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Harbor Light January 15, 2025
Planning commission considers options for expanding public participation in zoning code revision
By Kate Spaulding | Harbor Light Newspaper | on January 15, 2025

The Harbor Springs Planning Commission began discussion of a public engagement plan related to the zoning code update work during their monthly meeting on January 9. In an effort to deepen collaboration and expand communication opportunities beyond the already scheduled official Planning Commission meetings related to the zoning code (one meeting in January, two in February, and two in March), the Commissioners discussed opportunities to connect with the public as they work through potential new updates to the existing zoning code, which was put back in place after voters repealed the changes the Planning Commission recommended and City Council approved earlier in 2024.

The current goal is to be able to send a recommendation to the City Council to begin their own review, discussion, and public input process in April.

Bing Howenstein Discussion

The conversation about the public engagement plan followed the Commission’s annual organizational meeting. In the beginning of the meeting, during public comment, Harbor Springs resident Bing Howenstein asked the Planning Commission to explain why a zoning ordinance update was necessary at all. Howenstein pointed to the November vote in which residents repealed the update that City Council approved earlier in 2024, saying “yet, here we are again, facing another rezoning effort.” “I want to thank the City Council members, voters, and community advocates for your dedication to this issue, and that said, it is clear from discussions that I’ve had and from community discussions, that many of us don’t understand why these zoning changes are necessary in the first place,” Howenstein said. “So I stand here tonight to ask you and the Council directly a question that many want to ask you: ‘why does zoning need to change?’ Before moving forward on repeating this process, the Council must clearly and transparently answer these fundamental questions: what is the goal of these changes? What fundamental issues are these changes trying to address? What data supports their necessity? And lastly, is the City required to restart this process, or is it a voluntary action?”

Redevelopment Ready?

Howenstein went on to note that some people he has spoken with “believe the changes are tied to a goal of the city becoming a Redevelopment Ready Community, yet most don’t understand what this designation entails or how it will impact Harbor Springs’s unique charm. So if becoming an RRC is really necessary, the Council must explain why, detailing both the benefits and the risks.”
“What is clear to me is that we all care very deeply about this town,” Howenstein added. “The secret of our town is out. So accordingly, growth is coming and we can’t stop that. But our city requires thoughtful growth, and in order to preserve Harbor Springs’s unique character, it needs to be guided by its residents and not by high external pressures. Before scheduling meetings for the public and restarting the process, in the spirit of transparency and trust I ask that you please provide the people a clear and well-defined purpose for this initiative. Further, I ask that you clarify the need or obligation that directs the City to use its resources to repeat the zoning change process.”

“Let’s reflect on that a little bit,” said Planning Commission chair Bill Mulder. “We can talk about that a little bit in our next steps, and how to proceed.”

The newspaper article continues…

Once the organizational business for the evening was complete (see related article), Mulder turned the Commission’s attention back to the zoning code. “The topic we most need to talk about is the public communications plan,” he said. “I definitely need your input on this, and looking for ideas from the public as well.”
Mulder opened the conversation by presenting a draft that he put together, based on what he said was input from the public and his fellow Planning Commission members. He listed the goals for the engagement plan as follows: gather more information for the Planning Commission to use in their consideration of the City’s zoning code; provide additional opportunities beyond scheduled meetings for the public to learn about zoning options and concepts; provide additional opportunities for the public to express opinions.

Mulder’s recommendation included two key components: town hall listening sessions to be held at various locations in town (and both broadcast and recorded for viewing, as well as having a volunteer note-taker to capture main themes), and open houses with visuals for display, but no set agenda or presentation, also held at various locations in the city. He suggested the sessions be run by volunteers from the Planning Commission and use minimal city staff resources, and that some professional graphics could be leveraged to develop visuals for display.

Mulder recommended the public be notified through the City of Harbor Springs website, social channels, and email list, as well as private social media and emails from different groups.

“I really like what you’ve done here, going from a blank sheet of paper to these ideas. This is very helpful. In the town hall listening session, if it were broadcast, would there be an opportunity for someone who is somewhere else to Zoom in and make a comment, or does it intend to be just for the room of participants?” asked new Planning Commission member Chip Everest.

“Great question. My thought is that it would be online just like it is today, so that people could remotely participate as well,” Mulder said.

“And to go back to my earlier question– I don’t want to get us tripped up– is that considered to be an official meeting, with all of the rigor and Open Meeting Act requirements, or is that on its own merit considered a nonofficial meeting and we can do that okay?” Everest asked.

