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DNR seeks Blue Heron
Published 11:16am Thursday, March 4, 2010After legal battles, local government wrangling and financial problems that have lasted over eight years, the interested parties in the Blue Heron Bay Development controversy may finally get some closure.
The Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to allow the DNR to purchase the land on Dead Lake that was at one time slated to house 138 housing units and 116 boat slips.
The development was delayed and modified by the litigating efforts of Dead Lake Association, the members of which were concerned about the possible negative environmental effects that could occur if a large-scale building project took place on the lake. By the time the details of the development (which would have ended up being much smaller than originally planned) were hammered out, the lakeshore market had changed for the worse, leaving the project without interested buyers and eventually resulting in the development company’s bank foreclosing on the property. The bank’s assets were then seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) last year.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), with the help of the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping various government agencies acquire land for preservation, recreation and parks, bought 54 acres of the property in 2007 to turn into a wildlife management area. Since that time, TPL has been in talks with all of the various property owners to buy the remainder of the land, about 190 acres worth. If the FDIC decides to sell (an outcome TPL thinks could happen by the end of this month), TPL will then sell the property to the DNR for the same price the organization paid for it (the offer to the FDIC is confidential, but the property is listed at $2,510,000).
The DNR will then turn the rest of the property into a wildlife management area, with some shorefront set aside as an aquatic management area.
That’s good news for the friends of Dead Lake Association, 13 of whom were on hand at the County Board vote to clap and celebrate once the board gave permission. “It’s very exciting,” said Don Fondrick, one of the Dead Lake Association’s board members. “Over eight years we’ve been working on this.”
He added that the association is remaining cautiously optimistic until the sale to TPL is approved, but he said it still feels like a victory after “the number of hours, the number of people who have worked on this.”
It’s also exciting for Don Schultz, the DNR area wildlife supervisor for Otter Tail, Wilkin and Clay Counties.
“We always knew it was a nice piece of property,” said Shultz. “It’s a very sensitive area, with shallow water around it.” The DNR wants to, for the most part, keep the land in its natural state.
Schultz said there are very few modification plans in the works, explaining that the department will want to remove some traces of development and perhaps install a primitive boat landing and make a few other minor enhancements.
