Welcome, or welcome back.  Here are updates on three items this week:  the waterfront/parks proposal, the City Opera House, and the Question of the Week about the Grand Traverse County Sheriff ’s role in Traverse City.   There are also post-scripts with a couple questions about the dog park idea, and our plans to improve this website.

1. Waterfront and Parks. Thanks to all of you who weighed in with comments and emails about the proposal to use Brown Bridge Trust Fund money to implement ideas in the Bayfront Plan.  Key feedback we received included (a) the importance of safe crossings over Grandview Parkway, (b) leaving the Open Space views unobstructed, (c) more amenities on the zoo property, and (d) fixing up west end beach west of Division Street.

Other comments related to how we take money from the fund (all at once, a percentage per year, or some combination?), and whether the money should be used solely on the waterfront or whether it should be split between the waterfront and other city park needs.  Everyone said, leverage the dollars to get other grants!

You can view a collection of the comments received here:  http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/agendas/packet20091130.pdf

You can view a more readable version of the Bayfront Plan here:  http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/departments/planning/waterfrontplanfinal.pdf

This past Monday the City Commission heard a presentation from Mike Jackson, the chairperson of the former Bayfront Planning Committee, and Nate Elkins, chairperson of the Parks Commission (and himself a landscape architect).   The next steps for the commission to vote on will be a preliminary engineering and costing study that will help determine what will be built, where it will be built, what it will look like, and what it will cost.  Here is a story about the meeting from 9 and 10 News:  http://www.9and10news.com/category/story/?id=187775 and a story from the Record Eagle:  http://www.record-eagle.com/local/local_story_335071648.html.

It is my hope that the Parks Commission, with some help from the Planning Commission, DDA, and City Commission, will be given this assignment.  Once we have this info, we can determine the financial “structure” of the proposal – how much money up front, how much to leverage with grants, and how we can do a sustainable parks and maintenance fund on the back end.  This process of designing the waterfront amenities, and designing the ballot proposal, will be shaped by the input we received this year and will hopefully continue to receive.  Then, if all goes well, we can hopefully put this on the ballot and get to work!

Other info on the waterfront/parks proposal can be found in this 7&4 story:
http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/video.aspx?id=377874
and this piece in the Record Eagle:
http://www.record-eagle.com/opinion/local_story_321072325.html?keyword=secondarystory Please continue to let us know what you think.

2. City Opera House. Thank you to everyone who attended last week’s city commission meeting, and for all the emails we have received.  We want to keep hearing from you on a proposed agreement to put Michigan State University’s Wharton Center for the Performing Arts in charge of running the opera house.

A little background. The Votruba family gave the opera house to the City of TC. The city rents the building to an entity controlled by the City Opera House Heritage Association. The Heritage Association raised over $8.5 million to renovate the Opera House, and it is magnificent. You can see pictures here: http://www.cityoperahouse.org.

While the building is magnificent, the operations of the Opera House so far have lost money, and they’re currently running a six-figure deficit.

The Heritage Association proposes that operations be contracted to the Wharton Center, http://www.whartoncenter.com. Wharton would plan the programming and decide rental rates for the building, and would receive $75,000 per year plus 25% of net revenues for its services. A news story on the proposal is at:  http://www.record-eagle.com/local/local_story_324073121.html.  The Northern Express has a cover story here:  http://www.northernexpress.com/

An outline of the proposal can be found in:  http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/agendas/packet20091123.pdf

The most recent version of the agreement is at:  http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/agendas/draftmgtserv.pdf

Supporters of this arrangement point to Wharton’s expertise running performing arts venues, and its connections in the world of arts and culture. They also note that Wharton is willing to absorb any operating losses starting next year.   Opponents are concerned about outsourcing the operation of a community asset, and question whether the Opera House will remain available for local artists, promoters, and events.

There was siginificant discussion of these issues at the Downtown Development Authority:  http://www.upnorthmedia.org/govtprogram.asp?mid=1076#vid and at the City Commission:  http://www.upnorthmedia.org/govtprogram.asp?mid=1077#vid .  There have also been some comments on  http://www.facebook.com/PlanforTC

The City Commission referred the matter to City Manager Ben Bifoss to negotiate community access guarantees with the Wharton Center.  We will be discussing this again this coming Monday, December 7.  See this Record Eagle story:  http://www.record-eagle.com/local/local_story_336073023.html

Let us know what you think.  Post a comment here, or use the link under the Blogroll on the left to email the City Commission.

3.  GT Sheriff’s Role in TC. We are carrying over last week’s Question of the Week about whether you would support a greater role for the Grand Traverse County Sheriff within the city limits. Click on Question of the Week, above, for details and please, let us know what you think!

P.S. We have not forgotten about you, dog park people!  I hope to have some ideas to report out in the next few weeks.  For now, a couple questions based on the comments so far:

(1) would you support making Hickory Meadow (a/k/a Oleson Field) http://www.garfield-twp.com/hickorymdws.asp a no-leash area as an alternative to an official dog park?

(2) would you be willing to support a dog park with user fees (like a one-day ticket machine at the entrance, or a yearly dog-park dog tag)?

We’ll get back to you, and thanks for writing.

P.P.S. For those who asked that we get this site a bit more organized, that will be a project for the next couple weeks.  Stay tuned.

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