Washington Island Detroit Harbor Enhancement Planned

Washington Island could be getting a facelift.

A year ago, the Town of Washington received a coastal management match grant that gave the town $30,000 toward a study to map out improvements that would boost the community’s economy and make island life a little nicer. SmithgroupJJR is the consulting firm completing the study and is working on the final draft that can be used to guide and get grants for future town projects.

Consultants want to make the Detroit Harbor area of Washington Island safe, fun and attractive to private investors. In the plan, the firm recommends creating public trails, increasing public access to the water, and, most controversially, that the town purchase Kap’s Marina.

“I think there’s quite a bit of agreement on [building] the boat launch, fishing pier and fish cleaning station,” said Michael Kickbush, chair of the town’s Detroit Harbor Committee. “The hang-up seems to be the concept of a publicly owned marina.”

Kap’s Marina has been for sale for five years, and is listed with Gordon’s North Star Realty for $2.95 million. The town has inquired about the property, but realtor Butch Gordon said it hasn’t made any formal offers.

“They’re exploring a couple of different options,” Gordon said. “The main option is a public/private partnership, where a private investor would come on board, or a private marina operator, and the town would work with them any way they could.”

The Kap’s Marina property could be purchased in pieces, Gordon said. It includes 11 acres, a restaurant, store, ship storage facility, building with bathrooms and an office, a campground and private home. The property surrounds the island’s Coast Guard station.

“I would like to see somebody come in and really make a nice facility out of it, so I think it would be good for the economy of Washington Island,” Gordon said. “We, like every other township in the state, are dealing with economic issues, and I think a nice marina would be an asset to Washington Island.”

On Wednesday, May 22, the town held a public meeting to discuss the first draft of JJR’s Detroit Harbor Enhancement plan and to come up with things the firm should address or change. The meeting was well attended and “a marathon,” according to Kickbush; it lasted three hours and 26 seconds.

Meeting attendees want the consultants to come up with an economic impact analysis that will show what it will cost to follow through on some proposed projects, and what benefit could come from the work.

“It would help us justify potential public investment in this area,” Kickbush said.

For island resident Anna Gibson, the whole plan needs more justification. Gibson grew up on Washington Island, and said the enhancement plan doesn’t consider what the residents want from their town.

“I just don’t feel they’re taking in the concerns of the island and the island feel,” Gibson said. “We’re up here because we like it rustic and a smaller scale. The plan is so grandiose – I don’t want another Chicago or Racine up here, I just want a cute little town I grew up in. A lot of the ideas are too much and it doesn’t seem [the consultants] have a lot of answers.”

Gibson would prefer the town maintain and improve the things that are already here, like the public beaches and museum. She said the plan focused too much on outside investment, and didn’t look enough at local talent and didn’t include enough details on proposed projects.

“They didn’t do their research completely, and I think there’s still a lot of planning that needs to happen,” Gibson said. “In the end they’ll get a plan they’ll not necessarily fully [have to follow]… but they will work toward it. They have to realize the financial realm of it, that we are a small island. Where will this money come from?”

The town has to match that $30,000 figure by using town funds to fulfill some of the projects outlined in the plan, and has already been hard at work refurbishing Gislason Public Beach.

“We’ve made it a swimmable beach again for kids – it hadn’t been usable for probably a decade,” said Washington Town Chair Joel Gunnlaugsson. “We hauled in 720 yards of sand, we planted dune beach grass and now we have a nice swimmable beach again.”

Gunnlaugsson said the town applied for a permit to fix up the town boat launch in Detroit Harbor and hopes to get that project underway soon.

The money the town is using for these projects comes from the $80,000 it received when the Coast Guard dredged its station. The town was paid to take the dredging materials.

“In my mind we had this $80,000 that was sitting in the bank and not really part of our budget,” Gunnlaugsson said. “We had play money, if you will.”

Even after the consultants submit their final draft of the Detroit Harbor Enhancement Plan, the town won’t have to follow through with any projects. The plan is meant to guide the future, but isn’t written in stone.

“This document is not binding in any way,” Kickbush said. “It’s just a collection of ideas that gets us started on a discussion, and if anything happens there’s many layers and steps to it.”

Download the first draft of the plan here