Seawalls and Bulkheads at Saugatuck / Douglas: Michigan's Real Permitting Framework

The Great Lakes Submerged Lands Program: The Core Framework

Michigan's Great Lakes Submerged Lands Program, administered by EGLE, regulates construction activity along 3,288 miles of Great Lakes shoreline and more than 38,000 square miles of Great Lakes bottomlands statewide. Most shore armoring structures -- seawalls, revetments, sandbags, and groins -- are regulated under this program, meaning a property owner generally needs an EGLE permit before installing or substantially modifying any of these structures along Lake Michigan frontage. This is a real, statewide regulatory framework with direct implications for shoreline resilience planning on any Great Lakes property, not an informal or rarely-enforced rule.

High Risk Erosion Areas Add a Second Layer of Review

Where a shoreline segment carries EGLE's High Risk Erosion Area (HREA) designation -- a documented recession rate of one foot or more per year over at least 15 years, covering roughly 250 miles of shoreline across Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron -- construction, including shoreline armoring, requires a joint permit from EGLE and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with setbacks measured from a mapped Erosion Hazard Line rather than the Ordinary High Water Mark used elsewhere. This page did not independently confirm whether any specific stretch of Saugatuck/Douglas shoreline currently carries an HREA designation; confirm current status directly with EGLE's Water Resources Division before assuming which permitting track applies to a specific parcel.

Expedited Permitting Was Real During the 2019-2020 Crisis -- But Isn't a Standing Program

During the 2019-2020 high-water crisis, the state's environmental agency announced it would expedite shoreline erosion permits for homes and infrastructure genuinely threatened by high lake levels, with some permits issued within days of application rather than the agency's normal review timeline, per the agency's own news release at the time. That expedited posture was a direct, emergency-driven response to the specific conditions of that particular high-water cycle. It is not a standing, year-round fast-track program, and a property owner facing shoreline erosion today should confirm current EGLE permitting timelines directly rather than assuming an expedited process automatically applies.

River and Kalamazoo Lake Frontage: A Related but Distinct Permitting Context

Shoreline hardening on Kalamazoo River or Kalamazoo Lake frontage, as distinct from open Lake Michigan frontage, generally falls under Michigan's broader inland lakes and streams regulatory framework rather than the Great Lakes-specific bottomlands program, though EGLE oversees both. General guidance on shoreline erosion protection for Michigan's inland lakes and streams emphasizes vegetative and "soft" erosion-control methods where feasible, alongside traditional hard structures, similar in spirit to the living-shoreline preference seen in some ocean-coastal states' estuarine permitting. This page did not independently confirm the specific current permitting requirements or preferred-methods guidance that would apply to a specific Kalamazoo River or Kalamazoo Lake parcel -- confirm directly with EGLE before assuming what's required or preferred for a given site.

What a Shoreline Property Owner Should Actually Do

For any property with existing shoreline armoring -- a seawall, revetment, or riprap structure already in place -- a buyer should ask whether that structure was properly permitted under the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Program (or the applicable inland-waters framework for river/Kalamazoo Lake frontage) before purchase, since an unpermitted structure can become the new owner's liability to resolve. For a property that might need new or replacement shoreline protection, budget real time and cost for the EGLE permitting process rather than assuming a straightforward, fast approval, and ask specifically whether the parcel carries an HREA designation that would trigger the joint EGLE/Army Corps review track.

This page also does not state Saugatuck Township's current shoreline building setback distance in specific numeric terms -- covered in more depth on this site's Beach Erosion Reality page -- which is a separate but related constraint on new construction near the shoreline, distinct from the permitting requirements for the armoring structure itself.

What This Page Doesn't Cover

This page explains Michigan's general EGLE-administered shoreline armoring permitting framework and the additional High Risk Erosion Area review layer. It does not state current permitting timelines or cost estimates for a specific project, the current HREA designation status of any specific parcel, or a technical engineering assessment of what armoring approach would be appropriate for a specific site. Confirm current legal and regulatory status directly with EGLE's Water Resources Division before planning any shoreline construction. Nothing on this page is legal, engineering, or permitting advice.