Common Ground to hold Keweenaw County land use workshop In the Eagle Harbor Township Hall Phil Musser, far right, Keweenaw Industrial Council executive director and Common Ground Core Group member, and Christa Walck, left, Common Ground Core Group chair, help Keweenaw County township representatives plan the Feb. 5 Keweenaw County land use planning workshop. Also seated are, from left, Allouez Township Supervisor Bill Luokkanen, Keweenaw County Road Commission Engineer Jim Heikkila, Eagle Harbor Township Deputy Supervisor Doug Sherk and Common Ground Member and former Houghton County Commissioner Jim Boyce. EAGLE HARBOR ’Äì Keweenaw County township supervisors and land use study committee members met recently with Common Ground leaders to plan a workshop on land use planning for the five townships. The workshop, which will be open to any Keweenaw County residents interested in land use planning, will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, at the Mohawk School. Common Ground is a planning initiative for sustainable development compatible with environmental and historical protection for the Keweenaw Peninsula. It grew out of a workshop last April including a diverse and representative group of local business owners, government agencies, large landowners, educators, health-care providers and environmental groups that met to talk about their interests and concerns for the area, especially with respect to economic vitality and land use. Participants charged a "Core Group" with continuing Common Ground and developing planning initiatives. It also established two task forces ’Äì one to inventory community resources and one to identify and develop plans around regional watersheds. Common Ground held a meeting on planning and land use in Houghton County on Dec. 5 at Houghton High School, just after the Dec. 4 Public Access Keweenaw Meeting in Calumet. To avoid having too many meetings in a row, the group decided to postpone their Keweenaw County meeting and met with Keweenaw County township officials and representatives last week to plan the meeting in advance. Christa Walck, Common Ground Core Group chair Christa Walck, Common Ground Core Group chair, said invitations to the Feb. 5 workshop would go out to the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners, the Keweenaw County Zoning/Planning Commission, the township supervisors and the township planning group members. However, it will be a public meeting ’Äì an open forum where people will put all sorts of planning issues forward ’Äì some affecting all the townships, some unique to one or more township. Walck said the format would be somewhat different from the December Common Ground meeting held in Houghton. That meeting was an informational forum where residents and representatives of local units of government came together to learn the basics of planning and identify local resources for planning. "(The Mohawk meeting) will be more of a workshop format in which people will try to identify the needs of the township and prioritize them," Walck said. "Any residents of Keweenaw County are invited to come and work with these representatives in this workshop." Walck said she found the preliminary meeting last week with township officials and planning committee members "incredibly productive." Phil Musser, Keweenaw Industrial Council executive director and Common Ground Core Group member, told township representatives that land use planning is one of the "hot topics nationwide" and that it is a good time for obtaining grant money for it. "I think it’Äôs very important for communities to start this process ’Äì figure out now how they want their communities to be so they can achieve that," Musser said. "We have plenty of evidence from looking at other communities that unplanned development does not work. We need to treat Keweenaw County like the jewel that it is and make sure that it stays a jewel." Said Eagle Harbor Township Supervisor Jim Boggio, "I’Äôm happy that the county is mandating this, and I feel that most supervisors agree with me." The "mandate" would be the November letter from Zoning Administrator Jane Pelto requesting the townships form land use study committees, whose members would bring findings and recommendations back to the Zoning/Planning Commission for consideration or inclusion in the County Comprehensive Development Plan, now being updated. However, Boggio noted, township officials and planning committees need to convince the county commissioners to start very soon to put some money into zoning. "You need to have a mill or a mill and a half," Boggio said. "The only time you can have public hearings is in July and August because that’Äôs when all the people who pay taxes are around. So you’Äôve got problems ’Ķ You need to get started right away." Boggio added the townships would need to get the Zoning/Planning Commission to join them in communicating with the County Board of Commissioners to impress upon them the need for millage to support the planning