �1-5 • WATERFRONT Goal: Protect and enhance the natural aesthetic values and recreation potential of all waterfront areas for the enjoyment of area citizens. Policy: Promote the preseivation of open space and natural areas, as well as limited, carefully planned development along the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo Lake, Lake Michigan and connecting streams, creeks, and drainageways to protect and enhance the scenic beauty of these waterfront areas. and permit the continuity of these existing open spaces to remain. Policy: Some waterfront lands may be developed to meet residential and commercial needs. enhance local tax base, and contribute to paying for local public service costs associated with their use and development. consistent with environmental protection policies in this plan, where such development would contribute to local quality of life. • Policy: Maximize public access to the water, both physically and visually and identify scenic vistas which the Village would like to preserve. Policy: Acquire scenic easements wherever public values dictate the maintenance of visual access to the waterfront and the property is not available for purchase. Policy: Limit the height and intensity of new development along waterfront areas to preserve visual access and the natural beauty of the waterfront for the broader public. partment of Natural Resources Recreation Division, on recreation projects which would benefit area residents and strengthen the tourism industry. Objective: Examine the feasibility of, and establish if feasible, a jointly owned and operated community center to serve residents of all ages in all three communities. Objective: Examine the feasibility of expanding low cost opportunities for public beach and campground facilities for area citizens with boat launching sites, bike paths. cross-country ski trails, and docks for shore fishing. Objective: Develop a system of cross-country ski trails together with the Village of Douglas, the City of Saugatuck, and other jurisdictions/agencies if possible, through the use of local funds. grants and loans, and capital improvement programming. Policy: Encourage local government participation in activities designed to enhance the area's seasonal festivals. Policy: Retain. maintain, and improve all existing publicly owned parks so that they continue to meet the diverse recreation needs of area citizens and tourists. Objective: Investigate developing a joint public marina and launch facility where federal and state funding is available to assist With financing such a venture. TRANSPORTATION Policy: Explore opportunities to convert street ends which abut water bodies for public access to the water for fishing. viewing, and launching of small water crafts. Goal: Maintain a safe, effective, and efficient road network and improve roads to promote growth in a way that is consistent with land use goals. objectives and policies. RECREATION Objective: Survey the transportation network and identify need for maintenance and improvements. Goal: Enhance the well-being of area residents by providing a variety of opportunities for relaxation, rest, activity, and education through a well balanced system of private and public park and recreational facilities and activities which seive identified needs of area residents. • Objective: Identify and explore opportunities to cooperate with other jurisdictions and agencies, including Allegan County and the De- Objective: Prepare a capital .improvement budget for financing transportation maintenance and improvements. Objective: Prepare a capital improvements program to schedule and prioritize improvements and maintenance . Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �1-6 Policy: Implement traffic controls and design features that will increase the efficiency and safety of major arterials. including but not lim• ited to: traffic signals, deceleration lanes, limiting driveways, minimum standards for driveway spacing, uniform sign regulations. shared or alternate access, left and right turn lanes. and speed limit adjustments. Goal: Encourage a wide vartety of transportation means. such as walking, hilting, and public transportation, to meet the diverse needs of area residents. Objective: Develop an areawide bikepath through local funds, grants and loans. and cap· ital improvement programming. Policy: Promote pedestrian and bike travel through a coordinated network of bikepaths, trails, and sidewalks. Policy: Maintain the sidewalk system and require developers to provide sidewalks in appropriate locations through subdivision regulations. Policy: Promote regularly scheduled. affordable. and dependable public transportation to increase the mobility and quality of life of those who depend on public transportation. Objective: Encourage expansion of the interurban system consistent with municipal means to finance the increased service and an identified public need. WATER AND SEWER Goal: Insure a safe and adequate water supply for the area, and environmentally sound sewage treatment. which are efficiently provided and cost effective. Policy: Provide a reliable supply of safe, clean, and good tasting drinking water. Policy: Minimize the potential for groundwater contamination through planning and zoning which is consistent with the capacity and limitations of the land and available services. Objective: Upgrade and provide adequate and lines within the existing sewer and water service. mains Objective: Devise alternative mechanisms for financing sewer and water expansions which are financially sound and equitable. Objective: Promote a joint agreement with the City of Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township to plan and implement areawide sewer and water service. including full participation by each in the Kalamazoo Lake Sewer & Water Authority. Objective: Investigate refashioning the Kalamazoo Lake Sewer and Water Authority into an independent authority, in order to insure that the needs of area citizen's for quality utility services are met. Policy: Insure that the expansion of sewer and water service into an area is consistent with the planned intensity of land use for that area. scheduled when affordable, and implemented when necessary to meet an identified need in the area rather than on a speculative basis. POLICE. FIRE, & EMERGENCY SERVICES Goal: Provide police, fire, and emergency services consistent with a public need and the ability to finance improvements in the most cost effective manner. Policy: Consolidate police. fire, and other emergency services across the three communities to eliminate overlap in service and expenditures and improve service delivery. Objective: Evaluate the feasibility of 24 hour medical service which serves all three jurisdictions to be provided by a public or private entity. SOCIAL SERVICES Goal: Promote the availability of necessary social services to meet identified needs of area residents. Objective: Explore the possibility of establishing support programs for older adults through the use of volunteers for assistance with household chores. personal care. and home repair to help them remain independent. shorten hospital stays, and lower health care costs. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan r-- �1-7 • Policy: Support efforts to establish community day care center(s) in appropriate locations to provide quality and affordable day care to working parents. Policy: Provide those social services which are efficient to provide at the local level to meet the needs of area residents. WASTE MANAGEMENT Goal: Insure the safe, effective, and efficient disposal of solid waste and toxic substances. Policy: Encourage the reduction of solid waste through recycling, composting. and waste-to-energy projects. etc., and encourage or implement these through zoning and subdivision regulations. Objective: Establish an educational program (i.e. "energy awareness week") in cooperation with the local school system. Policy: Require developers to provide sidewalks in appropriate locations through subdivision regulations. Policy: Encourage higher density residential development near areas with .shopping and services to limit the number and length of trips generated from that development. Policy: Manage disposal of solid waste and location of solid waste facilities in accordance with the Allegan County Solid Waste Management Plan prepared under PA 641 of 1978. Objective: Adopt regulations for on-site storage and transportation of hazardous waste which require: • Secondary containment for on-site storage of hazardous waste: • No transfer of hazardous waste over open ground: • Arrangements for inspection of, and monitoring underground storage tanks: • Existing underground storage tanks must provide spill protection around the fill pipe by 1998 in accordance with 1988 EPA standards. • All existing underground storage tanks must install leak detection systems within 5 years in accordance with 1988 EPA standards; Objective: Encourage the development and use of biodegradable containers. ENERGY Goal: Promote site design and building which is energy efficient and encourage energy conservation through good land use planning and wise public building management. Objective: Prepare energy guidelines or standards which address landscaping, solar access. solar energy systems. sidewalks, subdivision layout, proximity to goods and services. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �2-1 Chapter2 DEMOGRAPHICS POPULATION SIZE The population of the Village of Douglas has more than doubled since 1950. This represents a 112% increase from 1950 to 1980, and a 17% increase since 1970 (see Table 2.1). There is some skepticism over 1986 Census estimates. which show a 5% decline in Village population. Current trends and projections indicate population growth, rather than decline, and 1990 Census estimates will almost certainly reveal population growth. SEASONAL POPULATION The population of the each community in the tri-community area swells during the summer when seasonal residents and tourists return. The 1980 census estimates that 23% (123) of the Village's 529 total housing units are vacant, seasonal, and :migratory. Nearly all of these (108) are detached single family units. An engineering study prepared by Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber for the Kalamazoo Lake Sewer & Water Authority (KLSWA) estimates that the total tri-community area population is comprised of one-third seasonal residents and two-thirds permanent residents and that the weekend daytime population during the summer is about 2,500 persons. Although sewer and water demand typically grows with population, the study found that demand for sewer and water in the trt-community area increased about 30% between 19801986, whereas population increased by an average of 20%. This reflects the impact of the seasonal and tourist population on local services. HOUSEHOLDS AND AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD SIZE Until recently, the average household size in the United States has continued to shrink, due to an aging population. higher divorce rates, postponed marriages. and lower birth rates. In keeping with state and national trends, the average household size in the tri-community area declined dramatically, from 2.98 in 1960 to 2.39 in 1980. The average household size in the Village in 1980 was 2.44. Smaller household size means a greater number of households. If the average household size in 1960 held true today, there would be about 300 fewer individual households in the area. The number of households is an excellent gauge of the demand for land and services. As household size decreases, the additional households create further demand for land. housing, transportation, and public utilities. Although household size has declined substantially over the past few decades, national trends suggest that it will soon cease its decline. Nationwide the average household size has reached a plateau and state demographers predict that Michigan will follow suit. AGE DISTRIBUTION Historical age cohort data is available on a regional basis and a comparison of age cohorts in the tri-community area between 1960 and 1980 reveals a large drop in the proportion of young children, with a corresponding increase in the childbearing cohort (20 to 30 year olds) and 45-54 year olds. The proportion of retirees to the total population, however. has remained TABLE2.l POPULATION ( 1950-1980) COMMUNITY Saugatuck Saugatuck Township Douglas AREAWIDE 1950 770 845 447 2,062 1960 927 1,133 602 2,662 1970 1980 1,022 1,254 813 3,089 1,079 1,753 948 3,780 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan CHANGE 40% 107% 112% 83% �2-2 FIGURE 2.1 FIGURE 2.2 AGE COHORTS (1960 & 1980) AGE COHORTS (1980) ALLEGAN COUNTY ARE A§ =1960 17 19 p E R C E N T -1980 17 15 1a 11 9 p E A 15 C E N T 11 1a 9 7 5.+----,r----r-"""T""-,---,------.----, 0-1' 5-14 15-24 25-34 3S-44 45-54 5-14 0-4 3+--~-~-~----~-~ 15•24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ AGE GROUP 65+ 55-64 AGE GROUP of the County, although the Village has a much lower proportion of children aged 5-14, and a much higher proportion of senior citizens. In regional terms, the Village comprises 24% of the area's senior population; the City of Saugatuck comprises 37% (despite its small size): and the Township, 39%. FIGURE 2.3 AGE COHORTS (1980) VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS 20 18 p E R C E N 16 14 12 EDUCATION 10 The Village of Douglas has a well educated citizenry. An analysis of those aged 25 and older in 1980 reveals that 35.9% have completed 1 or more years of college (see Figure 2.4). Table 2.2 contains complete information on the educational status of persons 25 years old and over by jurisdiction. T •+-----~-----0-4 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ AGE GROUP constant (see Figure 2.1). This is out of keeping with statewide trends and suggests that the area has experienced high in-migration of retirees through time. Retirees are attracted by the area's special resort quality, small town character, and scenic beauty. Figures 2.2 and 2.3 depict the 1980 age cohort distribution in the Village of Douglas, as compared to Allegan County. In accordance with countywide trends, the Village has a small cohort of infants and toddlers. The cohort distribution of the Village of Douglas resembles that SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS The Saugatuck Public School District serves the Village of Douglas (see Map 2.1). School enro11ment data for Saugatuck High School and Douglas Elementary, the two schools which comprise the Saugatuck Public School system, illustrate the impact of areawide demographic trends on the school system. Between 1973 and 1989, enrollments in the TABLE 2.2 EDUCATIONAL STATUS PERSONS 25 YEARS OLD AND OVER Elementary 1-3 years HS 4 years HS 1-3 years College 4+ years College SAUGATIJCK SAUGATIJCK TOWNSHIP CITY 185 199 373 157 188 DOUGLAS 57 97 276 137 196 Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan 73 84 213 123 84 AREA 315 380 862 417 468 �2-3 FIGURE 2.4 EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND IN 1980 PERSONS 25 AND OVER, TRI-COMMUNITY AREA 40 l]fil TOWNSHIP 35 • 30 p 25 ~ 20 E N T 15 E CITY ~ VILLAGE 10 5 0 ELEMENTARY 1-3 YRS H.S. 4 YRS H.S. FIGURE 2.15 SAUGATUCK PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS GRAOESK-12 BOO E N R 0 L L 1100 T llliO 4 YRS COLL. (see Figure 2.6). School enrollment data appears in Table 2.3. Future elementary and high school enrollments were projected by the Saugatuck Public School system. These projections show an upturn in high school enrollments in 1991 with a TABLE2.3 SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS SAUGATUCK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT 850 M E H 1-3 YRS COLL. 500-1-.......,-.--.-,....-.--r-T""-r-T--i--r"--r-"-r--'I 73-74 75'78 71-78 79-80 81-82 83-84 8H6 &NIB VEAR School ~em:. pes K-12, 34% (see Fflure 2.5). When at.f" and hjp sdlool enro.11- data~ a 17% inerease YEAR 79-80 K-6 7-12 TOTAL 326 80-81 81-82 82-83 83-84 84-85 85-86 307 306 252 329 322 299 290 232 303 259 296 277 265 246 215 655 629 605 542 535 555 527 540 545 511 86-87 87-88 88-89 250 275 299 296 �2-4 FIGURE 2.6 SAUGATUCK PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOLS 360 340 E N R 0 L L M E N T 320 300 280 260 "il,,... 240 [ PROJECTIONS '\ I - ... ) . ~ 7-12 _ / ~ 220 200 180 79-80 I I I '' '··•:;., I 81-82 83--84 85-86 87-88 89-90 91-92 93-94 YEAR • continued climb in elementary school enrollments (see Figure 2.6). Total projected 1994 enrollments, however, are still 23% less than 1973-74 levels. FUTIJRE TRENDS If local demographic trends follow those projected for the county as they have in the past, then the overall proportion of retirees in the area will expand much faster than that of school age children. The Michigan Department of Management and Budget projects that Allegan County's school age population Will grow only 3% by the year 2000, while senior citizens will increase by 30%. The area ·s small cohort of infants and children, large cohort of middle aged to elderly, and high rate of retiree in-migration suggest this will be equally true in the Village. These figures reveal the need to plan for the needs of an aging community, as well as initiate efforts to attract families With children into the area. The large cohort of individuals in their childbearing years in the Village and Township should result in a natural increase in young children. but because couples are having fewer children, school enrollments will probably expand only slightly. The Saugatuck Public School system is not likely to meet its potential capacity for enrollments unless a sequence of events or actions attracts new families with young children into the area. Two key factors Will be the availability of affordable housing and nearby employment opportunities. In the meantime, schools must use space and resources efficiently as they experience tighter budgets and small enrollments. Many of the demographic characteristics shown here have been analyzed based on 1980 census information. These trends should be updated when the 1990 census information is available. See Appendix B for more demographic information from the 1980 census. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �N A H OL MAP 2.1 PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS ■ Saugatuck ~ Fennville D Hamilton DATA SOURCE: Respective School Districts Planning & Zoning Center Inc. Lansing, Ml August 1989 s I DOU �3-1 Chapters THE ECONOMY large wetlands abounding with wildlife; orchards and specialty farms: and a scenic location on Lake Michigan encompassing Silver, Goshorn, Kalamazoo and Oxbow lakes. and the Kalamazoo River. The area also has a reputation as a cultural center which sexves as an artists' retreat. The Ox Bow Art Workshop and the Red Barn theater add to the area's cultural ambience. Although it is located in Laketown Township. the Saugatuck Dunes State Park serves as another tourist attraction to the tri-community area. The Park offers no camping and thus many visitors stay in the tri-community area. Visitor counts from the Michigan Department of Resources. Parks Division, reveal that the park has increased in popularity since the ?O's. Visitor counts performed by the Parks Division show that 47,463 people visited Saugatuck Dunes State Park in FY 1988 a 300% increase in park attendance since 1979, when it attracted only 11,714 visitors. ECONOMIC BASE Tourism Tourism fuels the economy of the tri-community area. with associated boating, restaurant. lodging. and strong retail sectors. Of the three jurisdictions, the City of Saugatuck relies most heavily on tourism. The Village of Douglas has boating and lodging facilities which capitalize on tourism, but its commercial sector is primarily oriented towards local clientele. The Township has a small commercial sector which compliments that of the Village, but it is primarily seasonal residential and rural. with a large agricultural area to the south. Although the City of Saugatuck is seen as the resort center of the area. the Village also benefits from and contributes to the tourist trade. The area's resort flair is defined by: historic buildings- including quaint bed and breakfast inns; the many festivals; outstanding boating; Oval Beach; downtown Saugatuck; sand dunes; TABLE 3.1 IMPACT OF TRAVEL ON ALLEGAN COUNTY, 1986 TOT.TRAVEL TRAVEL EXPENDITURES GENER. PAYROLL $42,413,000 $/Jobs .56% % of St.ate Total 29.52% %change 1983-86 TRAVEL GENER. EMPLOYMENT STATE TAX RECEWI'S LOCAL TAX RECEWI'S 869Jobs .62% 18.39% $2,191,000 .71% 27.98% $363,000 .49% 32.48% $7,689,000 .49% 37.87% Source: U.S. Travel Data Center, "The Economic Impact of Travel on Michigan Counties.· TABLE 3.2 MAJOR EMPLOYERS PRODUCT/SERVICE Hansen Machine Haworth Harbors Health Facility Enterprise Hinge Douglas Marine Tafts Supermarket Paramount Tool Co.• Inc. Rich Products Metal Stampings Office Furniture Nursing Horne Manufacturing Marina Supermarket Machinery Pies EMPLOYEES 43 238 78 12 21 32 24 85 Source: Allegan County Promotional Alliance Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �3-2 FIGURE 3.1 EMPLOYMENT BY SECTOR IN 1980 TRI-COMMUNITY AREA AND ALLEGAN COUNTY PUBLIC fill CITY ■ VILLAGE SERVICES E::;a TOWNSHIF FIN/INS/REAL EST ~ COUNTY RETAIL WHOLESALE TRANS/COMM/UTIL MANUFACTURING CONSTRUCTION AGRICULTURE 10 5 0 15 20 25 30 35 40 PERCENT How much money does travel and tourism generate in the trt-community area? Although current travel and tourism statistics are not available for the trt-community area, studies conducted for Allegan County reveal the tremendous impact of travel and tourism on local economies in the County. This is especially true for Saugatuck-Douglas- the major resort center in the County. A study prepared for the Michigan Travel Bureau by the U.S. Travel Data Center in 1986 found that travellers spent $42.4 million in Allegan County in 1986, generating $7.7 million for payroll. 869 jobs. $2.1 million in state tax receipts. and $363,000 in local tax receipts. This ranks Allegan County 33rd out of Michigan's 83 counties in travel and tourism revenues. Selected data from this study is reproduced in Table 3. 1. Manqfacturing Manufacturing is central to the year-round stability of the area's economy. Although there TABLE 3.3 EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY - 1980 TOfAL Agriculture Construction Manufacturing TCU • Wholesale Trade Retail Trade FIRE** Services Public Admin. CITY VILLAGE 547 9 30 156 25 13 146 21 125 22 433 16 27 169 10 7 67 15 96 26 TOWNSHIP 689 37 75 274 17 20 106 39 107 14 • Transportation, Communicatiion, Utillities .,. Finance, Insurance, Real Estate Source:1980 U.S. Census of Population, General Social and Economic Characteristics. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan AREA 1,669 62 132 599 52 40 319 75 328 62 COUN1Y 34,025 2,041 2,009 13,033 1,407 1,398 5,017 1,126 7,105 889 �3-3 TABLE 3.4 EMPLOYME,NT BY OCCUPATION - 1980 TOTAL Manag. & Admin Prof. Technical Sales Clertcal Service Fann, Fishing Crafts & Repair Machine Operators Laborers. Mat. Moving CI1Y VlLLAGE TOWNSHIP AREA COUN1Y 547 77 87 63 70 72 13 66 60 39 433 34 62 24 45 73 13 70 90 22 685 43 74 83 74 73 43 144 120 31 1,665 154 223 170 189 231 126 210 270 92 34,025 2,315 3,319 2,696 4,189 4,300 1,885 5,447 6,129 3,745 Source: 1980 U.S. Census of Population, General Social and Economic Characteristics. TABLE 3.5 AVERAGE ANNUAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE To-Community: 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 15.2 14.7 10.8 11.3 6.5 5.8 5.2 County 14.8 14.3 10.5 10.9 7.3 5.6 5.1 State 15.5 14.2 11.2 9.9 8.8 8.2 7.6 So=: MESC, Bureau of Research & Statistics, Field Analysis Unit are fewmanufacturtng firms, they provide a high percentage of area jobs. Major area employers are listed in Table 3.2. Agriculture Agrtculture is another strong component of the area's economic base. Although farms are located in the Township, Census employment information reveal many individuals in agrtcultural employment in the Village (see Figure 3.1). Rich Products, a major area employer, is an agrt-business which was attracted to the region because of its many fruit fanns. The future of agrt-industry is bright in light of Michigan Department of Commerce efforts to promote and expand food processing .industrtes in the state. EMPLOYMENT Table 3.3 breaks down employment by economic sector for the tri-community area and the county in 1980. This information is illustrated in Figure 3.1. Manufacturing employs the most people in each of the three communities. Yet employment in other sectors vartes. Thirty-nine percent of the Village of Douglas· labor force is employed in manufacturtng. Yet unlike the City, the service sector dominates the retail sector. Service employ 22% ofVillage workers, with only 15% in the retail sector. Construction (6%) and the public sector (6%) are the fourth largest employers of village residents, and agriculture (4%) is fifth. Although nearly all of the region's fanning occurs in the Township. 1980 employment by sector shows that the proportion of the labor force employed in agrtculture in the Township (5%) is low compared to the amount of agrtcultural activity, and only slightly higher than the Village of Douglas. Many farmers have alternative sources of income outside of farm.ing, causing the census to count them in another employment sector. Employment by occupation in 1980 is shown in Table 3.4. The highest proportion of workers in Douglas are machine operators, followed by service workers. crafts and repair workers. and professional/technical workers. Average Annual Employment and Unemployment Unemployment has declined dramatically with Michigan's economic growth of the late 80's. Table 3. 5 reveals average annual unemployment rates in the area since the last statewide recession. (Employment data is not available for individual communities in the trtcommunity area. The Michigan Employment Securtty Commission aggregates it for Saugatuck Township, the Village of Douglas. and the City Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan jii.:;-, �3-4 of Saugatuck.} The tri-cornmunity area has a slightly higher rate of unemployment than Allegan County. although since 1986 the unemployment rate has dipped below that of the state revealing local or regional economic growth. Average annual employment in the trt-community area bottomed out in 1986. This reflected the loss of American Twisting, which employed about 20 people, and the burning of Broward Marine (about 100 employees) and Brighton Metal (about 10 employees). Yet 1n 1987, areawide employment jumped dramatically. During that year Broward Marine reopened its doors: Rich Products, Harbor Health Facilities, Paramount Tools and other area businesses increased employment: a number of small businesses and two restaurants opened; and perhaps most significantly, Haworth Corporation expanded adding two new departments. Contributing to this was the state and regional economic boom, and corresponding increases in construction and spending. Figure 3.2 illustrates this trend. Seasonal Employment Local employment increases each summer as tourists flood into the tri-community area. FIGURE 3.2 AVERAGE ANNUAL EMPLOYMENT TRI-COMMUNITY AREA 2.8 2.6 T H 2.4 0 2.2 u s A 2.0 1.8 N D 1.4 s 1.2 1.0 +---.-----.--..------.----, 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 YEAR Figure 3.3 reveals the impact of tourism on employment 1n the tri-community area during the surmner months. The high number of jobs created during the summer months are primarily unskilled jobs in the service/retail sector, especially eating and drinking establishments and various other recreation-oriented uses. Figure 3.4 reveals this explosion in summer employment for tourism- TABLE 3.6 PER CAPITA INCOME ($), ALLEGAN COUNTY (TOP TEN) Saugatuck Laketown Township Holland Gunplain. Township Otsego Township Plainwell Saugatuck Township Allegan Township Leighton Township Filhnore TownshiQ 1979 9031 8332 8125 8074 7437 7396 7286 7170 7051 7015 Laketown Township Saugatuck Holland Gunplain Township Otsego Township Saugatuck Township Douglas Filhnore Township Plainwell Leighton TownshiQ 1985 13,013 12,631 11,608 10,947 10,239 10,228 10.150 10,120 9,886 9,539 Source: 1985 Per Capital Income Estimates, U.S. Census Bureau TABLE 3.7 INCOME & POVERTY CHARACTERISTICS TRI-COMMUNITY AREA (1980) Median HH income % in poverty Income 200% of poverty level & above TOWNSHIP CI1Y VILLAGE COUNTY 16.412 7.1% 74% 15,182 8.6% 75% 14,963 11.3% 73% 17,906 8.0% 71% Source: 1980 Census of Population Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �3-5 FIGURE 3.4 FIGURE 3.3 MONTHLY EMPLOYMENT TRI-COMMUNITY AREA, 1988 TOURISM RELATED EMPLOYMENT, 1988 ALLEGAN COUN'IY 2700 1.2. 2650 E M p L 0 y M E N T 1.0 2600 Q.8 2550 0.6 2500 0.4 E MT p H L o ou y s A 0.2 2450 0.0 MN E D Ns T 2400 2350 2300+.-........---T-.--"T"'"""""T'""--,--r--"T"'""-r--,--, J F M A M J J A S O N 0 MONTH FIGURE 3.5 REAL PROPERTY SEV (1988) SAUGATUCK TOWNSHIP & Vlll.AGE OF DOUGLAS ~V'V'II DEVELOPMENTAL l'Y• AGRICULTURAL 5% INDUSTRIAL 2% related industries in Allegan County. TWs increase creates a high demand for teenage employees. Tri-community area businesses note the difficulty of filling these jobs, and the need to import seasonal labor. This is yet another impact of the demographic make-up of the area (i.e. the low number of teenage children). New industry and affordable housing in the area could attract families With children who, in turn, could staff area businesses during peak summer months. TAX BASE Residential uses make up the bulk of the area's tax base. Tax base information is aggre- gated for the Township and Village of Douglas. In 1988, residential uses comprised 76% of the real property tax base for the Township and Village of Douglas ($43,730,725). Commercial uses comprised 16% ($9,402,800). Agriculture comprised 5% ($2,661.790). Industrial comprised 2% (%1,126,200). Developmental, a recently created category which refers to lands which are assessed at a higher rate due to their high development potential, comprised 1o/o ($430,733) (see Figure 3.5). Figure 3.6 illustrates changes in annual real property SEV between 1980 and 1987 for the Village of Douglas, compared to Saugatuck Township and the City of Saugatuck. The figure shows a steady increase in the Village's real property tax base since 1980. The sharp drop in Township SEV is explained by the incorporation of the City of Saugatuck and its corresponding removal from the Township's tax base. More information on annual Sev·s and 1988 breakdowns can be found in AppendJx B. INCOME Between 1979 and 1985, census estJmates show a dramatic rise in per capita income in the Village of Douglas- an increase of 47.4%- making it one of the top ten communities in terms of per capita income in Allegan County. Table 3.6 shows this comparison. (Per capita income in 1979 was $7,688 for the state and $6,744 for the county. in 1985 it was $10,902 for the state and $9,346 for the county.) Table 3.7 reveals selected income and poverty characteristics by jurisdiction in the tri- Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �3-6 FIGURE 3.6 ANNUAL REAL PROPERTY SEV TRI-COMMUNITY AREA (1980-87) 70 60 M S~ ELI VoN 50 ~ - 40 = - s 30 Saugatuck Douglas Township* Township** 20 10.k~~~-----------1980 198119821983 1984 1985 1986 1987 YEAR * not including Village(s) including Douglas through 1987 and Saugatuck through 1984 ** community area. Although the per capita income in the area has been consistently higher than that of the county, the median household income is lower. The median household income is the point at which 50% of the households earn more and 50% earn less. This statistic is more representative of local trends as it is less easily distorted by a few high income wage earners. Poverty data correspond with median household income. As median income goes up, the proportion in poverty goes down. Despite its rapid growth in per capita income, the Village of Douglas has the lowest median household income and the highest percentage of poor in the region. Figure 3. 7 reveals the proportion of those in poverty by age. (The poverty level used by the 1980 census in recording thiS data was an annual income of $3,778 for those under 65, and $3,689 for those 65 and over.) Although the largest number of poor persons are under 55, a high proportion are elderly. FIGURE 3.7 . PERCENT IN POVERTY BY AGE TRI-COMMUNITY AREA (1980) tfil TOWNSHIP 71) p E R C E N T ■ •• CITY ~ VILLAGE so •• ,o . ,. LESSTHAH55 ... M,..51 Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan AGE �4-1 Chapter4 NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT CLJMATE Weather conditions affect the Village's economic base. Variations in average conditions, especially during the summer months, can cause fluctuations in tourism and outdoor recreation activities, upon which the local economy is dependent. Prevailing winds determine lakeshore and sand dune erosion patterns, which impose limitations on development along the Lake Michigan shore. Below, in Table 4. 