FRANKFORT, MI – A popular Up North destination is shifting gears on a Lake Michigan beach restroom just weeks before construction was due to begin.
The Frankfort City Council voted Thursday to relocate the planned $560,000 restroom at Frankfort Beach. The new site is farther north, moving it from near the end of the pier to near Miami Street. The change comes after community pushback related to the new restroom blocking views of Lake Michigan.
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There are two possible locations in the Miami Street area, one near the playground and another by a dune, city Superintendent Joshua Mills told MLive. These locations were not selected before because of their proximity to beachfront homes, he said.
Officials have been trying to put flushable restrooms at the beach for decades, he said. A building was opened in 1988, and then torn down two years later.
Construction was expected to begin at the end of the month on a 350-square-foot, 10-foot-tall oval building with two family restrooms, and outdoor shower and foot-wash station. It was due to be finished in time for Independence Day celebrations.
Those plans have now been scrapped, Mills said. The building will be redesigned and likely slightly smaller and rectangular. The changes should result in reduced costs.
Mills said the goal is to begin construction this fall. That means another summer of portable toilets at the beach.
Since 2004, visitors to the picturesque waterfront have been accommodated with a two-stall vault toilet building on the south end of the beach and portable toilets near the pier. The new restroom building will replace the portable toilets.
One reason to replace the portable toilets is that they don’t always hold up on the beach: they were either blown over by wind or knocked down by vandals - hard to say which - about six times in 2023, sometimes creating a sewage mess on the beach, Mills said.
Another reason is the beach’s popularity. There are 1,000 to 1,500 visitors daily during the summertime, Mills said. It’s busy until around dinnertime, and then fills up again in the evening as people gather to watch the sunset from their vehicles or the dozens of benches on the beach.
In 2020, the city received a DNR Trust Fund grant of $225,100 to build a restroom on the beach. They’ve secured an extension on the grant, which is supposed to be spent within three years, Mills said. It needs to be used before the money reverts to the state, he said.
Other funding comes from grants, donations, street funding, water and sewer funds and a general fund budget line, Mills said. However, a $50,000 donation may not be eligible for use on a restroom near Miami Street.
There are also plans to build a larger restroom at nearby Cannon Park, which is across a street from the beach. When that is built, the vault toilets at the beach will be demolished, Mills said.
