Buying Land in Michigan: What the State Controls Before a Township or County Gets Involved

Zoning starts at the township, not the county, in most of Michigan

Counties, townships, cities, and villages all draw their zoning authority from the same law, the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act (MZEA, Public Act 110 of 2006), which in 2006 merged what had been three separate zoning-enabling acts for counties, townships, and cities/villages into one statute. That shared origin doesn't mean zoning is uniform, though -- it means each type of local government can adopt its own ordinance under the same set of rules.

The detail that trips up buyers: where a township has adopted its own zoning ordinance, county zoning does not apply there at all. Michigan's roughly 1,240 townships are the primary zoning authority across most of rural Michigan, and county zoning only fills the gap in townships that have chosen not to adopt their own ordinance. Before you call a county planning office about a parcel, confirm whether the township it sits in has its own zoning department -- if it does, that's who administers use restrictions, setbacks, and building permits, not the county.

EGLE permits: the statewide layer that reaches lakes, streams, and wetlands

Separately from zoning, Michigan's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA, 1994 PA 451) gives the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) direct permitting authority over specific activities near water, on top of whatever local zoning allows. Two parts of NREPA matter most for a rural land buyer:

• Part 301 (Inland Lakes and Streams) requires an EGLE permit for dredging, filling, placing a structure on bottomlands, building or expanding a marina, or otherwise altering the natural flow of an inland lake or stream.
• Part 303 (Wetlands Protection) requires an EGLE permit to dredge, fill, or otherwise alter a regulated wetland -- one connected to the Great Lakes or an inland lake/stream, within 500 feet of an inland lake/stream or 1,000 feet of a Great Lake, or larger than 5 acres regardless of location.

These are not zoning categories you'll find on a township map -- they're activity-triggered state permits that apply regardless of the parcel's local zoning designation. A parcel zoned for single-family residential use can still need an EGLE permit before you're allowed to clear, fill, or build near a qualifying lake, stream, or wetland on it. Given how many Michigan parcels border an inland lake or sit on land with wetland characteristics, this is worth checking early, not after you've already planned a building site.

Two more NREPA parts apply specifically to Great Lakes coastal land: Part 323 (Shorelands Protection and Management) sets construction setbacks -- typically 30 years' worth of projected erosion for smaller structures and 60 years' worth for larger structures and septic systems -- within designated High Risk Erosion Areas along roughly 250 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, and Part 353 (Sand Dunes Protection and Management) requires an EGLE permit for construction, driveways, septic systems, or vegetation removal within a designated Critical Dune Area. Neither applies inland; both are worth flagging if you're looking at Great Lakes frontage specifically.

Septic: Michigan is a genuine outlier, and this is actively changing

Michigan is the only state in the country without a statewide sanitary code governing septic (onsite wastewater) systems. Instead, individual county (or multi-county district) health departments each adopt their own environmental health regulations under the state Public Health Code (1978 PA 368), and those local codes -- not a single state standard -- set the soil, setback, and design requirements a septic permit has to meet. In practice this means septic rules can differ meaningfully from one county to the next, even for similar soil and lot conditions.

This has been a live legislative issue for years. Bills to create a statewide sewage code were introduced in the 2023-2024 session and did not reach the governor's desk; as of early 2026, a similar bill has been reintroduced that would direct EGLE to establish a statewide sewage code within three years of taking effect and would authorize EGLE and local health departments to jointly inspect and regulate septic systems. None of this is law yet. Confirm the current status directly with EGLE or your target county health department before assuming either the old locally-only system or a new statewide code applies.

Wells work differently and are already standardized statewide: the Well Construction Code, Part 127 of the Public Health Code, sets one set of minimum specifications for well location and construction statewide, with local health departments administering and enforcing it and issuing the actual well permit. So on the same Michigan parcel, expect a state-standard process for the well and a county-specific process for the septic system -- don't assume the two work the same way just because the same health department handles both.

What this means for due diligence

On a Michigan parcel, identify three things early: which unit of government -- township or county -- actually administers zoning there, whether the parcel is close enough to a lake, stream, or wetland to trigger an EGLE Part 301 or Part 303 permit review, and which county health department's specific environmental health code will govern septic design and permitting (since that code, not a state one, sets the real requirements). For Great Lakes shoreline parcels specifically, also ask whether the property falls in a designated High Risk Erosion Area or Critical Dune Area, since either one adds its own EGLE permit on top of Part 301/303 review.