1, is relevant climatic information for the area. These conditions generally do not pose limitations on the area's growth except along the Lake Michigan shore, where natural forces can cause rapid and extensive erosion of beaches and sand dunes. The climate is also considered favorable for growmg certain fruits, such as apples and blueberries. GEOLOGY Douglas is located on the southwestern flank of the Michigan Basin, which is a bedrock feature centered in the middle of the Lower Peninsula. The sandstone and shale bedrock is overlain by glacial deposits from 50 to 400 feet thick. There are no outcroppings of the bedrock and the proximity of the bedrock to the surface of the ground does not impose limitations for normal excavating or construction. Glacial deposits consist primarily of sandy lake bed deposits east of the Lake Border Moraine, a major physiographic formation which is adjacent to Lake Michigan. TOPOGRAPHY Most of Douglas is relatively flat. but local variations in elevation of up to 50 feet exist in some places between uplands and the floodplain of the Kalamazoo River, and along the Lake Michigan Shore. The golf course in the northwest part of the Village and Tannery Creek north of Section 21 are areas having steep slopes. Steep slopes present impressive scenery and pose increased maintenance and construction costs as well as safety risks. This is especially true with unstable landforms such as sand dunes. Generally, slopes exceeding 7% should not be developed intensively, while slopes of more than 12% should not be developed at all because of erosion and storm water runoff problems. On the topographic map (Map 4.1). steep slope areas are indicated by three or more contour lines in close proximity. DRAINAGE Douglas lies within the Kalamazoo River Basin, which begins near Jackson and extends westward into Saugatuck Township, Douglas and Saugatuck (see Figure 4.1). All of the land in the Village drains into the Kalamazoo River, except for areas directly adjacent to Lake Michigan. Most areas of the Village drain fairly well TABLE4.1 SUMMARY OF RELEVANT CLIMATE CONDITIONS CLIMATE VARIABLES AVERAGE CONDITION EXTREME CONDIDON Coldest Months (January-February) Hotest Month (July) Annual Average Temperature Average Rainfall Average Growing Season Average Annual Snowfall Elevation Above Sealevel Prevailing Winds 23.3° F - 25.1° F 71.5° F 48.3° F 35.7 inches 153 days 79.7 inches 590 feet Westerly -11 ° F - -35° F 96° F - 106° F Source: USDA Soil Survey, Allegan County Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �FIGURE 4.1 KALAMAZOO RIVER BASIN Lake Huron Lake Erie due to adequate slopes and highly permeable soils. Exceptions are the West Shore golf course area in the northwest part of the Village and Tannery Creek. Watercourses in Douglas are shown on Map 4.2. FLOODPLAINS Areas adjacent to creeks, streams and rivers are susceptible to periodic flooding that can cause extensive damage to buildings and can pose a substantial threat to public health and safety. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has mapped the boundaries of the 100 year flood• plain in Douglas. Those boundaries are denoted by the shaded areas on Map 4.3 and is the area that would be inundated during an Intermediate Regional Flood. The Federal Flood Insurance Program has established guidelines for use and development of floodplain areas. Those regulations indicate that development in floodplains should be restricted to open space. recreational or agricultural uses. Installation of public utilities and permanent construction for residential, commercial or industrial uses should not occur in floodplain areas. Several homes along Douglas Bayou and small areas of the boat storage and maintenance facilities north of Blue Star Highway on Kalamazoo Lake are the only developments in the floodplain. There is not much floodplain area within the Village, with the West Shore golf course area and Tannery Creek being the only sizeable floodplain areas. WEn.ANDS There are numerous areas within the Village which could be considered wetlands. Most are contiguous to or hydrologically connected to the Kalamazoo River or Tannery Creek. Some are herbaceous and shrub rangelands. which may or may not be considered wetlands. subject to site characteristics. Wetlands are valuable in storing floodwaters and recharging groundwater. They are also habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals. Because wetlands are a valuable natural resource, they are protected by Public Act 203 of 1979. PA 203 requires that permits be acquired from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) prior to altering or filling a regulated wetland. The Wetland Protection Act defines wetlands as "land charactertzed. by the presence of water at a .frequency and duration s4ffteient to support and that under normal circumstances does support wetland vegetation ar aquatic life and ts commonly referred t.o as a bog, swamp, or marsh and ts conttguou.s to the Great Lakes. an inland lake or pond. or a river or stream." Regulated wetlands include all wetland areas greater than 5 acres or those contiguous to waterways. Wetlands which are hydrologically connected (i.e. via groundwater) to waterways are also regulated. Activities exempted from the provisions of the Act include farming. grazing of an.tmals. farm or stock ponds, lumbering, maintenance of existing nonconforming structures. maintenance or improvement of existing roads and streets within existing rightsof-way, maintenance or operation of pipelines less than six inches in diameter. and maintenance or operation of electric transmission and distribution power lines. Permits will not be issued if a feasible or prudent alternative to developing a wetland exists. An inventory of wetlands based on the DNR's land use\cover inventory arc illustrated on Map 4.4. Table 4.2 shows the land use\cover codes pertaining to regulated wetlands ln the area. Herbaceous and shrub rangelands may not actually meet the statutory definition of wetland, so on site inspections will be necessary Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �4-3 to establish whether a wetland indeed exists in such areas. SOILS A modem soil survey was completed for Allegan County by the USDA Soil Conservation Service in March, 1987. The soil types present in the Village of Douglas are shown on the map and table in Appendix D. Each soil type has unique characteristics which pose opportunities for some uses and limitations for others. The most important characteristics making the soil suitable or unsuitable for development are limitations on dwellings with basements. limitations on septic tank absorption fields, and suitability for farming. Soil limitations have been classified into three categories. which are described below. • Slight: Relatively free of limitations or limitations are easily overcome. • Moderate: Limitations need to be considered. but can be overcome with good management and careful design. • Severe: Limitations are severe enough to make use questionable. Approximately half of the soils in Douglas have severe limitations on residential and urban development. The degree of soil limitations reflects the hardship and expense of developing the land. Basement Limitations Limitations for dwellings with basements are shown on Map 4.5. Some soils impose severe limitations on basements because of excessive TABLE 4.2 LAND COVER CODES FOR PROTECTED WETLANDS IN TRI-COMMUNITY AREA CODE DESCRIPTION 31 32 412 414 421 429 611 612 621 622 Herbaceous Rangeland• Shrub Rangeland* Upland Hardwoods Lowland Hardwoods Upland Conifers Lowland Conifers Wooded Swanps Shrub Swamps Marshland Meadow Mud Flats Source: Michigan DNR Land Cover /Use Classification System • Wetlands are sometimes, but not always associated with these land cover types. wetness, low strength, excessive slope. or shrink-swell potential. These areas are found primarily in the extreme southern part of the Village, near and within the Felkers Subdivision. in the West Shore golf course area. and along Lakeshore Drive between Center St. and Campbell Rd. Most of these areas are considered severe because of excessive wetness. Septic Limitations Most of the soils in Douglas impose severe limitations on septic tank absorption fields. while some impose only slight limitations. The remainder are excavated areas or beaches, which are not rated for septic limitations. The permeability of soils in the Village ranges from very poorly drained to excessively drained, with neither one predominant. Map 4.6 shows the septic limitations for the Village. This map suggests the need for municipal sewers to accommodate new development in some areas not presently served. including parts of the Felkers Subdivision and the southeast part of the Village. The degree of soil limitations reflects the hardship and expense of developing that land for a particular use. Those soils classified as "severe" have varying degrees of development potential based on the nature of the limitation. Map 4. 7 provides this more detailed analysis of severe limitations on septic tank absorption fields. The "severe" soils have been categorized as follows: A Sandy, moderate to rapid permeability B. Rapid permeability, wetness and high water table C. Wet, ponding, heavier (clay) soils. slow permeability D. Very wet soils, organics. wetlands, floodplains, unable to support septic fields. Soils in categories B and D are not able to support septic fields because of extreme wetness. Soils in categoxy A are classified as "severe" by the Soil Conservation Service. however the Allegan County Health Department considers them to have only moderate limitations for septic systems. They can be made suitable for development by increasing the distance between the septic system and the water table. Soils with moderate and slight limitations also appear on Map 4.7. Soils that are most suitable for development. with respect to basement and septic limitations. are shown in Map 4.8. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �4-4 Portions of the Felkers Subdivision in Douglas have been designated by the Allegan County Health Department as unsuitable for new development without sewers.(see Map 4.7a) Standards for Septic Systems The Allegan County Health Department has established certain standards for septic systems. These standards apply somewhat different site characteristics when determining the degree of limitations for septic systems. compared to the Soil Conservation Service approach. which focuses on soil types and slope. Below is a review of these Health Department standards by development type. Single Family Residential Before a permit is considered, there must be at least four feet of dry soils between the bottom of the septic system and the water table. In addition, there must be one foot between the existing ground surface and the seasonal water table. and two feet between the existing ground surface and the clay. Special permits will be considered only if the site size is at least two acres and the septic system is put on top of four feet of sand. Residential sites that fail to meet those requirements, such as the small lots in Felkers Subdivision, will not be issued septic system permits. All Other RestdentiaL Plus Commercial These fall under State guidelines of at least two feet between the existing ground surface and the water table and four feet of dry soil between the bottom of the septic system and the water table. No special permits are issued for these uses. Most of the land along the entire length of Blue Star Highway not served by public utilities does not meet these State standards and has been denied commercial permits. Public sewers will be necessary. Hydric Soils Hydric soils are another limitation on development. They are very poorly drained, saturate easily and retain large quantities of water. If artificially drained, they are often suitable for farmland use. Map 4.9 shows where these soils are. In Douglas, hydric soils are found near watercourses and correspond to present or former wetlands. Residential, commercial and in- dustrial development in areas containing hydric soils should be discouraged. GROUNDWATER Groundwater iS an unseen resource and is therefore particularly vulnerable to mismanagement and contamination. Prior to the 1980's, little was known about groundwater contamination in Michigan, and some startling facts have recently been revealed. The leading causes of groundwater contamination in Michigan are from small businesses and agriculture. More than 50% of all contamination comes from small businesses that use organic solvents, such as benzene, toluene and xylene, and heavy metals, such as lead, chromium, and zinc. The origin of the problem stems from careless storage and handling of hazardous substances. On paved surfaces where hazardous materials are stored, substances can seep through or flow off the edge of the pavement. Materials can get into floor drains which diScharge to soils, wetlands or watercourses. At present, groundwater iS the only tapped source of potable water for the Village of Douglas, City of Saugatuck. and Saugatuck Township. The glacial drift aquifers in the area are especially vulnerable to contamination because of rapid permeability and high water table. In a local example, Douglas' municipal water supply has been contaminated by volatile organic compounds (VOC's), supposedly by an industrial site within the Village. Some areas without municipal sewer and water service are in danger of groundwater contamination due to septic systems, intensive development and a high water table. Protection of groundwater resources is problematic because of dilliculties in locating aquifers. Well depth records indicate the relative location of groundwater at particular points. According to well logs from Michigan Groundwater Suivey (MGS) data, well depths in and around Douglas range from 33 ft. to 240 ft. Soils most vulnerable to groundwater contamination are found on Map 4.10. SPECIAL FEATURES Lake Michigan Shoreline and Beaches The Lake Michigan shoreline in Douglas is very susceptible to wind and water erosion during storms and high lake levels due to resultant wave action. The current closing of Lakeshore Drive in Douglas and Saugatuck Township due Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �4-15 to bluff erosion is a graphic example of the power of wave action. These natural processes pose hazards to public health and safety. The Shorelands Protection Act of 1970 was enacted to identify areas where hazards exist by designating them and by passage of measures to IIlinim1ze losses resulting from natural forces of erosion. High risk erosion areas are defined as areas of the shore along which bluilline recession has proceeded at a long term average of 1 foot or more per year. The entire Lake Michigan shoreline in Douglas has been designated as a high risk erosion area, with some portions eroding at a rate of 1.6 feet per year. Within the designated area, shown on Map 4.11, alteration of the soil, natural drainage, vegetation, fish or wildlife habitat, and any placement of permanent structures, requires a DNR review and permit. unless the local unit of government has an approved high risk erosion area ordinance, which Douglas does not. Sand Dunes Areas needing special attention in such standards are vegetation, drainage and erosion protection. WOODLANDS The wooded areas of Douglas are a mixture of hardwoods and conifers. Upland hardwoods are scattered throughout the Village, with some large patches near Lake Michigan. Conifers are only found in small patches in the extreme southern part of the Village. Woodlands are shown on Map 4.13 Mature trees, represent a valuable resource in maintaining the aesthetic character of the Village, not to mention their overall importance to wildlife and the natural environment. In particular, the wooded areas along the rivers and streams are especially important. In some areas along I-196, especially in the southern part of the Village, trees buffer the freeway from surrounding land uses. They should be managed to insure their long term existence. The sand dunes along Lake Michigan in the extreme northwest comer of the Village represent a unique and fragile physiographic formation and ecosystem that is very susceptible to wind and water erosion, and destruction due to careless use or development. The dune area which is in the Village, the City of Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township has been identified by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNRJ as a critical dune area, subject to protection under the Michigan Sand Dune Protection and Management Act, PA 222 of 1976. The designated critical dune area is shown in the shaded region of Map 4.12. Recent legislation (PA 147 & 148 of 1989) provides for additional protection of critical dune areas. Under these Acts, all proposed commercial or industrial uses, multifamily uses of more than 3 acres, and any use which the local planning commission or the DNR determines would damage or destroy features of archaeological or historical signiflcance must ultimately be approved by the State. Single family residential development is to be regulated at the local level. The law prohibits surface drilling operations that explore for or produce hydrocarbons or natural brine as well as mining activities (except in the case of pemut renewals). The legislation also imposes certain standards on construction and site design in critical dune areas. Site design and construction standards for sand dunes should be enhanced to prevent further deterioration of this fragile environment. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �N A ' : _.;I, .t ' -- I :'/, -~ - ~ ,'I -- ~- ' .,, :· ,. ,, ~ --------------✓';:. , - ---- ----- =---==-- / -- ,- __,,-- -~ - -==:-:::=,:~ ~ ~ I - ------ ...___ - I - --:-"'\--.., --------c!3 ~ ~ --;·· ~ --------------- _./ .,,,------------ C ~ c:::::::) - ·..., --~ - ~ _____ __. __3-.,-....,---- _,, - ' - ~ ~ ---- ' -~,. --- -~~---"'IT1 ----- -- .::--- _J: -- _/ ✓----~ :::::::::=~....,.__~- . j·~ ------ :;:;. - --- ;'~~~ ----- ;J_ j ~\ ,,,_,_ '~'' 0 -------Douglas MAP4.1 TOPOGRAPHY Contour interval is ten feet Darker lines are 50 foot contours 0 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft August 1989 DATA SOURCE: USGS Quadrangle Maps Planning & Zoning Cenler Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A CAMPBEL:..... RD . ..... _. ,:_:::.:;.:7············-······-·········-················· I I I , / / C E NT ER ~.J:·:····•........../ i DOUGLAS --------- .•·· .............. - r== 0 I >-Cl:'. ; 'r{ I I Cl:'. w U... I: 'Ii I I I • , I , • 1.:30THI ~.,..............\ ..... r \~ ·-....." ., . L. ..........i' ~If' JJ1 ij fTl I I v, I . I ,/( ~ ' . 1 \~ 0 r·····--···1 _] i '··························i fTl . ....____,__, 12 9 T H -I -I I 'I (/) .\ -I / /1 I Douglas MAP4.2 WATERCOURSES 0 Lakes, rivers and streams [2] Drains and intermittent streams 0 DATA SOURCE: MDNR m (Ji CJ) .·········•...... ~ t;V~~-\ l ,, August 1989 AVE . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ CJ) -.. J. . .•······,'//.> :·:.: 1~ 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing. Ml �N A ,.._.._. CAMPBELL 1600 0 RO. - 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft I CENTER /1 IV) >-0:'. I O:'. w L... ~ 1 .. 196 , .)- ' ---------'1-.,, " ' · ~ I 31 , ~ 12 9 T H \ \J) , I 0 I XI I AV!::. Ol Ol --i I 1 rr1 ,.✓:;/ l/l --i // MAP 4.3 FLOODPLAINS Douglas 100 Year Flood Area 500 Year Flood Area August 1989 DATA SOURCE:MDNR Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml I Ol U1 --i I l/l --i �N A -------i , I 0 L--,--- I 800 1600 2400 '--, I I Scale 1" = 1748 ft I I I \ I I I I I I _j r - -,,----.. . __--------1___, --1 ~ I / 1 ' .~ I , -=:::,, I \ I - , , .:e - •• -··::::r I / ' I ~I ;: l\ ..__. •:!Blfflftih...,' I ,- -<-.____, I , l__, , ~ l r - - -_,__________,~· I • ~ -~ MAP 4.4 WETLANDS • ■ ■ II Lowland Hardwood Lowland Conifer Wooded Swamp August 1989 II ■ ■ DATA SOURCE: MDNR Douglas Shrub Swamp II Marshland Meadow & Mud Flats Herbaceous Rangeland Shrub Rangeland Planning & Zoning Cent&r Inc:, Lansing, Ml �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft ,I/IC : ·: : j::/ r C. . §. a : t::, ,' i:::-:::,, . •.· ..:" :......... .· . . ..... . .... .. ,.··-- •:::::: ::: :::; ;:::: . •. . . ' •·• -·•·• ! :: : : '. ~ : i ~ i i. ... .. ... ! " . ·: : :::: ·· · • MAP 4.5 BASEMENT LIMITATIONS 1111 Severe ■ Excavated flIIIIl Moderate ~ Wetland Soils Q Slight ~ Sand Dunes August 1989 DATA SOURCE: USDA Soil Survey, Allegan County: Douglas Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft MAP 4.6 SEPTIC LIMITATIONS Ill Severe mm Moderate ~ Wetland Soils CJ Slight ~ Sand Dunes August 1989 Douglas Excavated DATA SOURCE: USDA Soil Survey, Allegan County: Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml ��----------------------,- ·-----i' : I I I ! I r , b _... '' / I ''I I I/ I i __ ' - : ==I T T T - - -- - - --- - -- ! 8 ~ 20 -·I! o'-,/ l! rir I - t ~ 1 - ---- ·---------------------- i------- I I! l ''D I ...... ... t 2S I I I I II -~\~ I I 1 ' II "'·'('s 311 "= . -- I I I I I I I I ~ - ,::::-:.:~.:--.. . W:.IUll m =.r:r1::o W.M.lll MAP 4.7 A ONSITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT LIMITATIONS Douglas 38 �N A ,_____ 0 800 9 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft MAP 4.8 MOST SUITABLE SOILS Ill Soils Most Suitable For Development ■ Excavated Areas DATA SOURCE: USDA SoU Survey, Allegan County Douglas Planning & Zoning Cent&r Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft MAP 4.9 HYDRIC SOILS lil Hydric Soils ~ Wetland Soils August 1989 DATA SOURCE: USDA Soil Survey, Allegan County Douglas Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml ��N A CAMPBELL RD. 0 800 1600 2400 - / - - -?cale 1" = 1748 ft /' ST. ·· ' I \ ft/l / I I / ,~- - - ~ 1 >- --~/ 0:: I -- I a:: w Li. , ,. 130TH AVE. ,c r, I .... _ I ..) I ......... .,. .'} '..., .-- -7 --------~~. __, I ---.., ._J__, ~ // ' ' 196 31 -,________,..._,. 129TH AVE. - - - - - - - - - - - - - . · 0) 0) --! I t/l --! MAP 4.11 HIGH RISK EROSION AREAS Accretion Area Douglas Numbers indicate accretion/recession rate in feet per year Recession Area August 1989 DATA SOURCE: MDNR Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �N KALAMAZOO ,..___ LAKE 0 A 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 tt CENTER ST. DOUGLAS BA YOU - I----lj) ~-,.-/ >-er -- tr w LL 130TH ~ AVE.c. _ _ _J . _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _- , - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _ - _ _ . . - - : - - - - - - - - - . 729TH AVE. I)) m -! I)) Ul -! ~ I t/) 0 JJ -! Ul -1 -- MAP4.12 CRITICALDUNEAREAS fgj Douglas Critical Dune Areas Auggst 1989 DATA SOURCE: MDNR Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale, .. = 1748 ft .._______ /1/ ,,,.,~,,,,.,..,. ,, ,.,,., n ,,.,.,.,,,,;-,; .,.,..,.,..,.,,.,.,., ,::i~~~~~~H~~H~i~H~i~~ ,~;~:gfigg~f1!Hi!~ffigg; MAP4.13 WOODLANDS II II § § Upland Conifer Upland Hardwood Wooded Swamp Lowland Conifer Shrub Swamp DATA SOURCE: MONA -c::cc::.::.:::::c-;;;;:.;;;;;;.~, i;;;;;;;;;;;; Douglas Lowland Hardwood August 1989 t._i~i:;::ill" .,.,,-,,,.,.,,,,,,..,.,,,,.n,,,,,.,.,,.,.,,.,._,,.,,,.,..,.,. ,,.;,.,.,,.,.,,.,.,.,,.,.,,,.,.,.,.,.,,.,,,,,,,,,.,,,,.,.,., Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �5-1 Chapter5 EXISTING LAND COVER AND USE LAND USE/COVER DATA SOURCES RESIDENTIAL Land cover and use refers to an inventory of existing vegetation, natural features, and land use over the entire Village (see Map 5.1). This data was obtained in computerized form from the Michigan Resource Inventory System (MIRIS) database, which is maintained by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The data came from photo interpretations of aerial infrared photos by trained interpreters at the West Michigan Regional Planning Commission. The DNR will update this data every 5 years. Land cover and use categories included in the data are explained on the legend to Map 5.1. The wetlands and woodlands maps in Chapter 4 were also derived from this data. MIRIS data was supplemented by a thorough land use inventory of Douglas, conducted in the summer of 1988. The inventory was based on ownership parcels and conducted both on foot and through a "windshield survey". The existing use of every parcel was recorded and evaluated in combination with low-level aerial imagery available from the Allegan County Equalization Department and the MIRIS land cover /use map to prepare the existing (parcelbased) land use map (see Map 5. 2). The following description is based on these maps and data sources and the USDA Soil Smvey of Allegan County. Land use by category is shown in Table 5.1. This infonnatlon was derived from the aforementioned data sources and areas were calculated using CMAP computer mapping software. The predominant land use in Douglas is single family residential. This is followed by golf courses. commercial, and boat service and storage, respectively. Vacant land comprises forty five percent of the total land area (street ROW's excluded) of the Village. Following are brief geographic descriptions of existing land use. These descriptions are based on the planning/neighborhood areas depicted on Map 5.3. The majority of residential development in Douglas is clustered in the Village Center area and along the Lake Michigan shore. Most resort and seasonal residential development is located along Lake Michigan. Single family structures are the predominant residential type. Two mobile home parks are located in the southern part of the Village near the intersection of Blue Star Highway and 130th Avenue. There are several multiple family structures within the Village. Among these are an apartment building at the corner of Ellis and Center Streets, condominiums between Ferry Street and Kalamazoo Lake, and apartments in the block between Fremont and Center Streets west of Blue Star Highway. Several large older homes have been converted to two or three units or bed and breakfast establishments. There are currently three bed and breakfasts in the Village. TABLE 5.1 EXISTING LAND USE IAND USE Residential single-family multi-family mobile home Commercial Industrial Institutional Agricultural Parks Golf Courses Boat Storage & Service Kalamazoo River Wetland Streets & Roads Vacant TOTAL ACRES 218 29 18 44 32 28 24 23 130 34 34 155 fil.6 1284 % 1IAMSROW- 16.98% 2.26 1.40 3.43 2.49 2.18 1.87 1.79 10.12 2.65 2.65 12.07 1:U..N 100.080/4 • % of total land area mtnus street ROWs Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �5-2 Village Center Approximately 25 blocks of long-established neighborhoods surround the original center of the Village. These consist primarily of older homes with some homes less than 30 years old scattered throughout. The condition of homes 1n this area varies widely, with some structures recently improved and others lacking maintenance over a long a period of time. Although dilapidated houses are relatively few in number. they have a significant negative impact on aesthetics and property values in the Village Center area. Accessory buildings such as separate garages or sheds are prevalent on residential properties in the Village Center area. and many of these are poorly maintained as well as highly visible. One home on north Water Street was built in the floodplain, too close to the waterfront. It is vacant and not maintained, and detracts from the aesthetic quality of the waterfront. The tree lined streets, relatively large lots and large wood frame homes give this part of the Village a classic charm. Lakeshore Area The Lake Michigan shore is lined with both large and small single family homes. many of them seasonal dwellings along Lakeshore Drive. The condition of structures in this area is fairly consistent from house to house. with most of them being in good to excellent condition. The lakeshore area is characterized by scenic vistas of the lake, although sand dunes and numerous structures obstruct the view of the lake while travelling north from Center Street. Large trees line the road and many homes are on wooded lots. A bed and breakfast establishment is also located in this area. Campbell Road & West Center Street The residential area along Campbell Road in both Douglas and Saugatuck includes a mix of newer and older homes. To the south of this area is the West Shore golf course, which contributes to a rural setting, with its large trees and open space. There is also some vacant land outside of the golf course which is in the floodplain and thus should not be developed. Felkers subdivision south of West Center St. is a partially completed residential subdivision on an area of poor soils where new homes will have to be connected to the sewer system in order to be permitted. Scattered Residential In the southern part of the Village along 130th. Avenue. and along Ferry Street between Center Street and 130th. Avenue, residential development is scattered along the road with varying lot and structure sizes. Ferry Street is lightly travelled and residences are minimally affected by vehicle traffic. Commercial uses adjacent to the residential areas are not buffered and also impact upon adjoining residential uses. In addition to single family homes. there are two mobile home parks located next to each other south of 130th. Avenue and east of Blue Star Highway. Harbours Apartments are located south of 130th. Avenue, between Water and Union Streets. There are also residences along south Water Street, from east 130th. Avenue to South Street. This area is surrounded by undeveloped land, including an orchard, which serves to give it a rural character. Several residences are located on the Kalamazoo River between Schultz Park and Water Street as well. Condominiums Three major condominium developments have occurred in Douglas within the last five years. The Amity condominiums are located north of 130th. Avenue between Water Street and Blue Star Highway. The Mariners Cove condominiums are located adjacent to the boat docks on Kalamazoo Lake near Saugatuck. Tower Harbour condominiums are located along Ferry Street directly south of Mariners Cove. COMMERCIAL The major commercial areas in Douglas are Blue Star Highway from the Kalamazoo River bridge to 130th. Avenue, and in the Village Center. Boat storage and repair facilities represent a different type of commercial use and are found mostly in areas near the waterfront. Blue Star Highway The commercial area along Blue Star Highway is concentrated from Chestnut to 130th and represents a form of unplanned commercial strip development. Lots were developed independently at widely varying points in time without any consideration for safe and functional design vis a vis adjoining parcels. Commercial strips often have inconsistent setbacks, an excessive number of driveways, excessive signs, poorly controlled ingress and egress and are poorly designed with respect to the natural en- Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan ��5-4 East of the bridge down to where Tannery Creek enters the Douglas Bayou is characterized by residential development and some boat slips. The balance of the shoreline in Douglas is largely wetland to Schultz Park with a few single family homes. HISTORIC & ARCHAEOLOGICAL FEA1URES Some archaeological sites historic sites can be found in Douglas. Historic and archaeological sites are designated by the Michigan Bureau of History. Historic Buildings and Sites The Michigan State Register of Historic Sites was established in 1955 to provide official recognition for historic resources in Michigan. Designated historic sites have unique historic, architectural, archaeological, engineering, or cultural significance. There are three State historic sites in Douglas, which are listed on Table 5.2. State historic site designation does not include any financial or tax benefits. nor does it impose any restrictions upon the owner of the property, unlike similar designations under federal law. TABLE 5.2 STATE WSTORIC SITES DESCRIPI10N . LOCATION Douirlas: Dutcher Lodlle # 193 Hall Asa Goodrich House Sarah Kirbv House 86 Center St. 112 Center St. 294 W. Center St. Source: Michigan Bureau of History Archaeological Sites Archaeological sites are of particular scientific value to the fields of anthropology. ecology.and biology and may have hlStoric or ethnic signiftcance as well. There are 120 atchaeologlcal sites scattered throughout Saugatuck Township, Saugatuck and Douglas, mostly related to Ottawa and Potawatomi cultures. Their exact Iocattonsbave not beendiSclosedbythe Bureau of History .. t,o protect them from~ tatfon. ~ cil F ~; ~ . -.er ~tllatthctr History reviews these projects to assess their impact on archaeological sites. The Bureau of History also recommends that those proposing development projects in Douglas contact the State Archaeologist to determine if the project may affect a lmown archaeological site. This is particularly critical given the existence of Indian Burial sites fn the area. If an important archaeological site will be affected, archaeologists will negotiate a voluntary agreement to preserve those artifacts. The Bureau of History serves in an advisory capacity and has no legal authority to restrict development rights. �Douglas MAP 5.1 LAND USE/COVER WATER URBAN 113 Single Family 115 Mobile Home 124 Neighborhood Business ••• ••• ••• 126 Other Institutional 193 Outdoor Recreation □ 52 Lakes ~ ~ ~ 611 Wooded Swamps IlIIIll FARMLAND WETLAND 612 Shrub Swamps 621 Marshland Meadow 622 Mud Flats BEACH 21 Cropland 72 Beach At Riverbank 22 Orchards 73 Dunes RANGELAND II Ill 31 Herbaceous Rangeland 32 Shrub Rangeland WOODLAND ~ 412} 414}Broadleaf II 421} 429}Conifers August 1989 DATA SOURCE: MDNR Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A Village of Douglas LAND USE/COVER 0 800 1600 Scale 1" = 1748 ft 2400 �MAP 5.2 EXISTING LAND USE ~ Single Family Residential I] Mulltiple Family Residential ~ ~ ~j~~: nm Douglas Agricultural - Orchard Recreational [fflffl Junkyard ■ Commercial ~ Mobile Home Park il!IIII Boat Storage/Marina [II Vacant HH Industrial III]]] Wetland !Im! Institutional D Water Residential/Commercial ___ .__ Agricultural ~~~~ August 1989 SOURCE: PZC Land Use Survey Planning & Zoning Center, Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A ,-,.