chapter 7

---

Traverse City and the immediate surrounding areas desires growth, but only if it is just the right amount. And what that right amount is depends on who you talk to. The developers are interested in expanding the areas around Traverse City so they can build large homes and minor commercial areas to support them. Many of these homes would be retirement (or second) homes. Another contingent wishes to expand Traverse City inasmuch as that growth would benefit tourism. Some recent proposals that have been approved make way for multi-story complexes within the city itself, which are as high as six stories. Between these two groups there is a good deal of tension. There is some hope that the blossoming wine industry (still small) in Michigan will develop into a kind of Napa Valley, whose ultimate result would be a large increase in tourism, though proportionally not in wine sales. Developments like these might be needed to keep the area strong as the county has faced some challenges from oversees exports in the agriculture department. For instance apples from China are undercutting Michigan apples in the domestic marketplace. Currently the county has been trying to develop an export market in Asia for its cherries, but the nature of the fruit, its fragility, is an impediment.

---