To members of the City Council;

This paragraph is in reference to the delicate and important balance principle homeowners and most importantly second homeowners play in the economic balance of Harbor Springs – a resort town.

In a business sense our second homeowners are our primary stake holders – they own the most land, pay the most taxes, shop at our downtown specialty boutiques and eat at our restaurants. The second homeowners, regulars to town, have the expectation that Harbor Springs will be the same, year after year.

These second homeowners maintain quite a few of the older historic homes and build the larger newer homes. These second homeowners invest big in our community and are often older with expendable income yet use City services only a few months a year.

These second homeowners chose Harbor Springs for its beauty, its history, and its amenities. Not because it is a blighted town but rather it was already a vibrant town, one where life slowed down.

If the Planning Commission were to feel compelled to move on every ‘Goal’ mentioned in the Master Plan, as is required by the annual reporting to the RRC, and tried to change in order to make progress each year as RRC requires, in order to access funding and grants, Harbor Springs’ perpetual change could become unappealing to Harbor Springs’ most valuable residents and locals alike.

‘Open for Business’ is a motto of the RRC marketing campaign, much like ‘Pure Michigan’ is the motto to visit our State, but this style of governance coaching is intended for failing or failed cities. Harbor Springs is neither.

The cachet of HS is the possibility to see big beautiful well-kept summer homes, an enormous yacht in the harbor from time to time, a sailboat race with dozens of spinnakers aloft; a visit along Wequetonsing or Main St or Bay St makes us all remember a quieter time and that is why we are here.
Not to bike everywhere but to stroll, not to visit every park in a day but to sit in repose and take in the view.

The RRC’s intent is to grow every age group, to move families and businesses into town, but HS is financially and emotionally grounded in its resort town mentality and should the second home owners grow tired of the changes, annually, that the RRC requires in order to ‘stay on track’, we stand to lose the very thing we all moved or stay here to enjoy – a slower pace, a quieter life, not a year round mecca of activity.

That’s why we are special and that’s what the Harbor Springs Planning Commission could easily destroy by allowing too much development, too soon, too fast; by waving a flag, that we are open for tourists, businesses, building and growth that could alter the 2’ home 1’ home balance vital to 49740’s cachet.

Vote Yes to Recind the Zoning, and let’s put the guardrails back on.

Do not keep the RRC’s influence in our government in Harbor Springs.
Harbor Springs’s past, present, and future is worth more than grant money.

WeLoveHarborSprings.org