By Scott Sullivan
Editor
The Saugatuck Township Planning Commission March 17 OK’d builder/developer Scott Bosgraaf renovating no-longer-used Pine Trail Camp cabins on 4.3 acres of more than 20 scooped up last summer by Holland recycling magnate Jeff Padnos.
The plot high atop bluffs down to the Kalamazoo River sits contiguous on the southeast edge next of what many call “The Wild Heart of Saugatuck,” more than 200 acres spreading north of the river to Lake Michigan dunes, which, working primarily with Bosgraaf, he is piece-by-piece developing into North Shores of Saugatuck gated and luxury estates. The parcel comes with provenance.
Past is Prologue
No one gets far in Saugatuck-Douglas without hearing about Singapore, the lumber village that popped up north of the Kalamazoo River channel mouth in the 1830s and flourished shipping building materials to Chicago before and after its 1871 great fire.
The sawmill business was so successful it deforested nearby dunes, Lake Michigan winds blew the now-bare sands and Singapore was buried.
A few buildings were hauled by sled over the frozen river to nearby Saugatuck and points further. Otherwise, tales of the lost lumber village, use of its name by some local ventures invoking its romance and a few remnants — such as foundation blocks, shards of ceramics and square nails unearthed in an archeological survey— are all that’s left.
Fast-forward to 2006 when the Denison family, who made their fortune building and selling yachts, sold 403 acres fronting Lake Michigan north and south of the channel for $39.5 million to Oklahoma billionaire Aubrey McClendon.
The transaction ended a public effort to buy and preserve what many called “the Wild Heart of Saugatuck” and spurred years of litigation.
McClendon, co-founder of natural-gas giant Chesapeake Energy, sold 173 acres south of the channel to the City of Saugatuck for $19 million in 2009 — today it’s the Saugatuck Dunes Natural Area north of Oval Beach —but continued plans to develop the north former Denison. In the meantime he’d gobbled up 83 acres adjacent to the east, proposing at one point a Singapore Dunes resort with a 66-slip marina, seven-story inn, 9-hole golf course, 100 homes and equestrian area.
In 2012 he and the township settled a federal lawsuit voiding restrictive zoning placed on the prized land three weeks before he completed buying it.
Singapore Dunes then sought a zoning variance for its resort plan but withdrew it after township officials made clear they would not support it.
McClendon, billed by Fortune magazine “America’s Most Reckless Billionaire,” in 2013 listed his Lake Michigan beach house on 6.2 acres for $10 million, 17 two- to three-acre undeveloped lots near it from $2 million upward and the entire parcel for $40 million.
He withdrew them that August after winning Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ, which which re-hatched in 2019 as EGLE. the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy) approval to build a two-mile paved road and utility access through critical dunes from the parcel’s east portion to the western home sites. The photo nearby shows Bosgraaf (the tall one) and Padnos on site when the road was completed next month.
Head-On
McClendon’s fortunes — like Singapore’s— n see ???, Page A? waned thanks when his own success became excess. As fracking and other natural gas-extraction techniques increased its supply, prices fell. The owner was killed March 2, 2016, in a single car crash less than a day after being indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly rigging bids on oil and natural gas leases in his home state.
Police said McClendon, 56, “drove straight into” an overpass wall at high speed. “There was plenty of opportunity for him to correct and get back on the road,” said Oklahoma City Police Capt. Paco Balderrama. “But that didn’t happen.”
His estate put his remaining 304 acres up for sale again. On Jan. 30, 2017, Padnos Iron and Metal Co. heir and president Jeff Padnos and his wife, Peg, bought it for an undisclosed price.
Working with third-generation building brothers Scott and Brian Bosgraaf, their new North Shores of Saugatuck LLC proposed building “some” (i.e. negotiable) 40 homes on parcel, including 23 ringing a 6.49-acre boat basin on 95.67 “pre-disturbed” acres where Singapore once stood.
