Grist mill zoning spat confounds Glen Arbor Township

Published in our March 18, 2021, print edition.

By F. Josephine Arrowood

Sun contributor

Glen Arbor was described in 2011 by the Good Morning America TV show as “The Most Beautiful Place in America.” Today Glen Arbor Township, which has experienced unprecedented growth pressure as a resort destination, faces a community reckoning. It involves a new resident with ambitious development plans, deep pockets, and close partnership with regional heavy hitters; longtime neighbors; zoning irregularities; and old wounds from a 40-year-old environmental controversy.

Sometime in 2018, W. Turner Booth appeared in Glen Arbor with a charming narrative: a young, hip, New York lawyer seeking to “reboot” his life and ponder his next chapter Up North (as he stated in an interview with the Glen Arbor Sun in November 2020). Booth had been in Traverse City since the end of 2017, setting up real estate investment company Cochran Booth and Co—as well as a private bank (CCG) with multimillionaire entrepreneurs George Cochran, Casey Cowell, and Lowell Gruman (as reported by the Traverse City Business News in September 2019).

Booth says he “ran into” Robert Kuras—longtime owner of both the nearby Homestead Resort, and a nearby 1880s grist mill with house on two acres. Booth told the Sun that conversations with Kuras began during the summer of 2018, and he bought the property in October.

Tina Mehrens, a lifelong, part-time Glen Arbor resident who owns property nearby, remembers it differently. She had been working with Kuras for two years to try to find a well-funded buyer or nonprofit for the old mill, who would be sympathetic to history, true to the overall aesthetic, and in sync with the township’s Master Plan. Booth—a young, energetic real estate lawyer with family connections to the Homestead—seemed to her to fit that picture—at first.

Robert Kuras and Glen Arbor—Redux

When Booth bought the property from Kuras, the joy and relief throughout the county and beyond was palpable. “Fantastic news!” and “Thank you for saving this beautiful piece of history,” were just two of the many positive comments from residents, area visitors, and Brammer and Kelderhouse descendants. Local citizens celebrated what they hoped would be the restoration of the iconic mill to a sensitive, size-appropriate, adaptive reuse in its quiet residential neighborhood.

For decades, The Homestead had allowed the mill buildings to moulder; efforts by historic preservationists and nonprofits to save the site—conversations Kuras described to the Sun as no more than “casual”—went nowhere. In the 1980s, Kuras had had big ideas for the mill, too. While a member of the Township Planning Commission, Kuras was making his own plans to turn it into a clubhouse and parking for an 18-hole golf course along the Crystal River. To that end, he succeeded in getting the mill’s zoning changed to Recreational Open Space—a zoning designation that was amended out of the township’s zoning ordinances in 2006, according to its 2019 statutes. (As recently as March 2021, the township’s official zoning map continued to show the Mill property as Residential, along with the surrounding neighborhood, as described in the Master Plan.)

A group of Glen Arborites and clean water activists joined to oppose Kuras’ golf course plan. “Save the Crystal River” became a rallying cry; families marched and drove past the Homestead in protests; the state and federal governments got involved. Lines of division—the rift was deep and ugly—were drawn between those who saw the project as a threat to the Crystal River watershed, and those who hoped for the economic draw of a professionally designed, 18-hole course to attract more visitors. Kuras also made the argument that a resort with a golf course would train and attract skilled workers, “stabilize” employment, and thus boost Glen Arbor as a year-round community, according to his 2002 interview with the Northern Express

After nearly 20 years of lawsuits and rancor between stakeholders, the golf course idea was abandoned and a land swap with Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore preserved that portion of the river. “The Millside” site condominiums were built north of the mill, but the mill property languished. In the early 2000s, Polish and other Homestead seasonal “guest workers” were seen boarding in the derelict structures. Over the years, many broken windows gaped, siding decayed, large blue tarps flapped on the roof; a foot of water still periodically floods the first floor.

Neighborhood Rules?

