What’s Proposed

North Shore of Saugatuck, owned by Jeff Padnos, working with Scott and Brian Bosgraaf of Cottage Home, and their lawyer, Carl J. Gabrielse, have proposed a marina development in Saugatuck’s Historic River Mouth Neighborhood.

They have requested permits for a 1600’ long, 200’ wide, 18’ deep trench through the buried Village of Singapore and a historic Pottawatomie site surrounded by publicly-funded natural areas that are home to globally-imperiled interdunal wetlands.

NorthShore of Saugatuck has already illegally filled a 1000 square foot globally-imperiled interdunal wetland.

They want to add 50 large yachts (up to 120’ long) – local zoning allows 18 slips—at one of most congested and narrow points at the river mouth.

They have requested permits to remove more than 200,000 tons of sand – equal to 20,000 dump trucks, or a football field 90 feet tall, within Michigan’s Critical Dune Boundary.

They want to build a wall of well-lit houses destroying the viewshed from Saugatuck Dunes State Park, Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area, and the entrance to Saugatuck’s historic harbor – violating community values articulated in our Master Plan and diminishing our $20 million investment in adjacent properties.

They have tried to silence local opposition through lawsuits.

What’s At Stake

For sixty years our local community has been working to protect the unique resources that drew us here and will keep us here. View a PDF of The Sixty-Year Effort to Expand Saugatuck Dunes State Park.

Historical

The buried village of Singapore
Pre-historic artifacts
Historic Pottawatomi site
The 100-year-old Ox-Bow School of Art

Cultural

Historic Pottawatomi Village

The lake sturgeon, or Nme in Pottawatomi, is a culturally significant species that is held in high regard as a clan animal. The resilience and rehabilitation of this species is an indicator of the resilience and resurgence of the Pottawatomi people of the area, who have also faced many adversities just like the sturgeon. The Gun Lake Tribe has, and will continue to, invest significant time and resources into the rehabilitation of the species in the Kalamazoo River.

Recreational

One of Lake Michigan’s last remaining navigable darkened river mouths
Oval Beach
Saugatuck Dunes State Park
Tallmadge Woods
Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area
The Basin

Spiritual/Aesthetic

This is the place that holds our stories, as well as the ashes of loved ones.
This landscape has inspired artists for more than one hundred years.
The iconic viewsheds from Crow’s Nest, Saugatuck Dunes State Park, Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area, Oval Beach, the channel, beach

Ecological

Lake Sturgeon
Prairie Warbler
Blanchards Cricket Frog
Pitcher’s Thistle
Piping Plover
Globally-imperiled Interdunal Wetlands

Educational

Ox-Bow School of Art
Important Viewsheds that have inspired artists for the past 100 years.
Over 1,500 students have done field work in the Saugatuck Dunes.
There are nearly a dozen dissertations/thesis specific to the Saugatuck Dunes.

Together these 6 vital Great Lakes resources act as the pistons driving our $265 million a year tourist-based economic engine.

These are the resources that drew us here and will keep us here.

Together we will protect our community values, our resources, and enforce our local zoning laws.

Your support will help us protect why we live and own businesses here, raise our families here, and why visitors flock here.