A trio of cultural institutions in Leland want to formalize their connections to one another with a new zoning amendment, and the proposal is scheduled to get a public hearing in front of the Leland Township Planning Commission this week. Leaders from the Old Art Building, the Leland Township Public Library, and the Leelanau Historical Society & Museum say the amendment would help drive collaboration and preservation of their properties while also removing red tape around ongoing operations. If adopted, the zoning change could open doors for everything from modernized signage for the campus to a brand-new riverwalk.

The Old Art Building and the library both occupy contiguous parcels near the heart of downtown Leland on land zoned R-2 residential. Leelanau Historical Society, meanwhile, is a tenant on the library’s property. The proposed zoning amendment would not dispense with the R-2 zoning, but instead create a new “cultural district overlay” with its own specific set of rules. According to documents submitted to the township, the primary goal is “to eliminate nonconformities at existing facilities and provide for the future expansion of the organizations’ existing uses to further serve the cultural and educational needs of the community.”

“We are all what’s considered ‘legal non-conforming uses’ right now,” explains Kim Kelderhouse, executive director of the Historical Society. “And while none of us are being told we can't do what we're currently doing, seeking this overlay district is just a matter of growth. We're all growing and changing. The library is putting an addition on, and the Old Art Building recently acquired a new property that they would like to adapt into additional classroom space. It's an appropriate time to make ourselves conforming uses, so that we can all grow and shift and evolve together.”

“We’re trying to codify our uses with zoning,” adds Mark Morton, library director.

According to Old Art Building Executive Director Sarah Mills, being a nonconforming use in a residential district poses challenges. Because all three nonprofits are already exceptions to township zoning, there's no real rulebook for what they can and can’t do. A zoning overlay district would create a rulebook, and eliminate inefficiencies in the process, Mill says.

“Right now, we’d have to through the Zoning Board of Appeals or seek a special use permit for things as simple as signage and sculpture,” Mills tells The Ticker. “We want to be able to appropriately and thoughtfully do those kinds things and not have a huge process any time a small modification like that might need to be made. Or, alternatively, if the footprint of one of our buildings needs to change, either because of damage to a building or expanding a building, we want to make sure there's a very clear process for what's allowed and how that can happen, in terms of setbacks and building heights and all of those things. We’re not asking for anything extreme in those ways, but we want to clarify what is allowed.”

Mills says the leaders from the Old Art Building, the library, and the Historical Society have been talking for years about “unifying the organizations through an overlay district.” Last year, when the Old Art Building acquired a 1.2-acre property not far from its location – and just across the road from both the library and the museum – it prompted some fresh soul-searching about the future. The new land will ultimately allow the Old Art Building to more double the size of its campus and expand programming accordingly.

Also last year, the Leland Township Board voted to transfer the deed to the library property to the library itself. The township had owned the land dating back to the 1970s, and actually governed the library until 2016, when township voters supported a ballot initiative to establish the library as an independent entity, with its own board and dedicated millage. That independence, combined with the library’s wish to undertake a project to replace the property’s seawall, ultimately prompted the deed transfer last September.

Thanks to those shifts, Mills says “now felt like the right time” to make a concerted, united push toward establishing an overlay district. She's confident that the community will support the endeavor.

“I think people love looking at this corner as a cultural hub, and that’s the idea that’s being presented with this cultural overlay district,” Mills says. “I actually think a lot of locals already think of us that way. We hear, a lot of times, people saying, ‘Oh, this event or that program is on the cultural campus.’ And we internally have called it that for years, but that’s not really a thing yet. Unifying our three organizations through a district would identify and respect the property and its importance as a community feature, and help guarantee the preservation of this part of the town as a cultural resource.”

Mills, Kelderhouse, and Morton are hopeful this week’s public hearing will culminate with the Leland Township Planning Commission recommending the adoption of the overlay district to the township board. From there, the idea would still need the OK of township trustees and county planning commissioners before it could go into effect. If/when the zoning amendment does go through, though, Kelderhouse says the first priority would be “updating all the signage on our campus and across the district to improve wayfinding.”

Longer-term, one of the top items on the wish list is a riverwalk along the organizations’ shared frontage on the Leland River. Morton says the library “tried years ago to get a story walk” along the river, but that “the township owned the property at that time, and they turned it down. Well, with this zoning overlay, since we own the property, we could do that.” For her part, Kelderhouse estimates that the three nonprofits now have “over 500 feet of river frontage,” and says a riverwalk would be the perfect way to make it “accessible to people” while still preserving the natural beauty and wildlife habitats of those spaces.

The public hearing for the overlay district is scheduled for 5pm on Wednesday, August 6 and will be held at in the library’s Munnecke Room. A full copy of the zoning amendment application can be reviewed here.