Some big changes are coming to the Brown Bridge Quiet Area.
Traverse City Commissioners met Monday to decide whether or not they’ll apply for a state grant that would allow them to expand the quiet area.
“There’s been a plan for over three decades in terms of possible expansion,” Traverse City Manager Martin Colburn admits.
The plan would grow the Brown Bridge Quiet Area over 500 acres.
The potential expansion will be to the north of the quiet area. The plan would expand the Brown Bridge Quiet Area 528 acres. If approved, the city would acquire two plots of land near Spring Lake including a former boy scout camp. They say this would give people more space and opportunities to recreate.
“We truly look at this as enhancing the area for the benefit of all not just for passive recreation, but for carbon sequestration with the trees and to make sure there’s an opportunity for the natural setting as well as the animals. It’s quite an opportunity to roll it all into one,” Colburn states.
Nearly three-quarters of the project would be funded by a state grant with taxpayers covering a little over $730,000. The Grand Traverse Conservation District says the expansion would protect the area from unwanted development.
“If that property were to be developed then you would have quite a bit more pressure on Brown Bridge in the form of more traffic more barking dogs, more dogs on the loose,” Grand Traverse Conservation District’s Steve Largent explains.
With the city commissions approval that means they are applying for the grant from the state. The proposal will now be on the ballot in November for Traverse City voters to decide on.
“Be expanding the amount of property that’s available for hikers or quiet recreation the better because then you don’t have this much congestion on the trails,” Largent says.
