An Empire real estate development firm has cleared the first hurdle in developing a vacant three-acre strip of properties at the end of Lake Street. The complex would include the old Salisbury/Ace hardware store, the white house just south of it, the livery barn on the corner of Lake and Niagara, a house across Niagara Street to the north, and a quarter mile strip of land along South Bar Lake.
It’s common knowledge that the public can walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline. You can walk it anywhere on public property. That means public road ends, or the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The question is: how far from the water’s edge can a person legally walk along private property? This is an important issue, since about 70 percent of Michigan’s “third coast” is privately owned. The answer is unclear, because neither courts in Michigan nor in other Great Lakes states have offered a clear and consistent answer.
Ten local, state and national organizations have joined together in endorsing a statement calling on The Homestead Resort and the Michigan Department of Enviromental Quality to work together to correct the problem of partially-treated wastewater spray blowing into a portion of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, rendering it unavailable for public use.
The Glen Arbor Township Board held a special meeting today to respond to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regarding an application for a marina expansion on Big Glen Lake. On the Narrows Marina owner Conor McCahill seeks to add an additional 39 boat slips on a new dock, bringing the total to 46, as well as increase the moorings to 16.
This letter represents the views of an informal group of citizens who are concerned about the impact that your sewage system is having on Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.