Stricter enforcement of zoning regulations. New requirements for septic inspections. Rewrites of township rules relating to waterfront zones and setbacks.

Those are some of the top solutions East Bay Township residents identified to better protect local waterways at a public riparian zoning workshop last week. East Bay Township is in the process of rewriting its entire zoning ordinance based on its recently adopted master plan. In community surveys and focus groups, “the topic of protecting water quality through zoning standards on inland lakes and streams, wetlands, floodplains, and on East Grand Traverse Bay has been rated a top priority," according to a township release. "While East Bay Township has robust zoning standards to protect these critical resources, there is opportunity to review the ordinances to keep pace with new trends and ensure the standards are meeting the underlying protection goals of the township."

Township officials invited the public to hear from local water and environmental experts and weigh in on zoning changes that could be adopted later this year. “We really do have very good protections for our water quality resources, but we’re always looking to improve,” said Township Director of Planning & Zoning Claire Karner. East Bay Township is part of the Grand Traverse Bay watershed – nearly 1,000 square miles of land in Grand Traverse, Antrim, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties that all drain into Grand Traverse Bay, according to The Watershed Center Baykeeper Heather Smith. “The term ‘watershed’ can be tricky,” she said, explaining to attendees that the term refers to an area of land where all of the precipitation that falls is eventually funneled into one centralized water source.

The Grand Traverse Bay watershed is broken up into nine distinctive major drainage basins. Several of those – including the Mitchell Creek, Acme Creek, Boardman-Ottaway River, and East Bay Shoreline subwatersheds – are within East Bay Township, though many overlap with other communities. “Watersheds certainly don’t follow political boundaries,” Smith said. She noted that several waterways – such as Mitchell Creek, Baker Creek, and the Forest Lakes area, as well as wetlands that act like “the kidneys” of the watershed by filtering out pollutants – are under “immense development pressure” in East Bay Township. Approximately 37 percent of the township’s total wetlands have been drained or destroyed since pre-settlement times, according to Smith.

“Most of these threats have to do with land use or development practices,” she contined. “This unprecedented growth is changing the character of where we live.” Hardening the shoreline – such as when lakefront homeowners install sheet piling or riprap or remove natural vegetation – contributes to habitat loss and water quality decline, as does lawn over-fertilization and improperly functioning septic systems. Faith Sousa, an environmental sanitarian with the Grand Traverse County Health Department, noted that many septic systems in the Forest Lakes area are “undersized” and unsuitable for their properties.

As a result of varying external pressures, more than 50 percent of Michigan’s inland lakes today have poor habitat complexity, Smith said. “We’re really interfering in that shoreline,” she said. Climate change will only exacerbate those challenges, bringing more rainfall, less ice cover, more coastal flooding, and quicker and more extreme changes in lake level highs and lows, she added. Fortunately, local governments “have a plethora of tools to address land and water resources,” Smith said, including zoning rules that protect riparian zones (lands along the edges of rivers, streams, and lakes) and buffer and setback requirements to protect watersheds from runoff and development impacts.

Senior Planner Andy Aamodt with Giffels Webster – the consulting firm assisting East Bay Township with its zoning rewrite – noted that the township has several environmental areas and overlay districts established where additional regulations are in place to protect watersheds. Those include the Natural Area and Boardman-Ottaway River zoning districts, the Forest Lakes Area, and the Mitchell and Baker Creek overlay district. For example, in the Mitchell and Baker Creek area, putting structures or buildings within 100 feet of tributaries of either creek is prohibited. However, East Bay Township could enhance protections in those areas even further, Aamodt said, expanding the boundaries of Forest Lakes to including more inland lakes or bulking up wetland protections and setback requirements in the Mitchell and Baker Creek district. High-density growth should generally be located away from these environmentally sensitive districts in East Bay Township going forward, Aamodt said.

Township residents also said they wanted to see stronger regulations in these districts. Following a breakout session in which attendees were asked to rank the top two things working well with East Bay Township’s current riparian rules, the top two things that need improvement, and suggested solutions for improvement, the audience was then asked to rank the suggested solutions. Attendees said their top priority was seeing East Bay Township step up enforcement of its zoning rules, followed by implementing a new ordinance or requirements for septic systems and inspections.

Right behind that was enhancing the sections of the township’s zoning code relating to its environmentally sensitive districts, as well as its non-conformance and setback sections. Other suggestions included better coordination of permits between the federal, state, and local levels; stricter wetland protections; increased township outreach and education; and property owner incentives like tax breaks or cost-sharing for planting native vegetation or implementing riparian protections.

Residents cited the existence of overlay districts – which several described as “robust” – and the township’s effort to increase public engagement as among the top things East Bay Township is currently doing right. Most believed a lack of enforcement and rules that were too relaxed for wetlands and other ecologically sensitive areas are the top issues that need improvement. Karner said all of the meeting input will go to the township’s zoning subcommittee, which is spearheading the ordinance rewrite. Meetings are held every other Wednesday at 8:30am at East Bay Township Hall and are open to the public (the next meeting is March 1). Recommended zoning changes will go from the subcommittee to the township planning commission, then ultimately to the township board of trustees for final approval. “There’s lot of feedback loops and lots of opportunity for engagement,” Karner said.

The rewrite is expected to be completed by late summer. Some work is already progressing: Karner said East Bay Township recently hired a firm to establish a benchmark for the ordinary high water mark for each of the inland lakes, a process that should be completed soon and drew applause from audience members. Aamodt noted the final rewritten zoning ordinance will need to fairly represent the interests of property owners as well as the community at large.

“Zoning has to balance private property rights, not over-regulating, while at the same making sure that some very important considerations such as natural features and the environment are indeed taken care of,” he said.

Pictured: The Upper Boardman-Ottaway River