TRAVERSE CITY — Plans for a placemaking and social district pilot project in Traverse City’s east side are brewing, but probably should focus on a smaller footprint.
That was the consensus city commissioners reached Monday after discussing what city Planner Shawn Winter proposed as a relatively low-cost way to boost a cluster of businesses at the corner of Garfield Avenue and Eighth Street and create some public gathering spaces.
It should cost roughly $60,000 for the concrete planters, a dozen tables, bike racks and trash cans to turn service drives along Eighth Street just east of Garfield Avenue into outdoor seating areas, Winter said. That’s far less than any infrastructure work, and the pilot project would show city leaders if the concept merits more dollars spent on sidewalk work later on.
But the social district element of the plan drew the most concern from both commissioners and neighbors worried that its loosened rules on outdoor alcohol drinking might have drawbacks.
A 2020 change in state law allows people within these districts to buy a drink at a licensed establishment and take it outside into a common area. This wouldn’t create any new liquor licenses or allow people to take drinks where they’re not permitted — a pint of beer from, say, Oakwood Proper Burgers couldn’t be carried into the craft beer taproom Tank Space next door, and that cup would have to be single-use, labeled and no bigger than 16 ounces.
Nor could people legally walk away from the district, drink in hand, leaving Commissioner Jackie Anderson to ask who would enforce the rules.
Winter, who showed commissioners another Michigan city’s signage that clearly showed its social district’s boundaries, said it would be up to the police, same as for any other liquor license-related issue.
Proposed boundaries for the district prompted lots of questions as to why they would include residential streets — Walnut between Michigan and Garfield avenues, for example.
“I’m interested in place-making for this — very, very interested — and in the economic development of that area. But creating this giant drinking zone, I can’t support that, certainly not in its current state,” Commissioner Heather Shaw said.
Winter said those proposals came from looking at the corner’s zoning and speaking to business and building owners in the area. They could be trimmed should the commission choose, but if redrawn district limits were to leave out some businesses, those owners might be disappointed.
Commissioner Tim Werner said he saw the “optics” as hard to explain, given the time the city spent on its Healthier Drinking Culture study. To pivot from that in 2021 to discussing a social district with looser alcohol rules seemed like two opposing ideas, and a pivot that merited some explanation as to why.
“I’m not opposed outright to this, it just seems like there’s a disconnect somehow,” Werner said.
That study now seems to “sit on a shelf,” especially since commissioners didn’t take the recommended first steps to implement it, Commissioner Mitchell Treadwell said.
Winter noted the study didn’t call for a prohibition on alcohol, and that the three liquor licenseholders in question seemed like “good stewards” in fitting with the plan — most don’t serve hard liquor, two of the three focus on food with alcohol as a component, and none are open late.
Ultimately, commissioners could revoke the social district designation if it doesn’t go as hoped for or, at worse, turns into what commissioners fear, Winter said.
Mayor Amy Shamroe asked Winter to send the commission a link on the Healthier Drinking Culture study to remind them what’s in it, and noted that it’s mostly focused on the downtown.
“While I appreciate that being brought up as part of this discussion and for the optics … I think the more important reason why we’re talking about this in context here of an area that doesn’t see a lot of foot traffic, by neighborhoods that don’t have a lot of places to gather,” Shamroe said.
The downtown district has many advantages other parts of town don’t, Winter said. And the placemaking project would be a perk for what many business owners agreed is a corner of Traverse City that needs attention.
Kris Rockwood, who owns a building that was formerly the home of Press On Juice, said she would have loved such an idea when that business was there. She pointed out numerous ways she tried to improve the surrounding area, and said that part of town needs some investment.
“I heard the word that there’s significant concerns about this area,” she said. “I would tell you that I would be significantly concerned if you did not do anything to beautify this area.”
Other nearby residents and business owners said they supported the concept as a way to draw in more people, especially neighbors who lack a similar gathering spot nearby. Andrew Kidwell-Brix, who co-owns Tank Space, said his experience at Grand Traverse Commons’ western extreme showed having more people around cut down on the “shenanigans,” borrowing the term from another neighbor concerned by what already goes on near Garfield and Eighth.
Investing in the area could help turn Eighth Street from a sort of traffic “tunnel” to and from downtown, Kidwell-Brix said.
City resident Lindsay Raymond said she’s supportive of creating a social gathering space, especially around places that sell alcohol. But she couldn’t back the boundaries as drafted, especially as a mother of two.
“We already have people who come down the streets and knock on doors, sometimes at night, who are inebriated,” she said. “I don’t want that to happen when my kids are outside playing or walking to a bus stop, or riding their bikes to school.”
Commissioners could revisit the idea at their May 20 meeting at the earliest, Shamroe said.