Northport community protects its public beach
By Danielle Percy
Sun contributor
Northport is one of Leelanau County’s hidden gems, tucked away at the tip of the pinky finger and on the way to nowhere except perhaps the Grand Traverse Lighthouse in Leelanau State Park. To arrive in Northport is a purposeful act—it is an island, as locals put it, with the convenience of a road going in and out. It is the island of misfit toys, full of eccentrics, innovators, sailors, farmers, and families. Plenty of its residents are related somehow, and plenty others are transplants, bringing with them a wealth of experiences and wisdom from their lives elsewhere and abroad.
Josh Rutila, a born-and-raised life-long Northport resident, was in the right place at the right time on July 4. His wife Ellie and young daughter, along with two visiting friends, had gone down to the beach near their home at the end of Seventh Street in Northport to cool off for a few minutes, when his wife was approached by a young man from a neighboring seasonal property, who told them that this was not a public beach and they couldn’t be there. Confused, Ellie called Josh to come help.
“I come down a couple minutes later to find the young man marching towards the beach and my family. I intervened and he went ballistic… screaming profanities that we were trespassing.”
Shortly thereafter, the homeowner, Randall Koch, came out and continued the verbal assault on the young family. In the videos of the incident shared by Rutila on the private Facebook group ‘Northport Neighbors’, their two-year-old daughter can be heard crying as the older man screams from his porch at the young family while Rutila calmly records him.
Events like this have occurred repeatedly at this particular access site for generations, leaving locals intimidated and confused. But this time, Rutila was not going to let their aggression stand in the way of his family’s enjoyment of what he knows to be public land. He, unlike many before him over the years, managed to record their behavior, and made sure to publicize it.
“I wish we had gotten [the] camera out sooner,” said Rutila. “They continued their verbal assault for some time, and when I questioned his theory about ‘owning’ that [right of way], the younger one replied with ‘I’ve earned this, I’ve worked hard for this’.”
That behavior, as well as that mindset, has left locals angry, incredulous, and inspired. How does one “trespass” on public property? How is it that one “earns” the right to use a beach, but those who have lived here all their lives don’t deserve that right? Are residents of coastal communities only allowed passage to their beaches if they have enough monetary wealth?
The involved property is one that many locals are familiar with—particularly after a recent renovation which increased the home’s size, leaving neighbors nervous for increased chances of hostility.
Brenda Spitler-McWaters owns a home just up the street from the Seventh Street beach access. She and her family have all used the beach as their local watering hole for generations, and she says they have endured the adjacent property owner’s hostility many times throughout the years.
“Why they built this oversized house for the lot size after decades of trying to run people off the public access is beyond me,” Spitler-McWaters says. “If they didn’t relish the fight they would have built somewhere else.”
In the wake of seeing the unsettling videos, the Northport community instantly rallied around the Rutilas, vocalizing their support for the young family and commiserating on their own experiences with the Koch family. Residents wanted a solution, and fast, so that no one had to endure such bullying the next time they wanted to cool off at their favorite beach. This particular beach is one that locals have frequented for many years due to its solitude away from the busier beaches downtown.
Business owners vowed not to serve the family in their establishments, and community members began raising funds to install picnic tables at the beach access. Neighbors flocked to the beach, cheerfully greeting each other with a special type of joy and comradery not felt in a while. The Northport Village Council voted 7-0 on July 8 to rewrite existing signage to clarify that the beach, as well as all village road end beaches, is intended for public use and that gatherings such as picnics are very much allowed (previous signage stated otherwise, though the ordinances they referred to were decidedly ambiguous and not enforceable).
Other units of government in Leelanau County have taken steps to protect the rights of citizens to access popular public beaches. In June, following a show of force by Leland residents who packed a meeting at Leland Public School, the Leelanau County Road Commission and Leland Township Board backed out of a legal settlement with private landowners who sought to curtail public access to Lake Michigan beaches on county road ends that neighbor their property.
Everyone worked together to ensure that Northport remains welcoming, supportive, and accommodating to all, not just the wealthy. The community’s message was clear: Northport will not tolerate vitriolic and exclusionary behavior, and those that choose to create barricades between themselves and the rest of the village may want to try living somewhere else instead. Northport is welcoming to all.
How does Rutila feel about all of the community involvement in response to his run-in with the Koch family?
“My biggest takeaway was the overwhelming amount of support from the community, especially those who have been mistreated down there and didn’t have a video to expose them,” he says. “This was obviously something people of all ages feel strongly about, and this turned out to be the catalyst that kind of brought us all together on one front to make it stop.”
While the Northport community has much that brings them together, this was something special, something more, something greater. Community members who seldom spoke to one another now go out of their way to offer a kind word or lend a helping hand. The aggression and anger from those who choose to not involve themselves in the community they work so hard to keep away has been met with nothing but celebration and renewed kinship among its residents.
“I just hope that people enjoy the beach without antagonizing the neighbors,” says Rutila. “They are jerks, but I fear some people will retaliate in a way that makes us lose ground that we just gained.”
Conflicts between would-be beach-goers and nearby homeowners are nothing new along Leelanau’s shoreline. While legal battles rage on (Reynolds St. in Leland, for example), the Northport community has sought to nip this one in the bud. Could it be because the community wants to avoid the same litigation facing other communities? Or could it be that this beach is special and residents have simply had enough and want access to the beaches they frequented growing up? Perhaps all of the above; many members of the community have been on the receiving end of the Koch family’s aggressive assertions of ownership over what is public land, and enough is enough. For the first time their behavior toward adults and children alike at the end of Seventh street became fully public thanks to social media. The community felt validated; they were now all in this together.
The Kochs, much to everyone’s dismay but to no one’s surprise, have hired a lawyer to fight for their desire for more privacy, seemingly in anticipation of the community’s increased usage of the beach access. The fight over who is in the right continues on, but residents agree they don’t want any more conflict.
And no one more than Rutila himself.
“I want it to be over, the beach left that way it is now, for everyone to enjoy without harassment going either direction. A war with them won’t be beneficial.”
Sun editor Jacob Wheeler contributed to this story.
