FERRYSBURG, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – Public input is sought on a proposed purchase of dune property in the Tri-Cities area.
The Ottawa County Parks Department is looking to acquire 353 acres off of North Shore Drive near Lake Michigan that would complete a 24 hundred-acre “coastal corridor” of dune land that would include PJ Hoffmaster State Park in Norton Shores and the Kitchel-Lindquist-Hartger Dune Preserve.
The “Ottawa Sand Acquisition Project” includes 219 acres of state-designated critical dunes, nearly 55 hundred feet of frontage along the Grand River, and an 80-acre, man-made inland lake. The current owner offered to sell the land last year at a value of 11.2 million dollars, but will donate a quarter of that as a match in a 8.4 million-dollar grant application by the Parks Department to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.
There are three public open houses on the matter slated, beginning this Tuesday at the Ferrysburg City Hall, followed by sessions on January 31st and March 7th, both at the county’s Fillmore Street Administrative offices.
