It took more than three years, but farm stay campgrounds could finally become an allowed use in Leelanau Township next month.

Last week, the Leelanau County Planning Commission unanimously signed off on a new text amendment to Leelanau Township’s zoning ordinance to enable farms to offer limited overnight stay opportunities on their property. Barring an issue with the final approval, on the docket for a meeting of the Leelanau Township Board of Trustees next week, farm stays will be here to stay.

Philip Hallstedt, who co-owns Northport’s Hallstedt-Homestead Cherries along with his wife Sarah, has been pushing for farm stays in Leelanau Township since at least 2021. Speaking to the Leelanau Ticker that year, he argued that allowing farms to offer even “a limited number of campsites would enable families to see the workings of a farm, and it would be an important stable source of revenue [for farms] to offset the uncertainty of crop production.”

Ever since, Hallstedt has been working with Leelanau Township’s planning commission to put together a draft amendment for farm stays, which garnered support from other local farmers and community members at multiple public hearings held this year. Leelanau Township planning commissioners finally approved the zoning amendment last month, sending the matter to the county’s planning commission for review and approval. The Leelanau County Planning Commission discussed the text amendment at its meeting last Tuesday, September 24, and voted unanimously to approve it.

Now Hallstedt says there’s just one “final hurdle for the ordinance”: a formal approval from the Leelanau Township board. That body is scheduled to discuss the matter at its monthly meeting next Tuesday, October 8. If the township board votes yes, farms interested in offering overnight stays will be able to get the permitting process going almost immediately.

“After October 8, the [zoning change] has to be published, and then we wait 12 days,” Hallstedt tells the Leelanau Ticker of next steps. “Then we start the application process for our farm to obtain a special use permit. If we are successful, we will have farm stays [at Hallstedt-Homestead Cherries] starting in May or June next year.”

The proposed text amendment would add “farm stay campground” to Leelanau Township’s zoning ordinance, defined as “a small Campground that is considered as an agritourism accessory use to a primary farming operation (as defined by the Michigan Right-To-Farm Act) on a property or tract in the Agricultural Zoning District, and approved as a Special Land Use.” In order to be approved, farm stay campgrounds would need to be “located on the same parcel or tract as the primary farming operation,” situated at least 100 feet from all property lines, and equipped with off-street parking, water and wastewater facilities, and whatever “landscaping, screening, or buffering” the planning commission deems necessary “in order to address any impacts on neighboring properties.”

The text amendment also specifies a long list of other requirements designed to minimize potential negative impacts. The owner or manager of the farm would need to live on the property in order to host a farm stay campground, and would need to be on site during nighttime hours (between 10pm and 8am) while farm stay campsites are occupied. During other times of day, the owner/manager would need to be “available within 30 minutes” to respond to issues at their campgrounds.

The ordinance also specifies maximum lengths of stay for farm stay guests (up to three weeks), number of campers allowed per campsite (four adults or two adults with children), prohibited campground activities (firearm ranges, motocross, concerts, or fireworks), and rules for things like outdoor lighting, road access, campfires, and noise.

Farm stay campgrounds would only be permitted on farm properties with at least 30 acres of space, and the maximum number of campsites allowed would depend on the size of the farm. For instance, a farm with 30-30.99 acres of space could have six campsites, but could only have three of them active at any one time. A farm of that size could also have up to three cabins on the premises, defined in the zoning ordinance to include “hard-sided tent, camping cabin, and park model units.” A farm property with 40 acres or more of space, meanwhile, could have eight total sites – with up to four of them active at once – and four cabins.

Hallstedt previously told the Leelanau Ticker he was in favor of rigorous restrictions, noting that it was the “uproar” over things like Timber Shores that “guided” him in brainstorming a farm stay concept that would be “limited in scope” enough to minimize impact to neighboring properties. He acknowledges that Hallstedt-Homestead Cherries – and all other farms interested in pursuing this option – will still have “lots of work ahead” even if the township officially greenlights farm stay campgrounds.

While there might be some distance yet to travel, though, Hallstedt is proud to finally be at this point.

“It’s been four years,” Hallstedt says of his push to bring farm stays to life. “But what I would like to cover is the opportunities this provides for farmers in Leelanau Township – and potentially others across the county. I shared with the county planning commission that I hope that others take this as a blueprint, if other farmers in other townships are interested in securing on-farm, non-ag income. This is a low-impact, low-density way to provide lodging, and it directly benefits people working in the local area: the farmers.”