Golf course plan which includes state park land taking on hold

Facing opposition, unanswered questions and the likelihood of costly litigation, the City of Sheboygan Common Council put off deciding until July 17 whether to annex land for a Kohler golf course which had been on a fast-track:

After council members voted to send a pre-annexation agreement back to committee, City Administrator Darrell Hofland recommended they put annexation and zoning decisions on hold. He said if the council approved the annexation without the pre-annexation agreement, it would lose its leverage over development details.

Kohler Co. is pushing for the annexation of more than 400 acres to build an 18-hole golf course on land it owns in the Town of Wilson along Lake Michigan. The project also could involve using land in the nearby Kohler-Andrae State Park. 

The Sheboygan Common Council streams and archives its meetings, here.

The project would need multiple permits and approvals from agencies and interests as varied as the US Army Corp of Engineers, several Native American tribes and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, regardless of its final location.

Here's a recent posting about the direction that the DNR has been taking since right-wing GOP Gov. Scott Walker installed what he termed "a chamber of commerce mentality" atop the DNR management structure. 

You can find multiple posts about the issues on this blog, including this item from last year which focused on the project's demand for land inside the neighboring Kohler Andrae State Park:

 [Updated] I'd supplied some fresh information earlier today about the ongoing battle documented on this blog for the last two years over whether a privately-owned, high-end golf course proposed in a Lake Michigan nature preserve - - 

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- - by a major Scott Walker campaign donor should win approval by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 

The plan proposes turning over to the development between four and twenty acres of the adjoining Kohler-Andrae State Park.