Council denies request to use Hoyt St. park for potential library

By Charles O’Neill
Harbor Light Newspaper

The Harbor Springs City Council voted 3-2 to deny a request to lease a public park on the corner of Hoyt and M-119 as a site for a potential new district library. The vote came at Council’s regular meeting Monday night, March 1.

Last month, the Harbor Springs Area District Library Committee made the proposal to utilize the site, currently an open public park, for a potential library building site. Saying they had considered a variety of sites, committee members noted the central location, proximity to schools and accessibility to a variety of possible users made the Hoyt Street site preferable to other considered sites.

Over the past few weeks, the city has taken comment on the request through its website, mail, email and other means, city manager Tom Richards noted. Council was presented with a packet of close to 100 comments.

The property was purchased by individual investors a number of years ago and donated to the city through the Petoskey Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation. There is a deed restriction on the property that it be maintained as a public park.

City manager Tom Richards said Monday the Community Foundation offered no clarification as to whether that deed restriction could be eased to allow for a library.

Two weeks ago, at council’s last meeting, Mayor Al Dika suggested the possibility of holding a public hearing or town hall on the issue. He changed his mind.

“Having received all the comments and just giving it a couple more weeks of thought, the decision has got to be made at this table regardless,” Dika said. “I see trends in the comments so far that concur with the way I feel. I am just wondering how you folks (council members) feel about letting this process move forward or making a decision tonight.”

“I don’t think we need to (continue the discussion),” council member Michael Heinz said. “When they first proposed that site, I was excited. Then I got to looking, and looking. And it just doesn’t fit in with the sports complex at all. I don’t think it should be built there.”

Heinz suggested that other possible sites such as on Lake Road across from Shay Elementary or on school property off the north end of Arbor Street would be better locations. Those were sites the Library Committee has said it had considered.

“And I have had quite a few people contact me that were just absolutely against it (using the Hoyt Street site),” Heinz said. “And quite a few people were against even having a district library. I was surprised.”

Council member Pringle Pfeifer expressed interest in continuing to take comment on the issue, saying she read in the comments received so far a majority interest in using the Hoyt Street site as a potential library location.

Pfeifer suggested that they press the Community Foundation for an answer on whether or not the site “was available for a library building” or not.

“We could ask them ‘Is the site available?’ The site could be eliminated and that is the end of that discussion,” she said.
Council member Alan Hegedus also expressed some interest in continuing to gather comment on the issue.

“What I am seeing from the original document when the property was given through the Community Foundation was that it was intended for an open public park,” council member Rick Holdorf said. “After having read that, it changed my mind. I am leaning heavily toward not (allowing it on that property) because the donors originally wanted it open space.”

“I offered to communicate with them (donors) and they prefer to remain anonymous,” Dika said. “They want the city and the Community Foundation to figure this out.”

“I have received a lot of calls, and I have been stopped on the street and received letters at home,” Dika said. “And they are overwhelmingly opposed to that site. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of this council to represent the city first in this decision. This is a community project, we are all in it together in terms of voting for it or not. But when it comes to donating city land, the opinion of city residents far outweighs any others.”

West Traverse Township resident Eve Lauer, a former clerk for that township, spoke to council, noting that she was the township representative on the District Library Committee.

“I am 100-percent in favor of the library. I am 100-percent not in favor of the Hoyt Street property,” she said. Saying she worked with the original property owners, “I know that property was intended to be an open park for everyone to use.

“I think when you have restrictions on a property, you undermine people even giving property to the Conservancy that once they give it, you are going to do whatever you want to do with it,” she said. “I think you would be making a big mistake and there are other places this library could go. But again, I want to say I am 100-percent in favor (the library).”

“I personally think the library should be part of the school campus,” Dika said, “and that property is not part of the school campus.”

Council then went through the process of voting as to whether or not to extend the comment period, or make a decision that night. That decision was unanimous to go ahead and make a decision on the Hoyt Street lease request.
Council then voted on a motion to deny the request to lease the property for a potential library site. The denial motion passed 3-2 with Hegedus and Pfeifer dissenting.

The efforts to create a new district library serving the townships and city that make up the Harbor Springs School District have been going on for some two years. That effort was formalized last year with the creation of the Harbor Springs Area District Library Committee as a 501 3-C Non Profit organization. The townships and city have all had representation in the process. Friendship Township is the only township to opt out of the process to date.

The group expects to seek voter approval for an operating millage likely next fall. The plan is to ask for 0.3 mills (one mill is equal to $1 in taxes for every $1,000 in state equalized property value) for six years. The group has indicated that private funding would be used for the construction of the building.

With denial of their request to use the Hoyt Street site, the committee will likely have to select another site before moving forward in the process.
 

This is part of the February 24, 2010 online edition of Harbor Light Newspaper.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you. Click here.