Official Press Release
Issue date: December 30, 2024
New Community Vision (NCV) and The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) have officially closed on the acquisition of the former Timber Shores property.
The 214-acre property is a prominent lakeshore parcel south of Northport that has been under threat of development for decades and is an historically important ancestral homeland to the Anishinabek community. It is now permanently preserved as a 189-acre nature preserve owned by the GTB Land Trust and a corner parcel of 25 acres held by NCV for attainable housing.
The acquisition, which closed on December 24, 2024, fulfils a two-year effort and was achieved through a strategic partnership developed between GTB and NCV, along with the generosity of funds donated from individuals and foundations throughout the broader Leelanau community.
After NCV negotiated an exclusive purchase option for the property in early 2023, the community-based, non-profit began fundraising for the property acquisition that summer. Following an agreement to partner with NCV, the GTB applied for a federal grant in November of 2023 from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This application resulted in a grant to GTB in July 2024 that, in part, earmarked $6.5 million specifically for the property acquisition. The NOAA grant award was dependent upon NCV raising $3.5 million in matching funds from private donors and foundations to achieve the property purchase price of $10 million and formally exercise NCV’s purchase option in November 2024. NCV and GTB formally closed on the purchase of the property on December 24th of this year.
The successful result of this ambitious 2-year effort is that 189 acres will now be preserved in perpetuity, owned by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians through the GTB Land Trust and to be restored and stewarded by the GTB’s Natural Resources Department.
GTB will lead restoration and stewardship of this rare parcel that will focus on its unique inventory of natural features including a partially protected cold-water creek, critical shoreline and in-water habitats that are essential to productive and sustainable fisheries. GTB has preliminary plans outlined in the federal NOAA grant award to remove debris from the former campground and marina, restore cobble substrate along the shoreline, and revegetate parts of the property with native plants. GTB will host tribal-led visioning sessions open to the community as part of planning to preserve the land, restore ecosystems, utilize Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and prepare for climate hazards to come. This pivotal property will now be known by its traditional and historic Anishinaabemowin name: Mashkiigaki, meaning marsh lands and place of the medicine.
The nature preserve will allow public educational and/or recreational use in designated areas for activities such as hiking, bird watching, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, all under the stewardship of the GTB.
In addition, a separate 25 acres on the northwest side of the property bordering M-22 is now owned by NCV and is set aside for attainable housing, which is crucial to the growing Leelanau community. This parcel will be developed with community input and in collaboration with Peninsula Housing (PH), a Suttons Bay-based non-profit community land trust. Together, PH and NCV will facilitate community input into designing right-sized, sustainably developed housing to support the local community.
“Peninsula Housing looks forward to working over the coming months to develop and implement a plan for this site that fits the needs of the community, to provide housing that will remain affordable for generations to come,” said Larry Mawby, president of PeninsulaHousing. “I believe this collaboration between Peninsula Housing and New Community Vision can be a model of success beyond our region.”
NCV President John Sentell said: “When NCV approached the previous owner of Timber Shores, Fred Gordon, over two years ago with a vision to buy the property, raising $10 million in a short amount of time to acquire and preserve this signature parcel along with a portion for much-needed affordable housing, seemed like an insurmountable goal to some people. But with the key help of GTB and the many generous and forward-thinking donors in the Leelanau community who embraced a new vision of the future of the landscape, the job is now done.”
“Every single person who became involved – either as a donor, an ambassador or a supporter - recognized this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a treasured lakeside preserve that would benefit the whole of Leelanau County as it continues to grow,” Sentell added. “It’s a wonderful outcome bringing our communities together through nature.”
Sentell said: “NCV acknowledges with deep gratitude our partnership with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the transformational NOAA grant that returns this property to Tribal stewardship, forever changing the trajectory of the former Timber Shores property.”
Notes to Editors:
The former Timber Shores property was once a campground and, more recently, set to be the site of a large-scale RV park. When some in the Northport community expressed concern about the potential impact of the proposed RV development plans, NCV was formed as a 501(c)3 non profit in early 2023 with a plan for an alternative strategy for this prominent landscape. For more information on NCV see our website.
The 189-acre nature preserve will be restored and stewarded by the GTB’s Natural Resources Department with the intention to re-establish the shoreline, the wetlands, and the creek corridor which are all important spawning grounds for native fish species.
Demonstrating broad support for this new vision for the former Timber Shores property, more than 300 individual donors, foundations and community groups contributed to NCV's fundraising campaign.
The $6.5 million NOAA grant for acquisition of the former Timber Shores property is part of a three-year, $11.9 million grant to the GTB for a pair of preservation and restoration projects targeted to support coastal resiliency within West Bay.
For more information, please contact info@newcommunityvision.org
Commentaires