Move houses near Lake Michigan bluffs or lose them, experts warn

Table of Content

• Lake Michigan Homes in Danger as High Water and Waves Eat Away at Dunes
• Top News: Big Storm, Catfishing Mom, A Machete Killer and More
• Mount Pleasant Woman Arrested for Catfishing Two Teens
• Feb. 3 Caledonia flyover (copy)
• Move houses near Lake Michigan bluffs or lose them, experts warn
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That doesn’t mean property owners have no chance to sell their shrinking properties, although they may not make as much as they would’ve a couple years ago. Vetter said her clients “certainly did not get what they hoped” for 7009 Novak Road, for which the listing price was more than $400,000. It’s unlikely that local, state or federal governments to step in and rebuild the bluffs to protect those homes. Such a venture would cost millions in tax dollars across multiple municipalities, and there’s no guarantee it would be effective — Mother Nature’s persistence usually beats man’s efforts.

Montague, Michigan — Three of the five Great Lakes — Michigan, Huron and Superior — broke all January records for water levels, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. A warm winter led to more storm runoff and now people with beachfront property are locked in a battle to save their homes. Three of the five Great Lakes broke all January records for water levels.

Lake Michigan Homes in Danger as High Water and Waves Eat Away at Dunes

Owner of the home, Tish Gancer, says it's been in her family for generations. If you think it looks like it was built too close to the water, it initially wasn't. She tried fixing the problem with the help of contractors the best she could, but it was too late. One neighbor has been forced to destroy their garage because of the receding bluff. Joe Plewka lives next door and he says his family is talking about moving. He declined to state a price range, but said that cost depends on lot size, accessibility of the property, steepness of the bluff, amount of trees on the property, and the construction, size and shape of the home.

EGLE processed 836 permits in fiscal year 2019, up from 636 in 2018 and 365 in 2015; most of those were for shoreline protection work, said Nick Assendelft, a spokesperson for EGLE. Most homeowners in the area are doing something, including installing rock walls and fortified seawalls, he said. A major incident can cause damage to surrounding properties or the energy grid, if a property is connected to a gas line when it falls. Dan Dietz’s family business, Deitz House Moving Engineers, has been in Muskegon since 1945. The cycles of Lake Michigan have kept his company busy moving homes away from the shoreline for decades. Mount Pleasant's director of public works and village engineer said he estimates the area has eroded about 50 feet.

Top News: Big Storm, Catfishing Mom, A Machete Killer and More

But he can’t force action; his job is to be on the scene after an emergency has already occurred. The state is on track to receive nearly triple the requests for permits to combat the effects of erosion -- an estimated 1, this year than two years ago. Caledonia is continuing to move to fill empty land with new high-end housing along and near the lakefront. RACINE COUNTY — When Stan Olszewski bought his lakefront property in Mount Pleasant in 2012, the lake was the lowest it had been in years. Noting how the waves of Lake Michigan will never stop, “the instability of the bluff is something you can’t predict,” Vetter said.

A recent study of the issue found that rising water comes with a big price tag. More than 40 roads are affected by high water - with an initial estimate of $5 million in immediate repairs and $100 million to make permanent fixes. Gardner said that the lake levels went up last year, and are predicted to keep on rising. “It is 100 percent the homeowners responsibility to take care of that property and make sure it doesn’t get to the point where it’s subsiding over the edge,” he said. Across the lake in Somer, Wisconsin, a home has dangled on a cliff edge for months.

Mount Pleasant Woman Arrested for Catfishing Two Teens

In places, high waves atop near record high Great Lakes water levels have eroded dozens of feet of dune. “It’s frightening how much erosion is happening and how quickly it’s happening,” Tom Cotter told Michigan Live last week. Given that, experts warn that homeowners need to think long-term to address not just the situation they see in front of them, but within the pattern of water-level cycles. Dietz encouraged anyone with less than 100 feet to the bluff to be “realistic and pragmatic," and to plan, quickly, especially if they’ve lost significant lakefront over the lifetime of their home.

The lake's high water levels have been caused by above average rainfall the past few years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects the lake to remain high over the next six months, Interlochen Public Radio reported. Up and down the lakeshore, municipal agencies are encouraging residents to begin work. In Ottawa County, emergency services director Nick Bonstell said his office has been actively monitoring erosion levels since July. In August, it began doing regular flight assessments of the lakeshore, taking photos of every parcel along the coast to map the erosion levels.

The project is estimated to cost $1.7 million and could begin in 2022. A home at 7009 Novak Road, Caledonia, is threatened by lakefront erosion, but the property sold late last month. The five-lot property anchored by 7009 Novak Road sold for a little more than $250,000, according to county records, almost $200,000 less than the online listed asking price.

VILLAGE & TOWN OF SOMERS -- For many people living in the Midwest, having a house on the lake is a dream. But one property in the Village & Town of Somersis too close to the water for comfort. It’s just one of the many lakeshore homes disappearing from all the erosion.

Feb. 3 Caledonia flyover (copy)

More homes are at risk of falling into Lake Michigan due to rapid erosion along the shoreline. “Coming out of my mouth, I imagine it’s going to sound a bit prejudiced, but I think the only solution is picking up a house and moving it from the lakeshore,” he said. Shortly before midnight on Dec. 31, a family cottage toppled from a bluff in White River Township, west of downtown Montague. At the time that it fell, homeowner Patricia “Tish” Gancer had been attempting to install a rock revetment, and to stabilize the sandy bluff, even as portions of her home leaned over the edge.

That’s why coastline residents should at least begin acquiring permits now, even if they don’t plan to begin work immediately, said Rich Warner, Muskegon County’s director of emergency services. The home had crept nearer to the edge over the last few months, as powerful storm waves and nearly record-high lake levels eroded the shore. But by the time workers from White Lake Dock & Dredge were called in to begin work, it was “a little too little, too late,” said Bob Gezon, a marine contractor and the company’s founder.

Wright and his family enjoyed the lakeshore residence as a vacation home and tried to escape there as often as they could, he said. Furniture and belongings have been moved from the home, and utility connections were severed. As late as Friday morning, emergency officials still weren’t sure if the homeowner was going to tear the home down, Bonstell said. HOLLAND, MI -- A West Michigan shoreline home threatening at any moment to plummet more than 50 feet into Lake Michigan is being demolished Friday. Many homeowners have applied for permits to build seawalls and other protective structures. "Every day we worry about the east storms coming," said Darrel Carl, who owns a home on the lakefront.

“If you’re concerned with your house going in, you need to start that process as soon as possible,” Warner said. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Cupp says this summer he’s watched his property get smaller and smaller.

The question to use public funds to tear the home down was put before the Park Township Board of Trustees at an emergency meeting Thursday, according to WOOD TV8. Emergency management officials were surprised the Lakeshore Drive home made it through Thursday evening, Nov. 21, when wind gusts reached peak speeds of 44 mph in Holland. “We’re gonna tear it down today so it doesn’t fall in tonight,” said Carl Perrin, owner of Middleville construction firm Perrin Marine. "The lake has taken 70-pound anchors — ripped them right out of the shoreline. It's broken chains. It's broken ropes," demolition contractor Matt Lucansky told WITI. The Oct. 16 storm ate away up to 30 feet of dune along parts of the shore, the NWS said.