The Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) should have a clear path now to proceed with converting the historic Millside building in Suttons Bay into the newest piece of its growing campus. The project, which ISEA announced in June alongside the public launch of an $11.2 million capital campaign, hit a snag late last year when the Village of Suttons Bay planning commission voted to withhold a conditional use permit for ISEA’s Millside plans.

As the Leelanau Ticker reported in November, the point of contention between ISEA and the Suttons Bay planning commission was the question of how to interpret Dame Street, an east-west road that runs between the current ISEA headquarters and the Millside building, for zoning purposes. The planning commission argued that the street was a village road, and should therefore be subject to village setback rules. Specifically, Suttons Bay has minimum setback requirements designed to keep businesses close to the road.

ISEA argued that those restrictions made sense in downtown Suttons Bay, to keep businesses easily accessible from St. Joseph Street, but not for an off-the-main-drag spot like Millside. The organization also held that Dame Street was more of an alley or a driveway than a main village road. The impasse led ISEA to take the matter before the village’s zoning board of appeals (ZBA), with that meeting occurring this week.

According to ISEA Executive Director Fred Sitkins, the outcome of the ZBA meeting was a “best-case scenario for ISEA.”

“The ZBA approved our first request for an interpretation regarding Dame Street, which triggered the setback requirements that the village flagged in their review,” told The Ticker in an email. “Fortunately, the ZBA agreed with ISEA in that Dame Street should be classified as an alley and therefore the setback requirements are not applicable. Because of this, they did not have to entertain our second request for a variance, which we submitted in case they didn't make this interpretation.”

“While we are disappointed that we had to take these measures, we are overwhelmed with the support we've felt from the community at large as this project has gone through these additional steps,” Sitkins added. “ISEA calls Suttons Bay home because of the way that this community has wrapped its arms around us and supported our work over the last 36 years. We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to ‘grow up’ in Suttons Bay and are now extremely excited that we have an opportunity to plant our deepest roots yet as we build a campus that the entire community can be proud of.”

ISEA will soon commence renovation work at Millside to convert the historic building into a new educational space and boat maintenance workshop (rendering pictured).