If You Seek A Pleasant Peninsula

Sept. 9, 2016

Things might be pleasant on the Old Mission Peninsula, but they’ve been anything but quiet. The past year’s seen a controversial development proposal, the upheaval of township government, and uncertainty over the future of the community’s elementary school.

Abraham Lincoln signed the deed to Tim Boursaw’s family farm in 1863. Boursaw’s great great great grandfather had settled that land 20 years earlier.

The Boursaw property on East Bay — perched near the unincorporated community of Old Mission, at the northeast end of the peninsula — was first tapped for maple syrup, and then it became a dairy farm. In the 1930s, along with the other farmers on the peninsula, the Boursaws planted cherry trees. Around 1970, the new generation quit farming, so the family kept the farmhouse at the end of Bluff Road but sold their land. The rich property continued to produce cherries for decades, then was left to lie fallow, growing wild and rugged against its East Bay horizon.

Now those 81 acres are on the brink of development, targeted for total transformation in a project that’s caused uproar among neighbors and precipitated the ouster of the entire township government.

For Tim Boursaw, his family’s one-time property is the last wilderness left on the peninsula’s eastern shore. It’s 2,500 feet of beach that’s been forever untouched. It’s the first break in a string of homes along the shore from Traverse City to the end of Bluff Road, a dozen miles away. For Boursaw, it’s sacred land.

“I’ve seen where the peninsula started out and where it’s headed,” the 64-year-old said. “All those stretches along East Bay all had cherry orchards on them at one time, and now they’re all subdivisions.”

A SURPRISE DEVELOPMENT

The proposal to develop the Boursaw farm sparked 18 months of conflict on the peninsula, though it all began very quietly in January 2015. For months, as the development proposal wound through the township approval process, no one noticed.

Kadee Tseitlin was perhaps the first neighbor to raise an alarm about the proposal — called The 81 on East Bay, a planned unit development that would that would clear forest and flatten a lakeside bluff to build Rachel 41 Snyder homes with 40 boat slips at a central dock. Photo She by Michael learned Poehlman about Photography it because she owns a summer home next to the property, close enough that the township was required by law to notify her of the request for a special use permit.

Tseitlin said it was a Thursday or Friday in April 2015 when she received a letter, forwarded to her Chicago address, that informed her of a public hearing to take place that next Tuesday. She was alarmed; it looked like a huge project and she’d been given so little notice.

She said she called the township and was told it wouldn’t be worth her time to come Up North for the hearing — that it was just a formality because the project was headed for approval.

“I kind of said, ‘Huh.’ That kind of gave me pause,” she said. “For me, personally, it felt like it was getting passed through in the dark of the night, and no was was watching. No one was keeping guard.”

She travelled to the meeting anyway — and every meeting after that. She contacted the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council and the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. She and some neighbors formed a nonprofit, Preserve Old Mission, and they hired Traverse City-based environmental attorney Scott Howard to challenge the proposal.

Tseitlin believes the development would be out of character with the peninsula, even though high-end development has proliferated so much on Old Mission in recent decades that it almost has become the character.

The biggest argument against the project, Tseitlin said, is that the property is the last bit of wilderness left on that side of the peninsula until you reach its northern tip.

“Once [the wilderness area is] gone, it’s going to look cookie-cutter. There’s no going back after it gets approved and [the land] starts to get graded,” Tseitlin said.

TRANSPARENCY AND A NEWSLETTER

Uproar over the development — and a perceived lack of transparency in the approval process — led a slate of seven challengers to run for each elected township seat in August. Each one of the challengers won, leading to a complete overhaul of township offices that will take effect in November.

Rob Manigold, the former township supervisor, was one. Manigold, who had served for 25 years, retired in 2013 but returned this year and won back his title from his replacement, Pete Correia.

Manigold said the seven challengers were bolstered by concern over the way the township government had been run for the past two years.

“I think the 81 development was probably the catalyst for people to start wondering why they weren’t being heard or didn’t feel like they were being heard in meetings,” Manigold said.

Correia and his fellow trustees didn’t communicate well with residents, Manigold said.

For instance, under Manigold, residents used to receive a township newsletter at least three times a year that updated them on peninsula happenings and alerted them to new developments. That newsletter ceased publication under Correia, who died Sept. 6 at the age of 70.

Manigold said he understands how the decision to cease the newsletter could be made. It cost $3,000 to publish and mail each edition. But he believes it is important for people to be informed about what’s going on. Manigold, who was sworn in to take over for Correia on Sept. 7, said the newsletter will return and residents will be offered the option to opt out of the printed version and receive an email newsletter.

“A lot of our population, as we were going door-to-door — we realized they’re not really going online a lot,” Manigold said.

LAUNCH OF THE GAZETTE

The sense that residents were unaware of the developments underway on Old Mission prompted Jane Johnson Boursaw, Tim Boursaw’s wife, to launch an online newspaper.

For a year and a half, Boursaw has published the online Old Mission Gazette. It was the 81 development, however, that caused her to to make the website a priority.

“I think that most people realize that a chunk like this is going to be developed. It’s just a matter of how it’s developed, you know?” she said. “Do they want to get the maximum number of homes on there that they possibly can? Or do they want to leave some open space? They have to leave some open space, but do they want to make it look more aesthetically pleasing and not build it up to the max?” It’s a story that’s played out on the peninsula for as long as people who weren’t farmers wanted to live there: Someone proposes a development; people who live in existing developments don’t like it. How do you measure the degree to which new development diminishes the landscape for the people who live in the the development that already exists?

Jane Boursaw’s own family goes back six generations on the peninsula. She grew up on a cherry farm herself. But she said she’s nonetheless tried to report on the development as objectively as possible.

