(Spirit Lake)– A request to rezone 70 acres of land on the southeast side of East Lake Okoboji from Agriculture and Residential to Resort Enterprise was put on hold Tuesday by the Dickinson county board of supervisors.
Following a public hearing that lasted nearly two hours, the supervisors voted three-to-two to continue the hearing to 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, March 15th.
Earl Maahs is a Spirit Lake attorney representing a developer that wants to purchase the property that’s been owned by Tom Nielsen’s family since 1907. Maahs said the project would consist of private ownership condominiums along with possibly some single family houses and an indoor water park that would be open to the public. He says the project would go a long way toward helping make the Iowa Great Lakes a year-round vacation destination.
Among those expressing concern over the project was Arnolds Park City Administrator Ron Walker, who’s concerned over infrastructure needs. Walker says based on what’s allowed under Resort Enterprise and the amount of land that’s available, upwards of 1.050 units could be in the offing. He questioned whether there’s adequate infrastructure in place to handle such a volume.
But John Broek, one of the developers of the proposed project, says they wouldn’t propose anything near the 1,050 units that were mentioned.
After further discussion, supervisor Mardi Allen made a motion to continue the hearing to March 15th to give the developer some time to come up with an exact number of units that would be included in the project and to come up with some sort of impact statement. She also requested the developers get letters from the various utilities regarding their ability to serve the proposed development. The motion to continue the hearing passed three-to-two with Allen, Pam Jordan and Chairman David Gottsche vote yes; Wayne Northey and Paul Johnson voted no. Johnson indicated earlier he could not support the rezoning proposal, siting environmental concerns.
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