July 27, 2003 We Must Take Steps to Preserve Our Lakeshore By Alison and David Swan Fifteen years ago, we showed Saugatuck Dunes State Park and its neighborhood to a friend who grew up on the coast of California. He was stunned by the lack of development he saw then along our shores. It was, he told us, much more inviting than his native California. Cities like Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul -- even California's San Francisco -- are regularly celebrated for their high quality of life. Invariably, their proximity to natural beauty and public wildlands is mentioned as one of their major draws. In Michigan we are rapidly creating a situation where people have to get on a plane before they can escape to someplace wild and beautiful. If we want to attract talented energetic young people to our lakeshore communities we are going to have to offer them the things they want. We live in Saugatuck to be near the beach, the open dunes, and the relatively undisturbed coastal woods of places like Saugatuck Dunes State Park. We are not alone in choosing to live in West Michigan for this reason. There are many people who have chosen to make this spectacular and unique landscape their home. As a coastal region, however, we are at a critical juncture. We may very well be the last generation to have the choice to preserve our lakeshore wilderness. We must demand that our elected officials take seriously their responsibility to serve the public good by protecting public parkland. Voices as divergent as Governor Granholm, Senator Birkholz, and PIRGIM agree on this basic tenant. However, in direct opposition and placing our coastal community at great peril, are the current administrations in Holland, Laketown Township, and Allegan County who continue to assert that the single best place for a water treatment plant in all of West Michigan is in the heart of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park. This is simply, unequivocally untrue. We, and the 1,000 plus members of Concerned Citizens for Saugatuck Dunes State Park ask local leaders to, at the very least, work hard to preserve what little public duneland is left on the lakeshore -- better yet, please work to expand our parklands, don't allow them to be cut into pieces for major utilities. We ask that you work as a regional team and look at a long-term, sensible solution. Do not needlessly put at risk the landscape that defines us as the singular coastal community we are. Our children's children will benefit in every way from your hard work. The drive to develop the Saugatuck Dunes State Park is one more misstep in a domino effect of bad policy -- the 20-year refusal to clean the Kalamazoo River (the largest superfund site in Michigan dumping 300 pounds of PCBs a year into Lake Michigan), the 99-year water contract between Holland and Zeeland (renewable for 99-years) which allows the Mirant Power Plant to siphon 12 percent of the Holland's potable water (this is ancient technology), the uncooperative land use policies of neighboring/bickering municipalities. The list is long and complex. As voters we must set the bar higher for our elected officials. The proposal to put a water treatment plant in the heart of Saugatuck Dunes State Park sets the bar extremely low. The lovely and serene place in which we live deserves better care. As lakeshore residents, we will have only ourselves to blame if a few years down the road we have nothing but fragments left of our freshwater sand dunes and coastal forests. And remember, Saugatuck Dunes State Park belongs to the citizens of Michigan, all 10 million of them. Not everyone can build a house on the big lake, but everyone can own a piece of the shoreline via our marvelous state parks. David and Alison Swan of Saugatuck are Co-chairs of Concerned Citizens for Saugatuck Dunes State Park. This editorial appeared in the Holland Sentinel's July 27, 2003 Sunday edition. Return to Concerned Citizens for Saugatuck Dunes State Park Resources & Reference page. www.SaugatuckDunes.org