COTC - 5 Mar 2026 - TVC Airport Zoning Overlay proposed

0:00 Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup of Traverse City for the 03/05/2026. I'm Mike, and, grab your coffee. We're gonna be talking about airports or the airport here in Traverse City. They're gonna have a proposed zoning overlay that could more closely regulate building heights, trees, land uses near the airport. Now use near in in air quotes. The the story didn't, but they're proposing a new zoning overlay district, for the Traverse City area, and it's the Cherry Capital Airport joint zoning board. The ordinance would establish regulations on land within the airport hazard area, which is approximately 10 mile radius around Traverse City Airport.

0:55 And, you know, it says it'll have implication for land uses, building heights, tall trees. And while this ordinance has drawn scrutiny from the locals who worry that'll significantly impede property rights and quality of life in Traverse City, leaders of TVC's joint zoning board argue it would create a more legal or create more legal protections and avenues for development. So I guess my problem with it I I live really close to the airport and, you know, so there's that. I'm not on any of the approaches, but, still, you know, I've got 80 foot oak trees in my yard. I don't want them come and say, hey. We gotta cut those trees down.

1:40 No. No. No. No. No. That's not what they're doing though. So that's that's good too. All the existing quote unquote uses, including tall trees and buildings that wouldn't conform. But, you know, they're talking about a 35 foot limit, without variance. You know, if you can't get a variance. But my problem with it is is 10 miles. Holy crud. The Traverse City airspace, I am a pilot, so I do understand some of this stuff. Not all of it, but some of it. The the Traverse City airspace is known as class d airspace, class delta, which is, you know, controlled by a control tower.

2:26 And so to fly within about four miles from the airport, you have to get, you have to establish two way communications with the tower. Not that you can't go in it. They can tell you to stay out, you know, but you have to before you can fly inside that delta, you know, anywhere from the ground up to 3,000 feet. I know I'm getting geeky technical, but that's the airspace that the, airport owns. Well, not owns, but, controls. You know, the control tower controls it. Not only when the tower is open. When the tower is not open, it reverts to class e airspace, which is technically controlled, but you don't have to talk to anybody to use it.

3:12 So after about nine or 10:00 at night, depending on the time of the year, all the way till seven in the morning, Traverse City Airport is more or less uncontrolled. No control tower. There's procedures and all that, but I won't get into the grizzly details. But how they can say 10 miles? Now, you know, if they upgrade to a class Charlie, which I think is what they wanna do at some point, which, you know, I don't have any major problem with, but then that does kick it out to 10 miles and, you know, bunch of other regulations kick in for those flying. But, you know, on the ground, you know, they built the airport in a congested area. And, you know, they protect the the, approaches pretty well, you know, as far as, you know, that goes. But, you know, one of the examples in the story was East Bay has a water tower that's kinda up on the hill and very close to the approach to Runway 28.

4:18 Although it's lit and it's not ridiculously high and, you know, when I'm flying, I don't I mean, I know it's there, but it doesn't impede anything I'm doing at the height that it is. You don't just know your you know, you just know it's there, you know. And a lot of the modern airplanes will even point it out to you. It'll pop into into your headset and say, something to the effect of obstacle, you know, or something. And then you look at the screen, and and you can see where it's supposed to be. And you look out the window and say, yep. There it is. Cool. No problem. You know? So I don't know if 10 miles is necessary, and I don't know if, you know, like, somebody building a tall building downtown should have to worry too much about air traffic because, you know, like I said, the approaches are clear as far as obstacles.

5:14 One other instance they were talking about is the old Tebow florist property there on 8th Street. They're building some sort of an apartment complex there. And if this ordinance goes into effect, they would have to apply for a variance because it is kinda sorta on the approach to Runway 18. But, you know, whatever they build, there's not gonna be taller than the trees that are already there. I mean, for crying out loud, there's trees and, you know, was power lines, but those are gone, along Parsons Road, by the graveyard. There you know, there's trees there that are, you know, you don't get super close to them coming in, but, you still you know, I don't see them as a hazard. I did just you just gotta know they're there.

6:06 And, you know, none of the airliners and stuff use that particular runway generally. So I don't know. Interesting proposal. Like I said, I don't know if 10 miles is necessary. It just sounds like extra paperwork for people, that are wanting to build stuff. Of course, you know, on the other hand, yeah, I kinda would like to see Traverse City not turn into a a town full of big buildings, but, you know, progress is progress. I don't know if, there's anything I'm gonna do about it. Anyway, sorry. I went a little long on that. Let's get to the weather. Today, a slight chance of drizzle after 1PM, increasing clouds with a high near 44, so the snow melt continues. I love it. Welcome to to, what what was that? March mudness?

6:58 Anyway, light variable wind to be coming east five to 10 miles per hour in the morning. Patchy fog, tonight after 10PM. Otherwise, cloudy with a low around thirty four. So it's gonna stay above freezing overnight. That's, also good for snow removal. Tomorrow showers, a possible thunderstorm mainly after 4PM. High near 57. So that's probably the warmest it's been. I I don't know 57, but thunderstorms, I don't want those. Anyway, southeast wind five to 10 miles per hour. Chance precipitation is 80%. So with that, we'll call this an episode.

7:40 Like I said, sorry. I went a little long, but I thought it was, an interesting story. Of course, I use the the Traverse City ticker a lot for these kind of stories that I read on here. If you have something other that you'd like me to cover, please email me, mike@mikedell.com. You can find that email address over at cup of Traverse City dot com. Catch me tomorrow.