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Graceland Fruit/Benzie Habitat for Humanity housing project (Gilmore Township, Benzie County)

The Development: Last fall, Graceland Fruit and Habitat for Humanity Benzie County announced a new alliance aimed at addressing the critical shortage of affordable housing in Benzie County. The proposed project would build 23 homes to start, each around 1,100 square feet. Graceland Fruit’s website notes that the plan shows room for 65 quarter-acre lots, which would allow the partners wiggle room to expand the project over time based on demand.

The Details: The development would be built on a 40-acre parcel located off Grace Road in Gilmore Township. The land is currently a Benzie County Christmas tree farm. Graceland Fruit, a fruit processing company with an adjacent processing facility on Forrester Road, owns the land and plans to donate it to the local Habitat for the development. In addition to construction, Habitat would then also be responsible for things like family selection and mortgage arrangements, as is typical for the projects the organization undertakes.

To build on that property, the partners would need a zoning amendment: The land is currently zoned rural preservation, which doesn’t allow new housing development. Late last year, Habitat and Graceland Fruit were working with the township zoning administration to see if the property could be rezoned to allow for future housing construction. However, those conversations drew pushback from some township officials and community members, who have raised concerns about both housing density on the property and groundwater contamination.

On the density front, the Gilmore Township zoning ordinance calls for minimum five-acre lot sizes – significantly larger than what would be possible with up to 65 homes on a 40-acre lot. Some nearby residents have decried the proposal as running contrary to the area’s rural character.

As for contamination, groundwater tests on and near the land in question have previously indicated elevated levels of arsenic, iron and manganese – issues that have led some in the community to question whether the land is the right spot for a housing development.

In January, Gilmore Township approved a six-month zoning moratorium, which temporarily blocks alternative developments, including projects like the Graceland/Habitat partnership, that would require zoning changes. The moratorium could be extended to 12 months if township officials see fit, and has halted the Grace Road development for the time being.

The Gamechanger: Like many other local employers, Graceland Fruit has been vocal about the difficulties it has faced in recent years with finding and retaining talent, and has cited housing availability (or lack thereof) as one of the primary challenges. Per the recent Housing Needs Assessment by Housing North, Benzie County currently has a housing gap of 1,508 units, including 214 rental units and 1,294 for-sale units. Much of that need clusters toward the lower end of the price range, but affordable housing has become especially difficult to develop in the wake of the pandemic due to supply chain issues, inflation, rising labor costs, and other factors that have increased the cost of construction.

A partnership like the one between Graceland Fruit and Habitat for Humanity could offer a unique workaround for some of the challenges that make affordable housing difficult to develop. As both parties have noted, this particular arrangement would entirely eliminate one huge upfront cost that developers face (the land, which Graceland Fruit would donate to the cause) while significantly reducing another (the labor, given that Habitat relies in large part on volunteer workers).