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HARBOR SPRINGS
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Harbor Springs is beautiful—which is why we’re fighting to preserve it.
Whether that means combatting overdevelopment, protecting its’ natural beauty and historical charming downtown or enhancing our quality of life, we are committed to working together to ensure our home remains the unique and special place it is today.
Harbor Springs unofficial local election results:
Mayor: Tom Graham 468
Nancy Rondel 394
City Council: Jamie Melke 430. Wendy Reeve 419
John Lio 395
Jeff James 203
Zoning Ordinance 439 Repeal:
Yes 478
No 404
Thank you to all of the voters, YES and no for being part of our future.
Volunteer and Contact us at WeLoveHarborSprings@gmail.com
We Voted YES and repealed Ordinance #439 and this decision will give our town back the right – for the community of Harbor Springs – to Decide our future with city developments & city density and correct the loss of oversight in zoning.
By holding town halls, library gatherings and in-person & ZOOM meetings, the voices of community will be heard about their opinions, their needs, and their worries about what is planned in their neighborhoods.
It’s time now to organize the planning stages of building a new zoning code that reflects the Master Plan, the Community Surveys and build new legitimate surveys that will ask the tough questions of the community to provide answers in deciding the towns future.
Here is the document we provided on May 6th for City Council and Planning Commission review, while asking them to pause the approval til the community was contacted and engaged.
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Before you make that list the Planning Commissioners have asked you to submit just 5 days before Christmas - sit down with your kids and family members or best friends and review this survey question.
Convenient, modern, touristy and commercial are at the very bottom of the list. Yet….We’d like better cell services when it’s super busy in town - so maybe add modern infrastructure improvements to that list. Taking care of the residents - allowing the community to come first - and putting your trust in the community! Ask your teenagers !
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For local taxpayers. What is asking your kids going to do? They can’t afford to live here? City or surrounding townships. Hs is about tourism and retirement. People should really consider who’s going to serve them at local restaurants and such. Soon you’ll see less services because help can’t afford to be here
They put out this survey Will they listen to the results or rush something through before the new administration gets in ? The prudent decision would be patience and diligence. Let us see
The survey was skewed, and doesn’t mean anything. Listen to the City Tax Payer Voters (YES !!!! More city voters than people that took the very confusing, very nonprofessional survey) said, loudly, NO to the new proposed zoning code. Why does Mulder want smaller lots, why does Mulder want “build by right” ? Oh, forgot, he’s in the housing business in Harbor Springs. Yet, he doesn’t think he has a conflict of interest ? That’s either stupid or lying. You don’t get to drive your agenda as the head of zoning committee. SO OBVIOUS !! Let’s go back 5 years when the city was peaceful and not run based on agendas !
Explaining the differences …One of the biggest drawbacks to the rejected code is allowing “by-right” development. It’s a term we have all heard over the months but what does it mean? Technically, it describes the easiest path to development under the zoning and building codes of local jurisdictions.
“By-right” approvals are also described as ministerial—a common legal term that also describes a lack of certain approvals needed by city officials.
“By-right” approvals bypass much of the review processes we now have in place and in place for decades. The idea is that developers in larger cities who identify building projects can save time and money by the city expediting the approval process.
That’s great for a city like Sault St. Marie with its 14.8 square mile boundary, lots of space to fill with high-density projects, not so great for our tiny 1.3 square mile footprint.
Think about this for a minute: Do you really want to make it easier for developers, local or otherwise, to profit from essentially a planned loophole in our zoning code? In all honesty, probably not.
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Here is today’s Saturday preparation to help make the community’s list of zoning elements due in 12.19.24.
The survey’s covers 134 pages and should be viewed if possible on a laptop screen. So much work has been done here - the zoning questions asked and answered in 2021 - enables citizenry to help guide the community 3 years later.
Thank you to the City for this help.
www.cityofharborsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-Master-Plan-Survey-Staff-Summary-Ques...
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How many people responded to this survey ? I never saw this survey.
We didn't. I understand the survey was "extended " to non taxpayer, property owners not in our city....hhmm...interesting...kind of like Parks and Recreations signs in our parks all summer long, with survey QR codes so the tourists can weigh in on what THEY want so us taxpayers and homeowners can pay for more cement and playground equipment and amenities for their enjoyment. It's turning into a circus downtown. Tourist pandering at the Taxpayers expense.
Would it make a difference if a professional entity was contracted to write the questions, assuring the 'quality' of the instrument ~ the 'sample' was relevant & appropriate (such as just city residents, or all 49740 property owners, or all people who have email or computers, etc.). The CM even commented on workers taking the survey (while saying workers do not live in the city the week before). Who is the sample? Who is the target? the respondents were not tracked (confirmed as a legitimate respondent for the sample & target - by using techniques that assure your respondent is legitimately falls within your identified range. This makes sure that a survey result has been confirmed "valid" (ex: assures the respondent was not responding several times as one person via same household IP or using a VPN or other means, @ the survey level - the questions were not "leading" questions, the questions were unbiased, the conclusions valid & evidence based (IFTTT). An example of the unhelpful conclusions that were shared were: The outcome shared in the powerpoint from the query about height of buildings gave the respondent 3 choices - meaning the survey thinks you should pick out of the list only - rather than JUST ASK how tall or how many stories should downtown buildings be? Another example was the picture-game; the writer of the survey selected architectural pictures of houses neglecting to give size references-it was trickery neglecting to indicate the footprint is it 550 sq. ft. or 3000 sq. ft.? one outcome could therefore be-from the trickery query : respondents want tiny houses. The survey was not a quality survey, the CM should know to not take this professional task on (to save the city a few bucks) but should hire an outside entity that is unbiased, specialized and timely. Another very troubling issue is that this survey was introduced as something that "may", "could" or "might" assist the planning commission/City Council or staff in finding areas that reflect community preference and make zoning law around that. Now the charge is for decision making entities to keep in mind that the survey was not professional, it had bias, the conclusions unreliable and the sample questionable...The charge is: should we repeat mistakes out of bias or strive to be better, be professional be unbiased and try new things. Creative outreach and a promise to JUST SLOW DOWN so that quality outcomes and professionalism can guide us. Why is it that this process is so hard and it should be rushed? Forever we have been asking for the process to just be patient, to slow down, to...do it right.
