Sheriff wants to groom beach on his bayside property, but he says state and federal laws regarding the practice have left him . . . confused and irritated.

COUNTY SHERIFF Mike Oltersdorf would like to groom the
beach at his Lee Point home, but says he’s “confused” by
beach grooming rules “that seemed to have changed a
few times over the past couple of years.”

If anybody in Leelanau County has a deep and abiding interest in complying with the law, it's Sheriff Mike Oltersdorf.

But the sheriff says he’s confused and irritated about the way state and federal laws regarding “beach grooming” are being interpreted and enforced by bureaucrats at various levels of government.

Oltersdorf owns a piece of West Grand Traverse Bay beachfront property on Lee Point Road in Bingham Township that he’d like to groom. He says his neighbors have been grooming their beaches on Lee Point for decades, but that regulations imposed by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are making it difficult for him to gain permission to groom his own beach.

The same Lee Point neighborhood has been the topic of controversy over the past year in connection with beach grooming. In fact, former Bingham Township supervisor Robert W. Foster – himself a Lee Point area resident – was recalled from office by Bingham voters earlier this year in part because of the role he played in authorizing his neighbors to participate in an unlawful beach grooming effort at the township’s Hendryx Park.

The Lee Point area is also well populated by members of “Save Our Shoreline,” a statewide property rights group opposed to what many of them term “government over-regulation” of privately owned shoreline property. “SOS” lawn signs tend to spring up in droves along Lee Point Road depending on what changes in beach grooming regulations are being proposed or what cases related to riparian rights are being considered by courts.

Both Oltersdorf and Leelanau County drain commissioner Steve Christensen agree that what the sheriff wants to do on his property is pretty straightforward.

“He’s got a sandy site with almost no vegetation that he wants to groom and that’s that,” said Christensen, who heads the county’s soil erosion control program. Christensen has issued Oltersdorf a permit to groom his beach above the ordinary high water mark.

Requirements for permission from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality are not as straightforward, however.

“The Michigan DEQ tells me that a permit is not required for the work I want to do because this area has been historically groomed and is free from vegetation,” Oltersdorf said. “But, sometimes, it depends who you ask in the DEQ, and when. The rules seemed to have changed a few times over the past couple of years – and it’s confusing.”

The sheriff said he’s convinced, however, that he has permission from two of three governmental entities that claim jurisdiction in the matter.

Earlier this month, in response to Oltersdorf’s application for a permit to groom his beach, the Army Corps of Engineers office issued a public notice on the sheriff’s proposal. The public has until Sept. 7 to request that a formal public hearing be held before the Corps considers issuing Oltersdorf a permit.

The sheriff said he believes that even the title of the Army Corps’ public notice is inaccurate. It refers to “proposed mechanized bottomland grooming in Lake Michigan.”

“It’s not in Lake Michigan at all,” the Sheriff said. “It’s on the beach.”

The notice states that the purpose of the grooming project is “to maintain a sand beach for recreation.”

But Oltersdorf objected to that statement as well.

“The primary purpose of this grooming is to preserve the natural state of the beach and involves picking up litter like cans, bottles, debris, dead fish, driftwood and other discarded items. The grooming also addresses the health hazard of feces deposited by Canada Geese,” he said.

Oltersdorf added that algae and scum often wash up on the beach – debris he’d like to rake up and carry away by hand from the lake. The sheriff also disputed figures the Army Corps uses in its notice stating how much “sand” will be “discharged … into the waters” of Lake Michigan.

Army Corps of Engineers spokesman April Champion, based in Detroit, acknowledged that the process of applying for a beach grooming permit may be “kind of confusing because it involves different agencies.” But, she added, she and others in the Corps do whatever they can to answer questions from applicants and the public.

Champion explained that the work Oltersdorf wants to do is technically considered to be within the “waters” of the Great Lakes because the land is below the Ordinary High Water Mark – even though that area is currently high and dry due to low water levels in Lake Michigan.

“We do use some technical definitions that people may not understand immediately,” Champion said, “but I have explained this to Sheriff Oltersdorf, and I believe he understands what our notice really means.”

Meanwhile, the Bingham Township Recreation Committee has temporarily given up on efforts to groom the beach at Hendryx Park.

Committee chairman Robert Walton explained that a permit application Foster submitted before he was recalled by voters has expired, and no action has been taken to apply again.

“We would like to complete work on a Master Plan for our parks and produce a comprehensive site plan for the kind of work we’d like to do at Hendryx Park before we even consider applying for permits to groom the beach there,” Walton said.