By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Developer North Shores of Saugatuck, L.C.C. has sued Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance founding president David Swan in Allegan County Circuit Court for:
• Tortious interference with contract, business relationship or business expectancy;
• Civil conspiracy; and
• Exemplary damages (no sum given).
Although charges are made against Swan individually, all involve his and Alliance efforts for 17 years to arrest development of the ex-Denison land on the Kalamazoo River channel mouth to Lake Michigan.
In another move, North Shores has applied to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) for a permit to build a precast concrete boat ramp along the west wall of its pre-existing boat well.
EGLE has slated an online public hearing Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. (see ad in this week’s Commercial Record) on the request for a 23-foot wide, 104-foot long ramp, meant to serve existing property owners.
Back to litigation, North Shore filed the aforesaid claims June 25 before circuit judge Matthew Antkoviak. Swan and the Alliance issued a response brief and statement last Thursday calling the complaint “a desperate jumble of hyperbole and vitriol that isn’t supported by facts or law.”
Defendants moved for dismissal of what they called a SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) action. The court has set Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 10:30 a.m.
“In 2018,” North Shores builder Scott Bosgraaf said, “EGLE fully supported and applauded North Shores’ efforts to minimize impacts by placing all boat docks within a boat basin rather than directly on the river (one alternative posed by the SDCA to it).
“North Shores is at a loss why EGLE suddenly took a 180-degree turn (but) is confident its conservation-based and environmentally-friendly design will ultimately be approved,” Bosgraaf said.
“We will not allow a baseless lawsuit,” SDCA board chair Bobbie Gaunt countered, “to deter us from our mission to preserve and protect the Saugatuck dunes and Kalamazoo River mouth.
“Working to hold developers accountable to local, state and federal laws does not constitute tortious interference or civil conspiracy and we are hopeful the court will dismiss the suit.”
Going Back
North Shore’s latest filing dates back to when Oklahoma City natural gas magnate Aubrey McClendon bought 420 acres jointly owned by estates of the late Frank and Gertrude Denison north and south of the channel mouth aiming to develop it.
He completed purchase from both sometimes-feuding entities for $39.5 million in June 2006, and the Alliance — formed largely of local citizens who had sought to buy and preserve land they called “The Wild Heart” of Saugatuck” for public use — in 2007.
McClendon’s Singapore Dunes LLC development firm acquired 83 more acres east of the north parcel stretching to Blue Star Highway, then listed the 173 acres south of the river, used by the Denisons as a private beach north of Saugatuck’s Oval Beach, for $20 million.
In 2009 Singapore dropped its asking price to $19 million to help preservationists acquire that harder-to-develop stretch. The Land Conservancy of Michigan gathered funds and brokered buying what is now called the Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area for $22.5 million (including paying off bridge loans) there later on that year.
One lynchpin feat was winning a $10.5-million Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant, a program that draws funds, perhaps ironically, from leasing state lands for private use in extracting minerals.
McClendon retained the north portion, which included the site of the lost 1800s lumber village of Singapore, and on with the Denisons had lived since buying both tracts for $60,000 in 1955.
“Other buyers regarded it then as a sand pile, useless for farming,” recalled Frank Denison, one of Frank and Gertrude’s sons who retained land there and still lives on it part-time with his family.
The site also included a Broward Marine manufacturing plant, which Singapore Dunes had razed while drafting plans for s 66-slip marina, seven-story inn, 9-hole golf course, equestrian area and 100 high-end homes fronting the north parcel’s waterways.
The developer furthered sued Saugatuck Township in U.S. District Court claiming its 2006-passed restrictive R-4 zoning was improperly noticed and singled out only its new holdings, violating the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment affording equal protection under the law for all.
The township — after spending an estimated $429,000 it could ill afford to defend itself — and Singapore Dunes ($1 million)
settled in U.S. District Court in June 2012 agreeing to roll back its R-4 zoning, thus allow some residential development on site.
Singapore Dunes further won approvals to build up to 18 homes on it, mostly fronting Lake Michigan and the channel, plus a road and utilities linking them to public portals lying east. The Steve Neumer-led local firm began preparations and started listing lots for sale.
Meanwhile McClendon, described by Forbes magazine as “America’s Most Reckless Billionaire” for his “wildcatting” land-speculation tactics, began seeing laws catch up with him.
On March 2, 2016 — the morning after federal indictment for allegedly fixing bids on gas and oil prices in his home state — McClendon sped north from his Oklahoma estate and, at 88 mph, slammed his SUV into a concrete wall supporting a highway overpass.
Police said he was not wearing a seatbelt but could not determine if the crash was suicide or an accident.
“He pretty much drove straight into the wall,” said
OKC Police spokesman Paco Balderrama said of McClendon’s actions. “There was plenty of opportunity for him to correct and get back on the roadway, and that didn’t occur.”
Lacking evidence to the contrary, classified the death as an accident. At age 56, McClednon left behind a wife and three children.
North Shore, whose principal is Jeff Padnos, head ofHolland-based recycling firm Padnos Inc., bought the north parcel from McClendon’s estate for an undisclosed sum in May 2017 and thereafter announced his own scaled-back development intentions.
What North Shores called its conservation plan would preserve 208.3 acres largely protected by Michigan Critical Dunes restrictions, build the already-permitted 18 homes along Lake Michigan and the outer channel, some 50 more homes inland plus
a 6.5-acre boat basin lined by 23 single-family dwellings on 95.67 of its acres, much of them the already long-disturbed site of Singapore.
North Shore’s proposal won township preliminary planned unit development and site condominium approvals in 2017, plus a 2018 OK from the Michigan Departmental of Environmental Quality, EGLE’s precursor, for boat basin work.
All were contingent on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approval for hydrology involved with 23,000 cubic yards of sand excavation there. The latter never came.
Meanwhile the SDCA contested each step before the township zoning board of appeals and/or in circuit, state appeals court and even supreme court.
On Feb. 9 this year, EGLE denied North Shores’ 5-year permit renewal request, citing adverse effect the basin would likely have on public and tribal uses of the river including recreation, fish and wildlife, and aesthetics.
EGLE’s concerns were echoed when the federal Corps at last nixed North Shores’ 2018 approval request three days later. The developer since has appealed EGLE’s Feb. 9 edict to the state.
North Shore’s claims alleging Swan funneled SDCA money to township officials in 2006-07, among other misdeeds, the Alliance response pooh-poohs also
The group claims most charges took place before July 2021 and fall far outside the statute of limitations, including activities that occurred before North Shores owned the property.
“The complaint speaks for itself,” replied Bosgraaf, “while (defendants) have a response seeking to avoid liability based on a statute of limitations. They have not formally denied any of the allegations.
“Our complaint described their previous history because their actions in years past are matters of confirmed record. We contend the SDCA has continued these practices, some of which go into the present day,” Bosgraaf said.
Stay tuned.
