The Northport Public School gym filled with community members last week to participate in a joint village/ Leelanau Township informational meeting focused on housing needs and potential solutions.
The two hour-long meeting April 9 followed a workshop format, where those from the Leelanau Township Board, Northport Village Council, township and village planning commissions, and the public had the chance to listen to guest speakers and ask questions. The panel discussion consisted of representatives from local nonprofit developers like Peninsula Housing, Homestretch, Habitat for Humanity, and New Community Vision (NCV).
Leelanau Township Supervisor Barbara Conley and Northport Village Council President Chris McCann both started off the meeting with introductions, noting that the need for housing was not just a Northport community issue, but a country-wide one that goes beyond Leelanau County.
“It’s going to take time to get some of these answers, but I think this is a great first step as a community in looking at what those questions are and how we can address them,” McCann said.
Housing North Executive Director Yarrow Brown was the meeting facilitator, and presented on what her organization has done in the region and some of the housing tool options and resources available. Brown said she did a fair share analysis of the housing need for the village and township based on the population and according to their estimates, about 26 units are needed in the village and 117 in the township. Based on four surveys conducted by Housing North recently, Brown said overall, people rec- ognize the need for housing and the majority of the respondents wanted to see solutions and activity on meeting those housing needs.
Demographic data of Leelanau Township from 2023 presented from the Leelanau Township Community Foundation (LTCF) showed that there were 900 yearround households, with 14% of those households under 18, 39% being adults under 60, and 47% for those 60 and older. It also showed that the county population grows by 126% in the summer.
“The numbers have just grown and the problem has just gotten worse in those two years,” said Kristi Fischer, LTCF chair. “I think a lot of what needs to happen is things like this — we’re educating, we’re bringing the community along. The most amazing part of that survey is we learned that pretty much, I think 88% of the people that took the survey realized that we do need housing of all kinds.”
Brown said ideally, when they talk about affordability, they don’t want anyone to be paying more than 30% of their income on housing. On average in the region, she said people are paying 50% or more to live and drive to their work, so that puts people in a place where they are cost burdened. According to Brown, Leelanau County has the highest median home price and highest area median income of all 10 counties she works with.
“We’re really seeing an imbalance between what people make and what people are able to afford,” Brown said. “In order for somebody right now to afford the average in-tact home that’s on the market, I believe the last time I looked it was about $700,000… And right now, the median rent in Leelanau County is about $2,500.”
Larry Mawby, president of the local nonprofit Peninsula Housing, said his organization functions as a community land trust, explaining how they’ve been able to acquire two existing homes so far, rehabbed them, and resold them, retaining the land in the process, and giving the homeowner an 89 year lease that restricts their ability to resell the home. Homeowners through the program can only resell the home to a qualified buyer, and the nonprofi t uses a pricing formula built into the lease so that they know the home will remain affordable.
Mawby also mentioned how they have acquired 11 acres in Suttons Bay Township and are in the process of finishing up the site planning, which will consist of 40 housing units and will be a mix of rentals, apartment rentals, potential duplexes and single family homes. The nonprofit intends to work with Homestretch on the project in the near future, and is targeted at families making as little as 60% of the area median income, but certainly 80-100% of the area median income. In addition to the properties in the Suttons Bay area, the group has been working with NCV, which recently closed on the Timber Shores property. The Grand Traverse Band acquired most of that property, but NCV received a 24-acre parcel of the land to pursue building affordable housing at the site.
••• Jon Stimson, executive director of Homestretch Nonprofit Housing, talked about his organization’s mission to build affordable housing and how they offer both rental and home ownership programs. He mentioned, among many other talking points, their 12-unit development in the city of Frankfort and how the land was donated to the nonprofit to build affordable housing. He said renting apartments is the lowest barrier to getting into housing, but people just need to have the right income, adding that housing site designs like the one in Frankfort is something that Northport could achieve in the future as well.
After the panel discussion wrapped up, people participated in an interactive group activity that allowed for comment on the kinds of housing that residents align with in the village and other potential locations identifi ed for building. Participants used sticky notes with their preferences and posted them on the 3D renderings/boards presented at the workshop depicting different housing examples. Many preferred most of the housing options including everything from attached townhomes and duplexes, to cottage courts (for a smaller single family), accessory dwelling units, and apartments.
Northport resident Eric Potes, who has recently been outspoken in the community against using Buster Dame park as a site for affordable housing, was one of many to speak during public comment. He said the community needs affordable housing, but encouraged officials to look through all other township and private property options before taking action to build at Buster Dame.
“I am so much for this and I am so encouraged by this and I hope we can make something happen,” Potes said. “If as a community, we all look through all of our properties… and we come up and we’re exhausted with no options, then yes, let’s take our public park to make it housing, but until we’ve done that, let’s pump the brakes on Buster Dame.”
New Bohemian Cafe owner Kevin Murphy also spoke about the need for housing, explaining how the need is not so much bringing people into the community, but keeping people from leaving because they cannot afford to live in Leelanau and the lack of affordable housing.
“I think for those of us that run businesses and want to see the school and other institutions here flourish, keeping people and creating a place for people, even people who’ve grown up here — Kristi (Fischer) said herself, through the virtue of one of these programs, she and her sister own houses in this community,” Murphy said. “So the idea that there would be a Kristi or a Kelly Fischer who grew up here, had a family business, and loved it here and had to vamoose because they couldn’t afford to live here — I think we all have a responsibility to do what we can to try and create some of those opportunities.”
Those that attended the joint village/township meeting were able to participate in a hands-on activity where people could comment and submit their ideas on potential housing options and solutions for the area. Enterprise photo by Meakalia Previch-Liu