-.0 700 1400 Village of Douglas EXISTING LAND USE 2100 Scale 1" = 1438' ... • �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft lSUfOYIL PS Douglas MAP5.3 PLANNING AREAS ~ Lakeshore 9 Waterfront ■ II Campbell & West Center ~ Ferry & W. Of Blue Star ~· Village Center Residential Bluestar Industrial ~ East 130th ■ Blue Star Commercial August 1989 a DATA SOURCE; Douglas PlaMing Commisssion Village Center Commercial Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml ~ �6-1 Chapter6 PUBLIC FACILITIES AND SERVICES NON-PARK PUBUC FACIUTIES A listing of all non-park public facilities in the Village ofDouglas is found on Table 6.1. This includes police and fire stations, municipal government offices, vacant lands and other public facilities (see Map 6.1). Table 6. la lists planned acquisitions and improvements to non-park public facilities. UTILITIES Sewer and Water The Saugatuck-Douglas area sewer and water systems are managed by the Kalamazoo Lake Sewer and Water Authortty, which is responsible for operation and maintenance and provides water production and wastewater treatment. Each participating community is responsible for providing and financing their own infrastructure. The KLSWA performs the construction work or contracts it out. The service areas for the sewer and water systems, shown on maps 6.2 and 6.3, extend only for very short distances into Saugatuck Township. Most of the developed part of the Village is served by both water and sewer, and the system is designed to accommodate expansion and addition of new lines. Numerous engineering studies have been conducted which discuss vartous alternatives for improvement of utilities. These include using Lake Michigan for the municipal water supply and extending public utilities into the Township. Proposals must take into consideration the permanent population. seasonal population, number of daily visitors, and future industrial flow. Peak periods for public utilities in the area are more pronounced than in typical communities due to the relatively high seasonal and daily visitor population. Water System The reliability of the water system depends on water supply sufficient to meet peak demands, storage capacity to provide fire flows for sufficient duration, adequate water pressure and distribution system loops. The existing system is deficient with respect to meeting peak demands. The water is not treated, except for chlortnation and iron sequestertng. Parts of the current water system date back to 1907 in Saugatuck, and to 1914 in Douglas. In addition. the water mains are old, small and substandard, leaks are a problem on older service lines and there may be some unmetered taps. Growth is restricted in areas not serviced by the system and is limited overall at present because of insufficient pumping capacity. The existing water system also has many dead end lines, which are susceptible to water discoloration and development of tastes and odors due to stagnation. The best arrangement for water mains is the gridiron system, where all primary and secondary feeders are looped and interconnected, and the small distribution mains tie to each loop to form a complete grid. If an adequate number of valves are inserted, only a small 1 block area will be affected in the event of a break. A primary feeder from the Saugatuck wells to the system's primary 12" feeder loop has been installed, and all of the primary 12" feeder loop has been completed, including two liver crossings. In 1984 and 1985, a one million gallon above ground storage tank was constructed. which allowed Saugatuck and Douglas to meet normal and fire protection demands. If Saugatuck Township is included in the system, the storage tank is adequate for fire protection for the near future. but additional capacity is needed if service were extended to the southern portions of the Township. Recent chemical contamination of the Douglas municipal water supply has led to an overburdening of the City of Saugatuck water system, which is presently serving the entire network and is working at full capacity; 24 hours per day durtng peak months. This has led to restrtctions on non-essential uses such as lawn sprinkling. car and boat washing, and has reduced the minimum reserve needed for fire protection (600,000 gallons) down to 2/3 of the needed amount. A moratorium has been imposed on new development other than one or two family dwellings. The pumping capacity of both wells has dropped due to depletion (drawdown) of groundwater. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �6-2 TABLE 6.1 (NON-PARK) PUBLIC PROPERTY & PUBLIC FACILITJES INVENTORY VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS NAME LOCATION USE Gravel storCorner Ferry & Cen- age ter Library Mixer& Library (Saugatuck- Center Sts. Douglas) Office, fire Spring & Fire barn Center Sts. barn Vacant lot DPWbarn Water& Center Sts. DPWbarn Two pump houses & pumps Barn (launch ramp curently closed) SIZE* CONDillON VALUE 28,000 sq. ft. Dry (1/2 acre+) $35,000 4327 sq.ft. Good (1 lot-8400 SQ.ft.) 2560 sq.ft. Good (1/4 acre10,000 Sa.ft.) 2432 sq.ft. Poor (1 3/4 acres80,000 sq.ft.) $96,000 Well housing combined bldgs=360 sq.ft. (land includes DPWbarn) 66 sq.ft. None wide Good $100,000 Land is valuable. river frontage & walk be converted to park and/or marina $26,000 Gerber, Varied South. Ferrnont. Randolph, Soencer • Land = acres or square feet (Building= square feet/acres) 1/2 vacant street ends on K. River &Lake TABLE 6.lA PLANNED ACQUISITIONS/IMPROVEMENTS TO PUBLIC FACILITJES VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS NAME WCATION USE Allegan County Rd. Commission barn Douglas Masonic Lodge 130th & Water Sts. DPW barn/Interurban facilitv Village & Public Hall Union & Center Sts. SIZE* CONDillON ACQUISITION COST 3700 sq.ft. Fair $55,000(2.2 acres) total less interurban share 7,000 sq.ft. Poor Free (lease (8,400 sq.ft .• exchange 1 lot) with Masonic) Land = square feet (Building = square feet/ acres) Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan FINANCING SOURCE $55.000/land contract With F.M.B. $200.000/loc al fund raisers. histortcal monies if available �6-3 Communications from the Michigan Department of Public Health have demanded that substantial progress be made towards a solution to the water supply problem in the near future. The Health Department has also questioned the usefulness and reliability of both Douglas wells because well # 1. which is out of use. 1s contaminated. and well #2, which is used for emergency purposes only, may become contaminated through further use. As a result. alternatives for additional water sources are currently under review, With Lake Michigan and the City of Holland water system being considered the most viable options. Engineering studies have indicated a cost of nearly $4.5 million for construction of a Lake Michigan water treatment facility which would provide a clean and abundant source of water. A large service area, formed by including large portions of Saugatuck Township, would reduce the per capita cost burden on users. This facility would be capable of pumping 3 million gallons per day, which could serve the needs of all three communities well into the future. This, combined with a desire to retain local control over the water system, makes using Lake Michigan water the favored alternative. The treatment facility was designed for a twenty year planning period through 1998, based on a population tributary of 7,695 and a wastewater flow of 0. 75 million gallons per day (MGD). The treatment facility is rated at 0.8 million gallons per day by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR). The facility was designed for a peak flow of 2 MGD. The present average flow is 0.4 MGD. A larger flow can be accommodated by increasing hours of operation, provided that the lagoons can treat the sewage well enough. An engineering study in 1987 determined that August (maximum day was Aug. 14) is the month of peak flow for wastewater, with 0.598 MGD. Based on the study, the treatment facility operated at 75% of flow capacity, 55% of BOD capacity, and 3()(% of suspended solids capacity. Existing effluent quality and treatment efficiency was found to be excellent. Increasing the rated capacity of the facility to 1.2 MOD with two aerated lagoons would accommodate all three jurisdictions through 2008 and possibly beyond. Pursuing this option would require detailed preparation of data accompanied by a formal request to the DNR from the KLSWA Further capacity could be obtained by adding another aerated lagoon, estimated to cost $900,000 in 1987. Sewer System Wastewater treatment is provided ata treatment plant located in Section 10 of Saugatuck Township. The facility was constructed by the City of Saugatuck and the Village of Douglas in 1980. The treatment system provides biological and clarification processes for the reduction of BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) and suspended solids. including chemical precipitation for the reduction of phosphorus from fertilizers and detergents. The plant has two aerated lagoons and was designed for incremental addition of lagoons to accommodate increased wastewater flow. The facility was designed for heavier BOD loading than other facilities its size, in order to accommodate a pie factory, and thus may not need more capacity of that type for many years. The discharge is to the Kalamazoo River on the north side of Saugatuck. The sewer system in Douglas was built entirely since 1978. Douglas and Saugatuck merged their facilities in the late 1970's to form the KLSWA The capacity of the sewer system is sufficient to meet the needs of Saugatuck and Douglas until approximately 2008. The capacity of the wastewater treatment facility would have to re-rated to 1.2 MGD for the Township to use the system until 2008. Storm Sewers There are very few mapped stormwater drains in Douglas. Drainage has not been a significant problem in most developed areas because of sandy, high permeability soils and lack of large paved areas. Efforts are currently underway to improve stomiwater drainage. County Drains There are three County drain districts which are partially located within Douglas. These include the Herring, Jager Crane. and Warnock drains. All are located in the extreme southern part of the Village Gas, Electric and Telephone There are no major gas or oil pipelines in Douglas. Gas service is provided by Michigan Gas Utilities Company and approximate locations of gas mains are shown on Map 6.4. Electricity in the Village iS provided by Consumers Power Company. Telephone service is provided by General Telephone and Electric Co. (GTE). Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �6-4 TRANSPORTATION Transportation facilities within the area include streets and roads and a public transportation system (Interurban). Douglas is served by a major Interstate highway (I-196). which runs along the eastern edge of the Village, and by a State highway (M-89). located three miles to the south in Saugatuck Township. Blue Star Highway, part of the Great Lakes Circle Tour, is the other major highway serving the area. The nearest railroad is the Chesapeake and Ohio RR. which runs north and south one mile east of the Township boundary. Kent County International Airport is within 50 miles and is served by 3 major airlines, with 126 flights per day. The area is also served by Greyhound Bus Lines. Transportation facilities are important in stimulating growth for Douglas and its location is an asset for attracting further economic and industrial development. Streets and Roads Streets and roads are classified according to the amount of traffic they carry and the nature of the traffic. Four common categories are local streets, collectors, local arterials. and regional arterials. Local streets typically provide access to residences, with speeds from 20 to 25 mph (Union St.). Collectors connect local streets to arterials and speeds average 25-35 mph. (Center St.). Local arterials facilitate larger volumes of traffic which originates and terminates within the area, with a trip length of ten miles or less and an average speed of 35-45 mph. (Blue Star Hwy.). Regional arterials are typically used for high speed through traffic, and access to the roadway is usually 11rnited (1-196). Locations of collectors, local arterials and regional arterials are shown in Map 6.5. Each class of street has an important function in maintaining the efficient flow of traffic and it is essential that adequate transportation facilities exist or can be efficiently provided. Accurate and up-to-date traffic counts are needed in order to make some decisions pertaining to priorities for road improvements, monitoring of flows, evaluating impacts of proposed new development, and projecting future traffic conditions. Table 6.2 shows what very limited Information is presently available from the County Road Commission. PA 51 of 1951 provides for the classlftcatlon of all publJc roads, streets and highways for the purpose of managtng the motorvehicle htghway fund. The two classiflcations which pertain to the Village of Douglas are ·Major Street" and "Local Street". These roadways are shown in Map 6.6. Funding is provided to cities and villages for street maintenance and construction based on the number of miles of streets by class. within each community. Douglas has 4.34 miles of Major Roads and 10.92 miles of Local Roads under Act 51 designation. Lakeshore Drive Lakeshore Drive provides a scenic link between areas along the Lake Michigan coast. High water levels on the Great Lakes, combined with storms, resulted in powerful wave action which undermined sand and clay bluffs along the shore, causing them to collapse. Because of its close proximity to these bluffs, the road has washed out in two places, one in section 20 which is impassable, and one south of Douglas which has only one lane passable. School buses are not allowed to travel on some segments of the road because of poor and unsafe conditions. The Allegan County Road Commission allocated $260,000 to test the effects of concrete for accretion technology along the shoreline. The erosion barrier was installed in two locations and is having a minimal effect on the shoreline. Cost estimates for rebuilding Lakeshore Drive are at approximately $3.8 million (1988). This would involve relocation of portions of the road and implementation of erosion control measures. TABLE 6.2 EXISTING TRAFFIC COUNTS DATE LOCATION 4L3L78 Blue Star & 64th 130thE &Wof Blue Star Blue Star & 129th 1959 & 1968 (same count) July 1987 (2 different days) 1969 1982 July 1987 July 1987 Old Allegan, east of Blue Star 130th & 70th, east of Lakeshore Dr. North 135th at Blue Star (northboundl 129th at Blue Star [northbound) October 1985 Center at Blue star VOWME 5,319 368 10,575 81256 336 285 7,018 6,192 1~861 �Blue Star Highway Blue Star Highway serves as a local arterial. Numerous problems inhibit it from performing that function effectively. Access to commercial and industrial establishments along arterial roads should be controlled by curbing. At present. there is virtually no controlled access in these areas on Blue Star Highway. and wide driveways and open shoulders lead to an elevated risk of accidents. There are no designated pedestrian traffic areas or bike paths (except from the bridge to Center St.). causing pedestrians to use the shoulder, unsafely. The roadway needs to have more than two lanes (at least from Center to 130th) or clearly delineated deceleration and right tum lanes. The shoulders are paved in places and these are often mistaken for actual lanes, which poses a safety hazard and results in the paVing deteriorating rapidly since the foundation for heavy use is not in place. There is no cooperative maintenance or planning arrangement among the Village, Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township for Blue Star Highway and the County Road Commission, yet the roadway needs repairs and resurfacing. Very little useable traffic count information is available, except for the intersection with Center Street, making it difficult to assess where needs are greatest so that improvements can be prioritized. Traffic may be higher in some segments than in others, indicating which speed limits and whether other traffic control measures are necessary. The entrance into Douglas from south Blue Star Highway does not cause visitors to have a positive first impression of the community. Over 60% of people responding to the 1988 Public Opinion Survey noted that the appearance of the highway needed improvement. Nearly 76% of Village respondents indicated that the Highway needs improvements in better lane striping, resurfacing, speed limits, traffic flow and safety, and bike paths. Intentrban The Interurban is the area's public transportation system and is funded in part by a 1 mill assessment. The service was started in May 1980 as a two year experimental project and was initially funded at 1OOo/4 by the State. Following the experimental period. some of the cost burden was borne by the tri-communities through the 1 mill assessment. The system has four buses and in 1988 there were approximately 37.000 riders. A new maintenance facility in Douglas, to be completed in the spring of 1990, is being constructed at a cost of $211,000 entirely with state and federal funds. It is possible that the Interurban could be used to shuttle people to Saugatuck from remote parking facilitates and ease the parking burden there. The Interurban is governed by a board consisting of members from all three communities. POIJCE, FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES Police The Village maintains its own police department, which is housed adjacent to the Saugatuck Township hall on Spring Street. The department has one patrol car and three full time police officers. There are also three officers on reserve. The police department plans to have two patrol cars by the summer of 1990. Police protection for the Village of Douglas is also provided by the Allegan County Sheriff Department and the Michigan State Police. The State Police maintains the Saugatuck Team post north of the Township on 138th Avenue in Laketown Township. The facility has one lieutenant, one sergeant, seven troopers and eight patrol cars. The Allegan County Sheriff Department operates a satellite post in Fennville. Fire Saugatuck is included in the Saugatuck Fire District. This district is managed by a five member Fire Authority. Saugatuck, Douglas and Saugatuck Township each appoint one person to the board. These three then appoint two other people from the area at large, subject to approval by the three communities involved. The Saugatuck Fire District has 35 volunteer personnel, including the fire chief. There are two fire stations, one located in downtown Douglas (4 7 W. Center) and another in Saugatuck Township near the intersection of Blue Star Highway and 134th Avenue. The latter is a new building designed to house six vehicles. offices and a meeting room with 9,600 square feet. It is located adjacent to the existing Maple Street facility. The Fire District maintains eight vehicles and one vessel: • 1975 Chevy Pumper • 1981 lntemational Pumper • 1968 International Pumper • 1959 Ford Pumper • 1949 Seagrave Aerial • 1977 GMC Step Van Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �6-6 • 1985 FWD Tanker • 1985 Karavan Trailer • Boston Whaler boat with pump Emergency Services Ambulance services are provided by the Fennville Fire District and by Mercy Hospital in Grand Rapids. dispatched from Holland. The Saugatuck Fire District maintains a first responder unit with 11 volunteers because of the distance from ambulance services. The first responder unit appears to average about 10 calls per month. TABLE6.3 TONS GENERATED PER DAY BYLAND USE SOURCE Residential Commercial Industrial Other Not Collected NEfTOTAL QUANTI1Y (PER DAY) 6.5 2.8 1.8 0.7 -0.5 11.3 Source: Allegan County Solid Waste Plan SCHOOLS Douglas is served by the Saugatuck school district. The school system operates two facilities. Douglas Elementary School accommodates grades K through 6, and Saugatuck High School accommodates grades 7 through 12. In addition to being used for educational purposes, the schools also have indoor and outdoor recreation facilities. Enrollment is approximately 550 students. • OTHER COMMUNITY FACILITlES There is more than 37 acres of public land in Douglas, most of which is parks (see Chapter 7). Other publicly owned facilities are listed in table 6.1. SOLID WAS'IE DISPOSAL PA 641 of 1978 requires that every county prepare both a short term (5 year) and long term (20 years) solid waste management plan. The plan must be approved by the County Planning Committee, the County Board of Commissioners and by at least 2/3 of the municipalities in the county. The Allegan County Solid Waste Plan dates from 1983 and covers a twenty year planning period. It is presently being updated. The County generates about 220 tons per day of solid waste and has to rely on landfills out-side of Allegan County. Solid waste removal in Douglas is handled entirely by private haulers. The waste stream from the County, and thus from the Village, is expected to increase due to population and tourist increases brought about by the area·s shoreline, natural attractions. and proximity to Grand Rapids. The Saugatuck area is defined in the Solid Waste Plan and encompasses Saugatuck Township, Saugatuck and Douglas, as well as small TABLE 6.4 SOLID WASTE COMPOSITION 1YPE POTSW• Percentage(%) 44.8 9.2 Combustible Wastes Paper Plastics Wood Yard Wastes Textiles Food Wastes Rubber Misc. Organics 3.5 4.1 4.2 11.5 2.2 3.0 82.5 TITTALS Noncombustible Wastes Glass Ferrous Aluminum Other nonFerrous Misc. Inorganics TITTALS 5.3 6.6 0.8 0.5 4.3 17.5 * Proportion of Total Solid Waste Source: Allegan County Solid Waste Plan TABLE 6.7 PER CAPITA WASTE GENERATED USE Residential Commercial Industrial Average Overall QPE • (LBS. PER DAY) 2.9 5.75 10.6 4.7 • Quantity Per Employee Source; Allegan County Solid Waste Plan Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �6-7 portions of the adjoining communities. The Saugatuck area currently generates 11.3 tons of solid waste per day. In some outlying rural areas. 5-100;6 of the residential waste generated is disposed of or recycled on site. In urban areas. approximately 5% of residential waste is being recycled or scattered by individual efforts. The contributors to the solid waste stream by land use are shown in Table 6.3. Table 6.4 shows the results of a study conducted by the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments (NEMCOG) in the early 1980's. The study involved counties with both urban and rural characteristics, much like the Saugatuck Township, Saugatuck and Douglas area. Solid waste generated has been broken down into specific categories. The numbers probably do not match the actual breakdown of solid waste components in the tri-community area, but give a rough estimate of the components. Per capita waste generated from various land uses is shown in Table 6.5. The Allegan County Solid Waste Plan projects that solid waste output for the Saugatuck area will increase by 32% by 2000 to 14.95 tons per day due to projected population increase. The goals and objectives of the plan focus on reducing the waste stream through separation and recycling, using private haulers for waste collection. recovering energy from the solid waste stream and providing the public with opportunities to develop solutions for solid waste disposal problems. A recycling center is currently in operation on Blue Star Highway adjacent to 1-196 and exit 41. The center is partially funded by Saugatuck, Douglas and Saugatuck Township and is very well used. Allegan County Resource Recovery maintains the facility, which collects newspapers, plastics, glass, aluminum and brown paper bags. Pickup of metal appliances and tires is also possible by contacting the center. The recycling center was started in 1984. State regulations prohibit operation of a new landfill on: • Land considered by the DNR to be a State recognized unique wildlife habitat. • Land in the 100 year floodplain. • Prime agricultural lands. • A DNR designated and officially mapped wetland. • So close to an histortc or archaeological site that it can be reasonably expected to produce unduly disturbing or blighting influence with permanent negative effect. • In a developed area where the density of adjacent houses or water wells could be reasonably expected to produce undue potential for groundwater contamination. Due to the presence of wetlands in the Village (Map 4.4). prime agrtcultural lands (Map 4.10). and areas susceptible to groundwater contamination (Map 4.11). not much is left for potential landfill sites. Furthermore, most of those sites which may be environmentally suitable for landfills have already been developed. Thus it is not likely that a landfill will be located in the Village. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft MAP 6.1 Public Facilities Douglas 1)2 Pumphouses 2)Vacant block 3)1/2 Vacant street ends on Kzoo Rvr & Lake 4 & S)Vacant lot 6)Llbrary 7)Fire District #1 & Fire Barn 8)DPW Barn 9)Saugatuck Township Hall 10)Village Hall 11)Outcher Hall August 1989 DATA SOURCE: Planning & Zaring Center Inc Laneing Ml �N A o •.ooo e,ooo 12,000 tt Scale 1" • 9060 ft MAP6.2 WATERSYSTEM I# IWater Mains ■ ~ Douglas Reservoir Proposed Water Intake & Treatment area I00 0,'0 I Existing Well Locations August 1989 DATA SOURCE: Williams & Works, Inc. Grand Rapids Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �l ----------- N A I l I t" I I I I I UUIII \' MAP 6.3 SEWER SYSTEM Tri-Community I~ISewer Lines 1,1 Discharge Line August 1989 DATA SOURCE: Wdliams & Works, Inc. Grand Rapids Planning & Zoning Cen18r Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A ,..____ 0 4,000 8,000 12,000 ft Scale 1" = 9060 ft MAP 6.4 GAS MAINS Douglas I/IGas Mains August 1989 SOURCE:Michigan Gas Utilities Company Planning & Zoning Center Inc., Lansing.Ml �N A MAP 6.5 STREET CLASSIFI CATIONS [ZJ Regional Arterials ~ Local Arterials G::J Collectors August 1989 DATA SOURCE: PZC I/I Douglas Local Streets Planning I Zonil'l9 Center Inc Lansing Ml �N A 0 800 1600 Scale 1" = 1748 ft MAP6.6 ACT 51 ROADS I,, I Major Street 14'1 0 Douglas State Trunkline County Primary ~ t 1989 DATA SOURCE: MOOT Planning I Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml 2400 �7-1 Chapter7 RECREATION AND OPEN SPACE P arks. recreation. and open space are essential to the quality of life of area residents, and are an important component of the local tourist economy. They enhance property values, as well as physical and psychological well-being. Parks and open space define the character of each area community, create the scenic atmosphere which stimulates tourism, and provide the basis for popular local leisure activities. Recreation needs are regional in nature and plans must view local recreational offerings as part of a regional recreational system. Local governments, schools, private entrepreneurs, the County, and the State each have a central role in serving local and regional recreational needs. ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTIJRE Douglas parks are maintained by the Village's Department of Public Works under the Village Council's Parks and Buildings Committee. which reports to the Village Council. The Village is also represented on the Township Park and Recreation Commission- an independent governmental entity charged with provision of area parks and recreational programs which was created by the Township in November 1970. The Commission has six elected members, and is staffed by a part-time maintenance person. Representatives of both Douglas and Saugatuck Township may be elected to the Commission. The Commission completed the Saugatuck Douglas Area Parks and Recreation Plan in February of 1985 and updates the plan periodically. Revision of the plan is currently undetway. The City of Saugatuck's parks are maintained by the City through its Department of Public Works. Park planning is done by a committee of three City Council members, who are overseen by the City Manager and the full Council. Allegan County prepares and periodically updates a countywide parks and recreation plan. County parks are administered by a tenmember County Parks and Recreation Commission whose members include the Chairs of the County Road Commtssion, the County Planning Commission, the County Drain commissioner, Village of Dou&Ias two County Commissioners. and five members appointed by the County Board of Commissioners. The Commission meets on the first Monday of each month. It sometimes provides financial assistance for local recreational efforts which advance the County Recreation Plan. AREAWIDE RECREATION.AL OPPORTIJNITIES Recreation can be separated into four main categories: physical, social, cognitive, and environmentally related recreation. The former category focuses on sports and various physical activities. Social recreation looks at social interaction. Cognitive recreation deals with cultural, educational. creative, and aesthetic activities. EnVironmentally related recreation requires the natural environment as the setting or focus for activity. Each of these categories in some way relates to the others. Physical Recreation Intramural athletics are popular for children and young adults in the area and are offered through the summer recreation program. Activities include softball, baseball, rocket football, volleyball, bowling and others (see Table 7.1). The elementary school has a newly expanded playground and Kid's Stuff Park. Playgrounds are also found at River Bluff, TABLE 7.1 SUMMER RECREATION PROGRAMS ACTIV11Y 1989 PARTICIPANTS T-ball for kids Little League Pony League Slow-pitch softball Fast pitch softball (girls) Semi-competitive softball (boys) Rocket football Swimming: beginner. advanced beginner, intermediate, swJmmer, basfC rescue & advanced lifesaving 40 46 19 10-18 27 15-20 57 66 .. - �7-2 Sundown, Schultz, and Beery Parks and the Douglas Village Square. Aerobic fitness classes are offered at the High school. Walking, hildng, biking, boating. golfing, swimming, and cross country skiing are also popular, and enjoyed by a wide range of age groups. Social Recreation A variety oflocal clubs and activities provide social recreation for people of all ages. Festivals, community education programs. and intramural sports provide an opportunity to socialize. Senior citizens activities are organized through the New Day Senior Citizens Club of Douglas, the High School. the Masonic Hall, and various area clubs. Cognitive Recreation The tri-community area is rich in cognitive recreational pursuits. Festivals, art workshops, local theater, historic districts, an archaeological site, summer day camp. and community education programs provide cultural, educational, and aesthetic enjoyment. The Saugatuck Women's Club, Rubenstein Music Club, the Oxbow. Douglas Garden Club, and the Douglas Art Club are among the local clubs which organize cultural activities. I, I I; Environmentally Related Recreation Area lakes, the Kalamazoo River, and state and local parks provide area citizens with unique outdoor recreation opportunities. They provide a location for a variety of outdoor actlvitles including boating, fishing, swimming, nature study, camping, hiking, cross country skiing, and nature walks. These areas also serve the cognitive needs of area citizens and tourists by their scenic beauty and relaxing affect. In fact. the most valued attribute of area water bodies and open space to Village citizens. as identified in the 1988 Public Opinion Survey. is not physical recreation, but the scenic view they provide. RECREATION INVENTORY Map 7 .1 identifies parks and recreational facilities in the tri-community area. Table 7 .2 contains an inventory of outdoor recreation facilities in the trt-community area. There are also two eighteen hole and one nine hole golf courses in the area. This is much higher than typical for such a small population (the standard is 1 golf course per 50.000 people), and reflects the impact of tourism on local recreational facilities. A discussion of the size. condition, and planned improvements for selected area parks is shown in Table 7.3. Proposed recreation projects contained in the Saugatuck - Douglas Recreation Plan are listed in Table 7.4. Douglas officials have also proposed the following future recreation lmprovement projects: • Relocate the public service garage located at Center Street and the Kalamazoo River and develop the site into a riverfront park. Install restrooms. • Acquire and develop a park site located west of Ferry St. in close proximity to the existing residential area. • Develop Schultz Park to its fullest potential by: creating a landscaped buffer along I196: establishing picnic facilities; installing restrooms; installing lawn watering equipment; expanding to add more ball fields and other facilities; and ensuring adequate parking. • Develop a pedestrian/bicycle route from Schultz Park to the Village's northern boundary which closely follows the waterfront. • Expand the Douglas public beach. Table 7.5 includes a schedule of other planned park and open space acquisitions and improvements in Douglas. r"'"\ RECREATIONAL NEEDS AND USAGE The 1988 Public Opinion Survey highlighted those recreational facilities which residents feel are inadequate in the trt-community area. Table 7.6 lists these by jurisdiction. Non-Motorized Trails and Bike Paths Residents placed highest priority on additional bike paths, cross country skiing routes, and hiking trails. These needs are currently served by non-motorized trails in the Oval Beach/Mt. Baldhead area. The 1985 Saugatuck - Douglas Parks and Recreation Plan, identified bicycle trails as a high priority and prepared a schedule of capital improvements to achieve this objective. These improvements have not been implemented to date. In 1984, the Saugatuck Township Park and Recreation Commission developed a list of recommended bike paths in the tri-community area. Those recommended for Douglas are shown below in order of priority: • Center Street from Tara to Lake Shore Drive. Village of Douglas ComprehensiVe Plan ~ "' �7-3 TABLE 7.2 INVENTORY OF OUTDOOR RECREATION 1.ocation Size (acreal I.River Bluff 27 2-Sundovn .4 l-Amalanchier ~i:u .. ...0.., : "" j .... ~ "" . !! :; •. : . •: ~ ....u ... . - ~: 411• . .:: = ~~ ! c.