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Land use planning experts to speak in Mohawk

Anita Campbell, community liaison for the informational public forum on land use planning to be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Mohawk School, speaks during a recent Eagle Harbor Township Board meeting. Campbell is one of a grass roots group of concerned Keweenaw County citizens who invited three experts on land use planning to speak at the forum.

EAGLE RIVER ’Äì Three Michigan experts on land use planning will speak to area residents and Keweenaw County officials at a public informational forum at 2 p.m. Saturday, September 23, at the Mohawk School, 110 Stanton Avenue in Mohawk.

The three forum speakers, who will relate their professional interpretation and expertise on issues related to land use planning, are Timothy Bureau, president of Resource Management Group, Inc. - Environmental Planners and Consultants in Grand Haven; Rod Cortright of Boyne City, Field Co-Chair of Michigan State University Extension’Äôs Land Use Area of Expertise team and Extension Director for Charlevoix County; and Chris Grobbel of Traverse City, MSU Extension Service - Northwest Michigan Regional Land Use Agent and Citizen Planner Program Director.

After the presentations the speakers will be available for discussion with the public.

Lac La Belle resident Anita Campbell, community liaison for the event, said all Keweenaw County taxpayers and interested residents from surrounding areas are invited to attend and "ask the experts" how to plan for the future of Keweenaw County when confronting complex environmental and economic challenges.

A group of concerned Keweenaw County residents invited the speakers earlier this summer. Once their visit was confirmed, representatives of the group attended recent county and township board meetings and read a letter inviting Keweenaw County commissioners and township board members to attend the forum, which is open to the public.

The letter, signed by Keweenaw County Planning/Zoning Commission member Mark Pavolich, said the forum "is intended to provide information for developing a Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Keweenaw County ’Ķ This informative meeting is not sanctioned by Keweenaw County, nor is it related to the ’ÄòCommon Ground’Äô workshops held recently in Houghton County, although residents and officials from both counties are invited to participate."

Mark Pavolich, Keweenaw County Planning/Zoning Board member

Said Pavolich, "The letter is my part in helping raise awareness about an issue that is crucial for Keweenaw County."

He noted board members from both Allouez and Sherman Townships reacted positively when he read the letter to them during their recent meetings.

"The interest was good," Pavolich said. "The boards and supervisors asked questions. I got the response in both places that board members planned to attend the meeting to become more informed and see what they can do to participate."

Lac La Belle resident Paul Campbell read Pavolich’Äôs letter at the recent regular monthly Grant Township Board meeting.

"I hope that all the local government people participate," he said.

Anita Campbell read the letter of invitation to the Eagle Harbor Township Board and the County Board of Commissioners at their September meetings last week.

At the Eagle Harbor meeting, Township Supervisor Jim Boggio said, "We have a group here, too ’Ķ interested in a long-range comprehensive land use plan, but it’Äôs for all of Keweenaw."

Boggio added he would encourage Eagle Harbor Township residents working on planning to contact Anita Campbell so their efforts could be communicated.

Don Keith, Eagle Harbor Township trustee and candidate for County Board commissioner, said he plans to attend the Sept. 23 forum.

"I certainly plan to be there to listen and to learn, and I encourage the citizens of Keweenaw County to invest their time to do likewise," Keith said. "Our greatest need is for long-term land use planning and enforcement of our zoning laws."

Said Anita Campbell, "I’Äôm encouraged that all township boards have been receptive to this land use plan informational meeting. I feel privileged that (the speakers) are making this long trip up here to speak ’Ķ All of them have vacationed here and are very interested in helping us with our plan."

Christa Walck, Michigan Tech professor of management, chairs the Core Group Task Force for the "Common Ground" group that has been meeting recently in Houghton County to plan projects that include planning public meetings this fall "to get public opinion on the need for a land use plan." Walck said she was not sure whether members of the group would attend the Sept. 23 forum but she thought the forum would be valuable.

"I think it is a great opportunity, and I hope that people take advantage of the opportunity to learn about the benefits of land use planning. It’Äôs very important right now, and I hope that this group and Common Ground can find a way to work together," she said. "We’Äôre not doing something that represents a specific county’Äôs interests. We’Äôre taking a very broad-based approach."