efforts. "It does have to start from the grass roots because otherwise people won’Äôt buy into it," Boggio said. However, Musser said he didn’Äôt think the cost would be that great. "I don’Äôt know how you feel about the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region (WUPPDR), but my understanding is they’Äôve got some grants (and) they can work individually with townships to help you go through the process, and it wouldn’Äôt cost anything at all," Musser noted. Added Walck, "There are grants that are going to come up in the next few months ’Ķ and that funding would allow (WUPPDR) to come in and work with the townships. And if you were all working off the same page ’Äì the same template ’Äì they could help you all a lot more efficiently." Barbra Battersby of Lac La Belle noted the need for trust in whoever provides the professional planning help on matters that affect the lives of residents. "This isn’Äôt that we’Äôre worried about today and we’Äôre not going to be worried about tomorrow," Battersby said. Walck and Musser indicated the professional planners should simply be considered as agents and should be neutral. Paul Freshwater, center, Eagle Harbor planning group member, discusses his group’Äôs progress with, from left, Phil Musser, Keweenaw Industrial Council executive director and Common Ground Core Group member; Ken Korhorn, Grant Township supervisor; Anita Campbell and Barbra Battersby, members of the Grant Township Land Use Study Committee, during a planning meeting in the Eagle Harbor Township Hall last week. Eagle Harbor resident Paul Freshwater said Lori Hauswirth, WUPPDR associate planner, has already attended a meeting of the Eagle Harbor land use planning committee, thanks to a grant from Michigan State University Extension. He said Hauswirth told the group she could provide assistance with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) maps, as well as census and other demographic and economic data that might be helpful. Walck noted Common Ground recently received a grant from the Americana Foundation, a group interested in land conservation and historic preservation. The grant has already paid for meetings, maps, an informational insert in The Daily Mining Gazette and WUPPDR staff time. The Keweenaw Community Foundation administered the funds, she said. Walck added she understood the goal was a county plan, and the townships would feed the county information on which it would fix its plan, township by township or area by area. She said grant funding could go to the county, but the funds would allow WUPPDR, or whoever is the agent, to come to individual townships and help them do their part of the planning. Jean Ellis of Eagle Harbor said she wondered what the county really wants in terms of planning as opposed to five separate township entities. "It’Äôs one thing to have a common process and a common template, but if Allouez Township wants one thing and Grant Township wants another ’Ķ isn’Äôt that where it’Äôs important to find a common ground?" Ellis asked. Said Walck, "Different things, in terms of identifying different assets ’Äì different things that you want to conserve, different areas that you want to develop ’Ķ could be wildly divergent; but the process that you’Äôd go through to identify those things would be the same ’Ķ The process of trying to get funding would be the same for all of you." Allouez Township Supervisor Bill Luokkanen said a review of the zoning in his township, in general, seems to indicate few problems at present. "Allouez Township is in pretty good shape," he said. "Of course there can be improvements ’Ķ With land use planning there can be changes made. It’Äôs going to need a lot of work, but we’Äôre not starting from ground zero." Luokkanen noted Allouez Township has a unique situation since Ahmeek Village, which is within the township, has its own government. He said Mark Vichich, Ahmeek Village mayor, is a member of the township land use committee. "I think we should try to keep each other informed," Luokkanen said, "but I would really like to see the village people work on their own plans ’Ķ I don’Äôt feel the township should dictate anything to them." Both Walck and Musser said a township could develop its own plan, especially if the county plan did not meet that township’Äôs needs. From left, Eagle Harbor resident Barbara Bean, Houghton Township Supervisor Jim Vivian, Jr., and Eagle Harbor Township Supervisor Jim Boggio discuss township concerns during a Common Ground planning meeting last week in the Eagle Harbor Township Hall. Houghton Township Supervisor and Zoning Board of Appeals Member Jim Vivian, Jr., said his township feels what is needed is clarification of the wording in the Zoning Ordinance. He said one thing that needs updating is the language of the ordinance. "Get the legalese out of there and get it so people understand it," Vivian said. "Once people start to think and delve into what we already have, they’Äôll discover that it’Äôs complete but it