Plans, added Brian Bosgraaf, head of Cottage Home builders and architects specializing in high-end lake-fronting dwellings then the active-voiced brother, also called for 15 home sites on 35.7 acres fronting the northwest channel and Lake Michigan already approved post-McClendon lawsuit settlement for 18 homes, plus another two to four homes as allowed by right on 10.2 downriver acres northwest of the foundering Pine Trail Camp. Aha. But that came eight years later.
“By building around a basin on land that’s long been disturbed, “said Scott Bosgraaf, now the two’s main voice, “we won’t need to reclaim our investment elsewhere and can place 208.3 acres in a conservation easement.”.
NorthShore in 2017 won township planning commission approvals — not without debate — to proceed with its building plans. The then Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), now flying as Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) department, also gave the project its blessing Jan. 26 that year.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has purview over waterways hydrology, asked North Shores to furnish an achaeological study of the “lost” Singapore site before
That study, cited early finding remnants but no intact structures, was completed and submitted to the Corps in April. That approval never came.
The Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance land-preservation group, which since 2007 contested first McClendon’s plans for the land, now NorthShore’s, has shifted modes from objecting to the former’s lawsuits “meant to bankrupt the township” for thwarting the land’s development to suing the township for approving the latter’s plans.
The group challenged township and Allegan County Circuit Court rulings that its members lacked legal standing to appeal those orders and is also appealed the DEQ permit ruling.
Alliance president David Swan and attorney Scott Howard claimed there is ample legal precedent for both standing and their substantive arguments, should they be allowed to make them, that the township violated its own zoning laws in granting the project permits.
“We will continue to fight this illegal marina basing our claims in science, economics, public policy and the law — just as we always have and always will,” Swan said.
Both parties since have won at least partial, sometimes pyrrhic, victories.
In 2024 the now EGLE denied 5-year renewal of North Shores’ boat basin permit, this time claiming:
“a) The proposed project will have significant adverse effects on the natural resources associated with the Kalamazoo River, the uses of the river, and the public trust.
“b) The hydrologic groundwater modeling completed by your consultants, then provided to EGLE for review is inadequate and contains inconsistencies and other issues. Therefore, the application does not demonstrate that the project will not have adverse temporary or permanent environmental impacts.
“c) There are feasible and prudent alternatives.”
“The ruling,” said 17-year SDCA co-founder and president David Swan, “is a victory for the Saugatuck Dunes, water quality, globally-imperiled interdunal wetlands, lake sturgeon and the archaeological site of Singapore, all of which would be damaged or destroyed if the applicant were permitted to build its marina.
“Equally important, the decision protects the traditional cultural property of the Potawatomi,” he continued. “It also protects the public interest and recognizes that the river mouth is central to the livelihoods, lifeways and recreational pursuits of many.”
“The Coastal Alliance,” board chair Bobbie Gaunt added, “appreciates EGLE’s consideration of new evidence that documents how NorthShore’s proposed marina violates Michigan’s Critical Dunes Act and Inland Lakes and Streams Act.
“By denying the permits, the agency affirmed the public’s significant interests in protecting and preserving the water and land at the Kalamazoo River mouth,” Gaunt said.
As expected, the developer appealed it. “North Shores, “Bosgraaf countered, “has completed a significant portion of the property development that includes Lake Michigan, channel frontage homes and a significant number of commercial buildings.
“North Shores,” said Bosgraaf, “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.”
The Army Corps, seven years mum, followed suit denying it two days later.
The Michigan Supreme Court that April ruled SDCA members did have legal standing — a gate-keeping function to ensure lawsuits are brought only by parties who have first-hand interest in the matter, or ‘skin in the game.’” Like those who live next door and others who use and enjoy river access, hopefully without gas-guzzling luxury yachts muscling in on their liquid turf.
Great, they could keep spending money appealing a billionaire’s development still mushrooming up in many other ways.
