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Indian Trails Golf Course


CK1

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Here's a thought: The Mines golf course is near the intersection of I-196, O'Brien and Butterworth. Isn't this across the street from the edge/end of Millieum Park? We have even talked about putting an outdoor concert venue near here. Could something be in the works that would include the City to aquire this piece of property to extend the park or a new venue? Just a thought :dontknow:

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No way, if they put a Meijer on that site, it'll go as close to the Kalamazoo corner as possible and not down in that hole on the east.

Thats a really difficult site to plan because of the significant grade changes in relation to 28th. Unless you go "tabula rasa" and infill like crazy.

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When it comes to building retail not very much can stop them. The Wal-Mart Supercenter in my Grand Parent's home town is about 30 feet below the level of the street and accessible via entry drives with a 15 degree slopes. Also look at the Alpine Meijer. That building sits in a man made alcove defined by hills up 30 or so feet high. Also check out the Alpine Home Depot. How that place got built is beyond me.

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From Woodtv.com

Third Ward Commissioner James White wants to lease the land for private development. He said the golf course nets about $40,000 a year in profits and believes the land and the taxes that could be generated by a private development on the site could outweigh the golf course profits.

Prior to the golf course, the property was purchased by the city to provide additional space for the adjacent Woodlawn Cemetery. The golf course was something the city could easily move if they needed the cemetery space.

But city officials said it's clear from current sales of cemetery plots, that the golf course space won't be needed.

State law prohibits the city from selling land meant for cemetery expansion without a vote of the people. So developers would have to lease the golf course property.

It's expected to take about 90 days to put together requests for proposals for developers who may be interested. Mayor George Heartwell said the city gets five or six calls a month from parties interested in the site.

It could be years before anything happens at the course.

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In actuality the Mines was built for only one reason. This is what understand. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. I believe the land was bought by Dykema Excavating. They wanted to mine the huge sand hills located at this site. They were told no way by the DNR. So Dykema came back and said, OK what if I wanted to build a Golf Course? They were told that in that case they could remove all the sand they wanted...so they built a course. Currently it looses money because it is not open on Sunday and does not have some of the other amenities a good golf course should have. But then again, it was not built to be a state of the art golf course.
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Maybe someone can provide some clarity on the notion of "leasing" the golf course land versus "selling" it? I'm still trying to figure out how that would play long term...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Commission backs off plan to sell Indian Trails

after catching public backlash for not holding public hearings on the possible sale of the property. Read the entire article, very interesting.

Why are some of the City Commissioners doing things with such haste?

If they do ultimately decide to go ahead with the sale of the property after having public hearings, they should set aside 20 - 30% of this property as greenspace (and no, retention/detention ponds do not count toward that percentage <_< ). Most of the townships and cities in the area now require that of developments (mostly residential), why can't GR take a similar stance?

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My prediction of Indian Trails "Crossings" Meijer anchored power Strip-O-Rama

Meijer (Orange) would be situated to the east end of the golf course Next will be Lowe's/Home Depote and the strip mall following the contour of the back property line. Up fount are your Johny O'Chillie/Bees as GRDad affectionately calls them and other outloters. Of Course we can't forget all that lovely asphalt. So in short we will be trading off Husband's tee off time for Soccor Mom's shopping blitz.

indiantrailscrossingjg7.jpg

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Couldn't you get the best of both worlds?

Why not privatize the golf course and lease the land? Indianpolis did this about 10 years ago and course conditions improved dramatically and the cost to the public increased only slightly (restrictions put into the lease). I don't play golf, but if it is centrally located, maybe a golf developer could even make it better :dontknow:

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In light of this article, my revised prediction for Indian Trails is....

At some point public hearings will be held. Residence attending the hearing will balk at the idea selling/leasing to developers. Pressured by the objections from said residence in there bid to preserve the green space, the commission will shelf the idea. The golf course will remain a golf course for the foreseeable future. But hey that much green space on 28th street is nearly impossible to come by. So I'm glad it will remain as such. Politically, this will save the city from stubbing its toes on another political boondoggle. a.l.a Garfield Park, River Grand, Etc.

But the question at this point is "Now What?" The only thing that is keeping this stretch of 28th st. between US 131 and Breton Ave. alive is an old obsolete Meijer store. So how can that stretch of 28th St. be revived and still keep Indian Trails?"

Commission backs off plan to sell Indian Trails

after catching public backlash for not holding public hearings on the possible sale of the property. Read the entire article, very interesting.

Why are some of the City Commissioners doing things with such haste?

If they do ultimately decide to go ahead with the sale of the property after having public hearings, they should set aside 20 - 30% of this property as greenspace (and no, retention/detention ponds do not count toward that percentage <_< ). Most of the townships and cities in the area now require that of developments (mostly residential), why can't GR take a similar stance?

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I think the city will be losing out now that this deal seems dead. That stretch of 28th is really dying and in need of something new to revitalize that area. Where is this opposition from neighbors coming from? There are no houses right next to the golf course its essentially in a commercial area. one area meijer might consider for expansion is maybe the corner across from where they are now where dj's and the church sits.

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Commission backs off plan to sell Indian Trails

after catching public backlash for not holding public hearings on the possible sale of the property. Read the entire article, very interesting.

Why are some of the City Commissioners doing things with such haste?

If they do ultimately decide to go ahead with the sale of the property after having public hearings, they should set aside 20 - 30% of this property as greenspace (and no, retention/detention ponds do not count toward that percentage <_< ). Most of the townships and cities in the area now require that of developments (mostly residential), why can't GR take a similar stance?

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Ultimately I would prefer the golf course to remain as such. But if Indian Trails were to be developed at some point in the future. I would rather see something like this sketchup file I've quickly put together.

Mix Use TOD Development featuring a new Meijer store plus a second Anchor up to 150,000 sq. ft. on 2 levels., residential spaces in the form of row houses, lofts, and mid rise apartments, and a large park green space. Also Pocket Parks would be inserted here and there.

indiantrailsdevelopmentkj2.jpg

As for Meijer I would like to have gone with a multilevel urban store. However Meijer does not currently have a store format that can be split up in to multiple levels. So for now I had to work around its standard big box layout. However I'm thinking of doing another version of this file with Meijer's parking under the store or on its roof to free up more green space without splitting apart its store format.

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