• The Petoskey City Council is expected to vote Monday on a settlement related to a bike and walking path known as the Little Traverse Wheelway
• If the council votes yes, the city would have a year to raise millions and get permissions to begin repair on a section of the trail damaged in 2020
• If the council agrees to the settlement but doesn’t get the funds or required permission within a year, the public would lose access to part of the trail

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The Petoskey City Council is slated Monday to decide the future of a 26-mile trail that runs along parts of Lake Michigan from Harbor Springs to Charlevoix. 

A landowner couple sued Petoskey last year for not fixing a damaged section of the Little Traverse Wheelway that falls on their property. Now, the council must decide if it wants to agree to a settlement that would give the city a year to raise millions of dollars or give up public access to part of the trail.

At risk is “really a magical place,” said Eric Cox, communications manager for the nonprofit Top of Michigan Trails Council.

More than 100,000 people were estimated to have used the Little Traverse Wheelway in 2021, according to a survey from the Tails Council. A quarter of the users paid for lodging, spending an estimated $4.2 million.

In 2020, portions of a 1.4-mile section of the Little Traverse Wheelway — dubbed the “Miracle Mile” for its scenic views of Little Traverse Bay — were flooded by rising lake levels and collapsed. The section has been closed since, with trail traffic unofficially rerouted onto US-31.

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Some parts of the closed section fall on private property, but the public had been allowed access through easements. At least some of those easements say that Petoskey is responsible for maintenance. 

But six years after the trail was damaged, it remains closed, overgrown and in need of repair.

In August, Gustav and Courtney Lo, a Florida-based couple who own two parcels of land along the trail, decided to sue the city and demand it pay for repairs they said were needed to keep their property from suffering additional damage. They also asked the city to release the easements on their land.

“The issue all along is that nothing is moving forward,” said Gustav Lo. “We’ve got this unsightly, unusable mess of a problem along our shoreline and we can’t really do anything about it ourselves because that would violate the easement.”

The city has taken some steps toward repairing the trail. 

In 2024, the construction firm Baird & Associates told the city that repairing the trail would cost $20 million. The Top of Michigan Trails Council has stepped up to try to help the city raise the necessary funds. Executive Director Brent Bolin said they haven’t fully launched the campaign yet because they’ve been waiting to see what the city’s final plan will be, but they’ve raised around $100,000. 

According to Petoskey City Manager Shane Horn, the city would also need to update easements and get letters of authorization from 16 landowners to apply for permits and complete work on their properties. 

At a City Council meeting in March, councilmembers were asked by city leaders to decide if the city should relinquish the easements it has with the Los, since the city doesn’t have the necessary money or permissions to repair the trail. Several members of the public spoke out, saying doing so would be a big mistake.

Christopher Walts said that, when he relocated to the area around six years ago, he saw the trail as an asset.

“It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to move up here and start a family,” he told the council. “And you guys are talking about getting rid of it … And that would be a shame to lose that.” 

“Earning those easements in the first place took a lot of time and effort,” said Petoskey resident Maggie Kromm. “And getting them back would take even more time and effort.”

Ultimately, the council decided to save the decision for another day. 

Since then, a new development has occurred. Gustav Lo told Bridge he and his wife are in favor of a proposed settlement that would give the city a year to get the money and any permissions it would need to move forward with repairing the trail. If the city doesn’t deliver within the allotted timeframe, then it would need to release its easement agreements with the Los.

Lo said he likes the proposed agreement because it includes a monetary goal with a deadline, creating a sense of urgency for the trail repair project.

“If they’re able to raise that money and get the agreement of all the landowners, then great, it’s going to move forward and be recreated,” he said. “And if they’re not able to do that, then they’ve got to sort of admit that this thing is over.”

The council is slated to decide on Monday if the city should accept the proposed settlement agreement.

Petoskey City Councilmember Joseph Nachtrab, who represents the ward that includes the damaged trail, told Bridge Michigan on Wednesday he was torn about how to vote at the meeting.

“I hope the city — I hope the community — can come up with the money,” he said. “But I have my doubts.” 

Nachtrab said he’s more focused on finding a solution now. Currently, the path has been unofficially rerouted onto a narrow, curved stretch of US-31, which Nachtrab said is “ridiculously unsafe.” The city has contracted an engineering study to find out if a barrier could be put up to protect people using that stretch of roadway. Nachtrab said he’s heard that could cost anywhere from $2 million to $5 million.

“We could probably make that happen,” he said. “And I think as much as I want the Miracle Mile to return, and the view of the bay is amazing, if that’s another eight or nine years away, I’d rather spend the resources that we can do to make that section safer.”

Lo told Bridge that, if the city council does not vote in favor of the settlement agreement, “we would continue to pursue legal avenues to get our property rights back.” 

Bolin, the executive director of Top of Michigan Trails Council, the group that is helping the city fundraise for repairs, told Bridge on Wednesday that he did not support the proposed settlement agreement. 

“It’s impossible to raise $20 million in one year,” he said. “It’s just not how a capital campaign of this scope works. And frankly, it’s an artificial deadline. I think having the easement go away automatically is way too big a step at the end of any kind of time period.”

Bolin said one pathway forward might be a paired-down trail repair design. 

“The city in their (request for proposals) sort of asked for this ‘platinum plan’ for how to fix the trail. We’ve also been trying to do some homework looking into, what’s a ‘gold’ version of this plan? What’s a ‘silver’ version of this plan?” he said.

The Petoskey City Council meeting on Monday is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The meeting can be viewed online.

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