Quorums and remote connections
“Yeah, we would not have nine Planning Commission members there, we would not even have a quorum, and then we could have a more informal discussion-type structure,” Mulder said, adding he envisions people sitting in a circle and being able to participate in the conversation at-will.

Commissioner Tony Johnson said he that while he understands the idea of going to different places in town to have people participate who might not otherwise attend a meeting, but questioned if it was the right thing to do, because the audio-visual equipment that exists for remote meetings won’t necessarily be as available in other locations like it is in City Council Chambers.

There was additional discussion about ensuring the process is as inclusive as possible, which may require locations beyond City Hall/ City Council Chambers. Mulder presented a draft schedule that included seven town hall listening sessions and eight open houses between mid-January and mid- February, with varying times of the day.

Vice-Chair Vanessa Warren said she would like to see a Saturday offering, for those who may not be able to attend an open house or town hall during the week.

There was also a discussion about aligning on the goals of the town halls, as a working committee of the Planning Commission did hold such meetings during the original zoning update work. Much of the complaints about the way the zoning was updated involved the public not having enough opportunities to provide input and learn more, partly because people did not seem to be paying close attention (there were public notices, open meetings, newspaper articles, website information, etc., but civic engagement in general often does not spark until projects like a zoning update are well underway).

“I don’t know how many people are going to care to come and be involved at a detailed level,” Mulder said, adding, “I hope it’s a lot. I hope we get some great input.”

In that spirit, Mulder asked for people in the audience both in person and virtually– to offer thoughts and suggestions for the public engagement plan. “What could we do better?”
Karin Offield, who lives in West Traverse Township, said the only thing she wondered about was the idea of not having all nine Planning Commissioners present at the various community meetings, so that they could all listen to the community “speaking up about various subjects.” “If all nine don’t attend and there is no broadcast or recording (the issue that may occur in places beyond City Hall), and instead just volunteer note taking, we might lose some things in the catching up of everything. So this room could probably be made more friendly, and encourage people; if they haven’t liked a town hall in the past, maybe they would like it this time with a different kind of set-up,” she said.

Another East Main Street resident commended the Planning Commission for making the effort to host meetings in multiple parts of the city, and noted that reflected requests made previously to “get out of City Hall” for community listening sessions.

Some of the potential locations presented by Mulder or suggested by Planning Commission/ community members included Holy Childhood’s community center, the Harbor Springs Area Historical Society, the Harbor Springs Library, Harbor Springs Public Schools, the community center at Harbor Estates, Perry Farm Village, First Presbyterian Church.

The trade off to engaging more residents who live here, even during January and February, by leveraging different venues is that not all locations beyond City Hall would have reliable Zoom capabilities for the people who don’t live in Harbor Springs full-time but want to participate.

Mulder said he was thinking of the comments made by Harbor Springs resident Bing Howenstein at the beginning of the meeting as a place to start the conversations. As a reminder, Howenstein’s comments related to a level set about the basics of why a zoning code update is even needed, and addressing directly some of the questions people have like the connection between zoning and Redevelopment Ready Community status, etc. Mulder said it may be wise to use the first 10 minutes of each town hall session to lay that out for people.

Define success

Harbor Springs resident Mark Rondel spoke during a second round of public input, noting the draft public engagement plan was aggressive, and saying he recommend Planning Commission define success of these meetings by being able to outline specific items the public wants to see changed or achieved in town, and that those items be “objective and not subjective.” “They would be well-defined and not depend on personal opinion, and most importantly that you quantify all of that input so that it is documented where the opinion lies from the majority of participants in these public events,” Rondel said.

“I’m guessing people aren’t going to want to talk about front yard set-backs, that they will be more concerned with philosophical questions and concerns about what they want to see in the city and what they don’t want, but we’ll see,” Mulder said. “We can talk about both levels, and see what people are most interested in.”

Maureen Kenney spoke via Zoom and said she thought the public engagement meetings as presented were a “very aggressive schedule. It’s very fast and furious, and while I applaud the efforts to include everybody, you’re not giving people much notice to drop everything and hop on a call. Kenney went on to say that the Zoning Board of Appeals did not meet after February, 2024, which she viewed as proof that “the existing code is working.”

Zoning administrator Jeff Grimm said he wanted to point out that part of the reason there were so few Zoning Board of Appeals requests last year is because many people were holding off making their requests to see what would be happening with the new versus existing zoning code.

