The Leelanau County Workshop for The Grand Vision will be held next Thursday (May 8th) at 6:30 p.m. at Suttons Bay High School.
The Grand Vision is a regional transportation and land use planning project that will help determine spending on transportation projects in the Grand Traverse region for years to come. Participants will be using maps and discussion to focus on Leelanau County's future land use and transportation system.
This workshop is open to everyone - you do NOT need to live or work in Leelanau County to attend. To register, visit The Grand Vision web site or call toll-free: 866-441-5214.
Photo: Misty Blossoms I by Andy McFarlane
The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that the Michigan Senate has approved a school aid funding plan that would allow some of the lowest-funded school districts to gain additional equity payments and also increase all districts' per-student allowance by $71 next year. Traverse City Schools (whuch are among the lowest funded in the state) would receive payments and some Leelanau districts would receive payments as well.
In their excellent editorial calling on Senators Michelle McManus and Jason Allen to champion school equity, the Record-Eagle says (in part):
This is hardly a new issue. Not long after voters approved Proposal A in 1994, the Legislature passed enabling legislation that gave more per-pupil state aid to a handful of districts, most of them the wealthiest in the state. The reasoning was that these districts had taxed themselves more than most and shouldn't be punished for doing so.
The legislation also called for the per-pupil gap to be narrowed until virtually all districts got the same amount of aid, but that hasn't really happened. The so-called 20(J) districts -- those getting higher stipends -- have continued to reap much more than districts like Traverse City.
Today, most districts get $7,204 per pupil, while some 20(J) districts still get more than $12,000. If Traverse City was funded at the level Birmingham schools are -- $12,303 per student -- its state contribution would soar by more than $51 million per year.
School equity is something that everyone in Northern Michigan should be talking with their elected officials about. Learn more about the issue at Citizens for Equity.
The Leelanau Enterprise reports that Leelanau County is the first non-urban municipality in Michigan to take advantage of new brownfield redevelopment rules that provide funding to clean up obsolete, blighted or contaminated properties.
The property in question is the former county courthouse campus in Leland, which is slated to be sold by next month to a local development company, Varley-Kelly Properties L.L.C., for redevelopment into a 2.4-acre residential neighborhood in the heart of downtown Leland.
A decision made Tuesday afternoon in Lansing by the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) board will allow the developer to tap into some $350,750 in "tax increment financing" to clean up the site before it is developed.
Read Brownfield site in line for state financing aid in the Enterprise.
There will be an auction at the former Courthouse & County Office buildings in Leland this Saturday (Mar 15) at 10 AM. The location is 301 Cedar Street and items include 50 Herman Miller Modular Workstation Systems (many with shelving) numerous chairs, conference tables, miscellaneous office furniture, courtroom furnishings, including theater-style seating, hand-crank expanding file system. The auction also includes confiscated items from the Sheriff's Department like skis, bikes, cameras and more.
Cash, checks or major credit cards accepted by the auctioneer, Wayne Bancroft Auction Service. Preview begins at 8 AM on Saturday morning.
Photo credit: Uneasy by Andy McFarlane
The Leelanau Enterprise has a feature on the new Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore General Management Plan:
Contained within a 300-page document that will outline how the National Park Service proposes to govern Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for the next 20 or so years will be a compromise.
Lakeshore assistant superintendent Tom Ulrich is hopeful the proposed General Management Plan (GMP) strikes a balance between preservationists and recreation users, between visitors and residents — basically somewhere in a middle ground of management that all who love the Lakeshore can embrace, or at least accept.
More on the Park's General Management Plan from the NPS.
Photo credit: Sleeping Bear Dunes by ojoyous1 (yes, it's wallpaper sized too!)
The Enterprise reports that the 2007 Farm Bill, which appears headed for passage by the Federal Government in January, streamlines the cumbersome process for farmers to receive federal money for selling development rights on their property to local governments and non-governmental organizations and has additional provisions for specialty crops like cherries, wine grapes, asparagus and organic products.
The new law would raise the deduction a landowner can take for donating a conservation easement from 30 percent of their income in any year to 50 percent.
