WLHS Newsletter
powered by Substack
ZONING | WLHS BLOG | DDA | EVENTS
Press | Letters | Surveys | Corrections | RRC
LATEST NEWS
1.5.25 Proposed Zoning Code Overview – by Harbor Springs City Planner John Iacoangeli
Taken from the Transcript of January 5, 2026 - The Summary of the Zoning Code presented to the City Council Members - on the night they approved the New Code. By Beckett & Raeder's John Iacoangeli "The proposed zoning code is structured into 15 articles,...
The City Manager & City Council Relationships
We encourage readers to approach the memo with curiosity, discernment, and an understanding of both its strengths and its limitations. Context for the 2017 ICMA Memo attached below: The following memo — “A Key Ingredient for Success: An Effective City Council/City...
The Zoning is approved!
January 8, 2026 A Wrap-Up on the Zoning Vote At the January 5, 2026 City Council meeting, the motion to approve the proposed zoning code dated October 21, 2025 was approved with several conditions by a 3–2 vote. We believed that a brief delay of several weeks,...
ZONING
1.5.25 Proposed Zoning Code Overview – by Harbor Springs City Planner John Iacoangeli
Taken from the Transcript of January 5, 2026 - The Summary of the Zoning Code presented to the City Council Members - on the night they approved the New Code. By Beckett & Raeder's John Iacoangeli "The proposed zoning code is structured into 15 articles,...
The Zoning is approved!
January 8, 2026 A Wrap-Up on the Zoning Vote At the January 5, 2026 City Council meeting, the motion to approve the proposed zoning code dated October 21, 2025 was approved with several conditions by a 3–2 vote. We believed that a brief delay of several weeks,...
November 20, 2025 Editorial on Zoning
Zoning Update The following is a Zoning Update from Karin Offield who has participated in nearly every planning commission meeting since February of 2024, ever since concerns on the zoning emerged. Nov 20, 2025 My joy comes from knowing that, instead of reverting to...
The final Planning Commission Meeting of 2025 – a win for the zoning , but not yet quite done
Dear Readers - Hope this is helpful to all who asked...."How did the Meeting go?" December 18, 2025 We took a few pieces of the transcript about the Admin Review Committee to help us clarity our position on the Administrative Review Discussion for the January 5 City...
Dear Planning Commissioners,
Why should the City Council send the proposed zoning back to you? It is far easier to fix these issues now than to live with their consequences later. We hope you'll consider taking the proposed zoning code back into 2026 meetings, and finish what is almost ready to...
Planned Development – Definitions of Subjective and Objective terms – Helping us understand the PD language.
Planned Development - Strong enough for Harbor Springs? In a meeting in early May 2025, when the Planning Commissioners discussed standards and property rights, Mark Rondel spoke regarding a variance request for a garage, noting that while the proposal met technical...
What is Ordinance 50 ? Why does it Matter? Short Terms Rentals Recently Discussed ?
Please read carefully. This is in the January 5 2026 City Council Packet - A report on Short Term Rentals comes next ...
WLHS BLOG
The City Manager & City Council Relationships
We encourage readers to approach the memo with curiosity, discernment, and an understanding of both its strengths and its limitations. Context for the 2017 ICMA Memo attached below: The following memo — “A Key Ingredient for Success: An Effective City Council/City...
When can a Zoning Code Put Harbor Springs at Risk – Understandings by Examples or Comparisons
By Karin Reid Offield and team, The proposed zoning code is close to completion, and that progress should be acknowledged. However, zoning is permanent law. When adopted before key weaknesses are resolved, those weaknesses do not remain theoretical—they become...
Harbor Springs Doesn’t Need More Marketing — It Needs Priorities
Harbor Springs Doesn’t Need More Marketing — It Needs Priorities This post asks what are your thoughts? If our downtown business owners and community leaders want stable streets, stable property values, reliable workers, and real community — they can turn toward the...
Executive Search for Harbor Springs City Manager
Request for Proposals: Executive Search Firm for City Manager Recruitment Posted on November 18th, 2025REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS EXECUTIVE SEARCH CONSULTANT/FIRM CITY MANAGER RECRUITMENT November 18, 2025 Introduction The City of Harbor Springs, situated on Little...
Understanding How Harbor Springs Governs Itself
Understanding How Harbor Springs Governs Itself In the coming weeks, the Harbor Springs City Council will make several significant decisions: voting on the annual budget, considering a zoning code update that may guide development for decades, and confirming...
How the Harbor Springs Selection Process Works – How and Why ?
Guide to City Board & Commission Appointments: How Oversight and Representation Are Balanced Harbor Springs uses a mix of mayoral nominations and City Council appointments to ensure balanced oversight. In some cases the Mayor selects and the Council confirms; in...
