Rachel Watson
January 8, 2025
After a two-year effort, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and a partnering nonprofit last month acquired more than 200 acres of ancestral Grand Traverse Bay coastline for preservation and attainable housing.
Updated: Jan 19
January 2, 2025
NORTHPORT — Land once eyed for a reboot of a long-shuttered campground near Northport is going back to its once and rightful owner.
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians closed on the former Timber Shores campground on Dec. 24, thanks to a partnership with nonprofit New Community Vision and the donors who chipped in $3.5 million, according to a release from New Community Vision.
That money matched a grant the tribe successfully sought for $6.5 million from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Coming up with $10 million to buy 214 acres in total in just over two years seemed impossible when New Community Vision first floated the idea, nonprofit President John Sentell said in the release.
Sentell credited both the tribal government and the various donors for making it a reality. “Every single person who became involved — either as a donor, an ambassador or a supporter — recognized this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a treasured lakeside preserve that would benefit the whole of Leelanau County as it continues to grow,” Sentell said in the release. “It’s a wonderful outcome bringing our communities together through nature.”
Plans are for the tribe to keep and manage 189 acres of the land as a nature preserve, which belonged to the tribe until it was illegally transferred in 1855.
Prior to that, it was part of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ ancestral lands for more than 300 years. Tribal representatives weren’t available for comment Thursday.
Meanwhile, New Community Vision plans to transfer a 25-acre parcel near the corner of M-22 and East Camp Haven Road to Peninsula Housing as the future site of below-market-rate housing, nonprofit board Secretary Kate Bulkley said.
The property has the least conservation value compared to lowlands along Grand Traverse Bay where the campground once stood.
Just what that housing will look like depends on feedback from neighbors and other community members, including the tribe, Bulkley said. Urban Design Associates, a Pittsburgh-based firm with a Suttons Bay satellite office, will gather that input starting in the coming months.
New Community Vision also will ask subject matter experts, such as Housing North, what kind of need the Northport area has for housing selling or renting below the market average, Bulkley said.
Peninsula Housing founder and board member Larry Mawby said there are some limitations to what can be built on the property, given it lacks municipal sewer and water. Otherwise, the idea is to start with a blank slate.
“We want to have these really important and sometimes contentious, but hopefully instructive, discussions with people about what would you like to see here,” he said.
The overall property was the center of considerable contention when a developer proposed a 355-site RV campground with mini cabins, putt-putt golf and staff housing, submitting the plans in early 2020. That prompted backlash from neighbors and other nearby property owners over the impact to wetlands on the property, Grand Traverse Bay water quality and more — arguments the developer dismissed as exaggerated or false.
Voters defeated a referendum in 2022 that would have reversed Leelanau Township’s recently adopted stricter setback requirements that would have impacted the development.
That outcome prompted New Community Vision members to start asking what else could be done with the land, Bulkley said. After approaching the owner and negotiating a purchase agreement, the nonprofit started looking at its options for what the land could be and who could help buy it.
One generous donor to the “lightning campaign” was Rotary Charities of Traverse City, Bulkley said. In December, Rotary Charities announced that it gave $50,000 to the nonprofit.
Sakura Takano, Rotary Charities’ CEO, said the philanthropic organization also gave New Community Vision a seed grant to help develop its overall plan about a year ago.
Their vision was ambitious, but partnering with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and successfully getting the NOAA grant gave the project legs.
Rotary Charities also helped to link the nonprofit with other potential funders, which, in turn, helped to raise the rest of the money in a short time.
“It’s incredible, and I think the story that they shared was very compelling, and even though it’s a fairly small group of people, they really did a lot of work on the community engagement front out of the gates,” Takano said. “And that’s a really important element for us as we consider different projects.”
Bulkley said the project wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of the greater Leelanau community.
“We’re absolutely thrilled that this has happened,” she said, adding it’s been a “labor of love” for the nonprofit’s small, all-volunteer board.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct a reporter's error misspelling New Community Vision President John Sentell's last name. Jan. 3, 2025
NCV thanks the Record Eagle for allowing us to share this article with you in full.
By Meakalia Previch-liu on Tuesday, December 31, 2024
After a two-year long fundraising effort to preserve the former Timber Shores campground in Leelanau Township, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) and local nonprofit New Community Vision (NCV) have officially closed on the acquisition of the property.
