This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
The Banks Township Board of Trustees has taken the first step toward repealing all zoning laws in the township, which would clear the way for one of the township’s trustees to build a lucrative gravel mine on his property.
Richard Friske, Julie Chellis, and Marv Rubingh, in their first year as board members, voted in September to begin the process of making one of the most significant changes to township policy since the Antrim County community’s zoning laws were enacted in 1978.
Spurring the action is township Trustee Marv Rubingh, who has since 2017 sought permission from the township to dig a 183-acre gravel mine adjacent to an existing 30-acre gravel mine. His most recent effort in 2023 was blocked by the township’s Planning Commission, so in 2024, Rubingh ran for and won a seat on the township board, besting an independent candidate.
In his very first action during his very first meeting as a board member in December 2024, Rubingh made a motion to repeal part of a zoning ordinance that “imposed a moratorium on sand and gravel and aggregate extraction within the township.”
The motion failed, so Rubingh immediately took the floor again.
“When I was running for this office,” he told the crowd of 30 residents at the board’s December 2024 meeting, “I was given a mandate from the voters to preserve private property rights and freedom.”
Hear the arguments
Reporter Austin Rowlader takes us inside the meetings where this issue was debated at 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. on Monday during Morning Edition. How to listen.
Rubingh and fellow first-term Trustee Richard Friske favor repealing all zoning laws. Friske, the second-generation owner of Friske Orchards and another of the township’s largest landowners, called the township’s zoning laws too contentious.
“I am not convinced (zoning) is worth what it’s costing us in terms of grief, headaches and dissension in this community,” he said.
Supervisor Alex Busman and Treasurer Katy Postmus have dug their heels in to keep the zoning laws in place.
That left the township’s new clerk, Julie Chellis, as the swing vote.
“Who wants to be me?” she asked everyone gathered at the September board meeting. “You're gonna do what people want or don’t. Either way, I’m going to make somebody mad.”
She voted yes, hoping residents will force the issue to a ballot, and the process began to make Banks Township one of the relatively few Michigan communities without zoning.
Planning Commissioner Dave Rasmussen called Rubingh’s attempt to remove all zoning laws “smoke and mirrors” and said Rubingh has an ulterior motive to “fan the flames and get people upset so they want to remove zoning … Without zoning, he can have his unregulated mine.”
According to a document drafted by the township’s lawyer, the zoning laws can’t be overturned by a single board vote. A public hearing must be held and the board must allow the planning commissions for both the township and the county to weigh in. Then a second vote could officially rescind the zoning laws.
A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Banks Township Hall. Board members could hold the required second vote as early as their December meeting.
‘It’s not about getting one person rich’
Rubingh’s second gravel mine application, submitted in 2023, asked permission to remove 100,000 cubic yards of gravel from his property every year for the next 180 years. That would be enough gravel to fill the lower bowl of Ford Field 60 times.
If sold at retail price, 100,000 cubic yards of gravel would be worth more than $2.5 million. The mine would be cleared for operation until 2203, and the Rubingh family would stand to gain upward of $450 million over the course of multiple generations.
“This is about economic prosperity,” Rubingh said. “It’s about benefiting the community. It’s not about getting one person rich.”
Mines such as the one Rubingh proposes provide gravel to build roads. Although Michigan is one of the nation’s top producers of gravel, the cost remains high because local townships and villages currently control the permitting process and many communities are resistant to having a gravel mine as a neighbor. That causes construction companies to ship gravel from farther away, driving up the cost to build and maintain roads.
Rubingh says several Antrim County communities would be able to buy cheaper gravel if his mine opens.
He also said repealing zoning rules would help other entrepreneurs prosper in Banks Township.
“I think we need to look to our future, and the future of this community,” Rubingh replied. “The way our community is set up right now, we don’t give opportunity to our people.”
And Rubingh says his mine has nothing to do with his push to end the township’s zoning.
“(Gravel mining) is not the reason for any of the actions taken by the township board,” Rubingh told the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative. “Gravel was talked about in 2017. This all came up recently with a homeowner who wanted to replace his deck.”
He claimed the township’s Planning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals were unreasonable and forced a homeowner to jump through unnecessary hoops to get a deck.
The deck replacement was eventually approved by the township.
Rasmussen, the township planning commissioner, said “this is how the process works. This is how we make sure zoning is administered equally.”
‘You don’t care if a porn shop goes in next to a daycare?’
Residents voiced concerns over property values and preserving the township’s “rural character” if zoning laws were removed.
Postmus, the treasurer, addressed Rubingh directly during the board’s December 2024 meeting.
“So you’re cool with people making pie-shaped parcels, 20-foot-wide parcels on Lake Michigan?” she asked Rubingh. “You don’t care if a porn shop goes in next to a daycare?”
Rubingh pledged at a later meeting to “work harder than anyone to make sure evil doesn’t enter our community. We don’t need marijuana. We don’t need adult entertainment … It’s our job to protect the community from evil.”
Rubingh said he would provide such protections by replacing the current zoning laws with police power ordinances. But police power ordinances, when used to regulate land use, often do not hold up in court.
‘We want to delay the process’
Chellis, Rubingh, and Friske have said they want the township’s zoning laws to go to a vote of the people, but Rubingh admitted that, in order for zoning to end up on a future ballot, residents would need to “hire an attorney to write a referendum that would have to be signed by (over 100) citizens in the township.” According to the township’s lawyer, the township board can’t legally put the issue on the ballot themselves.
Former board member Julie Waterman started a grassroots movement called Banks Citizens for United Zoning (BCUZ), which is preparing to file the petition to force a public vote should the board vote again in favor of repealing all zoning laws.
“We want to delay the process as much as we can,” said Waterman. “We don’t have any money for an attorney.”
If the board votes again to repeal the township’s zoning laws, the public has seven days to file a “notice of intent to file a petition.” At that point, the zoning laws would be held in place while residents work to draft a referendum and gather signatures to put zoning laws on the ballot.
Missing hydrogeological assessment
Rubingh’s 2023 application was denied because it didn’t contain a hydrogeological assessment. During the information-gathering stage, the Planning Commission contracted Mike Wilczynski, of Pangea Environmental, to conduct an independent study.
Wilczynski’s report warned of wells drying up, changes to groundwater flow patterns, and “other unintended very serious consequences.”
The report concluded that more monitoring is needed to “understand the behavior and occurrence of groundwater in the area.”
“We have to stop this (guy),” said Melissa Zelenak, director of the Antrim Conservation District. “This is going to affect the entire watershed.”
Banks Township is located at the headwaters of the Elk River Chain of Lakes. The mine Rubingh proposes is fewer than 1,500 feet from St. Clair Lake, which sits upstream of 13 lakes and six rivers that eventually lead out the mouth of the Elk River into Grand Traverse East Bay.
“The potential impact of this mining project at a critical area in the watershed is horrific,” Zelenak said. “The long-term impact is not going to help anybody: the woods, the water, or the wildlife … they’re all screwed.”
This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
