The Sleeping Bear Gateways Council (SBGC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit providing information and assistance to stakeholders in the gateway communities in proximity to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Every person at SBGC is a volunteer and receives no compensation in any form for their dedicated services.
Over the past several weeks, a great deal of misinformation has been communicated regarding the proposed use of a portion of the Glen Lake Community Schools’ forest parcel. This, in part, caused the School Board to cancel the Sleeping Bear Gateway Council Presentation and table any discussion regarding the opportunity presented by the Michigan DNR.
For those who are interested in viewing the presentation, you can click here: Glen Lake Community Schools’ Housing Initiative Presentation
In the summer of 2023, SBGC was approached by the school district Superintendent and a board member requesting our assistance in determining if the school property (located just north of M-72 on S. Benzonia Trail Rd in Empire) could be used for affordable housing.
Amongst other efforts, we spoke with the DNR in October 2023 regarding the opportunity to utilize a portion of the property for affordable housing. The DNR responded that, without a policy change, the current policies guiding their actions would preclude the use of the property for housing. We assisted in coordinating meetings with Senator Damoose and Representative Coffia in November and December of 2023 to ask for their help in modifying Act 451 to allow attainable housing.
As a result of these combined efforts, in October of 2024, the DNR organized a meeting in which they proposed an administrative pathway utilizing a Public Use Deed and allowing affordable housing strategies as a use.
This proposed use of the property would allow the development of a high-quality, diverse housing community primarily for public employees, such as school district personnel, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and road commission employees. The concept we intended to present would establish 180 housing units in 6 phases over a period of time as demand developed, utilizing no more than 40 acres, which includes 20 acres of disturbed property for the actual housing units and 20 acres to act as a buffer between the phases. This proposal would reduce the managed forest area by 40 acres while ensuring 140 acres remain in the current forested state.
Location
- Located just north of M-72 on S Benzonia Trail, the parcel provides easy access to Empire, Glen Arbor, and the Glen Lake Community Schools (GLCS).
- Already on a BATA bus route, with the opportunity to open up an additional stop on-site.
- A portion of the 20 acres under potential consideration for development could host a new Empire Fire Station. A better-optimized location for this emergency service would lower fire insurance premiums for all Empire Township residents by a significant amount.
Site Quality
- The 180-acre site is large, allowing for clusters of housing to be strategically located within the forested site to provide high-quality community development while maintaining approximately 78% of the land as forest.
- The goal would be to provide attainable housing on high-quality rather than low-quality sites to ensure long-term community health and happiness. This parcel provides a mix of woods, rolling hills, and ready access to services, providing workers and their families with homes surrounded by a beautiful natural environment.
Availability and Cost
- The need for housing is urgent, and this opportunity for the land granted to GLCS by the State in 1941 is potentially available for attainable housing in the near term.
- There is no land the State is currently willing to give up at no cost. While there is a great deal of public land in the area, it is highly constrained, and policies are in place that prohibit no-cost dispositions.
- Purchasing land from public or private owners is cost-prohibitive if we aim to provide attainable housing for a range of workforce households, from teachers to service workers. This is a unique opportunity to possibly utilize land at no cost to the GLCS and thus provide both rental and homeownership opportunities to a diverse group of workforce families and households.
Community Land Trust
- Under the designation of a community land trust and within the DNR proposal to dedicate all or a portion of the property to attainable housing, the site provides an opportunity to lock in permanent affordability for local workers with no risk of conversion to market-rate development in the coming decades. This is a safe and secure way to provide permanent affordability while protecting and safeguarding our lands for future generations.
This is a unique opportunity to provide both rental and homeownership opportunities to a diverse group of workforce families and households.
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