March 12, 2003
Read more:
TIMELINE: From 1867 to last Friday
ISLAND FACTS: Location, topography, area
DEVELOPER'S VIEWPOINT: Johnson: It was an amazing experience
TRIBE'S REACTION: GT Band attorney says fight not resolved yet
Deed completes
South Fox swap
Deal angers environmental groups in state
By
Record-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY - Nine years of what was termed "highly politicized" debate over the future of South Fox Island land described by environmentalists as "magnificent" was resolved quietly Friday with the filing of a simple quit claim deed.
The deed filed in the Leelanau County Register of Deeds office in Leland completed a controversial land swap between state officials and Auburn Hills developer David V. Johnson.
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Record-Eagle file photo/Jim Bovin
A South Fox Island land swap between state officials and David V. Johnson has been completed.
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Johnson, who developed the Bay Harbor resort outside Petoskey, owns some two-thirds of the nearly 3,400-acre island northwest of the Leelanau peninsula.
The deal angered state and local environmental groups which have vigorously opposed the exchange. They say the Michigan Department of Natural Resources gave up state land on the island that was environmentally unique. State officials defended the transfer as making the island more accessible and useable for the public.
"This is a real loss. It's a permanent loss," said Lana Pollack, a former state lawmaker who now heads the Michigan Environmental Council. "It's a bad deal for the state of Michigan and a very good deal for one privileged landowner."
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Record-Eagle file photo/Jim Bovin
DNR officials say the swap will create an 860-acre block of contiguous state land that can be reached from land on the northeast end of the island where boats can safely land.
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DNR representatives dismissed claims that the state got the short end of the swap, and said opponents of the exchange were "politicizing" the issue.
"It was the responsible and right thing to do in this situation," said DNR press secretary Brad Wurfel. "We buy, sell and trade away land every month of the year. This (transaction) got a lot more attention than usual ... it was more heavily-politicized than any of them in recent memory."
The swap cleared its final hurdle - at least in the state's view - when new state Attorney General Mike Cox signed off on the exchange late last week.
Cox's approval came after a Leelanau County Circuit judge in November expunged a legal notice filed by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians which had clouded the title to small portions of Johnson's property. The band said potential tribal land claims weren't resolved.
Former attorney general and now Gov. Jennifer Granholm had earlier declined to sign off on the exchange, citing the tribe's legal questions. But a spokesman for Cox said those issues were resolved by the court ruling and that the office had little choice but to complete the long-proposed exchange.
"We've got to do the legal work we're obligated to do," spokesman Sage Eastman said. "It's not up to the attorney general whether the swap occurs or not ... that's the DNR's bailiwick."
Eastman insisted that Cox's decision did not represent a policy change from Granholm's position as attorney general on the issue.
"The same staff has been working on the same direction on this since Day 1," Eastman said. "Our realm is to simply deal with the legal work."
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Record-Eagle file photo/Jim Bovin
Under the approved swap, the state will turn over 218 acres of formerly public land on the west and south ends of the island, including some 5,500 feet of shoreline on the west side of the island.
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Granholm's office didn't criticize Cox's decision, but she also didn't give the state high marks for its handling of the decision or the long-running debate over the exchange.
"The governor would've preferred a process that would've inspired more confidence in the outcome, regardless of what was ultimately decided," Granholm spokesman Liz Boyd said. "Having said that, she respects the constitutional independence of the Natural Resources Commission to make the decision involving South Fox Island, and the attorney general's role to advise the commission."
Johnson and state officials began talking off-and-on about a land trade involving South Fox not long after he purchased neighboring North Fox Island in 1994. The state purchased North Fox from Johnson four years later, and discussions shifted to consolidating both the public property and Johnson's private lands on South Fox by trading land.
Under the approved swap, the state will turn over to Johnson some 218 acres of formerly-public land on the west and south ends of the island, including some 5,500 feet of shoreline on the west side of the island. The state will receive 219 acres on the north and central parts of the island - including a similar amount of shoreline.
DNR officials say the swap will create an 860-acre block of contiguous state land that can be reached from land on the northeast end of the island where boats can safely land. They say the previous "patchwork" ownership pattern created safe access to less than half that amount of public land.
"This fell in line with our land management objectives throughout the state," Wurfel said. The exchange will eliminate trespass problems and help the state improve both its wildlife and land management of the island, he said.
But critics panned the DNR's "consolidation" goals, saying the state gave up unique sand dunes and virgin cedar tree stands in exchange for nondescript beaches and woodlands on the north end of the island.
"We lost access to some of the best parts of the island," said Jim Lively, a planner for the Michigan Land Use Institute based in Beulah, which also opposed the swap. "The land consolidation argument works great in the jack pine forests of Roscommon County, but the island users said 'We'd rather go to the special places' ... these are really magnificent lands that are no longer accessible to the public."
Johnson called comments about the disparity in land quality "a joke" and said the exchange will improve the public's experience on the island.
"Nobody in their right mind wouldn't support consolidating that property," he said. "If anything, it further protects the public's interest."
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