“I can see both sides of the story, but it’s tough,” she said. “This is my husband’s farm. It could just as easily be in my family, the Johnson farm.”

Manigold said Boursaw’s Gazette picked up the slack left by the peninsula’s absent newsletter in the last year.

“Jane has done a tremendous job on covering the township,” Manigold said.

Manigold thinks every township would be better off with someone dedicated to objectively distilling what’s going on so that residents know what their township board is up to.

“I think that more citizen activity would be good in all townships,” he said. “Without public input, you’re making the best decision you can, but it may not be the best one.”

THE (ZONING) LAW OF THE LAND

Despite all of the furor over the 81 development, Manigold said he believes the approval of the development is a done deal.

“They called a special meeting a week ago and it could have been decided right there, but there was a flaw in the design in one of the roads,” Manigold said. “Technically, 81 might be done before the new board takes office.”

Manigold said he’s OK with that because the plans and the process reviewed by 13th Circuit Court Judge Philip Rodgers were upheld.

“I guess if they meet the ordinance, then they should get it,” Manigold said. “It might not be the popular decision, but the zoning is the law of the land.”

Manigold said the experience with the 81 showed him that environmental studies should be required for large developments, and although there might be nothing that can be done about the 81 development at this point, he hopes the township amends its ordinance so that studies are required for future proposals.

It could help ease concerns that historical contamination from farming operations could be unleashed through earth moving and migrate to neighboring properties or the bay.

Manigold said he doesn’t believe that would be a significant burden for developers; when the township developed the Pelizzari Natural Area and an addition to the Bowers Harbor Park, he said environmental studies were conducted and didn’t prove to be too much of a hurdle.

“They were old farms, and we had to work with the DEQ, but we had a process to deal with it all,” he said.

WHERE THE 81 STANDS NOW

Howard, the attorney for the group opposed to the development, doesn’t believe the township should be so quick to approve the 81 development after Rodger’s decision. Howard believes the challenge raised serious questions about soil erosion control and fire lane access.

He said he believes if the plans change significantly, the project should have to start over and go through the process again, starting with the planning commission.

Meanwhile, Howard has petitioned the Michigan Supreme Court to consider the group’s appeal of the township’s approval.

He argues that the development fails to preserve the land’s natural features “to the maximum feasible extent,” as is required by township ordinance.

“They used the standard ‘it could be worse,’ and that’s not the standard they should have used,” Howard said. “The township decided at one point, ‘We want to have a high bar for protection of natural resources,’ and then they effectively lowered it for this developer.”

Philip Settles, attorney for the developer, pointed to a brief filed by the township attorney, Peter Wendling, that asked the Michigan Supreme Court to reject the request to hear the case.

Wendling argued that the township board members carefully considered everything that could happen to the property when they made their decision. If the developer would have done what would be allowed by right, rather than asking for a planned unit development that required township approval, what could happen could be much more damaging to the land.

A traditional subdivision would result in a lot more tree removal and bulldozing than what is being proposed, he argued.

“This would result in the entire parcel being carved up for development and not subject to the standards contained in the ordinance with respect to soil erosion and grading, but rather, the whims of individual property owners, which could result in the majority of the wooded areas being cut down,” Wendling wrote.

VINEYARD RIDGE

Controversy over the 81 development has turned up the ears of residents to new development proposals in general. Residents also have questioned the next development proposed after the 81, a condominium neighborhood — 47 homes on 28 acres — proposed for the other end of the township, near the Pelizzari Natural Area.

Manigold said his initial impression of Vineyard Ridge is that the proposal looks to be in line with what would be allowed.

“It looks like a good development, actually,” Manigold said.

Manigold believes a traffic study will show that Center Road needs several leftturn lanes: at Mathison Road, at the Underwood Farm development, at Wilson Road, and at the entrance to Vineyard Ridge, if it is developed. He said he wants to work with the Michigan Department of Transportation to install those left-turn lanes.

Jane Boursaw said residents are concerned about traffic volume on Center Road already; Vineyard Ridge would just make it worse.

“It’s already very busy there. I mean, it’s going to add a lot of traffic,” she said. “And again, [the developer] should have a right to do what he wants with that property, but the developers should also think about whether it fits into the rural landscape, even close to town.”

That development has caused complaints that go beyond traffic. Its been proposed as a neighborhood to be marketed to people over 55. It’s bound to be priced well out of reach for working families.

Manigold said there isn’t much the township can do about that. He said he’s noted in recent years how developments at the south end of the peninsula are more popular for older people because retirees want to live on the peninsula and also live close to the hospital.

“It is hard for a young family to purchase property on the Old Mission Peninsula and pay a mortgage because of the property values,” he said. “I don’t know what we can do to change that. It is harder for a young family out here, if you’re not a professional family.”

SAVING OLD MISSION

If Manigold and the six other newly elected officials were swept into office amid uproar over the 81 development, Manigold said they came together in a shared concern over the fate of Old Mission Elementary.

The fate of the school has been up in the air since administrators at Traverse City Area Public Schools put it on a list of schools to close. That decision was prompted by falling enrollment, which was in part caused by lack of affordable housing near the school. Developments like The 81 on East Bay and Vineyard Ridge are just the latest to price out young families.

Now the school appears much more viable after an anonymous donor offered to donate $800,000 to save it. That could enable the township to purchase the school and to work with the school district or another entity to ensure the building remains a school.

“I’m enthusiastic about what’s happening with the school,” Manigold said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the Peninsula Township residents to work with the school board and get our school back.”

An open school won’t generate kids to attend it, but Jane Boursaw hopes it will be a start of something.

“I know some young families that drive their kids out to school here. They may not live here, but they drive them out because they love the Old Mission Peninsula school,” she said. “And there are still families that have moved out here to raise their children on the peninsula.”