City Approves Property Sale To Safe Harbor

Traverse City commissioners voted 6-1 Monday to sell a city-owned warehouse at 517 Wellington Street to Safe Harbor of Grand Traverse for use as an emergency homeless shelter.

The purchase offer calls for Safe Harbor to pay $50,000 to the city for the warehouse and an adjoining parcel on Franklin Street. Under the agreement terms, Safe Harbor must have a shelter up and running at the site within two years, and must provide emergency services to the community for a minimum of 10 years. If Safe Harbor fails to meet either of those terms, or uses the property for purposes other than an emergency shelter during that time period, the property will revert back to the city.

Commissioner Ross Richardson was the sole ‘no’ vote against the sale. He questioned the inclusion of the Franklin Street parcel in the deal, a lot the city uses for snow and boat storage. City Manager Marty Colburn explained the city will still be able to use the lot for storage at no cost, until such time as Safe Harbor wants or needs to expand its operations on the site. Richardson pointed out that under the agreement terms, Safe Harbor could choose to do anything it wanted with the land after the 10-year mark, with the city having no input on those plans.

“Why don’t we have a discussion about what the best thing is to do with this land?” asked Richardson. “We’re cutting ourselves off at the knees in terms of what we could do with this two-acre property.”

Other commissioners focused on the potential for Safe Harbor to partner with other community groups to eventually develop affordable or supportive housing on the Franklin parcel, a scenario Safe Harbor Chair Peter Starkel said the organization welcomed. Commissioners instructed staff to include language in the purchase agreement that if an organization expressed interest in developing such housing on the lot, Safe Harbor would negotiate in good faith with that organization and city staff to pursue the option.

Starkel said the emergency shelter will operate with 65 beds with overflow capacity to start, with the option to expand up to a maximum of 90 beds. Safe Harbor has provided shelter to an average of 45 individuals experiencing homelessness during the winter season over the last two years. However, the organization said it is rapidly growing beyond the capacity of its current network of area churches, with some nights this winter seeing as many as 73 individuals at Safe Harbor.

Also at Monday's commission meeting: Commissioners approved hiring Elmer’s Crane & Dozer to complete a planned $1.8 million reconstruction of Garland Street in the Warehouse District this spring, and approved using the Governmental Center as a new polling station for Precinct 8 voters beginning this August. The city can no longer use the Grand Traverse County Civic Center – its existing Precinct 8 station – due to a new Grand Traverse Bay YMCA lease at that facility.