# Jean Klock Park Advocates Sue National Park Service



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

BREAKING NEWS FROM BENTON HARBOR AND PROTECT JEAN KLOCK PARK

For Immediate Release: August 5, 2008

Contact: Protect Jean Klock Park
Julie Weiss
(269) 519  8192
www.protectjkp.com
email: [email protected] 

Jean Klock Park Advocates Sue National Park Service
Cite extensive violation of National Environmental Policy Act
State of Michigan Named Co-Defendant

(Benton Harbor, Michigan)  August 5, 2008

Seven Benton Harbor and Benton Township residents today filed suit against the National Park Service in the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging multiple violations of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and failure to properly apply regulations mandated under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act in its July 25 decision to approve the conversion of Jean Klock Park on Lake Michigan to an elite Jack Nicklaus golf course.

Residents assert that the plan to convert significant portions of the Park for private development fails to disclose the true scope of impacts to the environment and fails to present and analyze serious development alternatives as required under the law.

The 91year-old public park offers commanding views of Lake Michigan from the dunes - - which would be off limits to all but golfers paying greens fees reported to be as high as $225. per round.

The State of Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the City of Benton Harbor also are named as defendants in the 52-page Complaint filed by Toledo attorney Terry J. Lodge. 

The lawsuit claims that the City and the developer, Harbor Shores, a consortium made up of the Whirlpool Foundation, the Cornerstone Alliance and the Alliance for World Class Communities, have continuously concealed significant information about the environmental impacts which would result from golf course construction and maintenance in the park. The conversion plan does not reveal the quantity of sand which would be removed from the dunes and replaced with topsoil for a stable, unchanging base, nor the amount of chemical herbicides and pesticides which would be released into the environment, nor does it take into account the widely fluctuating lake level over time and the effects of historical high levels in reducing the beach and park land available to the public.

"We think if the public had been told the truth about how much permanent damage there will be to the dunes, trees, plants and animals, the outrage would have killed this idea. Why else did Harbor Shores hide this from us?" said Emma Kinnard, a plaintiff.

Extensive excavation and stabilization of the dunes would be necessary to plant golf course features, said plaintiff Julie Weiss. In a plan which describes wetland fill to the last cubic yard, there is no dissection whatsoever of the impacts to the dunes, the signature landscape of Lake Michigans eastern shore. Once theyre gone, theyre gone forever.

Plaintiffs also contend that the appraisal price of $900,000 for the 22 acres featuring dramatic views of Lake Michigan is low by perhaps $15,000,000 because it ignores explicit federal requirements. Finally, opponents of golf holes in the park assert that seven parcels of land along the Paw Paw River, some of it so polluted it may be too expensive to clean up, cannot come close to compensating the public for taking away the aesthetic beauty and joy which access to the dunes affords.

Rarely has the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act been so violated, said LuAnne Kozma, Michigan Director of the San Francisco-based park preservation organization, Defense of Place. The law is very clear. This lawsuit has national implications for places everywhere that matter, like Jean Klock Park. Kozma has worked with many local residents and people around the state for over two years to preserve the park for the public for all time.

On July 8 Carol Drake and Clellen Bury representing the Friends of Jean Klock Park filed a separate lawsuit in Berrien County Circuit Court alleging multiple violations of a four-year-old settlement agreement promising no future development in the park.

This park was left to all of us, and our children, and their children, forever, said James Duncan, another plaintiff. No one living today will be alive when this lease runs out in 105 years. Theyre taking our park away to give to outsiders for what in real life terms is forever. 

We have a better idea: build Harbor Shores golf course outside the park, and follow our lead to restore Jean Klock Park to the grandeur envisioned in the 1920s by the foremost Prairie School landscape architect, Jens Jensen. That way, well have something special for everyone, said Nicole Moon, a plaintiff.

For more information contact Protect Jean Klock Park at [email protected] or telephone 269 519 8192. Visit our website at www.protectjkp.com.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

www.defenseofplace.org

For Immediate Release

August 8, 2008

Contacts:
LuAnne Kozma, 248-473-5761
Michigan Director, Defense of Place
[email protected]

Cindy Arch, 707-430-0438
Executive Director, Defense of Place
[email protected]

KLOCK PARK FEDERAL LAWSUIT HAS NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Community park advocates sue National Park Service for NEPA violations
Land and Water Conservation Fund Act put to the test

(Novi, Michigan)  August 8, 2008 Residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to stop the construction of an exclusive golf course in their town's only beachfront park, Jean Klock Park. Defense of Place commended the action, saying the suit could help parks across the nation.

