First Details Emerge On Peninsula Housing's New 10-Acre Housing Development In Suttons Bay

It’s been a busy 12 months for Peninsula Housing, the community land trust and nonprofit established in 2021 to help address Leelanau County’s housing troubles. Last fall, the organization landed a $50,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) “to advance housing, infrastructure, and economic development in rural Michigan communities.” Earlier this year, the organization found its first homebuyers, selling a house in Northport to a pair of local natives. Now Founder Larry Mawby says Peninsula Housing is onto its most ambitious undertaking yet: a 10-acre development in Suttons Bay that could bring dozens of new housing units to the county.

Speaking to the Leelanau Ticker last September, Mawby shared that Peninsula Housing had acquired land “really close to the Village of Suttons Bay,” at the intersection of Herman and South Pine View roads. At the time, Mawby was still waiting to hear about the MDARD grant, which he said would enable Peninsula Housing “to work with a planning development firm, and to engage the community – including the residents and the elected and appointed officials in both the Village of Suttons Bay and Suttons Bay Township – to get feedback on what people think we should do” with a 10-acre parcel.

That process took place this spring, starting with “a couple months of Zoom focus groups with employers, township and village officials, planners, and other interested groups,” and continuing with a recent three-day design workshop at the fire station in Suttons Bay. Facilitated by Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh that Peninsula Housing hired to coordinate the visioning process, that event resulted in “two potential plans” for how to use the land.

One plan would build 75 rental units on the 10-acre parcel, while the other would offer a mix of 40 rental units and 15 single-family homes for sale. Mawby says public feedback was “pretty evenly split” on whether the property should lean toward rental units or ownership opportunities, though both are necessary: Per a 2023 Housing Needs Assessment from Housing North, Leelanau needs 382 rental units and 1,953 for-sale units to keep up with housing needs over the next five years.

Which option Peninsula Housing goes for – or whether the organization has to look at alternate concepts – will depend largely on funding. Mawby says the plan is to apply through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) for dollars from the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC). That program offers tax credits “for the acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of rental housing targeted to lower-income households.”

If Peninsula Housing can secure tax credits, the Suttons Bay development would likely skew toward rentals. If not, single-family homes are more likely. The elephant in the room on that front, Mawby shares, has to do with infrastructure.

“This project is going to have to be built with on-site septic and water,” Mawby tells the Leelanau Ticker. “We’re going that direction because the Village of Suttons Bay doesn't really have the capacity to extend service outside the village. But we’d need a waiver from MSDHA to get LIHTC dollars, because their program basically says, ‘You've got to have public sewer and water, or we don’t do it.’”

“The community of potential buyers and renters would like to see a mix of housing available, and that's favored by us as well,” Mawby adds. “But unfortunately, the reality of the work we’re doing is that funding rules the day. We can design; we can think about what we’d like; everybody in the community can weigh in on what they'd like. But in the end, it comes down to: What can we afford to build?”

Armed with two potential buildout concepts, Mawby says the next step is “interviewing potential development partners” that can help Peninsula Housing navigate the “immensely complicated and very competitive” application process with MSHDA.

“There are two application rounds each year, and the next one is November,” Mawby says of the MSDHA/LIHTC process. “We cannot be ready to apply in November, so the one that we’re looking at is in April 2025, and we have to be moving expeditiously to achieve that deadline. To be ready to go, we have to have what are called ‘entitlements.’ That means we have to have all the land, we have to have the zoning approvals, and so forth. So, we're working with the township on all of that stuff right now, to make sure we have what we need to proceed.”

The requirement for township sign-off before Peninsula Housing takes its application to MSHDA means that local residents can expect to see a more formal plan for the Suttons Bay property sooner rather than later.

“This is the phase of the project where a lot is going on under the hood, but we’ll emerge sometime this fall with a proposal for the land use permit with the township,” Mawby says. “Our hope is that it will look really similar to what came out of our public planning process.”

Pictured: A conceptual site plan for the Suttons Bay property, showing the potential for 75 rental apartments in duplexes and small townhouse buildings.