TRAVERSE CITY -- The quintessential rural bedroom community of Long Lake Township wants to create a commercial center anchored by its best-known businesses -- a deli and an ice cream shop.
The township launched a fast-track planning process to create a "village center" along North Long Lake Road stretching from the intersection with East Long Lake Road west to Long Lake Elementary School. Conceptual plans developed by a steering committee call for sidewalks, small neighborhood businesses, single and multi-family housing, interconnected streets, trails, shared utilities and slower traffic on North Long Lake Road.
"I think it's a good idea to do some planning for the long term," said Nancy Plummer, owner of Moomers Homemade Ice Cream and a member of the steering committee. "I've lived here for 30 years, and I've seen the changes and know what can happen in the next 30 years."
The steering committee of property owners, residents and township officials came up with five conceptual plans to create a village where little exists other than Fieldstone Market & Deli and Moomers.
Traffic and speed on North Long Lake Road are major concerns for Plummer and Fieldstone owner Tom Moschovich. One idea includes a traffic circle while other proposals involve creating a boulevard with gentle curves.
"We have to do something to calm it and make it more safe and effective," Moschovich said.
Plummer said she doesn't support a specific plan, but likes parts of all of them. The township will present the five ideas for public comment on Aug. 20 at 6 p.m. at Long Lake Elementary School, then work on a final plan with a development team led by R. Clark & Associates.
Leslie Sickterman, township planner, said some people question the proposed location but it has the most commercially zoned property, and is on a major east-west corridor into Traverse City. She said the village center concept matches up well with the regional Grand Vision Land Use and Transportation Plan, and will also be environmentally sensitive since it's within the Long Lake watershed.
"Most of the plans show a very minimalist, rural feeling hamlet-style commercial center with a lot of housing and mixed uses," Sickterman said.
Consultant Russ Clark said it would be similar to the villages of Cedar or Maple City in Leelanau County, with shopping opportunities geared to residents of Long Lake Township and not tourists.
Traverse City Area Public Schools' decision to build a new Long Lake Elementary School and its desire to be part of the plans drove the township's effort into high gear, Sickterman said.
Clark said the plans suggest TCAPS flip the front of its building so it faces the new village center. The school would get future walking trails and a second access from an internal road.
Developer and property owner Henry Ramsby of Traverse Homes LLC said the plan will position both himself and the township to move forward when the economy turns around. Ramsby said the opportunity to develop shared community water and sewer service and road improvements will make the area attractive for commercial and residential development.
"This could be a model for future development but there are still a lot of challenges we have to work through," Ramsby said. "This is a pretty lofty set of ideals."
