Traverse City awarded funding to move forward with Bayfront Project
TRAVERSE CITY -- Traverse City has it’s funding to move ahead with phase one of the Bayfront redevelopment plans. It’s a story 7&4 News has been following for years.
Wednesday morning the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund approved a $450,000 grant to Traverse City for the project. The Downtown Development Authority will match it for a total of $900,000.
Traverse City Mayor, Chris Bzdok says, “It’s a very competitive process, over a hundred cities apply and a much smaller fraction are chosen. This has been a citizen driven volunteer lead process for a number of years and now it’s nice to see it bearing fruit."
When completely finished, the entire Bayfront Project will cost approximately $26 million dollars, but Mayor Bzdok says this grant will help and residents will see significant improvements.
Mayor Bzdok says, "This is the heart of the whole project, two miles of shoreline that we are trying to enhance for our residence and visitors. This is the center of it all, the anchor of the project, the thing we are hoping to use to kick it all off and get moving on more opportunities."
Phase one includes remodeling the old zoo property by turning it into a children’s natural play area. This includes a splash pad. There will also be universal access to the beach and boat ramp, a kayak ramp, and widening of the TART Trail in the area.
Mayor Bzdok says, “We have 14,500 people who live in the city. Having new parks provides them with quality of life opportunities and enhances property value. A nice park gets advertised on real estate listings.”
As long as the legislature approves all of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund plans, like they do every year, construction will begin in 2011.
