Hello and thank-you for allowing us to keep you informed of the ‘dots’ we are connecting.

This is the link to the current Harbor Springs – RRC contractual non-binding agreement in place; however this agreement – ‘the pick and choose concept’ – is only in place until Certification is achieved when Best Practice 6 (land development) will become binding:

https://www.cityofharborsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/RRC_Harbor_Springs_Final_2022.pdf

The public in Harbor Springs has been mishandled and misinformed in my view since May 6 and 20, 2019; here is the handbook which describes the public component of inclusion during each step of ‘best practice’ achievement which was and is lacking in Harbor Springs’s implementation process:
https://www.miplace.org/4a714c/globalassets/documents/rrc/rrc-best-practices.pdf

We have done what we can as private citizens through letters to the editor in the Harbor Light, letters to City Council, (gone mostly unanswered by City Council but rather most queries have been answered by the City Manager, which is an example of abdication of duty bound by the City Charter for City Council and City Manager and defiles the necessary separation of legislation and administration);  letters to City Accessor has also gone unanswered.

The following dates support that the RRC is intimately involved in the Zoning Reform Proposal as is supported in PowerPoint document disclosures from the City Manager. However the Zoning Reform Proposal, on it’s own, stands before City Council on May 6 2024 and that clock is ticking – not the RRC clock; yet…

Of the important RRC dates reported in the City Manager’s report/PowerPoint: (May 6, 2019; May 20, 2019; December 2021; January 2022; February 2022; March 2022; June 2022; August 2022; February 2023; April 2023);

The most important is May 2023 when City Council accepted a $25,000 grant from the MEDC for updating the Zoning Code, but let us not forget the 3 dates in October 2023 as ‘open house’ dates for the public to query a document that hadn’t yet been re-leased from Planning Commission’s subcommittee.

https://www.cityofharborsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Final-RRC-Overview-Presentation-3.4.2024.pdf and as City Manager claims in this report about the RRC reform and zoning reform…‘it is our responsibility and requirement to plan and prepare for development and redevelopment. (Michigan Planning Enabling Act)’

This quote from our City Manager has conflated what is law for municipalities with what is due diligence and intimates that this law has only one way forward – via the management scheme called the RRC.

We disagree. Harbor Springs has options.

The Michigan Planning Enabling Act states:

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/mcl/pdf/mcl-Act-33-of-2008.pdf ‘ Will, in accordance with present and future needs, best promote public health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity, and general welfare.’

The MPEA does not demand nor require that Harbor Springs CHANGE it’s current zoning code. Rather it is the following people in positions of influence that have made zoning reform a requirement; -the CM positioned as administrator with the mandate of the RRC certification and its goals, guided by Beckett&Reader, OHM, and the MEDC through the corporate sponsored document ‘Zoning Reform Toolkit’ https://www.planningmi.org/aws/MAP/asset_manager/get_file/886923?ver=0
-and our Planning Commission’s desire to do what they believe is right -along with the influences from Northern Michigan housing organizations; (HousingNorth, NetworkNorthwest, Little Traverse Bay Housing Partnership, Northern Michigan Community Development Corporation – HART houses HS) appear to mandate that our community release the regulation and development to the MEDC management package called the Redevelopment Ready Community way of thinking. https://www.cityofharborsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Final-RRC-Overview-Presentation-3.4.2024.pdf

However, We believe the majority of the greater Harbor Springs Community still has as its first priority:

To be informed, To allow review, of this zoning reform proposal before it is ratified because, in it’s current form, it does not represent the will of the majority of the community of Harbor Springs.
– it does not reflect the desired requests and inputs of the surveys
– it does not support the Master Plan goals in a way to keep Harbor Springs simple.

And on the contrary;
the CURRENT Harbor Springs zoning code, and yes it needs to be updated,  with strong Planning Commission controls & variances already protects Harbor Springs’ community interests, and as it is well placed to withstand the test of time and has already done so, the current code should remain as benchmark and unchanged.

This we believe is what the community desires – to keep the zoning code much as it is – but until the community comes forward,  the City Manager will continue to guide Harbor Springs through to RRC Certification.

There is evidence of irritable Conflicts Of Interests, and we ask for a better and more complete understanding of conflict of interests,  within our current governance dynamic.

The public has been ineffectively informed which is an oath bound and fiducially placed in order to levy taxes and represent and govern the public community through its positions on City Council or hired as Staff within City Hall.

– subcommittees have been allowed and called an ‘open opportunity to participate’ that’s not so true
– public participation has been curtailed and inputs ignored

Has our City Charter been violated by the events of the last 5 years? Lets review.

We are a collective of just one voice for many. We hope you all will do whatever it takes by the means available within civil society to support We Love Harbor Springs, Inc to see this process through.

Thank you.