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The signs are seemingly everywhere around Glen Arbor this summer: the black and white “VOTE YES! Save The Mill” up against the red white and blue “Glen Arbor Zoning Proposal VOTE NO.” Here’s what at stake. During the primary election on Tuesday, August 3, Glen Arbor Township residents will vote to either approve, or overturn, the Township Board’s decision on February 16, by a 4-1 vote, to rezone the Brammer parcel next to the historic, 1870s era Kelderhouse-Brammer grist mill on the Crystal River from “residential” to “recreational.”

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.

Full coverage of the Crystal River gristmill and the Brammer family that owned it, Turner Booth and his bid to revive the mill, the Township Board’s effort to rezone the neighboring Brammer parcel from “residential” to “recreational” and the community’s response, in the run-up to Glen Arbor Township’s August 3, 2021, zoning referendum.

The historic, 1870s era Kelderhouse-Brammer grist mill on the Crystal River is a step closer to being reborn—potentially next summer—as a museum, a café, and a community gathering space. Turner Booth, the ambitious entrepreneur who acquired the mill from The Homestead Resort two years ago, secured a site plan approval from the Glen Arbor Planning Commission on November 5.

Turner Booth, a former University of Michigan football player who left the New York City legal grind to follow his Glen Arbor dreams, is now the proud owner of the Kelderhouse-Brammer mill on the Crystal River.