The iconic Mill on the Crystal River, which Turner Booth has restored since he won zoning approval in a public referendum vote in August 2021, aims to reopen this spring and include a 47-seat all-day cafe and fine-dining restaurant. Early this month The Mill posted a job for an Executive Chef.
“Yes” votes to approve Glen Arbor Township’s rezoning of the Brammer parcel next to the historic grist mill on the Crystal River as “recreational” overwhelmingly won a special zoning referendum today, August 3, with 342 votes in favor and 229 opposed.
Codified into laws and upheld by the courts, modern zoning ordinances have evolved to become the “laws of the land.” In Leelanau County, townships possess police power to enact and enforce zoning ordinances, while the county takes an advisory role through its planning commission.
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.
I’m ashamed of the neglect for one of Glen Arbor’s most impressive landmarks. A historic monument to the areas pioneer past that stands in quiet solitude and stark decay. The lack of concern and care for the Glen Arbor Mill now appears to only welcome vandalism and fire, rather than an opportunity to preserve the old for the new. The Glen Arbor mill, once the heart of a community, deserves better.