UPDATE:     Development Plan dealt setback :   
                        tabled until  NEXT MEETING 19th July 2005:

The East Bay Township Planning Commission Instructs Developer to Do Further Study:

• CCAL President Myrna Yeakle expresses cautious optimism after the June Seventh meeting when the  environmental, legal, and social arguments were expressed for conserving Arbutus Lake.  Ms. Yeakle praised Commisssion Chairman Mike Nikels for having allowed a public forum.  She added that the excellent turnout at the meeting can only have impressed the township with the serious concern of the Arbutus Lake community.   
   
• Several people who attended the meeting praised the CCAL's legal and environmental arguments as "persuasive" and "lucidly logical". Protests against the development have come from different parts of the country, including people who had attended camp 50-60 years ago.
   

• Don't forget: a significant aspect of the that property's value derives from the unspoken  "culture" that you - the five generations of residents -  have striven to preserve.  
• We still need a  strong, presence at the next meeting (Tuesday 19th July) :
  Show the town officials that our feelings stand strong and resolute. 
  Your presence helps convey to the decision makers the seriousness of the decisions that they are being asked to make.
   

 Do Townships Gain or Lose on New Developments? Paper argues it's a loss.

Studies, according to a paper from the American Farmland Trust, generally show that residential development is a net fiscal loss for communities and recommend (instead) commercial and industrial development as a strategy to balance local budgets..
    see article in the http://www.dnr.state.md.us/education/growfromhere/LESSON9/lesson9_1.htm

• Proposing to build 227 homes along three miles of shoreline, McKeough's site plan include 91 lakefront houses and 136 interior houses. Typical interior lots are about an acre, and lakefront lots average 0.6 acres with 100 feet of lake frontage.
• Currently, there are about 100 houses on Lake Arbutus.
• In 2002, retired Traverse City physician Dayton Salon (died 2003) and his two sons listed the property at $9.9 million. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy made an offer which the family declined.
• The project requires only site plan review from the township planning commission.

 Developer to add 227 residences to the current population of 100 residences

McKeough Land Co. has a purchase option for about 462 acres, or nearly half the west     side, spread along three miles of Arbutus Lake's  second, third, and fourth lakes.
    see article in the Record-Eagle http://www.gtherald.com/2005/apr/18arblak.htm by  BRIAN McGILLIVARY  

• Proposing to build 227 homes along three miles of shoreline, McKeough's site plan include 91 lakefront houses and 136 interior houses. Typical interior lots are about an acre, and lakefront lots average 0.6 acres with 100 feet of lake frontage.
• Currently, there are about 100 houses on Lake Arbutus.
• In 2002, retired Traverse City physician Dayton Salon (died 2003) and his two sons listed the property at $9.9 million. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy made an offer which the family declined.
• The project requires only site plan review from the township planning commission.