State Approval Sought for Kelley Park Boat Launch

Peninsula Township trustees hope second time’s the charm as they prepare to submit a new design for a proposed boat launch at Kelley Park after the state rejected their first concept last year.

Trustees voted Tuesday to pay just under $22,000 to Beckett & Raeder for additional design and permitting services for the new launch at Kelley Park on Mission Road across from the Old Mission Inn. Peninsula Township has been working for years to establish a new launch to serve the north end of Old Mission Peninsula, an effort that intensified after a launch at nearby Haserot Beach was destroyed in a 2019 storm. Rather than rebuild at Haserot – where conflicts between swimmers and boaters at the small beachfront had become an increasing source of tension – residents overwhelmingly supported locating a new launch at Kelley.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) approved a long-term township lease for Kelley and awarded a Waterways grant to the project in 2023. Under the grant agreement, the DNR will contribute just over $605,000 for park improvements. Peninsula Township will provide an equal match, bringing the total project budget to $1.21 million. Trustees hired Beckett & Raeder to design the launch, which must go through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for approval.

Beckett & Raeder submitted an initial launch design to EGLE in early 2025. That began what Christy Summers of Beckett & Raeder described as one of the most “challenging” review processes she’s been through, with months of back and forth as state officials requested multiple rounds of additional information. Summers said she thought the parties were nearing an acceptable design when the firm was “blindsided” by a denial letter from EGLE last fall.

Summers said she later learned state officials felt “very strongly that the boating access site or boat launch should be returned to Haserot, because it was a historic use.” She continued: “We have vehemently argued and debated this point, knowing that Haserot is used so heavily as a family beach. And mixing beachgoing activities and boat-launching activities on such a small spot really introduces safety concerns and a conflict of uses.”

EGLE said it would consider a launch at Kelley Park only if the impacts on the natural environment were no more than what would be required at Haserot to redevelop boating access there. That meant redesigning the Kelley launch to minimize both wetlands and bottomlands impacts. The first design had the launch located on the north side of the property closer to deeper water in East Grand Traverse Bay. That would have impacted some wetlands, but those wetlands were “fragmented, “compromised,” and not of “particularly high quality,” Summers said.

Regardless of those wetland conditions, the new design shifts the launch to the south to “completely avoid wetland impacts,” Summers wrote in a project memo. “We have also made the boat launch shallower targeting an area of bottomlands impacts (dredging) that would be more similar to that needed at Haserot.” The DNR has signaled support for a shallower launch than would normally be allowed “if it proves necessary for EGLE permit-ability,” Summers wrote.

The shallower launch will be able to accommodate small fishing, recreational, and pontoon boats, though larger sizes may be limited – particularly when Lake Michigan water levels are low. Most of the time, however, the park should offer a “reasonable launch depth,” Summers said. She said Peninsula Township was “between a rock and a hard place” trying to finalize a design that can accommodate both DNR and EGLE standards. However, she believed the team now has a concept that could allow them to work toward those approvals.

Kelley Park is planned to have boat trailer and vehicle parking, a handful of barrier-free spaces, and an additional non-motorized launch that will be located a “reasonable” distance from the motorized launch for safety, Summers said. Trustees received DNR confirmation they can be reimbursed 50 percent of the additional costs for Beckett & Raeder to complete the new design and go through permitting again under the grant budget. That’s true even if the new design is rejected by EGLE, Township Supervisor Maura Sanders said Tuesday. Beckett & Raeder could submit the updated design next month, which will then likely take several months for EGLE to review.

Sanders and other trustees said they still believe Kelley Park is the right location for the boat launch even with setbacks in the approval process. “It’s very apparent there’s a safety issue with swimmers and boaters at Haserot,” Sanders tells The Ticker. Township Clerk Becky Chown said at a May meeting that Peninsula Township received numerous complaints about “near misses” at Haserot and the “tremendous difficulty” of accommodating both boaters and families who come to play at the beach.

“The community was loud and clear,” she said. “Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people said absolutely not (to rebuilding at Haserot). Better no launch than to have it at Haserot Beach. I agree with that.”