-,g ! 3 ~ if t ~ .... . : !i '} ...• - i ] ~~ :: . :: ~ a • 8t ,_i-9 !J ,..~~I X X , X 1.2 X X 20 X X 8-Center St. Launcl X - X ) l( X X 'J( .s X X X X X X X X X X 60* 'A X X X X )( X. X X X .. X 20. Hil!:h School 21. St, Peter's X X X .~ ..:: X X X X 12 X X 36 2). West Wind KOA X X 16. Oval Beach 22. 63rd St. Launch X X 51 8.6 X X IS.Ht. Baldhead 19. Elementary Sch. X X )I X· 154 X 41 X - .s l 7. TallmaRe Woods X X 2.s ~ X - 18. Old "Airpor.t'' .;. L X X X ) 12,Willow Park 14.Spear St. Launch ~ C: 'lC X 11. Wicks Park 13.Cook Park 41 X 5.H. Beery Field 10.Villaae Square • C l( 4 1.4 7.Union St. Launch 0 ) 4. Douglas Beach 6.schult:i: Park I C l -- M X 24. Blue Star lliway Roadside Park X X X X X X X X 25. Riverside Park • Ferry Street from Center to Campbell Road. • Lake Shore Drive from Campbell Road to the Village limits. A path on Blue Star Highway from the bridge to St. Peter's Drive. which was the Village's first priority, has already been completed. Those bike paths recommended in order of priority for Saugatuck Township are: • Lake Shore Drive from 130th Avenue to M-89. • Holland Streets from Saugatuck to the Y. • Old Allegan Road from Blue Star Highway to 60th St. • Blue Star Highway from 129th Ave. to M89. Those recommended for Saugatuck are shown below in order of priority: • Park Streets from Campbell to Perryman. • Oval Beach road. The regional bike path system would connect with Saugatuck's chain link feny to afford bicyclists east/west access. This connection runs down Holland Street and across Francis Street to the waterfront and will be served by inner city streets. without the need for additional right of way. At this juncture. bicyclists may ride the chain link ferry to Saugatuck's eastern border. Once on Saugatuck's eastern Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �7-4 TABLE 7.3 PARKLAND INVENTORY NAME OF PARK LOCATION PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS 1YPE/YEAR USES SIZE CONDITION pressbox-220 sq.ft., dugouts350 sq.ft., land52,000 sq.ft, l acre beach-36,400 sq.ft. nearly 1 acre. bathhouse280 .ft. pavillion-1326 sq.ft... land- 20 acres 66'xl20' pressbox & wash- None room poor; otherwise good Dou las Beery Field Center & Main Sts. baseball playground. picnic Douglas Beach Lakeshore Dr. public beach & picnic Schultz softball, picnic, 130th & Kalamazoo River playground, launchram2 Union St. at Kai. launch ramp, River 2icnic area River Bluff Kal River above 1-196 bridge; access from Old AlleganRd. hilting, picnic. 27 acres boaters stop, nature study. swinging & sandbox Sundown Lake MI Bluff at 126thAve. Blue Star Blue Star Hwy. south of Skyline Restaurant picnics, watch66'xl50' ing lakes & sunsets. scenic turnout 30'x200' picnics, resting for travelers Center St Park Eastern end of canoe launching, picnics, scenic Center at Kalamazoo River viewing Sau9.atuck Village Square 3 acres tennis courts, 2.5 acres drinking fountain, playground, benches, Butler & Main Streets Fair None Good Acquisition/'89 Good None newly installed entry road & pienicarea New dock & picnic shelter Very poor pad for dumpster /'89, more fiowers/'89, toilet improvements/ 1990-92 new fence: needs landscaping/ 1989-1992 new.flowers; needs new bollards & fence re- fence work/ 1989, bollards/ 1989-90 Poor additional docking, public restrooms, gazebo Good restrooms Wicks Park Waterfront between Main & Mary Streets Willow Park Waterfront at Butler & Lucy Waterfront on Water Street Spear Street streetend Cook Park Boat Ramp bandstand, boardwalk, benches, fishing. restrooms Viewing area, benches picnic tables 1 /2 acre approx. Good 132 ft Good 132 ft. Good boat launch 66 ft. Good ~ Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �7-3 TABLE 7.3 (continued) PARKLAND INVENTORY NAME OF PARK Mt. Baldhead Park LOCATION Park Street Oval Beach Park Lake Michigan Tallmadge Woods USES picnic shelter, tables, restrooms. Wking trails. parking, stairway to observation deck on top of dune, two observation decks on river beach house, concession stand, parking, picnic area. BBQ grills, viewing deck. stairs to beach, observation deck. nature 1rails current use restricted side, bicyclists could follow Saugatuck's proposed bike path system down through Douglas and south out of the Township. Bike path right of way would also extend north to Goshorn Lake along Washington Road, thereby connecting with Laketown Township. Another future extension could extend the system east along Old Allegan Road into Manlius Township. This is a scenic route, although somewhat hilly. Bicyclists wishing to pass through Saugatuck and on south through Douglas would need additional right of way from Lake Street to the bridge, thereby connecting with the Douglas bike path network. Douglas in tum would extend its bike path south on Blue Star Highway to connect with the Township system. Map 7 .2 shows this proposed regional bike path network. Waterfront Open Space A smvey of waterfront usage revealed that the most popular waterfront actMty is viewing. The second most popular use varied by waterbody. Swimming was the primruy use of Lake Michigan. powerboating for Lake Kalamazoo and Silver Lake (which also is popular for fishing). and nature study was the most popular for Kalamazoo River due to its large connecting wetlands and Wide array of wildlife- including a SIZE 51 acres CONDITION 36 acres Good PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS 1YPE/YEAR Good new concession stand& restrooms/ 1990 100 acres Good large population of Great Blue Herons which have established a rookery in the area. In accordance with usage, the overwhelming majority of residents in each jurisdiction cited preservation of existing waterfront open space and increased access to the waterfront as their highest waterfront need. Acquisition of land and provision of access to Lake Michigan was given highest priority for the waterfront by all three Jurisdictions. Open space along Lake Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo River were also given high priority by the majority of respondents in the Village (64-69%). A large number of respondents also called for additional boat launching facilities. Parks Respondents were asked how frequently they used various local parks and the overwhelming majority responded "never". Oval Beach is used most frequently of the area parks by residents of each jurisdiction. Douglas Beach is also frequently used. Wicks. Schultz, and Beery park are more frequently used by Douglas and Saugatuck residents. than those 1n the Township. Despite the low usa_ge of ~ parlcs m. fleeted Jn the survey. 50% ofV~ rupopdent!s sa.tcl that addJ.ticmal par.ks WOJtt • JUlhi ~ lbe survey~ not ,:eive ~ Q'J)e a �7-6 TABLE 7.4 PROPOSED RECREATION PROJECTS TRI-COMMUNITY AREA PROPOSED PROJECT VERY HIGH PRIORITY LOCATION Willow Park preservation and improvement Downtown Saugatuck on the river Lake Michigan Shoreline Saugatuck High School Douglas Elementary School Saugatuck High School On river in Saugatuck North of Oval Beach Park Acquire extensive land areas New dug outs - football field Renovation of playground equipment Convert weight room to storage & coach's offices Remodel Wicks Park restrooms Acquire land to access to Oxbow Lagoon HIGH PRIORITY Acquire and improve land for marina and park Boat launching facility Develop bicycle trails Purchase park parcel on hill Acquire additional land for River Bluff Park Construct additional public restrooms Clear and develop Moore's Creek Rehabilitate tennis courts Update Village Square Park Expand and improve Howard Schultz Park Riverside Park equipment & improvements Douglas riverfront near bridge City of Saugatuck Entire area In Saugatuck Adjacent to River Bluff in Township Downtown Saugatuck Near Amalanchier Park in Saugatuck Township Village Square Park- Saugatuck Village Square Park - Saugatuck Village of Douglas Village of Douglas MEDIUM Expand underground sprinkling system Acquire land and develop tot lots Develop archery range Beach House rehabilitation Acquire land for neighborhood park Construct concession stand Village Square Park - Saugatuck All areas River Bluff Park - Township Saugatuck Oval Beach Campbell Road area - Saugatuck & Douglas Saugatuck High School Athletic Field LOW Teen Recreation Center Install lighting for tennis courts Develop non-motorized trail Lighting for tennis courts Construct additional locker rooms Downtown Saugatuck Schultz Park Schultz Park Village Square Park - Saugatuck Saugatuck High School Source: Saugatuck - Douglas Area Parks and Recreation Plan, Feb. 1985. (active, passive, neighborhood, waterfront. etc.) Village respondents feel is needed. Future recreation plans could explore this issue. It is important to note that survey responses reflect the usage charactertstics of older adults. The average age of survey respondents was 54 to 56 years old. As the age of respondents increases, park usage tends to decrease- espe- cially for parks which specialize in active sports. This reveals the need to orient recreation plans to the recreational needs of older adults. Thus. bike paths, waterfront open space/ access. hiking trails. and cross country ski trails should probably receive precedence in future recreation enhancement projects, over more active park facilities like ball diamonds. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �7-7 Senior Citizens Center Senior citizens in the area have been lobbying for a senior citizens center to serve the social and recreational needs of the area's elderly population. The survey results reflect support for a senior center in the Village and Township. Fortyfive percent of Village respondents and 53% of Township respondents felt that a senior center deserved high priority. Only 25% of City residents called for a senior center- surprising, given the high proportion of seniors in the City's resident population. RECREATION AND LOCAL SPENDING In terms of priorities for spending current tax dollars, 42-48% of respondents felt that parks and recreation are a high priority. Waterfront improvement was rated high by Village respondents. Senior programs were given low local spending priority in all three communities. despite the high average age of respondents. Although they would like to have them. most respondents would not support a community recreation center, a senior center. or a community pool if it meant an increase in general property truces. TABLE 7.5 PLANNED ACQUISITIONS/IMPROVEMENTS TO PARKS AND OPEN SPACES ACQUISillON LOCATION Esther McSic East side Union SL property Kal. Lake, North of Blue Star (Douglas) RuthMcNaLandlocked mara property end of Schultz Park (Douglas) Blue Star & Vacant Lot Main St. (Douglas) SE 1/4 SecOld tlon2 Saugatuck (Saugatuck) Airport NAME IMPROVEMENT USE Public open space SIZE CONDITION 124,000 sq.ft. Marshy (portion under water) vacant COST($) 185,000 FINANCING DNRLand Trust Park 132.000 Dry sq.ft. (vacant) NA NA Future park land 18,000 sq.ft.; nearly 1/2 acres 154 acres 65,000 NA Currently for- Dry estry management, possible future recreation TABLE 7.6 RECREATION NEEDS IN THE TRI-COMMUNITY AREA 1988 PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY CITY VILLAGE TOWNSHIP Bike paths (68%) Hiking trails (62%) Cross-country ski trails (62%) Lake MI open space (61 %) Lake Kal. open space (50%) Kal. River open space (49%) Boat launching ramps (45%) Lake MI open space (70%) Lake Kal. open space (69%) Bike paths (67%) Kal. River open space (64%) Parks (50%) Boat launching ramps (46%) Senior Center (45%) Lake MI open space (67%) Bike paths (64%) Lake Kai. open space (62%) Kal. River open space (62%) Cross-country ski trails (6()0/4) Boat launching ramps (59%) Senior Center (53%) Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �N + A O •.000 8,000 ,2.000 ft Scale 1" = 9060 ft 25 "' ' " -~---·· : •! j t 55 55 '' ,' % ~ , .,,,, .......; MAP 7.1 OUTDOOR RECREATION SITES ,. w-89 ,i ,; SAUGATUCK TWP. Douglas 1) - 25) See Chapter 7, Table 7.2 26) West Shore Golf Course 27) Cleart>ook Golf Course 28) Mi-Ro Golfcourse 29) Center Street August 1989 DATA SOURCE:Saug. - Doug. Parks & Rec. Plan, 1985 Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft • • •• • II MAP 7.2 ACTUAL & PROPOSED BIKE PATHS Douglas [2J Proposed Bike Paths 1,1 August 1989 Actual Bike Path DATA SOURCE: S8ugatuck Township Park and Raoreallon Commluion Plan"'"I & Zoning C41m1r Inc Lansing, Ml �8-1 Chapters WATERFRONT augatuck was the first settlement in Allegan County. Its natural protected harbor along S the Kalamazoo River and proximity to Lake Michigan gave it a ready means of water transport- essential to the commerce of the day. Throughout its history, land use activities along the Lake Michigan shoreline and the riverfront have continued to dominate the economic life of the tri-community area. Lumbering, boat building, basket making, fruit transport. and even large Great Lakes passenger boats have. at different times, relied upon the River connection. Tourists have always been attracted to the area, but tourism is now the number one economic activity. Today's waterfront activities are dominated by tourist and pleasure craft needs, especially sailboats, powerboats, charter fishing boats and other tourist boats. Consequently, how the waterfront is used will be of crucial importance to the future of the tri-community area. The primary issues concerning proper future use of the waterfront involve competition between economic development and environmental protection. Waterfront lands represent the highest value lands in the tri-community area, and local officials are therefore concerned about the potential tax base associated with use of waterfront lands. In order to finance the service needs of local residents, the tri-communities must balance taxable and nontaxable land uses. This presents a dilemma. Although waterfront lands have high revenue generating potential. a major attraction of both the Lake Michigan and Kalamazoo River waterfronts is their scenic, natural shorelines composed of forested sand dunes and large wetland areas. Should these natural areas be greatly damaged or destroyed through inappropriate development. then the "goose that laid the golden egg" will be dead. It is essential that the natural beauty of the waterfront be maintained along the Lake Michigan shoreline, the Kalamazoo River from the channel to Saugatuck, and from the Blue Star Highway bridge inland. Limited additional development along the waterfront on Lake Kalamazoo and the Douglas side of the bayou east of Blue Star Highway may be both desirable and necessary. However, such development must be undertaken carefully to maintain the delicate balance between economic development and environmental protection. It is both necessary and possible to manage the waterfront for a variety of purposes. Yet it is always difficult to manage for multiple uses. Some individuals value land management to retain the necessary habitat for birds, fish and wildlife. Others feel it should be managed to maximize surface water use, or for intensive waterfront dependent activities like ship building or power generation. Based on some of the technical data presented below, existing use information, citizen opinions, and the goals and objectives presented at the beginning of this Plan, the waterfront in the tri-community area can, and should, be managed to accommodate a wide range of land uses and activities. This Plan seeks to define a balance between competing uses. It places protection of the natural environment as first and foremost in making future land use decisions along the Lake Michigan and Kalamazoo River waterfronts. The ultimate goal is to minimize disruption of the natural environment so that new development is in harmony with the environment, rather than in conflict with it. Some destruction of the llmite d remaining wetland areas along Lake Kalamazoo is only Justified where the public benefits of particular projects are very great (e.g. a public marina or additional public access to the waterfront). 'Watersheds of the KaJarna~ River Basin The Kalamazoo River extends from south of Homer in Hillsdale and Jackson Counties to its outlet at Lake Michigan in Saugatuck Township (see Figure 4.1). With the exception of lands adjoining Lake Michigan (which drain directly into the Lake) and a small area in the southeast comer of Saugatuck Township, all land in the tri-communtty area is part of the Kalamazoo River Basin. Eight small watershed areas lie within the tri-communtty area and discharge Into Lake Michigan via the Kalamazoo River (see Map 8.1). These include Goshorn. Peach Orchard. Tan- Village of Douglas COJDPr.ehensive Plan �8-2 nety, Silver and "Cemetecy" Creeks. as well as the Morrison Bayou at the eastern end of the Kalamazoo River as it enters the Township. Most of Douglas and Saugatuck also drain separately into the Kalamazoo River and Lake Kalamazoo. Slopes in the area are generally less than 10 percent though locally they may be in excess of 20 percent. Runoff erosion is taking place in the highlands. contributing sediment to backswamp areas and Lake Michigan. Monthly (exceedance) flows for the Kalamazoo River. based on a 1649 square mile drainage area near Fennville (#0410B500, T2n. Rl4W, NE 1/4 Sec 5). were averaged from measurements taken between 1929 to 1985 by the Hydrologic Engineering Section, Land and Water Management DMsion. MDNR. Estimates based on these measurements were then prepared for the larger drainage area of 2060 square miles at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River (T3N. Rl6W, Sec 4, Saugatuck Township). Ninety-five percent and fifty percent exceedance flows are shown in Table 8.1. These are flows exceeded 95% or 50% of the time. The lowest 95% exceedance flow in Fennville (nearly drought level) was measured during August at 410 cfs. and is estimated to be 520 cfs at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River. The 50% exceedance flow in Fennville ranged from a low of 860 cfs during the summer months to 2010 cfs TABLE 8.1 KALAMAZOO RIVER EXCEEDANCE FLOWS ( 1929-85) MONTHLY AVERAGE CUBIC FT /SECOND FENNVILLE 95% RNERMOUTH 500/4 95% 1350 1400 1950 2010 1690 1750 2430 2510 2000 1560 1210 1070 1070 1220 1510 1620 50% January Februaty March April May June July August September October November December 1600 1250 970 860 860 980 1210 1300 710 790 1010 1040 830 630 480 410 480 520 650 750 890 990 1260 1300 1040 790 600 520 600 650 810 940 Source: Hydrologtc En~eertnfuSection, Land and Water Resources Divis on, Mic gan Department of Natural Resources. Village of Douglas during April. Corresponding estimates for the mouthoftheKalamazooRiverrangedfrom 1070 cfs during the summer months to 2510 cfs during April. The 100 year discharge is estimated at 15,400 cfs at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, and 12,500 cfs at the Fennville gage. n PRIMARY ECOSYSTEMS The tri-community area has three basic ecosystems. two of which parallel the waterfront. The first ecosystem is comprtsed of hardwoods holding the sand dunes in place along the Lake Michigan shoreline. These woodlots are inhabited by small game such as fox squirrels, rabbits, raccoons. deer. wild turkey. and opossums. This ecosystem is comprtsed of fauna common to most of Michigan, but its balance is easily upset by the disruption of its shallow organic soils. Any ground cover that is damaged or removed should be quickly replaced with cover that will hold and prevent sand from blowing or rapid wind erosion may occur. Michigan's most famous ghost town. Singapore, once a thriving lumber town, lies beneath these shifting sands near the mouth of the channel. The second ecosystem is the marsh-wetland ecosystem that covers the area along the Kalamazoo River, Silver Lake and Goshorn Lake, and the connecting tributaries. This area is covered with marsh grasses, low shrubs, poplar trees, spruces. some white pine. and other softwoods. The cover is inhabited by common Michigan marsh dwellers such as frogs, turtles, ducks, blackbirds, and snakes. The marsh ecosystem is also populated by muskrat. mink, mallard duck. black duck. teal. wood duck. blue heron, Canadian geese, and mute swans. Golden eagle and osprey used to frequent the area. The marsh ecosystem is vecy sensitive to changes in water quality and disruption of vegetation. Great care must be taken to limit siltation and disruption to vegetation when working in this ecosystem. The third ecosystem covers the rest of the Township and is predominantly agricultural/forest with birds and wildlife common to this dominant ecosystem in Michigan. The entire Saugatuck/Douglas area is designated as an area of particular concern by the DNR Areas of particular concern are those having scarce resources. unusual scenic beauty, unusual economic value. recreational attractions, or some combination of the above. They are only located in coastal areas. Altertng the prehensive Plan r\ "' �8-3 environment in an area of "particular concern" could have a significant impact on the quality of coastal and Great Lakes waters. WATER QUALITY The Kalamazoo River watershed includes many types of land uses and the River flows through several large developed urban areas including Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. When it reaches the trt-community area, the quality of this water is not good. Despite the water quality problem, the River from about one-half mile downstream from the Hacklander Public Access Site (in Section 23). has been designated as a "wild-scenic river" under Michigan's Natural River Act, Public Act 231 of 1970. Land use restrictions have been imposed to retain its natural character within 300 feet of the River's edge. The basic water management goal is the elimination of the pollution threat to surface and groundwater resources. The Kalamazoo River is designated by the DNR to be protected for recreation (partial body contact), intolerant fish (warm water species). industrial water supply, agricultural and commercial uses. Downstream from the Kalamazoo Lake, the river is protected for cold water anadromus fish species (trout and salmon). Kalamazoo Lake and Goshorn Lake are designated to be protected for recreation (total body contact). and intolerant fish (warm water species). These water management objectives are nearly ten years old, but there have been no concerted efforts to update them and carry them out. A push to revise the objectives is underway statewide, but it could be years before any action plans are carried out for the Kalamazoo River. 1988 Public Opinion Survey results reveal that citizens in the trt-community area feel that the water quality of the Kalamazoo River and Lake is poor to very poor (58%-70%), Lake Michigan is rated fair to good (31-500/4). and most respondents familiar with the water quality of Silver Lake felt that it was fair. The majority of respondents who are familiar with these water bodies, feel that the water quality of Lake Michigan and Silver Lake has deteriorated slightly in recent years, and Kalamazoo River and Kalamazoo Lake has deteriorated slightly to greatly. Most respondents who reside in Saugatuck, however, felt that the water quality has stayed about the same. Basic water quality data on the River appears in Table 8.2 for selected months in 1978, TABLE8.2 KALAMAZOO RIVER WATER QUALITY FECAL COUFORM PER lOOML Fennville 1/27/88 5/18/88 7/28/88 9/21/88 PHOSPHOROUS TOTAL ORIHO MG/L MG/L NITROGEN N02 N03 MG/L SEDIMENIS MG/L TONS/DAY 28 96 .05 .04 .08 .07 .01 <.01 <.01 .02 1.4 0.5 0.67 0.64 5 26 17 39 29 102 30 202 200 200 .08 .11 .14 .02 .02 .01 1.6 0.88 0.39 21 13 21 161 102 103 .07 .12 .12 .15 NR NR NR NR 1.7 0.34 0.54 0.00 9 20 15 28 27 123 26 72 HEAVY METALS LEAD MERCURY MG/L MG/L. <5 <.l <5 <.l <5 <.l <5 <.l Saugatuck. 3/19/86 6/25/86 9/ 11/86 Saugatuck. 1/10/78 5/1/78 7/20/78 9/11/78 120 69 20 10 NR • Not Reported Source: USGS Water Resource Data For Michigan, Water Resources Division, U.S. Geologic Sw:vey. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan, <.5 <.5 .5 �8-4 1986, and 1988. The sampling point was moved from Saugatuck to Fennville in 1987. This data reveals an increase in sedimentation and a decline in heavy metals. It also shows an increase in fecal coliform (intestinal bacteria) levels to 200/ 100 ml at the former testing site in Saugatuck- the maximum level permitted under rule 62 of the MDNR Water Resources Commission General Rules of 1986. Phosphorous and certain nitrogen levels have not changed appreciably in the past ten years. The Kalamazoo River between Calkins Dam and Lake Michigan has been designated an Area of Concern in the 1988 Michigan Nonpoint Source Management Plan (MNSMP). due to contamination of fish from PCB's. The primary source of contamination was identified as PCB contaminated sediments upstream in the Kalamazoo River and Portage Creek. These sediments continue to erode, resuspend, and dissolve PCB's into the water column where they are transported downstream. Due to the presence of PCB's, advisories are in effect for consumption of fish caught in the Kalamazoo River or Lake Michigan. The advisory warns against any consumption of carp, suckers. catfish, and largemouth bass taken from the Kalamazoo River downstream from the Morrow Pond Dam to Lake Michigan and Portage Creek downstream from Monarch Millpond. Limited consumption of other species (no more than one meal per week) is considered safe for all except nursing mothers, pregnant women, women who intend to have children, and children age 15 and under. In Lake Michigan limited consumption of Lake Trout 20-23", Coho Salmon over 26", Chinook Salmon 21-32", and Brown Trout up to 23" is considered safe for all except nursing mothers, pregnant women, women who intend to have children. and children age 15 and under. Individuals should not consume carp, catfish, or Lake Trout. Brown Trout. or Chinook which fall outside of the acceptable size for limited consumption. To address the PCB problem, the MNSMP has devised a Remedial Action Plan with the goal ofreducing human exposure to acceptable levels (1: 100,000) and thus reducing fish tissue concentration to a maximum .05 mg/kg and reducing water column levels to .02 ng/1. Actions taken to address the problem include: strict controls on direct discharges of PCB's; a feasibility study of remedial alternatives; funding through State Act 307 to take remedial action at three sites: and legal action and negotiations With private parties at two other sites (see MNSMP, November 7, 1988, p. 328). Efforts initiated in the '?O's to identify and require extensive treatment of pollutants prior to their dumping into the River will continue to slowly improve the quality of the water. As the nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen are removed from wastewater entering the River, less new plant life will be stimulated and more oxygen will be available for fish. One of these efforts is the Michigan Water Resources Commission Act. which requires all discharges into the water to have discharge permits. In addition. the Federal Water Pollution Control Act established the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program. Under these laws. any public or private facility which will emit any point-source discharge into the water must first receive a NPDES discharge permit. The permit program sets forth limitations and monitortng requirements to protect water quality and meet treatment standards, and establishes strong enforcement actions for violations. The Surface Water Quality Division, MDNR, administers NPDES permits. NPDES permits issued 1n the tri-community area are shown on Table 8.3. However, sedimentation and nonpoint sources of pollution Will remain a problem. In contrast to pipes that discharge directly into a waterbody, nonpoint sources of pollution include those pollutants that do not originate from a single point- such as fertilizer and pesticide runoff from farmers fields and petroleum based pollutants that wash off parking lots and roadways. The most obvious pollutants are the physical litter and debris that are carelessly dumped into the River or Lake and which typically wash up along the shore. Michigan's 1988 Nonpolnt Pollution Assessment Report concluded that 99% of Michigan's watersheds have at least one waterbody with a non-point source pollution problem. In-place contamination and atmospheric deposition were listed as the primary non-point sources of pollution for the Kalamazoo River. Stronger efforts to improve water quality will have a positive affect on tourism, recreation, and future growth and development of the tricommunity area. All sources of pollution affect water quality, and hence the utility of the water resource. While the tri-community area must rely on outside agencies to enforce pollution control laws upstream. some efforts can be undertaken by Saugatuck, Douglas and Saugatuck Township to improve water quality Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �8-15 TABLE8.3 NPDES PERMITS ISSUED IN THE TRI-COMMUNITY AREA PERMIT RECIPIENT ADDRESS 201 Culver St.. DISCHARGE LOCATION Ka1amaz.oo Lake Groundwater Purge Twp. proces.sed. wastewater treated murucipal waste 900,000 gal/ day purged groundwater, purgable halo- Rich Products 350 Culver St., carbons 12,000 gal/day Culligan Kal. Lake Water & Sewer Authority Ka1amaz.oo Lake Saugatuck 340 Culver St., Saugatuck 6449 Old Allegan Rd., Saugatuck Saugatuck EXPIRATION DATE 1991 via storm sewers Ka1amaz.oo River outfall 001 Ka1amaz.oo River outfall 001 Ka1amaz.oo River non-contact cool- via storm sewer ing water & cooling tower blowdown 1990 1993 1990 Source: MDNR Surface Water Quality Division TABLE 8.4 LAKE MICHIGAN LAKE LEVELS YEAR LOWEST EL FEETAS.L. MONTH HIGHEST EL MONTH FEET A.S.L. 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 578.00 578.12 578.31 578.92 578.51 578.17 578.85 579.02 579.57 580.36 578.96 578.10 February March February December February March February February February February December December 578.57 579.01 580.02 579.77 579.43 579.02 580.08 580.23 580.84 581.62 580.65 579.04 July October April July July April July July June October January May DIFFERENCE DIFFERENCE IN FEET IN INCHES .57 .89 1.75 .85 .92 .85 1.25 1.21 1.27 1.26 1.69 .94 6.84 10.68 20.52 10.20 11.04 10.20 15.00 14.52 15.24 15.12 20.28 11.28 Source: The Michigan Riparian, May 1989 and prevent further pollution within the trtcommunity area. These will be discussed further later in this Chapter. LAKE LEVELS The natural level of the Great Lakes goes through periodic changes that are based predominantly on rainfall and evaporation within the entire Great Lakes Basin. Since a century peak in 1986, Lake Michigan has steadily fallen to its current level of around 5 78 feet (see Table 8.4). The Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo Lake and Lake Michigan are interconnected. Thus, water levels on the River and Lake Kalamazoo are largely dependent on Lake Michigan water levels. Consequently, land uses adjoining the waterfront should be based on the vagaries of fluctuating Lake Michigan water levels. This has not always been done as was evident by extensive shore erosion and flooding during the last high water period. When water levels are high "no-wake" zones, which are always in effect frmn the channel to Mason Street In Saugatuck, are extended Village of Douglas Compteh~Plan �8-6 to cover all of the Kalamazoo Lake shoreline and parts of the River east of Blue Star Highway (see Map 8.2). When a "no-wakeff speed is in effect, then all motor boats and vessels must limit speed to a slow no-wake speed when within 100 feet of: • rafts, except for ski jumps and ski landing floats; • docks; • launching ramps; • swtrn:mers; • anchored. moored or drifting boats; and • designated no-wake zones. This means a speed slow enough that the wake or wash of the boat creates a IJlintrnum disturbance. Owners and operators are responsible for damage caused by wakes. HARBOR Map 8.3 is the existing harbor map (June 1987) distributed by the Natlonal Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It depicts water depth for the shoreline along Lake Michigan. and the River through Kalamazoo Lake. Channel depth is maintained by periodic dredging to a depth of 13 feet to Main Street in Saugatuck. (Dredging at the mouth of the channel ls to begin in July 1990 and be completed in the Fall of 1990 .) The depth then drops to 20-2 7 feet for the next 500 feet. Between that point and Tower Marine, the water depth is about 7 feet. Most of the rest of Lake Kalamazoo varies between 1 and 4 feet in depth with not more than 2 feet being the most common. The Douglas shoreline, east of Blue Star Highway is only 1-2 feet in depth except for a small area running NW-SE from the center of the bridge and connecting to the Point Pleasant Yacht Club. This natural harbor is the principal attraction for nautical tourists which flock to the area during summer months when the marinas are used to capacity. Hundreds rent dockage by the season. Many live on their boats for weeks on end. The demand for dockage appears to be greater than the supply, despite the huge number of slips available (see Map 8.4). In 1976 there were 8 marinas with approximately 800 slips. In 1989, there are 26 legally operating marinas with 966 slips. There are about half dozen marinas Without current permits and these contain over 30 more slips. There are also a number of slips maintained by private residences for their own personal use. Marina permits are required for any commercial activity, so as few as two slips could require a marina permit if they are rented. Permits are issued for a three year period by the DNR On peak summer weekends the number of boats on the lake could be twice to thrice the normal level. This presents one of the most serious problems Jointly facing the tri-community area- how to deal with surface water use conflicts. The Lake has a total surface water area of 184 acres. Acreage available for recreational boating is dramatically reduced by the dockage which extends into the Lake hundreds of feet and by the shallow water at the edge to about 133 acres. Yet, on summer weekends the River is a constant highway of boats moving in and out of the Lake. Recreational sailing, fishing, swimming, sailboarding and water skiing are limited by all of the motorboat traffic. However, during the week, other water surface activities can go on without much interference. MARINE SAFETY The Allegan County Sheriff's Department, Marine Safety Division, maintains strict control of the waterways. The Department has 8 marine officers. Normally. two officers patrol by boat, but three to four officers patrol during holidays and special events. Officers patrol in a 27 foot Boston Whaler with two 150 horsepower outboard motors. This boat is equipped for Lake Michigan rescue, and has a noise meter which monitors the 86 decibel noise limit. From Memorial Day to Labor Day offkers put in 635 hours of patrol duty on Kalamazoo River and Kalamazoo Lake. One hundred and ten hours were spent patrolling Lake Michigan. Most patrols occur between Friday and Sunday, and about half of the Department's budget goes to patrolling the Saugatuck area. In the summer of 1989, 189 tickets were issued on Kalamazoo River and Kalamazoo Lake, 11 were issued on Lake Michigan. 