Land Use Committee ponders Eagle Harbor Township pilot survey  Doug Sherk, chair of the Eagle Harbor Land Use Planning Steering Committee, chairs the August 1 Public Input Meeting in the Eagle Harbor Community Building. Residents attending the meeting filled out a pilot land use survey and critiqued it to help the committee design their final, township-wide survey. (Photo by Pat Ryan of Eagle Harbor) EAGLE HARBOR ’Äì At their August 7 meeting, members of the Eagle Harbor Township Land Use Planning Steering Committee reviewed the results of the preliminary, or pilot, land use survey of Eagle Harbor Township residents who attended the August 1 Public Input Meeting held in the Eagle Harbor Community Building.   About 29 residents, most of them township property owners, filled out the pilot survey, or questionnaire, at the August 1 public meeting. The questions were based on results of the May 1 public meeting at Eagle Harbor’Äôs Shoreline Restaurant, where participants displayed on the walls their own goals, assets and concerns for land use planning in the township. The August 1 attendees filled out the pilot questionnaire and critiqued it, suggesting ways to make it simpler and clearer. Their critique indicated the survey was repetitious, vague or unclear in some areas.    Jean Ellis discusses the pilot land use survey at the August 1 Public Input Meeting in the Eagle Harbor Community Building. Ellis also tallied the results of the survey and will work on drafting the final township survey. (Photo by Pat Ryan of Eagle Harbor) Committee member Jean Ellis compiled the results of the pilot survey. Her tally showed  patterns confirming for the committee the concerns of Eagle Harbor Township residents.   Overwhelmingly, citizens were concerned with the preservation of the quality of life in the community; protection of natural, cultural and recreational resources; public access  and communication with county government.   The pilot survey results indicated some common concerns, ranked in order of importance (#1 most important) were:   A clean environment Access to natural resources Preservation of historical sites, scenic highways and uncluttered views Maintaining the quaint atmosphere and sense of wilderness Safety issues Property rights Business atmosphere Doug Sherk, chair of the Eagle Harbor Land Use Planning Advisory Committee, said the pilot survey had these benefits: 1) to see if areas of questioning are appropriate and 2) to critique the format of the survey.   Sherk, who chaired the August 1 public meeting, said he and other committee members were quite satisfied with the number of people attending and their participation.   ’ÄúThey participated very well and gave us excellent ideas and suggestions which will be very useful in setting up our final survey and recommendations for the county land use plan,’Äù Sherk said.   In addition to the pilot survey, the August 1 public meeting covered a review of township planning efforts to date, the results of the May 1 public meeting and the need for grassroots support for state purchase of the wilderness area on the south shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Ellis explained current discussions between the State of Michigan and Lake Superior Land Company/International Paper for purchase of shoreline from Keweenaw Point to Smith Fisheries through a possible grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. Because of the competition for trust funds by projects across the state, attendees were urged to write to the Trust Fund Board in support of the Keweenaw purchase and were provided postcards to do so.   Subcommittee to draft final Eagle Harbor Township survey   Committee member Paul Freshwater proposed a comprehensive plan for constructing the final survey for all of Eagle Harbor Township. Freshwater proposed that residents receive, with the survey, a cover letter that details the background of the Land Use Planning Advisory Committee’Äôs mission and the goals identified and discussed at public meetings.   Freshwater outlined the purposes of the survey as follows:   1)      To inform residents about recent efforts in land use planning and why it is important at this time; 2)      To allow residents to prioritize the township assets which to them are most important to preserve or develop; 3)      To allow residents to prioritize challenges facing the township ’Äì challenges which can be dealt with through planning and zoning; 4)      To provide another opportunity for all residents to identify assets and challenges.   Acting on Freshwater’Äôs suggestions, Sherk asked Committee members Jean Ellis, Paul Freshwater and Janet Shea to form a subcommittee to prepare a final draft of the township-wide survey.   Joint township committee members contribute to county-wide survey   This subcommittee will prepare and submit a draft survey for the August 21 Joint Township Land Use Planning Meeting so that the joint committee can delineate similarities and differences among the township surveys. This information will be provided to WUPPDR and the committee working on the county-wide survey, which includes Ed Kraai of Sherman Township, Janet Shea of Grant and Eagle Harbor townships, Pauline Johnson of Allouez Township and Jean Ellis of Eagle Harbor Township ’Äì assisted by Christa Walck of Common Ground and Michigan Tech Professor Alan Brokaw.   