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Protect Jean Klock Park |
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One of Michigan’s oldest public parks, donated by the Klock family as a memorial to their daughter, Jean |
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Copyright , 2008-2012, Protect JKP, all rights reserved |
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© Judith Jones, 2008-2012 all rights reserved |
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You may access documents directly on www.scribd.com. Use search term “Protect JKP” in quotes in the search box. Edgewater Development Strategy from 1992. A golf course in JKP has been planned for 20 years. Court filings for federal lawsuit are also on scribd.com. See our last brief in our federal appeal, as well as the Complaint and our merits brief. New! Parcel H Appraisal and Mitigation Strategy drafted 2 years after public comment opportunity was closed. |
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LAWSUITS CONCERNING JEAN KLOCK PARK
There were TWO, SEPARATE lawsuits filed to remove the golf course from Jean Klock Park.
The first was filed in state court. It concerned the 1917 Klock deed. That lawsuit has ended, because the last court of appeal, the Michigan Supreme Court, denied the plaintiffs’ leave to appeal in February, 2011. That lawsuit has gone as far as it can go. (SEE SAVE JEAN KLOCK PARK dot ORG for more information)
Another, separate lawsuit was filed in federal court. The federal lawsuit concerns federal laws governing the conversion of Jean Klock Park and the larger Harbor Shores development. That lawsuit is STILL ON APPEAL. The federal district court dismissed the lawsuit, but we had a right to appeal that decision, and we did so. Oral argument—a live, in-person court hearing—on the federal lawsuit was held Tuesday, October 11, 2011, in Cincinnati.
On January 25, 2012, the Court ruled that the federal appeal was moot because the golf course was already built. Appellants have 60 days to appeal the decision. |
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Mitigation Parcel H, (picture below) located at the confluence of the Paw Paw and St. Joseph Rivers, is the highest-value Mitigation Park. It will form part of a riverwalk which will edge a private marina and condominiums not yet built. Though touted as a venue for fishing access to the City, State and National Park Service by Harbor Shores, an easement in favor of Cornerstone Alliance (part of Harbor Shores consortium) imposed for benefit of its guests, employ-
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ees, assigns, etc. was recorded in November, 2010. The imposition of such an easement goes completely against the terms of the 2008 restated lease agreement between Benton Harbor and Harbor Shores. That lease promised to terminate the easement because the National Park Service concluded that it transferred tenure and control, of the park to Cornerstone Alliance, a violation of the Land and Water Conservation Fund regulations. |
![Text Box: Michigan State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP)
Commonly known as a SCORP, each state compiles a plan every five years outlining the state’s priorities for public outdoor recreation—where to spend scarce dollars on what the public wants. In Michigan the most recent SCORP (2008) places natural resources conservation as the very top necessity, determined by the citizenry. The golf course conversion in Jean Klock Park—swapping out the dunes—altering them and taking them out of the public recreation estate—and replacing that resource with ground level parcels, including inaccessible wetlands, does not comport with the 2008 SCORP.
States compile a SCORP using Community Recreation Plans. The most recent Community Recreation Plan for Benton Harbor (1997) says this about JKP:
“[JKP] is more than a public access beach, however, including open and wooded dune areas and wetlands. … [It] is the best park in Benton Harbor in terms of variety of facilities and scenic beauty.”
The Sixth Circuit Court in its January 25, 2012, ruling grants the Plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit standing to assert claims or challenge the interpretation of the SCORP with respect to the golf course conversion in Jean Klock Park. Does the trade of ground level, scattered parcels, including wetlands, for coastal dunes align with the 2008 SCORP? The plaintiffs have standing to question that swap. However, the Sixth Circuit then ruled that the Plaintiffs claims are moot, because the golf course is already built and any damage to the dunes has been done, and the court incorrectly ruled that the replacement parks or parcels are nearly complete, which they are not. The court also erred in stating that TRAILS were the replacement for the dunes, when in fact, PARCELS—unconnected—are the replacement.](index_files/image365.gif)
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Welcome, PGA and Media and other visitors!
Below (scroll down) is a map of the Harbor Shores golf course which includes the location of the publicly owned mitigation parks or parcels which were traded for the dunes and dune access at Jean Klock Park. Contrary to prevailing federal and state regulations governing grant-assisted parks and replacement parks (like the mitigation parcels), the replacement parks will all be closed to the public before and during the Senior PGA tournament. In spite of the developer’s arguments that the golf course is a “public” course, it is not. It is a privately owned and operated golf course, three holes of which are located on public land. The mitigation parcels all are within the private golf course, except Parcels G and H, but neither of those will be available to the public, either. |
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Right: A view from the north dune of JKP taken in July, 2008, before the bulldozers. |
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Mitigation Parcel H, below, and map detail, below right. |
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Mitigation Parcel G, below, and map details, right. |