A Master Plan for Owosso

Updated November 18, 2012
Where is the City of Owosso going in the future?  Will we be in a reactive mode, waiting for good things to happen and working to counteract the negative impacts on our community?  Not if we can adopt a Master Plan, a blueprint for pro-active effort to guide the future growth of the City.  In all its history, Owosso has lacked a plan.  While in the past there have been successful efforts to influence and direct private investment and public actions, there has been no overall set of plans, policies, and goals that are forward looking. That is about to change.

In 2008, then Mayor Mike Bruff appointed Cindy Popovitch (now a fellow council member) and me to a Blue Ribbon Committee to define some future goals for the development of the City of Owosso.  Now, we have seen the promise of that work realized in a new Master Plan.  This achievement is thanks mostly to the expertise and effort of Owosso's Community Development Director Adam Zettel, the persistent work of the Planning Commission (which included the chairmanship of Burton Fox, who is now on the Council) and the input and interest of many citizens.  This 18 month effort involved a pubic survey, focus group meetings, and several public hearings.  The plan was put together by staff without the use of public dollars to hire consultants or other professionals (a group of Michigan State University students also provided valuable baseline research).

Why a Plan?
A Master Plan is an articulated set of policies and programs to guide the future development of a City. While there is much focus on, and legal weight, in the map of Future Land Uses (see above), the greatest value in a plan is the direction it sets for the future, the policy statements it contains, and the actions it will direct.  The vision statement for the new Owosso Master Plan states that "The City of Owosso will provide superior municipal services and implement guiding principles that continually enhance the quality of life.  Owosso will be the proud home of numerous creative entrepreneurial leaders and will function as the heart of Shiawassee County.  The community will be a vibrant, progressive, knowledge-based community, which promotes the highest quality of life."

A cynic might dismiss such a vision as wishful thinking, and a realist recognizes that Owosso faces severe economic challenge and other deficits.  However, the adoption of a Master Plan is a conscious effort to try to control, or at least manage, the many forces shaping the community, rather than be a passive observer or victim of larger trends.  At a minimum, the plan helps provide the City Council, City Manager and his staff with a work plan to apply the tools within our control.  Where should the City invest its limited dollars?  Where should roads, water lines and other infrastructure improvements be made?  How can we inspire community efforts to improve parks or other public spaces?  How do we use zoning and other development regulations to direct private investment?  How do we talk about ourselves as a community and what image do we present to those who come to Owosso?  Answering these questions will have a profound impact on our quality of life, and a Master Plan gives us the ability to define and present ourselves in the best light possible.


Community Goals
The draft Master Plan sets forth these goals for the future of the Owosso:

• Create safe, tranquil, clean and healthy neighborhoods with enduring character
• Increase and maintain the mobility of of Owosso citizens through a comprehensive and well-planned transportation system
• Deliver urban development and management that strives to preserve and include the natural environment
• Support well planned, quality and sustainable growth
• Enhance and promote historical community resources
• Develop and maintain quality, cost-effective community facilities, infrastructure and services with ensure our city is cohesive and well connected
• Pro-actively create new educational and economic opportunities for all citizens
• Create more youth activities and amenities that service the community and neighborhoods
• Make Owosso a center for culture and entertainment in Mid-Michigan
• Ensure Owosso provides a lifestyle that accommodates the aging population
• Make Owosso a regional center of health care service excellence
• Be known as a community that delivers healthy and active lifestyles

The Planning Commission recommended the draft Master Plan to the City Council.  At its meeting on August 6, the Council will voted on a proposal to officially accept this Plan.  The Plan then was  distributed for review.  The Plan became a public document and a copy sent to surrounding jurisdictions and other governmental bodies for their review and input.  After public input and further review by the Planning Commission, the Council formally adopted the Plan on November 19.  

The important next steps after adoption will be to begin work on the many implementation steps outlined in the Plan (Chapter 8).  This will require the City to set some priorities, but a review and update of the City's Zoning Ordinance, which legally controls the location and standards of development, will be an important first action.  Specific action plans also need to be adopted for Westown, the highway gateways to the City, the Shiawassee River, and other critical areas.  The primary emphases of the Plan are on encouraging entrepreneurial activity and economic development, place-making and the adding of recreational and cultural amenities, and promoting Owosso's quality of life for families, seniors, and all who would call us home.  Promoting equity and encouraging diversity are specific aims of the Plan.