276 warnings were issued. IO complaints were received, and 6 boating accidents occurred. The Department also conducted 378 safety inspections. The most common violations are inadequate life preservers on board and lack of current registration. The Department notes that slow /no wake, and hazardous violations were down in the summer of 1989. The most common surface water use conflicts identified by the Sheriff's Department include sailboat and motorboat conflicts and complaints over the noise and attitude ofjet Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �8-7 skiers. Conflicts between sailboats and motorboats arc most common on Saturday. waterfront, but there arc few public access sites and. except for Shultz Park. these provtde little space for transient parking. EXlSTING LAND USE Existing land use ls described in detail in Chapter 5. All land uses along the waterfront arc oriented to the water. The bulk of the waterfront in the Township from the channel to the City is developed as stngle family residential. The City and Village waterfronts are predominantly residential and marina. The balance of the waterfront, which lies in the Township. is in a natural state with some areas of residential development (such as along Silver Lake). Many commercial establishments (mostly motels and restaurants) are also located here. Except for the Broward Boat Company near the channel, there are no industrial activities along the waterfront. A number of small parks are located along the CONFLICTS/PROBLEMS At an interjurlsdictional meeting on water front issues on November 1986, five key issues were identified: • high water and its impacts • development and acquisition of public lands along the waterfront: • limiting the intensity of shore line development: • preserving the scenic character of the shoreline environment retaining visual access to, of the • surface water use conflicts. Each of these remain important Issues as shown in the 1988 Public Opinion Survey. FIGURE 8.1 LINKAGE PLAN R-2 R-1 ~(commercial) ~wetland · AG . .• , Source: CoDNne O&ldand County·• Natural RNOurcea: A Manual for Pl•nnln• Department of Public Works, Oakland County, MI. September 1980. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan a Implementatloa. �8-8 High Water When Great Lakes water levels are high, erosion along the Lake Michigan shoreline increases. The impacts of erosion are clear along Lakeshore Drive. where part of the road has been washed away. Many high value homes will be threatened by additional eroSion in this area. Erosion along the River and Lake Kalamazoo also increases with higher Lake Michigan water levels. Many bulkheads and similar shore protection devices were installed to minlmize the effects of the most recent high water level. Raising some of the land and structures would be necessary if lake levels remained high for lengthy periods. On the positive side, the south shore of Lake Kalamazoo becomes more attractive to marina development when water levels are high since it is very shallow in this area. Likewise. when water levels are below average, some existing dockage is unusable. Fluctuating lake levels are part of a natural system. The costs and implications of trying to artificially manage the entire Great Lakes Basin to maintain even Lake levels is not known. but waterfront land use decisions in the trt-community area should be made based on the assumption that Lake Michigan water levels cannot be artificially maintained. Acquisition and Development of Public Lands Along the Waterfront Two types of public lands are needed along the waterfront. One is parkland/ open space and the other is a public marina. Existing open space along the waterfront should be preserved (see Map 8.5). Several street ends provide needed relief from structures along the shoreline. These public open spaces are generally well managed, and efforts should be initiated to ensure that they are not lost. Existing parks along the shoreline should also be linked together, and with other inland parks. by pedestrian and bicycle paths whenever the opportunity arises (see Figure 8.1). The lack of parkland along the Lake Michigan shoreline is most acute for Township residents. and somewhat less severe for Village residents. Outside of purchaslng and developing new land for parks. the tri-communities should consider establishing a separate park and recreation authority responsible for maintaining all parks presently owned by the three communities. The benefit would be providing access to Oval Beach by Village and Township residents and spreading the fiscal responsibility for main- tenance across more taxpayers. This would also make it more feasible to acquire additional park space as needed. Because residents of three Jurisdictions would benefit, grant requests would probably be more favorably reviewed. Public marina space is also needed as there are only three public access sites along Lake Kalamazoo and the River presently, and two are too far inland for most daily boaters. The third is a street end 1n Saugatuck and has no adjacent parking. Private marinas proVide transient berthing opportunities. but there is considerable demand for more. By having a facility to attract more transient boaters, the three communities would be gaining additional tourist income. The three most logical places for such a facility are: 1) immediately adjacent to the Blue Star Highway bridge in Douglas and extending to the existing launch facility adjacent to the Kewatln; 2) converting the Center Street maintenance facility in Douglas to a public marina: 3) at some distant time (or if the opportunity arose) by replacing the Rich Products office building in Saugatuck with a public marina and accompanying parking. Alternatively, if adjacent parking could be secured, the street end next to Gleason's in Saugatuck could be a good public access point. While the public opinion survey did not reflect overwhelming support for a public marina, there appears to be demand for such a facility from persons outside the trt-community area. Its long term economic benefits may well justify its cost, especially if state or federal funds could be secured to help pay for it. Limiting the Intensity of Development The primary future development of waterfront lands in the City will be redevelopment of existing parcels. In the Village it will focus on further development along the South Shore of Lake Kalamazoo. In both areas it will be critical that new development is neither so dense. nor so high as to block existing public views of the waterfront or further "wall" the Lake with structures. Recommendations to prevent this are lncluded in Chapter 10. It will be critical that all three communities agree to a common approach to waterfront development. embody that in land use plans, and then implement those plans. To some extent, uniform densities. setbacks, and height regulations will be valuable, espec1ally around Lake Kalamazoo. Additional development around Silver Lake needs to remain at a very low density in keeping Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan ,--,,. ' 71 ~ �8-9 with the septic limitations of the land and the limited recreational value of this shallow waterbody. The eastern end of the Kalamazoo River should likewise receive little new development in keeping with its Natural River designation. Retaining Visual Access, Aesthetics and the Character of the Area As has been emphasized throughout this Plan. the natural beauty of the waterfront has much to do with the attraction of the tri-community area. Local development regulations should be reviewed and revised if necessary. to insure that new development complements, rather than detracts from this natural beauty. Old vessels should not be permitted to lie beached along the shoreline, because this also detracts from the beauty and character of the waterlront. The Kewatin should only be retained if its exterior remains in a good state of repair or if it is restored as an historic landmark. Several vistas have public values that deserve protection. These include the entry into and exit from Lake Michigan on the Kalamazoo River, the view from Mount Baldhead, the view of Kalamazoo Lake from both ends, and approaches to the Kalamazoo River Bridge. The public opinion suivey strongly supports the provision of additional open space along Lake Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo River and demonstrates that the primary use of the area's water bodies is viewing. Yet, recent development pressures have led to overbuilding of condominiums along the waterlront, shutting off all public viewing of the lake from existing rights-of-way. Any future development along the channel should be set back sufficiently to maintain the broad open views that are presented to boat travelers entering or leaving the Kalamazoo River. The view from the top of Mount Baldhead should be improved by careful selective pruning of dead or dying trees blocking good views of Saugatuck and Lake Kalamazoo. The curve going northbound on Blue Star Highway in Douglas Just before crossing the bridge is the only good panorama of Kalamazoo Lake. A public turnoff. the acquisition of a scenic easement, or the concentration of new development on the western portion of those undeveloped lands should be initiated to protect that important view. In addition, the land adjacent to the west side of the bridge in Douglas should be selectively pruned to improve the view to travelers crossing the bridge (northbound) until a public marina could be established there. Surface Water Use Cof\/ll.cts Resolution of surlace water use conructs will require more planning and a uniform approach to regulation. Most important is establishing the carrying capacity of Lake Kalamazoo and the River to the channel mouth. Carrying capacity refers to the physical capacity and intrinsic suitability of lands (and water) to absorb and support various types of development (or use). Such an analysis is typically perlormed by an inventory of existing surlace water use during weekdays and peak weekends. Data is then examined in terms of the size of the waterbody and its capacity to assimilate various mixes of use. Such an analysis would probably reveal some, but not much excess capacity for new boat slips, because any number of boaters can access Kalamazoo Lake from Lake Michigan. Without an analysis of carrying capacity, the amount of new boat slip development and related surlace water use conflicts are difllcult to evaluate. Some time or surlace zoning could be established in conjunction with the DNR if desired. For example, water skiing, Jet skiing. fishing, sailing, etc, could be limited to particular parts of Lake Kalamazoo or Silver Lake or to particular times of the day. Another option could be a harbor patrol paid for by all three governmental units. More information is necessary to establish the need for regulation. If surlace water use is regulated, each unit of government would need to agree to a common regulato:ry approach. Surface water use conflicts will grow more acute on Lake Kalamazoo if existing dockage is extended much further into the Lake. Such extensions should not be permitted as the surface area available for various recreational uses will be too drastically reduced. Existing no-wake zones should also be more rigorously enforced. RECOMMENDATIONS TO GUIDE FtrI'URE USE In seeking to balance economic development with environmental protection, the concept of car:rytng capacity should be a major consideration. If the carrying capacity ofland or water is exceeded, then actMties cannot be undertaken without unacceptable b:npacts on users, the environment, or both. Impacts can include increased trip times, decreased safety, pollution, loss of open space, and many other considerations. The key is prevention of overuse by limiting intensity of use on adjoining lands and regulating surface water use. Village of Douglas Comprehensive P'lan �8-10 Environmental protection must be a leading principle in making future land use decisions along the waterfront. Environmentally sensitive areas such as sand dunes, wetlands, high risk erosion areas, floodplains, and key woodlands should be protected from unnecessary destruction. Development should complement rather than destroy these areas and their values. By doing so the environmental quality of the air and water will be improved, wildlife habitat will be preserved, scenic values will be protected, and the character of the area will be maintained. Some new intensive shoreline development will be desirable and necessary, but the balance should not be disproportionately on the side of new tax base as it has been for the past decade. Opportunities to enhance the waterfront should be seized. Parks and open spaces should eventually be linked with other public places. Additional access to the waterfront should be acquired when available, and existing access via street ends and parks should not be lost through neglect or inaction. A new public marina should be constructed if resources are available and the cost could be spread among local citizens and other users (such as through grants or user fees). Visual access from public thoroughfares and walkways should be maintained in all new waterfront development. Protection mechanisms, like the Natural River designation, should be recognized for the ancillary benefits they bring to the community. A local "Friends of the River,. organization could be instituted to annually adopt and clean up the shoreline to remove floating debris, other waste, and downed timber that become lodged there. A special effort to maintain the character of Lakeshore Drive along the Lake Michigan shoreline should also be initiated. A comprehensive stormwater management plan and wetlands protection plan should be instituted as part of a broad water quality protection program that is based on the small watersheds that feed the Kalamazoo River Basin. The Soil Conservation Service should be asked to assist in preparing nonpoint pollution guidelines to help guide farmers in land management practices that help keep the River clean. spectjurisdiction boundaries. Their future quality and desirability depends on all governmental units through which they flow playing an active and supportive role in protecting and improving water quality. To advance this goal, the Jointly appointed waterfront committee should be reinstituted or its responsibilities shifted to the Joint Planning Committee which helped fashion this Plan. NEED FOR INTERGOVERNMENl'AL COOPERATION Each of these recommendations requires a strong degree of intergovenunental cooperation. Watercourses, like the environment. do not re- Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �N A ��5~ ,z 3, JO " 3' J, 33 ,, ,. )4 31 JO 29 )7 JO 29 JI ,. c:::, ,. 27 ,. 23 ,. " ,. J3 \) .: ,. 2J • 21 27 25 2J 16 24 26 24 22 20 " ,.._I\ ... ;;5 2 MICHIGAN lka.l• 1:11.000 80\JNDIN091N l"!!:T ,..,. ,.;. 100D ;:;,. MAP 8.3 SAUGATUCK HARBOR 2 �MAP 8.4 MARINAS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. ,a. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. Douglas Ship & Shore Motel/Boatel (0) East Shore Harbor Club (64) Pointe Pleasant Yacht Club (14) Sergeant Marina (63) Tower Marina (322) Skippers Cove (12) Water Side Condo (12) Naughtins Marina (37) Saugatuck Yacht Club (16) Deep Harbor Deve, Inc. (46) South Side Marina (24) Casa Loma (11) Gleasons Marina (9) Saugatuck Yacht Co. (81) Walkers Landing (22) Windjammer Condo Association (12) Schippas Marina (10) Singapore Yacht Club (50) West Shore Marine Inc. (57) Bridges Of 5augatuck (8) Coral Gables (50)) V & L Properties (10) Back Bay Marina (12) Southside Marina (24) Total Nurrt>er Of Permitted Marina Boat Slips In Area .........966 August 1989 DATA SOURCE:DNR Planning & Zoning Center, Inc, Lansing, MI ��N A MAP8.5 STREETENDS/ PARKS G Street/Road Ends [!] Public Access 0 Douglas Parks 1) Oval Beach 2) Mount Baldhead 3) Chain Link Ferry 4) Douglas Beach ~ 1 ·, -, - - DATA SOURCE: Plllirilng & Zoning Cen1et Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A See Preceding Map For Information Regarding This Area MAP 8.5 A STREET ENDS/ PARKS ~ Street/Road Ends ~ Public Access August 1989 DATA SOURCE: [!] Douglas Par1<s 1) Shultz Par1< 2) River Bluff Park 3) Sundown Par1< Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �9-1 Chapter9 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS G rowth and development trends reflect past settlement patterns in a community and provide a basis for estimating future development patterns. Growth rates are one aspect of change. These show which areas are growing at a faster rate. Residential construction permits show where most of this residential development is taking place and provide insight into residential preferences. Land subdMsion trends show the rate at which small lots are created. Rapid land subdivision carves up agricultural land and other open spaces for residential use and thus permanently transforms the rural character of an area. Inefficient land subdivision takes large amounts of potentially developable land out of use as long "bowling alley" lots or "flag" lots are created. Population trends may be used to project future population, which is used to estimate future land use needs and settlement patterns in a community. And finally, a "build out" scenario may be created based upon the vacant or buildable sites in an area to get an idea what the area might look like if it were developed according to current wning and use requirements. A more complete discussion of these issues is included below. GROWfH RATES Between 1950 and 1970 the Village of Douglas grew more rapidly than either Saugatuck Township or Saugatuck. with a growth rate of 35% (see Table 9.1). In terms of actual numbers, the Village's population more than doubled between 1950 and 1980, when it reached a total of 948. Then, between 1970 and TABLE 9.1 RATE OF POPULATION CHANGE 1950-60 1960-70 1970-80 Saugatuck Saugatuck Twp. Douglas 20% 34% 35% 6% AREAWIDE 29% 10% 11% 35% 16% COMMUNilY 40% 17% 22% 1980 the growth rate slowed to 170Ai and surrounding Saugatuck Township's growth rate soared at 40%. Saugatuck's growth rate, on the other hand, nearly ground to a halt. These changing growth trends reflect the scarcity of land in the city and the desire for scenic, rural living which is attracting many to the Township. Recent trends, however, suggest that growth in the Village is increasing. RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION Building permit data reveal development trends in Douglas since 1980. The Village has attracted much of the area's multiple family housing development. About 46 single family homes and 73 multiple family units have been constructed in the Village since 1980. Most of this construction has occurred south of Center Street along Lakeshore Drive; in the northwest corner of the Township: and north ofWestshore St. and east of Ferry St. (see Map 9.1). Aside from new construction, the number of additions, extensions, and other improvements was also high. MIGRATION Migration is a strong component of population growth throughout the County. Allegan County experienced net in-migration of 3.03% between 1983 and 1987-the eighteenth highest rate of in-migration in the state. Many of these immigrants are retirees. Figure 9.1 reveals migration patterns of senior citizens in the region over the past three decades. It reveals an explosion of retiree migration into Allegan County since 1970. Between 1980 and 1985, the rate of retiree migration into the County continued to climb. reaching 2.17 compared to -0.26 for the state as a whole. POPULATION PROJECTIONS Future population for the Village of Douglas was projected based on the 1970 to 1980 population trend. rather than long term trends. due to the recent changes in the rate of population �9-2 FIGURE9.l KENT OTTAWA 54 501 • 1412 RETIREE MIGRATION TRENDS SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN -767 I -1148 I I -713 I I I -247 -457 150 .AUEG-AN -,• •·RAY -173 Net Migration of The Population 65+ 1950-60 1960-70 1970-80 · -5 · 121 132 I 12 1040 l EATON · -158 -142 I · 804 · - · - • .J._ - - • _j_. VAN IUREN ,•KALAMAZOO,• +· " -13 284 1039 -r f 1--- ~ -·~, CA.is . 390 -445 578 growth described above. A composite straightline trend can be projected by applying logarithms to determine the ratio of change based on the 1970 to 1980 trend. Table 9.2 illustrates these results. Thus if current trends continue, the tricommunity area can expect about 1800 more people in 2010 than in 1980. Sixty-four percent of this growth is expected to occur in the Township, with 21 % in the Village, and 15% in the City. Due to its greater availability of land, the Village will eventually overtake the City in terms of overall population growth, as seen in Figure 9.2. 130 I I 85 109 1 I f • CALHOU_N -1196 -1131 -592 I t -,sr.',.!2WH..,--.;u.NCH -i"49 • --,.- 36 1 / -33 580 ' I -125 -181 Residential land in the Village is zoned predominantly for medium density residential development (4 to 5 units per acre). If present trends continue. about 70% of the 153 new households will settle in medium density residential areas. translating into the conversion of 26 acres of land. Only 4 acres would be transformed into low density residential use, and about 4 acres would be developed at higher densities as apartments or clustered units. This would consume 34 acres of the Village's presently undeveloped residentially zoned land. FIGURE9.2 POPULATION TREND PROJECTED LAND USE .NEE;DS: 2010 To determine the impact of this population growth on residential land use, future population is translated into new households. This is done by applying the average household size for each community to the projected population in 2010 and then subtracting 1980 households. The result is an estimated 153 new households in Douglas by 2010. These results are shown in Table 9.3. Future demand for land by these new households may be estimated by looking at land subdivision trends and current settlement patterns or zoned densities. -447 -1651 1 I -1729 SAUGATUCK TWP. 3.0 p 2.5 0 p T H U 0 L u A! 2.0 - TWP.ONLY = SAUGATUCK = OOUGLAS 1.6 TN I D 1.0 0 0.5 s N 0.0 1950 1960 Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan 1970 1980 YEAR 1990 2000 2010 "' �9-3 leaving an excess of 163 acres. Tables 9.4 to 9.6 show this projection of current trends. BUILD OUT SCENARIO The projections shown above are only estimates based on current trends. Any number of events could alter these trends. For example, the location of a new industry in the Village could attract new families into the area. Provision of sewer and water service in the Township could intensify the type, density, and rate of growth that occurs there. And Saugatuck's attraction as a center for tourism could continue to grow. fostering greater in-migration of retirees and others searching for an alternative lifestyle. If the Village were developed to its full capacity, what would it look like? This exercise, called a "build out" scenario, provides an estimate of the buildable capacity of the Village under currently zoned densities. Acres were estimated for each community in the tri-community area based on vacant or developable land (not including existing agricultural areas) by zoned use and density /minimum lot size. These results are shown in Table 9.7. This information can be translated into a population estimate by first dividing the developable acres by the minimum lot size in that zoning district to determine the number of households which could occupy the parcel(s). The new households are then multiplied by the average household size for that community to derive a population estimate. Almost 200 acres of land are available for residential development in the Village. Most of this land is zoned for 4 to 5 units per acre. Thus. under a build out scenario. the Village could accommodate about 1, 139 new households. or 2,779 new residents, bringing the total population to over 3,700 people (see Table 9.8). Douglas also has nearly 50 acres of vacant, industrially zoned land-the highest amount in the trt-community area. Thirty-three acres are available for commercial development. POLICY IMPLICATIONS The future land use plan projects that given current population growth trends, Douglas will need only about 37 acres of residential land. Thus, the Village is far from meeting its capacity for residential development, as well as commercial or industrial use. This wealth of land combined with the availability of utilities and proximity to commercial services make Douglas an ideal site for development of an industrial park and affordable housing. This is s.tgnificant in light of the widely expressed need by both officials and citizens for additional jobs, families with children (in terms of the shrinking school enrollments), and affordable housing in the area. T.ABLE9.2 PROJECTED POPULATION 1970-1980 TREND COMMUN11Y Saugatuck Saugatuck Township Dou~as AREAWIDE 1970 1,022 1,254 813 3,089 1980 1990 1,079 1,753 948 3,780 1,163 2,074 1,061 4,298 2000 2010 1,254 2,454 1,187 4,895 1,352 2,904 1,328 5,584 TABLE 9.3 PROJECTED NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS COMMUNTIY Saugatuck Saugatuck Township Douglas AREAWIDE POP. 2010 1,352 2,904 1,328 5,584 HHSIZE # HHs 1980 HHs NEWHHs 2.00 2.69 2.44 676 1,080 544 2.300 537 633 391 1,561 139 447 153 739 Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �9-4 TABLE9.5 NEW HOUSEHOLDS BY DENSITY TYPE TABLE 9.4 PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION BY DENSITY TYPE COMMUNITY LOW Saugatuck Twp. 80% Saugatuck 40% Douglas 5% MEDIUM HIGH 100/o 10% 20% 25% 40% 70% HOUSEHOLDS MED. HIGH TOTAL LOW COMMUNTIY Saugatuck Douglas SaUJ!atuck Twp. AREAWIDE 56 8 358 421 56 107 45 207 28 38 45 111 139 153 447 739 Totals are based on unrounded figures. TABLE9.6 FUTURE RESIDENTIAL LAND NEEDS COMMUNTIY LOW TABLE9.7 AVAILABLE ACREAGE BY LAND USE TYPE ACREAGE* MED. HIGH TOTAL Saugatuck Douglas Saugatuck 24 4 205 14 26 13 3 4 10 41 34 228 AREAWIDE 234 53 17 303 ACREAGE IND. COMM. COMMUNTIY Saugatuck Douglas Sa.1.1,!!atuck1wp_ TOTAL ACRES 3 33 155 191 0 49 22 71 RES. 135 197 5,950 6,282 *times 1.25 (20¾> allowance for rights-of-way) Totals are based on unrounded figures. TABLE9.8 POPULATION 2010: BUILD OUT SCENARIO UNDER ZONING IN EFFECT COMMUNITY Saugatuck Douglas Sa, 1gat,rlc'Iwp. AREAWIDE ADDITIONAL HOUSEHOLDS 330 1,139 16,413 17,882 AVERAGE HHSIZE 2.00 2.44 2.69 In the 1988 Public Opinion Survey. 52.4% of Village respondents felt that apartments and 60.6% felt that detached single-family homes in the $50-$70,000 range are needed now. Yet the majority ofrespondents (41.8%) opposed lowering the minimum residential square footage requirement to make housing more affordable. However, the existing requirement of 1000 square feet is not excessive. Other strong preferences of Village citizens as revealed in the 1988 Public Opinion Survey are: • maintain the scenic. small town character of the Village; • no strip commercial development: • small commercial shopping centers off of major roads: • preserve open space along the waterfront; ADDITIONAL POPUIATION PRESENT POPUIATION 660 2,779 44,151 47,590 1,079 948 1.753 3,780 TOTAL POPUIATION 1,739 3,727 45.904 51,370 • protect the environment by prohibiting development of dunes and wetlands; • additional waterfront condominiums are not needed (81.4% of Village respondents). The majority of respondents felt that future commercial development is most appropriate along Blue Star Highway (66-71%) and at the freeway interchanges. Village respondents listed fast food restaurants as their top commercial land use priority for Blue Star Highway. E. Center St. in Douglas was the preferred location for future neighborhood commercial development. Priorities for downtown Douglas include more businesses oriented to the needs of residents, historic preservation, flowers and landscaping, a waterfront park, and dressing up store fronts. