SAUGATUCK, MI (WHTC) - There’s another squabble involving development in the Saugatuck area.
The Chicago Presbytery was compelled to sell its 130-acre camp site along Lake Michigan in order to pay a judgment involving a sex abuse case, and Grand Rapids developer Paul Heule bought the land with the intention of building eight luxury homes on it. Local environmentalists were against the sale, saying that they never had a proper chance to bid on the land, and are opposed to Heule’s development plans, seeking to keep the property as a camp. Saugatuck leaders had given tentative approval to the development on 22 acres. Some of the same people opposed to the Presbyterian Camp site development are also against the Singapore Dunes project near the mouth of the Kalamazoo River.
The state DEQ’s Water Resources Division holds a public hearing in Saugatuck High’s Media Center at 6 PM to discuss a permit request for widening and paving gravel roads at the former Presbyterian Camp site.