Code calls for a local street to be 18 feet wide. Some of the streets between M-22 and Lake Michigan in Leland are 11 or 12 feet wide, Leland Township Supervisor Clint Mitchell told the Leelanau Ticker in June. Those streets lead to Fishtown, Van's Beach and the library, and the system Leelanau County uses to decide when roads get fixed doesn't rate them.
The township's answer is the Leland Streetscape Master Plan, drawn up this year by Influence Design Forum of Traverse City. Its drawings treat the village's narrowest blocks as public rooms, with promenades, seating, lake views and several blocks labeled "Festival Street." That matters now, because the same blocks are where the holiday season happens.
Eleven Feet Wide and Unrated
The Leelanau County Road Commission rates the township's roads on the PASER scale from 1 to 10. A rating of 8 to 10 is "good," 5 to 7 is "fair" and 1 to 4 is "poor." Mitchell explained to the Ticker that the township generally keeps its fair-rated roads in repair, because holding a road at fair costs far less than rebuilding one that has slipped to poor.
The ratings assume a road built to code, though. "Some of our streets are only 11-12 feet wide, and code now is 18," Mitchell told the Ticker. "And some of the right-of-ways are also pretty narrow. So, we don't get PASER ratings for those roads." He described some of those streets as "crumbling." Without a rating, their maintenance gets put off much more often.
The study area runs from Reynolds Street to Hill Street and from Lake Michigan to M-22. It covers North Street, Lake Street and the east-west streets connecting the highway to the lake. Stakeholder workshops ran June 8 through 10, with a walking tour and sessions in the Leland Library's Munnecke Room. The Leland Township page lists the plan's priorities as traffic flow, pedestrian safety and crossings, seasonal parking demand, drainage, and "realistic phasing" with cost-conscious planning.
The Parking Map Behind the Plan
The October 6 draft report includes an inventory that puts numbers to something anyone who has circled Leland in July already knows. The consultants estimated about 165 improved public parking spaces in the study area and 31 unimproved ones. They also counted roughly 211 spaces on improved roadway shoulders and 215 on unimproved shoulders. The draft calls all of these approximate, planning-level counts.
Added up, that's about 622 spaces, and roughly 426 of them are on road shoulders. Most of the village's parking sits on the edges of streets that are already narrower than code. That's why almost every street in the concept trades some parking for sidewalk, or the other way around.
What the Concept Does, Street by Street
The September 14 concept presentation estimates street dimensions from maps, aerial photos and historic plats. It says a survey would have to confirm them before any design or construction. Within that limit, the drawings are specific.
| Street | What the concept proposes | What it gives up |
|---|---|---|
| South Lake Street | Stays narrow, becomes one-way northbound, gets east-side parallel parking and an east-side sidewalk toward Van's Beach | Parking on the east-west side streets |
| North Lake Street | Stays one-way, gets reorganized east-side angle parking, a continuous sidewalk and a west-side seating area with lake views | West-side parking |
| West River Street | Gets a wider pedestrian promenade with seating, landscaping and bollard lights at the Historic Fishtown entrance, plus south-side angle parking | North-side parking |
| East Cedar and South First | Get defined paved parking, narrower lanes, a bioretention swale and a drop-off/valet area on South First | Unimproved gravel shoulders |
| M-22 / Main Street | Gets special-emphasis crosswalks and in-street pedestrian signs at junctions including West River and East Cedar | Nothing listed; M-22 is under MDOT's jurisdiction |
Several drawings call for permeable paving or turfstone in the perpendicular parking areas, and most streets get low-impact stormwater measures. The drawings also show two ways to add parking. The North Lake Street plan flags possible property acquisition for public parking, and a block near East River Street shows a possible church lease or acquisition of the adjacent property for public and employee parking. At the September 14 board meeting, the minutes recorded that no parking can go at the church.
Cedar Street Is Labeled a Festival Street
The phrase that best sums up the plan is on the Cedar Street drawings. Both East Cedar and West Cedar are labeled "Festival Street," and so is the commercial-core block of North Lake Street.
