Between Acme and Williamsburg, near the VASA trail system, there’s a large swath of state forest land. People use a county right of way, called Arnold Road, to access that land for hiking and horseback riding.
But Arnold Road cuts right through a golf course, and new owners petitioned to have it closed.
Charlie Davis has used Arnold Road for over 10 years to access state forest land. And recently, there’s been a lot of golf course construction here.
It just so happens that Davis used to manage projects like building golf courses, out in Colorado, before he retired to Michigan. “It’s amazing this is happening here, because it’s what I used to do,” he said.
“I called one of my buddies who was one of our accountants. I said, you're not going to believe this,” he recounted. “When I moved back here, I said, I'm moving into a situation where they build a private golf course right where I like to walk.”
Davis loves this state forest area, and so does his dog, Hitch, who is out on Arnold Road with him on Tuesday. He lives on Crisp Road, which crosses Arnold right by the seasonal section that’s being considered for closure.
The golf course that surrounds the state forest access road isn't just any golf course. High Pointe Golf Club was originally built in 1989. It was the first design by Tom Doak, who would later become one of the most renowned golf architects in the world. But it shut down in 2008, and sat vacant for almost 15 years.
A couple years ago, the land was bought by a new owner, named Rod Trump, who’s working with Doak to redesign the golf course.
The revived High Pointe course has gotten a lot of attention. It’s been featured in Forbes, Golfweek, and on a couple Michigan golfing Youtube channels. The course is about to be back in full swing, and its members-only, by invitation only.
According to Golfweek, founding members will pay a $250,000 initiation fee, with annual dues capped at $5,000. It’s been open for preview play this summer, and on its website, High Pointe describes how the course is nestled in state forest.
Davis says he can understand why the club might not want this road here.
He says he has nothing against the golf course, having helped build similar ones – he just wants to make sure they’re doing things by the book, and he wants to keep using Arnold Road to access these woods.
As Davis approaches the state forest, right where the county's portion of Arnold Road ends, there’s someone else out on the road with land surveying equipment.
It’s Scott Jozwiak, who is the lead engineering consultant for High Pointe. He’s the one who submitted the petition to the Grand Traverse County Road Commission for them to abandon Arnold Road.
They start talking about the abandonment petition. Jozwiak says their main concern is people driving down the road, getting to the end of the public right of way, and turning their cars around on the golf course’s property.
They come up with an idea: if the petition succeeds, and High Pointe gets control of the road, maybe it could grant an easement for pedestrian and equestrian traffic only. “I mean, how cool it would be if some horses walked by while you’re golfing,” Jozwiak said.
The Grand Traverse County Road Commission board meeting
A few hours later on August 20, Davis and Jozwiak are at the Grand Traverse County Road Commission meeting. The board is set to vote on the Arnold Road abandonment. There are about two dozen members of the public here.
Kim Elliott, who lives in nearby Williamsburg, makes the first public comment. “I have used that road personally for 40 years for hiking, riding my horse, along with hundreds, if not thousands of other people,” he says. “It has access to state land, which is absolutely gorgeous.”
About 10 other members of the public speak. Then, Jozwiak presents the petition he sent in, displaying property maps that show how Arnold Road bends onto golf course property. He brings up the offer of a trail easement that would keep out vehicles, but not hikers and horseback riders.
“I feel like we can get to a resolution that gets everybody - maybe - more of what they want,” Jozwiak says. “We would be agreeable to a permanent easement for pedestrian and equestrian use to traverse that same terrain.”
The board asks him if he has that in writing, which he doesn’t.
In the ensuing debate, road commission board chair Haider Kazim reminds commissioners, “we have to make a necessary finding under the law that the abandonment is in the interest of the public, not the abutting landowners.”
“I have a piece of property, a road, that I’d like to abandon that is similar to this. And I haven’t petitioned," says commissioner Alan Leman. "People in the community use it."
Overall, commissioners aren’t convinced by the petition. The board votes to deny, and it’s unanimous. The commissioners say Jozwiak or High Pointe can return another time, with a new petition that includes something about an easement for the public.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources wasn’t present at this meeting.
But it did sign the petition to close Arnold Road. The DNR says for its purposes, there are other, more manageable access points to this state forest land.
“We were approached to determine whether or not we would be okay with the closure,” said Patrick Cotant, the DNR’s Forest Resources Division unit manager for Traverse City. “After reviewing, I felt it was fine to do so.”
“It's cutting off, I guess, the historical, more convenient access to this area of state land,” he continued, “but it's not cutting off access to this portion of state land at all.”
Those other access points did come up at the road commission meeting, but commissioners didn’t seem to care if there were other access points, if people were actually using this one.
So for now, with the petition denied, the Arnold Road access point to the state forest still stands.