Couple is unhappy; officials say plan meets village goals.

Mary Ann and Rueben Chapman are enthusiastic supporters of “pedestrian-friendly” communities. It’s one reason they live in the Village of Empire.

They are not at all pleased, however, with “semifinal” plans reviewed by the Empire Village Council’s street committee Tuesday night.

The Chapmans live in a house built over 100 years ago, long before state highway M-22 was a thought in anyone’s mind. With work on the estimated $650,000 project scheduled to start in August, they came to the street committee meeting hoping to change at least part of the plan.

The latest plan would bring a sidewalk within three feet of their house, and require removing three trees that provide screening for their home from traffic on M-22.

“Why can’t the sidewalk stop at Michigan Street?” Mary Ann Chapman asked.

The plan is part of a “streetscape” street and sidewalk beautification project originally sought by village officials in 2003. At that time, it was envisioned as a $230,000 improvement project from Front Street north to LaCore, with sidewalks on both sides of M-22, ornate street lamps, benches and brick pavers at intersections. The village secured a federal transportation enhancement grant through the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) under which the village would pay a local match of around $60,000.

The project was put on hold while the village pursued improvements to its water system and made other necessary infrastructure improvements. MDOT officials helped village officials secure more federal grant funding to pay for improving stormwater run-off sewer basins along the proposed project’s route.

Engineer Martin Graf of the Gosling Czubak environmental firm of Traverse City has been working with street committee members and MDOT officials to finalize project plans so bids may be sought in March.

At the committee’s meeting Tuesday night, committee chair Karen Baja said the project has grown in size since 2003.

“Not only has the project gotten a little bigger, but the price of asphalt has skyrocketed as well,” she said, in part to explain why the cost has almost tripled since the project started five years ago.

The project now runs along M-22 from Wood Street on the south to Ottawa Street on the north. The sidewalk will run along the west side of M-22 from just north of Wood Street to Salisbury Street. On the east side, the sidewalk would run from Wilce Street to the south end of the parking lot for the Village Inn.

There will also be sidewalk on the north side of M-72 running west from M-22 almost to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore visitor’s center building.

As to the Chapmans’ concerns, Baja said the goal of the project was to get as much sidewalk down and paid for with the grant. She said village residents want Empire to be a pedestrian-friendly community, and its goals is to have sidewalks on both sides of each village street at some point in the future.

Mary Ann Chapman said she, too, supports “walkable” communities, but doesn’t think having sidewalks that go to “nowhere” are part of that concept. The sidewalk that would run in front of the Chapman’s home would end at their neighbor’s lot.

“It just ends at Robert’s house,” she said of neighbor Robert Foulkes. “I think it would be better to have it end at Michigan Street,” she said.

After the committee completed its review of the plans, Baja and committee members Linda Payment and Nat Gray discussed what to do with the sidewalk that could go in along the Chapman residence. Baja said she talked with a MDOT official in the fall about having the sidewalk continue south past Foulkes’ residence, but that would add a significant expense. “There is a lot of wetland area along there and the MDOT officials balked at how much it would cost,” she said.

The committee agreed to keep the sidewalk on plans for now while the village investigate the cost to extend the pathway further south to hook up with improvements that MDOT will be making to M-22 in 2010. Baja said if it is too expensive for the village to extend the sidewalk any farther south, the village could have the sidewalk stop on at Michigan Street on the west side of M-22.

The committee will also ask for funding in the 2008-09 street budget to lay sidewalk on the west side of M-22 from the north edge of the Village Inn parking lot north to Ottawa Street. Baja said if the Village Council agrees to the funding, work could be included with the M-22 streetscape work, although it would not official be a part of that project.

In other business, the committee:

• Discussed a request from the Empire Township Fire and Rescue Department to ban parking along LaCore Street in front of the fire hall. Baja said she had heard from Empire Township Board trustee Phil Deering that the department could be using the meeting room area of the fire hall in the near future as living quarters if a proposed merger of the Empire and Glen Arbor townships’ fire departments goes through. The committee decided not to ban parking along LaCore since public meetings would most likely not be held at the fire hall anyway.