Jean Klock Park
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Jean Klock Park is an historic city park along Lake Michigan in Benton Harbor, Michigan, United States. In 1917, J. N. Klock and his wife Carrie bought a significant stretch of lakeshore including tall dunes and 2,950 feet (900 m) of shoreline from E. K. Warren, donor of Warren Dunes and deeded the land to the City of Benton Harbor. They gave the land in memory of their daughter, Jean, who died in early childhood. The Klock deed stipulates that the property be used for bathing beach, park purposes or other public purposes. At the park dedication, Klock stated,
"In taking an inventory of life, we all take stock of the circumstances surrounding the happiest moments. The giving of this park to the city of Benton Harbor has been to Mrs. Klock and myself, the happiest moment of our lives. The deed of this park in the courthouse of St. Joseph will live forever. Perhaps some of you do not own a foot of ground, remember then, that this is your park, it belongs to you. Perhaps some of you have no piano or phonograph, the roll of the water murmuring in calm, roaring in storm, is your music, your piano and music box. The beach is yours, the drive is yours, the dunes are yours, all yours. It is not so much a gift from my wife and myself, it’s a gift from a little child. See to it, that the park is the children's.”
Although the recent conversion of the park's center to three holes of a championship golf course (The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, part of the Harbor Shores development) is described by proponents as a "public" golf course, it is a privately owned golf course with daily fee usage available to anyone with $150.00 to spend per round at peak hours. Residents of Benton Harbor can play for about $40.00 off peak, as can all residents of Berrien County.
“Development vs. Preservation
Jean Klock Park is one of the oldest public parks in the state of Michigan and predates the formation Michigan's state parks, which occurred in the early 1920s. In 1952 the city of Benton Harbor purchased an adjoining parcel of land along the northern border of the park to be added to the park acreage. Mr. Klock had tried for years with no success to buy it himself, but his death in 1938 and then WWII deferred the long sought acquisition. The addition extended the beach shoreline by 300 feet (91 m).
In 1990 the city commissioned a master planfor Jean Klock Park, funded by a Coastal Zone Management Program grant, and the report concluded:
"Two general areas comprising the majority of the site are particularly sensitive to human impact. The sand dunes and the wetlands on this property are of a level of quality that they require protection from overuse. Their importance as a resource cannot be overestimated."
The golf course development has severely damaged the natural resource values on the park property.
Advocates for the luxury housing development, centered around an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature championship golf course using Jean Klock Park, depict the plan as transformative of the entire area surrounding Benton Harbor. Mr. Nicklaus hopes his involvement in the development will buttress the fortunes of southwest Michigan.
Until recent years, Jean Klock Park was considered untouchable for commercial development. The deindustrialization of the very industrial town of Benton Harbor opened the way for desperate measures. In 1986 the city sought to add the eastern part of Jean Klock Park, excluding the dunes, to a Downtown Development Authority (DDA), but that brought howls of protest from nearby residents who claimed to be enraged by the city's disregard for the Klock deed restrictions and community understanding of acceptable uses for the park. In answer to the challenge the Michigan Attorney General's office issued an opinion that land not contiguous to a city's downtown area could not be incorporated into a DDA.
Then in 2003 the entire park was threatened by a luxury housing development called Grand Boulevard Renaissance. Once again nearby residents banded together to prevent the city from actually selling part of the park. Six people filed a lawsuit claiming that such a sale would violate the terms of the Klock deed. The resultant settlement agreement was memorialized in a Consent Judgment stipulating that:
"The Court permanently enjoins the City from using any portion of the property depicted as Jean Klock Park in Exhibit to this Consent Judgment for any purpose other than bathing beach, park purposes or other public purposes related to bathing beach or park use except for recreational vehicle park campsites provided however that the City shall for all time be authorized and empowered to operate its water treatment facility located at the south end of the park including but not limited to capital improvements and expansion. The restrictions in this paragraph shall run with the land and shall be binding upon the City and its successors."
Unbeknownst to the plaintiff group at the time, the city of Benton Harbor was represented by an attorney who simultaneously was representing a constituent member of the Harbor Shores development consortium, then named Edgewater-River Run. This is significant because the city and the Harbor Shores developer entered into the subsequent contract, executed in 2006 and again in 2008, allowing the Harbor Shores developer to lease Jean Klock Park acreage for 35 years with 2 automatic renewals, or allowing the developer quiet enjoyment of the land for up to 105 years.
Further, the plaintiff group believed that the settlement they had reached with the city, allowing the sale of about 4 acres (16,000 m2) in exchange for the agreement quoted above, would ban any further invasive development in the park. However, the Harbor Shores developer has used the Consent Judgment language to justify construction of a portion of a golf course in the park, because Michigan law allows that a golf course is a public park use. See "Benton Harbor Sees Boon, Bust in Resort Plan,", Detroit Free Press, August 7, 2007.
Ongoing Litigation
Two plaintiffs in the 2003 litigation filed another lawsuit in 2008 claiming that a privately owned and operated golf course is not a use contemplated by the Klock deed and violates the Consent Judgment entered in 2004. In August, 2008, the Berrien County Circuit Court sided with the developer, citing very expansive uses to which public parks in Michigan have been subjected, including runways and nuclear reactors. Clearly, the plaintiffs in the 2004 litigation did not anticipate this possibility, and they immediately appealed the circuit court decision. The Appeals Court affirmed the lower court's ruling. A petition for leave to appeal the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court was declined by the Court, but Justice Stephen Markman dissented saying, "The only issue in this case concerns whether a "championship Jack Nicklaus" privately-owned golf course constitutes a park use consistent with J. N. and Carrie Klock's deed to the City of Benton Harbor ..."
Seven other people filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Benton Harbor, the National Park Service, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Golf course construction required permits from the Corps of Engineers and the State of Michigan, as well as permission from the National Park Service. The golf course development covers over 500 acres (2.0 km2) and adjoins federally regulated wetlands, two rivers and Lake Michigan, all regulated waters of the United States.
Land outside of Jean Klock Park is the subject of the federal litigation, because parks covered by the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act cannot be converted without mitigation. The offset land replacing Jean Klock Park acreage consists of seven scattered parcels along the Paw Paw River which are supposed to be developed as part of a trail system, but as yet remain unimproved. All but one of the scattered parcels is contaminated from legacy industrial wastes and illegal dumping. It is believed that this is the first instance of the National Park Service allowing contaminated land to be used as mitigation since the Land and Water Conservation Fund's inception in 1965. Numerous communications from the state of Michigan advise that the NPS will not approve contaminated land as mitigation.
Support by Proactive Environmental Protection Organizations
Plaintiffs in both lawsuits as well as many others continue to defend the Klock deed and the public's right to accountable government contained in federal laws enacted to protect the land and the water and precious ecosystems. Other organizations have supported the efforts to preserve Jean Klock Park since 2003 including the Alliance for the Great Lakes, the Michigan Environmental Council and Freshwater Future. The parks protection organization, Defense of Place, founded by Huey Johnson of the Trust for Public Land, is also a supporter.