East Bay Township planning commissioners will hold two sketch plan reviews – informal discussions that allow township officials to give feedback on projects before they return for official approval – at their 6:30pm meeting tonight (Tuesday). Reviews will include a proposal for North Sky Raptor Sanctuary to locate its new headquarters at Camp Greilick and for the Rehmann Farm to host private events on its Three Mile/Smith Road property. Planning commissioners will also hold a public hearing tonight on proposed changes to township slope rules.

Camp Greilick/North Sky
Grand Traverse County hopes to team up with the nonprofit North Sky Raptor Sanctuary to locate a new raptor sanctuary at Camp Greilick, including educational programming, a wildlife hospital, an interpretative trail, bird enclosures, and a flight pen.

The groups will discuss the proposed partnership with township planning commissioners tonight. As previously reported in The Ticker, Grand Traverse County Parks and Recreation commissioners earlier this year unanimously approved exploring a collaboration with North Sky, which is a state and federally licensed bird of prey rehabilitation facility currently located in Interlochen. The organization accepts birds from 29 counties and counting, averaging 130 animal patients and 25 surgeries annually. The organization averages a 60 percent healthy release rate – the national average is 36 percent – with 15 non-releasable birds placed as ambassadors across the country.

Project documents submitted to East Bay Township detail plans to replace an existing building with a new facility of a similar size, using Camp Greilick’s existing parking and adding 1,700 feet of interpretative trail loop plus an approximately 50’ by 100’ flight pen. The proposed location is in the interior of Camp Greilick – the closest body of water is 250 feet away, at the edge of Rennie Lake – with activities like presentations, flight demonstrations, husbandry observation, and wildlife treatment considered to be “under the public park umbrella,” according to a township staff memo.

North Sky’s three-pronged mission focuses on rehabilitation, research, and “immersive experiential education,” according to project documents. An example of suggested daily programming outlines keeper chats, fly-bys, hospital tours, bird shows, and audiences with raptor ambassadors in short sessions throughout the day. The facility could potentially host up to 45 individual “patients” (more for shared species), complete 150+ surgeries annually, and accommodate 320+ educational programs per year. Township staff wrote that “there is very little noise anticipated from the birds of prey, and the center anticipates to be open to the public 11am-5pm.”

County Director of Parks and Facilities John Chase says planning commission feedback will help guide the direction of the proposal, noting that project plans are “just conceptual at this time.” Before the county gets too far into land lease discussions – something the Parks and Recreation strategic planning subcommittee will discuss at its own meeting tonight – “we want to make sure this is something we can do first,” Chase says. That includes making sure the project meets the conservation easement on Camp Greilick’s property, he adds. A timeline for North Sky coming online isn’t yet set but would likely take a few years, according to Chase.

North Sky is just one of many park uses planned for the Camp Greilick site. County commissioners will discuss the park’s 2025-2026 operations and management plan Wednesday, which has already been approved by the Parks and Recreation board. Chase says the county is waiting on wayfinding signage and park maps to arrive before opening Camp Greilick to the public, but is hopeful the park will open yet this month for hiking and disc golf. Work and planning will continue over the winter with the goal of opening additional amenities and buildings next spring, Chase says.

Rehmann Farm
Township planning commissioners will also hold a sketch plan review tonight for Rehmann Farm, located at the intersection of Three Mile Road and Smith Road. Sue Rehmann is interested in applying for a special land use permit for her property to host private events. The property is a historic homestead/farm with a farmhouse, garage, historic barn, livestock, fenced pasture, and rolling wooded hills, according to a township staff memo.

Rehmann came in front of planning commissioners in 2022 with a similar request, at the time seeking approval “for a maximum of eight events per year, with a maximum of 200 guests, and was not prohibiting the use of amplified music,” according to the memo. The updated proposal attempts to “address previous concerns” by capping attendees at 100 with 50 designated parking spaces, limiting hours of operation to 4pm-10pm, prohibiting amplified music, and not utilizing the historic barn for events but rather a temporary tent on the site’s interior, the memo states.

Slope Rules
Finally, planning commissioners will hold a public hearing and possibly vote on changes tonight to the township’s zoning rules for steep slopes. Township staff wrote that “limiting the disturbance of steep slopes helps prevent erosion, which degrades water quality and damages structures. Steep slopes can be protected by maintaining adequate vegetation, including trees, on hillsides and minimizing the amount of unvegetated open space on hillsides.”

East Bay has struggled to find the right threshold for allowing slope activity, previously being too permissive and now being potentially too restrictive, with private home owners “paying thousands of dollars for a geotechnical engineer to take soil borings and develop a slope stability analysis certifying that the slope may be safely developed,” according to a staff memo. “It does not appear that the (current ordinance) has kept development from occurring, just increased the cost.” The proposed rule changes aim to find a middle ground, setting definitions for steep and very steep slopes that land between previous iterations and requiring permanent vegetative cover to be planted in any areas of exposed soil.