Keep your fingers crossed... if all the pieces fall into place, if township officials and appointed boards can meet the deadlines and keep the process on-track, the most significant facilities upgrade to the Elmwood's beach and marina complex in more than 20 years will be primed and ready to seek state funding—not in a year, not in the dim future, but by the end of March 2006.

Spearheaded by Elmwood's Parks and Recreation Board, the initiative includes the creation of a carefully detailed waterfront park including a pavilion, play area, boardwalk, special beach area with restroom, and the accommodation of significant natural features that are part of the compact site. In addition plans call for a significant face lift for M-22 itself, with features that are intended to allow the park site to become more accessible to pedestrians and TART Trail users while allowing the roadway itself to become more a part of the developing township waterfront. As an addition to the scope of this project the Elmwood Marina Committee is looking at making its planned marina expansion plans a part of a combined overall plan that embraces adjacent park and marina sites. Improvements to M-22 would take place in an ongoing process under the auspices of MDOT. The overall plan will allow Elmwood to take advantage of multiple state funding sources through grant processes.

In order to meet annual grant application deadlines Klaus Heinert, landscape architect for consultant Gosling Czubak Engineering, explained that the parks and recreation committee has been working to create the required up-date to the township recreation plan. The plan as revised will address the township's expressed desire to create the proposed improvements in a broad sense. The Elmwood Parks and Recreation Committee will present the plan and take input from the public at a 5:30pm meeting at the township hall on Tuesday, January 24th. Immediately following the township planning commission will consider its endorsement of the recreation plan up-date at its regular meeting on Tuesday, January 24th at 7:00pm. The Elmwood Board of Trustees will take take up the endorsement at a special meeting on Wednesday the 25th. The official endorsements of the up-dated recreation plan will not lock in design details or necessarily commit the township to any specific action. Official endorsement of the plan simply allows the process to continue through a public input phase, and a process that will lead to final plans, grant applications and eventually construction.

Heinert described the combined marina and park expansion plan as an excellent way for the township to leverage its funds by including as many funding sources as possible in one coordinated planning package. In order to accomplish the long awaited third marina dock the township is faced with making significant changes to parking arrangements at the marina site. Other long considered improvements like a fish cleaning station, dealing with environmental issues, and other improvements to buildings at the marina can be addressed in one waterfront planning effort. Including the marina in the mix would mean that grant applications in support of the overall project could be submitted to a variety of state, other public, and private funding sources. The designation of M-22 as a State Heritage route in Leelanau County could provide another funding enhancement.

Discussions and initiatives regarding waterfront improvements in Elmwood have been on-going for many years. Several false starts and unevenly coordinated planning efforts have redirected township efforts into what is now a potentially very productive plan. The process has benefitted from support fro the Michigan Coastal Zone Management program and other sources of funding that have allowed the plan to be developed to its current state. Plans and budgets are in a preliminary state, but well developed and ready to be finalized on a short time horizon. Many local partners, public and private institutions will stand to directly share the benefits of the project, and are considered to be important partners in the project. With access to the Tart Trail, new neighbors, including an interpretive historical center being created on the old TC Light and Power coal dock and other property next to the beech front park, and the Great Lakes Children's Museum, the Elmwood waterfront and M-22 corridor are poised to convert the promise that waterfront locations offer: a place where community can shine. With the development of other important public/private initiatives, like the acquisition of the Louis Deyoung farm by the Leelanau conservancy, Elmwood residents and visitors are witnessing and participating in a very positive period of change for their community.