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HARBOR SPRINGS
Harbor Springs is Beautiful!
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The town of Harbor Springs repealed Zoning Ordinance #439. This gives our town the
right to Decide for ourselves as a community, our future within the city.
The Real Work Begins — May 15, 2025
On May 15th, 2025, Harbor Springs begins the important work of crafting a new zoning code aligned with our town’s Master Plan. This process isn’t just about policies and regulations—it’s about listening to one another and making thoughtful decisions that reflect what matters most to us as a community.
Visit the NEWS tab for updates on zoning, blog posts, letters, press coverage, corrections, downtown development, and more.
The insights we’ve gathered through community surveys and town halls have been invaluable. They will guide us as we address the key questions and priorities shaping the future of Harbor Springs.
Let’s pause and reflect:
What do we want Harbor Springs to look like for our children and grandchildren?
What kind of town are we building for the generations to come?
In a decisive move, the City Council has chosen to step away from the Redevelopment Ready Community (RRC) certification and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) program. This is not a step back—it’s a step forward on our own terms, grounded in local values and vision.
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Honoring Privilege Through Service: A Message for the Harbor Springs Community
In a town as unique as Harbor Springs, where lake breezes carry stories of generations past and where scenic overlooks, trains, plaques, and fountains stand not just as ornaments but as living memorials—privilege takes on a special meaning. It is not merely a matter of wealth or property lines. Here, privilege can be found in the shared experience of place, in the monuments that honor those who have served, donated, built, taught, driven, and cared.
This is a town where the staircase ‘Jakobs Ladder’ or the skate park isn’t just concrete—it’s a testament to what happens when a community steps up, literally and figuratively. Where a perpetual spring water fountain refreshes not just our bodies but our sense of belonging. Where the names etched into a pavilion or engraved at The Lyric Theater remind us that generosity comes in many forms: time, money, vision.
But not all privileges are equal, nor are they all visible.
Consider the divide: 3 mills in school funding from homesteaded properties versus 17 mills from non-homesteaded ones. On paper, it’s a stark difference. But in spirit? It’s a profound opportunity for unity. Rarely, if ever, have we heard a second-home owner regret their contribution to our schools or community programs. Because what binds us is deeper than tax classifications—it is a shared commitment to the future of Harbor Springs.
Michael Behrmann#, who has served this community as a Superintendent, as a City Council member, and even as a bus driver, captured it perfectly in his final remarks to council: "It has been a privilege to serve the community." His service, like many others’, wasn’t about recognition. It was about reciprocity—the quiet, enduring exchange between neighbor and neighbor, whether year-round or seasonal.
So how do we honor this kind of privilege?
Not through entitlement, but through engagement. Whether you’re an elected official, an appointed board member, or a quiet donor who gives when they can—there is honor in participation. Maybe it’s planting flowers in your yard. Maybe it’s driving more slowly through our neighborhoods. Maybe it’s sponsoring a student robotics program or simply attending a city meeting. All acts, no matter how small, are ways of saying: “This place matters to me.”
We are all privileged to be part of Harbor Springs. Not because of what we own, but because of how we choose to contribute.
So let us seek out how we can help. Let us teach our children that to live here is not just to enjoy, but to invest. Let us remind ourselves and each other: we are not just beneficiaries of this town—we are its caretakers.
Let that be the legacy we build, one flower, one donation, one vote, one kind gesture at a time.
Add your photos of plaques.
1 CommentComment on Facebook
Food for thought.
We all love Harbor Springs. Saturdays are especially special because of the mornings market downtown and the return of families of friends.
After being away from our winter snow and cold weather - returning to the lush warmish Harbor is like heaven. For those of us that stayed the course and braved the year round we are so happy it is finally “keep the windows and doors open” weather! We made it through!
Many are asking how and what happened after we left town ?
For this post we can report that each meeting at City Hall gets better and better - is there at times nervousness - sure - making future decisions for Harbor Springs is a big ask - a big responsibility - and every person working on your behalf at that table each month wears their hearts on their sleeves - they are working for us - on our behalf. We are lucky.
2021-22-23-24 doesn’t matter any more.
The biggest accomplishment of all is that no one that is being treated with contempt or intolerance. That in itself is an amazing difference. An enormous accomplishment. Thank you everyone.
An enormous accomplishment!
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Please see the email below. U-Haul is trying again to bring a very large U-Haul Rental facility to the Petoskey region.
The County/Township staff has had meetings with them to help them get approved. No public meetings according to followers and concerned community members. No meetings with the decades-long taxpayers to help stop them.
The public meetings are now being scheduled. See below.
U-Haul does NOT have their EGLE/DEQ wetlands assessment completed or their MDOT driveway permit, both of which will be difficult to get.
Why it’s important ?
If they get approved, they will put smaller self-storage facilities out of business as they are what is called a “predatory company” that will undercut everyone in the area with unprofitable low rates.
What that means is that they are so large and well financed that the company can change little for customers and undercut in prices what so many smaller storage entrepreneurs charge. A company this large is like the introduction of the big box stores decades ago.
“These small storage unit owners hope readers out there are interested in helping and participating in the meetings as we need all the help we can get. Thanks”
From: Tammy Doernenburg <tdoernenburg@emmetcounty.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2025 12:28 PM
Subject: Case PSUP25-002 - Amerco Real Estate Company Planning Commission case
Hello,
You are receiving this email because you had inquired or sent information to be considered for the case mentioned above. The applicant has submitted a revised site plan and packet for the Planning Commission to review. The upcoming meetings where the case will be reviewed include the following:
June 25, 2025 Bear Creek Township Planning Commission meeting at 6:30 PM – 373 N. Division Road, Petoskey
July 2, 2025 – Bear Creek Township Board meeting at 7:00 PM – 373 N. Division Road, Petoskey
July 10, 2025 – Emmet County Planning Commission meeting at 7:00 PM – 200 Division Street, Petoskey
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Thank you.
Tammy
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