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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.