Pierson Township golf course owners considering RV park development

PIERSON TOWNSHIP — The owners of a Pierson Township golf course are considering developing it into an RV park and more.

Rick Rookstool told the Daily News that he and Brenda Steuer as Bass Lake Golf Club LLC purchased Whitefish Lake Golf & Grill at 2241 N. Bass Lake Road from 19th Hole Group in April 2021. They are each a 50% owner and Rookstool co-manages the business with Brenda’s husband, David Steuer.

Rookstool previously owned Tyler Creek Golf Course & Campground in Alto, which he said he sold in July 2021, and he currently owns Evening Star RV Resort in Topeka, Illinois, and Tall Sycamore Campground in Logansport, Indiana.

Rookstool, who lives in Oakland County’s Oakland Township, and his business partners are considering developing the Pierson Township golf course into a “destination park” by removing nine of the 18 golf holes and adding a 352-site RV park with campsites, swimming pools, pickleball courts, basketball courts, a sand volleyball court, an outdoor entertainment pavilion and a dog run, according to a presentation the business partners gave a township lake association in February.

Rookstool said the “destination park” concept would benefit the township with more fire protection (such as additional fire hydrants installed along Daggett Road), law enforcement “perks” (such as discounted pricing for RV sites to members of the Montcalm County Sheriff’s Department), overflow parking for lake resident guests (for a “nominal fee”) and pool passes for sale to county residents. Golf memberships, daily golf access and restaurant and banquet facilities would remain open to the general public.

The Pierson Township Planning Commission will next meet at 7 p.m. on April 28 and has received several letters voicing concern and asking questions about the RV park idea. No permits have been requested from the township yet and all discussions have been preliminary.

The owners of Whitefish Lake Golf & Grill in Pierson Township are considering developing a portion of the property into an RV park and more. However, some township residents are voicing concern with the idea. — Submitted photo | Whitefish Lake Golf & Grill Facebook page

“This is not proposed — this is a concept idea RV park,” Zoning Administrator Lance Gates emphasized during Wednesday evening’s Pierson Township Board meeting. “These letters have been looked at, they will be looked at by the Planning Commission as well.”

“It’s very initial, very preliminary,” Rookstool told the Daily News on Thursday. “We have talked twice to the Planning Commission at a very preliminary level.

“The viability of golf in general — golf is what I would call an industry in decline,” he noted. “Young people don’t golf in the numbers that they used to. They don’t bowl, they don’t fish — they do camp — but golf’s kind of a dying industry. The (golf course) property really lends itself to an RV park based on its proximity to Grand Rapids, its proximity off of (U.S.) 131, it’s easy to get to. There’s a lot of features there. We’d get a lot of patronage out of Grand Rapids, a little out of Muskegon. People would park their campers there for the summer and leave them and commute back and forth throughout the summer, whatever fits their lifestyle.”

Rookstool said updates about the possible development will be posted on the Whitefish Lake Golf & Grill’s Facebook page in the future. In the meantime, he said he’s in the middle of a “public relations campaign” to help township residents get used to the idea. He said he understands residents will have concerns about increased traffic and more, but he believes residents will also enjoy having access to swimming pools and more.

“We’ve gotten very good feedback,” he said. “We’ve gotten a lot more people that are positive than negative about it.”

In unrelated news, plans for an RV park/campground near Howard City fell through earlier this year. Colt Shimunek presented plans for an 84-acre parcel on the northeast corner of 131 and M-46 in the summer of 2021. The Reynolds Township Planning Commission voted to approve the requested change in zoning for the property and the Reynolds Township Board approved it as well. However, the project fell apart this past January after Shimunek wasn’t able to obtain financing, according to Planning Commission Chairman Edward Kentgen.

‘WE SEE NO BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY’

Multiple letters were recently sent to the Pierson Township Board and forwarded to the Planning Commission on the topic of the RV park.

The owners of Whitefish Lake Golf & Grill in Pierson Township are considering developing a portion of the property into an RV park and more. However, some township residents are voicing concern with the idea. — Submitted photo | Whitefish Lake Golf & Grill Facebook page

James Hatch of Pierson is the retired Sparta police chief and he warned the area is already challenged for adequate police service without the addition of an RV park.

“As a former law enforcement official, I can assure you that amount of density will greatly enhance the need of additional law enforcement calls for service, both domestic and criminal,” Hatch wrote. “I would urge you to give this proposal from a law enforcement perspective your most serious and unfavorable decision.”

