A judge halted the construction of the FishPass project at the Union Street Dam park in January. The delay will continue until a trial in May, or a public vote on the project.
Credit Lexi Krupp / IPR News
Construction on the nearly $20 million FishPass project in Traverse City is on hold until May, at the earliest.
That’s when a circuit court judge will hear a case about whether city residents need to vote on the plan to replace the Union Street Dam with a high-tech channel, where researchers could test how to sort fish swimming upriver.
The holdup is centered on the question of whether the project amounts to “disposal of parkland“ or changes outside of “park purposes.” In either case, city residents would need to approve the project by a 60 percent majority, under city charter rules.