Residents fight developer (Swiftboater sugar-daddy) to save Saugatuck dunes

[Bozita]

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Residents fight developer to save Saugatuck dunes
Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News

SAUGATUCK -- In one corner is a pugnacious Oklahoma billionaire. In the other are well-organized residents.

At stake: 412 acres of awe-inspiring dunes that look much like they did five centuries ago, including the only deep river mouth on Lake Michigan that's undeveloped.

Also at stake, locals say, is the old-era charm of this tiny community with its pre-Civil War architecture and absence of chain stores.

The billionaire, Aubrey McClendon, chairman of Chesapeake Energy natural gas, wants to build million-dollar homes on the land.
But residents, who have been trying to preserve the site for a quarter of a century, have pledged to stop him.

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He isn't afraid of controversy.

A co-owner of the Seattle Supersonics, he upset the city by talking about uprooting the basketball team from its home of 41 years and moving it to Oklahoma.

He was a heavy contributor to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which ran a questionable campaign against presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, according to election records.

Of more concern to Saugatuck visitors was McClendon's heavy support for Americans United to Preserve Marriage, which opposes gay marriage.

Saugatuck has been popular with gay tourists for decades.

-snip-

Residents are skittish about the Saugatuck proposal because of a report by the Michigan Land Use Institute that McClendon hired a Lansing lobbyist to weaken a state law limiting development of dunes.

more ...

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080913/METRO/809130364

[Blue Diadem]

1. Those sand dunes are beautiful there.

Saugatuck is a beautiful village. I'm posting a link (video on the page) for those that aren't familiar with the area. When DH and I lived in Michigan we went there several times each summer.

I'd hate to see the the beauty and the town's comfortable atmosphere be ruined.


http://www.vidpge.com/saugatuck/