“Now that we are back under the old code, we already had a variance request in the January meeting, and we have another request for the February meeting, and that’s due to the fact that we’re back to the old code,” Grimm said.

Sheryl Leonard, who identified herself as a full-time resident and voter in Harbor Springs, commended the Planning Commission for adding what could amount to 15 public engagement meetings (in addition to the five regularly scheduled meetings that will focus on zoning and include public input opportunities). “To the comment that this is being rushed, there are meetings that extend into February,” she said, “so it seems like people should be able to find one that meets their criteria. But also, I really hope that registered voters show up to some of these meetings, because I know that there have been other town hall meetings for various issues and the city has staff show up there and no one shows up. I really encourage registered voters to show up.”

Betsy Saul spoke via Zoom, wondering about having meetings that people may not be able to Zoom in to, after voters decided already to repeal the approved changes to the zoning ordinance (note: the process for updating the code may not have the same results as the original recommended changes). “I am a resident of Harbor Springs and I just left and probably won’t be back for a couple of months, and everything happens in the middle of February,” she said. “And I don’t do social media so I don’t know unless I really watch this calendar closely or call in to meetings like I did tonight. What happens to anyone who would really like to have a voice but you have all these meetings in the next few weeks? I want to have a voice but I guess I can’t.”

“Are you signed up for the city emails?” Mulder asked, referring to the open-to-anyone email list that communicates everything from meeting schedules to agendas to surveys, etc.

“No, I’m not, and I probably should be,” Saul said, adding that she didn’t know about the city email list until that evening.

Tax bill reminder

This reflected the challenge often faced in local government when people get upset about not having full communication, but communication efforts are sometimes not known by all, even when advertised, promoted, or written about in local newspapers.
Saul said she no longer gets the newspaper, but wondered about just adding taxpayers to the list. Mulder explained such email lists require an “opt-in” or else the city would be considered “spamming,” but added only 350 or so people are currently signed up and that “we definitely need more.”
Saul recommended putting it on the city tax bill, asking people to sign up for the email list.

“It seems like everything that gets done happens in January or February, and I think it does upset a few people, that we can’t have more in the summer or something. I would appreciate it if we could be more inclusive to all residents of Harbor Springs, especially the elderly.”

Someone also suggested the city staff email all property owners with an offer to opt-in to the email list, which should be compliant. The problem with this is that the City does not have a full list of resident/ property owner emails. It has emails for people who opted in to paperless utility bills, as well as those already signed up for the newsletter, etc., but that is far from all-encompassing. “The city does not have everyone’s email address,” Commissioner Michael Behrmann said, noting there were some good ideas to also put on the city utility bill and/or tax bill to encourage more sign ups.

Harbor Springs resident Linda Rachwitz spoke in favor of a “communication blitz” in order to get more residents and property owners signed up for the city emails. “You get everything,” she said (as someone who is on the list). “You get the packet, you get all of the details, the agendas… Let’s go for it. There are 1,143 property owners in the city. There should be 1,000 people on that email.”

There is already a pop-up window on the city website encouraging people to sign up for the text “MyGov” which is for emergencies via text, also on the website, there are two places on the homepage to sign up for the email newsletter.

Another suggestion was to encourage the We Love Harbor Springs and We Love Harbor Springs Too groups (that were for and against the zoning code repeal) to encourage their community members to sign up for the city emails.

Another option for community input directed to the Planning Commission is to send correspondence via email to Jeff Grimm, who stressed that he then can share communication with Planning Commissioners (via meeting packets, part of official public record).

Harbor Springs resident Angela Howenstein asked why the meetings were all in January and February, versus being spread out as two or three a month, over a longer period of time.

“This was set up to support the work plan we agreed to, which takes place in January, February, and March,” Mulder explained. “So the idea was to get the input earlier in the process, earlier in the timeframe rather than later like having us up here discussing a bunch of things and then getting input seems backwards.”

Mulder said the town halls and open houses can be modified during the process, and that nothing was set in stone.

The Planning Commission meetings are recorded and archived on the City’s You- Tube channel, and all meeting agendas, public input sessions, meeting minutes, etc., can be found on the city’s website, www.cityofharborsprings.com.

People can also email zoning administrator Jeff Grimm, assessor@cityofharborsprings.com, and attend meetings via Zoom or in-person. In addition, they can request to be added to the city’s email list via the website, or by calling City Hall during regular business hours, (231) 526-2104 or by emailing Grimm or city manager Victor Sinadinoski, citymgr@cityofharborsprings.com and providing their name and email address with an opt-in request.

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