To the Journal editor:

Hooray for the Michigamme pocket park protesters! In my “outsider” opinion, every inch of public owned access to Lake Michigamme should remain in public ownership perpetually.

If one looks at the Marquette County plat book for 1987 and 2012, one will see noticeable changes in land ownership and a net reduction in public access to Lake Michigamme and surrounding inland lakes over time.

Land that was formerly corporate owned forest, probably enrolled in the CFR program with public access allowed, has been subdivided into smaller parcels, sold off into individual private ownerships where public access has been effectively lost.

Section 33 of T48N-R30W, Michigamme Township is a good example of this, formerly owned by Ford Motor Company and now held in private ownership, subdivided into 40 acre parcels. The east half of section 8, T47N, R30W, Republic Township tells the same story, formerly owned by U.S. Steel Corp. and University of Michigan, now subdivided and sold off.

Michigamme Township supports sale of their public lakefront property to enhance the value of the adjoining private property which currently has no lakefront, thereby theoretically increasing property tax revenues from the overall property for the township. Property “values” rise and fall over time, as thus do the generated property taxes. Many properties appear to be over-priced to me. It is just a matter of time until the next housing/property bubble bursts, property values and tax revenues fall.

As for the township government’s “it is not a park” argument, undeveloped parks do exist. A park without a toilet, drinking fountain, or other improvements is still a park. Even if the “pocket park” did not exist as a park, the public ownership and right to access the lake at this property would still exist.

New public access to Lake Michigamme is not being created. Places for public access are continuously being lost to the insidious private property real estate profiteering machine. Purchasing new public access from private individuals comes at great expense to governments.

The individual wishing to purchase the pocket park should be given a stern no by Michigamme Township.

BRYAN HILL

Skandia