Carter Williams City Council Letter regarding the Hire of a new City Manager
From: Williams, Carter <carter@oiventures.com> Sent: To: Monday, November 10, 2025 8:23 PM Tom Graham; Reeve 4 HS Council; Jamielynnmelke@gmail.com; kathy.motschall@yahoo.com; Jeanne Benjamin, Cc: Victor Sinadinoski Subject: City Manager Search Process Dear...
DDA
Old Sidewalks – Let’s Fix Them
Big ticket item at the Downtown Development Authority meeting this month. In Michigan, a sidewalk is considered unsafe, and a municipality may be liable for injuries resulting from a fall, if a vertical discontinuity defect is 2 inches or more, or if there is a...
What is the DDA? What does it do?
What is the DDA? For more information: DDA-101_handouts-3 The DDA is integral to the MEDC's (Michigan Economic Development Corporation's) plan/process across the State of Michigan. Small towns, large towns are all being swept into either certification or engagement...
11.11.24 Traverse City Problem Solving with DDA
This thread is "under construction"
EVENTS
WLHS Town Hall Meeting Dates May 2 & 4, 2024
The “We Love Harbor Springs” team is hosting two Town Hall meetings via Zoom, dedicated to discussing the proposed zoning changes that will shape the future of our beloved community. These sessions are designed to educate residents on the proposed changes and provide...
NATIONAL & LOCAL PRESS
Lamp Posts – Looking at Harbor Springs as a pallet: Harbor Light 10.8.25
1) A comprehensive plan is put together that includes the following: A) a detailed plan with color schematics for lampposts and other features in the downtown and surrounding area, B) a map of lampposts being recommended for painting, and C) public input. Kate...
UPDATED 5.28.25: The Garden Club, Flag Pole, Lower Zorn Park includes Newspaper & Letters
Added: Petoskey News Report . We respectfully urge you to vote to preserve Harbor Springs’ precious green space, reject this proposal, and return it to the Garden Club with instructions to identify a more appropriate and welcomed location. This is an opportunity to reaffirm the city’s century-long tradition of preservation, protection, and responsible stewardship.
1.15.25 Harbor Light
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...
9.5.24 National News About Harbor Springs & the referendum explanation
In 1873, as a result of the Homestead Act, my great-great-great grandfather, of French-Canadian descent, was awarded 160 acres of land in Leelanau County, Michigan for military service in the Civil War. Since then, Northern Michigan has been special to my family, and...
9.4.24 Petoskey News Review Story
Wed Sep 4 2024 HARBOR SPRINGS City shares official wording for ballot item Karly Graham The Petoskey News-Review | USA TODAY NETWORK HARBOR SPRINGS — The City of Harbor Springs recently shared the formal language of a ballot item for the Nov. 5 election that asks...
8.7.24 Petoskey News Review – Harbor Springs declares referendum petition ‘defective,’ puts issue on the ballot anyway.
— Contact reporter Karly Graham atkgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at@KarlyGrahamJRN. HARBOR SPRINGS — The City of Harbor Springs deemed a petition to put a referendum on the November ballot defective, despite having more than the necessary number of...
FRONT PAGE NEWS Petoskey 7.19.24
Harbor Springs passed a new zoning code. Residents are working on a referendum to pause it The Petoskey News-Review— Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN. HARBOR SPRINGS — More than two years ago, the...
National News 9.26.24 Cultural Steamroller Heads for Harbor Springs
http://Enjoyer Brochure Steamroller Harbor Springs.pdf O.W. Root is a writer based in Northern Michigan, with a focus on nature, food, style, and culture. Follow him on X @NecktieSalvage. The idea that Harbor Springs—a town of 1,274 with no stoplight, a town so quiet...
Resort Town or a Year Round Livable Historic Town? The Best Lake Town
The writer of this wonderful story uses the word “historic” about 25 times and every positive note is conveyed due to its utter lack of ugly commercial development. Harbor Springs is special because of its natural beauty and gorgeously kept historic houses and...
HARBOR SPRINGS IN THE NATIONAL NEWS
It’s no secret that America is confronting a crushing housing shortage; pundits on the left and right point out that high housing prices exacerbate the birth crisis, keeping Millennials and Gen Z from forming families and flourishing. But policies ostensibly designed to create more housing come in many forms, not all of them good. Top-down attempts to fundamentally re-engineer communities in the name of “housing justice” are particularly dangerous. Devolution and localism are important principles …
LETTERS
Aligned Planning’s Lynee Wells Letter to the City Council 12.12.25
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT Ordinance Review Final Edits Summary 12.12.25
THE HARBOR SPRINGS BUDGET – FOR COMMUNITY REVIEW – A REVIEW BY A CITIZEN
Click on this LINK to download letter in entirety HS 2026 Budget Analysis CITIZEN BUDGET REVIEW BY CARTER WILLIAMS 12.10.25 City of Harbor Springs, Michigan Fiscal Year 2026 Proposed Budget December 2025 Purpose and Limitations This memo is offered in the...
