Citizens and scientists from the Glen Lake Association (GLA) are collaborating with zoning and riparian law experts from the four townships within the Glen Lake-Crystal River Watershed on an overlay district proposal that is three years in the making.

Now a draft is ready. 

According to GLA Watershed Biologist Rob Karner, the hope is by December, the planning commissions in the four townships — Cleveland, Empire, Kasson, and Glen Arbor — will recommend a uniform overlay district for adoption by their township boards.

But what is an overlay district, and why adopt one?

“In essence, it is an insurance plan to assure that what we have today will continue,” says Karner.

In an overlay district, development must meet all the conditions of the underlying, township-specific zoning and the supplemental provisions of the overlay district. Karner says “the supplemental provisions reiterate existing zoning — or strengthen it — and close the gap where there is no zoning.”

Adds Jim Dutmers, co-chair of the Glen Lake Association Water Protection Task Force, “Right now the four townships have done the yeoman’s work to protect the watershed, but it has been done independently and issue by issue, whether it’s setbacks or septic inspection upon the sale of a property. This overlay gives us the gift of equal footing and the insurance of a uniform package of ordinances.”

As for “why,” Dutmers says Big and Little Glen and the Crystal River speak for themselves.

“Here we have a lake, and watershed, that is exceptional and rare — it ranks among the top 1 percent of lakes statewide in terms of water quality and vitality and is in the top 10 percent in the U.S. — and we are not even getting to its visual beauty.”

He continues, “We knew that states with fragile shorelines like Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as our sister states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, have created state-wide ordinances for shoreland standards. It became clear we are not outside the norm to explore uniform regulations to protect our waters through best management practices, especially when we have the asset that we have.”

Karner, who has been the Glen Lake Association watershed biologist for 40 of its 75 years (and logs 650 hours a year monitoring its shorelines and waters) echoes Dutmers when speaking of the vibrancy of the watershed.

“It is so pristine that when we go out in Sleeping Bear Bay to measure water quality, then go into the mouth of the river and measure in the same way, we find the same results. Very few rivers that empty into a large body of water are this clean.”

He adds that Crystal Lake in neighboring Benzie County adopted an overlay district 25 years ago, authored by the same consultant GLA is currently using. “Frankly, we are behind the eight ball, and with the most to lose. We’re documenting changes to the lake that need attention now.”

For instance, Karner notes that the Glens are considered “oligotrophic lakes, abundant in oxygen in the depths below the thermocline in summer. Eutrophic lakes, on the other hand, have low or no oxygen below the thermocline in summer.”

According to Karner, ongoing lake testing is revealing that periods without oxygen in the Glens are increasing. “It’s like the lake has to hold its breath in the summer and fall,” he explains. “Typically, the Glens ‘turn over’ by mid-October. Now, it’s mid-November or even later. The longer we wait to have an overlay district, the more probability we could take the lake to its tipping point. And once it shifts from a healthy blue lake to a green, muddy lake, you can’t go back. We don’t want the premature aging of the lake because of human influence.”

The adoption of the proposed overlay district would favor vegetative shoreline buffers to help to reduce the impact the pollutants that currently threaten Glen Lake; limit or discourage the use of seawalls; encourage low-impact development; preserve vegetation on hilltops and ridgelines; address stormwater runoff; limit impervious surfaces on lots; and limit the use of phosphorus-laden lawn fertilizers that accelerate lake eutrophication.

Karner stresses that the overlay district ordinances are not against development. “What we want to do is allow for smart, responsible development. For instance, it would make sure a 100-foot lot with a small cottage and a dirt driveway on it now isn’t torn down and replaced with a disproportionate amount of hard surface, causing erosion and siltation in the lake.”

Both Dutmers and Karner say the overlay was developed carefully to be enforceable and equitable. Pre-existing, non-conforming uses would be allowed to continue.

The new overlay requirements would only apply to future development, and for Dutmers, whose roots go back seven generations on the Glens, that applies to him, too.

“The watershed currently has the most capacity for development in the hills surrounding the lake. My family has some gorgeous view property now, and the provision in the steep slopes portion of the overlay designates lands with slopes 12 percent or greater as environmentally sensitive, requiring both a county stormwater permit, and maintaining a certain percentage of natural vegetative cover on ridgelines,” Dutmers says.

Karner says the comprehensive plan now needs the understanding, input and support of the public before it goes to the individual townships for their consideration for adoption.

Asks Dutmers, “this overlay is to protect future generations, but do we have the courage right now to move it forward?”

Review the proposed overlay district and its supplemental ordinances for Cleveland, Empire, Kasson, and Glen Arbor townships here.