Home Who Are We? Water Treatment Plant Proposals Questions & Concerns How Can I Help? Calendar Park History Government Contact Info Resources & Reference Park Maps Photo Gallery Park Weather Related Links Contact Us	Concerned Citizens for Saugatuck Dunes State Park was founded in the fall of 2001 to work for the preservation and expansion of Lower Michigan's most spectacular state park after the City of Holland and Laketown Township each submitted separate plans to the Michigan DNR to use the park for a water treatment plant. The DNR ultimately rejected the details of those two plans but not the overall concept. Both Holland and Laketown Township continue to pursue the state park and its environs as the most attractive location for a water treatment plant. Concerned Citizens does not believe that a water plant can be built in or next to Saugatuck Dunes State Park or maintained there without causing permanent damage to the park. Please browse this web site to learn more about the park, the threats to it, and what you can do to help. March 30, 2009 So Many Lawsuits... So many lawsuits, so little time, so little money... Stephen Neumer is suing Saugatuck Township on behalf of Aubrey McClendon to force a change to the tax valuation on McClendon’s township properties - 503 acres in total, 332 (66 percent) of which lie north of the river. The lawsuit is an attempt to place 70 percent of the taxable value of McClendon’s properties on the former south Denison (171 acres, or 34 percent of the total). The south Denison is currently inaccessible making development impractical, if not impossible. The taxable value should be negligible. By what logic is Neumer arguing that these acres represent 70 percent of the taxable valuation of McClendon’s properties? Neumer is also suing the Deam family, who own the old Saugatuck lighthouse property north of Oval Beach, to gain access to the south Denison. But the action repeats the 1965 lawsuit which already determined that there is no legal access across that land. The south Denison will be difficult to develop because of endangered species, Indian burial grounds, wetlands, flood plains and critical dunes. Neumer would also have to first get permission to access the property through Oval Beach or Fishtown Trail (currently a narrow, eroded path between Mt. Baldhead and the Oxbow - again across city-owned property). The question of tax valuation is vital of course, but note also who would take on the burden of the shifted tax responsibility: the City of Saugatuck. Because the city is negotiating to buy the south Denison, Neumer is really looking to load the heaviest tax responsibility onto the people of Saugatuck. If successful, Neumer's lawsuit would create a severe four-fold economic strain on our local community: 1) Neumer is selling the city an island - south Denison is inaccessible - at a greatly inflated price. His appraisal assumed access when legally there is no access. 2) Not only has Neumer inflated the price of the south, he now wants the city to pay an unfair portion of McClendon's property taxes. 3) Placing 70 percent of the tax value on the south will cost our community more than $600,000 in tax revenue for just one year; in five years this will accumulate to more than $3 million in lost services. Visit the township Web site for details. 4) Shifting 30 percent of the tax value to the north provides McClendon a huge tax reduction, making it easier for Neumer to flip the property or develop. Neumer's lawsuits have already caused a considerable burden on local officials, families and philanthropic funds and volunteer hours. Neumer likes to claim the lawsuit stems from the township rezoning the former Denison, which changed the number of houses that could be built there. But the township changed the zoning before McClendon finalized purchase of the parcel. The township did so to comply with the recommendations in the Tri-Community Comprehensive Plan, a plan years in the making, and after nearly a full year of transparent public meetings - meetings where Neumer could have voiced his concerns. The township legally changed the zoning before McClendon finalized the purchase, but because of the way Neumer structured McClendon's offer, McClendon could not back out of the agreement due to a zoning change. Perhaps Neumer is pursuing these lawsuits in hopes of forcing our community to bail McClendon out of a risky speculative investment. Since last year the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance has raised more than $80,000 for a legal fund to help fight these lawsuits. The Alliance continues to help Saugatuck Township with its mounting legal bills. We encourage others to consider making a donation to the township general fund to fight against McClendon and Neumer's frivolous lawsuit. David Swan President, Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance March 3, 2009 The Denison Property - An Update There's been a lot of action surrounding the Denison property lately, particularly the South Denison. Not much has actually been resolved, however. Depending on your views that could be considered unfortunate, or perhaps otherwise. Early in January, after lengthy negotiations between McClendon and a consortium of interests including The Nature Conservancy, the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance, and the city of Saugatuck, McClendon offered to sell the 171 acre Denison South property for $25 million, ultimately to be transferred to the City of Saugatuck. The deal was