Mar. 3—FRANKFORT — More than 2,100 Frankfort residents and friends signed an online petition to stop the construction of a 350-square-foot bathroom facility on the city’s picturesque beachfront.

The long-simmering debate gained new attention at a special public meeting of the Frankfort City Council on Thursday evening when dozens of concerned citizens showed up to protest the plan.

Public comments, often impassioned, took up most of the two-hour meeting at city hall.

Both sides agreed that the beach is the “crown jewel” of the community and a key reason why so many people flock to Frankfort in the summer.

However, they disagreed about the placement, cost and design of the new facility.

Mayor JoAnn Holwerda opened the session with a detailed review of the five-year process that led to the decision to begin construction in late March— just weeks from now.

“The city has been debating beach bathrooms for decades,” she said. “The need has never been an issue [but] the placement has always been an obstacle.”

Currently, the city uses temporary porta potties in the summertime. It also operates a permanent two-unit vault facility near the parking lot overlooking the beach, which doesn’t have running water.

The 11-member committee working on the project hosted 23 meetings during 2021-22, Holwerda said.

“To say the public wasn’t involved or that we weren’t transparent is all wrong,” she said, adding that the opposition against the facility is coming at “the 11th-and-three-quarters hour.”

Photos of surveying stakes recently placed on the beach sparked the last-minute public outcry against the planned facility, organizers said. A color rendering of the project shown at Thursday’s meeting prompted further criticism.

The vast majority of residents at the meeting spoke out against the plan on the grounds that it would spoil the beauty of the beach, mostly because of its proposed location.

“The vision I saw of a bathroom on the beach was horrific — it just broke my heart,” said a local resident named Molly. “It’s always been an inspiring place. Having [a public bathroom] down there is not inspiring — it’s ugly.”

Architectural drawings for the 10-foot-high oval structure indicate it will be placed about 30 feet south of the concrete walkway that leads out to the breakwater pier and about 150 feet from the water’s edge. (See aerial photo.) The flat-roofed facility will feature two family restroom units with flushable toilets and running water, plus a small utility room and open area.

Residents criticized the process used for siting the facility, saying it was “dismissive” of those who objected to the project. They also decried the order of the process — pursuing grant money first (in 2019) and then deciding on a location later — calling it “bass-akwards.”

Artist Ellie Harold, who spearheaded the online petition against the proposed site, said Thursday’s public meeting was “pro forma” and “not responsive.”

“The city’s public survey [about the project] got about 150 responses — our petition got more than 2,080 responses,” she said. “Frankfort already has a lot of good places ‘to go.’ Putting a bathroom on the beach shouldn’t be one of them.”

Other residents and one council member objected to the facility’s $560,000 cost, which includes ancillary improvements such as utility lines, piping and access walkways. The building itself will cost about $450,000, according to City Superintendent Josh Mills.

About half the funding for Frankfort’s facility comes from a $225,000 grant from the state Department of Natural Resources’ Land and Water Conservation Fund, Mills said. Received in 2019, the grant requires building an ADA-compliant accessible bathroom, with stipulations that it be built in the waterfront area.

Additional money for the project comes from the city’s 2023-24 budget, a TC Tourism grant, as well as a fund reserve from an earlier year and a $50,000 private donation, according to city documents. Any remaining balance will be paid in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Most public bathrooms cost between around $80,000-500,000, depending on the size and the sophistication of the model, according to an industry study published in 2023. Last year, San Francisco approved the nation’s most expensive public bathroom project with an estimated cost of $1.7 million for a 150-square-foot structure, less than half the size of the proposed Frankfort building.

Harold argued that the DNR grant proposal was specifically written to limit where the public facility could be sited, preventing other options, such as nearby Cannon Park, from being considered.

During an interview before Thursday evening’s meeting, City Superintendent Mills stressed that the new bathroom structure is designed to be “as small as possible” while still meeting ADA regulations. Dune grass, complementary paint and other features will minimize the visual appearance of the two-unit structure, he added.

“I grew up in this community and this issue goes back at least 40 years,” said Mills. “It’s been part of several master plans. The subcommittee first narrowed the siting down to five locations, then decided on this final one. I feel uncomfortable forcing people to cross the road [to other bathroom locations] because of the safety issue.”

Founded in 1850, Frankfort has a year-round population of about 1,275 with a median age about 15 years older than Michigan as a whole. The continued growth in summer tourism is one reason why an accessible beach-area bathroom is needed, Mills added.

Local resident Stephanie Strang said building a permanent structure on the beach is an unnecessary solution to a seasonal problem.

“To solve the few weeks out of the year problem when the Frankfort beach population increases in the summer, nice ADA-compliant porta potties can be added to the beach area near the sidewalk.”

“I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many different … beaches along the Lake Michigan shoreline and can tell you there are zero that have bathroom facilities so close to the water’s edge,” she said. “All of them are placed next to the parking lot area … which obviously makes the most sense to place bathrooms that are easily accessible to the public.”

Not everyone at Thursday’s meeting objected to the beachfront bathroom.

Local resident Jordan Bates said the new facility is “critical for anyone who doesn’t live within a few blocks of the beach, who have mobility issues, or have children at the beach for more than a few minutes.”

“The beach is a public space,” Bates said. “It is our duty as hosts to make sure that there are accessible, centrally-located, safe and sanitary places for visitors to use the restrooms.”

The new facility will not obscure views of the sunset as do existing porta potties and the Caleb Sutter Memorial, Bates added.

Near the end of Thursday’s public meeting, several residents urged the city council to reconsider the siting issue and “pause” before construction begins later this month.

In closing, Mayor Holwerda said “We all have time to think about it. There will be no vote tonight.”

Asked if residents might file a lawsuit against the proposed beachfront bathroom, organizers said it was a possibility but that no such plans were underway.