City Clerk's Office Rejects Petitions For Building Height Rules Amendment

An effort to amend the City of Traverse City’s tall buildings rules hit a snag on Monday when the City Clerk’s Office rejected petitions that would have brought about a new ballot measure on the controversial and heavily debated matter.

The petition effort was an attempt to change City Charter Section 28, which requires a public vote of the electorate before the city can approve a building with a height of 60 feet or more. Some local residents have criticized that charter – which became a part of city law after the 2016 election when voters passed Proposal 3 – arguing that it restricts development, delays desperately needed residential projects, and exacerbates the local housing shortage. Had the petitions been accepted, the matter would have landed on the city’s November ballot, with voters being asked to decide whether the city should remove the language in the charter that requires a public vote on any over-60-foot building projects.

The City Clerk’s Office ultimately rejected the petitions on several grounds. First, the petitions needed 658 valid signatures to trigger a ballot proposal. The clerk’s office found that, of the 697 signatures submitted, only 623 were actually valid. A press release from the city noted that this 35-signature gap “alone requires the City Clerk to reject the petitions.”

In addition, the Clerk’s Office found that the petitions were not fully compliant with Michigan’s Home Rule City Act or Michigan Election Law. “Specifically, the petitions do not state what body, organization, or person who is primarily interested in or responsible for the circulation of the petition,” the press release stated. “This a mandatory requirement and not a discretionary requirement. In addition, the petitions are not addressed to the City Clerk which is also a requirement.”

Ty Schmidt of Good Works Lab, which has been the key organizer behind the effort to repeal Proposal 3, calls the petition rejection a “big bummer” and says he and a “core group” of fellow housing advocates are in the process of considering next steps. One of the initiatives within the Good Works Lab is called “Live TC,” which advocates for “abundant housing” in Traverse City. Some 60 members of the Live TC group organized the petition effort and gathered the nearly 600 signatures submitted to the City Clerk.

“What we voted on in 2016 [with Proposal 3] isn't what we got,” Schmidt tells The Ticker, pointing particularly to the ruling last year from Judge Thomas Power that further restricted the city in its permitting of taller buildings. Before Power’s ruling, the city had largely interpreted the 60-foot requirement as applying to measurements of building heights from the grade to the roof deck – and not including parapets, steeples, clock towers, or other mechanical or architectural features. Power ruled that the city had to include such rooftop features in its building height measurements, which stalled several projects that could have moved forward under the earlier interpretation of the rule.

“Having some of these housing projects held up in lawsuits was a little bit of a wake-up call, especially after the Power ruling,” Schmidt says. “We said, ‘Whoa, hey, this [charter] is now hurting our city.’ For a while, there were 200 homes held up in lawsuits. And housing delayed is housing denied. Our teachers and our nurses can’t wait. No offense to other townships or villages in the county, but telling people they have to go live somewhere else to work in Traverse City, when there are projects being held up right here in town, that’s hurting our community.”