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Campground Proposed For Former Golf Course East Of Milford Draws Controversy

April 26, 2022 Steve Schwaller

(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Adjustment Monday evening held a public hearing on a conditional use permit for a 174 site campground being proposed for the former Woodlyn Hills Golf Course east of Milford. It drew a standing room only crowd that filled the community room at the courthouse and spilled over into an adjoining hallway. Brian Schmidt, one of the developers of the proposed campground, told the crowd the lakes area continues to lose family resorts. He says this would help fill a growing void…

“While development will continue to change the future landscape of Okoboji, we want to make sure the experience we had as children, the experiences that we had as children, are available for the next generation.”

Schmidt also says that based on how that area is zoned, he feels a campground makes the most sense…

“I know a lot of people say hey, this would be great for residential areas, and while I don’t necessarily disagree with that, residential use is not permitted. The only commercial uses are non-civic uses for the area are crop production or farm production. The only conditional uses are a campground or alternatively, gravel extraction and resource extraction.”

Neighbors of some neighboring residential developments expressed concern over public safety, traffic, noise, aesthetics and any potential impact on property values…

“If anybody has any questions on the value of these properties, I assure you I would not be a buyer of my home today if this was against my backyard.”

There was also concern over plans for the proposed campground to be served by a private sewer system…

“I don’t know if any of you have ever owned property in a rural area that had a septic tank, but I guarantee you that if you owned it long enough, something went wrong. It may not go wrong in five years, 10 years, but eventually that is going to fail.”

The developers indicated they may have an interest in connecting to public sewer provided there’s an adequate line available nearby. There was some question about that availability at Monday evening’s meeting. As a result, board members voted to continue the hearing to 7:00 pm June 6th to give the developers time to address that and other concerns that were brought up.

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