Residents to fight housing on dunes
Source: Kalamazoo Gazette, by Shandra Martinez
July 26, 2007
SAUGATUCK -- Area residents are gearing up for a big land battle against Oklahoma billionaire and Seattle Supersonics co-owner Aubrey McClendon.
McClendon spent $39.5 million to outbid local efforts to buy 412 acres known as the Denison property, which many locals wanted to preserve as public parkland. The natural-gas tycoon wants to develop the pristine dunes along 1.25 miles of Lake Michigan coastline in Saugatuck Township into a ``high-end residential' site.
Although he has yet to offer a formal plan, environmental and civic organizations have begun mounting opposition. The newly formed Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance, made up of seven environmental and civic organizations, will launch its effort with a rally Thursday.
``We want to remind the citizenry that we have a long history of trying to protect this land and we are not going to give up,' said David Swan, who has been honored with his wife, Alison, by the Michigan Environmental Council for leading a successful opposition to a public utility's effort to add a water intake line on land within the 1000-acre Saugatuck Dunes State Park.
But the local battle cry is premature, says Stephen Neumer, who is heading the development effort on behalf of McClendon.
``The opposition is for development in general because there is nothing on the table for what the development will be,' Neumer said.
``They are opposing what they don't know anything about.'
The focus has been on understanding the land: an ecological complexity of wetlands, dunes and flood plains that is home to a variety of endangered species. The sweep of dunes straddles the Kalamazoo River where it empties into Lake Michigan.
Developing the property could take years. Getting the go-ahead for development will require rezoning the property from residential to planned-use development and acquiring environmental permits from the state.
But that isn't enough to deter McClendon, whose wife, Katie, has ties to the area. Aubrey McClendon first saw the property while boating several years ago and learned it was for sale in 2003. He eventually purchased the land from the Frank Denison Estate and Gertrude Denison Trust, offering $1.5 million more than the $38 million raised in grants and private dollars to buy it for public use.
In an interview three years ago with The Grand Rapids Press, Aubrey McClendon said while he didn't want to lose money on his investment, he understood the public pressure to save the land.
``It's a very beautiful piece of ground,' said Neumer, who considered buying the property himself. ``There is no reason that it shouldn't be inhabited by another animal with proper thought and respect to the dunes.'
Saugatuck has a reputation for holding the line against developers. Earlier this year, public outcry convinced a property owner to buy out his contract with the Utah-based Flying J, which planned to build a truck stop along the highway at the entrance to Saugatuck.
Swan says the effort to save the Denison property goes beyond the borders of this waterfront resort community; the land is on the radar of Gov. Jennifer Granholm and other legislators, he said.
``The Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Area are to the Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area what Marin County is to San Francisco, the Olympic Peninsula is to Seattle, Cape Cod is to Boston and the Hamptons are to New York,' Swan said.