For those actively engaged in farming, the deal is even better. Qualifying farmers may be able to deduct up to 100 percent of their income from land they have voluntarily donated for a conservation easement. In addition, the new law would extend the carry-forward period for a donor to take tax deductions from five to 16 years.
Read Preservation efforts boosted in Farm Bill in the Leelanau Enterprise.
Photo: Apples & Old Sheds by Andy McFarlane
The Enterprise reports that the Bingham Township Planning Commission held a public forum to discuss ideas that may enhance agricultural tourism in the township, including model zoning ordinance language from the State of Michigan. They quote planner Rochelle Rollenhagen on what is being considered:
"The ideas we're exploring involve expanding the types of activities that might be allowed on agricultural land," Rollenhagen explained. "Agritourism involves some land uses that can be pretty commercial in nature; and a broader range of uses could become allowable in the township’s agriculture district if we follow through with some of these ideas," she said.
The point behind expanding opportunities for agritourism in the township would be to allow farmers and the owners of agricultural properties to stay in business and on their farms, Rollenhagen said. Such opportunities might help prevent residential sprawl.
Read Bingham gathers input for boosting 'agritourism' in the Leelanau Enterprise.
Photo: Harvest II by Andy McFarlane (available in wallpaper size)
The Traverse City Record-Eagle has a report touting the awesome start to the winter season that's got folks booking snowmobile and ski vacations all across the region. Absolute Michigan has a Ski Tour of Northwest Michigan (part of a week-long focus on skiing all across the state of Michigan) and the Northern Express also has a run through of area winter sports and ski resorts.
It's not all silvery lining, as the Express's Rick Coates explains that Travel Michigan seems to have forgotten about Michigan's vital snow sports industry:
For the second year in a row, they are not spending a dime to promote winter tourism," said Steve Kerschner, director of snow sports at Shanty Creek in Bellaire and president of the board of directors for the Michigan Snowsports Industry Association (the group that represents all of Michigan’s ski facilities). "They have invested millions using actor Tim Allen’s voice to create Pure Michigan commercials that promote summertime, but nothing to promote winter. They tell us that they get a better bang for their buck that way. But winter tourism is important to this state. Collectively, our resorts up north spend a ton of money promoting winter. The State could help some."
Photo credit: Ski Jumper from The Homestead. Thanks also to the Michigan Snowsports Industry Association.
I've had this Enterprise article kicking around for just about ever. Since I can find absolutely nothing of interest about Leelanau on the entire internet, it finally gets to see the light of day!
Manitou lakes share tranquility is a detailed feature that looks at Florence Lake on South Manitou, which is home to just 4 species of fish: northern pike, perch, smallmouth bass and the Iowa darter and Manitou Lake on North Manitou that is teeming with fish and bald eagles pursuing all those fish.
Both are longer than they are wide, with Manitou Lake decidedly the larger of the two. On a plat map Manitou Lake appears to occupy about one-half of Section 32, located halfway between east and west Lake Michigan shorelines on North Manitou closer to the north than the south shore.
Lakeshore biologist Ken Hyde puts the lake’s actual size at 256 acres. Florence Lake on South Manitou, found just one-half a mile from the southern edge of the island, is just 78 acres.
Check out the pages for Lake Manitou and Florence Lake from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Photo credit: Lake Manitou by mollypitcher. Check out her cool set of photos from North Manitou Island.
The Record-Eagle has a report on the Traverse City Chamber of Commerce annual economic forecast breakfast the the business expo. Their forecast finds that despite Michigan's statewide struggles and those of the housing sector, the outlook is pretty good for the Grand Traverse area.
The chamber's 60-page economic forecast for 2008 emphasized a need to create business "clusters" that are both cooperative and competitive, specifically in the areas of renewable energy development and in freshwater research. The area is experiencing emerging clusters in agribusiness and health science sectors, chamber officials said.
The five-county region also will need to upgrade its research capabilities and area workforce skills to stay on top of new trends and technologies.
"We need to seek superior human capital," said Matt McCauley of the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments. "We need to bring in the right people."
Read Area economy holding its own in the Traverse City Record-Eagle and download a copy from tcchamber.org.
The photo is Rivers Edge by dtown, part of his set of Traverse City photos.
