Jan. 15—ELBERTA — Graceland Fruit and Habitat for Humanity of Benzie County want to partner to build workforce housing near one of the food processor's plants in Gilmore Township.

While company and nonprofit leaders say the idea could bring badly needed workforce housing to Benzie County, some neighbors are questioning if the rural land with groundwater contamination is the right spot.

Now, Gilmore Township officials are considering a pause on certain zoning applications over concerns about a trend toward higher-density housing developments.

Township trustees agreed to set a Jan. 25 hearing on a six-month moratorium on any applications or permits issued under an article allowing "alternative developments." They could extend it up to 12 months beyond the original six while reviewing how the township master plan matches its zoning rules.

Ben MacRae, a township planning commission member, said at the meeting Tuesday the moratorium wasn't specifically in response to what Gilmore officials had heard about the contemplated housing project.

He said after the meeting there's a lot going on in the county and state, while the planning commission meets only four times a year.

"So things don't move very fast from the planning commission's standpoint," he said. "This gives us time to sit down and read everything and make sure there's no vague areas, no gray areas."

Jonathan Ball, chairman of Graceland Fruit's board and vice president of corporate development, said he didn't learn about the moratorium until seeing a notice in a local newspaper. That came after what he said were repeated requests to meet with township officials to discuss the project and how to apply for it. Joshua Mills, the township's zoning administrator, suggested as much, but Ball said he hasn't heard back from other township officials.

That lack of communication had Ball "a little miffed" when he saw the notice of the moratorium.

"If the majority of the populace of the township decides they don't want this project, then it's not going to happen," he said.

MacRae said he knew Graceland Fruit reached out in mid-November, more than a month after the Benzie County Record Patriot reported the company and nonprofit's plans. He didn't know what came of that request for a meeting — a message for township Supervisor Carl Noffsinger, who previously said he learned of the project from that article, was left Friday.

The plans

Plans are to build up to 65 houses on property at the southwest corner of Forrester and Grace roads, starting with a smaller first phase of 23, said Glen Tracy, president of Habitat for Humanity of Benzie County's board of directors. Those would likely be built at a rate of about six per year, with the second phase to come, if demand is there.

These single-family homes would have three bedrooms, one bathroom and about 1,150 square feet of floor space, Tracy said. Three Habitat homes under construction in Thompsonville have a similar design.

Homebuyers would have to meet Habitat for Humanity's usual requirements, Tracy said. That's an income limit up to $63,000 per year for a household of two adults and two children — or 80 percent of Area Median Income — taking classes and committing to 200 hours per adult of volunteer work, among others, according to the nonprofit.

Those who successfully apply would own their homes like any other Habitat for Humanity project, Tracy said.

The land

The nonprofit and food processor are eyeing 40 acres of land kitty-corner to Graceland Fruit's plant on Forrester Road, Tracy said.

Donating what's currently a Christmas tree farm to the nonprofit could help address a need that's affecting one of Benzie County's largest employers, Ball said.

The company is constantly looking for employees. After the pandemic, Ball and others noticed the area's housing shortage was exacerbated by people moving to the area to retire or work from home, he said.

"For our production or manufacturing jobs, which are located both in the city of Frankfort and Gilmore Township, we can't expect to draw from an employment base too far outside of Benzie County," he said.

Company board members looked for solutions, including developing property Graceland Fruit owns near its Gilmore Township plant, Ball said. They tasked a civil engineer and environmental consultants with identifying the best site, but nearly shelved the idea in the face of high development costs.

Tracy called Ball in mid-2022 offering to partner, Ball said. Both he and Tracy touted the perks of working together: donated land would eliminate one huge cost, while Habitat for Humanity could build the houses for less, thanks to volunteer labor.

Plus, Tracy approached the Benzie County Board of Commissioners to ask for $850,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money to build roads, power lines and other infrastructure. Commissioners wanted more information, including zoning approval, Tracy said.

Density divide

That would likely require an amendment, since Gilmore Township's zoning specifies a 5-acre minimum lot size for the property, Mills said. It's in a rural preservation area where agriculture and residential uses are primarily desired.

"It's in a predominantly residential and agricultural area," he confirmed, "although it is across the street from (Graceland Fruit's) fruit drying facility on Forrester."

Gilmore Township's population is 801, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate.

Tina Langley said she and husband, Gary, have 11 acres at the end of Forrester Road, about a half-mile from the proposed development. They have cows and chickens and questioned the plan, expressing concern for how a subdivision would fit with a rural area where many neighbors keep animals.

"We do not want the community re-zoned to accommodate this," she said.

Kevin Gill expressed similar concerns. He runs a small company downstate, but owns farm property, where he has a house and livestock, a half-mile from the land in question. Gill started a social media group opposing the project and has written the township, nonprofit and food processing company as well.

Gill said there are numerous signs nearby opposing the proposed housing.

"It's like, wait a minute, they're going to put a 60-plus-unit subdivision there? What about the 5-acre minimum lot size that's in the (township) master plan? Doesn't that mean anything?"

Both he and Tina Langley said other, more developed locales seemed like a better spot for the project.

Gill said putting residences near farming and hunting lands could cause trouble for new residents, farmers and hunters, and Tina Langley said neighbors might not dig her chickens — just as she wouldn't dig the traffic they bring.

