The Leelanau Township planning commission (PC) is one step closer to making a decision on farmstay campsites in the agriculture zoning district. Planning commission members met for their regular meeting last Thursday to discuss the current draft amendment presented and originally reviewed on June 27. After going through the draft and adding changes to it, the PC agreed to set a public hearing for September 12 to present the amendment once again with its revisions.
“After that (the public hearing), the process will have it go to county planning and then back to the township board for adoption… It’s a special-use now, so it needed another public hearing,” said Leelanau Township Zoning Administrator Steve Patmore. “I think with the stars being aligned, if you guys (the PC board) were in a position to approve it on September 12, it could go to county planning that month… then it could be back to the township board in October.”
Phil Hallstedt of Hallstedt Homestead Cherries in Northport first introduced the application to board members at the April 25 township planning commission meeting, which was then followed by a public hearing regarding the proposed farmstays text amendment on May 23. Hallstedt’s original application addressed a text amendment that would provide working farms with 40 or more acres to have the option to host up to four farm stays (campsites) under a special use permit, with a goal to ultimately help farmers generate additional on-farm income.
