Early Housing Survey Results Show Hunger For Housing Reform In Leelanau

When members of the Leelanau Housing Collaborative launched a survey last month to “help local leaders understand what the community supports when it comes to attainable, year-round housing,” they weren’t sure what to expect. Now those same housing advocates are feeling emboldened, because early survey results are showing a clear appetite for zoning changes, smaller lot sizes, and other housing policy reform in Leelanau County.

“The main takeaway from the first month is that over 75 percent of our respondents recognize [housing] is a very major problem,” says Bob Johnson, who is representing the Sleeping Bear Gateways Council in the Leelanau Housing Collaborative. “The very first question on the survey says, ‘How important to you is it that people who work in essential local jobs can afford to live In the community where they work?” ‘Very important’ is the first choice, and over three-quarters of the respondents have checked that box.”

The Leelanau Housing Collaborative – which includes partners like the Leelanau Peninsula Economic Foundation, Aspire North Realtors, Peninsula Housing, Housing North, Leelanau Christian Neighbors, and Habitat for Humanity – launched the 16-question attainable housing survey in mid-July. Since then, Johnson says it has drawn more than 1,000 responses.

Early results show that 77 percent of Leelanau residents are concerned about local businesses being unable to find staff because workers can’t find housing, while 64 percent are worried about young families leaving the area because of housing challenges.

“A big thing is that 75 percent of respondents recognize that, to solve this problem, we’re going to need to have a combination of single-family, duplex, and fourplex homes – in other words, mixed community development,” Johnson says. “That is pretty much contrary to the way the county is zoned right now, so people are acknowledging that there need to be some changes.”

According to Johnson, more than 85 percent of Leelanau County “is either zoned ag or is in parks.” Much of the agricultural zoning splits lots into 3-5-acre chunks, which precludes the higher density zoning that might help make lower home prices a possibility.

“If somebody's going to buy a three-acre plot, they're not going to put a $200,000 house on it,” Johnson notes. “All that zoning is doing is encouraging more large homes and wealthy homebuyers, as opposed to what we need, which is homes that are in the $250,000 range. Based on these survey results, the community understands that, and is basically saying, ‘Where appropriate, we believe the zoning should be changed to make sure those kinds of more attainable housing projects can be built.’”

Johnson points to Larry Mawby’s Herman Road project in Suttons Bay as an example of how zoning changes can enable innovative development. Peninsula Housing, sought a brand-new type of zoning in Suttons Bay Township to build 30 homes on eight acres, including 12 duplexes and six single-family homes. If the survey results hold, Bardenhagen believes the data will be a strong tool for encouraging other townships and villages to adopt similar policies.

“When you approach government entities, you’ve got to have some backing behind you to be able to say ‘There are a lot of people that feel this way,’” Bardenhagen explains. “We have a zoning and planning committee, and once we have the full survey results, they're going to be able to go to the townships and say, ‘Here’s what we found, here’s what people said, and here’s how we’re hoping we can move toward getting some of these density changes, to allow more development to take place.’”

With a month to go in the survey – it closes on September 15 – Mawby is hoping the Leelanau Housing Collaborative can drum up some additional participation in under-represented demographics.

“Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of people of retirement age or greater that have been responding, but we’re not hearing as much from the under-50 crowd, let along under 40 or under 30,” Mawby says. “And geographically, participation has been a little lighter in the center of the county – so, Centerville, Cleveland, Kasson, and Solon townships. Right now, we’re working to get the word out again, in hopes that we can get as comprehensive a response as possible.”