Peter H. Askew 153 Zoll Street Harbor Springs, MI 49740 November 21, 2025 Mayor Thomas Graham, Jr., Members of the City Council City of Harbor Springs 160 Zoll Street Harbor Springs, MI 49740 Dear Mayor Graham and Members of the City Council, I urge you to take a hard...
Carter Williams City Council Letter regarding the Hire of a new City Manager
From: Williams, Carter <carter@oiventures.com> Sent: To: Monday, November 10, 2025 8:23 PM Tom Graham; Reeve 4 HS Council; Jamielynnmelke@gmail.com; kathy.motschall@yahoo.com; Jeanne Benjamin, Cc: Victor Sinadinoski Subject: City Manager Search Process Dear...
4.20.25 Weather Preparedness by Bing Howenstein
Letter TO: Mayor, City Council, City Manager and Community Written by Bing Howenstein DATE: April 20, 2025 SUBJECT: Recommendations for Enhanced Community Emergency Preparedness Introduction The recent Michigan ice storm, which resulted in a week-long power outage,...
Inclusion means something in a community
Dear Friends and Neighbors, Let’s take a moment to imagine Harbor Springs without second homes and second-home owners. No grand turn-of-the-century cottages. No yachts in the bay. No Irish’s, no Walstrom’s, no ferry. No bustling art fairs, no car shows, no...
A Question from the Audience
Dear WLHS, Given the defeat of Ordinance 439 and its focus on creating density in our 1.3 square mile town, and the petitions signed by homeowners to reject duplexes, triplexes, or re-zoning of existing family residential areas to Residential Multiple by SLU or any...
SURVEYS
SURVEYS: 80 People filled out recent Economic Survey. 13 pages of great answers for & against.
https://www.cityofharborsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/All-Survey-Results-ECON.pdf The Economic Survey was produced in November 2024. The answers are telling, rewarding the attempts to build Harbor Springs into a full time year round town, and answers that are...
9.11.24 RRC ? Now ? Later ? Learn from this Survey
HISTORY: Anyone who supports the Redevelopment Ready Community (RRC) its' long long views, their rules and lots of regulations may have missed a valuable story of how Harbor Springs became a ‘best’ lake city here in northwest Michigan. (just this month voted by...
CORRECTIONS
ZONING: Correction made: What’s Happening to the Mobile Home Park? 5.06.2014
UPDATE & Correction. WLHS researched and found the ownership of the trailer park had changed, but only within the family - not as a new buyer/seller situation. The changes in fees being charged were explained to be "updates" for years old inconsistencies in the...
Corrections: 7.24.24 Bluff Gardens Apology
7.23.24 In the past, from February 8th to recently, the property to the west of Bluff Gardens - Harbor Springs iconic store with large cutting gardens was referred by the City Council and everyone that referred to it, as the place where the "agricultural" zoning...
RRC – ARCHIVED
MEDC/RRC Two recent stories
June 18, 2025 New News about the MEDC. https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-ag-executes-search-warrant-state-economic-development-offices Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office served a search warrant Wednesday at the Michigan Economic...
Zoning: Dexter, Michigan 6 years after leaving the RRC
Discovering the Allure of Small Town Living in Dexter, Michigan Dexter, Michigan, is a prime example of a fast-growing community that seamlessly combines a rich historical tapestry with a welcoming atmosphere, drawing in residents and visitors alike. Situated in close...
Zoning A reminder on how the MEDC/RRC Status can be involved -What to watch for – 6 slides
For zoning, and learning how our zoning is affected by the involvement of the MEDC/RRC. As an update, we now have various zoning parties and leaders suggesting that Harbor Springs does not go further into RRC Essentials or Certification status at this time. Please put...
CITIZEN’S COMMENTS 2.18.25 ON THE RRC
Update: 2.18.25 It is important that the trajectory of the RRC/MEDC involvement be understood. At last nights meeting, the RRC was abandoned to strong push back from audience citizens and City Manager. The Mayor’s comment that in 6 years no one had told him what was...
RRC Video’s by MEDC – Everything needed to see about the RRC Trends
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsigyS4eGucEll48ko0yd8Q/videos
2021 RRC MEDC Slide Show details
Please review this document. We are look for a more recent version. https://www.miplace.org/4a73de/globalassets/documents/rrc/rrc-2.0-info-sessions-presentation_2.1.2021.pdf