Youth For Christ Sues Leland Township
The Youth for Christ (YFC) debate in Leland Township has officially escalated to litigation.
On Monday, August 10, the players behind a proposal to open a youth Christian clubhouse in downtown Leland filed a federal lawsuit against the township, alleging violations of various constitutional and civil rights. The lawsuit stems from an April 15, 2026 decision by the Leland Township Planning Commission to deny a special use permit that would have allowed Leland LightHouse, a local branch of the multi-national YFC movement, to operate a clubhouse at 110 North Lake Street in Leland. Plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction that would render the planning commission decision unenforceable.
The 169-page lawsuit, which can be read in full here, lists five plaintiffs: Apollos Properties, LLC, which owns the building at 110 North Lake Street; James and Elizabeth VanSteenhouse, who own Apollos Properties; and Micah and Kya Cramer, who run Leland LightHouse. The defendants list is lengthier, including not just Leland Township as a governmental unit, but also Township Supervisor Clint Mitchell, Township Clerk Lisa Brookfield, and all members of the township’s planning commission and zoning board of appeals (ZBA).
The attorneys who filed the case are listed as Thor Hearne of the St. Louis-based True North Law Group (not to be confused with the Traverse City-based True North Legal Group) and Todd Millar of Traverse City’s Parker Harvey, PLC. A well-known litigator on the national scale, Hearne has worked cases in the past for presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, including lawsuits in Michigan that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. MLive had previously reported that Hearne was “a politically-connected friend” of the VanSteenhouses, and had “stepped in as legal counsel for free.”
The planning commission voted to deny YFC’s special use permit in April after determining the proposed use did not meet Leland’s zoning requirements. The lawsuit claims both that decision and the zoning code that allowed it represent violations of the first, fifth, and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution, Article I of the Michigan Constitution, and “various federal and Michigan civil rights laws.” The suit asks the court to declare Leland’s zoning ordinance as unconstitutional, and to “issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting Leland Township from enforcing its Zoning Ordinance and from prohibiting Youth for Christ Club, Apollos, or any person from, assembling for prayer, Bible study and fellowship at the North Lake Street property.”
Plaintiffs also ask that the township be required “to refund the fees Leland Township required the Plaintiffs to pay,” as part of the permitting process, and to “pay the Plaintiffs’ attorney fees, litigation costs, and other damages as may be established at trial or agreed to by the Parties.”
Apollos Properties had already filed an appeal with the township over the April permit decision, and the ZBA was initially slated to meet on July 30 to consider that appeal. That meeting was delayed because the township needed to appoint new members and alternates to the ZBA, and no new date has yet been scheduled.