How We Got Here
For more than 40 years, the WOMP businesses received permits to grow their grapes, harvest and process the grapes into wine, sell that wine, operate tasting rooms, and operate a number of ancillary business activities of a modest scale. This included importing grapes from non- OMP sources, for processing into wine. This importation created additional truck traffic on the solitary main road running down the spine of OMP, which a number of residents opposed, but in the end, the Township believed it was a reasonable request—augment the grapes grown on OMP with purchased grapes, to improve winery utilization of the expensive equipment they had invested in, strengthen the winery businesses, and enhance the reputation of OMP as a wine destination.
This give and take has a 40 year pattern—-wineries sought expansion of their rights/asked for more by application, opponents emerged, hearings and investigations happened, and usually the wineries received a portion of their “ask”, and went about growing their businesses.
In most cases. the settlements include language negotiated with & agreed to by with winery owners, not just sterile legal zoning decisions by citizen-volunteer Zoning Committee members. Sounds like a contract? Hmmmmm…
In a few years time, the wineries returned seeking more flexibility, and the cycle repeated itself, and repeated, and repeated, etc. Existing wineries expanded. One winery became 3, 3 became 6, 6 became 9, and now stands at 11, with applications for more pending at the Township.
THROUGHOUT THIS 40+ YEAR PERIOD, NO WINERY EVER COMPLAINED THAT IT WAS LOSING MONEY, AND NEEDED TO EXPAND ITS BUSINESS BEYOND WINE-RELATED ACTIVITIES—-TO INCLUDE “EVENT CENTERS”- LARGE ENTERTAINMENT FACILITIES, TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE.
But something changed around 2020.
Winery owners–unhappy with the pace of expansion–began a legal fight to rewrite the rules to allow unfettered use of their property, and punish the Township financially (seeking $200 million in money damages), in order to weaken future regulation efforts.
What happened in 2020? A lot to be sure, but one important thing was the Township—like all Townships in Michigan—began the routine updating of its Master Plan in 2019-20.
The Michigan Planning Enabling Act http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/mcl/pdf/mcl-Act-33-of-2008.pdf requires that Master Plans be reviewed and updated every 5 years.
The State of Michigan has guidelines for communities to follow to enable citizen participation in the Master Plan updating process.
https://www.miplace.org/4a7338/globalassets/documents/rrc/rrc-guide-public-participation.pdf A Survey of the Citizens was one of the citizen engagement tools chosen by Peninsula Township. Every resident and property owner was mailed an opportunity to complete the survey, by internet and /or phone interview.
A Guide to Completing the Peninsula Township Master Plan Survey
The Survey results were released in February 2020. A Supermajority of survey responders OPPOSED winery expansion. https://www.oldmission.net/2020/02/omp-survey-wineries-farmland/
A mere seven months later, the WOMP wineries began their lawsuit in October 2020.
Coincidence? Maybe, but Unlikely. Remember this all comes after 40+ years of zoning debate/winery expansion.