Beaver Island Michigan

Announcing the Resilient Beaver Island Project!

Greetings to all,

We are community planners from the Land Information Access Association (LIAA for short), a community planning organization out of Traverse City. Beaver Island has received a grant from the Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program to work with us on the development of a new community master plan for Beaver Island! We are joining you on the island next week, to meet with residents and community leaders as we start this project.

PLEASE JOIN US for a public meeting on Wednesday, August 31st from 7pm to 8:30pm at the Beaver Island Community Center, 26215 Main Street. You will hear a short presentation and overview of the project and get to participate in an activity to share your vision for the future of Beaver Island.

What is a Master Plan?
Much like a blueprint, a master plan serves as the publicâ??s guide for the development of a community and the management of its resources. Although portions of the current joint master plan have been updated throughout the years, the last comprehensive update to the master plan was completed several years ago.

What is "Resiliency" all about?
â??Resilienceâ?￾ is a measure of the sustained ability of a community to utilize available resources to respond to, withstand, and/or recover from adverse situations. Communities that are resilient are able to learn from adversity and adopt quickly to change, both of which are hallmarks of successful communities today. The Resilient Beaver Island planning process will address a wide range of concerns such as natural resource preservation, efforts to build the local economy, and ways to manage the impacts of climate variability.

Where can I learn more?
To get more Information on the project, sign up for the project e-newsletter, and download a flyer for the event, visit www.resilientmichigan.org/beaverisland

Will there be more events in the future?
Yes! We are currently planning a fall event, with the Master Plan project wrapping up over the winter. Stay tuned for more information.

For more specific questions, please contact:
Harry Burkholder, AICP
Executive Director, LIAA
(231) 929-3696
burkholder@liaa.org

Thank you to all. We are looking forward to meeting you!

As a follow up this meeting is being coordinated and is under the management of the St James and Peaine Township Planning Commissions. Next Tuesday at 7:00 PM both township-planning commissions will meet with this group at the Peaine Township hall to provide input and the public is invited to attend. Both Township Boards have approved the contract with this organization and funding for the Land Information Access Association is being provided by The Office of the Great Lakes, there will no cost to the taxpayers of Beaver Island.

Just to add onto our initial post, LIAA is looking to build on all the exciting work already happening on Beaver Island and provide any resources we can to help the community. We intend for this Master Planning effort to assist and strengthen future community, government, and NGO efforts on the Island.

The Master Plan that results from this process will incorporate and build on the existing Master Plan. The Master Plan will primarily be used by the Township Planning Commissions, and we will be meeting with both Township's Planning Commissions throughout this process. We also intend to host several public meetings throughout the planning process, in addition to the Township Planning Commission meetings which are open to the public

We are participating in the forum, so feel free to respond here with questions or comments. Thank you and we look forward to working with and meeting all of you!

Is there any plan for those of us 'off island' to participate in this meeting via conf call or online streaming?

I'm extremely interested in participating in this process, as a property owner and in conjunction with our short and long term investment plans in the island.

Thanks

Hi there,

Yes! News on the 'Net has kindly offered to record and broadcast the meeting. A recording of the video will be available on: http://beaverislandnews.com. We will have more public meetings during this project, in hopes that everyone can attend at least one event.

We also will have a number of ways for "off-islanders" to participate in the project, primarily through our website (resilientmichigan.org/beaverisland) and on this forum.There is not a lot of information on the site yet, but please stay tuned as more information will be posted as the project progresses.

Hopefully this answers your question. We look forward to your involvement!

The meeting is tomorrow evening, 7pm at the community center. Please join us!