After years of weighing options for a nearly 50-acre vacant parcel on Cedar Run Road, Traverse City Light & Power (TCLP) hopes to find a buyer for the property. Multiple residents and community groups see potential for the site – which features rolling terrain and scenic views of West Grand Traverse Bay – to become a public park. TCLP plans to issue a request-for-proposals (RFP) this week that will be open exclusively to nonprofits and public entities for two months before the property is listed on the market.

TCLP board members voted this month to approve a selling strategy for the property, which sits on Cedar Run Road just west of Barney Road in Garfield Township. Only 33.5 of the nearly 50 acres are useable, as the site previously served as a dumping pit for coal ash from the former Bayside Power Plant in the Open Space. The section of property where the dumping was concentrated has an underground lining and has been sealed off to contain the contaminants. Because of the pollution, the ground on that acreage can’t be penetrated – essentially barring any disturbance and leaving TCLP with a largely unusable chunk of land in perpetuity.

TCLP has considered several options for the property in recent years, from installing a solar array to exploring various developments that could work on the site. TCLP CFO Karla Myers-Beman told board members the topography of the property ultimately made a solar array unfeasible. Developers have expressed interest in acquiring the property to build housing, especially with the high western ridge offering views of the lake. A full water main runs along the property, so the site has water access – sewer is nearby but would have to be extended a few thousand feet to reach the property, Myers-Beman said.

New owners or developers would have to deal with issues beyond topography. A restrictive covenant on the site means a new owner would have “due care responsibilities” and be required to work with the state on environmental clearances and approvals to move forward with development, according to TCLP attorney Karrie Zeits. That covenant “encumbers a majority of the property,” not just the ash pit, Zeits said. That means even a land division of the ash pit – something TCLP will explore as part of the sale process – would still require addressing issues on the property. Memos from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) reiterate that several steps need to be taken to clear the property outside of the ash pit and its buffer zone for development.

City Commissioner Tim Werner, who sits on the TCLP board, questioned why a developer would want to take on that responsibility. Zeits noted that the parts of the property that can’t be developed could count toward open space that would allow a developer to qualify for a “denser development” under zoning rules. Werner said at another TCLP meeting that he’d be interested in exploring an option beyond just “liquidating” the property to maximize revenue, noting the site is “more and more popular with mountain bikers” and is near the Grand Traverse Commons, Hickory Hills, and other public spaces. Mayor Amy Shamroe agreed, saying she believed board members and the public would “probably be OK with taking a little bit of a hit (on price) if it helped the community at large do some more of what we know needs to be done,” whether that’s attainable housing or environmental conservation.

The marketing approach approved by the TCLP board will give nonprofits and public entities the first crack at submitting proposals for the property. Once the RFP goes live this week, TCLP will accept proposals from those groups for two months. If proposals are received, a recommendation could go before board members in April, along with a request to declare the property surplus – a move that would need to be confirmed by city commissioners. If a suitable public proposal hasn’t been received by that point, the board would list the property for sale with Dan Stiebel of Coldwell Banker Commercial Schmidt. The property was recently appraised for $655,000, which is the minimum bid TCLP will consider for the site from any public or private group, according to Myers-Beman.

TCLP Executive Director Brandie Ekren acknowledges the lengthy process that generally accompanies property sales, particularly when nonprofit or governmental entities working with boards, grants, and donors are involved. She tells The Ticker the two-month deadline isn’t a hard cutoff for offers. “Two months doesn’t mean we have to close in two months,” she says. “If someone submits some type of good-faith representation of their plan and how they’ll pursue it, we’ll figure it out. The idea behind the two months is that we didn’t want nonprofits to have to compete with big companies. It’s a head start.”

Several entities see the value in at least exploring acquiring the property for a park or other public use. Garfield Township Supervisor Chuck Korn says he’s received messages from people “encouraging us to look at the property,” and says staff will review the RFP and present it to board members as an option for consideration. “It’ll be a little homework,” he says, adding the property “seems like a good spot for biking trails.” Executive Director Matt Cowall of the Traverse City and Garfield Township Recreational Authority Board – which manages the nearby Historic Barns Park, Hickory Meadows, and Hickory Forest – expects his board will look at the property. “Part of what we’ve heard from constituents is that when opportunities arise, we should make sure we’re aware of them,” he says. “I’m pretty sure (the board) would look at this.”

Tim Pulliam, owner of Keen Technical Solutions and a prior city commission candidate, has publicly advocated for preserving the site as a natural area. TCLP has said the proceeds of the property will go toward implementing initiatives in the utility’s Climate Action Plan. Ekren says that could include boosting rebates for low-income individuals to make clean energy upgrades. But Pulliam – who specializes in renewable energy consulting – questions the climate value of a potential cash sale to a developer compared to the climate value of preserving the site in its natural condition in perpetuity.

Pulliam wrote a social media post about the property over the weekend, generating significant traffic – and some of the phone calls Garfield Township and other entities received – as he asked residents to save “this beautiful piece of public land” from development and preserve it as a natural area for uses like biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and hiking.

“I don’t think many people know about it, or if they do they associate it with the old pit,” he tells The Ticker. “But there’s a lot more to it than that. There’s a lot of forest, there’s the ridge line. It’s beautiful. It’s adjacent to other public properties...you could get easements to make connections to these places. It’s right there in the mix, and it’s already public land. My goal is just to make people aware of it and see if there’s a chance for it to be something other than a development.”

Pictured: TCLP property on Cedar Run Road. Photo credit: Traverse City Ticker, Tim Pulliam.