Traverse City

[dtown]

im not sure, its not approved yet, they are using bonds for the city to pay for the public parking( the rest of the building is privately funded, with the public parking underneath it on the first 4 floors)

[Ka3kab]

Minutes from a Traverse City city commision meeting dated Feb. 21, 2006 listing the following three parties as related to the West Front St. redevelopment project. Mike Uzelac, Federated Properties, LLC; Bob Holdeman, AAI Architects and Mark Humitz. AAI Architects.

The AAI Architects were just listed and I have no idea if they are the architects for the project, but it seems resonable seeing as how they were there with the developer. From what I can find on them, they are a local (Traverse City) architect firm.

[dtown]

crushed down - http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/aug/09deck.htm

wow, the people who voted no for this are complete idiots. They passed up a proposal that would provide new job,clean up a blighted area, and increase parking space downtown. Did, they know that there wuldnt be any new taxes?

i wonder what will happen with this next.

[RustTown]

I went to the website for the project. One of the FAQ's reads "If the bond issue request in August's primary election is not approved by Traverse City voters, what will happen to the Federated development?"

- The development will not go forward.

Looks like the end of the line unless the developer also decides to build the parking garage, which doesn't seem likely.

[Ka3kab]

Well the idiots of Traverse City have spoken. I hope now that it doesn't go forward and that the f@^#ing morons get to look at the grass peeking through the cracks of an abandoned car dealership for the next 50 years. Federated Properties bought the site (2 ajoining sites) for $2.9 million. So I don't know what they might do.

[dtown]

maybe they will try to find a private investor to pay for the parking deck. or maybe they will just build the other part of the building, the 4 story part. Or, better than that would be to just make the building 8 storys of residential and offices and tell the people who voted no to shove it up their a$$es, because there wont be a thing they can do prevent it from being built.

[Ka3kab]

Well, whatever it's going to be, I hope it's nice. I really hope that they don't waste the space and put up some crappy 2 or 3 story building. It really amazes me how people around here do not understand the concept of building up, not out. They whine, beotch and complain about anything any developer wants to do inside or outside the city. I just wish that they would wake up and realize it's not 1940 anymore. Gone are the days that little ol' Traverse City is just a tourist destination. It is the commercial, industrial, banking, communications and transportation hub of Northern Michigan. Sure the city itself will stay small with a small population (under 20,000) but only because it is nearly impossible to annex charter townships anymore. The surrounding townships will continue to grow and the sprawl will continue to get worse, especially with the mindset of the residents of the city proper.

[dtown]

amen to that. it seems like they would want a nice dense, active downtown as opposed to every road looking like S. Airport.

plus, i dont get how these people dont like big buildings, if someone wanted to put up an 8 story building in my city, id think it was the coolest thing in the world.

Also, i agree about what you said about TC being the hub of northern MI. Sure, as far as population goesits pretty small, but its the biggest city in norther MI, so everything is based out of TC, like banks, tv station, business and such. Walking downtown, you wouldnt think that it only had 15,000 people.

[Ka3kab]

Well this should piss off the people who voted no on the parking deck. Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is going to do a survey of city residents why they voted no. It will only cost $6000.00. Whats a couple more thousand dollors on top of the 200,000 they already spent on a study of how to use the deck. I swear to god, the leaders of this city wonder why they are refered to as the Good Ol' boys and, my personal favorite, inbred hillbillies.

[dtown]

im tired of everybody always doing studies on everything. No wonder everybody voted no, theyre spending all the money on stupid crap. they couldve just looked at the home page of the Record Eagle website, it had a poll about why the parking deck was voted down.

[Ka3kab]

Oh, I know, but they wanted this one to be a "scientific" study. Gie me a f#&@ing break already.

[dtown]

[Ka3kab]

This is something I have never seen before in my life, and want to know if any of you have. I don't have a picture right now so let me explain. Woodmere Ave. here in Traverse City was recently reconstructed. It went from a two lane street and they actually made it into an avenue (whice is has been called since I moved here in 1991.) Now the only problem, and what I hate the most, is that they made it a one-lane in each direction divided road. I imagine that it was the ingenious idea of the local idiots to help slow traffic down. Because everyone knows how fast traffic moves in this town. Is this something that has been done elsewhere that anyone has seen, and if so, what do you think about it. Obviously I think you can tell what I think about it.

[dtown]

ive seen it before, i cant remember exactly where ive seen it, but ive seen it. Id imagine that woodmere probobly doesnt have enough traffic to have been 2 lanes on each side. This construction was a little past the library, right?

