maple bay park & natural area - Grand Traverse Regional Land ...

MAPLE BAY PARK & NATURAL AREA
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
This report presents the conclusions and recommendations of the
consulting team with regard to the improvement of Maple Bay Park and
Natural Area in Grand Traverse County. The consulting teams,
consisting of the planning and design professionals at Williams &
Works and Cornelisse Design Associates, were retained by the County
Parks and Recreation Department to explore the various challenges and
opportunities associated with the facility and to present a
report that seeks to address particular challenges and
capitalize on the park’s assets.
A significant amount of public input was
received during the planning process
This report is founded on the significant amount of public
input the County received during the planning process. The
public input consisted of an open house, mobile tours,
community meeting, and meetings of the Parks Board
during the summer and fall of 2007 and spring of 2008.
Building on that citizen input and our objective analysis, this
report outlines our recommendation to address many of the
challenges facing this exceptional community facility.
In addition, the County benefited from initial exploratory and design
work conducted by the Michigan State University Landscape
Architecture students as a class project. Students worked in
teams to evaluate the opportunities and challenges of the site
and to develop alternative plans for its improvement. These
ranged from very low intensity and passive to highly
developed facilities. This background work helped to inform
this effort and provided a place of beginning for several of
the recommendations outlined here.
The process to develop the recommendations set forth here
began with a field visit of the facility on July 5, 2007 together
with a review of the various published reports and materials
provided by the Grand Traverse County Parks and
Recreation Department. The consulting team, with the
assistance of County staff, developed an informational
website and newsletter that was mailed to various
organizations and members of the public. The initial review
was supplemented by further discussions with County Parks
and Recreation personnel, and the general public. After the
field visit, the consulting team attended a meeting of the
County Parks Board where the initial analysis of the site was
presented.
GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY 1 MAPLE BAY PARK AND NATURAL AREA
MASTER PLAN