On June 25, still in 2024, North Shores filed what the SDCA called a “SLAPP” — or Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation — suit against Swan for Swan in Allegan County Circuit Court for:
- Tortious interference with contract, business relationship or business expectancy;
- Civil conspiracy; and
- Exemplary damages (no sum given).
The SDCA, calling the document, which recited grievances pre-dating even the Denisons, “desperate jumble of hyperbole and vitriol that isn’t supported by facts or law” and called for its dismissal.
“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 pre-Denison times …”
Circuit Court Judge Matthew Antkoviak wasted little time instructing North Shore to come back, should it choose, with more specific and applicable allegations. No more of this weak sauce.
The year still wasn’t over, witness the township planning commission Oct. 15 granting North Shores preliminary site plan approval for a 21.42-acre, eight-condominium development north of 135th Avenue.
If you can’t do it all at once, do it patiently, piece by piece.
Pine Trail Camp
On Jan. 19, 2017, The Commercial Record reported the half-century-old 3525 Dugout Road Chicago church-affiliated camp had yet another owner, rebooting
as New Life Community Church with new staff and revitalized summer camp offerings.
“Saugatuck is a beautiful area,” said new board member Asa App, “and camping ministries give people unique opportunities to grow in nature, spirit and fellowship.
Pine Trail had mostly went dark the prior summer, hosting weekend programs and pre-booked events. New Life would, under the “Be Bold” slogan, resurrect a full summers’ slate of those outdoor opportunities for city kids who otherwise might not have them.
Money matters. Wasn’t long before that passed too.
Meet the New Boss
The since 2024 defunct church camp, whose land has sat empty sans curious hikers and other wildlife, was listed at $4.4 million last summer. The township announced mustering $3.6 million to buy and preserve it, but too little, too late; North Shores had already locked it up.
Scott Bosgraaf’s latest Pine Trail Cabins venture, which involves renovating cabins on 4.3 acres nearest the river, is on hold while the condominium process proceeds.
Currently, the Pine Trail camp use is expired, and current zoning allows no more than one principal dwelling on a parcel. T
The master deed and bylaws, planners March 17 reported to the township board, have been reviewed by township attorney Nick Curcio, who with township engineers Prein & Newhof, the Allegan County Road Commission and Saugatuck Township Fire District have signed off on them.
Commissioner Ken Butler requested Curcio clarify his letter regarding whether docks need to be completed now or if they are to be installed in the future. EGLE, said Bosgraaf, has verified North Shore’s dock application had since been withdrawn.
The township states docks need to be addressed now, but the state claims they need the homeowner’s data first. Planner and board liaison Cindy Osman said an amendment could be made later to install docks.
Planner Gordon Stannis asked if it was practical to include docks at this stage. Bosgraaf explained that EGLE would not address the docks until the homes were sold, at which point Pine Trail Cabins would accept applications.
The board approved Bosgraaf’s final condominium plans with conditions that:
- Two more species of trees be implemented;
- Should aptly-named Dugout Road — which to the north peters out into one lane of dirt maybe six feet a 40-foot drop into river before dead-ending, i.e. no extension, at least yet, northwest to North Shores’ main development — become vacated or the alignment change on the road become private, township zoning administrator Lynee Wells and the Fire District must review it first; and
- Developer must notify Wells at least seven days in advance of any public meeting at which the road commission is likely to consider or discuss abandoning Dugout Road;
- No boat slips shall be installed nor any boat slip condominium units created without PC review and approval;
- Applicants adhere to standards and conditions of the township engineer and fire department;
- All relevant and required outside agency construction permits, such as those from the county road and drain commissions plus EGLE, be secured before issuing of a certificate of occupancy;
- All materials within the application and assertions made during the public hearing or agenda item shall be part of the official record.
The commission OK’d it unanimously by voice vote.
Never-Ending Story
So that’s where that stands, for now, though we remains curious just how one “implements” a tree.
It bears noting Pine Trails isn’t the first Chicago church camp here to give way to a gated lakefront luxury home sanctuary.
But that’s a whole other story.
