Bear Man’s lawyer questions Fishtown’s tax-exempt status, escalating Youth for Christ battle in Leland
Left photos: screenshots from Leelanau Lighthouse Instagram; top right: Micah and Kya Cramer; bottom right: Leland Fishtown
STORY UPDATE: The Leland Planning Commission vote expected on Wednesday, March 18, has been postponed due to inclement weather. A make-up date has not yet been announced.
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Business owners, a large group of local parents, and the Fishtown Preservation Society oppose Apollos Properties’ and Youth for Christ’s contentious bid for a special land use permit to create a youth ministry in a building they own in the heart of Leland’s business district.
Now Youth for Christ (YFC) is striking back and elevating the legal stakes of this battle playing out in a small Leelanau County town but with potential implications far beyond Northern Michigan. YFC missionaries Micah and Kya Cramer drew scrutiny for allegedly recruiting students at Leland public school to their ministry during the past two school years. They were barred last fall from volunteering inside the school.
On March 10, Timothy White, an attorney with the Parker Harvey law firm, sent a letter on behalf of their client, Jim VanSteenhouse—Micah’s wealthy uncle who owns several properties in Leland—to the Leland Township assessor and board of review. That letter questioned the charitable tax-exempt status of the Fishtown Preservation Society in the town’s historic district of fish shanties. The district includes VanSteenhouse’s property at 110 North Lake St. where Youth for Christ wants a ministry.
VanSteenhouse, known as the “Bear Man” for surviving a grizzly attack in the Canadian wilderness a decade ago—which he credited to divine intervention—retired from a lucrative banking career and launched Bear Man Ministries. He built a luxury home in Leland in 2018. Apollos Properties applied to Leland Township in Fall 2025 for a land use application to convert the north side of the downtown building, which VanSteenhouse acquired for $1.2 million, into a religious youth activity “clubhouse.” Leelanau Lighthouse, the Cramers’ local Youth for Christ chapter, began using the space for a ministry in February 2025. The location overlooks the Leland harbor and the Fishtown shanties—a prime tourism draw during the summer months, when thousands flock to Carlson’s Fishery and catch ferry rides to the Manitou Islands.
“We believe that [Fishtown Preservation Society] may have, perhaps unintentionally, misled the Assessor and the Township when it initially applied for its property tax exemption. And FPS has certainly failed to advise the Assessor as its expanding commercial and economic development activity on its tax-exempt parcels,” White’s letter states. “We do not believe that FPS is properly considered a ‘charitable institution’ under MCL 211.70, and that even if it were a ‘charitable institution’ it is not eligible for a property tax exemption under MCL 211.7o because it leases a number of parcels out to for-profit businesses and operates a short-term vacation rental business out of another. Therefore, we believe that the Assessor and/or Board of Review should review and revoke all of FPS’s property tax exemptions.”
White offered no comment when reached by the Glen Arbor Sun on Friday afternoon.
Fishtown, community opposition to youth ministry
David Burkhardt, chair of Fishtown Preservation Society’s (FPS) board of directors, sent a letter to the Leland Township Planning Commission on Dec. 2, 2025, opposing Apollos’ bid for a special land use permit for the ministry.
“The character and use of the neighboring properties in a manner that will safeguard Fishtown’s economic vitality and support the commercial and tourism-based environment on which Leland depends are important to the success of our mission,” wrote Burkhardt. “We express no opinion regarding the religious beliefs, advocacy, or programming of the applicant or its tenant or their relevance to the grant of the requested permit. But we are concerned about the effect of that action as it relates to zoning integrity, historic district protection, and the land use compatibility that the Planning Commission is required to protect. It should be noted that the proposed ‘clubhouse’ is located within the State- and federally-recognized Leland Historic District.
“A significant part of FPS’ earned revenue is from rentals received from tenants operating retail outlets in our shanties. Adaptive reuse of its properties is an accepted source of revenue for a nonprofit preservation organization. These mom and pop enterprises are dependent upon a strong flow of pedestrian traffic, and their success is closely linked to that of the Main Street merchants in ‘downtown Leland’. Any erosion of the retail commercial operations in either of these locations would be likely to adversely affect the other.”
Leland school parents and local businesses have also opposed a youth ministry in harbor square overlooking Fishtown—both at public hearings and in letters to the Township.
A Memorandum of Concern sent on Nov. 28, 2025, and signed by more than two dozen Leland business owners stated: “We are aware of, and support, numerous citizen letters that express a deep commitment to preserving Leland’s C-1 district as a retail area-with pedestrian-oriented continuity and irreplaceable small-town character. We are also aware of, and support, those citizen letters that state the fact that Youth for Christ is an international organization, not a ‘club’.”
The memorandum specifically referenced a white paper by Bart Skorupa entitled “Youth for Christ as a Chain-Scale Operator: Risks for Leland.”
FPS offered the following statement to the Sun on March 14, in response to VanSteenhouse’s lawyers’ letter questioning its tax-exempt status:
“Fishtown Preservation Society stands by the submissions we have already made to the Leland Township Planning Commission. Our position is that this is fundamentally a zoning issue, and we oppose the Apollos Group’s application for a Special Use Permit under the current C-1 zoning rules. We are aware of an attempt by Jim VanSteenhouse to persuade the Leland Township Assessor to revoke the property tax exemptions previously granted to Fishtown Preservation Society. We are confident that those exemptions were granted in compliance with applicable law and do not expect any changes.”
Planning Commission vote expected on March 18
New “findings of fact” from outside legal council are expected this coming week, prior to the March 18 Planning Commission meeting. Those findings are expected to come from Tom Grier of Running Wise & Ford.
The Commission, led by new chairperson Lee Cory, requested additional legal advice following the body’s Feb. 18 meeting, during which she and other commissioners took issue with the initial findings of fact detailed in a memo that Brad Wierda, a lawyer at Traverse City’s Smith & Johnson Attorneys, prepared for Leland Township. In that memo, Wierda highlighted Apollos’ First Amendment concerns and found that a Youth for Christ ministry would fit Leland’s zoning definition as a “club.”
Some community members who spoke on Feb. 18 in opposition to YFC’s downtown youth ministry opined that Wierda, who prepared the Township’s initial legal brief, was biased and shouldn’t have been given the assignment. They pointed to Wierda’s resume as an alum of Calvin College, a private Christian school in Grand Rapids, and a former school board member at Traverse City Christian Schools—as evidence that he was too close to Youth for Christ.
Commissioners last month voted 4-1 in favor of postponing their decision on Youth for Christ’s special use permit for a downtown ministry until March 18. Planning Commission meetings have been held these first three months of the year at Northport High School auditorium to accommodate large and impassioned crowds.
Cory told the Sun she expects the Planning Commission to hold their vote on Wednesday, March 18. The meeting is scheduled for 5 pm in Northport.
