[This is the first part in a series that examines the challenges facing

Keweenaw County.]

KEWEENAW COUNTY — During a special meeting on Friday morning, the Keweenaw County Board unanimously approved a motion for a proposal for a dedicated millage that will appear on the November 2024 ballot. If passed, the 1 mil proposal will support zoning administration.

The question of whether zoning should be done by the townships or the county came to a head at the regular July board meeting, when board Chairman Don Piche read a letter of resignation of the most recent zoning commissioner, effective Aug. 2. Among the reasons for her resignation, she stated in her letter to the board: “However, the workload is more than the time I have to work here each week and be successful.”

It was agreed that the county needs a full-time zoning administrator.

County Treasurer Eric Hermanson told the board that the county cannot afford to hire a full-time zoning administrator without having to make budget cuts elsewhere.

A public meeting at the Horizons School, in Mohawk, on Wednesday was for the board members to hear from county residents on whether they wanted zoning done by the townships, by the county, or if they wanted zoning at all. The response for that meeting’s audience was that the majority of the residents understood the necessity of zoning and wanted to keep zoning ordinances, but that the individual townships lacked adequate population to fund their own zoning. Each township would be required to have its own planning commission, its own zoning administrator and its own zoning board of appeals.

These are the same challenges the county is facing.

Wednesday’s meeting was followed up with special meeting of the board Friday morning in order for the trustees to decide how to address the issues. At that meeting, Hermanson echoed his previous statement.

For the past five of six years, he said Friday, the county has operated with a gap between operating expenses and revenues of between $25,000 and $75,000.

“That’s not a lot of gap,” Hermanson said. “That gap represents what the county can spend. This year, we went into 2024 with a $66,000 gap in the budget,” adding that already this year, the board has had to make some changes that has reduced the gap. That gap will continue to shrink. Zoning will potentially add to it.

“When current (process) zoning came into play, it represented a growth in government — a significant growth without funding to offset it,” Hermanson said, adding it still has not been allocated the resources it needs.

“I don’t think we’ve even touched the enforcement end,” he said, “and we don’t have the resources currently to enforce it (zoning ordinances),” he said. “That’s where we’re at right now.”

Not operating the Zoning Administration Office as it should be run has led to its failure, he said.

A majority of the county’s funding is derived from property taxes, he said. He cited the high proportion of CFR (Commercial Forest) lands in the county, which receive tax incentives, and private nonprofit-owned conservancy lands, as sources of financial drain, as among the county’s dilemmas.

Planning Commissioner John Kern pointed out that of the more than 100 short-term rentals currently in the county, none of the owners pay application fees while they are obtaining conditional-use permits without charge.

“That’s a big demand on the zoning administrator,” Kern said, “and they’re also not paying any licensing fees on an annual basis. The money you’re talking about could easily be covered by the 100-plus STRs that are involved right now.”

Implementing those fees, Hermanson replied, could be used to generate additional resources for the planning commission and the zoning board, but he didn’t feel that the total of those fees would generate the $150,000 to $200,000 that are needed.

“I could be wrong, but until I see that we could reliably do it, I’m not willing to say that,” Hermanson said. “We need a millage.”

In order to operate successfully, he said, operating costs must be less than operating revenue.

“That’s more important than anything,” said Hermanson, “and we can’t grow zoning to the level it properly should be with the current revenue we have.”