Voters elect a township board, led by a supervisor. The township board appoints Planning Commission members. Additionally, the township hires a zoning administrator (ZA), whose job is to oversee and enforce the zoning statutes. Supervisor Tom Laureto was newly elected in November 2020; Pam Laureto serves as clerk, Lee Houtteman is treasurer, Don Lewis and John Peppler are trustees.

The ZA is Tim Cypher, who is also the ZA for Empire, Kasson, Centerville, Solon, and Leland townships. At the other end of the permitting process, he owns a property inspection business. On his Allpermits.com website, he states, “We will guide you in the proper direction to obtain satisfactory results desired with the following permits: Land/Zoning, Soil Erosion Control, Health Department, Driveway, Construction, and MDEQ – Wetlands – Dunes. Allpermits can obtain approvals on your behalf from the various townships, village, county, and state agencies in a timely fashion.”

Glen Arbor Township’s ordinances were updated in August 2018; it also created and updated its Master Plan in February 2019—which identifies, characterizes, and plans the overall direction for growth in the community—including Zoning Districts that correspond with its Zoning Maps. They are the primary source to identify designated zoning—they are not just a “pretty map on the wall,” as Cypher stated. If errors are made on zoning maps, the township has the authority and the duty to correct them in a thoughtful, unbiased matter.

Longtime zoning maps clearly designated both the mill property (5440 Harbor Hwy) and the old Brammer property (5454 Harbor Hwy) as Residential II. Allowable uses do include home businesses such as farm stands and B&Bs, but not full-service restaurants or units that include kitchens. The mill’s Recreational Open Space zoning went away with the unrealized golf course, in 2006, and the property’s uses remained residential. By default, the property reverted back to its prior designation—in keeping with every other adjacent property in that neighborhood—as Residential.

In their eagerness to see the mill buildings restored, most township officials—with the exception of treasurer Lee Houtteman—and led by ZA Cypher, took steps to accommodate the developer’s wishes, while repeatedly dismissing neighbors’ oft-repeated concerns—and allegedly disregarding the township Master Plan stating no new Recreational or Resort Zoning Districts east of the village. Supervisor Laureto said on Feb. 16: They could not present definite evidence that the Mill was currently zoned Recreational; yet he still voted for the Brammer rezoning.

At the November 5 Planning Commission’s public hearing; Cypher was unable or unwilling to produce documents that he said would make the mill zoning clear. He said he had dropped the papers in his car, but they would be available the following week at the township office. When Kathleen King O’Brien requested them, she was told to fill out a Freedom of Information Act request. Then she got an email from Clerk Pam Laureto that Cypher would be given an extension until March 2 to produce the documents—after the mill property zoning was declared by Cypher and trustee Lewis as Recreational, based on their verbal assurances and “future uses map”— and after the board had already voted to rezone the adjacent Brammer property on Feb. 16. Also on Feb. 16, Supervisor Tom Laureto explained his ‘aye’ vote: “We yielded to our zoning administrator[‘s expertise].”

Why the fuss over the mill’s zoning?

Turner Booth’s first property, the mill, not only had a zoning discrepancy, but it also had a size problem. At 2.07 long, narrow acres, the site is limited by the river, the state highway, and two substantial buildings. Uses are limited, too, as noted earlier. In September 2020, he approached several adjacent property owners to buy from them, including part-time Glen Arbor resident Eric Elliott, who with business partner Michael Aldrich, owned a sweet half-acre at the northwest corner of M-22 and Bay Lane. Booth talked of his plans, including building additional rentals, if allowed to buy Elliott’s land—which was already under contract to Cynthia and Yvain Badan. “This,” says Elliott, “was the first time I had an inkling of just how big a change might be coming to this quiet neighborhood.”

Booth told the Sun he hoped that parcel would be left in a natural state and he wanted the option of having a proposed rerouted Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail running through the woods and away from the Bay Lane/M-22 intersection. Ultimately, Booth bought the R-II Brammer parcel between the Mill and the Badans’ lot, and immediately sought to rezone it, too, as Recreational.

In the Feb. 16 meeting where the rezoning was approved, trustee John Peppler, a realtor, said that “we are talking about a zoning change only, not what the property is going to be used for in the future.” In his Sept. 29 zoning addendum, Booth “contemplates” many things—which is not a legal term and carries no weight. He painted lovely pictures of a museum, small café, and candlelit tables, and gently deflected more specific questions by saying, “This is a dynamic property.”