According to the warranty deeds signed on Dec. 20, the GTB Land Trust will receive approximately 188-plus acres of land, including 1,800 feet of shoreline, while NCV will receive a corner parcel of 25 acres along M-22 to be used for attainable housing. With the acquisition now complete and $10 million purchase price met, the 214-acre lakeshore property will be permanently protected and preserved for years to come. Development plans for the campground and sewer over the years have been contentious among county residents and local government officials, resulting in application delays and zoning changes along the way. However, since an exclusive purchase option was negotiated in early 2023, NCV has been actively working not only to raise enough money, but to build awareness about the land’s vulnerable ecosystems and the history with the tribe that dates back hundreds of years.
Following an agreement to partner with NCV, the GTB applied for a federal grant in November 2023 from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In July, it was announced that the tribe was allotted $6.5 million from the NOAA grant specifically for the property acquisition. The NOAA grant award was dependent upon NCV raising $3.5 million in matching funds from private donors and foundations “to achieve the property purchase price of $10 million and formally exercise NCV’s purchase option in November 2024.” The funds will allow GTB to preserve and restore coastal habitat on “Mashkiigaki,” a parcel of sacred ancestral land along West Grand Traverse Bay.
Tribal attorney Bill Rastetter said the preservation would not have occurred if GTB’s Natural Resource Department had not “stepped up” to apply for the NOAA grant when it became clear by August 2023 that NCV was “woefully short (barely 10%) of its $10 million fundraising goal.”
Although many know of the land as being where Timber Shores once stood, it is historically, culturally and spiritually significant to the GTB. The property known as Mashkiigaki in Anishinaabemowin means “the place of the medicines,” and is located between two historic Anishaabeg villages: Wakazoo (Northport) and Ahgosatown. The land represents the importance of the wetlands as a traditionally significant location for hunting, fishing, gathering, and collecting medicines.
According to the GTB, the U.S. government brought a treaty to the tribe in 1855 asking that the remaining third of what is now Michigan be ceded to the U.S. government. When this treaty was signed, a reserve was established that included most of Leelanau County, including the land of where the Timber Shores property now is, and a large tract of land in Antrim County. The treaty was broken many times following this by the federal government, with much of the land being illegally taken from the tribe and its people.
While the 188-plus acres does not equate to what the tribe lost, it is a significant gain for the GTB and its future as stewards of the land. The successful property acquisition gives the GTB the opportunity to regain land once removed from their ownership and care, and will remain open to the public for education and/or recreational use in designated areas. Public access to the property will be determined through “tribal-led visioning sessions, ensuring that all approved activities are determined and supported by the ancestral stewards of the land, the GTB community…” GTB also has preliminary plans outlined in the federal NOAA grant award to remove debris from the former campground and marina, restore cobble substrate along the shoreline, and revegetate parts of the property with native plants.
“Working in concert with NCV and extensive involvement from the community, GTB will protect this rare parcel and its unique inventory of natural features that are critical to productive and sustainable fisheries,” reads a statement from the NOAA grant, Restoration, Engagement, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge: An Indigenous Approach to Comprehensive Resiliency (RETEK). “Through RETEK, GTB citizens and the non-Native community will come together to preserve land, restore ecosystems, utilize TEK, and prepare for climate hazards to come…” A separate 25 acres of land on the northwest side of the property will be owned by NCV to pursue attainable housing in Leelanau. Along with community input, this portion of land will be developed and designed with help from the local nonprofi t community land trust, Peninsula Housing.
“When NCV approached the previous owner of Timber Shores, Fred Gordon, over two years ago with a vision to buy the property, raising $10 million in a short amount of time to acquire and preserve this signature parcel along with a portion for much-needed affordable housing, seemed like an insurmountable goal to some people,” said NCV President John Sentell in a recent press release. “But with the key help of GTB and the many generous and forward- thinking donors in the Leelanau community who embraced a new vision of the future of the landscape, the job is now done…. NCV acknowledges with deep gratitude our partnership with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the transformational NOAA grant that returns this property to Tribal stewardship, forever changing the trajectory of the former Timber Shores property.”
See article here: https://www.leelanaunews.com/news/gtb-ncv-reach-end-year-fundraising-goal?check_logged_in=1
NCV thanks the Leelanau Enterprise and Meakalia Previch-Liu for allowing us to share this coverage with you.