needs updating periodically." Vivian said the planning groups need direction. One limitation in his small township, he said, is that there are only about 20 year-round residents. While Grant Township has about 20 members on their planning committee, the Houghton Township committee so far includes Vivian himself, his son James Vivian III, Mike Dudenas and Mark McEvers. "People asked us to do something on a volunteer basis," Vivian said. "I don’Äôt mind it ’Ķ I really want to preserve what we have and maintain our lifestyle and allow for growth and expansion." Vivian noted that while Houghton Township includes an area registered as a national historical site, that does not guarantee protection for historical resources. He said he wanted to know how the county zoning ordinance could be amended to provide for protection of these resources. Walck noted that at the December meeting in Houghton, Common Ground tried to bring in people to present available resources; for example, Patrick Martin, Michigan Tech associate professor of social sciences, who has done archaeological studies in the area, talked about local and state resources for communities interested in historic preservation. At that meeting, Martin pointed out the importance of considering historic and pre-historic resources, and their attraction for tourism, in the planning process. Keweenaw National Historical Park Superintendent Frank Fiala said the park also has an interest in historical preservation in Keweenaw County and would participate in future planning if invited. "Our interest in the planning that’Äôs occurring in Keweenaw County would be in the Cliff Mine as an area of future study," Fiala said. "Also there has been significant interest expressed in the Central area becoming a cooperating site for the park." Because of the historical resources in the Eagle River area, Vivian said, Houghton Township is also concerned about signage. "The County Road Commission has done a wonderful job," Vivian said, "I drive down 41 and I see these signs and they’Äôre nice. They’Äôre classy, and they get the job done, and that’Äôs what we want to maintain ’Ķ I don’Äôt want 60-foot signs with neon." Vivian said another concern he has is the need for impact fees to assure services to new developments being built, some on roads without year-round access. "All those areas are being developed, but there’Äôs no (all-season) road in there. As a public official I’Äôm concerned about that ’Ķ Let’Äôs make the developer accountable for all-season access," Vivian added. "If they were developing lakeshore property downstate they would be assessed impact fees (for roads, sewage, water, library, schools, etc.). Vivian noted addressing these concerns could make a difference now, but he doesn’Äôt see making a major production out of land use planning. "Let’Äôs take a look at what we have and see what can be improved," he said. Eagle Harbor Township Deputy Supervisor Doug Sherk said one of their land use committee’Äôs concerns was how to find out what people really want. "We have a great committee," Sherk said, "but we’Äôre not sure that it represents all of the ’Ķ major facets of what the people in our township want." Musser said that topic came up at the (December) Houghton Common Ground meeting, when a number of supervisors complained people don’Äôt come to their township meetings. "One of the comments," Musser said, "was that maybe you have to go to the people rather than having them come to you at your meeting place." He noted one of the ideas that came up was to develop a survey instrument for interviewing people in a selection of households. (Actually such a study was done by WUPPDR in Keweenaw County in 1995.  See the Keweenaw Liberty Library and click on Keweenaw County Land Use Planning.) Common Ground Member Jim Boyce, former Houghton County commissioner, noted a land use plan needs to be updated every five years. He said he found the meeting with Keweenaw township representatives very positive, constructive and necessary. "We’Äôve got some good planning and good ideas to get started," Boyce said. Supervisors and planning committee members from four of the five Keweenaw County townships attended the Common Ground planning meeting last week. Sherman Township Supervisor Dudley Martin said representatives from Sherman were absent because the time of the meeting conflicted with their township meeting, but he intended to mark the Feb. 5 workshop on his calendar. "We don’Äôt have a committee yet, but we have the intention to form our own committee and then give input to the county plan," Martin said recently. "We’Äôre trying to read and absorb and put it all together." The majority of the township representatives agreed with Walck that the Keweenaw County workshop on Feb. 5 would be different from the format of the informational meeting with resources that Common Ground held in Houghton in December. As Battersby put it, "We need to bite into something and do it." ’Äì Michele Anderson January 18, 2001