It’s better when we can clarify/confirm any news that is published. Thank you for the opportunity. 

The below article was posted in the Little Traverse Bay Housing Partnership Newsletter. They asked us for some details.

The only clarification that WLHS would like to add is that no City of Harbor Springs Town Halls were held before or after the proposed zoning code was rolled out on February 2024.

 

As a group of citizens we requested a Town Hall for education but City Council declined to hold one. If we held one, we were told, Mayor Bugera threatened arrest of anyone who spoke or brought up the Redevelopment Ready Community (RRC) during the town hall.

 

Also the article does not mention the 90-100 citizens who attended the Planning Commissions 3 educational meetings in February and March 2024 as well as the subsequent 2 City Council meetings of which 90% of the attendants were in opposition to the cities proposed changes. The citizens asked the City Council to pause and wait until the summer residents had arrived in town before approving the new zoning. 

 

We are thankful to the LTBHP for coverage of these issues. Again, we can’t state it enough. HS has practiced democracy by presenting the voters in the City of Harbor Springs with an opportunity for their voices and opinions to matter on this most important subject which will affect all of our properties.

 

If the City Council IS indeed confident that their zoning decisions were of benefit to this community, then they will have nothing to fear in the changes being put upon a ballot. The citizens will all have their opportunity to support…..or not. 

 

Here is the LTBHP article:

https://www.ltbhp.org/newsletter

After two years of surveys, study, presentations, hearings, town halls, and City Council discussion, the Harbor Springs City Council voted unanimously on May 20, 2024, to approve Ordinance 439 to “amend, revise and restate” the Harbor Springs Zoning Code. The new zoning code, effective June 1, 2024, is designed to modernize the document, reduce the number of zoning districts from 17 to 9, and provide additional options for property owners to adapt to aging and changes in household structure.

Options include allowing a narrower minimum width for newly created lots, allowing more site plans to be approved by administrative committee rather than by seeking a special land use approval by the entire Planning Commission, allowing long-term rental of ADU’s, and allowing duplexes by right and triplexes by special land use in residential districts.

One Harbor Springs citizen group opposed to the changes is currently collecting signatures to a petition asking for the new code to be put on the ballot (weloveharborsprings.org). Another group has organized in support of the new code (weloveharborspringstoo.org). Clearly, zoning matters.