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �When asked how underdeveloped waterfront lands 1n Douglas should be used, 81 % felt that it should be acquired and preserved as open space. Alternatively, 80-90% opposed developing it with condominiums. Polieies to achieve the public's development objectlves are included in Chapter 1, and the Future Land Use Plan in Chapter 10. Regulatory tools, such as zoning, subdtvtsion regulations, and site plan review must be amended to insure consistency with this plan and the comprehensiVe plan of each jurisdiction. �N A • • • • 0 800 1 600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft • • • 0 ~ ~ II r-::: MAP9.1 RESIDENTALCONSTRUCTION PERMITS Douglas [!] Residential Construction Permits 1980-1988 Al.l;USt 1989 DATA SOURCE: Douglas Building Permi18 Planning & Zoning Center Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A 0 800 1600 2400 Scale 1" = 1748 ft MAP10.2 ENTRVPOINTS [• I Douglas Entry Points E:} Minor Entry Points August 1989 DATA SOURCE: Planning 6 Zoning Cenler Inc, Lansing, Ml �10-1 Chapter 10 FUTURE LAND USE ood land use planning is essential to the future quality of life of the trt-community area. Future land use arrangements are difficult to predict and guide to achieve desired results. A future land use map and plan embodies local land use goals, objectives, and policies and provides one land use scenario which a community may use as a physical guide. Goals and policies. in tum, provide the policy guide for land use and development decisions. The future land use map accompanying this chapter seeks to anticipate community land use needs for 20-30 years (see Map 10.1). These future land use arrangements are based on information in the preceding chapters which includes analyses of exi.Stlng land use. impacts of area trends, projected future land uses needs if current trends continue. and the relationship of land use activities to the natural resource base. All proposals are intended to be consistent with the goals. objectives. and policies presented in Chapter 1 (which were created With substantial public input). Many factors could intervene that would require reevaluation of certain arrangements or the entire plan. For example. if a large mix.ed use development (e.g. 1000 single family units plus some commercial) were built or if a large single employer would enter the scene (e.g. an auto manufacturing facility) then land use arrangements in thiS plan must be reexamined. A few key planning and design principles were used to evaluate alternative land use arrangements. With slightly different trends and projections. application of the same principles could lead to different conclusions and different land use arrangements. However. these differences would be related to the amount of particular land uses more than their location or relative relationships to adjoining uses. Likewise. there are many areas in which alternative land use arrangements would be satisfactory providing they remained in keeping with these basic planning principles. Consequently, it is crucial that this plan be regularly reviewed and updated at least once each five years to insure its continued relevance in planning for future land use needs. G PLANNING AND DESIGN PRINCIPLES Future land use arrangements were determined based on compatibility with surrounding land uses, natural capacity of the land for particular uses. and necessary infrastructure improvements. These land use arrangements can be refined into timed and sequenced development areas. once some key decisions concerning the provision of sewer and water services are made. The following planning and design principles are the technical foundation (or rationale) in support of the proposed land use arrangements graphically depicted on Map 10.1. Map 10.1 depicts generalized land use. which is partially reflected through mapping of zoning districts. The planning principles listed above are implemented primarily through wrung regulations and applied during the site plan review process. These principles are consistent with the goals, objectives. and policies in Chapter 1 and should remain the basis for reviewing any subsequent changes to the proposed Future Land Use Map. These planning principles are: • Protection of Public Health and Safety • Conservation of Natural Resources • Environmental Protection • Minimizing Public Service Costs • Efficiency and Convenience in Meeting Land Use Needs • Insuring Compatibility Between Land Uses (Nuisance Prevention) Often a land use decision based on one principle also advances another. For example, prevention of filling or construction on floodplainS protects public health and safety. conserves natural resources, protects the environment, and minimizes public service costs (especially for relief efforts). It may also create a valuable buffer or open space between uses and hence help insure compatibility. Protection of Public Health and Sqfety Key situations in which this principle is applied include: Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �10-2 • avoiding construction in areas which present natural hazards. In the Village these include areas too close to the Lake Michigan shoreline at high risk from erosion from coastal wave action; floodplains; saturated soils and wetlands; soils not well suited for support of foundations or safe disposal of septic wastes; and steep slopes. • avoiding construction where an intensive land use activity is not adequately serviced by all weather public access; • avoiding construction in areas with soils contaminated by hazardous and/ or toxic waste. Conseroation ofNatural Resources Failure to consciously protect nonrenewable natural resources exposes a community to unbridled destruction of those resources which are the foundation for an area's character and quality of life. Conservation of natural resources usually focuses on: land, water. minerals, certain soils (such as prime farmland), wetlands. sand dunes, areas supporting an abundance and diversity of wildlife, and unique forested lands. Areas where the land and the water meet are the most important. Indiscriminate land subdivision frequently reduces the size or alters the shape of land, thereby compromising the resource value and production potential of those lands. These changes also reflect lost opportunities- usually higher public service costs and gradual degradation of an area's tourism potential. Environmental Protection This principle aims at preventing pollution, impairment. or destruction of the environment. While there is considerable overlap with natural resource conservation issues, environmental protection measures focus primarily on air and water quality, and the impact of activities where the water meets the land. Environmental quality is best preserved by planning for appropriate land use activities in and near sensitive environmental areas. and managing development accordingly. This usually means insuring conformance with all applicable federal, state and local environmental regulations. Minimi.zing Public Service Costs Public service costs may be min.fmized by encouraging new land uses where existing infrastructure is not used to capacity and where expansion can be most economically supplied. This also results in compact settlement patterns, prevents sprawl, and is usually favored by taxpayers because it results in the lowest public service costs both for construction and maintenance. Efficiency and Convenience in Meeting Land Use Needs To be efficient in meeting future land use needs, communities must make better use of existing infrastructure and plan for infrastructure expansion in a manner which keeps the costs low and does not create huge areas where infrastructure will not be fully used for many years. It also means locating future land uses so that travel between activity centers is minimized. For example: building schools. neighborhood commercial activities, day care facilities, fire and police protection. etc. near the residential areas they serve. This saves municipal costs on initial road construction and future maintenance, reduces evexyone's gasoline expenditures, and conserves fossil fuel supplies for future use. Insuring Compatibility Between Land Uses A central objective of land use planning is to locate future land uses so that they are compatible with one another. This prevents future nuisance situations between adjacent land uses, such as loud sounds, ground vibrations, dust, bright lights. restricted air flow. shadows. odors. traffic, and similar impacts. A few obvious examples of incompatible land uses include factories, drive-in establishments, or auto repair facilities adjacent to single family homes. With proper planning, land uses can be tiered to buffer impacts and orderly development can occur. Examples include: commercial service establishments on highway frontage with backlot wholesale, storage, or office uses abutting a residential area; or single family residential uses adjacent to park and recreation areas. COMMUNITY CHARACTER When applying the above planning principles to new development proposals, one of the key considerations is compatibility with the character of existing development in an area. To describe the character of Douglas. many descriptive words and phrases come to mind. among them: quiet. friendly, clean, small, aesthetically pleasing, bountiful natural assets, and good location. Several Public Opinion Surveys in the past three years have revealed the Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �10-3 following three factors as among the most important reasons why people like Douglas: small town atmosphere, quiet town and friendly people. respectively. There is a very strong identiflcation on the part of the residents with the character of their Village. Douglas can be described as being both a resort, residential and year round residential community which for the most part has avoided commercial oriented tourism. Two surveys two years apart indicate that this is the way most residents would like it to remain. DEVELOPMENT Although Douglas is a small community (approximately 2 square miles). over 50 percent of its land is still undeveloped. This makes the residents sensitive to the quantity and type of development that could occur there. Without proper land development regulation, the character of the community could be signiflcantly changed. In a 1986 survey. almost 70 percent of those responding felt that development in the Village should be encouraged. Yet, residents overwhelmingly still want the community to remain like a small village. In residential development, affordable single-family homes and apartments were the preferred types, with waterfront condos and mobile homes receiving the highest response as not being needed. More industrial development was supported with 68.9 percent of those responding that it was needed in a 1986 survey, but fewer than half so indicating in a 1988 survey. However. the 1988 survey did reveal that over half of the respondents (56%) favored spending tax dollars to stimulate economic development. The need for more commercial development and services was also clearly indicated with Blue Star Highway and East Center Street being the preferred locations. TOURISM A strong tourist oriented character is something that it appears most Douglas residents would like to prevent. The increased activity and congestion that go with successful tourism are characteristics which are directly opposed to the existing quiet town atmosphere. This is not an anti-tourism sentiment, rather it is one which opposes the transformation of the existing character of the Village to one dominated by tourism rather than one where tourists are served as a part of other commercial acttvities in the Village. YEAR ROUND EMPLOYMENT/ INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT Historically. Douglas has had very little industrial development and has been primarily a community with residential and commercial development. This situation has reduced the potential for year round employment and has made the attraction of new families into Douglas more dtlTicult. The signiflcance of this trend is that the Village could become even more seasonal and retirement oriented than it already is. This in turn would reduce the capacity of existing commercial businesses to operate year round and further hinder the delivery of certain services such as education. Some new industrial development is both needed and desirable. BLENDING THE RESORT AREAS WITH THE YEAR ROUND COMMVNITY There will always be a division within the community between resort and seasonal areas and year-round areas. The recognition of the importance of both and fair representation of both in community decision making will be an ongoing challenge in making future land use and infrastructure decisions. Achieving and maintaining a balance will be the key to long term success. The mapping of future land use is a logical extension of the goals and policies stated in this Plan. A land use is the primary purpose for which a parcel of land is occupied. The plan is designed to promote orderly development and ensure that appropriate areas are available for all classes of land uses anticipated to be needed within the Village during the planning period (roughly 20 years) and based on existing trends. The future land use plan promotes orderly development in a number of other ways. Home owners can invest in their properties with protection from the intrusion and congestion of undesirable uses in the neighborhood. Overcrowding can be avoided. The Village and utility companies can adequately plan for the services needed in developing areas and ensure that adequate land has been reserved within the Village for all necessary uses. Each of the major classes of future land use are described below. Descriptions of various geographic areas or neighborhoods are also provided to give a greater depth of understanding to the land uses depicted on Map 10. 1. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �10-4 DEVELOPMENT .AND CONSERVATION AREAS The extensive water resources and other natural assets are at the top of the list as the reasons why Douglas Is such a desirable place in which to live. Toe actions and policies that are instituted in the future to protect the natural environment will be of utmost importance. The future land use map for the Village was prepared by first identifying conservation areas and then examining the suitability of remaining lands for various development purposes. Conservation areas include sand dunes. wetlands, floodplains, streams, creeks and drains, the Kalamazoo River, Lake Kalamazoo, and areas at high risk of erosion along Lake Michigan. These areas present severe limitations for development and are proposed for very limited future development in keeping with their fragility and importance in buffering Lake Michigan storms, filtering and storing water during periods of flooding, draining stormwater from land, providing habitat for a wide range of plants and animals, and for their wide ranging open space values. Destroying these resources would destroy the essential qualities which continue to attract residents and tourists to the area. These lands should largely be managed to remain in their natural state. Only when other more important public purposes demand it, should these lands be altered or converted to permit another use. If conserved and wisely used, waterways will present a linked natural greenbelt system that continues to enhance the area for years to come. The Village zoning ordinance should be amended to include better conservation of these areas. RESIDENTIAL Residential use will continue to be the predominant developed land use in the Village. The existing residential areas in Douglas provide a rtch and interesting mix of housing sizes, styles and ages. The challenge in the next twenty years will be maintaining the older housing stock and ensuring that the growing ranlcs of part-time residents and absentee owners does not result in housing detertoration. Equally important will be efforts to blend new development with the older character of existing land uses. Douglas has considerable potential for new housing development and has the greatest opportunity of the three Jurtsdictions to encourage the construction of affordable housing, due to available land that is suited for basement construction and the potential to extend sewer and water effi, -!ntly. However, if speculative market forces pro -;ed unabated, then the future residential uses will be high cost condominiums occupied by seasonal residents and in contemporary designs. A large amount of such development would be incompatible with the existing character of the Village. The Public Opinion Survey indicates that 81.4% oppose new condominiums along the Douglas waterfront. If the Saugatuck School Distrtct is to survive with the same breadth of programm!ng and quality it has today, then affordable housing oriented to families must be available. In terms of new construction, affordable housing typically means homes of about 1,000-1,200 square feet. on smaller than average lots, and priced at not more than $70,000. Some public incentives or "write-downs" are typically necessary to alter one of these basic elements. Some housing meeting this definition is being built on large lots in the rural parts of the Township, but not in any significant quantities. Manufactured housing can be built within this price range and if properly designed can meet an important local housing need. There are two mobile home parks in the Village already. However, the Public Opinion Survey revealed nearly 600!6 of the respondents were opposed to new mobile home parks. In light of improved quality and design of new manufactured homes. especially if constructed as double wides with pitched roofs, the Village should investigate encouraging the development of a mobile home subdivision with lot sizes consistent with other developed parts of the Village. Such a subdivision would not be a mobile home park (which may also be needed). Existing state standards for mobile home parks are such that lot sizes are too small to fit with the character of many communities and local governments are without authority to require that they be any larger. However. by failing to provide any place that double wide manufactured homes are encouraged to be built. then the market for such homes can usually only be satisfied in new mobile home parks. A unique opportunity exists for the area communities to take the initiative in providing affordable housing. If plans proceed to acquire the property known as the Jager property. for a new water intake plant, then part of the parcel could also be used for affordable housing. A design competition or specially hired site plan could be arranged to provide for affordable housing in thiS area. The site plan would be required to tier houses by size and type to blend Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �10-5 with existing homes along Lake Shore Drive. The treatment plant could be buffered from the residential area and the land costs paid back through development. New residential construction in the village should be encouraged on soils suitable for basements and served with public sewer and water. COMMERCIAL There will be three primary commercial cen- ters within the tri-community area. Downtown Saugatuck will continue to serve as the major center for commercial tourist activities. This should be encouraged. The shopping area in Douglas along Blue Star and extending down to the freeway interchange should be encouraged to continue to (re)develop with a primary focus on local commercial services and a secondary focus on highway related uses near the interchange. This area needs curbs and gutters and right tum lanes. The buildings. parking and signage on many properties are poorly designed, so any opportunity to improve design. safety. and function should be seized. Additional tourist-oriented retail businesses should be discouraged in this area. and instead redirected to downtown Saugatuck and the original Douglas Village Center. However, additional restaurant. motel and related services would not be inappropriate provided the market was adequate to support them. General business uses like shoe stores, banks, hardware stores, etc .. should be encouraged in the general business area in Douglas and not in interchange areas. INDUSTRIAL The location of the Haworth facility in Douglas is not the best use of that property in the long run (which is commercial). However, it is a well-maintained local company which is a major employer, and without a public effort to relocate it in comparable facilities elsewhere. this plan encourages its continuance. At the same time. the small industrial area south of the mobile home park on the east side of Blue Star should continue to be developed for light industrial activities and should be expanded to the east and south, and possibly to the west across Blue Star as well. Industrial parks are an excellent way to manage future industrial growth. Although they have broad, long-term public benefits (including lower service costs, fewer nuisance impacts. better design, and less environmental impact), industrial parks require a large short-term investment in land and public services. Therefore, it is crucial that studies be conducted to insure that the park could be competitive with others in the area. The Michigan Department of Commerce maintains an inventory of industrial parks through the Statewide Site Network. Only certified industrial par.ks will be included on this list. and thereby be able to effectively compete for new industries. To be certified. industrial parks must be at least 40 acres. a. site plan for the park must be approved, soil ')ortngs must be conducted. infrastructure must be completed. utilities must be installed 300 feet into the park. and protective covenants must be established. AGRICULTURE While agricultural activities used to play a significant role in land use in the Village. except for the MSU research facility such is no longer the case. In light of ample agricultural acreage in the Township and the limited availability of public sewer and water, it is more appropriate that lands which might otherwise be suited for agricultural use in the 0Village, be used for more intensive structural uses. such as single family housing. The raising of farm animals within the Village is also not appropliate in light of the nuisance problems they raise (noise, odors, insects, waste disposal, etc.) for present and future residential use. ENTRY POINTS There are three major entry points into the Village of Douglas. (See Map 10.2). They are: • from Lake Michigan on the Kalamazoo River via Lake Kalamawo • from I-Blue Star Highway at the Kalamazoo River Bridge • from 1-196 at Blue Star Highway Oust south of 129th Street) At the present time, the entries from Lake Michigan and over the Kalamazoo River provide an aesthetic and inviting entry into the Village. The entry from the south along Blue Star Highway is not as good. The public opinion surveys also reflected citizen concern about the appearance of properties along Blue Star Highway. The situation is further harmed by signs along I-196 which fail to inform southbound travelers at exit # 41 that they can access Douglas (only Saugatuck is mentioned) or along southbound Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �10-6 I-196 at exit# 36 which tell travelers that they can access Ganges. but not Saugatuck and Douglas. First impressions are very important in the tourism industry. Attractive entryways help entice tourists into the community and leave a positive impression to encourage future visits. The entry points represent the community and should reflect those qualities which make the area special. Fortunately, these design problems are easily overcome, and with only minimum public investment. A special joint effort to develop alternatives for improving the entry points into all three communities should be initiated. In addition, new land developments in these areas (or changes to existing ones) need to be carefully reviewed to insure that changes enhance (and do not further detract from) the positive image and character that should exist in these areas. FUTURE LAND USE BY AREA Following are brief geographic descriptions of future land use. These descriptions use the same planning areas depicted on Map 5.3. Lake Shore - Resort Residential Area This area should continue to be used for low density single family homes along the lakeshore in keeping with the size and quality of homes presently there. It is anticipated that seasonal vacation homes will continue to be the dominant use. Density will vary within this area, but a minimum lot size of 8,400 feet should be maintained. The proposed water intake facility, if constructed in this part of the Village, should be designed to be compatible with the character and quality of existing homes, and include extensive insulation and buffering techniques to eliminate (to the maximum practical extent) any noise impacts on adjacent homes. Campbell Road & West Center Street Additional single family homes in subdiVisions can be compatibly developed behind existing homes along Lake Shore Drive between Center and Golf View Drive by extending public sewer and water in this area. An effort should be made to maintain existing densities or tier the density of new homes so that no sudden density change occurs. Areas south of the golf course (on both sides of 130th) are similarly suited for residential development. Development under the Planned Unit Development (PUD) concept should be encouraged for this area. Through PUD, development flexibility in design and housing density is allowed to achieve maximum open space. This concept also encourages innovative and imaginative design and efficiency in providing public services. The use of PUD in this area offers the specific advantage that the recreational land and environmentally sensitive areas can be integrated into the development plan and their preseivation enhanced. The PUD concept allows buildings to be clustered through mixtures of housing types such as detached houses, townhouses. and apartments. This mixture of housing types creates fine housing opportunities for households and families of all age groups. Ferry/Blue Star to 129th This planning area is presently characterized by a golf course, a couple of commercial activities. a multiple family use and an industrial concern, along with a lot of vacant and underdeveloped property. Future land use in this area could arguably be encouraged to go several different ways. The golf course property could remain as such or be converted to single family or multiple family residential use in a compatible way. Additional commercial use or expansion of the Haworth facility could occur north of the existing plant. However, such expansion, if it occurred should be carefully scrutinized and restricted to prevent unnecessary impacts on adjoining residential uses to the north. Over time this area should be encouraged to develop for multiple family use. South of 130th on the west side of Blue Star could be developed for commercial on the Blue Star frontage and medium to high density residential behind it in order to be compatible with the Township future land use plan. However, it would also not be inappropriate for the industrial area on this side of the road to expand to the quarter section line in compliment to the industrial area under development on the east side of Blue Star. The likelihood of this occurring is not great however, due to significant soil limitations in this area. The small residential area that is landlocked from the rest of the Township should be annexed into the Village at the first opportunity. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan 17(\ �10-7 • • South of East 130th and East of South Blue Star There are presently two existing mobile home parks and the emerging light industrial park in this area. The residential activity should be encouraged to expand east to the pond. Typical development in this area could include mobile home parks, duplexes, and garden style apartments not to exceed three habitable stories. This area is suited for higher density activity because of its location along major arterial roads which can accommodate the heavier traffic flow. It can also act as a buffer use between single-family residential development to the north and the light industrial area to the south. Individual multiple-family uses should be designed with a landscaped buffer or open space where abutting single family residential uses. The area south to the Village limits should be used for light industrial activity. Light industrial development that will provide year round employment and thereby contribute to and stabilize an exiSting economy that suffers somewhat from seasonal business, should be targeted to locate in this area. The location chosen for this area was based on its access to the Blue Star Highway (U.S. 31) and its close proximity to the interchange for I-196. For industrial uses locating in this area, it is recommended that an industrial park design concept be used. An effort to insure quality design of the fronts of such buildings. with deep landscaped setbacks, minimal signage and no front yard parking should be initiated to both improve and enhance this major entrance into the Village. Blue Star Commercial Area This area is intended to provide opportunities for a full range of commercial uses. Grocery, hardware, clothing, pharmaceutical, hairdressing, bank and similar businesses should characterize this area. It is not an appropriate location for boat and vehicle storage or similar warehousing activities. Office development would also be acceptable in this area. Larger merchandisers should be encouraged to locate here because there is opportunity for smaller retail outlets or service establishments to locate in the Village Center Commercial area and also because the highway can better accommodate the larger volume of traffic that is generated by larger retail stores. No industrial uses should be allowed in this area. This area should be encouraged to develop in clusters of general business activity in small commercial complexes with shared parking facilities. The parking should be off of the street and gained via much better defined access. Curb, gutter and sidewalks should be provided through this area. The properties extending down West Center Street to Ferry Street could be commercially developed, but should be less intensively used than the properties along Blue Star. They should also be designed to blend With the character of residences in the area. This entire area deserves more refined study than this plan is able to undertake at this time. A lot-by-lot corridor analysis and access redesign plan should be prepared. Significant improvement to both the aesthetic quality and function of this area could be accomplished if a special plan for the corridor were prepared. East 130th Street This area has significant potential for new residential development west of Schultz Park. As long as the wetlands and floodplain along Tanner Creek are respected, very interesting subdivisions or planned unit development could occur. No lots should be allowed to be established that are unbuildable under existing DNR or Army Corps of Engineers wetland regulations and local zoning. The area that backs up to the Village Center should either be buffered by the existing woods or an effort should be made to insure compatibility in structure type between new residences in this area and the existing character of Village Center homes. This area is not well suited for either commercial or industrial development. Eventual housing unit density for this area Will be only slightly lower than in the Village Center Residential neighborhood. The recommended average density for these areas is two to three dwelling units per net acre with a minimum lot size of 8,400 square feet. Linear form residential development along 130th should be prohibited. Village Center Residential This area represents the older more established neighborhoods immediately surrounding the Village Center Commercial (downtown). Housing in this area for the most part is architecturally similar with most homes being built pre-1950. Housing density generally ranges between one and three units per net acre. It is also within this area where homes offering potential Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �10-8 for historic preservation can be found. The area also has some development potential. This development could occur in three ways: 1) existing vacant lots could be developed, 2) the second lot of a double lot could be sold off and developed, and 3) existing housing stock could be improved and expanded. Recommendations for this area are as follows: • Maintain an average density of three or four dwelling units per net acre while maintaining a minimum lot size of 7,920 feet. • All new housing development should be required to hook into the Village water and sewer system. • All new development should be encouraged to maintain a similar architectural theme With existing housing in the area. • Housing rehabilitation and historic preservation efforts should be focused on this area. Strong efforts will be necessary to retain the charm and ambiance of the old Village Center. A housing code enforcement program should be considered to insure the safety and habitability of the old homes in the area. An inventory, maintenance and replanting program for the aging trees should be initiated. Sidewalk repairs, replacement and installation are badly needed in some blocks. No nonresidential activity should be permitted outside of the Village Center Commercial area, except perhaps along the waterfront, and then only if compatible with adjacent uses. Expansion and improvement of public land along the waterfront here should be initiated whenever possible. Ultimately a pedestrian and/or bikepath connecting the Village Center with Schultz Park along the waterfront should be considered. Village Center Commercial This is the original commercial area of the Village. While it no longer performs many of the functions that it once did. it still plays a valuable role and should be maintained. The several vacant lots should be developed for new commercial. Small retail and service establishments such as restaurants. specialty shops, barber shops, bakeries, government and other small offices are appropriate here. New buildings should be of a style that is compatible with existing structures in the area. The exterior of the Township Hall should be better maintained and the Lodge (Town Hall) should be acquired by the Village and its historic character restored. The upstairs could be properly rehabilitated into offices for municipal use, or leased to local professionals. The Village office space is too small and should be expanded into the area being vacated by the fire equipment. A conference room is badly needed. Second floor space above existing commercial establishments should be made available for residential use provided that all building code requirements are met. Harbor.front This area is well suited for a combination of multiple-family residential. commercial and recreational uses. Because of its high values stemming from its waterfront location, development should be restricted to a specific blend of uses and design to preserve and enhance its unique character in the community. Recommendations for this area are as follows: 1. Multiple-family development should be clustered on the western portion and on the southern one-quarter of this area. It should be limited in height so as to not block the lake view by backlot properties. It should be tucked into the hill as much as possible and designed to enhance the natural setting rather than detract from it. 2. A bonus system should be considered that would allow higher than normal densities on certain areas of a site in exchange for retaining an increased amount of open space as common space or for general public use on other areas of the site. 3. A pedestrian/bike path available for public use should be developed in close proximity to the waterfront. This path could be developed in conjunction with the already existing private road or be placed right along the waterfront. 4. Use of the Planned Unit Development concept should be encouraged for this area. 5. Boat cradle storage would be more appropriately located elsewhere. 6. The private road presently servicing the Harborfront should be improved and dedicated to the Village. 7. A parking lot for cars and trailers adequate to meet the needs of marina users should be constructed so as to blend into the natural land form as much as feasible. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �10-9 8. Any recreational use which is not disruptive to the residential community along the Harborfront should be allowed. 