Two Traverse City improvement projects planned for 2015 have been put on hold after state officials denied grant funding. The projects could receive new life, however, when city commissioners begin discussing using Brown Bridge Trust Fund (BBTF) dollars to fix up parks later this month.

The city applied for a $35,000 Michigan Recreation Passport grant in 2014 for improvements to Clancy Park on the base of Old Mission Peninsula, including new park walkways, bike racks, a new play structure and a natural playscape. The city would have provided $30,600 in matching funds for the project, plus $4,400 in donations and in-kind labor from Orchard Heights neighborhood and the Friendly Garden Club.

The city also applied for a $257,500 Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant to enhance the Boardman River boardwalk from the Eighth Street bridge to the Boardman Lake Trail, including the creation of 840 linear feet of elevated boardwalk, low-level lighting, fishing and resting platforms, and landscaping. $81,800 in city funds and $175,700 in Grand Traverse County Brownfield Authority funds were allocated for the project. Construction on both projects was set to begin this year.

But city officials learned last week the state rejected both grant applications, throwing the projects into limbo. City Planning and Engineering Assistant Missy Luick says the city was marked down on both applications for having received grant assistance in the past, having a higher community income level and not meeting universal access standards.

“Some of these things are out of our control,” says Luick, adding that the city will likely reapply for the Clancy grant but decided the boardwalk's chances won't improve going forward. “But we think we could score higher by including a more comprehensive accessibility plan (for Clancy Park). We didn't include everything we'd like because of funding...but we now have the opportunity to have additional city funds available for it.”

The city funds Luick refers to are BBTF dollars, an advantage the city has this grant cycle it didn't last year. In November, voters approved capping the city's BBTF fund at $12 million and transferring the excess principal of $1.2 million into a designated fund for park improvements.

City commissioners will meet on January 26 to start hammering out a process by which park projects are identified and approved for funding. Depending on the criteria they choose – for example, can a river boardwalk be considered a park project? – one or both proposals could be in line to receive BBTF funding.

“Parks are clear...but things like boardwalks and trails are not,” says Luick. “It just depends on what the city commission supports and the criteria they choose.” Any BBTF projects must also have a 50 percent funding match by a non-city source; in the case of Clancy Park, the city could request the state grant maximum of $45,000 and allocate $45,000 in BBTF funding.

With an April 1 deadline and a city commission resolution of support required to submit the Clancy grant application to the state, the park could become one of the first city projects designated for BBTF dollars.

Pursuing that option already has support from at least one commission member.

“The voters approved the use of Brown Bridge dollars for projects just like this,” Mayor Michael Estes wrote in a memo last week to City Manager Jered Ottenwess. “We owe it to the voters to seek the state-matching dollars to make this a reality.”

Pictured is Clancy Park at the corner of Old Mission and Sheridan Roads.