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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: Grand Marais overlook-potential development or protection
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| Mocha |
some of the housing issue could be solved by not allowing people to buy houses and turn them into VRBO/Air BnB rentals. that has seriously hurt the grand marais area when employers can't find housing for out of town staff. also, Hamilton Habitat is doing awesome work securing property and funding, including their own, to build houses that are affordable for what the average person in grand marais earns. Cook County has become one of the most expensive counties to live and buy property. it's craze. |
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| YaMarVa |
Mocha: "some of the housing issue could be solved by not allowing people to buy houses and turn them into VRBO/Air BnB rentals. that has seriously hurt the grand marais area when employers can't find housing for out of town staff. Eliminating vacation rentals will not help the affordable housing issue, it will only harm a city that relies on tourist and the local businesses that cater to them. Not engaging in the modern economy (eliminating VRBO/AirBnBs) will only set the city back further. Housing types that are used for vacation rentals are generally not the housing type needed for employees seeking affordable housing. |
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| Pinetree |
Mocha: "i sure hope it gets preserved. anything that would be built would not be affordable for the regular person working around grand marais. (excluding government jobs). Thanks for your info |
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| Pinetree |
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| Pinetree |
But there’s a catch. The owner gave an interested group of residents a Dec. 1 deadline to come up with the $475,000. Beyond that, he would consider developing the land-locked plots, or selling them to someone else who will. The bulk of Cook County land, which covers the northeast tip of the state, is government-owned. That makes it hard for the county to generate revenue through property taxes. At the same time, housing demand is high (and expensive) for the rural area, even with the recent opening of 51-unit affordable apartment complex in Grand Marais. So Cook County commissioners had to weigh potential revenue generation versus preserving the bluff’s aesthetic and its environment when they voted in the spring whether to support and shepherd a community-led purchase of the land, Commissioner Garry Gamble said. And the consensus was conservation, he said, with the caveat that they would not use taxpayer money to fund it. “If you have things that are considered to be of great value, and you recognize that it translates to a benefit for a number of people, you need to protect that value,” Gamble said. Sawtooth Bluff park is contiguous with the 80 acres that preservationists hope to buy from a private landowner to preserve the bluff’s landscape in Grand Marais. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune) Grass-roots group Preserve the Bluff then formed to raise money for the eight 10-acre plots just west of the Sawtooth Bluffs, a section of the Sawtooth ridgeline largely owned by Grand Marais and Cook County. “That view-shed is priceless,” said Amy Wilfahrt, a retired federal fisheries biologist and chair of the Preserve the Bluff committee. “It’s a gem having that hillside like it is, not only for me, but for future generations.” The group is working with the county on the effort as it tries to find a conservation nonprofit to pay for the land. It is in talks with the Minnesota Land Trust, which will undertake an appraisal of the property. The Land Trust is interested in conserving the property because it’s a community-led effort and the land is inside a watershed of a designated trout stream that leads to Lake Superior. The purchase would align with the Land Trust’s mission to protect fisheries and cold water on the North Shore, said Kathy Varble, a conservation program manager for the Land Trust. The Grand Marais harbor is picture-perfect at sunset on July 29. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune) However, securing the grant money before Dec. 1 is “aspirational,” she said. Property owner John Scheef said he offered it for preservation before putting it on the market because “it’s best for the community” and he knows many in Grand Marais see the bluffs as part of the tight-knit town’s identity. A 1-mile road through county property would need to be constructed to access the land, filled with underbrush, aspen, cedar, birch and balsam trees. A Cook County judge has allowed that possibility, after a discovery that long ago, roads were officially platted into that area. Sue Abrahamsen lives on the road that would serve as a connector to any new access that would be built if the property were sold for development. She’s concerned about erosion and increased water flow that might stem from a new road. The county in the 1990s asked for development proposals for that area, she said, “and the town was so against it.” Scheef has never marketed the land for sale, but has offered land swaps to the county and U.S. Forest Service. If a sale is made to the Land Trust or other nonprofit, the title would be transferred to the county. The Sawtooth Bluffs were logged in the 1800s and fell victim to wildfire in the early 1900s. They were home to a ski hill in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, the city of Grand Marais and the county are exploring turning the bluff land they own, which abuts Scheef’s land, into a park. The area is home to the Fall River Patterned Fen, a type of peatland that is the only one of its kind in northeast Minnesota; the black-throated blue warbler; and black hawthorn, a species of shrub that is of special concern in Minnesota. The preservation group hopes to accept donations once the property has been appraised. |