Transforming “The Armpit” of Leelanau County Into The Gateway

By Patrick Sullivan | Jan. 27, 2018

The tiny township of Greilickville has shaken off most its industrial roots, but its mish-mosh mix of businesses, beach, driveways, and docks along M-22 have made the bayside township a traffic nightmare and eyesore. The township is eager to improve, but is the only solution — potentially costing millions and decades — moving M-22? While the township awaits the answer, a boom of new development looms, and the clock continues to tick.

Elmwood Township Supervisor Jeff Shaw hopes a study of the section of M-22 that stretches through Greilickville will offer a roadmap for the future of the highway.

Maybe M-22 can be swapped with the TART Trail to improve traffic flow and create a bay-side Main Street? Or perhaps the study will help officials decide that a swap isn’t feasible, and officials can look for other ways to improve the flow of traffic and pedestrians along the corridor?

One way or another, Shaw said, something needs to be done about that one-mile stretch of M-22 in southeast Leelanau County.

The study, which cost $17,345 and is being conducted by Gourdie-Fraser Inc. and paid for with grants from Rotary Charities and Networks Northwest, should be complete in February.

“My goal was to have them look at (moving M-22) and give us an idea of, is that even possible?” Shaw said. “And if it’s not, then let’s put it to bed and put it to rest, and put it behind us and focus on something that’s doable, that’s realistic.”

SHORTER-TERM SOLUTIONS
The study will also offer some less ambitious suggestions for how to improve the corridor.

A major feature under consideration is how the township could create a service drive that parallels M-22 and runs behind most of the businesses, said Heather Harris-Brady, marketing coordinator for Gourdie-Fraser.

“The parking lots follow a line from north to south,” Harris-Brady said. “We’re looking at a way to connect those parking lots so people who are shopping in the corridor can move up and down without getting back out on M-22.”

The bigger question — whether M-22 should stay where it is or whether it should be moved to the TART Trail corridor — will require more time and study than can be offered in the scope of this study, Harris-Brady said.

She said the study will give the township a list of things they need to accomplish if they want to move the highway.

“It will give them an idea of what they need to do to seriously evaluate it,” she said.

Gourdie-Fraser’s proposal noted that after the 2020 census, Elmwood Township is likely to join Traverse City and be designated a “metropolitan area.”

That means federal funding will become available that isn’t available today, said Michael Woods, managing director of Traverse Transportation Coordinating Initiative. Woods said he doesn’t know what effect that might have on the future of M-22 in Elmwood Township.

Shaw said he understands that moving M-22 would take decades and cost millions and millions of dollars, and that the Michigan Department of Transportation has made clear they are not interested in pitching in funds. He said that’s why the township needs to either go all in walk away.

“We’ve had traffic studies. We had a $70,000 traffic study a couple of years ago, which essentially didn’t give us any answers,” Shaw said. “The money is out there if we decide that it is something that’s worth pursuing.”

GREILICKVILLE, REIMAGINED
To reinvent Greilickville and M-22 — whether moving the highway a few hundred feet to the east or just sprucing it up — is going to be a long, hard task.

Shaw, who lives on M-22 just north of the corridor, said he’s heard people refer to Greilickville as the “armpit of Leelanau County.”

Once known for its oil drums and massive coal pile, evidence of the area’s industrial roots remains long after those remnants have been removed. The variety of structures along the highway today — a house next to an office next to a store next to an abandoned oil depot next to a restaurant — stand as if the zoning code exploded and lots were randomly assigned. Among the challenges to fixing M-22 will be the 15 mismatched commercial driveways straggled across 850 feet of road.

Shaw said there are challenges if you want to transform this stretch into a good-looking “Gateway to Leelanau County,” as a task force of business and government leaders was formed to investigate.

“Obviously, I think everyone would like it to be a beautiful place when you enter and when you drive through,” Shaw said. “The challenge is to create that without trying to unduly impose our will on business owners and residents. That’s a challenge. And that’s why we have things like the task force.”

Shaw said the township is challenged because despite all of the growth that’s coming, there are residents who don’t want to see the township change.

“You know, there’s a contingency of people out here that are from here that don’t want to see anything change, and it’s always been that way, and it will always be that way,” he said.

“There is that mentality out there, and, to me, that’s not really realistic. It’s a beautiful place. It’s an amazing place that we live. And people want to come here from everywhere to see it. And you can’t blame them for wanting to live here. So, we’re charged with the task of trying to figure out how to make that palatable for everybody.”

Shaw said he is committed to making the changes while gathering as much input from residents as along the way. Shaw, who just finished his first year as supervisor, said he plans before his four-year term is up to knock on the door of every door Elmwood Township and talk to people about local government.