"I'm not against development and I'm not against affordable housing," Tina Langley said. "There are places where the infrastructure is already there."

She wondered how, in Gilmore Township, that site would get the water, sewer and other infrastructure it needs, or who would foot the bill.

"And there's the contamination factor, too. That's just a huge red flag."

Groundwater plume

Groundwater beneath the site has high levels of iron and manganese, and a history of elevated arsenic levels as well, according to test results compiled by Fishbeck and submitted to the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy in November 2022. The Record-Eagle obtained Fishbeck's report through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Groundwater from two wells on the parcel had iron levels of 5,790 and 4,470 micrograms per liter, according to the report. That's what a laboratory analysis found in samples taken in August, the third round that year.

Compare that to a state-imposed health limit of 2,000 micrograms per liter and a lower one, 300, for aesthetic concerns — an off taste or smell, or causing stains, said Eric Chatterson, an EGLE water resources division geology specialist who oversees groundwater remediation there and elsewhere across the region.

Manganese levels in the two wells were at 156 and 262 micrograms per liter, and arsenic at 5.5 and 1.3 micrograms per liter.

Both arsenic measures were below a health-based limit of 10, while manganese levels were above an aesthetic limit of 50 but below a health-based cutoff of 860, Chatterson said.

Past test results included in the report showed levels were largely declining since testing began in 2008, with arsenic levels in one on-site well once as high as 17 micrograms per liter — also known as parts per billion.

Wells in and around the irrigation field southeast of the plant show iron levels remain high, with the highest finding at 37,800 parts per billion from a well just west of the irrigation field.

Results in some years showed iron or manganese seemed to be increasing in concentrations around some monitoring wells.

David Filipiak, an environmental engineer and chemist with Fishbeck and the report's author, said those increases are largely a function of differing sediment in the immediate area and that the metals can move independently. For example, some wells have high iron levels, but little to no arsenic detected, testing history shows.

Overall, he said he believes levels of the three elements are moving in the right direction, even as some levels stay stubbornly high.

Spraying waste

Graceland Fruit's past practices of spraying untreated wastewater caused the elements to leach from the soil into groundwater, Chatterson said.

Microbes breaking down sugars in the wastewater need oxygen, he said. They can strip it from metal oxides in the soil, freeing up previously stable compounds that might have been bound to sand grains for thousands of years.

"When the geochemical environment changes with food processing wastewater, that basically releases iron, manganese and arsenic into the aquifer," he said. "Then it's free to flow through the aquifer and get into peoples' wells."

Graceland Fruit land-applied the untreated waste under a permit from the state until 2007, according to the Fishbeck report.

They weren't alone — Chatterson said it was a widespread practice that, starting in the early 2000s, state regulators have been working to bring into compliance with current rules.

Two developments are behind the regulatory shift, one is the adoption of a new set of groundwater discharge permit rules in 1999.

A few years later, scientists realized that spraying untreated waste with a high biological oxygen demand was changing the chemistry in the ground itself, Chatterson said.

Now, the majority of food processors do what Graceland Fruit does: treat the wastewater at an on-site plant. The company built one at the Forrester Road facility as part of a 2004 administrative consent order with the state to change its disposal practices.

Treating the water, which is now disposed of in rapid-infiltration basins, largely eliminates the problems caused by spraying untreated waste, Chatterson said.

For food processors, that's largely water and sugar, so soil contamination typically isn't a concern.

But contamination in the groundwater remains, and Graceland Fruit will have to keep testing until the state gives the company permission to stop. That's not likely in the foreseeable future; Filipiak confirmed it's a long-term process.

The company spent millions on its wastewater treatment plant, Ball said. It's also responsible for testing costs — and testing requirements wouldn't go away if the property is sold or transferred.

More treatment

Graceland Fruit also provided treatment systems to nearby homes with contaminated wells, while some get water directly from the plant, Ball said.

Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department would require a test well and sampling before approving any new wells in the area, department Environmental Health Director Eric Johnston said. The department would work with EGLE to determine the extent and depth of the contamination plume, and in setting any restrictions for new wells.

Ball said he believes the contamination is a non-issue being raised by project opponents. For one, plans call for tapping an aquifer 300 feet below the proposed housing site, as Fishbeck recommended. That water could be treated if needed.

"And finally, if all else fails, we can draw water from the Graceland plant property," he said in an email.

Tracy said he's aware of the contamination issues. He largely has deferred on the subject to Graceland Fruit, but said if clean water can't be provided to future residents, the project wouldn't go forward.

The same goes for zoning approval, Tracy added. He and Ball both said they hoped neighbors and nearby property owners concerned about the project's density can understand the need for workforce housing.

Tracy said Graceland Fruit is offering its property, eliminating a land purchase cost that could easily reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Plus, natural gas lines are nearby, and Benzie Bus could easily serve the site, Ball said.

While Ball said he's heard support from the vast majority of people he's talked with about the project, Tina Langley said she believes the moratorium Gilmore Township is considering is a step in the right direction.

That should give people a chance to voice their opinion, Langley said.

"My thoughts are, for a community project, you should have the community behind it first," she said.

Ball said the company and nonprofit have met with county leaders, Benzie's economic development corporation and Benzie Faith in Action. Short of going door-to-door, he wasn't sure what else to do.

"Maybe we'll have to do that," he said.

Record-Eagle reporter Mardi Link contributed to this report.