The label makes sense. The Leland Library sits at 203 E. Cedar Street, and its Munnecke Room is where the township board meets. The library, the Old Art Building and the Leelanau Historical Society make up Leland's new cultural overlay district, according to the Ticker. On September 12, the Leelanau Maritime History Festival at 203 E. Cedar used the newly built Leland River boardwalk, the Leelanau Enterprise reported.
The plan describes the street as it is today in blunt terms. Year-round parking demand outgrows it, cars park on the unimproved shoulder, puddles form on the shoulder when drainage fails, and "the current street design does not reinforce the identity or character of the cultural district." Its proposals are distinctive paving, lighting, landscaping, signage and public art. The stakeholder list shows how many groups have a stake in that block. It included the Fishtown Preservation Society, the Leland Chamber of Commerce, the Bluebird, Benjamin Maier Ceramics and The Riverside Inn.
Where the Plan Stands Before Winter
The plan has moved through these steps since September:
- September 14. Nate Elkins of Influence Design Forum presented the concept to the township board. Trustee Steve Scales praised its creativity and asked whether the firm had done a comparable Michigan town. The answer was that Mio may be comparable, and that it's a challenge that Leland isn't incorporated.
- September comment period. Public comments were taken through the end of the month.
- October 12. The board agenda listed adoption of the master plan and acceptance of the firm's parking recommendations as action items. The township's board page has the agenda posted but not yet the minutes, so the outcome isn't on the public record.
- November 1. This is the final report date on the project timeline.
- November 9 and December 14. The board holds regular meetings at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month, which puts the next two on these dates.
The draft calls itself a conceptual design. It says more planning, public dialogue and design work are needed before any preferred solution is chosen, and that work would move forward as funding and partnerships become available. The presentation's next steps are a street-by-street cost analysis and a phasing plan, so there's no project cost yet.
Funding is still the open question. In June, Mitchell expected the cost to run "into the millions." He told the Ticker that "this isn't money that we have," and named a millage, special assessment districts and fundraising as possible pieces of a public-private approach. At the September meeting, he described a consortium of municipalities and townships pursuing a state-administered fee on motels, hotels and short-term rentals that could bring Leland Township $500,000. All of these are ideas, not decisions. At the same meeting, one resident suggested a one-way sign might be enough, and another asked how the township could afford this when it can't afford $200,000 for Oxford Drive. Another said parking and pedestrian safety were the top concern, and Trustee Greg Kuntz suggested holding meetings by neighborhood.
The Holiday Calendar Uses the Same Blocks
Until anything is built, the streets in the drawings are the ones the holiday season uses. The Village Cheese Shanty lists October 25 as the last day of its season. After that, the Leland Chamber calendar carries the village through December:
- Light Up Leland: Wednesday, November 25, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
- Black Friday in Leland: Friday, November 27, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Small Business Saturday: November 28. The Chamber's listed hours look like an error, so check with individual shops.
- Cocoa Crawl: Saturday, December 5, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Leland Sip and Shop: Thursday, December 17, 4 to 8 p.m.
The late-October Chamber events show which businesses keep downtown open into the shoulder season. Molly's of Leland, Harbor House, Dam Candy, Kristin MacKenzie Fine Art, Find North, Duffield Lane, The Healing Hut and Riverside Inn were listed for Broomsticks & Bubbles, and the Old Art Building hosted Candy LeLand during Fall Frenzy. Those storefronts and gravel shoulders are what the plan describes, and the December evenings are when the seasonal parking demand it planned for goes from summer crowds to a much smaller winter turnout. Anyone who wants to weigh in can attend the November 9 board meeting at the library, the same Cedar Street building the plan's festival label covers.
If you own a home or a cottage on one of these blocks and want to understand how a planned streetscape could affect your property, Ken Kleinrichert knows the village street by street. Request a free home valuation and consultation, and we'll go through what's proposed near your address.
