Chikaming, MI Case Study

Lessons Learned

• Put It In Writing: The Township laid the foundation for its coastal resilience work by clearly stating the importance and value of the shoreline to the community in its master plan. Defining the natural landscape as an important township character worthy of protecting justified recommendations for strengthening ordinances and further efforts.
• Bring In Experts: Realizing that the mounting pressures to harden shorelines in response to rising lake levels needed expert-level help, the Township Board reached out to state agencies and academic experts to help educate the public and sort through alternative options. By better understanding the impacts of hardened shorelines, residents were able to make informed decisions about their support for the planning measures.
• Keep the Public Informed: Not only did the Township invite the community to public meetings, but a local newspaper, Harbor Country News, which covers eight communities in southwest Michigan, published updates from planning commission and township board meetings as well as planning events. Township officials, residents, and experts even appeared on a podcast, [Un]Natural Selection Ep. 2: Houses Built On Sand, on Interlochen Public Radio covering the impact of hardened shorelines. 
• Dynamic coasts, Dynamic response: Chikaming’s coastal resilience work stretched over a period of 10 years with new problems and projects popping up that needed to be tackled. Like the coastline, resilience is a dynamic process that ebbs and flows, and communities should be ready to adapt as the climate and their coastline continue to change.

Wooden Staircase on Chikaming Bluff (Source: Chikaming Township)

The Process

Like many other Great Lakes communities, Chikaming Township is closely tied to its Lake Michigan shoreline. In the past ten years, the small community of approximately 2,800 has taken numerous steps to protect this natural asset. After a number of new residential development proposals in the early 2000s, the Township implemented supplementary ordinances for environmentally sensitive lands and waters. The master plan was updated again in 2014 to capture the community’s goals of maintaining “the long-term health of the natural systems” in the Township (Master Plan for Chikaming Township, Michigan 2014-2029, pg. 31). The plan specifically recommended:

• Developing ordinances and zoning regulations to protect the natural features of the remaining vacant land from the pressures to build more housing.
• Creating an overlay zone that coincides with the State of Michigan’s Critical Dune area to further protect the vulnerable area from development.

After nearly three years of work, the Township fulfilled its first goal by adopting a R-1-W, Waterfront Single Family Residential District in October 2019. The new ordinance requires 150’ setbacks from the regular ordinary high water mark (OHWM) with adjustments for lots under 150’. (source) The ordinance came just as Great Lakes levels were rising to historic highs.

Like many Great Lake communities, Chikaming residents noticed the rising water’s impact on the shoreline and a growing need to respond to increased erosion and storms. Across the state, permit requests to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) for hardened shoreline structures increased nearly 150% between 2019-2021 compared to previous years. With only seven miles of shoreline, Chikaming Township recognized that any extensive hardened armoring could quickly limit the public’s access to the beach. A recently installed and particularly large revetment raised so much alarm among residents that the Township Board began reaching out to experts on solutions to protect the shoreline from disappearing beneath massive boulders.

With the help of experts from the Michigan TechnologicalUniversity, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, LIAA (Land Information Access Association), and EGLE, the Township held informative webinars in fall 2020 to educate residents and visitors about ongoing coastal processes and coastal planning and management options. Residents expressed concern that these structures would potentially block access and interrupt the movement of sand across the beachfront. The Township also collected resources and recorded webinars on the Shoreline Sustainability section of its website.

Under the guidance of a newly hired environmental attorney, the Township Board worked on drafting another new ordinance to protect the shoreline from hardened armoring. Township Board meeting attendance swelled to over 250 as residents sought to learn more about the pending ordinance, ask questions, and weigh in with their opinions. After the draft ordinance was presented, over 60 residents gave comments on the exact wording and what structures would be protected.

In late February 2021, the Township Board unanimously approved a Shoreline Armoring Ordinance, which uses police powers to ban any new hardened armoring along Chikaming’s shoreline. The ordinance does allow residents to apply for a permit to install temporary sandbags or GeoTubes, with the understanding that the GeoTubes will be removed later to minimize sediment disruption 

One of the final actions that Chikaming took was to participate in the Resilient Michigan community engagement and technical services program developed by LIAA with numerous statewide partners. The Township chose to update its master plan with a chapter focused on resilience. The project kicked off in September 2021 and included four parts:

• Vulnerability mapping of flooding scenarios and heat vulnerability
• Community assessments using LIAA’s Community Sustainability Self-Assessment Tool
• Community outreach at two public meetings, providing online videos as background material
• A detailed final summary report of sustainability assessment, meetings, and recommendations 

The new chapter, “Planning for Coastal and Climate Trends,” covers an overview of coastal dynamics, climate change impacts, vulnerability, and disaster management. There was also a review of shoreline protection approaches (see figure) and a Coastal Hazard Analysis that revealed the number of township parcels affected by flooding in different scenarios. The new chapter will guide the Township in future planning decisions with a better understanding of its vulnerabilities.