Benton Harbor City Commissioners approved the plan ten days after receiving 400 public
comments on the project, the bulk and volume of which were provided by opponents to
the privatization scheme.

In a seven-page letter to the Board Monday, park supporters, Defense of Place and
members of Friends of Jean Klock Park implored the Trust Fund to discuss the proposal
and put the matter on their agenda at a future meeting held closer to Benton Harbor. The
letter outlined numerous violations of law the Trust Fund and the DNR would make if
either granted approval to the flawed conversion proposal.

Among their points:

The changes in the proposed lease agreement of 22 acres of Jean Klock Park parkland
render it a perpetual lease, which the Attorney General's office cautioned against.

The bulk of the mitigation value (approximately 80%) is in a single parcel - a 1.47-acre
contaminated post-industrial Whirlpool Corporation property appraised at $714,000.
Mitigating this parcel for the loss of 22.11 acres of dunes and Lake Michigan views in
Jean Klock Park (only valued at $900,000) is unacceptable due to contamination issues,
its eventual location in the city of St. Joseph and its lack of recreational viability. The
view from the mitigation parcel is of industrial buildings.

The park and Parcel H properties, while valued at over $500,000 had only a single
appraisal prepared to determine value, when MNRTF policy specifically states that two
appraisals must be obtained.

The Trust Fund grant awarded to the park in 1989 was for restoration and preservation of
the dunes of Jean Klock Park, and that conversion of those dunes violated the Trust Fund
policy of "property acquired or developed with MNRT Fund assistance...shall be
retained and preserved in its natural state . . . as set forth in the MNRTF application." The
application language and purpose of the $375,000 grant to Benton Harbor was for
"preservation of fragile sand dunes and wetland wildlife habitat."

The State cannot approve any conversion without a Community Recreation Plan without
violating state and federal law and MNRTF policy. The City of Benton Harbor does not
have a Community Recreation Plan.

The Marram Shores illegal sale and conversion of Jean Klock Park in 1998 remains
unmitigated. The DNR and National Park Service have yet to require the City of Benton
Harbor to replace that lost parkland to the residents of Benton Harbor. The group insisted
that replacement parkland be found to make up for that loss before any further
conversions are considered, and that was not done.


"As a former resident of Benton Harbor, I am disappointed by the disgraceful and craven
cowardice and corruption of those state officials who style themselves as progressives,
yet sit back while a gift of recreational property to the people of Benton Harbor is stolen
through the collusion of corporate and golfing interests abetted by elements in pro-
apartheid St. Joseph who are slated to take over the beach-front parkland in decades to
come. The combination of greed, racism and political opportunism stinks to high
heaven," said John Woodford, of Ann Arbor and a signer of the letter to the Trust Fund
board. "Knowledge of history ought to tell all involved in this heist that their names will
be encrusted in muddy shame to the enlightened people of succeeding generations who
will uncover and analyze these events."

"I'm not surprised with the rubberstamping of this proposal. When the vast array of
vegetation in JKP is dismissed by the developer's environmental assessor as 'obnoxious
plant material,' I didn't expect much. All of our concerns were dismissed as easily," said
Judy Jones, a Benton Harbor resident and business owner.

"Violating all these DNR and Trust Fund policies and state and federal regulations was a
serious mistake on the State's part," said LuAnne Kozma, Michigan Director of Defense
of Place.

To obtain a copy of the letter to the MNRTF Board, contact LuAnne Kozma at Defense
of Place: defenseofplacemichigan@gmail.com

For updates on Jean Klock Park, visit www.savejeanklockpark.org