He told the Sun in November 2020 that, “The goal here is not about making money … I like every project I do to have some element of social good associated with it. If this project makes enough money to sustain itself, that’s great. But this isn’t going to be a retirement play here.” Mill restoration fans seem worried that, if Booth doesn’t get the rezoning he wants, he’ll somehow abandon it. Booth seemed to imply the threat in a March 11 letter to the Leelanau Enterprise: “the South Parcel and the Mill were economically self-sustaining and must continue to be if they are to be preserved.”

“I am not abandoning the project,” he wrote to the Sun on March 16.

Cypher used the undocumented Recreation zoning status of the mill parcel to justify the second item on the Nov. 5 meeting agenda in recommending Booth’s request to rezone a separate, adjacent R-II parcel. Cypher states that “it was always anticipated that the property would be part of the Homestead.” And erroneously, “the Master Plan addresses this project.”

A river still runs through it . . . 

The Crystal River—which the Homestead wanted to develop as a golf course in the 1980s and ‘90s—winds sinuously through both the Mill and Brammer properties. In the latter, its wetlands comprise about 50 percent of the site, with a U-shaped slough and the river proper completing the circle to the northeast.

Once a property is zoned Recreational, nearly anything goes: residence, rooming house, motel or inn, gas station, marina, wedding venue, restaurant, higher density, multistory condos and other vacation rental—like the cottages Booth refers to in his October 12, 2020, interview with the Leelanau Ticker—could replace some of the historic but unimportant structures. With all of the options Recreational zoning represents, the Mill LLC could dramatically change the neighborhood.

“The future” Peppler referred to could already be here: In addition to replacing the existing 59-foot long dock, Booth’s application to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) includes plans for an additional, large new kayak dock, with an “upper level deck.” Booth told the Sun he has no plans for kayak rentals. “We are taking great care to incorporate EGLE feedback and will modify designs as necessary to protect and preserve the Crystal River.”

His requested 18-spot asphalt parking lot at Brammer—with 9 of the slots fronting the river bank—cannot be later disallowed. Booth said the asphalt plan is out of date, and he is now leaning toward gravel. Nevertheless, environmentally-concerned citizens worry about runoff, waste, and effluent into the river. A separate, graveled parking lot upslope on the Mill property—also in Booth’s permit request from EGLE— will run, drain, and migrate downward as gravel drives do, if approved. And the Type II well Booth seeks from the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department (BLDHD) will provide much more water than would be necessary in a simple museum/café/gathering space/wellness center, which he initially targeted for the initial phase of the project.

More water use at both properties will require more wastewater disposal and treatment. While the Mill’s waste system was already hooked up to the Homestead—subject to their monthly water tariff—the Brammer property was on some sort of septic system. That system was not inspected by BLDHD at the time the property was sold to Booth’s brother, Charles and Emily Booth in June 2020—in violation of the township septic ordinance, the Sun has confirmed. Clay McNitt, BLDHD’s sanitarian inspector, made clear that responsibility for enforcing the point of sale is Cypher, Glen Arbor Township’s zoning administrator.

Additional concerns arise with Booth’s contemplated extension of the Homestead’s waste line to service Brammer. The Homestead’s own sewage system is regulated by the state through EGLE, and is currently in its 5-year renewal inspection and permit process. Adding wastewater from a new Type II well, plus the usual uses, will stretch the capacity of a sewage plant that—according to retired Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore ranger and environmental watchdog Tom Van Zoeren, has been under stress for a long time. Van Zoeren has continuously monitored the Homestead’s sewage for nearly 30 years, including its airborne “sprayover” of what he calls incompletely treated human fecal material onto adjacent public lands—and other nearby properties.

Proposed Heritage Trail loop

Yet another piece of the puzzle involves the township’s proposed Heritage Trail segment, an alternative route through town—a more direct route to the Homestead, and coincidentally, to Booth’s proposed development. In his site plan addendum, he mentions boardwalks. His site plan to EGLE shows drawings by Gosling-Czubak of a 6-foot wide, Y-shaped boardwalk in the wetlands. However, the Heritage Trail needs to be some 14 feet wide and able to bear the weight of a rescue vehicle.

