Leland Planning Commission rejects Youth for Christ’s application for Lighthouse ministry in Fishtown
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Following months of deliberation and impassioned public hearings, the Leland Planning Commission tonight rejected Apollos Properties’ special use permit application for a Youth for Christ “Lighthouse” ministry in Fishtown.
In so doing, the Commission sided with findings-of-fact from outside attorney Tom Grier that found grounds to deny the special use permit. Conversely, Grier—an attorney with Running Wise & Ford—also prepared a separate document that offered the Commission a path to approve the ministry. The apparently dueling reports seemed to give the Commission defensible legal ground in the event that Apollos’ owner Jim VanSteenhouse, known as the “Bear Man,” appeals the decision to the Zoning Board or sues the Township.
Much of the debate centered around whether a Youth for Christ ministry could qualify as a “club” allowed in Leland’s C-1 business district. Grier’s analysis that opposed a special use permit concluded that “private clubs, meeting halls, churches and religious institutions are not allowed as permitted or special land uses in the C-1 district.”
The Planning Commission sought Grier’s legal opinion following the body’s Feb. 18 meeting, during which chairperson Lee Cory 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 in February voted 4-1 in favor of postponing their decision on Youth for Christ’s special use permit for a downtown ministry until April 15. (The March meeting was canceled due to a late winter snowstorm.) Planning Commission meetings have been held these first four months of the year at Northport High School auditorium to accommodate large and impassioned crowds.
Fishtown in crosshairs
Youth for Christ and VanSteenhouse escalated the already heated debate last month when their lawyers sent letters questioning Fishtown’s tax-exempt status. The battle playing out in this small Leelanau County town has potential implications far beyond Northern Michigan.
On March 10, Timothy White, an attorney with the Parker Harvey law firm, sent a letter on behalf of their client, VanSteenhouse—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, Micah and Kya 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. VanSteenhouse is Micah Cramer’s uncle.
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.
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.