"The federal law that protects Jean Klock Park also safeguards thousands of parks across the country, at all levels of government," said Michigan Director for Defense of Place, LuAnne Kozma. "This lawsuit has national implications and will be precedent-setting for the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. There are development schemes, some as obscene as this one for Jean Klock Park, queued up in other Great Lakes states and elsewhere. The public's prime shoreline is what developers are coveting. America's public parks cannot be surrendered just because a private developer demands it."

The lawsuit, filed by Toledo, Ohio, attorney Terry J. Lodge on behalf of seven Benton Harbor and Benton Township residents, alleges extensive violations of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) by the National Park Service and failure to properly apply regulations mandated under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. The State of Michigan and the city of Benton Harbor are named as codefendants in the 52-page complaint.

The suit also contends that the $900,000 appraisal price for 22 acres of Jean Klock Park and their dramatic views of Lake Michigan is too low because it ignores explicit federal requirements. The developer, Harbor Shores, paid for the appraisal. A second appraisal, mandated by the state, was not submitted.

In compensation for the Park's land, the developer offered seven non-contiguous, mostly contaminated wetlands parcels along the Paw Paw River. Eighty-percent of the mitigation value was attributed to a single 1.47 acre brownfield parcel that is post-industrial Whirlpool property, appraised at $714,000. The view from "Parcel H" is of the back of a commercial building.

"What would be left of Jean Klock Park would be non-viable parkland, which also violates the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act," said Kozma, who testified before Congress about the Act and Jean Klock Park earlier this year. "The golfers would have the commanding views of Lake Michigan from the re-built dunes; not children, not the public."

The $500-million, 530-acre Harbor Shores luxury home and resort development, backed by the Benton Harbor-based $18-billion Whirlpool Corporation, features a Jack Nicklaus championship 18-hole golf course where a round of golf will cost as much as $225. Jean Klock Park's pristine sand dunes were targeted for conversion to three fairways, a land grab justified by the developer's need for a "dramatic element" to secure "maximum profit." Benton Harbor's per capita income is less $9,000 per year.

Term-limited Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has been a tireless advocate for the Harbor Shores development and the conversion of Benton Harbor's only beachfront public park, defending the state's role as catalyst and saying the state will market the project as "southwest Michigan's gem along the Lake." The area's Republican congressman, Whirlpool heir Fred Upton whose lakefront residence is a short walk from the golf course, was instrumental in securing National Park Service approval for the conversion.

"When prime public parkland is seized by the government for private development without regard for the law, all public parks and open spaces become vulnerable," said Defense of Place Executive Director Cindy Arch. "Add to that the total disregard for the intentions of the Klock family who donated the land in perpetuity for the children of Benton Harbor to honor their deceased daughter, Jean, and the stage is set for undoing the entire land trust system that safeguards so many special places throughout the United States. Promises of permanent protection won't be worth the paper they're written on if places like Jean Klock Park fall to developers."

Defense of Place has learned that of the 447 people who commented in the public process period, required by the National Park Service when it rejected the project last year for lack of public input and other problems, only 109 listed a Benton Harbor address. There is also evidence of a developer-driven form-letter campaign that provided the pro-development comment.

"The supporters of Jean Klock Park are far more numerous than Harbor Shores would like everyone to believe," Kozma said. "The NEPA process in not a beauty contest or opinion poll. Luckily for the citizens of Benton Harbor, the truth will come out through the court process and not the Harbor Shores propaganda machine."

Donations in support of the citizen lawsuits can be made through the local advocacy groups, as well as through Defense of Place. Protect Jean Klock Park is accepting contributions for the federal lawsuit and Friends of Jean Klock Park for the local lawsuit, filed last month against the state, to uphold the 2004 consent judgment prohibiting any further park development or non-public use.

Defense of Place has assisted the advocates in the fight to save Jean Klock Park, providing technical assistance and obtaining documents in the public interest from federal, state and local agencies through the Freedom of Information Act that otherwise would not have been made public. Defense of Place works nationally for permanent protection of parks, open space and wildlife refuges. To contribute or for more information:

Defense of Place www.defenseofplace.org
Protect Jean Klock Park www.protectjkp.com
Friends of Jean Klock Park www.savejeanklockpark.org


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