Adam Zettel recommended that the City Council, City staff, and the community "develop a culture of unity" behind the plan as our guidepost and touchstone.  Several members of the Council stated their desire to have the community work together to take care of one another, improve Owosso, and move us positively forward into the future.  A new master plan gives us the opportunity to do just that. 

What To Do About the Dams on the Shiawassee?

The Shiawassee River has always been a special river to me and more than 15 years ago I came together with others to form the Friends of the Shiawassee River.  I grew up canoeing on the Shiawassee River, and when a teen I participated in several clean-ups. My grandfather, Don Cook, who took me on my first Shiawassee canoe trips, helped Jim Miner with the Shiawassee River Improvement Association, the group that first sponsored clean-ups and got a trail built between Owosso and Corunna. The Friends picked up on Jim's work, and have put on more than 20 river clean-ups and tree plantings, helped promote recreational use of the River, and organized several hundred people to care for, share, and enjoy the river that gives our County it's name. (In my blog Tom's Travels you can read my personal observations about the River).

Dams. In the City of Owosso, there are three small dams that impede the River. In Corunna, there is a somewhat larger former mill dam and a partial dam upstream at a brick plant. The largest dam is the former hydroelectric facility at Shiatown. And just above Byron there is a dam where two forks of the River come together. All of these dams are old, and none are actively used for the purposes for which they were constructed.

For the last several years, the dams on the Shiawassee have become a concern, mostly because of their age. The deterioration of these dams makes it clear that some action is necessary. Also, national awareness about the negative impacts of dams has resulted in an increase in technical and financial assistance for dam removals from both public and private bodies. The safety hazards of dams has again become apparent, most recently with the death of a 12-year old girl at the Shiatown Dam. For these reasons, the Friends of the Shiawassee River as well as state and local governments have given considerable thought and study to the future of the dams in our community.

Dam Facts: There are three key things to keep in mind when discussing the dams on the Shiawassee River:

1. Rivers are healthier without dams. Rivers are naturally occurring features that pre-date human settlement. Dams were built to control water flows and levels, usually to serve economic interests such as power generation. While rivers and their inhabitants have adapted to the unnatural intrusion of dams, aquatic biologists and other scientists have come to learn that rivers are healthier without them. Dams block the movement of fish up and down the river, isolate species populations and hamper reproduction of all types of creatures. While anecdotes and folk wisdom abound about the Shiawassee, all of the research shows that the River and its fish and other inhabitants will be better without dams (read this study on the ecology of dam removal).
2. The existing dams do not control water levels on the River. While this may seem counterintuitive, we need to realize that none of the dams are currently managed. Without the operation of control gates, the opening or closing of sluiceways, or the insertion of boards into openings, none of the dams impact water levels. When it rains, the River goes up; when we get a drought, the River becomes shallow and in places muddy. Several of the dams have impoundments behind them, but the level of these wide, slow spots go up and down just as the River does.
3. Rivers are ever-changing; doing nothing is not an option. With time, the flow of water defeats rock and concrete, and rivers constantly move sediment and thus their banks. If a dam is not maintained, it will decay and begin to fall apart, as we are now witnessing. As well, the area behind a dam fills in with eroded soil and the impoundment shrinks. The good news is that life on the River is also ever-changing, and plants and animals move into new shallows and fill in exposed shoreline. If we do nothing with the dams on the Shiawassee, nature will have its way and remove or overrun them, but it will take time and the process may not be pretty nor best serve the interests of human residents of the local watershed.

Dam Removal. If the dams on the Shiawassee still served an economic purpose, private investments would be made to repair them and make them operational for flow control. With no private ownership of the dams, it falls to the public sector (state, county, and city governments) to determine proper action. A decision to "leave the dams alone" is a decision to promote deterioration and invite uncontrolled consequences to both human and natural communities. Some people have expressed a desire to restore the dams to their former size and function, but it is clear that local governments alone will have to bear this cost. State and federal funding is available for dam removal, not dam repair. As well, regulatory agencies that ensure dam safety, monitor water flows, and protect fish and wildlife will give any dam rebuilding scheme a high degree of scrutiny, at best.

