Plan: Increase walkability of 31

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Traffic moves along North U.S. Highway 31 North in East Bay Township. Record-Eagle/Keith King

March 26, 2012

Plan: Increase walkability of 31

Proposed authority would look at improving East Bay highway

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Mon Mar 26, 2012, 07:22 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Plans to make bustling U.S. 31 safer for pedestrians as it zips through East Bay Township continue to move ahead.

The township board set a public hearing for April 9 on proposed creation of a corridor authority along the two-mile long strip of state highway dubbed the Miracle Mile. Some business owners hope an authority can help address the walkability, look and safety of the five-lane highway by capturing local property taxes to pay for improvements.

"The public hearing will really tell if this is something they want to go forward with, if this is something the users, the business owners, really want to do," said consultant Doug Mansfield, who completed a feasibility study for the township.

The proposed district starts with commercial properties west of Three Mile Road and continues east to the Acme Township border just east of Holiday Road.

Interest in high because the Michigan Department of Transportation plans to reconstruct a large section of U.S. 31 in East Bay Township in 2015, Mansfield said.

"It's going to be a big job, and it's going to take a long time, and it's going to need some coordination," Mansfield said. "And MDOT wants a core group of people to discuss it."

A corridor authority creates a tax increment financing district similar to a downtown development authority that captures new taxes gained from future increases in property values along the corridor. Officials said their ultimate goal is to help pedestrians safely cross the busy highway.

"The problem is all the rooms are along the bay, and all the eateries are on the other side of the highway," said Glen Lile, township supervisor.

Lile said he's not worried about the loss of future township property tax revenue. East Bay, which levies less than 1 mill of property tax, has the least to lose, he said. The township's emergency services millage is a special assessment not subject to capture.

But township Trustee Butch Strait, the lone no vote so far, is concerned about taking away tax revenue from other entities such as the Bay Area Transportation Authority, the library, the Commission on Aging and others.

"Those places benefit the complete public," Strait said. "The taxes being taken away from that are going to benefit who, private business?"

Strait hasn't ruled out supporting the authority but said he needs more information about its structure.

County Commissioner Jason Gillman, a township resident, also spoke against the authority that would also skim county tax dollars.

"Generally I'm against the formation of any new authorities that have the potential to cost us any revenue," Gillman said. "We're at the bottom of the barrel on property taxes right now already."

Another layer of government will put more property restrictions on businesses, Gillman said, and he doubts even half the owners are aware of what's proposed.

Each property owner will be notified by mail and invited to the public hearing, Lile said.

"We aren't the ones who started this — the business owners are the ones who initiated the whole thing," Lile said.