Working Waterfronts
Preserving the Heart of Michigan’s Coastal Communities

By Joyce Daniels, editor
joydan@umich.edu

The term “working waterfront” has made headlines in Maine, North Carolina and Florida, where segments of extensive coastline support a mix of waterfront business and recreation. Now the concept is gaining attention in Michigan.

“We need to be able to plan ahead for different uses or functions in our coastal area,” says Michigan Sea Grant Extension Program Leader Chuck Pistis. “The Great Lakes are being touted as part of a new vision for Michigan’s economy. Viable working waterfronts are essential to this new vision.” For now, he adds, it’s important to preserve our options for the future.

Pistis and Sea Grant Extension Educator Mark Breederland gave an overview of the working waterfront concept at the annual Recreational Boating and Education Conference in Bay City, December 4th. While a strict definition may vary from one community to another, some general ideas are fundamental.

Public Access a Key Issue
A working waterfront, explains Breederland, allows access to public trust waters for commerce and recreation. In many cases, it combines the busy landscape of water-dependent businesses—from commercial fishermen, to charter boat operations and marinas—with public access points, and a variety of services.

“It’s often a vibrant combination of activities,” says Breederland. “It’s a place where people make a living, and also a place where the public can enjoy the waterfront and actually get out on the water. A working waterfront is often the heart of Michigan’s port cities and waterfront communities.”

In a national context, the problem in some coastal states is mounting economic pressure to convert working waterfronts to non-essential coastal uses.

The result is a gradual loss of water access and docking. Without these, water-dependent businesses are unable to operate, and related businesses, including the stores, shops, services and restaurants that cater to boaters, fishermen, and even to waterfront tourists, also suffer.

In Maine, for example, most of its lengthy shoreline, stretching thousands of miles, is privately held. Only 20 miles of coastline remain as working waterfront. Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and Florida are among the other states grappling with the issue.

Planning for the Future
Just as the challenge is different depending on location, so too are the solutions.

In Maine, a diverse coalition of stakeholders used ordinances, legislation, and grant funding as tools to preserve water access for fishermen.

In Florida, 70 percent of voters recently approved a state constitutional amendment to protect access and working waterfronts. Amendment 6 now provides tax incentives for landowners who wish to maintain working waterfront properties and public access to Florida’s waterways.

On a federal level, legislation was introduced last year to help preserve working waterfronts. The bill, Keep Our Waterfronts Working Act of 2007 (H.R. 3223), has been incorporated into the proposed reauthorization of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, currently pending in Congress.

The bill allows the Secretary of Commerce to establish a working waterfront grant program through a competitive funding process to any coastal state for a plan to preserve and expand access to coastal waters.

The bill acknowledges that if working waterfronts are eliminated, “the economy, culture, and the heart of coastal communities will be fundamentally altered.”

On the Michigan Waterfront
While a focused statewide discussion on key waterfront areas and access points to the Great Lakes has yet to occur in Michigan, says Breederland, many local efforts in waterfront communities have been bubbling up to protect these important coastal areas.

Two of these communities include Leland and Grand Haven—places where “traditional community culture and character could be lost if working waterfronts disappear.”

In Leland, a local community-led effort formed a non-profit organization and purchased the historic working waterfront known as Fishtown. The group purchased the historic Fishtown docks, shanties, commercial-fishing boats and licenses in the fishing and tourist village of Leland in 2007.

This effort protects the active commercial fishing community, guarantees long term public access to waterfront shops and shore-based angling, and ensures this authentic place remains an important part of Michigan’s coastal legacy.

In Grand Haven, city leaders secured TiFA financing in the early 1980s to create a working waterfront that includes centralized charterboat dockage. Known as Chinook Pier, it has become a regional landmark that provides valued public access to Lake Michigan.

These are just two local efforts, notes Breederland, who emphasizes that the definition of working waterfronts is quite broad at times, and many other Michigan communities can also be identified as participating in elements of working waterfront protections.

The working waterfront concept will be explored in depth at a Michigan Sea Grant sponsored conference on the topic planned for March 2009 in Lansing. Issues in Michigan will need to be identified and options considered, says Breederland, who points out that public access areas in the State are “certainly not increasing” along Michigan’s nearly 4,000 miles of Great Lakes coastline.

“We’re just beginning to define working waterfronts as a State, and that’s the first step toward protection,” says Breederland. “Working waterfronts are vital to Michigan’s economic future, especially as a new ‘knowledge economy’ emerges and a growing number of people desire to live and work near our Freshwater Coast.”

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