Given these realities, it is prudent for our community to investigate the options for complete or partial dam removal. While costlier, there is also the option for the replacement of dams with rock rapids that allow for fish passage. This has been done successfully downstream at Chesaning (learn more and see photos here). Obviously, each dam and its location on the River is unique, and any specific removal or replacement would require careful study and good engineering. Whatever specific design, in general there are three benefits of dam removal on the Shiawassee:

1. Increased recreational use of the River by both boaters and anglers. While some kayakers enjoying the challenge of the existing dams in Owosso, most boaters find the dams a hindrance or a danger. The dams in Corunna and Shiatown cannot be safely negotiated: a few years ago, a kayaker died trying to go over the Corunna dam. Removal of the dams would make the Shiawassee more open to recreational canoers and kayakers, and might encourage private canoe rental facilities to make greater use of more of the River, especially between and through Corunna and Owosso. As well, removal of the dams in Owosso and those upstreams would allow for greater upriver migration of walleye, a popular gamefish, from Saginaw Bay.
2. Elimination of safety hazards would the primary benefit of dam removal. Over the years, there have been several drownings at dams on the Shiawassee.  Flowing water can be an attractive hazard, especially to the young or the uninformed.  However, the flow of water over and below dams can be deceptive, and all of the dams in the County have the potential to kill.  This is true of even small dams, especially in high water (see this video that explains the hydraulic flow over low dams).  
3. Using our River heritage for our future should guide our thinking and actions about dams. Our communities grew up where they are because of the Shiawassee, and we have had an evolving relationship with the River ever since. Over time, we have used the River for transportation, power, waste disposal, and recreation. What is the best role for the River today? As we move to a future built on the quality of life of our communities, we should think of the waterway flowing through town as an amenity. What would make the River most attractive to those on adjacent walkways, fishing its banks, paddling downstream, or just sitting along its banks? Importantly, what will attract businesses to make investments in our River-centered downtown? Decaying concrete that is unsightly and dangerous is not an attraction. Rather, let's use the challenge of dam removal as an opportunity to invest in the creation of a healthy, scenic, and usable River. As the Friends of the River mission statement says, let's "care, share, and enjoy" the Shiawassee.

The City of Owosso has not yet made any specific decisions about the three dams within the City limits. The Friends of the Shiawassee River did commission a study to look at options for the future of the dams (A copy is available at the City's website). The result of this work by an engineering firm and an aquatic biologist showed that the current dams are deteriorating, do hinder fish passage, limit recreational options, and create minor upstream impoundments that are less than when originally constructed. The study showed the dams could be removed with a minor impact on the character of the River. The River would be slightly narrower and shallower for a short distance upstream of two of the dams, but in a few years new banks would be established and vegetation would move in. Deliberate restoration activities would hasten this process.

What the City Council did decide to do was to work with the Friends of the Shiawassee River to look at options for dam removal and replacement. Currently, there is funding available from a variety of sources for taking out dams; there is no funding available for dam repair or reconstruction. The City is faced with two choices: 1) Do nothing, and let the dams slowly deteriorate; or 2) Investigate options and define some potential projects that maintain what we like about the dams and enhance what makes the Shiawassee special. In several public meetings, people mentioned what they liked about the dams: the sight and sound of rushing water and an attractive location to enjoy the River. It is possible to achieve these objectives while removing the dams as barriers and safety hazards.

Change is Difficult and no one involved in planning for the future of the dams in Owosso is acting precipitously. In fact, analysis and discussion has been spread out over time to allow people to think about what they value about the dams and what role they want the Shiawassee River to play in our community. In the short term, there is no need to act and the dams could probably stay in their present state for several years. However, funding opportunities may pass and eventually the dams in Owosso will fall apart. We can try and ignore time and the facts of the situation, or we can move ahead deliberately and consider options. Then, with community input and a sober look at costs and funding, we can make decisions that will best serve the City and continue to make the Shiawassee River an asset to our community.


Additional Resources can be found at these two websites

1. A "Dams Overview" from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources that covers the regulation of dams, their environmental impact, and their history in our state. The website also lists examples of dam removals in Michigan as well as providing resources
2. "Dams and Dam Removal" information from American Rivers, the premier national resource and advocacy group on rivers in America. While most of their specific projects have occurred on larger dams on the east and west coasts, the site does provide some good educational material.