Seawalls and Bulkheads in Holland, MI: Michigan's EGLE Permitting Framework
Unlike a local building permit for a fence or a deck, shoreline hardening on Holland's Lake Michigan or Lake Macatawa waterfront runs through a state environmental regulator, not just the local building department. Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) regulates any seawall, bulkhead, riprap, or similar structure built on Great Lakes bottomlands under a specific statutory framework, and understanding that framework matters before assuming a shoreline project can proceed on a standard local-permit timeline.
The Legal Framework: Part 325, Great Lakes Submerged Lands
EGLE's authority over shoreline construction comes from Part 325, Great Lakes Submerged Lands, of Michigan's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (1994 PA 451, as amended). A permit from EGLE is required for construction activities on Great Lakes bottomlands, including filling, dredging, and the placement of structures like docks, boat lifts, or seawalls, below the statutory Ordinary High-Water Mark (OHWM). Shoreline hardening specifically -- riprap, seawalls, and bulkheads -- is explicitly named as work requiring a Part 325 permit, not something that can be handled through a routine local building permit alone.
This program isn't a narrow or occasional regulatory footnote: EGLE's Great Lakes Submerged Lands Program covers the entirety of Michigan's 3,288 miles of Great Lakes shoreline and more than 38,000 square miles of Great Lakes bottomlands statewide. Holland's Lake Michigan frontage -- including the shoreline near the Holland Harbor Light and Holland State Park -- falls fully within this regulated area, as does any structure placed in Lake Macatawa below its own OHWM, since the same general permitting principle extends to inland lakes connected to the Great Lakes system.
EGLE's Permitting Standard: 'No More Than Minimal Impact'
The law and rules require EGLE to ensure that a project will have no more than minimal impact on the public trust, adjacent riparian property owners, and the environment before issuing a permit. That standard means a proposed seawall or bulkhead isn't automatically approved just because it sits on the applicant's own riparian property -- EGLE evaluates the project's impact on neighboring shoreline, on public trust use of the lake bottomlands, and on the broader environment before granting a permit.
In practice, this means a property owner proposing shoreline hardening should expect EGLE review to consider factors beyond the immediate property line: how the proposed structure might affect wave action, sediment movement, or erosion on adjacent parcels, and whether less-invasive alternatives (like a softer, vegetated or nature-based shoreline stabilization approach, if applicable to the site) were considered. This page does not walk through EGLE's full technical review criteria in detail, since that level of engineering-specific detail is EGLE's own domain, not a general real estate research page's.
What This Means for a Property With Existing Shoreline Hardening
For a buyer looking at a Holland property that already has a seawall, bulkhead, or riprap in place, the practical question is whether that structure was actually permitted through EGLE's Part 325 process, and whether that permit is current and valid. An older structure, particularly one built before current permitting practices were as consistently enforced, may not have documented EGLE authorization -- and an unpermitted structure can become the new owner's liability to resolve, potentially including required removal or retroactive permitting, rather than a grandfathered asset.
Ask the seller directly for documentation of any EGLE permit covering existing shoreline hardening, and independently confirm permit status with EGLE if that documentation isn't readily available. This is worth doing as part of standard due diligence before closing, covered in more general terms on this site's buying-process page for Holland, rather than discovering a permitting gap after the purchase is final.
Timeline and Process Realities
Because Part 325 permitting is a state environmental review process rather than a routine local building permit, it generally involves a longer timeline and more documentation than a standard residential construction permit -- though this page does not state a specific current processing timeframe, since that wasn't independently confirmed for this research pass and can vary by project complexity and EGLE's current permit-review workload. A property owner planning shoreline hardening should budget real lead time into any renovation or storm-response timeline, rather than assuming a seawall repair or replacement can happen on the same timeline as a typical home-improvement project.
This is a genuinely important practical distinction from an ocean-coast market's seawall process, where local or county permitting alone might govern the work: in Michigan, the state-level EGLE review is the controlling process for any Great Lakes shoreline structure, and skipping it isn't a minor compliance gap -- it's a real legal and financial risk for the property owner.
Softer Alternatives and When They Apply
Not every erosion-management response on Holland's shoreline needs to be a hard structure like a seawall or bulkhead. EGLE's permitting framework, and Great Lakes coastal management practice more broadly, generally considers a range of shoreline stabilization approaches, including nature-based or vegetated solutions in some settings, alongside traditional hard armoring. Which approach fits a specific property depends on the site's exposure, soil composition, and the severity of the erosion risk being addressed -- factors a coastal engineer or EGLE's own permitting staff, not this page, are positioned to evaluate for a specific parcel.
This page does not recommend a specific shoreline stabilization approach for any individual Holland property. Anyone facing real erosion risk on a specific Lake Michigan or Lake Macatawa parcel should consult a coastal engineer familiar with Great Lakes shoreline conditions and begin the EGLE permitting conversation early, given the process's real timeline and documentation requirements.
Before You Buy or Build: The Practical Checklist
For a buyer evaluating a Holland waterfront property: confirm whether any existing seawall, bulkhead, or riprap has documented, current EGLE Part 325 authorization; if planning new shoreline hardening, budget real lead time for the state permitting process rather than assuming a local-permit-only timeline; and confirm with a Michigan-licensed insurance agent whether the property's coverage addresses erosion risk in the absence of (or in addition to) any shoreline hardening, covered on this site's coastal-insurance page for Holland.
None of this should be read as a reason to avoid waterfront property in Holland -- shoreline hardening is a normal, regularly permitted activity here, and EGLE's process, while more involved than a routine building permit, is a well-established and navigable one. It's simply a real, Michigan-specific step in the ownership process that an ocean-coast buyer's mental model of local-only seawall permitting won't anticipate.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: Michigan.gov/EGLE's own published materials on the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Construction Permits program and Great Lakes Shoreline Management pages, for the Part 325 legal citation (Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451), the Ordinary High-Water Mark permitting trigger, the "no more than minimal impact" standard, and the program's statewide scope (3,288 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, 38,000+ square miles of bottomlands); and general Michigan coastal-management guidance on shoreline stabilization approaches. This page does not state a specific current EGLE permit-processing timeframe, does not name the specific permit status of any individual Holland-area shoreline structure, and does not recommend a specific stabilization approach for any specific property, since none of that was independently confirmed for this research pass. Confirm current permit status, processing timelines, and technical requirements directly with EGLE, and consult a coastal engineer for any specific property's shoreline stabilization needs. Nothing on this page is engineering, legal, or regulatory advice.