Growth in Glen Arbor

By Keenan May and Peter Spaulding

Sun contributors

Glen Arbor is a special place, the ideal small town for many temporary and year-round residents alike. Glen Arbor has experienced significant business development in even the last five to 10 years, filling in many of the smaller buildings and re-purposing spaces from previous lives. Glen Arbor bustles in the summer months, the revenues earned tiding owners over the slow months. The future direction of growth and commercial development will continue to be important as the town seeks to balance maintaining existing character, while accommodating population growth and business and public realm improvements.

The constituent parts of idyllic small towns work together as a whole, the image imprinted on the brain creates a cognitive map of experiences that relates to commercial amenity and street-life experience. The best towns are experienced as contiguous memorable entities, its users occupy places bound together by built-forms of interest and enjoyable street scenes framed by pedestrian friendly facades and public spaces.

Prosperous small towns rely on continual development, a willingness to change and adapt, and the commitment of all its owners and residents to work together. Variety and the experience of the whole is more important than any single commercial enterprise, especially in Glen Arbor — where natural assets are such a large part of its attraction — the town itself is the anchor. New businesses and improved connectivity and cohesiveness allow competitors to mutually benefit; as choices expand more is created than destroyed.

The downtown district has experienced healthy growth of new small businesses over the last 20 years. Whether or not tenants own or lease, it is common for new businesses to occupy spaces ranging from existing commercial structures to garages, repurposed residences, and even storage sheds. Operations such as Imagine That on Lake Street, and Anderson’s Market’s Garden Center are great examples of low-budget additions to downtown properties that utilize empty spaces to increase pedestrian activity. This cobbled commercial district is a unique and charming characteristic of our town, but beyond aesthetics one must consider the influences of its form and functionality as an aspect of the community. Land leftover from the reconfiguration of existing buildings can often fail to optimize retail environments and take advantage of mixed-use opportunities. If un-buildable, empty and unused spaces can be utilized for creative temporary uses. Farmers’ markets, community gardens, fruit stands, street vendors, or art installations can add authenticity and character to their surroundings, but where possible more permanent and substantial structures should be created.

New construction downtown that takes a more urban approach to providing successful retail and second- or third-story spaces for year-round use have been incredibly rare because of many regulatory and land constraints. Boone Dock’s restaurant and deck provides a visual example of the struggle between new construction and downtown land use requirements. The restaurant and shopping area accounts for less than 18 percent of the total property, the remainder consisting of over 50 percent parking and over 20 percent septic field. This ratio is impossible to practically duplicate on the typical small downtown lot. For a property owner to develop mixed uses or multiple stories on a smaller lot — something that could provide cash flow and stimulate the economy for more than three months a year — two or three additional similarly sized lots would be required to provide for parking and septic.

In progressive urban environments, consolidated parking is facilitated by multilevel structures or publicly managed surface parking lots in areas which are convenient yet minimize visual and experiential impacts on pedestrian and commercial environments. Septic systems are replaced with sewer and water utility lines to provide usable land for more flexible and traditional building forms and pedestrian open-spaces. Such profound infrastructure improvements entail costs impractical for Glen Arbor, however technological or managerial innovations should be considered to public options or motivate and incentivize current and future landowners to improve the towns built environment. Investing in the future success of Glen Arbor with more permanent and better-designed commercial spaces will pay dividends in the place that is created. There is charm in do-it-yourself and low-budget property improvement, but real investment can make places and spaces that stand the test of time. We can all enjoy a town that works year-round, serving all residents and attracting new demographics.

Keenan May and Peter Spaulding were born and raised in Glen Arbor and are the founders of Placework DG (www.Placeworkdg.com) in Traverse City.