Mackinaw City will make Lakeside Drive one-way, west to east, once its rebuild is finished

MACKINAW CITY, Mich. — Lakeside Drive in Mackinaw City will carry traffic in one direction only, west to east, after the Village Council voted 6-0 to make the change within 30 days of the end of the road’s current rebuild, The St. Ignace News reported.

The council acted at its Oct. 1 meeting. Trustee John Lemanski made the motion, which also requires the new signs to go up within that 30-day window. Trustee Kathy Paquet was absent.

The decision follows years of complaints about the stretch that starts at North Nokomis Street. The News reported that the road’s right-of-way is only about 15 feet wide and its pavement usually 10 to 13 feet, so drivers meeting head-on have had to pull aside and wait. Residents told the village that the pull-offs damage their yards and the road’s edges. Village Manager Dean Martin wrote in a memo that the road often flooded during heavy spring rain.

Mackinaw City and Wawatam Township have put nearly $300,000 into tearing out and replacing the road, according to the News. The village is also adding water and sewer connections, and drainage is being improved.

Residents were divided. Of more than 60 surveys the village mailed to people on the road, about 85% came back: 30 favored one-way traffic, one of whom later asked to switch, and 25 opposed it. On direction, 21 respondents picked west to east and 16 east to west. Four residents spoke for the west-to-east option at the meeting.

Village departments did not agree, either. The News reported that first responders had no objection, while the Department of Public Works said crews might have trouble plowing a one-way road evenly, and traffic planners favored keeping two-way traffic because the residential street sees little of it. Trustee Kash O’Brien noted the close survey split but leaned toward one-way. Trustee Dave Morthland backed west to east and floated a 10 mph speed limit.

The council also tightened its Labor Day policy, the day the Mackinac Bridge Walk brings crowds to town. Under the changes, people may no longer solicit passersby outside Indian Pathways Park, amplified sound must follow the village’s regular noise rules and portable signs not tied to a nonprofit permit may not be propped on village property. Trustees voted 5-0 to drop a proposal that would have let residents charge for parking on the street right-of-way beside their homes that day; President Pro Tem George Ranville, who supported the idea, abstained. Village President Scott Newman said allowing it would “open a can of worms,” the News reported.

Trustees also voted 6-0 to let village leaders negotiate a new lease for the village dock pier with Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry. A draft agreement will come back to the council for final approval.

Sources:
The St. Ignace News / Kaleb Boyer, “Mackinaw City Hears Community Input on Lakeside Drive, Approves One-Way Traffic Change,” Oct. 12, 2026, https://www.stignacenews.com/articles/mackinaw-city-hears-community-input-on-lakeside-drive-approves-one-way-traffic-change/
Photo: Gpwitteveen, “Mackinaw City Municipal Building.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mackinaw_City_Municipal_Building.jpg

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Tags: The Straits · News · Mackinaw City · Lakeside Drive · Village Council · Roads