Top priorities outlined at non-motorized trail summit

MARK PLEUNE of Suttons Bay inspects his handiwork
Saturday afternoon after preparing the Leelanau Trail
for cross country skiing with the unique trail grooming
vehicle he stores and maintains near the Fourth Street
trailhead in Suttons Bay.

Plans for transportation and recreation trails in Leelanau County received a boost from the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments, which last week held a "Regional Non-Motorized Trail Summit" in Traverse City.

The goal of the summit was to draft a comprehensive strategy to advance plans for non-motorized trails in the council’s 13-county area. Leelanau County was well-represented at the summit with a number of local experts showing up to contribute to the effort. They included representatives of the National Park Service and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the Leelanau County Scenic Heritage Route Committee and Suttons Bay Township, plus Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails, Inc., which operates the Leelanau Trail.

Patty O’Donnell of Bingham Township is a planner with the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments and helped coordinate the regional summit. She explained that the draft strategy outlines priorities for all 13 counties in the council’s area of responsibility, but that priorities for Leelanau County were noteworthy.

The top two priorities for Leelanau County as suggested in the draft strategy are projects that are already well under way – the entire paving of the Leelanau Trail, and the establishment of a Leelanau Scenic Heritage Route Trailway project along M-22 and M-109 through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

O’Donnell noted that three other "priorities" for Leelanau County were based on suggestions the council had received from members of the public and amounted to "wish list" items, meaning that no action and very little formal planning had taken place thus far. These included a "connector trail from Traverse City to Empire" roughly paralleling M-72; a trail along M-204 (Duck Lake Road) connecting M-22 in Suttons Bay and Leland; and a trail from Suttons Bay north through Northport to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the tip of the Leelanau peninsula.

(The five "priorities" as outlined in the draft strategy for Leelanau County are reflected on a map accompanying this story.)

A project that the Leelanau County Scenic Heritage Route Committee has been quietly working on for the past several years may result in the creation of a non-motorized trail running from the Benzie-Leelanau county border just south of the Village of Empire, north through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore paralelling M-22 and M-109 all the way to Good Harbor Bay.

The Scenic Heritage Route Committee was established nearly a decade ago to focus on M-22 which outlines most of Leelanau County. The committee’s efforts have resulted in a number of initiatives to protect viewsheds and other resources along M-22, and have expanded to include M-204 as a Scenic Heritage Route.

Last year, the committee applied for and obtained grants totaling $22,500 that have paid for an environmental assessment of various alternatives for a non-motorized trail through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The grants included $12,500 from the Americana Foundation, a Novi-based group focused on preserving natural and historic landscapes, and $10,000 from Cherry Republic, a Glen Arbor-based business.

Lakeshore assistant supertintendent Tom Ulrich explained that an environmental assessment conducted by the Traverse City engineering firm Gosling-Czubak will be unveiled later this spring, and the National Park Service will seek public comment on various routes and other alternatives that may be considered for the new trail.

In the meantime, the Heritage Route Committee has also applied for grant funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation to help pay for design and engineering of the new trail. Early indications are that MDoT may award the Scenic Heritage Route Committee up to $240,000 later this year to hire a firm that will begin designing the new trail based on "preferred alternatives" that emerge from the environmental assessment process. Officials explained that actual construction of the trail will be done in phases and could take many years to complete.

LEELANAU TRAIL signs mark a crossing at
County Road 633 in Bingham Township.
Only a portion of the trail in Bingham
Township remains unpaved, with paving
now set as the top priority for trails in
Leelanau County.

Barbara Nelson-Jameson of Suttons Bay Township works for the National Park Service Midwest Region office and presented an update on trail initiatives throughout the State of Michigan at last week’s summit. As a Leelanau County and Suttons Bay Township resident, however, Nelson-Jameson has been paying close attention to the Leelanau Scenic Heritage Route Committee’s plans in the western portion of the county. In addition, she serves on the board of the Leelanau Conservancy and as a volunteer on the Suttons Bay Township’s Parks and Recreation Committee.

Nelson-Jameson pointed out state grant funding for Suttons Bay Township’s Herman Park project was won partly because of the proposed park’s proximity to the Leelanau Trail.

Although most of the Leelanau Trail is now paved, the No. 1 priority for Leelanau County is completion of paving for the trail from Lakeview to Revold roads in Bingham Township. In addition, Nelson-Jameson said, plans are being considered to extend the trail through the Village of Suttons Bay from the new Herman Park to another township park established just last year, the 45th Parallel Park a mile north of the Village of Suttons Bay.

"Of course, the purchase of Herman Park is a priority for Suttons Bay Township," Nelson-Jameson explained. "And for the Leelanau Trail, it’s the paving project and the extension to Suttons Bay Township’s 45th Parallel Park."

She added, however, that the Heritage Route Trailway project along M-22 and M-109 through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, once completed, could rival any non-motorized trailway in the state in terms of scenic beauty and popularity.

"Everyone points to the Charlevoix to Petoskey trail as the ‘Cadillac’ of non-motorized trails in Michigan," said Nelson-Jameson. "But I think the Leelanau Heritage Route Trail has the potential to be even nicer."

FIVE PRIORITIES for trails in Leelanau County include
(1) The Leelanau Trail, (2) the Leelanau Scenic Heritage
Route Trailway, (3) a Traverse City-to-Empire connector
trailway, (4) a Suttons Bay-to-Leland trailway, and (5) a
trail from Suttons Bay to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.
Significant actions have already occurred to advance the
top two priorities, but priorities three through five are only
in the "wish list" phase, according to officials.