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LATEST NEWS
Update: Interviews on You Tube! 4 Candidate Snapshots The effort we ask of the City Council is no less than the effort we are asking of ourselves.
City Manager Interviews on YOU TUBE : Click here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=YQxjQxxU9os Hear for yourself - thank you to all involved. If you happen to know people from these communities, perhaps reach out and see what they think A Snapshot of...
Upcoming 3.19.26 PC Meet: Heights in Harbor Springs – A Memo by Aligned Planning Consultant Lynee Wells –
Responsibility for Height To ensure correct decision-making, adherence to State Law and the City Charter, and to avoid placing the City and its inhabitants and taxpayers at risk. While we are going to discuss adding parking for consensus, we’d like the three other...
Are we Investing in the Right Projects for our Residents and our Youth? – Shay Park for Example
Char-Em ISD expands co-op program to help students find careers Janis Reeser, Reporter assisted by AI Wed, March 4, 2026 at 4:03 AM EST 4 min read https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/char-em-isd-expands-co-090357071.html Petoskey News Review Change from the Outside In...
How to Pick a Great City Manager for Harbor Springs? Guidelines by ICMA
This article was first published January 24, 2026. The Open to the Public Interviews take place on Saturday March 14,th starting at 8:30 or 9 am - Please check with City Hall for further details. The best way to educate on the answer to this question and to...
Proportional Planning and its’ importance for PDs.
This piece was sent to us by a community member - in response to our recent conversations.... Planned Developments are powerful tools. In larger cities, incremental increases may spread across a broad geography. In Harbor Springs, incremental increases compound...
Catch Up HERE: Compilation of Lynee Wells, Aligned Planning advice on Zoning.
2.19.26WLHS Compilation of Lynee Wells Memos & Meetings. CONTENTS INDEX BELOW Contents 7.31.2025 Meeting Lynee Wells spoke via Zoom 8.14.2025 Meeting Lynee Wells spoke via Zoom 9.19.2025 Emails 9.12.2025 Red Line of Article 10 – Planned Development - nine pages...
Thank you for reading our latest News posts. We’re glad you’re here!
ZONING
UPDATED: Citizen Participation, One Community Voice Sparked it…Add Your Opinions about “Michigan Block Grants” Comments below
What steps need to be taken before considering a "Block Grant"? This 6 Page Citizen Participation - Grantees are responsible for several requirements that extend beyond administering the Community Development Block Grant project. These requirements include...
NEW from Lynee Wells about PD’s and WHY to fix our new zoning code. Recommendation for Reform
PD Memo for Planning Commission 2.12.26 Harbor Springs must decide which approach serves the community best. MEMORANDUM To: Harbor Springs Planning Commission Date: February 12, 2026. To download the letter: Please click: PD Memo for Planning Commission 2.12.26...
Lynee Wells Letters to HS, meeting transcript & History of ARC
More to Follow : HISTORY -Institutional memory matters. Many current discussions have long histories. Policies and decisions now being revisited were once debated publicly, approved through established processes, and supported by prior governing bodies. Moving...
Planned Development – Discussion Points – Easy to understand.
How Developers “Hold the Community Accountable” Developers do not “hold the community accountable” politically — they hold municipalities accountable legally and contractually. Here’s how that works: 1. Vested Rights Once a project is approved under existing zoning,...
Heights in Harbor Springs – A Memo by Aligned Planning Consultant Lynee Wells –
February 2026 Height Memo for Planning Commission 2.2.26 3 Pages - Heights and regulations in CBD and in Residential neighborhoods vary in many ways, many are still confused why we want to review the Heights subject again. So for many of us that are participating in...
3 Real time Examples for PD’s, Height and Administrative Review Committee (ARC)
Dear Readers, We know there are a lot of details to sort out - and through - but to get it right, thats what needs to be paid attention to. Opening Thought: Clear zoning language is not about stopping development. It is about making sure that what gets...
Parking, and how a meeting in March didn’t reach the Realtors – yet
Let's have the conversation again. What are your thoughts ? Responsibility To ensure correct decision-making, adherence to State Law and the City Charter, and to avoid placing the City and its inhabitants and taxpayers at risk. While we are going to discuss parking...
WLHS BLOG
A 5 Day Deadline -What happens when big box stores come to Emmet County? What happens to our local businesses?
The public comment period ends January 27, 2026. Anyone wishing to voice concerns may do so through EGLE’s website link: https://mienviro.michigan.gov/ncore/external/publicnotice/search. Enter HQF-AXAK-T2VJC in the reference number search box, click ADD COMMENT...
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...
DDA
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EVENTS
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HISTORY
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NATIONAL & LOCAL PRESS
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...
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...
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/
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
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
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...
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,...
Storm Follow-Up – Follow-Up Preparedness
June 21, 2025 Storm Preparedness Bing Howenstein delivered 4.21.25 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...
Letter about building a bridge by Karin Reid Offield
June 19, 2025 Dear Harbor Springs, It’s been 496 days since the February 8, 2024 meeting—when I first heard the Weque wetlands might be disturbed. That moment pulled me into city politics. And let me be clear: my concern was never with the people or the City Hall...
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.
Letter to Editor – M.Kilbourn About the RRC
LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE HARBOR LIGHT January 9, 2025 Please accept this letter for publication in the Letters to the Editor: The City Council enacted a zoning ordinance which the voters evaluated and rejected via a ballot referendum last November. Since then, the...
12.13.24 Letter to Harbor Springs City Council by JR Elliot
SURVEYS
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CORRECTIONS
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RRC – ARCHIVED
RRC Video’s by MEDC – Everything needed to see about the RRC Trends
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsigyS4eGucEll48ko0yd8Q/videos
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...
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...
10.31.24 Harbor Springs has been engaged with the RRC for years…. are we educated enough to know what’s next?
MEDC/RRC What's in it for Harbor Springs? Helpful learning from our seemingly really remote and quiet neighbors to the North. Towns in the Upper Peninsula like Marquette .... towns smaller like Negaunee also become well-positioned for private investment and improved...
9.22.24 Five Reasons to end the MEDC – Research Report #2 of 2
Did Harbor Springs City Manager do the homework before signing up for the MEDC/RRC process? This article is from January 25, 2019. https://www.mackinac.org/five-reasons-to-end-the-michigan-economic-development-corporation The Michigan Economic Development...
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...
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...