Here’s what we know:
- In April 2022, the previous City Manager hired Beckett & Raeder (BRi) to assist with rewriting Harbor Springs’ 2005 zoning code after longtime City Planner Larry Nix retired upon completion of the 2022 Master Plan. BRi and the former Planning Commission led by Bill Mulder developed Ordinance #439 using subcommittee work, Master Plan goals and surveys, Planning Commissioners’ input, and recommendations from the MEDC Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC) Baseline Report and Best Practices program.
- In early April 2023, an MEDC/RRC representative informed the City Manager and the staff assistant overseeing Harbor Springs’ participation in the RRC program that a $25,000 grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund could be available.
- According to many emails seen by a FOIA Request, the RRC/MEDC sent to the City of Harbor Springs, hundreds of emails offering the advantages of large grants, millions of money budgeted for towns like Harbor Springs.
- Approximately the end of April 2023 two weeks later, a contract was signed between the MEDC, Beckett & Raeder, and the City of Harbor Springs. The agreement required adherence to the RRC zoning best practices and Harbor Springs’ Baseline Report recommendations. The grant would be paid in three parts with the final paid upon completion of the zoning code rewrite. City Manager at the time provided a timeline for completion as requested. NOTE: The date of the timeline that the City Manager and Beckett & Raeder produced was the new zoning code would be finished by November /December 2024, after community education/review.
- City Council instead approved the code in May 2024, after the recommendation by the Planning Commission. So, the zoning code was drafted by BRi and the City accepted the $25,000 grant, resulting in Ordinance 439 in May 2024. Six months later, Harbor Springs voters rejected the zoning code in its entirety. The $25,000 grant from the MEDC was dependent on completion without stipulations for community acceptance. RRC Best Practices alignment was met in Ord 439 and the full grant was paid.
- In January 2025, the Planning Commission began another extensive process with Beckett & Raeder to rewrite the zoning code again. BRi was paid hourly under a 2025 budget allocation in the City’s budget approved in December 2024 of approximately $40,000. The revised zoning code approved in December 2025/January 2026 included a new Administrative Review Committee, which incorporated a paid City Planner role filled by Beckett & Raeder, along with new height requirements in the Central Business District that could lead to increased Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenue for the Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
- Beckett & Raeder has received the contract ($23,000) for the approximately $550,000 Main Street streetscape design project in Harbor Springs’ Central Business District as part of the $1.7M 2023-2038 DDA development spending plan required to reinitiate taxpayer financing through TIF which is based on property value increases.
- More recently, a Harbor Springs property owner and a Bay Harbor architect proposed a three-story condominium development with a 12-space parking garage and two commercial units on the site of a former one-story dental practice now used as a fitness studio adjacent to the Lyric Theatre in the central business district TIF area. The proposed structure would occupy nearly the entire parcel, leaving approximately one foot of setback along the theater property line.
- The type of structure recently submitted, although not in line with Planning Commissioners’ recommendations for ‘commercial’ district of Harbor Springs outlined in the 2022 Master Plan (the work product of former planning consultant Larry Nix of Williams & Works our city planner for 30 years), the proposed structure is in line with Ord 439, Ord 442 and the RRC Baseline Report and is the work product of Planning Commissioners’, community inputs and John Iaconangeli of Beckett & Raeder Harbor Springs’ city planner since 2022.
- On May 21, 2026 concerns around the project placed Planning Commissioners in a a situation (an abundance of caution) to advise and recommend City Council to place a 3-month moratorium on 3-story projects in the Central Business District. (A previous building permit moratorium was suggested by the previous City Manager and enacted by City Council after Ord 439 failed)
- If constructed, the development in the Central Business District could generate additional TIF revenue to support future downtown development projects in Harbor Springs’ tourism-oriented business district. However, that increased revenue would not flow into the City’s General Fund.
- Some residents have expressed concerns that Beckett & Raeder’s involvement in zoning revisions, downtown planning, MEDC grant-related work, and projects tied to increased TIF revenue could create opportunities and business development prospects and conflicts of interest or opportunities that benefit BRi’s own business interests.
Sourced information in Meeting transcripts, You tube videos, FOIA requests and City of Harbor Springs meeting minutes. If any details above are incorrect, we sincerely apologize — please email us at weloveharborsprings@gmail.com and we will make corrections right away.