While the Common Ground group consists mainly of local community, business and government leaders, the Keweenaw County citizens’Äô group that organized the coming Sept. 23 forum has taken more of a grass roots approach, according to Janet Shea, a Copper Harbor business owner who has spoken at recent board meetings on the need for land use planning in the area.

A group of Keweenaw County citizens concerned about land use planning met recently in the Lac La Belle Fire Hall to discuss the upcoming informational forum. Pictured clockwise from far left, background, are Gary and Linda Barker, Anita and Paul Campbell, Barbara Battersby, Paul Freshwater, Sandra Britton, Janet Shea, Patrick Ryan, Virginia Jamison, Mike and Judy Hill and Pauline Johnson.

"The reason I think the Land Use Plan is important is that we need to preserve our communities and try to prevent unrestrained growth," Shea said. "I really think that this is something that has to be started at the grass roots ’Äì at the village level. We need input from everyone, and we need it in the shortest time possible, or the whole complexion of our communities is going to change, and we won’Äôt have any say in it."

Paul and Bobbie Freshwater of Eagle Harbor, who attended a recent meeting of the Keweenaw citizens’Äô group, said they plan to attend the forum and hope many people will participate in it.

Paul and Bobbie Freshwater of Eagle Harbor

"My wife Bobbie and I are participating because we’Äôve basically staked our future to this place in retirement, and we want it to remain the nice place that we’Äôve settled in," Paul Freshwater said. "We’Äôve made a commitment to it. But since everybody has their own vision of what they want the Keweenaw to be, we can use the land use planning process to arrive at a common vision that most of us can live with."

Pauline Johnson of Ahmeek, another member of the citizens’Äô group, said she returned to her hometown after 30 years of teaching middle school in downstate Macomb County, where she saw the need for land use planning.

"You couldn’Äôt get near Lake St. Clair without paying a fee," she said. "It was so polluted they’Äôve had to close beaches. I don’Äôt want that to happen here ’Ķ Whatever you do today is going to affect the seventh generation down the line."

Participating in a recent Keweenaw County citizens’Äô group meeting in the Lac La Belle Fire Hall are, from left, Virginia Jamison of Gratiot Lake, Mike and Judy Hill of Lac La Belle and Pauline Johnson of Ahmeek.

The three invited speakers bring experience and expertise to this coming informational forum:

• Timothy Bureau, who spoke at two public hearings in Mohawk on the Bete Grise South wetland issue (July 14, 1999 and May 1, 2000), has a masters degree in environmental resource analysis and management from Western Michigan University, a background in chemistry and biology and experience as an environmental consultant. He is a (Michigan) state- certified professional wetland scientist and a specialist in wetland and water resources, regulatory interpretation and application, natural resource permitting, strategic planning and litigation support. From 1994 to 1997, he served as vice-chairman of the Grand Haven Township Planning Commission.
• Rod Cortright, a graduate of Michigan State University, has experience in agricultural finance and spent five years with the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. For the past 20 years he has been with MSU Extension. As Field Co-Chair of MSU Extension’Äôs Land Use Area of Expertise team, he works with over 30 field- and campus-based staff who spend a minimum of 30 percent of their time on land use education efforts.
  
  "Over the last 15 years I have worked extensively on land use education efforts, specializing in innovative land use techniques," Cortright said. "In addition ’ĶI have been a member of my local township planning commission and a past member of our township zoning board of appeals."
• Chris Grobbel, as Director of the MSU Extension Citizen Planner Program for the past year and a half, has undertaken research, designed, coordinated and taught an ongoing curriculum providing basic land use and environmental training for locally appointed and elected officials making land use decisions in northwest Michigan. He holds a doctorate and a masters degree in environmental policy and law and community development. His B.S. in environmental studies focused on hydrogeology, soils and forestry.
  
  A business owner, Grobbel provides groundwater, wetland, property transfer and expert witness consulting services throughout Michigan. Before joining MSU Extension, Grobbel taught environmental and land use law and policy courses at MSU, was the education program director at the Leelanau Conservancy, worked for seven years with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, co-owned an environmental engineering firm with offices in Traverse City and Detroit and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. He has lectured on environmental and land use policy at Thomas Cooley Law School, the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University and is a member of the Suttons Bay Township planning commission in Leelanau County.

’Äì Michele Anderson  
September 17, 2000