Is Leelanau’s farmland in danger?

Upcoming ballot proposal would protect land from development
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
“Cape Cod of the Midwest!”
While certainly a compliment to our home’s beautiful land and sparkling waters, this attribution to Leelanau County has become something of a dubious honor in the eyes of many locals, who fear that as this county’s popularity increases around the United States, the torrid pace of growth and development on our shorelines, in our forests and on our farmland will continue.

A citizens group called Save Leelanau Farmland! has introduced a measure that would preserve much of Leelanau’s farmland by creating a way that farmers can sell the right to develop their property to the county in exchange for public money and state and federal matching funds. The farmland preservation initiative will appear on the November 7 election ballot as a half-mill proposal that, if approved, would cost the local property owner a median amount of $2.35 per month or $28 per year.
Jeff and Juanita Send, who own a 160-acre cherry farm just south of Suttons Bay, believe that’s a tiny price to pay to keep Leelanau’s pastures and rolling hills locked up in agriculture at a time when downstate developers are offering millions of dollars to build homes on real estate with mouth-watering views.
“We have to act now,” says Jeff, a tone of haste in his voice, as he walks along a row of fledgling cherry trees — his future harvest. “Time goes by fast. If we don’t pass this initiative, within a few years from now the land all around us will be condominiums, and we will have lost what this land was all about … forever.”
Jeff Send admits that the temptation for a farmer to sell to a developer is growing, especially since small farmers are having trouble competing with the subsidy-fattened, super corporate farms elsewhere in the country, not to mention food being imported at rock bottom prices from elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, many local farmers are finding a lack of interest from their kids in continuing the family tradition. As the caretakers of some of the most bountiful, and beautiful land in our midst reach retirement age, what are they to do?
“Do the right thing for Leelanau” is the slogan voiced by Save Leelanau Farmland! as well as organizations backing this initiative like the Michigan Land Use Institute and the Leelanau Conservancy. And do it now, for the average age of a Leelanau County farmer is 55 years, according to Julie Hay, the Land Use Institute’s Leelanau County Smart Growth Coordinator. Her three main pillars for supporting the Farmland Preservation proposal are: quality of life and scenic beauty; the local economy; and urgency.
“We’re trying to make it evident to people that this is about preserving our quality of life, and our economy,” Julie explains. “1,200 jobs in the county are tied to agriculture, and $130 million a year are tied jointly to tourism and agriculture. People come on vacation and they enjoy seeing the farms, the cherry blossoms in the spring, and tasting wine at the vineyards.”
Agratourism
Don Coe is the proprietor of Black Star Farms, a luxurious winery near Suttons Bay and a beacon of agricultural tourism. He is also one of Michigan’s five state agricultural commissioners. Don shares Julie Hay’s view that farmland preservation is Leelanau County’s necessary path forward.
“It all starts with the farmland itself. The farmland is the primary raw material for the agriculture business. But in order to have viable agriculture, farmland has to be available at an affordable price, and today farmland is competing with sprawl. In fact, sprawl has just about doubled the value of farmland. That premium between affordable land for farming and the actual price of the land for building homes is putting pressure on sustainable agriculture in Leelanau County.
“What Farmland Preservation does is put the tool in the hands of the farmer so that he can handle the premium of the land. What the farmer does is agree to sell off the premium, the increased value of the land. He’s selling his assets. What community gains in purchasing that asset is a guarantee that the land will stay as agriculture or open land.”
Young farmers, recent graduates of agriculture schools, have been approaching Don Coe in hopes of entering the business and continuing Leelanau County’s relationship with the land. But they have been unable to find farmland at affordable prices. Paradoxically, Don laments, a farmer with 160 acres right across the street from Black Star Farms is closing up shop and succumbing to a developer. The proprietor is an elderly lady who needs cash to fund her retirement, and her own children who wish to keep the farm cannot match the developer’s price for the land. “We’re a rural, agricultural tourist destination, and soon there will be 80 houses on the property just across the street. This will hurt Black Star Farms.”