DREAMS OF SIDEWALK
Before Shaw became supervisor, he was a township resident and business owner. He got together with others concerned about the corridor and formed a group called Crew 22. They met a couple years ago at the Grand Traverse Regional Arts Campus, walked up and down the corridor with notepads, and wrote down their thoughts.

“The main thing that came out of that was that you feel like you’re going to die with every car that goes by,” Shaw said.

Shaw said he is hopeful there are more near-term ways to make pedestrian improvements.

For one, he’d like to see sidewalks on each side of M-22.

In recent discussions with the MDOT, Shaw said he learned that if sidewalks are added, the state might approve a signaled pedestrian crossing, something officials thought had been ruled out by MDOT following the traffic study completed in 2016.

Shaw said he understands that for many people, the problem with Greilickville is that at peak times during the summer, traffic can back up well over a mile from the M-72 intersection.

Five or 10 minutes stuck in traffic in peak times might be something that residents have to get used to, he said.

“All these people kept talking about how much traffic there is and how many cars,” Shaw said. “We’re so spoiled here because we’re not used to having to anything like that. We’re used to jumping on there, and it’s five minutes for me to get to Traverse City. It may take me 15 on the very worst day.”

Shaw said in the short-term, sidewalks and pedestrians will be his priority.

“My concern is the people trying to get across the road,” he said. “Because there’s no good way to get from the west side to the east side. And the traffic study didn’t give us a silver bullet.”

For MDOT to approve a signalized crossing, the township would have to demonstrate there is enough pedestrian traffic to justify one. That’s difficult under current conditions because the road scares away pedestrians. On the other hand, if there were sidewalks, Shaw said that would attract pedestrians.

Last summer, a temporary traffic island/pedestrian crossing was approved by MDOT at the Discovery Center. It proved to be a success: It was a safe, effective way for people to cross M-22 and could open the door to more crossings in the future.

“I truly believe if we had sidewalks, then there would be pedestrian traffic,” he said.

Shaw said he plans to canvas the business owners and gauge whether there is interest in sidewalks. He would need support from businesses because they would likely be required to pay a portion of the cost, he said.

VERGE OF A BOOM?
The discussion of what should happen to M-22 in Greilickville comes at a critical time. There is an unprecedented amount of development in the works that, if comes to fruition, will only add cars and pedestrians.

Shaw said he met recently with his predecessor, Jack Kelly, who told him in his eight years as supervisor he’d never seen nearly as much development as had been proposed in Shaw’s first year.

That includes the West Shore Hotel and Marina, a proposed 28-slip marina and three-story, 115-room hotel comprised of two-bedroom suites. Brownfield work commenced at the site earlier this year, and structures have been removed from the 11-acre property, which sits between the Dockside Party Store and the Masonic Temple.

“They’ve continued, and they are on schedule, at least in terms of what the township has required so far,” Shaw said. “That was a Brownfield site. There used to be oil tanks there. I think it would be wonderful if he could get this whole thing done. I think it’s a great use for a chunk of land that was contaminated and was just sitting there.”

When the project was announced last April, developer Ron Walters said part of the hotel could be open by summer, but engineering problems with the soil have caused a delay, and it looks like the hotel’s opening will be delayed.

“We’re probably three months from being able to start construction,” Walters said.

Heather Smith, Grand Traverse Baykeeper, said the Watershed Center has opposed the permits for the marina because that’s one of the last segments of natural shoreline in the area.

“This particular spot is important to us because we’re seeing so much fragmentation of the shoreline in Elmwood Township,” Smith said. “So much of it is hardened.”

Walters said he is working with the Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finalize permits for the marina.

Also in the works for the corridor are a 12-unit development just off M-22 on Grandview Road; a $4.2 million, five-year project intended to improve the township marina and integrate it with the township park; and the revamping of the Discovery Center campus.

Potentially most significantly for traffic volume, it appears that the 149-unit Moorings and Leelanau Flats development — perched on the clear-cut hill between Greilickville and Traverse City — might have new life; its two developer groups recently settled a lawsuit.

Also, just outside of Greilickville, in the part of Traverse City that is in Leelanau County, a luxury condo development called Solasta is in the works on West Bay, at M-22 and M-72.

Realtor Judy Robinson said a certain number of units have to sell before construction starts, but she is optimistic and there has already been a lot of interest. The 15 units are on sale for between $1.5 and $5 million each. 

SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
Ultimately, the solution to Greilickville’s traffic problem is going to involve more than just Elmwood Township.

Shaw said he met recently with six or seven other township supervisors in Leelanau County, and everyone was curious about the traffic bottleneck at the bottom of the county.

“The thing I told them was, we are the end of the funnel,” Shaw said. “Everything that’s done in all of their townships affects us. Every house that’s built, every business, every extra person that drives to and from, for the most part, goes through Greilickville. And so coordinating with them and keeping them up to speed with what’s going on here I think is really crucial, so that they understand, and they can help. And I don’t even know what that is now.”