to be finalized by March 2nd, with neither the date nor the terms negotiable. Sounds pretty cut and dried, eh? But, as always, the devil is in the details. Among the terms were satisfactory settlement of both a tax dispute McClendon has with Saugatuck Township and a lawsuit against a family with deep roots on the Saugatuck area shoreline. There was also, of course, the small issue of obtaining funding for the purchase. You may recall that McClendon took possession of the entire Denison property early in 2006, coldly outbidding a coalition of local organizations led by Saugatuck Save our Shoreline (SOS). The DNR has openly had its eye on the property for addition to Saugatuck Dunes State Park since the park's inception. For decades, various groups have actively sought to acquire it for that purpose. Finally, in 2006, with nearly $38 million pledged for the purchase, the dream was about to be realized! But Oklahoma billionaire McClendon blithely pushed the alliance of groups aside, upped the ante to an unreachable $39.5 million, and walked away with the prize; 403 acres of nearly pristine duneland framing the only undeveloped river mouth remaining on the entire Lake Michigan shore. His intentions for the one of a kind property do not feature public use. The plot thickens... Go back a few years. Saugatuck Township began to discuss a growing desire to protect this and similar lakeshore properties from the rampant development the area was experiencing. They started to rewrite the zoning ordinances to establish a more conservative district which would, among other things, limit the number of homes that could be built on such parcels. The township helped promote the Tri-Community Survey then utilized the results to guide them as they shaped the new code. The effort of years finally resulted in a sizeable swath of lakeshore property being rezoned from the free wheeling R-3 to the fairly restrictive new R-4 Lakeshore Open Space, winning the applause of area residents and offering significant new protections to our unique and vanishing dunes, lakeshore, and riverfront. Not long thereafter McClendon outbid the conservation organizations and agreed to purchase the Denison property from the trusts holding it. He then promptly began to beat his chest about the unfair zoning change despite the fact it was in the works years before he had made any commitment. He claimed the rezoning unfairly reduced the value of the property to something well beneath his purchase price. That may have been a bit more convincing if Mr. McClendon had not just firmly established his personal evaluation of the property's worth, under the new zoning, by outbidding a bunch of folks to call it his own. South Denison and Lake Michigan from above the Oxbow.  McClendon filed appeals with the Michigan Tax Tribunal arguing the property had been devalued by the rezoning, which undoubtedly it had, but before he had any standing in the issue. His attorney, not surprisingly, stated he felt they had a very strong case. McClendon then forcefully presented the township with a consent agreement whereby he would drop his various lawsuits in return for the zoning being rolled back to the previous R-3 for a period of one year. Outcry against the proposal was deafening, but as the deadline approached no one felt confident what the board's decision was going to be. Apparently the suspense was a bit much for McClendon, because at the very meeting where the pronouncement was to be made, described further down the page, his attorney instead offered to "stay" their various suits in return for the township tabling the agreement. So much for strong cases. Meanwhile, like the good neighbor Mr. McClendon has always clearly wished to be, he is suing the Deam family for adverse possession to gain access to the Denison South via a right of way across the lighthouse property that divides it and which the Deam family has owned for generations. Appreciating this kind of billionaire etiquette must be something of an acquired taste. A favorable outcome to this suit was one of the purchase prerequisites. The one-year stay of the tax appeal expired December 31 of 2008. Brandishing the stick once again, McClendon’s attorney stated they will seek in the neighborhood of $1 million in tax refunds. However, McClendon politely offers to drop all lawsuits if the township will split the property valuation such that the undevelopable 171-acre Denison South now be considered worth 70 percent of the total and the developable 232-acre north, plus an adjoining 100 acres McClendon has since purchased, be valued at (cough) 30 percent. This was another of the purchase agreement prerequisites. Saugatuck Township supervisor Bill Wester had a problem with the idea, however. "I don’t want to queer the deal, but..." he said "I don’t think what he’s proposing for us is reasonable." Yah, it’s little hard to get your head around that kind of math. That's probably why McClendon is the billionaire. Well... Was. His fortunes have since taken rather a nasty tumble, due to a bit of over-grasping, and he is currently reduced to a mere multi-millionaire. Still, that's plenty daunting for a small community to go up against, despite a number of local attorneys having repeatedly and earnestly offered their assistance pro bono, and local groups and individuals donating about $15,000 to the cause thus far. So, where do things stand presently? The decreed date has now passed, and adequate funding could not be arranged in such a short time. The