TRAVERSE CITY — A proposed tax to purchase two wilderness properties in Grand Traverse County's Long Lake Township has the support of doctors, township board members and others who chipped in $5,400 to lobby voters.
Township voters will decide next week whether to levy up to 0.46 mills for 20 years to purchase the 212-acre Gilbert Pines Boy Scout Camp property on Cedar Lake for $1.326 million, and a 108-acre parcel between Bass and Long lakes for $630,000. Both properties are adjacent to existing public land and have trail systems already in place.
"Everyone seems real positive about the proposal," said Maureen Templeton, a township trustee and treasurer of Friends for Long Lake Township. "In this area there are lots of people who really believe we have to locally preserve the rural character we want, because if we don't it will be gone."
Township resident Michael Pifer agrees the property should be preserved, but he'll likely vote no. He doesn't agree with the process and said if the millage passes, nothing prevents the township from levying the full tax, even if only half is needed to buy the properties.
Long Lake Township submitted a $1 million grant request to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund for the Gilbert Pines property, which includes 1,500 feet of frontage on Cedar Lake and over 6,000 feet on Cedar Run Creek.
Matt McDonough of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy said the preliminary grant application scored well and he's optimistic it will be awarded in December.
If it receives the grant, the township board said it will cut the proposed millage rate in half from an estimated 0.46 mills to 0.23 mills for 20 years. That would reduce the yearly tax payment from $34 to $17 for the owner of a $150,000 home with a taxable value of $75,000.
Pifer said the Friends of Long Lake Township Group contends it will cost residents just $3 a month, but half the homeowners will pay more.
"It will cost me about $12 a month, or $144 a year," he said.
The Long Lake Association, of which Pifer is a board member, did not take a position on the ballot proposal.