Kraai, chair of the County Survey Committee and of the Sherman Township Land Use Planning Committee, said the one-page questionnaire the Sherman Township Committee sent to residents before their July 19 public meeting was helpful.   ’ÄúFor Sherman it helped to have the questionnaire before the public meeting. It motivated people to attend ’Äì sparked their interest,’Äù Kraai said.   He noted the fact that each township is doing its own survey may mean it won’Äôt be necessary to add individual township surveys to the county-wide survey when it is mailed out to residents. The county-wide survey will be designed to make statistical conclusions, he added.   ’ÄúThe simpler it is the better for those filling it out,’Äù said Kraai, who designed Sherman Township’Äôs survey of 10 questions. ’ÄúI hope (land use) is an issue that people are interested in. I hope they’Äôll respond to the (county) survey because it impacts them and where they live.’Äù   Eagle Harbor Township committee discusses wetlands, dunes   At their August 7 meeting, the Eagle Harbor Township Land Use Planning Advisory Committee also discussed the township board’Äôs recommendations on wetlands to the Keweenaw County Zoning/Planning Commission. As a result of a recent permit request concerning wetlands, the committee had looked into characteristics of wetlands and the criteria used in evaluating them.   Said Sherk, ’ÄúThese criteria were adopted by our township board and sent to the Zoning/Planning Commission ’Ķ The purpose of all this is to evaluate wetland use requests.’Äù   When a request comes to the township for wetland use, he explained, the criteria would provide an established method to evaluate that wetland and make recommendations using those criteria.   Keweenaw County Zoning Administrator Jane Pelto said there is nothing in the County Zoning Ordinance on wetlands. Any regulation of wetlands is through the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), she noted.   ’ÄúThey regulate all the wetlands in the State of Michigan,’Äù Pelto said.   The Zoning/Planning Commission received Eagle Harbor Township’Äôs recommendations and approved a motion to recommend that the County Board of Commissioners ask the DEQ to provide a Wetlands Designation List for all of Keweenaw County.   The committee also hopes to define and map dunes and develop policies for them. Dunes are a real and critical resource. Eagle Harbor Township is one of the few Keweenaw areas with significant dunes, and they have to be given strong protective consideration.   Sherk said Eagle Harbor Township’Äôs critical dunes exist only in the Great Sand Bay area (Section 10).   ’ÄúThe township board informed the planning committee that they don’Äôt favor further development of that area,’Äù Sherk said. ’ÄúThere are a number of structures already built in Section 10, and we’Äôre trying to clarify the zoning status.’Äù   Sherk noted the Great Sand Bay area is zoned Conservation District-Environmental Protection (CD-EP) on the zoning map. However, Pelto said part of that area (the fractional southwest quarter of Section 10) is zoned Resort-Residential. The planning committee intends to clarify this zoning with Pelto. In other committee business, Barbara Been presented a concept for consideration of storage facilities at the township’Äôs solid waste facility area. She said storage barns could be built and owned or rented so as to reduce the apparent need and desire of  some people to have large storage buildings in the residential areas. Committee members noted this should produce at least some cash flow advantage to the township and would be better done by a developer as an independent project. Been will write a letter recommending this project to the Eagle Harbor Township Board and present it at their August 13 meeting. Paul Freshwater reviewed the lengthy documentation on the Coordinated Planning Act legislation and summarized it in a handout for future reference if it ever comes up again; however, he said, chances of passage would be slim because it requires cross-county authority and each county would not want to give up its  own authority. The committee removed this item from their project list. Since legislation for Land Banks is blocked indefinitely, the committee also removed this item from the project list. Presently the only way the county can raise money for land purchase is through millage, donations or grants.                                                                            ’Äì Fred Young                                                                               August 13, 2001   Editor’Äôs note: Guest reporter and writer Fred Young is a doctoral student in the Humanities Department at Michigan Technological University.