Traverse City’s Winery Lawsuit Lands a Wall Street Journal Headline

By Craig Manning | Aug. 18, 2025

Traverse City is back in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, but not for the usual tourism-related reasons. This weekend, the Journal ran a story titled “A Michigan Town Clamped Down on Its Wineries. Now It Owes Them $49 Million.”

The article recaps what’s happened so far in the lengthy legal battle between Peninsula Township and the wineries on Old Mission Peninsula, culminating in a judge’s decision last month to award nearly $50 million in damages to the wineries for township restrictions he found to be unconstitutional. The article also delves into the township’s recent decision to appraise its assets, including parks and the historic Mission Point Lighthouse, in case it needs to sell those properties to pay for the judgement.

The full Wall Street Journal piece can be found here.