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(Editor’s Note: OMP resident George Weber says the 50-year-old ordinance for docks and hoists has never been enforced. He urges the Township to stop enforcing it and continue the policy framework begun by former planner Jenn Cram, the Planning Commission and the Shoreline Study Group. Read on for his thoughts. -jb)
Traverse City is and always has been a boating community. The marine industry is a pillar of our local and state economies. Boating is part of our lifestyle, and it’s a foundation of many longstanding family traditions for those who have lived on the Old Mission Peninsula long enough to raise families and retire here.
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Our boating season is short, spanning only three to four months. The local demand for public and private dockage continues to far exceed the supply. The temporary seasonal use of portable docks and hoists by Great Lakes waterfront property owners is and has always been a minimally invasive means of supplementing the seasonal supply shortage of dockage.
It also substantially reduces the need for construction of additional boat launching facilities and public marina capacity in ours and other adjoining Great Lakes coastal townships. A public safety purpose is also served by minimizing daily boat hauling traffic on Peninsula streets and highways, as well as limiting added congestion in our already over-crowded public launch sites.
Peninsula Township enacted an ordinance in the early 1970’s that was intended to, among other things, limit the number of boat hoists which may be temporarily placed offshore of shared ownership waterfront property. (See Section 7.4.2 Shared Waterfront Ownership of the Peninsula Township Zoning Ordinance. -jb)
The ordinance limitations were promulgated and supported by single ownership waterfront property owners to prevent boundary infringement and to preserve the exclusivity of their single ownership waterfront properties. The ordinance arbitrarily limits the number of hoists to one per 50 feet of shared ownership frontage, regardless of the amount of frontage owned. Understandably, the Township has not enforced that ordinance since its enactment approximately 50 years ago.
As a shared waterfront property owner and boating resident of Peninsula Township for nearly 50 years, I’ve witnessed a revolving door parade of successive Township supervisors, planning administrators, and board members, most of whom brought with them their own personal views on a wide array of issues. As to the issue at hand, they’ve generally expressed varied levels of interest in regulating the use of temporary portable docks and hoists by waterfront property owners. However, most seemed to recognize that we are a boating community and there are other more pressing issues centered on land which need to be addressed.
Over those decades, the Township has been able to facilitate the resolution of differences among neighbors relating to boating matters and to resolve residents’ complaints without pursuing enforcement action under the now outdated dock and hoist ordinance. That is actually an example of continuity having been maintained from one leadership administration to the next.
Certainly, the 50-year-old ordinance should be updated to be relevant. Any update must accommodate the impact of the significant growth in the Township’s population and residential housing developments over the last 50 years, particularly in or near coastal waterfront areas.
In 2024, the Township’s director of planning (with oversite of the then Township Planning Commission chairman) completed an over year-long shoreline study, with monthly assistance and input from the Shoreline Regulation Study Group, comprised of public and private sector participants. The study included an analysis of the Township’s demographics; shoreline residential development; property owners’ use of seasonal docks and hoists; and a review of commonly encountered property owner issues and disputes related to seasonal dock and hoist use which are directed to the Township for resolution.
A collaborative effort between the public and private sectors resulted in a comprehensive policy framework for regulating seasonal dock and hoist use by shoreline property owners. In November 2024, the planning director received approval to begin drafting revised regulations for submission to the Planning Commission for review.
Unfortunately, that planning director’s resignation occurred before she was able to draft language for the new regulations. The then Planning Commission chairman announced that the Shoreline Regulation Study Group would not be reconvened. Instead, he with a few others, including the part-time planner, will move forward with draft language from the Policy Framework created by the Study Group.
My concern is the Policy Framework formalized last Fall by the planning director with the Planning Commission chairman and the Study Group may be disregarded, discounted, and/or not referenced to in the upcoming draft language to be presented to the Township Board. This piece of work involved hours upon hours of discussion, deliberations, and consensus building with many community members, Township officials and other officials. Pushing this framework aside would be disregarding the enormous time and efforts of so many that came together in agreement.
Board leadership comments at the June 10, 2025, Township Board meeting, suggests that the Board’s leadership now intends to prioritize regulatory enforcement in several areas, for the sake of enforcement in general and without considering if the age-old regulations in question are still needed or if they require revision.
In the case of regulating the use of docks and hoists by shared waterfront owners, the needed regulation changes have already been methodically identified, vetted, and proposed in detail by predecessors of the new Township leadership administration. And yet, the new Board leadership has apparently chosen to begin enforcing the provisions of a 50-year-old outdated ordinance, ahead of the recent proposed revisions, irrespective of the adverse consequences to many impacted property owners, their families and their neighborhoods.
Having lived on the Peninsula for nearly 50 years, it will be very difficult for me and many others to tell our children and grandchildren, that, after all these years, this may be our last summer of boating together from our homes on the Peninsula … because we’ve got a new group of Township regulators in office who choose to ignore the unnecessary and painful consequences of their decision to begin enforcing a 50-year-old ordinance that most residents view as overreach and no longer relevant in its current form.
The Township’s new ordinance enforcement initiative will, in this case, be directed at an area where, for all intents and purposes, no regulation has previously existed. For good reason, the existing ordinance hasn’t been enforced since it was enacted. The exercise of common courtesy amongst neighbors cannot be legislated. Penalizing a large segment of Peninsula Township’s boating population for the actions of a few is unjustified and ill advised.
Hopefully, the new Board leadership will act with informed objectivity and use foresight in adopting updated regulatory revisions that have already been painstakingly developed by the former Planning Director, working with the then Chairman of the Planning Commission and the Shoreline Regulation Study Group. Those proposed revisions reflect the well-reasoned accommodation of the significant demographic and other changes that have taken place on the Peninsula and throughout our region over the last 50 years.
Some on the Board get it, but others may need to be reminded that collaboration with constituents, consensus building, and the exercise of civility are foundational to sound governance. In my opinion, the Board should do everything in its power to fully restore credibility, objectivity, and civility to our township’s discourse and governance. Doing so may serve to reduce the current level of distrust of Peninsula Township government and limit the potential for even more unnecessary litigation which has already needlessly cost township taxpayers far too much.
– George Weber, Old Mission Peninsula Resident
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As a resident of the peninsula, I am so tired of seeing hoist and docs piled all over the beaches, and waterfront properties to be looked at all falll, winter, and spring. I consider this rich man’s blight. Truly a way to uglify the peninsula. My opinion.
I kind of like it. We are a water community after all.
Next thing you know people will object to YOUR car in the driveway instead of tucked away in a garage.
This place is getting more like a prissy sterile haven.
Let’s keep as much uniqueness as we can. Gives the place a soul.