Don Coe and Jeff Send both believe that the November 7 vote is a way for Leelanau County residents to show how important they value local agriculture. “I’d feel personally a bit betrayed if we find that the community won’t support the only mechanism to deal with affordable farmland,” admits Don. “If we don’t get some kind of control over farmland, we will lose what draws people like myself into agriculture.”
Taxes, opposition
Naturally, any measure that would raise taxes meets a storm of opposition in rural Midwestern America. Farmland Preservation has met fierce resistance in Leelanau County, where the Board of Commissioners killed an initial drive in 2003 to put the millage proposal before voters. In a somewhat surprising move, the Board voted 5-2 last April in favor of placing Farmland Preservation on the upcoming November ballot, which appears to give the movement some momentum.
But a one-issue group called Leelanau Taxpayers United, led by chairman Tom Triebes, seeks to stop the millage and the taxes it would incur. Tom admits that farming is changing all across America, and echoing the spirit of the true blue free market economy, he believes that farmers will have to adapt to stay alive.
“For example, when I began coming to this area there was only one winery in the county, and now we have plenty of wineries. We’re seeing farmers change as revenues are not high enough compared to costs. They have to produce more high-value products.” As an example he cites a farmer living near him who now grows lettuce and mushrooms.
Tom Triebes, who owns farmland near Maple City, though he doesn’t grow any agricultural products on it, admits that many farmers are having a tough time making ends meet, and that, he says, is the main reason to keep their costs and taxes low. He believes in the mantra that this is a “free country” and shudders to think of farmers who would feel deprived of the freedom to do what they like with their farms once the time comes to shut the barn doors (even though farmers would not be forced to sell away their development rights if the initiative passes).
“The landowner has rights to land and this is a free country. If we become a country where the government dictates everything that you can and cannot do, I wouldn’t like that.
“My development rights have gone up by a factor of 10 over the last 20 years. That’s better than owning stocks in the stock market. Most farmers don’t want to sell their development rights because it’s such a good investment owning land in Leelanau.”
Furthermore, he questions the popularity of the Farmland Preservation initiative. Tom points out that only eight farmers in Leelanau County are currently on the list to sell their development rights.
That, says Julie Hay of the Michigan Land Use Institute, is a misnomer. Only eight are in place because there’s not yet a program to pay farmers for their development rights. In fact, a 2002 survey reveals that 60 percent of the county’s 4,000 farmers would be interested in the movement, and equally as telling, more than 75 percent said that something must be done to save Leelanau farmland.
But what should be done? And who should do it?
“I am all for farmland preservation,” says Tom Triebes, “but it belongs in the private sector. “The Leelanau Conservancy is doing a fine job of acquiring and protecting wetlands. Why don’t they seek to acquire farmland to prevent it from being developed, instead of taxing the rest of us? There are billionaires pushing this thing. They could pay for the whole initiative out of their pockets.
“This would be just another tax that makes it more expensive for people of lesser means to live in Leelanau. Are young people with children going to be able to afford to live here if we keep taxing them? I don’t want to see Leelanau become just another place where just wealthy people retire.
More than anything, Tom Triebes resents the fact that farmers who sell away their development rights would give up those rights forever.
“The catch here is the ‘forever’ guarantee. If the founding fathers had implemented farmland preservation, where would we be now? You can’t predict conditions that will be imposed on the next generation and generations down the line.”
Pay now or pay later
Don Coe of Black Star Farms has an answer for those voters who are afraid of higher taxes: vote yes for Farmland Preservation. Taxes are much higher in developed and populated areas than they are in rural areas because of the need for things like roads and rescue services. If the farmland in Leelanau County turns into resorts, condominiums and golf courses, by all means, taxes will rise — and much more than $28 per year.
“No one likes taxes. But if you don’t like taxes, then this is exactly what you should vote for. Farmland Preservation is not an anti-growth movement. It intends to seek a balance between the inevitable growth and inevitable taxes, by creating a vehicle to keep farming active.”