Developer selling 54 acres to DNR

Downsizing of project prompts sale for wildlife area on Dead Lake

By Susan Larson | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, March 23, 2007

If a land deal between Blue Heron Bay developer Jim Erickson and the Department of Natural Resources is finalized later this month, 54 acres previously planned for development would be turned into a wildlife area by the DNR.

When Otter Tail County commissioners voted in December to downsize the Blue Heron Bay project from 138 residential units to 94, the land, earmarked for nine units, was pulled from the development plan and Erickson and the DNR began negoitations for its sale.

To help facilitate the transfer, the county commissioners recently agreed to remove the acres from the Conditional Use Permit granted for the development. A purchase agreement signed by the Trust for Public Land, which purchases land and sells to public entities, expires March 30. The permit limits what can be done on the property and potentially, the land’s value, according to Don Shultz, DNR area wildlife specialist.

“We’re still in negotiations,” Schultz said. “If we get the land, it will be a wildlife area and shoreline.”

If the land is not acquired by the DNR, it could be sold independently and developed.

“That’s why it was important that it be removed from the CUP,” Jim Erickson, Blue Heron owner, said. “If I didn’t think it was a good thing, I wouldn’t have signed the purchase agreement. I’m happy to see that it’s going to be preserved.”

The sale also meets with the approval of the Dead Lake Property Owners Association.

“The (Dead Lake) Association’s major concern,” Don Fondrick of the Dead Lake Association, said, “is to protect the natural resources of Dead Lake. “We are all about the lake and we want to make sure it isn’t destroyed.”

“We don’t want to see anything built there either,” County Commissioner Bob Block said.

The proposed Blue Heron Bay development, located on Dead Lake in Otter Tail County, was originally proposed for 138 dwelling units, but after four years of discussions, the Otter Tail County Board approved a conditional use permit for 94 units and 87 boat slips in December. The Dead Lake Association asked that the development be limited to 70 units and boat slips.