Airport site eyed, but village location sought as 'backup'.

Organizers of the popular Sleeping Bear Dunegrass and Blues Festival are working with Empire Township officials to move the growing multi-day concert to the Empire Airport.

Grassroots Productions officials Stephen Volas and Jeremiah Seqouia still want to keep a village venue as a “backup” plan, however. They attended the Empire Village Council meeting on Jan. 22 to give an update on their hopes for the 2008 event.

Volas said Grassroots is progressing with plans to move the festival out of the village over concerns that the popular four-day event has grown too big to be held within the village limits.

“We are moving forward with the township on moving the festival out to the Empire Airport. But, there are zoning issues. We’re still hopeful of doing that, but we need a fall-back position,” Volas said.

The 2007 festival drew record attendance, about 10,000 over four days. The crowd, noise and congestion also drew many complaints, including a 20-page zoning violation compilation filed by a couple who rent a house that sits adjacent to the festival grounds off of Fisher Street.

Volas and Sequoia did not present a formal request to the council, saying they wanted to hear what council members’ thoughts are involving the possibility of holding the 2008 festival either at the airport or in the village. Council president Sue Carpenter said Grassroots needs to follow the village’s procedures and apply for a special land use permit to continue to be held in the village. The council asked Volas and Sequoia to have the application completed, with all supporting documentation, before the council gathers for its Feb. 27 meeting.

Eric Arnold, who with his wife Ann filed the complaint about the 2007 festival, said during public comment it seemed to him that Grassroots first needs to decide where it wants to hold the festival. “They need to decide if they want to be in the village or the township,” he said. Sequoia said the company’s goal is to keep the festival based around Empire as much as possible. If locating the festival within the village or township becomes too expensive or time consuming, they may have to hold it somewhere else. Seqouia said that would only be used as a final option if nothing else can be worked out.

Carpenter cited the village-wide community survey done in the fall of 2007 as a measure of support for keeping the festival in the village. Of the 305 responses to the survey, 191 said they supported keeping the festival at its current location, the field owned by the Deering family adjacent to St. Philip Neri Church. Ninety-two respondents said they did not support keeping it where it is. Similar results were given for questions on allowing camping to continue at the site, with 176 in favor and 101 opposed. When queried about being inconvenienced, disturbed or unhappy with the 2007 festival, 67 respondents said they were and 216 said they were not. When asked if they attended the festival, 186 respondents said they had not and 102 said they did.

In other business, the council:

• Tabled a request from the Storm Hill Homeowners Association to have the village Department of Public Works install a new series of bollards and cables on the south end of the village’s property at the Empire Beach to more clearly delineate where the public beach stops and the private beach begins. Trustees Karen Baja and Lanny Sterling, both home owners in Storm Hill, refrained from commenting on the subject. However, Baja presented the written request on behalf of the homeowners’ association at its request. The homeowners would like the bollards and cable, a type of fencing, placed on the village side of the property line so the barrier may be maintained by the village. The group is seeking a permit from the state Department of Environmental Quality to place the fencing as far down on the beach as possible. The council is expected to consider the request at its Feb. 27 meeting.