Gage DeVries of Pierson expressed concern for the ecological health of Spring Pond at the corner of Daggett and Pierson roads. He said the pond is a natural, freshwater spring that feeds Big Whitefish Lake and supplies water to surrounding wetlands. The pond is also home to a wide variety of animals, fish, birds and plants and DeVries worries the runoff from an RV park would affect the pond, as well as Big Whitefish Lake. 

DeVries also voiced concern about an already existing increase in crime and a lack of law enforcement officials in the area.

“With the promise of increased traffic to the Big Whitefish area, and more out-of-towners/tourists, crime and trespassing are expected to increase,” he wrote. “As has been our struggle for over two decades, we have not seen law enforcement properly protecting the area from the current amount of population. The benefits of this destination park do not outweigh its negative consequences.”

Craig and Debbie Kinney of Pierson own property on Daggett Road and on Big Whitefish Lake. They say the secure feeling of leaving their cottage vacant for days at a time is “slowly slipping away” and they also voiced concern about how an RV park might affect property values.

“The lake community is already at capacity when it comes to homes on the adjacent properties,” the Kinneys wrote. “Adding an additional 352 sites (approximately three to four individuals per site) with a public access nearby has potential to increase the population by 900 to 1,000 at any given time. Considering the fact that the population of Pierson Township is roughly 3,200, that is an increase of one-third of the population of the RV park at the Phase 1 capacity.

“The addition of even 30 more boats on any one of the neighboring small lakes would be a recipe for disaster,” they added. “Overcrowding at the boat landing for daily launching of boats from the RV park, overcrowding at the landing as RV residents choose to anchor and picnic in the area and overcrowding on the lake with the addition of water vessels. All of these things bring potential safety concerns for everyone. Boaters, kayakers, paddleboarders and swimmers. Road breakdown from the impact of additional traffic will fall on the shoulders of the community taxpayers.”

The Kinneys also questioned how the developers’ proposal to give Montcalm County sheriff’s officers discounted RV site pricing would increase community safety, noting that the law enforcement officials would be vacationing themselves at the time.

“Is there a written agreement with the Montcalm County Sheriff’s Department that they will provide services while vacationing or staying at the RV site?” the Kinneys wrote. “If so, will residents of Pierson Township be provided with services from these individuals since they are our county law enforcement?

“We ask that you take a moment to imagine 1,000 strangers suddenly camping in your backyard because if the RV park is allowed, that is exactly what our household will be facing,” the Kinneys concluded.

Jason Broekstra, a biologist, is the vice president of Professional Lake Management (PLM) in Caledonia, which serves several lakes in Montcalm County. Broekstra voiced concern about possible ecological impacts to Big Whitefish Lake and its surrounding watershed — both from runoff from the RV park, as well as the introduction of new exotic and/or invasive species from people launching new boats in the lake, as well as potential wake boats which create shoreline erosion, lake bottom scoring and the resuspension of sediment which will reduce water clarify and may promote algae blooms.

“In addition to these concerns, Big Whitefish lake has a unique bathymetry (water measurement) with sunken islands and shelves that provide habitat for its fisheries and spawning,” Broekstra wrote. “Nonresidents are not aware of these areas and will disturb fish bed spawning as well as cutting vegetation which will float to riparian’s shorelines to clean up.

“Big Whitefish Lake has a balanced ecosystem, terrific water clarity, good fishers and strong property values,” he concluded. “I am very concerned that the introduction of a large RV park could negatively impact and disrupt the lake’s ecosystem. Big Whitefish Lake is a local gem for Pierson Township and should be protected at all costs.”

Don and Gerri Knottnerus of Pierson wrote that when their purchased their home on Daggett Road more than 20 years ago, they first studied the township’s zoning maps and master plans before building in the residential area. 

The golf course is currently zoned “agriculture” and is surrounded by residential areas.

“The special use permit for an RV park is not compatible with adjacent land uses and activities,” the couple wrote. “The special use permit for an RV park does no comply with the master plan and provides no benefit to the health, safety and welfare of the public and does not serve public benefit or a useful purpose to the surrounding area.”

Big Whitefish Lake Association President Kevin Gilfillan and his wife Diane voiced similar concerns, writing, “We request that the Pierson Township Planning Commission and the (township) Board of Directors decline the conversion of Whitefish Lake Golf Course to a campground. We see no benefit to our community by the addition of this plan.”