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LATEST NEWS
September 15th 2025 Open House feedback with Planning Commission recommendations
Jeff's Recomendations PDF
Planning Commission OPEN House – Questions, Comments and Issues Raised
Actual Notes from the Open Houses September 3-11, 2025 OPEN HOUSE # 1. Questions / Public Comment Wednesday 9.3.25 Zoning Open House including both public voices and statements from the Planning Chair and Assessor Attendees: Bill Mulder, Jeff Grimm, Chip Everest, Bob...
Who is WLHS?
What is We Love Harbor Springs? We Love Harbor Springs. org was established to ensure the voice of our entire community is heard. Our group is made up of over 1,000 people from all walks of life, including voters, full-time and part-time residents, multi-generational...
ZONING
REGULATED USES TABLE – proposed draft
Proposed Draft – Article 7
Article 7 is much of the guts of the proposed draft code. Read so you understand further of what can happen where and why? Ask that question! Here is the LINK: Article 7 - DRAFT Code Here is a image of the Article 7 INDEX -
Proposed Zoning Code Public Meetings and Public Hearing "The Planning Commission has wrapped up their review of the zoning code and will be holding a public meeting on Thursday, September 18, 2025 @ 5:30 PM at City Hall to receive public comment on the proposed zoning...
Update Letter 8.26.25 Following the Recent PC Meetings
Your letters speak for you, please show up at the Public Hearings now scheduled - See below Date: August 26, 2025 at 5:16:24 PM EDT To: Bill Mulder <wmulder1@gmail.com>, Tom Graham <tom@grahamre.com>, jamielynnmelke@gmail.com, kathy.motschall@yahoo.com,...
We believe Harbor Springs cannot build its way out of the national employee housing problem.
Our Position Harbor Springs is the heart of a larger region. With improved connectivity, short distances, and shared resources, we believe in a regional approach to housing — where surrounding townships have more space and flexibility. Ours is a resort community...
“Districts” From the WLHS Newsletter – Sign up today….Help Us Keep Harbor Springs Informed
Help Us Keep Harbor Springs Informed, Connected, and Protected We Love Harbor Springs (WLHS) is here for the long haul—and we’d love to work with you in real time. Thanks to your past generosity, we’ve come this far. Our deep research, clear communication, and public...
Why Parcel Owners Must be Included in Zoning Changes
Letter Letter about the Law Subject: Why Parcel Owners Must Be Included Early in Zoning Reform Dear Community Members, (or Members of City Council / Mayor) As an organization dedicated to informing and empowering residents on local land use issues, we want to bring...
WLHS BLOG
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 Do You Love Most About Your Neighborhood?
After last night’s Planning Commissioner meeting, I left with a lot on my mind — and maybe you did too. It got me thinking: What do I love most about my neighborhood? About our downtown?Is it the undulating rooflines, the mix of buildings that still carry hints of the...
Going it Alone
Let’s take a moment and 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 boutique-lined streets. Just a quiet...
Slippery When Wet: A Reflection on Jakob’s Ladder and the Path Forward
There was a time when Jakob’s Ladder wasn’t just a staircase—it was a lifeline. Kids scampered up and down its weather-worn steps, backpacks swinging and laughter echoing down the bluff. It was a necessary connection, a vital piece of everyday life. But times change,...
Financial Priorities – A Community Conversation – Opinions & Help requested.
Subject: Revisiting Our Financial Priorities—A Community Conversation I'm not a financial planner or an accountant, but like many of us, I’ve been paying attention to how our city talks about money, growth, and the future. Five years ago, we were told that Harbor...
Forming Opinions – Community Driven
What we like to do is research, research...and then write papers or reports and share them. Delivering information to readers, helping add to the conversations and delivering transparency when often a subject is so dense - understanding it is at a minimum. Building a...
Father’s Day – Thank you to our Harbor Springs’ fathers: Already There: On Style, Soul, and Staying Power
We are not waiting to become cool. We are cool. Always have been. You don’t have to invent culture where it’s already humming. Take a walk through Harbor Springs any time of year—and you’ll feel it. There’s a rhythm, an elegance, a kind of future-facing nostalgia...
DDA
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EVENTS
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NATIONAL & LOCAL PRESS
5.22.24 Petoskey News “Harbor Springs council passes new zoning code despite public pushback”
KARLY GRAHAM The Petoskey News-Review HARBOR SPRINGS — A zoning code update that’s been in the works since 2022 was approved by the Harbor Springs City Council on Monday, despite more than 800 people signing a petition against it. The contentious update resulted in...
