Proposal is part of public bathroom at former fire hall.

Plans for a park area and public bathroom at the former Glen Arbor fire hall are taking shape.
Sarah Litch, speaking on behalf of the Glen Lake Garden Club, presented the Glen Arbor Township Board with plans last week for a proposed garden/park area at the vacant site on Lake Street.

Input from the group was sought by the Township Board, which is developing plans for a public restroom. The club’s conservation committee has been working to design not only a garden for the area surrounding the restroom, but a gathering place for the village, which doesn’t have a central outdoor meeting place.

“We like to think of it as a garden with a restroom, rather than a restroom,” Litch said at the Jan. 21 meeting of the Township Board.

Litch described a place that would serve as a resting place for shoppers, a quiet spot to read, or a small community gathering spot. The plans call for mounded sides around the outside to create an “amphitheater-like” effect, bicycle parking, a memorial bench and gardens featuring all native plants, trees and shrubs.

“The community would benefit from having a central meeting point in the township which is quite visually pleasing,” she said.

The site lies between Art’s Tavern and the Cottage Book Shop between Lake and Oak Streets. It is also adjacent to the Glen Arbor Art Association and the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company.

Board members were “wowed” by plans and how it would seemingly transform the area into an oasis.

“I can see a lot of people using this,” trustee Bill Thompson said.

A committee of township board trustees, garden club members and representatives of the local chamber of commerce has been working on plans for a public restroom at the site, which would include handicapped access and an informational kiosk that is sheltered from the elements.

Two issues need to be addressed for plans to go advance. The township needs a Type II water source for the facility and a 30-foot easement through the property, which would free up much of the area.

“It would allow adjacent property owners access to the rest area for their own purposes,“ township supervisor John Soderholm said.

The water source could come from a nearby property. It would, however, required periodic monitoring.

“There may be a well nearby that’s sized big enough to allow us to share,” he said.

With board concurrence, Soderholm said he will ask Bill Stege to approach nearby property owners and begin negotiating a contract to share a water source. In exchange, the township would pay for monitoring and a portion of electrical costs.

The board’s goal is to have all the details of the proposal ready to present to the public at the Annual Meeting of township inhabitants March 29.