entire endeavor pivoted on a grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. But the trust fund board had deep reservations about the inflated price, and they were very reluctant to make an out of cycle grant. They do not formally approve grant requests till December of each year. Despite this, they passed a resolution stating they support granting between $11.6 and $15 million, at State Senator Patricia Birkholz's request, but they also suggested the purchase price be renegotiated. At the moment, it appears that the future of the Denison South is on hold. But, the price was viewed by many as dramatically inflated and the attendant terms unpalatable at best. Concerned Citizens remains convinced public ownership of the entire Denison property is still viable, however, as does Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance. While times are hard for obtaining pledges, times are also hard for ex-billionaires. McClendon has recently developed the odd habit of buying high and selling low. Witness his Chesapeake shares, and now, according to the Wall Street Journal's Wealth Report, 9,000 bottles of wine from his collection which cost him an estimated $5 million. This despite a seriously slumping market. If, as the WJS reporter quipped, Mr. McClendon is feeling the need to liquidate some of his liquid assets, at a likely 30% loss, it's not unimaginable he might consider parting with some real estate as well. May 20, 2008 Denison Preservationists Completely Dysfunctional According to Aubrey McClendon, the Oklahoma billionaire who coldly outbid numerous state and local organizations seeking to purchase the Denison property for preservation, those organizations and their members are "completely dysfunctional." McClendon was quoted in a glowing article in the May issue of Fortune magazine, "Meet Mr. Gas." The Fortune article went on to proclaim that McClendon had "snatched (the Denison property) away from local groups that had been trying to preserve it for decades". There was also praise for some of McClendon's contributions to right-wing political groups, among them Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, apparently founded exclusively to smear John Kerry in his 2004 presidential campaign (and quickly revealed to be less than entirely credible), and Americans United to Preserve Marriage, an organization primarily focused on illegalizing gay marriage. In an interview with the Local Observer, David Swan, President of the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance and Co-chair of CCSDSP, said "I read it as a real insult to the state agencies who have been working for 30 years. I see it as a direct insult to (State Senator) Patricia Birkholz, who has made her political career out of being a conservation-minded Republican in Michigan. I see it as a direct insult to (Former Michigan Governor) William Milliken, who specifically addressed the McClendons in doing the right thing in allowing us to protect and preserve the dunes." In the same Observer article Saugatuck Council Member Catherine Simon said "When you say 'snatched up' you make it sound like it was taken away from the people. It was sold from one private individual to another private individual while a citizen group was concerned in trying to acquire it." We would have to agree with Catherine's assessment of the use of the term "snatched", while reminding her it was McClendon's breathless admirers who used it in this context. May 5, 2008 Holland BPW - Laketown Township Water Agreement. More Trouble? A brief editorial in the Holland Sentinel's May 4th edition revealed that Holland has agreed to increase the volume of water supplied to Laketown Township by 50% in return for Laketown's support for a new water treatment plant to be built by Holland in the township. While the city owns a 23 acre parcel in the dunes of the Lake Michigan shore, adjacent to the North boundary of the park, they have not previously shown a serious interest in attempting to construct a water treatment facility at that location. They have instead consistently pursued a location in the Saugatuck Dunes State Park, taking various approaches to that end. Indeed, it has been suggested that Holland's parcel is not buildable, due to its status a protected critical dunes, and that Holland purchased it only to be eventually used as a bargaining chip to attain land within park. The water agreement has not as yet been ratified by the two municipalities, but the announcement serves as a heads-up that threats to the park from this quarter are not dead, but merely dormant. It will be important to remain vigilant in the coming months and years. January 2, 2008 McClendon Requests Settlement Agreement Be Tabled Saugatuck Township Board's Wednesday meeting, once again held at the Saugatuck High School to accommodate another anticipated standing-room-only crowd and TV cameras, kicked off with a surprise request by Aubrey McClendon, new owner of the Denison property, to table his proposed settlement agreement with the township. In the highly contentious agreement McClendon's Saugatuck LLC offered to drop various lawsuits pending against the township in return for rolling back, for one year, the current R-4 zoning of the property to the much less restrictive R-1, 2, and 3B zoning in place prior to the purchase. Many felt the agreement was sprung on the public with far too short of notice, just hours prior to the Board's December 5th meeting where it was to be voted on. An alarmed crowd packed the