Edited August 20, 2006 by dtown

[Ka3kab]

It was past the library, they did the section in front of the library last year. Also, it is only one of three North-South corridors in or close to the city limits. U.S. 31 (Division) and Garfield Ave. being the others. There is plenty of traffic.

[dtown]

hmm, i guess they thought it wouldve cost too much money.

i thought they did a good job with it by the library, i liked the bike lanes.

[Ka3kab]

Well in any event, the alternative would have been to add a round a bout at the intersection of Woodmere and 8th St. Thank God they didn't do that. I can't even imagine the chaos that would have created with some people around here.

[dtown]

Haha. Well, if they couldve taught people how to use it, i could see how that may have been usefull. That intersection is pretty busy.

So the whole reason they are reconstructing Woodmere is "to slow traffic"?

[Ka3kab]

Yes. Aparently a few years ago, when they were talking about adding the round a bout, they were also coming up with all these ways to "slow traffic" down, because traffic doesn't move slow enough in this town. They wanted to restripe 8th St. between Cass St. and Woodmere and make it two lanes, adding bike lanes in both directions. Now, don't get me wrong, I love to bike. The TART Trail is right in my backyard and I use it almost daily, now for the kicker, during the warm months. Bike lanes are fine exept for the fact that you would either die from hypothermia or get hit by a car because you slip off the ice covered streets and sidewalks 7 months out of the year. They also talked about making a road along the west shore of Boardman Lake, but again, the city wanted it to be two lanes and have a 25 mph speed limit. You might as well keep driving through the neighborhoods if they want to do that, because that is what Cass and Union streets are once you pass 8th street. They're not through roads and were never meant to be.

[dtown]

It would definitly suck if they made 8th street 2 lanes. Its hella busy. Like you said, if they did that, itd be easier just to cut through the neighborhoods.

Is 8th street 4 lanes or 5?( like 4 lanes with a left turn lane)

[Near TC]

I thought I'd look up some information online about Traverse City since I didn't know much about it and I found wikipedia's profile on it really interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traverse_City

I was very suprised though to read that in the 2000 census it only had 14,532 people. I thought Traverse City had way more then that.

Traverse City Record Eagle: http://www.record-eagle.com/

That 14,532 is within the city limits only. The "metro" area is 50,000, which includes Garfield Twp., East Bay Twp, Acme Twp., Blair Twp., Green Lake Twp. in GT County, and Elmwood Twp in Leelanau County. The Mall area, S. Airport Rd & S US-31 areas are all in Garfield Twp., The hotels on East Bay are in East Bay Twp. The G.T. Resort is in Acme Twp. and Chum's Corner area is in Blair Twp. M-22 north of West M-72 area is in Elmwood Twp. The population of the area is very misleading. Just an example of how much TC is expanding, not only does TC have the largest Meijer store already in Garfield Twp., but a second Meijer will be built on East M-72 in Acme Twp. next year.

[dtown]

thanks for the info near tc. welcome to the board. Please come back and post again.

We could use another poster from TC.

[Ka3kab]

It would definitly suck if they made 8th street 2 lanes. Its hella busy. Like you said, if they did that, itd be easier just to cut through the neighborhoods.

Is 8th street 4 lanes or 5?( like 4 lanes with a left turn lane)

It starts out as a two lane, one way street at Division then turns into one lane in each direction at Union St. Then just past Cass St. it does turn into 4 lanes until Woodmere and then back to 2 lanes until Garfield where it turns back into 4 lanes. Kind of a goofy street plan if you ask me.

That 14,532 is within the city limits only. The "metro" area is 50,000, which includes Garfield Twp., East Bay already in Garfield Twp., but a second Meijer will be built on East M-72 in Acme Twp. next year.

Really, you think that will ever happen.

[dtown]

thinking back on when i was there, i remember wondering why it was one way, and then eventually multi-lane. I guess its probobly because of the houses on 8th streetare close to the street so they couldnt make it any wider.

I always thought it would be cool if TC had an electric trolley that went around the city, like maybe down 14th to Division, up Divison to Grandview, and then maybe up woodmere ave or boardman.

[Ka3kab]

I think a trolly would be a great idea also. Even in none of the locals used it, kinda like BATA, I'm sure the tourists would.

Also, a while back I posted a thing about some developers wanting to turn a insurance building into some very high-end condo's ($500,000 range) but they pulled out over zoning concerns. Well apparently a new developer, this one from Gaylord, wants to do the same thing with the same building. Right now there aren't any details that I can find. A little refresher, it is the Harleysville Insurance Building on West Bayshore Dr. (M-22) in Elmwood Twp./Greilikville.