DDA To Talk Platform Cafes, Downtown Projects

Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board members will discuss a proposal Friday to help more downtown restaurants by purchasing one or more platforms that eateries could lease from the DDA to expand their outdoor seating. The city allows platform cafés to operate now, but only one restaurant is doing so because of cost and logistical barriers to obtaining platforms – something the DDA could help address, according to CEO Jean Derenzy.

Board members will also discuss other downtown updates Friday, including a plan to reduce permit costs at the Old Town Garage, updates on the riverwalk redesign and Moving Downtown Forward projects, next steps for downtown’s new Civic Square, and the two-way conversion of several downtown streets approved by city commissioners this week.

Platform Cafés
DDA board members will give feedback Friday on a proposal to buy one or more platform cafés that can be leased to downtown restaurants to expand their seating areas. The city relaxed its rules last year to allow platform cafés – which are installed in parking spaces in front of a business to provide extra outdoor seating – throughout the downtown district, including the 100 and 200 blocks of Front Street (where they were previously banned). However, only one restaurant – The Omelette Shoppe – “has taken advantage of this opportunity” to date, according to Derenzy. “After talking to several restaurants, the largest obstacles include the costs of designing, fabricating, and maintaining – i.e. assembly, removal and storage – an on-street platform café.”

Over the summer, DDA staff had multiple conversations with MODSTREET, a Colorado-based company that specializes in creating easy-to-assemble parklets, platforms, enclosures, and barricades for municipalities. According to Derenzy, the DDA could purchase a 10x20-foot platform with an ADA ramp, perforated metal panels, and black powder coating for $31,722. Derenzy says she’s spoken with multiple downtown restaurant owners and received interest in leasing the platform cafés from the DDA if the organization purchased them. In addition to leasing costs – which would allow the DDA to recuperate its investment over time – platform café operators would also pay a permit fee to the city and cover the cost of using one or more parking spaces in front of their business for the platforms.

Derenzy says there are “several advantages” to the proposal, including “taking the burden of cost, fabrication, and maintenance away from the restaurant” and “creating a uniform aesthetic and design/construction standards” for platform cafés downtown. Ownership means the DDA could also use the parklets for its own events and activities when not in use at restaurants, according to Derenzy. She says the DDA could look at purchasing just one or two to start and seeing how the program goes from there. “We know they’re popular in other communities…and this might help restaurants to be able to utilize them and have something different,” she says. If DDA board members are supportive of the proposal, Derenzy says she’ll next talk to other departments – planning, engineering, streets, fire, and construction code – about next steps to move forward.

Also at Friday’s board meeting…
> DDA board members will consider approving a staff recommendation to lower parking permit fees at the Old Town Garage. According to a memo from DDA Transportation Mobility Director Nicole VanNess, the garage has experienced an “increase in transient use likely due to short-term rentals in the area,” but permit use remains low. With many employees still working from home at least part-time, high office vacancy also means continued reduced demand for garage parking, according to VanNess. Staff are proposing dropping the monthly garage permit rate at Old Town to $30, compared to $50 at the Hardy Parking Garage and $38 for surface parking permits. “Reducing permit cost is an incentive to change parking and walking habits by encouraging the use of the less convenient spaces for all-day parking in order to better utilize short-term high demand parking spaces more efficiently for all economic activities that are serviced in the downtown district,” VanNess wrote.

> Two major downtown planning processes are wrapping up in November, according to a project memo from Derenzy that will be discussed Friday. The DDA board will see the final conceptual design in November for a new riverwalk and pedestrian plaza in the 100 block alley of Front Street between Union and Cass streets. The design will also touch on surrounding areas such as the 200 block alley, an adjacent section of Cass Road, and the J. Smith Walkway between Pangea’s and Kilwins. Multiple public input sessions lead to three conceptual designs that were unveiled in September, with additional feedback refining those into one preferred option. That option and cost estimates will be discussed at the DDA board’s November meeting, with next steps – such as engineering – incorporated into DDA budget discussions in the spring, according to Derenzy.

The DDA board will also meet in a special joint session with the city commission on November 2 to review the draft report of Moving Downtown Forward, a consultant-led process to analyze the DDA’s organizational structure and funding mechanisms, compare downtown Traverse City to other downtowns across the country, and look at national trends and best practices to make recommendations on how the DDA can position both itself and downtown in general to thrive in the coming years. Two public open houses will follow to unveil the report on November 3.

> The DDA is planning to issue a request-for-proposals (RFP) in November for a consultant to lead a process to create a conceptual design for the new civic square at the corner of Union and State streets. That process will likely take most of 2023, with the public having multiple opportunities to weigh in on how the community park will be designed and used. In the meantime, the DDA is working to “activate” the space – draw people in and demonstrate its potential uses – by recently adding electrical circuits and dog bags to the site and planning a series of events starting this fall. The first major event will be Saturday, October 29 at 5pm (7:30pm viewing start) featuring a public tailgating party for the University of Michigan versus Michigan State University football game. A giant LED screen will broadcast the game, with food trucks, beer and seltzer sales from Fresh Coast Beer Works, cornhole and other yard games, fire pits, prize giveaways, and food donation collection bins for Father Fred all featured. The event is free and open to the public. The civic square will also be the site of Santa’s House this holiday season, according to Derenzy. “We’re excited to start looking at different opportunities for the winter and summer months to better connect Front Street to Old Town and have a more cohesive approach throughout the downtown district,” she says.

> Finally, preparation work will soon start in downtown Traverse City to convert State Street, Pine Street, and Boardman Avenue to two-way traffic for a two-year pilot after city commissioners approved the project Monday. Work will include removing the existing traffic islands at State Street/Boardman Avenue and Boardman Avenue/Front Street, improving the traffic signals at State/Union and State/Cass, modifying the State Street entrance to the Hardy Parking Garage, upgrading pavement markings and signage, and making snow-plowing modifications. Four-way stops will be installed at Boardman/State and State/Park, with new stops signs also installed at the Front/Pine and Boardman/Front intersections. Bulbouts – or curb extensions that feature planters and other barriers – will also be added to several intersections. Derenzy tells The Ticker the goal is for two-way traffic to go live November 11.