Who We Are: Friends of Old Mission Peninsula

We are Citizens–some residents of Old Mission Peninsula (OMP), some from other parts of Northern Michigan, and some from many other locations- who care deeply about saving OMP from unwise and unpopular development.  The Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula (WOMP) lawsuit seeks to destroy local, citizen-influenced zoning and has been well covered in other places.  We refer you to the following links for background
 
https://protectthepeninsula.com/wineries/     Protect the Peninsula  (PTP)’s site includes hotlinks to court documents if you want to go further
 
https://www.oldmission.net/?s=WOMP   The Old Mission Gazette is an independent newspaper that has been following the WOMP dispute and other newsworthy events for many years. 
 
We have organized a new Non-for-Profit Michigan corporation called Friends of Old Mission Peninsula (Friends) to supplement PTP and the Gazette’s fine work,  are adding information not previously available, to Inform you, to Educate you, and hopefully inspire you to Take Action —all in your own self interest.   We are:
  • Pro-small farmer—we seek to strengthen the struggling agriculture community, which includes fruit farmers hammered by unfair foreign competition.
  • Pro-balanced and responsible land use and development
  • Pro-respect for the Rule of Law– property rights, citizen developed and approved zoning codes, and living up to contractual commitments WOMP made voluntarily.
  • Action Oriented – We do not take for granted that the right balance of the beauty of Old Mission Peninsula with a thriving farm community happens naturally.  For example,
    • the taxpayers of OMP have raised over $60 million in payments to farmers through special taxes for over 40 years to help farmers succeed ( known as Purchase of Development Rights-PDR).  Recently, the third phase of PDR was overwhelmingly supported by over 60% of the voters.   https://www.oldmission.net/2022/07/pdr-facts-misconceptions-taxes/
    • WOMP has been a beneficiary of these funds, which helped create the attractive environment where their businesses can flourish. Now WOMP seeks to destroy what that $60 million public/citizen investment created, for the sole purpose of more private profit.