By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Residents of Saugatuck are gearing up to prevent an anti-gay Oklahoma businessman from developing 412 acres of pristine property that includes a stretch along Lake Michigan known as a predominately gay beach.

The land, known as the Denison property, lies between Saugatuck Dunes State Park and Saugatuck’s Oval Beach. It was purchased about a year ago by Aubrey McLendon, a wealthy Oklahoma energy executive who’s donated massive amounts to an anti-gay group led by right-wing activist Gary Bauer.

The 412 acres McLendon purchased, according to a report by the Michigan Land Use Institute, consists of freshwater dunes, coastal marshes, wetlands and forested areas that form a critical part of the “Saugatuck Dunes coastal experience.”

So far McLendon, working through Chicago attorney Stephen Neumer, has moved cautiously on his stated plans to build new homes and other developments on the property. Even so, those plans have spurred Saugatuck residents to organize a group to fight development of the property, the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance.

Members of that group have documented the unique habitats and species on the property and stress its importance to the preservation of Saugatuck’s historic character. The Michigan Land Use Institute report, which the group cites on its website at saugatuckdunescoastalalliance.org, warns that development of the property would trigger a commercial and housing boom similar to those that have occurred in the Benton Harbor and Traverse City areas in recent years.

“The Saugatuck Dunes area’s natural landscape and superb quality of life is certain to be considerably altered unless citizens and civic leaders collaborate on an effective response to levels of development not heretofore seen and that run counter to the goals set out in the master plans of every jurisdiction in the coastal region,” the report states. “It is well understood in Saugatuck Township and in Lansing that the Denison property is the ecological and biological centerpiece of the Saugatuck Dunes coastal region.”

When the Denison family, which had owned the property since the mid-1950s, put the land up for sale, Saugatuck residents and preservationists raised $38 million to buy it and keep it undeveloped. But they were outbid by McLendon, who paid $39.3 million.

In addition to his energy company wealth, McLendon is also an owner of the Seattle Supersonics NBA basketball team and the Seattle Storm women’s pro basketball team. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in February that McLendon and Tom Ward, his partner in owning the basketball teams, donated $1.1 million to Americans United to Preserve Marriage, an anti-gay group headed up by Bauer, a longtime anti-gay activist with past ties to the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.

Members of SDCA and other groups are working to schedule a meeting with the Tri-Community Joint Planning Committee later this month to discuss the issues surrounding the property.

“We’ll talk about the threat,” said SDCA President David Swan. “We’ll talk about the legality, as well.”

Swan said he and others also want to meet to discuss the future of the property with McLendon and his wife Katie McLendon, who has deep ties to the area as a member of the Upton family, founders of the St. Joseph, Mich.-based Whirlpool Corporation.

“I have to remain optimistic,” Swan said. “I think the Upton family and the McLendon family will end up doing the right thing.”