9. The eastern end should remain free of any structures tall enough to block the view of the Lake from Blue Star Highway. The old platted but never developed public streets north of the Kewatin should be improved to the width of the rtght-of-way and utilized to establish a public parking and viewing area to take advantage of this, the single best view of Lake Kalamazoo. The parking area should provide for auto and trailer space. The Spencer Street end at the waterfront should be improved to establish a public boat launching area. A small amount of additional land may need to be acquired to permit adequate vehicular access and viewing. 10. Additional martna development, if any, should be restrtcted to the west end and middle portion of the property, not extend into the Lake any further than the existing dock line and be setved by more than one point of access. Whether additional dockage should be developed will be dependent upon an analysis of dockage on Lake Kalamazoo at the time of the proposal, and in consideration of the factors discussed in Chapter Eight Waterfront. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan I, ' ' ' ' �Douglas ■ Village Center Commercial mm~I lndUstrial Floodplain/Wetland ■ Recreation Planning & Zoning Center, Inc, Lansing, Ml �N A 0 700 1400 Village of Douglas FUTURE LAND USE 2100 Scale 1" = 1438' ........................ .·- ....................... . �11-1 Chapter 11 INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION B ~ y itself this plan has no legal regulatory force but rather. serves as a foundation upon which regulatory measures are based. The two primary land use regulatory documents which are also the principal means of implementation of this plan. are the zoning ordinance and subdMsion control regulations. These regulatory instruments are described in the next chapter. However. effective integration of this Plan will also require an ongoing commitment to intergovernmental cooperation with Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township. In particular, the Joint Plan prepared concurrently with this one should be implemented as steadfastly and also kept current with comprehensive reviews at least once each five years. It will also be very important to make every effort to keep Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township officials informed of proposed changes to this Plan or any of its regulatory instruments (such as zoning) and to encourage their input prtor to such a change being made. Likewise, those jurisdictions should be encouraged to reciprocate with proposals and an opportunity for review by the Village of Douglas prtor to action on any change which may impact on the Village. A copy of this Plan and any amendments to it will be filed with the clerk of each of these jurtsdictions, as well as with the County Clerk. the County Planning Commission, the County Economic Growth Alliance. the West Michigan Regional Planning CommiSsion, and Department of Natural Resources. Ongoing efforts to consolidate additional public services such as police and possibly public works should be continued where mutually beneficial. Likewise. efforts to convert the Kalamazoo Lake Sewer & Water Authority into a truly independent authortty should be continued. This would take it outside of political influence in day-to-day administration. Likewise. at some point. additional consideration should be given to consolidation of all governmental services into a single unit of government. A formal analysis of costs and benefits of consolidation may reveal the benefit of this alternative. See the additional thoughts in this regard in Chapter 12. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �12-1 Chapter 12 STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION PRIMARY IMPLEMENTATION TOOLS Relationship to Zoning Toe Village of Douglas has a zoning ordinance adopted pursuant to the City-Village Zoning Act, PA 207 of 1921. The intent of that ordinance is to regulate the use of land to provide for orderly growth and development and allow the integration ofland uses without creating nuisances. The wrung ordinance defines land use districts and regulates height. bulk, use, area oflot to be covered, and open space to be preserved within each district. Because the Zoning Enabling Act requires the wning ordinance be based upon a Plan and this Plan, prepared by the Planning Commission. has been prepared to guide future land use decisions, the zoning ordinance should be revised to reflect this Plan's new goals, policies, and future land use proposals. However, the zoning district map and the future land use map (10.1) will not be identical. The zoning map typically reflects existing land use (where it is desirable to continue it) and small areas zoned for more intensive use then at present. The future land use map reflects land use arrangements at some future time. (See Section 10.10, p. 245-250, Michigan Zoning & Planning, 3rd Ed., by Clan Crawford, ICLE, Ann Arbor, 1988). The Village should continue to maintain a formal site plan review process. Through this process applicants, in order to obtain wrung approval. must submit plans which clearly indicate how their development proposals will change and affect both the parcel of land being developed as well as surrounding properties. It iS recommended that all commercial and industrial development. as well as all subdivisions. multiple family housing, planned unit developments. and other development requiring more than five (5) parking spaces, undergo site plan review. In addition, the zoning ordinance and fee structures should be amended to pennit the Village to require developers of new commercial and industrial uses and all proposed multi-family developments to pay into an escrow fund to be used for payment of professional review fees by engineers, planners and attorneys (if neces- sary). Unused escrowed dollars would be returned: Relationship To Plans/Zoning In Aclj'acent Jurisdictions The land use proposals in this plan were carefully prepared with an eye to ensuring comp a U b ili ty with those of Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township. Equal care should be taken in the future to seek and receive comment on proposals that are on or near a border from an adjoining jurisdiction. Failure to do so will only insure future conflict over adjacent land uses, or the provision of new public services. Relationship to Subdivision Regulations The Village of Douglas adopted subdivision regulations Dec. 7, 1987. The enabling legislation that pennits the enactment of such regulations is Public Act 288 of 1967, also known as the Subdivision Control Act of 1967. ThiS Act allows a community to set requirements and design standards for streets, blocks, lots. curbs, sidewalks, open spaces, easements, public utilities, and other associated subdivision improvements. With the implementation of a subdivision ordinance there is added assurance that development will occur in an orderly manner. The Village of Douglas should consider amending the subdivision and zoning regulations to prohibit the establishment oflots which would be unbuildable under existing state or local regulations (such as lots which are wholly within a protected wetland). Relationship to Capital Improvements In its basic form. a CIP is a complete list of all proposed public improvements planned for a 6 year period (the time span may vary). including costs. sources of funding, location, and priority. The CIP outlines the projects that will replace or improve existing facilities, or that will be necessary to serve current and projected land use development within a community. Advanced planning for public works through the use of a CIP assures more effective and economical capital expenditures, as well as the provision of public works in a timely man- Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �12-2 ner. The use of capital improvements programming can be an effective tool for implementing the comprehensive plan by gMng priority to those projects which have been identified in the Plan as being most important to the future development and well being of the community. The Village Planning Commission should develop a formal capital improvement program. Land Use & Irifrastructure Policies A strong effort will be necessary to coordi- nate future capital improvement decisions and land use policies with adjoining units of government. As a result. proposed policy changes should be circulated for comment early. Likewise, proposed capital improvement programs should be prepared with adequate time for review and comment by the adjoining jurisdictions. Community Participation And Education In order to gain the support. acceptance. and input of area residents for future planning, ongoing efforts should be continued to provide information to them, and involve them in the planning process. The importance of their role in that process should be emphasized. Public acceptance will make the implementation of plans much easier and public input makes plans better and more responsive to local needs. SPECIAL AREA & FINANCING TECHNIQUES Building and Property Maintenance Codes BOCA (Building Officials and Code Administrators International. Inc.) is the basic building code adopted by the Village to regulate construction methods and materials. The adoption and enforcement of a building code is important in maintaining safe, high quality housing and in minimizing deteriorating housing conditions which contribute to blight within neighborhoods. This should be continued. The Village should consider adopting a basic property maintenance code to regulate blighting influences which result from failure to properly maintain property and structures. A standard code such as the BOCA Basic Housing - Property Maintenance Code or a locally developed code could be adopted. Community Development Block Grant Program The Community Development Block Grant program was authorized under Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. The Act had the effect of combining several federal categorical grants such as Urban Renewal and Model Cities into one. Grants under the program must principally benefit low and moderate income families. In Michigan there are two categories of eligible applicants: entitlement and non-entitlement. Entitlement communities, by meeting specific eligibility criteria. are given grant funds outright without having to compete for them. Non-entitlement applicants must compete for grant funds by applying through the Michigan Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program. The Village of Douglas is not an entitlement community. Therefore, it must apply through the Small Cities Program. Operation of the Michigan CDBG Program is the responsibility of the Michigan Department of Commerce with central program administration by the Department's Office of Federal Grant Management (OFGM). The Department of Commerce has entered into an agreement with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) assigning administrative responsibilities for the housing component of the program. In the housing area. samples of grant eligible actMties include: • Home Improvement Programs • Rental Rehabilitation Programs • Weatherization and Energy Conservation • Home Repair for the Elderly • Public Improvement in conjunction with targeted housing activity (limited to 25 percent of grant request) • Housing Related Services • Housing for the Homeless. The maximum grant amount is $250,000. By applying and obtaining a Small Cities Block Grant, the Village alone. or in concert with Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township could establlsh a housing rehabilitation program which would help preserve housing throughout the area. The CDBG program also has the following categories of assistance: • Base Industrial Loan program helps financially viable businesses needing financial assistance for growth. modernization, or expansion. Limit $750,000). Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �12-3 • Commercial Retail Loan program is for commercial, services. tourism. and other non-residential projects; and minority owned and retail projects in distressed communities. Limit $400,000. • Public Infrastructure Assistance program funds public improvements for the location and expansion of public infrastructures. Limit $750,000. • Downtown Development program provides financing to assist businesses in the redevelopment of the downtown area. Limit $500,000 or $300,000 for infrastructure improvement. • Communities in Transition program funds community development activities, such as public sewer and water systems, parks, bridges, roads, and comprehensive redevelopment planning. Limit $400,000. • Emergency Community Assistance program funds communities experiencing an imminent and urgent threat to public health, safety, or welfare which occurred within 90 days of application. Limit: $500,000. Downtown Development Authority - Act 197ofl975 This Act permits a city, village, or township to establish a nonprofit development corporation called a Downtown Development Authority (DDA) with broad powers, including those of taxation and bonding, to focus on revitalization and development within established "downtown" boundaries. The Act gives an authority broad powers with regard to the planning and development of the downtown district. It may engage in downtown planning, promote housing and public facility developments. and economic development projects. Operating revenues may be raised through public and private contributions or through properties the DDA may control. With the approval of the municipal governing body. an ad valorem tax may be levied on real and tangible personal property within the downtown district. Capital financing may be raised in a number of ways: • A DDA may issue revenue bonds. These, with municipality approval, may be secured by "the full faith and credit" of the municipality. • A DDA can request the municipality to borrow money and issue notes in anticipation of collected taxes. • A DDA, with municipality approval, may create a "tax increment jinaneing plan" in which it devotes projected increases in future tax revenues from increased assessed valuation in the project area - "captured assessed value" - for repayment of debts incurred in making selected public improvements. Revenue bonds are issued in anticipation of future revenue. Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) Programs To help preserve Michigan's older existing housing, Public Act 130 was passed in 1977 to allow MSHDA to begin a home improvement loan program that offers reduced interest rates to eligible low and moderate income families. MSHDA has created the Home Improvement. Neighborhood Improvement and Community Home Improvement Programs (HIP/NIP/CHIP). To get a loan. residents should apply to one of the banks, savings and loans, or credit unions that take part in HIP /NIP/ CHIP. Land and Water Conservation Fund The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant program was authorized by Public Law 88-578, effective January 1, 1965. The purpose of the program is to provide federal funds for acquisition and development of facilities for outdoor recreation. The LWCF Program is administered jointly by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. All political subdivisions of the state, including school districts, are eligible to participate in the program. Eligible projects include: 1. Acquisition of land for outdoor recreation, including additions to existing parks, forest lands, or wildlife areas. 2. Development including, but not limited to such facilities as: picnic areas, beaches, boating access. fishing and hunting facilities, winter sports areas. playgrounds. ballfields, tennis courts, and trails. For development grants, the applicant must have title to the site in question. The minimum grant allowable is $10,000 and the maximum grant allowable is $250,000. For all grant proposals, the amount of the grant cannot exceed more than 50 percent of the total project cost. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �ta◄ Mfcldgcm Natural Resoun:es Trust Fund "111e Kammer Recreatlonal Land Trust Fund iAct of 1976 fP'ub:UC Act 204) was passed by the M1dligan Legislature and sJgned by the GoverDrr.on July 23 1976. ThlsAct created the Mich1gatl Land Trust Fund. The purpose of the pzqp-am was to provide a source of funds for publlc accp.dsWon mrecreational lands. Funds accrued from the sale of oil. gas and mineral leases and royalties from oil. gas. and mineral ext::ractlen& on state lands. On November 6. 1984. Michigan resJdents cast their v.ote ln favor of Proposal B. ThJs con~ amencbnent created the MichJgan Natural Resowces Trust Fund (MNRrF) and ~ that oil. gas. and other mineral lease and royalty payments be placed into the Fund. With proceeds used to acquire land or rights in Ja8d for recreation uses or for protection of the laud because oftts environmental Jmportance or Its IICOAic beauty. and to develop publk recreaflon fadJlttes.. The 14tcbtgan Legtslature passed the MtchiganNat.uw Resourees Trust Fund Act of 1985 (Public Act 101) to Implement the amendm,mt. 111e MNRI'F oftldaJly replaced the M(Qbjgantand Tl:µstFund on October 1. 1985. .Aa#'indMdual. group. otgamzation. or untt gl' ~ [ may sul».nlt a land acquiSltion ~ but only units ofgovemment can take We n, and twuiage the land. Only units of ~ t i t can submit deYelopment proposals. ~ ~ for local grants must include a ~ lhatob or at least 25 percent of the total ~ d f . . 'lben ts nornmnnvm orrnaxtrrnrm . . . . . .fan proJeda; for development pro- :!;i ii•~fuodb1g~ls$15.000. is $750..QPO. !l'I l'ta'lt """4 -~IIQl,l.1ntatFund ..,.._~ • •; · : :· : .. .•- by.the flle(Jaw- .,.PIANd_, Mldl~ TABLE 12.1 RECREATION FACD..rl'IES & THEIR MINIMUM NUMBER OR SIZE NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE MINIMUM POINTS RECREATION FACILI1Y Bicycle Trail Playground SwunrnJng Beach Boat Launch Campground Non-motor1zed Trail Cross-country Ski Hildng Nature Horse Fishing Access Fishing Piers Nature Area MINIMUM SIZE 1 mile 3 pcs. of play equipment 50feet 5 parking spaces 10 campsites 1/2 mile 50feet 1 10 acres NOTE: Points arc not to be awarded ~!ifor cross-counuy ski trails, nature trails, and ill trails. 1bcae trails arc to be conatden:d as one ty. Source: DNR, Mlclwran's 1987-88 Recreation Action Prop-am Guidebook • eluding school districts) in acquiring land or rights to land for recreational uses. protecting land because of its environmental importance or scenic beauty, and developing public recrea- tional facilities. Any individual. group, organization. or unit of government may submit a land acquiSltlon proposal, but only units ofgovernment may take tltle to and manage the land. Only units of government may submit development proposals. All proposals for local grants must include a local match of at least 25 percent of the total project cost. 'lbcre ts Dll mtolmum or maxnnum for acqwsWon pr(?jects; for development proJeeta. the mtnhanrnfumttng teQUest Js $15,000, flao~ $87~4)()(). �12-5 The Recreation Bond Fund Recreation Improvement Fund The Recreation Bond Fund draws from bonds approved by voters in 1988. It calls for money to be spent on DNR and local recreation facilities in four categortes: Recreation infrastructure: such as ballfields, tennis courts, beaches and other shoreline areas, boat launches, trails, picnic areas, historic structures, playgrounds, roads. parking. restrooms. etc., which are not less than 15 years old; Waterfront recreation: such as fishing piers, boardwalks, boat launches, marinas, amphitheaters, landscaping. and shoreline stabilization; Community recreation: playgrounds. sportsfields, community centers, senior centers, fishing sites. and trails for the handicapped; Tourism-enhancing recreation: including campgrounds, boating facilities, historical sites, recreational conversion of abandoned rights-ofway, and fishing access. In its statewide inventory of recreational facilities, the DNR has identified Allegan County as deficient in a number of recreational facilities. Those relevant for the trt-community area include deficiencies in bicycle trails, fishing access, fishing piers, boat launches, campgrounds, nature areas, hiking trails, nature trails, cross country ski trails, picnic areas, and playgrounds. Allegan County communities with proposals for such projects will get funding priority over similar projects proposed in nondeficient counties. Table 12.1 includes the minimum number or size of selected recreation facilities to be considered toward bond funding. Grant requests may not exceed $750,000 and may not be less than $15,000. Applicants must match bond funds with 25% of the total project cost, not including other state grants or legislative appropriations. Bond money will only be allocated to projects on sites controlled by public agencies. In the tourism category. priorities are given to projects which: create new and innovative recreation-related tourtsm attractions: involve partnerships between the public and private sector: and projects for which feasibility studies have been conducted which demonstrate local, regional. and statewide economic benefits. [Applications and further information may be obtained from: DNR, Recreation Services Division, P.O. Box 30028, Lansing, MI 48909 (517) 335-3043.) The Recreation Improvement Fund was created from State fuel tax revenue. About $750,000 per year is being targeted for development of non-motorized trails (hiking, bicycle, cross-country, and nature trails). No application forms or criteria have yet been prepared, but the Recreation Division is encouraging local governments to submit proposals based on local determination of need. location, and financing. Local Facility Development Grants These grants come from a number of funding sources and are available for planning, design, or development of local recreational facilities. The Village of Douglas received $11,000 through this program in FY 1987 -88 for improvement of its boat launch site on Kalamazoo Lake. Land Acquisition Grants Land acquisition grants are available for projects aimed at open space preservation; park creation or expansion: acquisition of environmental resources such as sand dunes. woodlots, or wetland areas: waterfront access sites; and many other land acquisition projects intended for (passive or active) recreational purposes. Waterways Fund The Waterways Division of the Department of Natural Resources offers grants for the purpose of developing public boating facilities. The emphasis is on creating boat access sites and supporting facilities. Road Funds In 1987, three acts were passed to provide a new source of revenue for cities, villages.and county road commissions. The Transportation Economic Development Fund (Act 231 of 1987, as amended), the Road Construction and Improvement Act (Act 233 of 198 7), and the Local Road Improvements and Operation Revenue Act (Act 237 of 1987, as amended). The acts will be :in effect for five years, when they will be reviewed for continuation by the legislature. The Local Road Improvements and Operation Revenue Act authorizes county road commissions to impose a vehicle registration fee and use these funds for road improvements. This Act has had little utility, however, because the fee must be approved by a public vote. Michigan voters in 3 counties rejected proposed fees in the November 1988 election. Many counties chose Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan i �12-6 not to even put it on the ballot, fearing the same result. The Road Construction and Improvement Act (Act 233) provides funding through the transportation economic development fund only to rural counties (less than 400,000 population) with a national lakeshore. national park. or in which 34% or more of the land 1s commercial forest land. Then a portion of the remaining funds are available for use for county, city, and village street improvements. The Transportation Economic Development Fund allocates money for the purposes ofbrtnging county roads to all season highway standards. This is important because heavy trucks can only travel regularly on all season roads. The Transportation Economic Development Act also offers counties, cities, and villages the opportunity to compete for additional funding on special projects with economic development objectives. This competitive grant is awarded by the State Highway Commission. Qualified project categories are listed below: (a) Economic development road projects in any of the following targeted industries: agriculture or food processing; tourism; forestry; high technology research: manufacturing; office centers solely occupied by the owner or not less than 50,000 square feet occupying more than 3 acres of land. (b) Projects that result in the addition of county roads or city or village streets to the state trunk line system. (c) Projects for reducing congestion on county primary and city major streets within urban counties. (d) Projects for development within rural counties on county rural primary roads or major streets within incorporated villages and cities with a population of less than 5,000. PUBLIC WORKS FINANCING In addition to using general fund monies, it is often necessary for a community to bond to raise sufficient funds for implementing substantial publlc improvements. Bonding offers a method of financing for improvements such as water and sewer lines, street construction. sidewalks. and publlc parking facilities. Common municipal bond types include: 1. General Obligation Bonds - full faith and credit pledges, the principal amount bor- rowed plus interest must be repaid from general tax revenues. 2. Revenue Bonds - require that the principal amount borrowed plus interest be repaid through revenues produced from the public works project the bonds were used to finance (often a water or sewer system). 3. Special Assessment Bonds - require that the principal amount borrowed plus interest be repaid through special assessments on the property owners in a special assessment district for whatever public purpose the property owners have agreed (by petition or voting) to be assessed. TAX INCENTIVES The state law permitting communities to provide property tax incentives for industrial development is Act 198. This Act allows a community to provide tax abatements as an incentive for industrial firms which want to renovate existing or build new facilities. ADDmONAL RECOMMENDATIONS Other Planning & Economic Development Assistance The Village Planning Commission should maintain regular communication with the County Planning Commission, with the West Michigan Regional Planning Commission. and with the Allegan County Community Growth Alliance. These organizations should be encouraged to continue their County and region-wide planning and economic development efforts and to share relevant materials with the Village. Likewise a copy of this Plan should be forwarded to each of these agencies when adopted. .Pro-Business Alliance One way to strengthen Douglas's economic development potential is to establish a pro-business exchange in Village government (or Jointly with Saugatuck and Saugatuck Township) modelled after the Michigan Bell Business Retention and Expansion Program. (Douglas is not eligible for participation in the Michigan Bell Business Retention and Expansion program because it is not in a Michigan Bell service area.) A pro-business exchange creates an atmosphere of cooperation which benefits both the business and the community. The role of a pro-business exchange is to assist existing businesses in finding solutions Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan ,,,.......__ �12-7 for their problems (i.e. inadequate parking, expansion or relocation needs, etc.) and help make new businesses feel welcome. The exchange would work with area businesses to determine their needs and appoint an ombudsman to inform new businesses of local services and contacts. Businesses are often not aware of the services available to them or who to contact for more information. A brochure could be prepared which identifies who to contact for information on wrung, construction. planning, utilities, and taxation. The brochure could also identify permit fees, tax and utility rates, and transportation. delivery. freight. health, and financial services available in the area. Poverty The changing economy, higher health care costs, higher literacy and skills requirements for employees, and inflation have seriously hurt the nation's poor, including the elderly on fixed incomes. Social security benefits are the only retirement income for about two-thirds of all American retirees, and an estimated one million Michigan residents have no private or public health insurance. The poor are often overlooked in community development efforts, yet they are the group most in need of public assistance. Over eleven percent of the Village's residents were living below the poverty level in 1980. That's an annual income of less than $3,778 for those under 65, and $3,479 for those 65 and over. The Village should continue to monitor the number of people in poverty through the census counts and work with local churches and nonprofit groups to assist them through food drives, temporary shelters, or other needed services. Collection of Trqf/ic Count Data A more detailed analysis of street and road needs should be undertaken. However, doing so is limited by the lack of any systematic and recent traffic count information. The trt-cornmunity Jurisdictions would greatly benefit from Jointly purchasing the necessary equipment and undertaking specific traffic counts on a regular basis. The cost and training associated with this is minimal compared to the benefit. Blue Star Highway Corridor Study Blue Star Highway from the Kalamazoo River south to the freeway exit has the potential to grow haphazardly under existing zoning regulations. As a result it deserves a more thorough and careful analysiS than has been possible to date. A lot by lot analysis with an emphasis on traffic flow, ingress, egress, bicycle use, pedestrian access, parking, shared access, signs, land use, and the potential impact and appropriate timing for the extension of sewer and water should be initiated. The first and most important step will be the collection of data on traffic flow and traffic generation by road segment. Public Open Space Acquisition Programs to acquire public open space along the water should be initiated. One option is to create a local nonprofit land conservancy. There are several very effective ones operating in Michigan. Priority should be given to building a trust fund for acquisition and maintenance or tying into existing ones by the Nature Conservancy and similar organizations. Kalamazoo Lake Sewer & Water Authority Once the Township Joins as a full member of the Kalamawo Lake Sewer & Water Authority, it should be modified so that it is a more independent operating authority and not under the control of the legislative bodies of the three jurisdictions. This would distance it from political influences in day to day adrniniStration. Efforts are presently underway to evaluate the potential for doing so. One Jurisdiction The benefits of merging the three communities into one JuriSdiction far outweigh the detriments if the long term future of the area is considered. However, past efforts to do so have been met with failure and the citizen opinion survey still reflects an evenly divided electorate. Yet, no systematic analysis of the issue considering all aspects (planning. development control, cost. revenues. taxes, economic development, short versus long term, impact on community character. etc.) have ever been performed. Such an analysis should be done to more clearly lay out and analyze the issues. It should be undertaken by the three communities together, but could also be done by an outside group, such as the business community or a taxpayers organization. Periodic Updating and Revisions As these additional studies are undertaken the plan should be updated to reflect the new information. At a minimum the Plan should be Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan II ! :: - �12-8 comprehensively reviewed and updated at least once every five years. Managing Growth and Change The key to successfully managing future growth and community change ls integrating planning into day- to-day decision making and establishing a continuing planning process. The only way to get out of a reactionary mode (or crisis decision making) is by planning and insuring the tools available to meet a broad range of issues are current and at hand. For that reason it will be especially important that the recommendations of this Plan be implemented as the opportunity presents itself (or revised as circumstances dictate). Many new tools may be made available to local governments over the next few years to manage the growth and change process. It will be a challenge to Village officials to pick from among the new tools, those that will provide greater choice over local destiny and quality of life. Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan ��REFERENCES Listed below are some of the key reports, studies, plans, and data sources whfCh IAH!le ~ references tn the preparation of this plan. Other data sources are referenced throuQhOllt the--.,. n£MOORAPIIICS U.S. census. eurrent Population Reports. East North Central 1986 P.optdattOn and 1'B5 Per Capita Income Estimates for Counties and Incorporated Places, Series P-26, No. 86-ENO-SC (al$) referenced.for ecorwmtc data). U.S. Census of Population and Housing, 1980-SutnmarY Tape FJle S A ~ Saugatuck. Saugatuck Township, the Village of D~uglas. and Allegan County. BJSTORY Joe .Armstrong and John Pahl. River ~Lake: A&uqulcentemalal m.tm70F.:;:A:dlll--■c•••• Michigan. published by the 1835 Committee. 