The northeast entrance to Glen Arbor, is already a pinch point—with bad sightlines from the state highway bridge on a sharp curve—and whose density will greatly increase on that 45 mile-per-hour stretch of M-22. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and TART Trails already built a route that bypasses downtown Glen Arbor—which is what the Township Board requested at the time—along quieter roads and a lovely boardwalk through extensive wetlands.

Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore superintendent Scott Tucker assured the Sun that portion of the trail remains, and the township’s project would tie into what was already built. This project represents more use, more density, more conflicts with pedestrians, strollers, wheelchairs, bikes, and vehicles, and more changes to the residential landscape that encompasses wetlands and towering tree canopy along M-22.

It’s one that township officials have repeatedly deflected in public comments and meeting minutes as being “totally separate projects,” from their effort to rezone the Mill and Brammer properties as Recreational. They can maximize the township’s funds to include repaving some side streets and sidewalks in the village, which is prudent financially. Redirecting much of the trail traffic through town will place users that much closer to the existing business district and its bike rentals, retail shops, restaurants, and existing short-term vacation rentals.

Some nearby property owners don’t see the win; they see more violations of the township’s Master Plan: including clear-cutting trees for a 25-foot wide minimum trail from the Homestead all the way into the village; increased traffic congestion; runoff and sedimentation into the river, its sloughs, and wetlands; and the permanent disruption of their “quiet enjoyment.

Citizen petition to stop the rezoning

As happens at board meetings of any kind, items on an agenda can be up for discussion, voted on or tabled—and public comment is frequently treated like the pesky stepchild, whose place is at the bottom of the table, far from the grownups’ conversation. The public’s input is noted with a polite, “thanks” and then the voting immediately takes place. 

Ken Jackson, a property owner affected by the proposed mill development, says, “The reason we keep commenting and writing letters is that they [ZA Cypher, the Planning Commission, and the township board] never answer our questions.”

Tina Mehrens concurs. At the Feb. 16 Township board meeting after the Brammer rezoning passed, she asked yet again, “When and how they will address the questions that have been raised about the zoning maps within the township of Glen Arbor?”

Kathleen King O’Brien is another property owner, and a real estate lawyer. “If Tim Cypher had these proofs of the mill zoned Recreational [the whole rationale for rezoning Brammer], wouldn’t that be front and center at these meetings?” she asks.

Without answers and what they see as shaky evidence from township officials, some Glen Arborites say their first recourse is to seek signatures for a referendum. They hope to put before voters the issue of whether to accept the Brammer property’s Recreational rezoning. 

The group “Love Old Glen Arbor (LOGA)” officially formed in February to gather signatures for a ballot initiative. Their motto states, “The purpose of our group is to preserve the unique character of Glen Arbor while celebrating its pristine rivers, lakes, dunes, forests, and wildlife.”

Organizers emphasize that the referendum is about Brammer only, not the mill property. LOGA members say they appreciate and support the mill’s rehabilitation—and an adaptive reuse that fits better with the existing residential neighborhood that Booth moved into, and which he says he loves as well.

LOGA has until March 27 to gather and submit 100 signatures—that’s 15% of the 666 voters who voted in the 2018 gubernatorial election—in order for a referendum to appear on the August 3 ballot.

Turner Booth has launched the website, TheMillGlenArbor.com, to offer historic information about the mill and answer frequently asked questions.

Editor’s notes: The March 18 print version of this story incorrectly reported that “Tim Cypher was until recently the zoning administrator of Solon Township.” In fact, he is currently the ZA for Solon Township. (There are apparently more than one Solon Townships in Michigan.)

Due to a typographic error in the section “Neighborhood Rules?” the print version of the story states “The mill’s Residential Open Space zoning went away with the unrealized golf course …” In fact, it was the mill’s Recreational Open Space zoning that went away …” We regret the print errors. The above version of this story includes these corrections.