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.
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