4.30.24 Unintended Consequences, Please sign the Change . Org Petition
To the Harbor Springs Community, Regarding the Redevelopment Ready Community (RRC) National & Michigan Program: There are unintended consequences that I believe have not been thought out or organized – and there are property owners that are unaware of these...
Harbor Springs in the National News -The American Conservative Magazine 4.16.24
Testing : https://www.theamericanconservative.com/communities-have-a-right-to-set-their-own-housing-policy/
LETTERS
12.13.24 Letter to Harbor Springs City Council by JR Elliot
12.5.24 Conflict of Interest (COI) : Letter to City Council
From: Ashley O'Reilly <ashleymkor@icloud.com> Date: December 5, 2024 at 5:23:17 PM GMT To: Graham Tom <tom@grahamre.com>, Michael Behrmann <mhbehrmann@gmail.com>, Jamie Melke...
Letters: 8.28.24 Refused at Harbor Light, published here. Mike Kilbourne
28.24Subject: LETTER TO THE EDITOR Please add my attached (and below) letter for publication in the next Letters to the Editor section of the Harbor Light. TURNED DOWN "Is it all about money? The City Council recently enacted a zoning ordinance which will now appear...
6.26.2024 Our Community and Our Voice
Letter To the Editor: ‘Our Community; Our Voice’ What we want, isn’t it a community that Council can depend on; a community of voices, of ideas, of thoughtful contributions, and of deliberate participation, open to all members of the community, that creates and builds...
4.30.24 Letter to the City of HS – from Wendy Reeve
I have attended all 3 zoning commission meetings held within the last 3 weeks. An investment of 9 hours to familiarize myself with this many pronged octopus the Planning Commission is proposing. Two days ago I read thru the RRC Best Practices Handbook. The...
Letter: 4.30.24 To the Editor: Re: Nancy Rondell & Hope by James Kenney
Dear Editor: In an October 2020 interview with the Harbor Light, while running for city council, Councilwoman Nancy Rondell highlighted the importance of local government in Harbor Springs, encouraging input from all residents. She insisted, “It is so important that...
Letter: 4.30.24 Silence Speaks Volumes by Patrick Kenney
Letter to the Editor: In May 2019, having lived in Harbor Springs for less than one month, the newly appointed city manager, Victor Sinadinoski, for some reason, felt he had a thorough understanding of Harbor Springs and that our quaint town needed to become an RRC....
SURVEYS
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CORRECTIONS
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RRC – ARCHIVED
Should we further Certify Harbor Springs as a RRC town?
At this time, we believe Harbor Springs is an "engaged" member of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Here is the full document that slide by slide shows the steps a town needs to become "Essential" or "Certified". ...
RRC & WLHS Questions about Growth
Growth Council Report https://growingmichigan.org/wp-content/uploads/2023-12-14-GMTC-Final-Report-2.pdf Pg 53 ‘Developing and rehabilitating our housing stock to create more and denser housing and additional live-work options will better match the lifestyle...
7.8.24 RRC History & Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s (MEDC) Grants Projects: Up North 2019 – 2024
MEDC Revitalization Projects PDF for sharing Here is the research: Let the voters decide. WLHS asks: Does our community need or want a zoning reform if its result is State mandated property development? Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s (MEDC) Michigan...
9.18.24 Why RRC ? Some History of Harbor Springs – Master Plan
HISTORY: Anyone who supports the Redevelopment Ready Community (RRC) views, rules and regulations may have missed a valuable story of how Harbor Springs became a ‘best’ lake city here in northwest Michigan. (This month voted by Travel and Leisure Magazine.) The...
11.12.24 What is the RRC ? Does Harbor Springs want or need the RRC?
Months ago we wrote a newsletter that talks about the Redevelopment Ready Community (RRC) & Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) Here's the link: https://wlhs.substack.com/p/wlhs-redevelopment-ready-community Here's the MAP. As of 11.24 we believe...
9.17.24 The MEDC’s Mission is promoting Michigan’s strong image worldwide.
But in order to under something, it's best to review the history of it. Here is a link to a report written in 2009 on the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). We will follow up on a new report, written recently....
9.22.24 History of the MEDC/RRC and its almost failure. Report #1 of 2
We hope you can get through this lengthy article; https://www.mackinac.org/S2009-06#executive-summary 2009 MEDC and it’s failures and costs to the State coffers - the entire project could have been axed. Instead in 2012 it was resurrected/reformed into all the...