township hall and forced the board to table consideration of the agreement and schedule the subsequent December 19th special session, where action on the proposal was once again tabled amidst impassioned pleas from a full house, with more packed in the doors from the hall. Clearly everyone expected another emotional evening of trying to convince the Board to vote down the agreement. Instead, Saugatuck LLC attorney James Bruinsma read a statement from McClendon requesting the Board table further action on the agreement. "Saugatuck LLC has listened to the concerns of the Saugatuck community voiced in recent township meetings and in the many letters to the press," he read. "Responding to those concerns, we have asked the township to table its vote on the proposed settlement agreement, for later consideration in connection with our PUD application." The statement also said Saugatuck LLC would 'stay' the 2007 real estate tax tribunal cases for a period of one year. Reactions from the crowd ranged from relief to misgivings. David Swan, president of the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance, which has worked intensively for preservation of the Denison property, said "The McClendons are visionaries and great philanthropists. We are all neighbors in this." Swan expressed his hope the McClendons would now act in a manner sensitive to the well established goals of the local communities as expressed in our Tri-Community Comprehensive Plan (9.8MB) which forms the basis for the long sought R-4 zoning of the Denison property. Phil Miller, Co-Chair of Saugatuck Save Our Shoreline, the organization most actively involved in the attempted purchase and preservation of the Denison property, was pleased with the news but said "we are involved in a marathon, not a sprint." He added "If they agree to keep the South (half of the Denison property) completely undeveloped and keep homes fewer than 80 on the North, we're willing to keep open minds." State Representative Patricia Birkholz, who was instrumental in the creation of Saugatuck Dunes State Park and has worked for years to add the Denison property to the park, presented a less cheery view. She read a letter from Paul McEnroe, one-third owner of the 80-acre Riverside Farm adjacent to the Denison land. McEnroe said that Saugatuck LLC has issued ultimatums and used raw power plays that "are an affront to this community's sensibilities." McEnroe's letter then addressed the township trustees and asked, did you, as elected officials "listen to our community's conscience about doing business with a developer who issues ultimatums to families, threatens lawsuits and repeatedly fails to describe its goals that could very well transform our community into something ordinary?" Other views expressed by the public during the comment period included "They are threatening to sue us, yet they say we should trust them," and "Mr. McClendon is playing a game. I would be very skeptical of trusting him." A number of people suggested that McClendon had backed away from a threat he realized he did not have adequate legal standing to press home and that responding to this "change of heart" was simply facilitating him. They felt the township should meet Saugatuck LLC head on and vote to reject the proposed agreement. Mike O'Brien, ex truck stop developer turned organic meat farmer asked "Why would you come to an area out of love and threaten lawsuits?" He urged the council not to table but to "vote the agreement down." Marcia Perry, President of Laketown Alliance for Neighborly Development, told the board "We will help you stand up to the deep pockets you are seeing." Kate McPolin and Dave Burdick, members of the City of Saugatuck and Douglas planning commissions, respectively, offered to donate their commission stipends toward township attorney fees. Ultimately, the board voted 5-0 to comply with McClendon's request and table the action. Township attorney Bultje reminded the board that McClendon's agreement to stay the tax case doesn't mean he's withdrawing it. "They could come back and challenge 2007 and ’08 assessments in May 2009," he said. Is this yet another impasse, progress, or a step back? The board tabling action basically means McClendon may now present a planned unit development that does not conform with R-4 zoning which the township would review "in good faith", per their September 2006 agreement with McClendon. Meanwhile, in what has the potential to be a "divide and conquer" strategy, McClendon has offered to lease the South Denison to the City of Saugatuck at no cost. See Also... Be sure to check out the updates, reports, media coverage and more that we have archived on our Resources & Reference page. Here are a few of the more recent entries. Saugatuck Township public meeting - McClendon Consent Agreement    The township board was host to a full house public meeting on    McClendon's rezoning request consent agreement. December 19, 2007 Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance - Keep the Denison Wild Event at Oval Beach    Wonderful weather, live jazz, and a sweeping view of the Denison.    Hope you were there! July 26, 2007 Response to McClendon - Development of the Denison    Commercial Record, December 6, 2006 Edition. Maximize Michigan's Resources    Commercial Record, November 23, 2006 Edition. Swans' Appeal to Keep Working to Save Dune Land    Holland Sentinel, November 19, 2006. Last updated May 4, 2009 Comments regarding website design, errors, and maintenance only please.