1985. MASTERPlANB Saugatuck Townehlp General Development Plan. ptepared fur saugatuck =•~ldar-:l&V Wil11ams & Works. Inc•• 1975. Village of Dou,lu Land Use Plan, prepared by the Village of Douglas Pllaan,,tngnntng:4aM••• with the asststance of the West Michigan Regional Planning CommJssion, adopted November UL 1986. Land U&e-Vllla8e of saa,atuck, prepared by the Saugatuck asststanee of the West Mtchtgan Regtonal PlartnUlg co.mtssloJI. 19 NATORAL RESOtJRCES Michigan Resouree Inventory System Database. De Soll S'lllftJ' of Allelan county. lllcNca-. United ~l)el~~ol~lil'A Conservation Serrice. March 1987. OWNBR8BIP LUU1 .Mid and Plat 1989. �SOLID WASTE Allegan County Solid Waste Plan, prepared for the Allegan County Board of Commissioners and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources by the Allegan County Planning Commission, P.A 641 solid Waste Planning Committee, and the West Michigan Regional Planning Commission, September 1983. ECONOMY Real and Personal Property SEV, 1980-88, Michigan Department of Treasury, State Tax Commission. The Economic Impact of Travel on Michigan Counties, prepared for the Michigan Travel Bureau by the U.S. Travel Data Center, July 1988. Travel and Tourism ln Michigan: A Statistical Profile, First Edition, Research Monograph # 1, Michigan State University, Travel. Tourism and Recreation Resource Center. 1986. Michigan Employment Security Commission, Bureau ofResearch & Statistics, Detroit. Michigan. UTILITIES A Feasibility Study on the Utillzation of a Single Ground Storage Reservoir, SaugatuckDouglas Water System, prepared for Kalamazoo Lake Sewer & Water Authority by Holland Engineering, Inc., January 18, 1983. Facilities Plan for Wastewater, prepared by Williams & Works, April 1976. Saugatuck Township Area Utility Service Study, prepared by Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, Inc., March 1988. Village of Douglas Water Supply Contamination Problem Evaluation and Recommendations, Wolverine Engineers & Surveyors, Inc., July 1, 1987. Village of Saugatuck Streets and Public Utlllties Condition Report, May 1984. Waterworks Rellablllty Study for Kalamazoo Lake Sewer and Water Authority, prepared by Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr, & Huber, Inc., March 1987. ZONING City of Saugatuck Zoning Ordinance, as amended through October 1989. Saugatuck Township Zoning Ordinance. as amended through October 1989. Village of Douglas Zoning Ordinance, as amended through October 1989. �r-1"' APPENDIX B Demographic, Economic, and Housing Data ,.,,-..... , �A. DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS l. Age Cohorts (Raw Data) Saugatuck Douglas Saug. Twp. Area County ------------------------------------------------------------------------------1496 61 13 15 21 3 11 30 47 6 17 18 15 under l 1-2 3-4 5 6 7-9 10-13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22-24 25-29 30-34 35-44 45-54 55-59 60-61 62-64 65-74 75-84 85+ 19 13 24 14 50 106 92 1:01 136 59 21 27 138 57 "ft 2. Age ---------0-4 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ 23 11 17 19 6 36 59 14 15 23 18 14 16 22 1860 84 72 106 82 48 11 30 -as 49 4 25 26 56 24 29 20 106 47 23 32 34 4 52 94 46 46 86 212 67 2560 2544 1289 1332 4274 5989 1522 1642 1758 1666 �0 - 3. Change in Age Cohorts from 1960-1980 Age 1960 1960 M/F Tri-Community Area 1980 M/F 1980 Change 1960-80 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------121/140 274/249 133/146 129/139 170/166 142/147 115/163 196/232 0-4 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ 261 523 279 268 336 289 278 428 (9.8) (19.6) (10.5) (10.1) (12.6) (10.9) (10.4) (16.1) 113/94 233/224 325/308 337/290 170/179 239/244 192/201 231/359 207 457 633 627 349 483 393 590 (5.5) (12.2) (16.9) (16. 8) (9.3) (12.9) (10.5) (15.8) -20.7% -12.6% 126.9% 134.0% 3.9% 67.1% 41.4% 37.9% ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: (same as above, 1960 and 1980). 4. Place of Birth Michigan Another State Born Abroad Foreign Born County Saugatuck Douglas Saug. Twp.* Area 615 (56.9) 422 (39.1) 5 (0.4) 37 (3.4) 577 (60.9) 320 (33.8) 2 (0.2) 49 (4.4) 990 (57.8) 598 (34.9) 2182 (58.3) 1340 (35.8) 7 (0.2) 210 (5.6) 124 (7.2) 63, 771 (78.2) 15,934 (19.5) 227 (0.3) 1,623 (2.0) * Some individuals not accounted for. Source: (same as above), item 33. 5. Place of Residence - 1975 (Persons 5 years old and over) Saugatuck Same House Same County Another County Another State Abroad 503 187 228 117 (48.6) (18.0) (22.0) (11.3) 423 156 198 103 8 Douglas Saug. Twp. (47.9) (17.6) (22.4) (11.6) (0.9) 984 (59.5) 144 (8.7) 244 (14.7) 280 (16.9) Area 1910 487 670 500 8 County (53.4) (13.6) ( 18. 7) (14.0) (0.2) 44,575 (59.3) 15,428 (20.5) 10,923 (14.5) 3,962 (5.2) 241 (0.3) Source: (same as above), item 34. 6. Household Characteristics Total HHs Ave. HH size 2 parent £am. Female HH head Saugatuck Douglas Saug. Twp. 537 2.00 219 41 391 2.44 222 31 633 2.69 411 28 Source: (same as above), items 10 and 20 Area County 1561 2.39 852 100 27,282 2.95 19,520 1,911 �7. Marital Status Saugatuck Saug Twp Douglas -------------------------------------------------------Single Married Separated Widowed Divorced 262 (28.1%) 325 (23.9%) 467 (50.1%) 849 (62.5%) 25 (2.7%) 28 (2.1%) 107 (11.5%) 75 (5.5%) 72 (7. 7%) 82 (6.0%) 177 (23.2%) 449 (58.8%) 16 (2.1%) 66 ( 8. 7%) 55 (7.2%) -------------------------------------------------------- Source: (same as above), item 26. B. HOUSING STOCK l. Structure Type Douglas Saugatuck Area Saug Twp. County -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Total units Year Round Units 1 in Structure 2 in Structure 3 and 4 in Struct 5 or more Mobile Homes Vacant, Seasonal, & Migratory 1 in Structure 2 in Structure 3-4 in Structure 5 or more Mobile Horne/Trailer 772 569 385 49 68 60 7 529 406 290 20 16 40 40 850 734 636 32 203 150 6 18 29 123 108 11 4 116 106 5 2,151 1,709 1,311 101 84 100 113 66 31,864 28,985 23,190 1,001 583 1,199 3,0 442 364 22 22 29 5 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: U.S. Census of Population and Housing, 1980--Summary Tape File 3A, item Detroit, MI, tel. 313-354-4654 2. Year Structure Built - Year Round Units Douglas Saugatuck Area Saug Twp. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------3568 (12 (7. 6) 1975-80 1970-74 1960-69 1950-59 1940-49 Pre 1940 36 (6.3) 19 ( 3. 3) 51 (9.0) 73 (12.8) 56 (9.8) 334 ( 58. 7) 22 (5.5) 46 (11.3) 81 (19.9) 32 (7.9) 36 (8.9) 189 (46.5) 72 116 133 99 68 246 (9.8) (15.8) (18.1) (13.5) (9.3) (33.5) 130 181 265 204 160 769 (10.6) (15.5) (11.9) (9.4) (45.0) 4326 (14 4458 (15 3647 (12 2507 (8 10479 (36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: (same as above), item 109. ��4. Annual Average Employment Year -Tri-Community Area Ave. Ernp. ------------------------------- 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1,491 1,527 1,555 1,613 1,695 1,656 1,175 2,461 2,550 2,700 ------------------------------- Source: Michigan Employment Security Commission, Field Analysis Unit. Detroit, Michigan, tel. 313-876-5427. 5. Persons in Poverty by Age Saugatuck Douglas Saug Twp. Area County -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------5181 227 83 Less than 55 55-59 60-64 65+ 67 77 3 6 8 15 24 9 8 39 78 281 206 1127 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Source: U.S. Census of Population and Housing, 1980--Summary Tape File 3A, item 93. Detroit, MI, tel. 313-354-4654. �APPENDIX C Public Opinion Survey Responses �VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS PUBLIC OPINION SUR\JEV RESULTS PAUL HARRIS: ASSISTANT RESEARCH DIRECTOR RBSPOHSE RATE WE SENT 550 SURVEVS FROM OAKLAND UNIVERSITY USING THE MAIL LABELS FROM THE VILLAGE. WE RECEIVED (es of 11 /29/68) 257 SURVEVS FROM THIS MAILING, PRODUCING A RESPONSE RATE OF 46.7 PERCENT. IN ADD IT I ON, WE RECEIVED 30 RENTER SURVEYS WHICH WERE DISTRIBUTED BV THE VILLAGE. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF SURVEYS USED IN THE FORTHCOMING ANAL VSES IS: 267. �COt1t1UNITY VALUES .QJ.: lmportonce of things people look for in o community. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 &. 2 = NOT IMPORT ANT, 4 & 5 = IMPORT ANT, 3 = HAS BEEN OMITTED smttll town otmosphere Quiet town friendly people 8t troct 1ve/beut i ful surroundtngs good plttce to reise children {reditionel vttlues re 1i gi ous opportunities freedom to be myself chance to get invol11ed in locel org's low crime rete good school system row tax rates close to lerger cities convenient shopping opportuni tes 011011 ebi 1i ty of goocf housing f amny in the area job in oreo water based recreation nearby not industriolized 9.2: NOT IM~WANT IM~J.l~NI 9.21 7.11 4.91 31.61 24.31 34.91 5.61 29.01 4.91 24.61 10.41 16.41 17.91 25.51 43.61 42.91 13.51 27.21 87.91 86.91 65.71 57.31 57.11 43.11 79.01 41.31 90.31 61.71 65.41 59.91 50.61 62.21 52.21 44.11 61.21 53.61 How hes the community chenged. PERCENT gHECKEP 24. I better place to live steyed about the some worse place to live 56.61 16.91 Q~ As the area grows end chanes, which best describes Dougles. 1= sme 11 Yi 11 oge, 2= bedroom community, 3= Ho 11 and suburb, 4= Smo 11 c1 ty community os is community es would like it to be community os think it will be Q.4: ml rll--rh 76.BI 6.71 3.41 37.91 23.11 15.21 ~I 13.11 23.91 How would you rete the communites on the following. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 &. 2 = POOR, 4 &. S =EXCELLENT, 3 =HAS BEEN OMITTED business climete churches community events entertei nment generel oppeerence floustng 1obs focotion med1 ce1 cere recreet1on resteurents ~ 5.41 21.61 47.21 18.51 33.31 47.41 2.21 48.91 13.21 15.31 EX~~~i'fi 72.11 45.91 25.11 67.21 33.41 9.51 88.51 31.01 74.61 61.11 �Q.4: cont roads schools senior citizen services shopping social services t~uces .U& ~ 13.51 20.81 33.61 35.41 61.41 EXW.~!NT 64.01 52.31 38.71 10.61 13.91 Problems faced by the communities, how important are they to you. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2 =NOT A PROBLEM, 4& 5: A PROBLEM, 3 =HAS BEEN OMITTED violent crime property crime vandalism teens w/ nothy1 ng to do drugs alcohol unemp1oyment new Job opportuni t1 es hous1 ng shortages pub1i c recreet 1on too much deve 1opment not enough development leek of health care ... trafic safety perking deowntown Saug. skateboards/bikes downtown Seug. run down property 11 tter downtown area Utter along blue star Hwy appearance of businesses along Blue congestion et oval beach quertty oval beech fac11tt1es access to weterbodt es local schools Vtlle e ov't services NOT A PROBLEM 80.21 51.31 39.41 13.61 8.21 6.71 28.51 21.51 27.91 63.01 50.01 52.51 19.11 51.91 23.81 47.31 42.91 64.51 57.11 39.41 39.61 45.51 61.31 49.81 41.71 34.41 28.51 SIU 49Jtl II A PRBjLEM 7. 29.31 26.41 69.51 59.61 68.21 29.41 49.61 42.01 18.31 35.51 26.21 70.01 22.31 67.21 23.41 32.61 9.81 20.31 49.61 15.91 15.41 22.71 18.11 22.81 26.71 39.01 8.71 31.71 •.,. 31.31 11. �.Q.8: Where do you go most often for the fo11owing things . 1= Sougotuck, 2= Hollond, 3= close to work, 4= better service 5= more choice, 6= lower cost opplionces outo/truck soles euto /truck services bekery goods bonktng beoutic1on/barber books cer wosh clothing dey cere dept. store dry cleoners family restouronts f ency resteurants fast food flower shop furniture Rroceries ordwore laundromet lown & gorden supplies lumber medicol services movies phormocy sport tng goods g_ 10: 1 st:,I 3.51 20.31 84.41 86.01 68.31 41.81 47.81 10.51 55.41 3.51 63.71 75.01 45.41 6.31 81.01 26.61 61.71 74.21 91.61 48.01 76.81 38.01 1.31 74.41 13.21 67.31 57.41 7.41 4.91 21.01 42.21 42.71 53.11 37.01 70.71 24.11 17.51 34.11 82.41 15.51 42.61 30.11 15.71 4.51 43.51 14.91 45.51 80.61 18.61 62.61 23.0i 3 0.01 6.71 7.21 1.11 5.71 5.71 1.61 5.51 3.51 7.61 4.21 5.71 2.21 2.41 3.41 1.31 4.31 2.61 1.51 1.71 3.61 3.71 4.11 2.61 3.11 4.71 -& 1.21 6.41 1.51 2.31 1.51 0.01 1.21 1.21 0.01 0.01 4.11 1.51 4.01 0.01 0.01 1.21 0.01 0.01 0.01 1.61 1.71 4.91 1.31 0.01 0.01 5 6.71 10.61 6.01 3.31 0.01 2.31 12.11 1.61 27.11 0.01 20.11 1.21 2.61 11.61 3.41 0.01 23.41 1.11 0.01 0.01 1.21 0.01 6.41 14.11 1.21 8.51 6 10.61 2.81 2.21 1.11 1.11 2.31 1.21 4.71 0.01 1.51 1.21 1.11 2.41 4.61 2.31 2.01 4.51 8.61 2.21 2.01 2.91 1.11 0.01 2.71 11.11 Approve or disopprove of future commerciol deYelopment. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HA\IE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2 = DISAPPROVE, 4 & 5 = APPROVE, 3 = HAS BEEN OMMITTED in smell shopping centers in one large shopping center in downtown Seug. in downtown Douglos in scottered commercial oreos in strip commercial orees nowhere 9.11: DISAePROVE 14.01 50.81 50.61 50.21 42.11 46.71 61.51 APPROVE 72.BI 34.61 27.31 38.01 38.01 42.21 20.31 Where should new commerc1al development occur. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 &. 2 = DISAPPROVE, 4 & 5 =APPROVE, 3 =HAS BEEN OMITTED Along North Blue Ster Hwy. Along South Blue Star Hwy. Along Butler St. in Saugatuck along Water St. 1n Sougntuck olong Lake St. 1n Seu~atuck along M-B9 outside o Fennville at freewoy interchanges QISAPSROVE A~~~E 22.81 63.81 61.31 63.81 36.51 17.91 70.81 21.11 23.81 17.51 38.51 65.01 27. I 6.31 �Q. 12: 'w'here should new neighborhood commerciol development occur. ( 1= strongly disopprove, 5= strongly epprove) NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 &. 2 = DISAPPROVE, 4 &. 5 = APPROVE, 3 = HAS BEEN OMITTED elong Mein St. in Dougles elong E. Center St. inl)ougles elong W. Center St. in Dougles elong 130th Ave. in Dougles DISAPPROVE ArROVE 30.81 37.11 51.31 54.01 42.01 26.61 4.71 40.71 g.13: Whet ere your priorities for Dougles downtown. NOTE: OR IGI NAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 &. 2 =LOW PRIORITV, 4 &. 5 =HIGH PRIOTIRY, 3:: HAS BEEN OMITTED Additionel public restrooms benches for pedestriens control truck traffic dress up store fronts flowers&. ltmdscepe historic preservetion resident oriented businesses More parking tourist oriented businesses new lighting Offices reduce cer treffic restaurants shopping waterfront reteil businesses waterfront wholesele business waterfront boat services waterfront park g~ HIGH 32.5:C 37.8:C 28.0:C 60.51 61.31 62.3:C 68.0:C 23.61 26.6:C 22.1 I 25.31 4.0:C 29.2:C 49.2:C 34.91 17.31 25.BI 61.11 LOW 56.71 46.01 50.4:C 26. 1I 21.11 21.01 17.61 37.51 45.0:C 47.11 45.41 73.9:C 45.8:C 32. 7:C 53.6:C 70.81 50.4:C 30.7:C Does the eree need more i ndustri a1 deve1opment. ( 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly egree) 1= 28.71, 2= 14.71, 3= 11.61, 4= 8.51, 5: 36.41 RES I DENT I AL DEVELOPttENT Whet type of residentiel development is needed in dougles. {1 = needed now, 2= needed 1eter, 3= not needed, 4= don't know) 11~ apartments attached single-family homes detached single-family homes(S0-70) detached single-family homes(70+) waterfront condos low income housing mobile homes seniors housing country estates ll,16; !h1 rhl 37.41 13.01 60.61 11.61 19.91 14.21 6.11 5.71 39.61 9.11 10.2:C 5.3:C 21.41 24.1 ll 16.01 12.31 ~ 28.9:C 14.1 :c 36.21 81.41 31.51 58.BI 27.21 38.71 f14I 20.71 13.71 29.71 6.91 19.71 25.71 27.2:C 32.91 Would you favor lowering the min. square footage to make housing 111ore effonleble. ( 1= slrongly disagree to 5= strongly ogree) 1 =41.81, 2 =6.U, 3 = 11.71, 4 = 13.91, 5 =26.01 �J;l.17: New housing should be built ot o density thot... ( 1=higher thtm, 2= lower thtm, 3= some es, 4= uncertein) 1 2 3.01 65.31 clang the Sciug. wciterfront of Keil. on ttie hi 11 in Seugotuck in downtown Sougotuck in downtown Dougles o1ong the shore of Lk. HI es ttie ogr. ereos of Soug. twp. 2.91 20.01 4.31 62.31 15.71 36.41 14.91 19.91 42.61 10.31 2f.3I 65.21 4 lo.41 11.91 20.81 12.61 35.51 12.41 48.81 16.41 26.51 20.61 RECREATION Type of edd1tione1 recreet1one1 facilities ere needed in the Oougles eree. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2 = LOW PRIORITY, 4& 5 = HIGH PRIORITY, 3 = WAS OMITTED bosketboll courts bike paths boot 1ounchi ng romps comping community center cross country ski treils fitness center golf course fliking treils horsebeck trei 1s ice rink Lk. f rant open spece(Lk. HI) LI<. front open spoce(Ll<.Kel) pub 1i c Hori nas privete merinos movie theeter neighborhood p1eygrounds porks picnic ereos requetbe 11 courts riverfront open spece(Kel river) senior citizen center shuff 1e boerd softboll fields swimming pool(s) tennis courts g_ 19; LOW PRl%RITY 35. :I 20.01 32.41 51.91 25.21 36.21 37.71 65.71 39.61 57.31 33.6:1 16.2:1 17.21 38.21 52.51 28.51 33.6:1 30. 11 26.91 48.51 15.51 25.71 48.21 54.71 38.21 51.01 HIGH PRIORITY 29.71 66.51 45.61 21.61 44.71 43.81 39.21 15. ti 33. ti t 1.61 39.7:1 69.61 69.11 32.8:1 7.81 38.41 33.61 49.81 37.0:1 14.21 64.tl 45.21 18.51 19.41 40.21 28.11 WATERFRONT DEYELOPHENT & SURFACE WATER QUALITY Which of the following best desribe your use (s) of neerby weter bodies. ( VALUES REPRESENT TRE PERCENT CHECKED) Qes~ouon view ng swtmmrng sunbethtng f i sht ng(boet) fishtng(shore) nature study se11tng wt ndsurft ng weterskttng /f.41 2.41 11.51 23.71 21.61 • 31.71 7.31 1.01 8.41 7~1 2.41 6.31 11.51 9.11 16.01 18.BI 5.21 13.91 eW1 •58.21 54.71 27.21 11.51 33.BI 30.31 10.51 17.41 1Wi1 4.91 3.51 10.BI B.01 20.61 2.11 1.01 11.51 �KR _g_ 19: con~ powerboat1ng SCUb8 dtv1ng weterf owl flunt ice fishing tee skating cross country ski. snowmobiling iceboating other I dont use it Q.20: - 3TII 0.01 9.81 3.81 8.41 4.51 0.01 1.41 13.61 ~ 3& 1.01 LN SL 3.11 3.11 8.41 4.21 2.11 3.11 3~ 7.31 1.01 3.11 1.01 10.11 3.11 1.01 , 2:r.71 2.11 5.61 8.01 2.11 5.61 3.51 2.11 9.81 7.71 35.91 Which term best describes your opinion of the present water quelity of the following wester bodies. KR o.ol very good go~o fatr poor Ye'] poor don t know 4.81 15.11 26.81 43.41 9.91 _KL Lt1 SL 3.81 19.21 26.31 40.21 10.51 7.41 26.11 35.31 19. 11 5.51 6.61 0.01 7.21 15.91 23.51 15.91 37.51 o.ol Based on your experience in recent years the weter quality of the following water bodies hes. KR Bl improved great 1y improved slightfy stayed the seme deteriorated slightly deteriorated greatly dont' know Q.22: 26.21 18.71 15.41 18.41 13.91 ~ KL ITI 0.41 18.51 14.01 4.51 20.61 42.01 4'f. 19.11 21.01 32.61 12.71 10.51 25.71 18.01 16.91 18.81 13.01 Indication of feeling about the adequacy of the following foci 1it i es on each wot er body. DESCRIPTION boat launch boat slips(r) boat slips(c) marinas swim.beaches boat service pumpout fac11. fish cleaning camp grouds parks public rest. other pub 1i c des. boat mor des. no wake u ~~ 27.3 38.2 4.7 56.8 6.5 57.9 17.9 52.6 16.3 22.8 16.5 45.3 46.6 52.3 36.0 31.8 24.6 34.5 22.9 26.0 15.7 23.1 16.8 9.2 20.2 41.7 ~~ ~te.8 24.4 46.0 6.6 12.9 49.4 12.6 16.1 11.7 39.6 46.2 42.4 34.0 35.8 25.0 56.9 64.6 18.8 57.0 43.2 28.7 19.6 18.0 18.7 21.7 21.4 50.0 35.1 25.8 22.8 36.7 28.7 33.7 29.9 46.5 36.9 36.8 22.5 27.8 39.0 46.0 20.7 13.4 12.7 13.2 34.0 20.9 43.3 7.1 31.3 12.3 19.7 34.5 mAQ.5.LADQ ~ITT 29.6 13.2 18.3 29.7 13.3 20.2 26.8 13.0 18.7 16.8 21.8 14.3 30.6 32.5 18.0 17.1 38.1 11.6 10.2 10.0 45.5 4.2 21.0 10.2 27.8 26.2 Should the vi11Gge actively cooperate in the construction of an Greawide mDr1na. ( 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree) 1=39.41, 2: 3.01, 3 =23.41, 4 = 14.91, 5 =19.31 �Should the 11i1lege ectively seek to find alternatiYes for low cost access by Y111age residenfs to additional Lake Michigan beach foci 1i ti es. ( 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree) 1= 23.61, 2= 4.9:C, 3: 21.71, 4= 25.11, 5: 24.7:C How should underdeveloped waterfront lands be used in Douglas. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HA\/E BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2: DISAGREE, 4 & 5: AGREE, 3: HAS BEEN OMITTED DISAGREE 11.2:C 69.81 81.7:C 81.51 90.3:C 63.8:C 47.9:C pub1i c aqui sit 1on to 1eeve open develop for residential sub.s deve 1op 1 story condos develop 2 story condos develop 3 story condos deve 1op meri nes mixed use ... ,P.26: AGREE ~ 14.91 11.0:C 13.41 6.2:C 20.41 31.5:C OTHER LAND USE QUESTIONS Whet are your priorities for Blue Star Highway. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2= LOW PRIORITY, 4 & 5: HIGH PRIORITY, 3= HAS BEEN OMITTED better 1i ght i ng uniform sign controls improve traffic flow add e center tum 1one install public sewer install public water improve drainage improve appearence create commercial strip more tourist orientated bus. more shopping more industry more personal services more auto services more offices fast food rest.s drive thru businesses no changes better lane striping bresurf acing uni farm speed 11 mi t bike bath more trees .P~ LOW PRIORITY HIGH PRIORITY 28.7:C 50.61 47.61 48.4:C 36.21 37.41 45.51 29.3:C 30.51 32.51 30.01 28.4:C 16.6:C 35.81 41.01 33.4:C 37.51 29.21 38.7:C 42.31 37.2:C 44.21 49.7:C 34.81 23.1 :C 27.81 27.1 :C 22.7:C 36.BI 29.2:C 75.7:C 32.91 27.91 44.61 42.01 36.31 38.7:C 25.51 50.2:C 30.01 28.1 :C 48.71 65.1 :C 59.0:C 60.2:C 61.01 Which, if any, of the following types of "home occupattons" do you favor being permitted in res1denlia11y zoned erees. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2= OPPOSE, 4 & 5: FAVOR, 3: HAS BEEN OMITTED bed & breakfast hatrdressers/barbers mus1c lessons WW 43.71 13.01 g 33.91 76.51 �FAVOR OPPOSE 9.27: cont. do nee 1essons accounting/tax prep. low offices medi ca 1 off f ces odult foster core day core "avon·, ·amwoy· typing services dress~el<ing/olt. ceram1cs clothing boutiques b~kery_ 66.01 66.41 40.11 37.91 41.11 36.91 42.41 69.71 71.21 25.31 14.51 20.41 1 t.71 19.51 16.61 18.01 19.11 41.01 37.91 30.71 27.01 40.01 16.21 11.21 50.21 74.21 72.51 79.31 71.31 48.1 I P1ZZ8r18 sme 11 engine repair antique soles r' tr ENVIRON ME NT AL PROTECT I ON What 11m1tetions, if any, should be imposed on development in each of the fo11ow1ng areas. ( 1= no new development, 2= very low density, 3= moderate density) (4= No special regulation) Q.28: ,rn forested sand dunes open sand dunes 78.61 wet 1ands & swamps ed j. 71.61 wet lends & swomps in. 62.31 along the Kal. river 26.81 along Kol. lake 23.21 along Lk. Ml 22.21 along Silver Lk. 20.61 2 mil 10.51 5.81 15.61 39.71 31.11 35.81 36.41 3 4.71 4.71 12.81 12.11 28.01 39.01 37.01 38.61 PUBLIC SERVICES Il.r.Zi; How would you rate the following local public servfces. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2= POOR, 4& 5: EXCELLENT, 3: HAS BEEN OMITTED ambulance animal control bui 1ding inspections fire protection first responder unit Inturban bus land use planning library other village hall services perking in aowntown park maintainace playground equip. pol1ce protection property essessment public boat 1ounch1ng schools K-6 schools 7-12 schools- community ed. sewer service POOR 26.31 62.11 33.61 9.71 11.71 12.91 43.11 9.71 12.61 25.71 16.61 17.41 5.21 74.01 41.31 9.51 16.61 19.31 14.71 ~i~P1 16.41 26.71 64.51 64.31 75.41 19.71 69.81 48.11 43.31 52.71 57.91 69.71 4.41 26.21 65.71 59.41 51.31 45.31 4 ~ 6.21 8.61 10.11 5.41 6.71 5.11 4.41 ~ �cont snow remova1 storm drei nege street lighting street m8int81nence street resurfecing weter servf ce W8terfront me1ntanence zoning enforcement Q.29: fQOR 1~ 28.61 23.11 22.91 33.21 25.2:1 38.31 41.11 a 35.1 I 45.01 44.61 24.71 41.6:1 17.91 17.41 Q.30: Whet ere your priorities for how the villege spends your tex doll ors. NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 & 2= LOW PRIORITY, 4 & 5: HIGH PRIORITY, 3: HAS BEEN OMITTED preventing crime enforcing ordinences treffic enforcement fire protection ambulance service weter supply sewer service street repair perk & recreet ion improve parking downtown senior progrems improve vn 1age eppearance planning for future weterfront improvement interurban bus service economic development Q.31: LOW PRIORITY HIGH PRIORITY 15.11 18.61 23.21 4.51 9.51 7.01 10.51 10.41 22.61 51.01 36.91 22.21 10.51 17.91 21.81 17.41 72.71 47.81 37.21 86.81 74.21 83.41 66.81 71.31 45.3:1 19.21 38.01 49.21 65.71 54.51 56.61 56.1 I If it meant en increase in general property texes, which of the follwing services do you tliink Douglas should increese or edd. police protection fire protection better St. maintenance more parldng better water quality better sidewalk sidewalk snow removal new street lighting More flowers'& trees community rec. center seniors center industriel park drainege control trash collection combined meint. garage economic developmenl. 24hr. medical service communt ty poo 1 CHECKED 12.9:t 18.11 24.01 10.11 59.91 18.51 15.01 10.51 24.41 24.41 19.51 15.71 17.8:C 25.41 17.41 23.01 41.81 25.81 �Which of the following stotements is closet to your position on government services and property taxes. CHECKED 58.4:C Nice to heve better services. but... I would like better government services, ... Local government tnes to do to much, ... Other 15.71 16.91 9.01 How frequently do you use the following services. ( 1= never, 2= less then t time/month. 3= one time/month) (4= one time/week, 5= more often) recycling center interurb8n bus service river bluff p8rk Saug.-Doug. district librery over beach Douglas beach sun oown perk Shultz P8rk Seug. Dunes St. Perk beery field wicks perk other perks out of eree vi 11 age he 11 services n 46.71 58.61 36.41 38.81 43.31 79.01 41.4:i 61.51 59.41 66.51 56.81 36.01 2 6.71 3 9. ti 25.41 7.71 31.31 5.51 23.5i 15.11 33.11 11.51 34.11 10.01 15.61 3.11 35.61 12.31 24.11 9.71 19.51 13.41 18.11 11.51 26.41 10.21 38.31 21.71 4 ~ 2.61 3.51 17.61 6.91 9.21 1.21 7.31 2.31 5.41 1.51 3.01 1.21 5 1.21 17.61 1.21 7.41 9.61 3.41 1.21 3.41 2.31 2.31 2.31 1.7,C 2.81 How important e priority is it to you for the Township to improve the exterior appearance of the Township Hall. ( 1=low priority to 5= high priority) 1 = 32.61, 2 = 25.71, 3 =21.01. 4:: 10.91, 5 =9.81 ll.35: Place e check before each of the follwing Village boerds/commissions et which you heve attendee a meeting in the 1est 2 years. CHECKED Village council 44.61 plennrng commision 37.61 zoning lloerd of appee1s 12.51 board of review(texes) 15.7. 4.21 schoo 1 board Saug twp fire district 5.91 interurban trans.system 16.41 10.1:C Ka 1. Lk. WDter &. Sewer Auth. SDug. twp. Park&. Rec. Comm. 5.61 Q.36: How responsive do y_ou feel these perts of local government are to Douglas citizens. 11 = not very responsive to 5: very responsive) NOTE: ORIGINAL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN COLLAPSED 1 &. 2= NOT VERV RESPONSIVE, 3 &. 4= VERY RESPONSIVE 3 =HAS BEEN OMITTED Village council plennrng commision Zoning t>oerd of eppeals NOT YER~~PONSIYE VERY R:afa:Ns IVE 2 .4 25.61 29.81 .I 41.01 19.11 �NOT YERV !1fSPONSIVE VERY RESPRNSIYE Q.36: 12. I 59. I boerd of review(texes) schoo 1 boerd Seug twp fire district interurben tnms. system Kat. Lk. weter & Sewer Auth. Saug. twp. Perk & Rec. Comm. 37.31 56.91 53.71 46.61 40.11 21.11 21.01 16.71 30.01 14.21 Should the Village adopt ei poltcy of consolidating services with other governmenteil units. 68.21 11.71 20.11 yes no uncertain Q.38: If yes, what services should be consolideited. NOTE: THESE VALUES CORRESPOND TO THE PERCENT WHO ANSWERED "YES" ABOVE c~~P Sewer water strorm weiter police street & roeids parks & summer Rec. planning zoning building permits Yi 11 age manager Comti. interurban veh1ca1 maint. ~ Should the Ctty of Seugetuck, the v111ege of dougles, end the Township of Saugatucl< consolidate into a single untt of government. yes= 47.51, g.40: no= 52.51 Are you a regt sterd voter. yes= 87.61, g~ 54.71 34.11 47.41 44.61 43.91 38.31 32.81 28.21 24.01 51.21 no= 12.41 How many years have you resided in the Villeige of Douglas. less than 1 1 - 5 5 - 10 10 - 20 more than 20 D,42; CH~l<fP .2 18.81 22.31 23.41 32.31 How many more years do you thtnk you wtll stey tn the Douglas eree. less then one 1 - 3 4 - 10 more then 1o yrs. c,wo 2.21 20.51 75.01 �9.43: How mtiny months of eoch yeor do you typicolly reside in the Douglas area. 73.51 responded that length of stay is 12 months 1 1.81 responded that lenglh of stay is less than 6 months .Q.44: Please check each of the following that apply to you. residential property owner renter own or manage a business in area Q.45; 78.41 17.11 21.31 Which of the following best represents where you live. on the dunes/bluff along Lk. Ml on the dunes along Kalamazoo Lk elsewhere along Kelemezoo Leke along Kalamazoo River along Silver lake elswnere elong the Kol. river on hil 1 in Saug. else. in Saug. near downtown Doug. else. in Doug. in arg. area of Saug. Twp. else. in Saug. twp. Q.46: CHECKED CHECKED 16.BI 1.11 1.1 I 0.41 0.01 0.01 1.11 2.21 41.01 34.01 2.21 0.01 What is the highest level of education you have finished. less than high school high school graduate some college associate·s or technical degree college graduate graduate or prof essi ona l degree CHEC'iD 5.7 19.91 30.61 3.21 21.01 19.61 Please provide the following information abouteach person that norma 11 y 1i ves in your housello1d. AVERAGE AGE OF RESPONDENTS 55.06 SEX OF RESPONDENTS male female 62.51 37.51 PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS EMPLOYED 61.41 COMMUN ITV Douglas City of Saugatuck Saugetuck Twp. Holland other 51.01 PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS RETIRED 38.01 13.51 0.01 6.71 27.41 �APPENDIX D Soil Types - Tri-Community Area �SOIL TYPES · TRI-COMMUNITY AREA SOILTYPE AND SLOPE SOIL NUMBER LIMITATIONS FOR SEPTIC TANK ABSORPTION FIELDS LIMITATIONS FOR DWELLINGS WITH BASEMENTS CATEGORY A - SANDY, RAPID PERMEABJLITY, LOW WATER TABLE Chelsea loamy fine sand, 0-6% Chelsea loamy fine sand, 6-12% Chelsea loamy fine sand, 12-18% Chelsea loamy fine sand, 18-30% Oakville fine sand, 0-6% Oakville fine sand, 6-18% Oakville fine sand, 18-45% Oakville fine sand, loamy substratum, 0-6% Urban land - Oakville complex, 0-6% 44B 44C 44D 44E 1 OB lOC lOE 53B 72B SE4 SE4 SEl, SE4 SEl, SE4 SE4 SE4 SEl, SE4 SE3, SE5, SE4 SL SL MDl SEl SEl SL MDl SEl SL SE4 CATEGORY B - SANDY, RAPID PERMEABILITY, IDGH WATER TABLE Brady sandy loam, 0-3% Covert sand, 0-4% Matherton loam, 0-3% Metea loamy fine sand, 1-6% Metea loamy fine sand, 6-12% Morocco fine sand, 0-3% Morocco-Newton complex, 0-3% Pipestone sand, 0-4% Thetford loamy fine sand, 0-4% Tedrow fine sand,0-4% 19A 57A 22A 27B 27C 70A 15B 26A 51A 49A SE3 SE3, SE4 SE3, SE4 SE4, SE5 SE4, SE5 SE3, SE4 SE3, SE4 SE3,SE4 SE3 SE3, SE4 SE3 MD3 SE3 SL MDl SE3 SE3 SE3 SE3 SE3 CATEGORY C - WET, HEAVY, SLOW PERMEABILITY Blount silt loam, 1-4% Capac loam, 0-6% Capac-Wixom complex, 1-4% Glynwood clay loam, 1-6% Glynwood clay loam, 6-12% Kibbie fine sandy loam, 0-3% Marlette loam, 6-12% Marlette loam, 12-18% Marlette loam., 18-35% Marlette-Capac loams, 1-6% Metamora sandy loam, 1-4% Rimer loamy sand, 0-4% Seward loamy fine sand, 1-6% 41B 16B 21B SB SC 33A 14C 14D 14E 75B 42B 28A 60B SE3, SE5 SE3, SE5 SE3, SE5 SE5,SE3 SE5, SE3 SE3 SE5 SEl, SE5 SE1,SE5 SE3, SE5 SE5, SE3 SE3, SE5 SE5, SE3 Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan SE3 SE3 SE3 MD3,MD2 MDl, MD2, MD3 SE3 MDl SEl SEl SL SE3 SE3 SL �SOILTYPE AND SLOPE SOIL NUMBER LIMITATIONS FOR SEPTIC TANK ABSORPTION FIELDS LIMITATIONS FOR DWELLINGS WITH BASEMENTS CATEGORY D - VERY WET SOILS, ORGANICS, FLOODPLAINS Adrian muck Algansee loamy sand, protected, 0-3% Aquents and Histosols, ponded Belleville loamy sand Brookston loam Belleville-Brookston complex Cohoctah silt loam, Cohoctah silt loam, protected Colwood silt loam Corunna sandy loam Dune land and beaches Glendora loamy sand Glendora loamy sand, protected Granby sandy loam Houghton muck Martisco muck Napolean muck Newton mucky fine sand Palms muck Pewamo silt loam Sebewa loam Sloan silt loam 6 73A 50 48 17 64 29 65 30 36 4 2 74 39 5 67 47 69 7 45 23 62 SE6, SE4 SE3, SE4 SE6, SEl0 SES, SE3 SE6, SE6 SE6, SE3, SE6 SE6 SE6, SE5 SE6 SE6 SE6 SES, SE3 SES, SE6 SE6 SE6 SE6, SE3, SE4 SE6, SE4 SE6, SE4 SE6, SE5 SES, SE6, SE5 SE6 SE6, SE4 SEll, SE6 SE5, SE6 SE4, SE6 SES, SE3, SE5 SES, SE3 SE8,SE6 SE6 SE6, SElO SE8,SE6 SE6, SEl0 SE6 SE6, SEl0 SE6 SE6 SES, SE3 SE5 SE5 SES CATEGORY E - WELL DRAINED LOAM AND LOAMY FINE SAND Ockley loam, 6-12% Ockley loam, 12-18% Ockley loam, 18-30% Riddles loam, 6-12% Tekenink loamy fine sand, 6-12% Tekenink loamy fine sand, 12-18% Tekenink loamy fine sand, 18-35% 12C 12D 12E 63C 31C 31D 31E MDl SEl SEl MDl MDl SEl SEl MD2,MD1 SEl SEl MD1,MD2 MDl SEl SEl CATEGORY F - WELL DRAINED LOAM AND LOAMY FINE SAND Ockley loam, 1-6% Oshtemo-Chelsea complex, 0-6% Oshtemo-Chelsea complex, 6-12% Oshtemo-Chelsea complex, 12-18% Oshtemo-Chelsea complex, 18-35% Riddles loam, 1-6% Tekenink loamy fine sand, 2-6% 12B llB UC 11D llE 63B 31B SL SL MDl SEl SEl SL SL Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan MD2 SL MDl SEl SEl MD2 SL �UNCLASSIFIED SOILS 34 18 66 Aquents, sandy and loamy Pits U dipsammen ts KEY FOR LrnITATION CODES SEVERE LIMITATIONS: SEl SE2 SE3 SE4 SE5 SE6 SE7 SE8 SE9 SEl0 SEll SLOPE SHRINK-SWELL WETNESS POOR FILTER PERCSSLOWLY PONDING CUTBANKSCAVE FLOODING EXCESSIVE HUMUS LOW STRENGTH SUBSIDES MODERATE LIMITATIONS: MDl MD2 MD3 SLOPE SHRINK-SWELL WETNESS SLIGHT LIMITATIONS: SL SLIGHT LIMITATIONS Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan �N A 10 ■ 10■ DOUGLAS SOIL TYPES �y �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Douglas_Comprehensive-Plan_1989 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Village of Douglas Planning Commission, Village of Douglas, Saugatuck Township, Allegan County, Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-11 Title A name given to the resource Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan Description An account of the resource The Village of Douglas Comprehensive Plan was prepared by the Village of Douglas Planning Commission in cooperation with the Village Council and the Coastal Zone Management Program, with the assistance of the Planning & Zoning Center, Inc. in November 1989. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Planning & Zoning Center, Inc. (consultant) Subject The topic of the resource Comprehensive plan publications Douglas (Mich.) Saugatuck Township (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives