The redevelopment of the Cherryland Center. More construction of single-family homes. Investment in infrastructure, parks, and public safety.

Those are some of the goals Garfield Township trustees and planning commissioners identified as priorities at a special joint meeting Wednesday, the kickoff of a process to update the township’s master plan that will continue this and next year. Township Deputy Planning Director Stephen Hannon said Garfield Township is seeing “positive trends” on many fronts, including population growth – at 20,274 people, the township is the most populated community in northern Michigan – and residential construction and property sales, the latter of which have been at their highest point ever over the last three years. “We’re a growing community, we’re a desirable community,” Hannon said.

But officials agreed there are still several boxes to check off on the township to-do list to ensure a thriving and sustainable future. Chief among those priorities is encouraging the redevelopment of the Cherryland Center, a 40-acre mall now missing most of its anchor stores and slowly deteriorating at the intersection of Garfield and South Airport roads. “If that can be resolved, that would probably have a big impact on the east side of the township and provide a major catalyst for change over there,” said Township Planning Director John Sych. While the site has attracted some passive-use proposals – Garfield Township rejected a request from U-Haul to open a center on the site in 2018 – Sych said the township’s vision was to have an “active space” with a mix of community uses, such as housing and smaller commercial/retail that could include a neighborhood grocery store.

One of the major challenges with the Cherryland Center is that the sprawling parcel is divided among three owners, making it difficult for a potential buyer to negotiate a deal for the entire site. “Somebody has to come in and talk to all three owners and get them to agree to a price,” said Township Supervisor Chuck Korn. Sych said it was unlikely big-box stores would ever return to Cherryland Center – “most of the commercial wants to be in that Grand Traverse Mall area (along US-31), not as much going down to the east side of the township,” he noted – but said the township could explore incentives to encourage other uses on the property. The mall is already located in an Opportunity Zone, which offers capital gains tax incentives to developers who invest in the neighborhood; Sych said a brownfield plan could also be created to reimburse developers for cleaning up and redeveloping the property. “It’s a functionally obsolete and blighted property,” said Sych, which qualifies it as a brownfield site under state rules.

Planning Commission Chair John Racine said township leaders would be “very, very receptive” to creative proposals to redevelop the Cherryland Center. “It’s such a hole that needs to be dealt with,” he said. “We can do all the planning in the world, but it takes somebody in the private sector who comes in and says, ‘I want to do something there.’” Racine added that Garfield Township needed to think about the future viability of malls in general, noting Grand Traverse Mall has also faced declining traffic. “We may have another big one to solve over there, too,” he said. A sweeping set of zoning changes adopted by Garfield Township in 2018 now allow for a wide range of uses on mall properties, which could help in redevelopment efforts.

Constructing more single-family homes was another priority identified by Garfield Township officials. The community is home to a significant amount of rental housing: Garfield Township hosts 42 percent of all rental units in Grand Traverse County, as well as 14 PILOT housing tax credit projects that include nearly 1,100 units targeted to a range of income levels, including low-income housing. But with so much focus on multi-family housing, township leaders worried the supply of single-family homes is falling behind. Planning Commission Vice Chair Joe McManus said that “affordable” housing isn’t just rental apartments but homes in the $200,000-$300,000 range, which are increasingly unavailable for potential homeowners. “That’s where the demand is right now,” he said.

Racine said developers can't be expected to build affordable housing at their own expense when land is becoming increasingly scarcer and costlier. “Why would you build a less expensive (home) if you can sell a more expensive (one) and make more money?” he said. Racine noted municipalities will have to offer their own tools to make single-family homes and other types of affordable housing construction a realistic option, such as changing zoning rules to allow for more density and fitting more homes on a particular parcel. Some of those changes could be included in Garfield Township’s master plan rewrite, officials agreed. “Somehow we’re going to have to get creative,” Racine said, adding that township leaders will need “to have backbones” to stand up to critics who oppose building affordable or dense housing near their own neighborhoods.

Another solution Garfield Township could consider is building out infrastructure, like water and sewer lines or roads, to better support new development. Extending Zimmerman Road north of Long Lake Road is one example; focusing on the proposed Hartman-Hammond cross-town connection or improvements to South Airport Road could also better support community growth, Sych said. Garfield Township could look at creating “mixed-use zoning districts” to encourage certain types of desired development – including housing – in certain areas, he said, such as along West Front/Long Lake Road or US-31/Rennie School Road. Increasing Garfield Township’s walkability, encouraging job diversification, ensuring public safety resources keep up with a growing population, and continuing to invest in parks and trails are also key to future success, township leaders said.

“Thinking about single-family homes, midrise buildings, retail shopping, industrial parks, parks and trails, roadways – all of those things that really make a successful community are important to our future,” Sych said.