Residents Weigh In On New Vision for East Bay’s US-31 Beach District

Between a public survey and seven public meetings this week – including five stakeholder sessions and two open houses – hundreds of residents have now weighed in to help shape a new vision for East Bay Township’s Beach District along the US-31 corridor.

A weeklong charrette of input meetings concluded Thursday with an open house at Harbor Brook Hall, where consulting firm Beckett & Raeder presented design concepts reflecting resident priorities. The firm was hired for a not-to-exceed $97,215 contract to lead the visioning process for the East Bay Beach District, which covers US-31 from East Bay Plaza up to the Burger King at the Acme Township boundary line near Holiday Road. East Bay Township received multiple grants to help cover the costs, including from Michigan’s Coastal Management Program, the USDA’s Rural Development Program, and BATA.

Approximately 40-50 attendees Tuesday used post-it notes and stickers to help rank design options and amenities that were then refined for more feedback Thursday. Township and consulting staff also met with dozens of stakeholders in sessions tailored to specific groups, including district residents, district employees, business owners, transportation/mobility, and coastal resiliency.Several themes emerged, according to Sara Kopriva of Beckett & Raeder. “We heard a lot about everybody’s love for the TART trail and being able to get to the businesses in the corridor from the trail,” she says. “We heard about the love for the beach and the water and the state park. We heard about working on pedestrian crossings across 31, but also on Three Mile and Four Mile roads from the trail up to 31, where there are gaps in the sidewalk and infrastructure. We also heard a desire to have more dining options and food – not drive-thru or takeout, but more restaurants and outdoor dining.”

According to Township Director of Planning & Zoning Claire Karner, a theme she heard “reiterated over and over again” – both this week and in a prior survey to which 441 people responded – was the desire for improved pedestrian crossings across US-31 and better access to East Grand Traverse Bay. “The success of this whole planning effort really rides on the success of providing safe crossings, just because there are so many destinations along that corridor,” Karner says.

Beckett & Raeder also gathered ideas for potential redevelopment of specific properties along US-31, such as a parcel on the north end of Four Mile Road. Owned by the Grand Traverse County Road Commission, staff are exploring the possibility of East Bay Township acquiring the site and using it as a public gathering or recreational space. Other concepts include a potential mixed-used development on a privately owned property – called the O’Grady parcel west of Four Mile – and future land uses for the Mitchell Creek Inn site. Property owners have been involved in the planning discussions: Kopriva says O’Grady is open to ideas on how to develop his site, while the Mitchell Creek Inn owners have signaled their desire to retire – potentially opening that property up for future changes.

Proposed streetscape improvements along US-31 – like better lighting, landscaping, wayfinding signage, and medians – also received positive feedback from attendees. Some of those improvements represent low-hanging fruit that could be among the first projects East Bay Township tackles. Karner acknowledges there are challenges to making major changes in the US-31 corridor, including adding more pedestrian crossings. “We have limited right-of-way, there are so many driveways, and everything’s really tight from a design perspective,” she says. “So it’ll require some creative solutions.”

But creativity is something officials say they’re not shying away from, along with an implementation strategy to avoid the Beach District vision becoming just another plan on a shelf. An implementation team – featuring representatives from township residents, business owners, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), TART Trails, Traverse Connect, and Grand Traverse County, among others – is meeting monthly and has been tasked with creating an action plan to bring the corridor vision to life. That group will help evaluate the feasibility of various projects, including from both a policy and financing standpoint, Karner says. Kopriva adds it’s important to have practical goals while still retaining a larger vision, because opportunities could arise for bigger projects to happen. “You never know what will be redeveloped, and if you don’t plan for it now, you can’t have it later,” she says.

Any work that involves US-31 itself will allow require approval from MDOT. Karner says MDOT has been involved in several planning discussions about the Beach District and has been receptive to township feedback. One major project is already slated for the Beach District: MDOT plans to reconstruct the intersection of US-31 and Three Mile Road in 2026, aligning a new Traverse City State Park Beach entrance with the intersection, adding a second westbound left-turn lane from US-31 onto Three Mile Road, and making significant pedestrian safety improvements including new sidewalks, ramps, signals, and crosswalk markings. Karner says she’s hopeful feedback from residents this week will be reflected in MDOT’s final design for the intersection.

Following this week’s charrette, Beckett & Raeder will take all of the input received and begin working on a presentation for township officials later this summer ahead of a final report later in the year. Karner says East Bay is still trying to “provide as many different avenues as possible” for residents to give input. More pop-up events – including in parks and along the TART trail – are in the works, as is a partnership with Traverse City Tourism to survey visitors. As East Bay Township finalizes its new zoning ordinance, feedback from the Beach District visioning process could also influence township zoning rules to better support the corridor vision, Karner says.