Complaint leaves key preserve funding in limbo

The $2.3 million Knowles Nelson Stewardship Grant that’s pivotal for the acquisition of the proposed Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve off Lakeshore Road on Port Washington’s far southeast side is in limbo, officials said this week.

The grant, which has been approved by the Department of Natural Resources, requires approval from the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, but it stalled after at least one legislator expressed concerns about the amount, Tom Stolp, executive director of the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, said Tuesday.

“We’re being asked to take a very significant reduction,” Stolp said.

He declined to define the amount but said the Land Trust was willing to accept a $2 million grant.

“That was not sufficient,” he said.

Stolp said the legislator who lodged the concern did so anonymously, and Land Trust officials are working diligently to ease any concerns and negotiate a grant amount.

The grant, while described as the linchpin of the project by officials, is the largest portion of a financing package to purchase the 131-acre nature preserve property, which has more than a mile of Lake Michigan frontage, from Waukesha State Bank for $5 million, or $35,000 an acre.

“It is a hefty sum, but it’s Lake Michigan property,” Stolp said. “We’re talking about doing a project in one of the more real expensive (areas) in the state, and in one of the hottest real estate markets in history.

  “It is a very good value.”

He noted that a parcel north of the future preserve recently sold for the same amount, but it is only half as large.

Andrew Struck, director of the Ozaukee County Parks Department, noted that the grant amount is based on the appraised value of the property.

In this case, he said, the Land Trust submitted the grant application with its appraisal and, because the amount was large, the DNR got its own appraisal as well. 

The DNR then certifies a value for the land, and Struck said it chose to certify the value at less than both appraisals, making the Land Trust eligible for the $2.3 million grant.

The Joint Finance Committee, he added, has full authority to award the grant at whatever funding level it decides on.

County and Land Trust officials are conferring with local legislators as they seek to reach an agreement with the Joint Financing Committee on the grant award, Stolp and Struck said.

Stolp lauded the efforts of Rep. Rob Brooks, saying he is an “effective advocate of us getting the full grant award. He knows what it took to get (the neighboring) Lions Den Gorge property. It’s a treasure in the community.”

Struck noted that virtually all the other funding needed to purchase the property has been raised by the county and Land Trust. 

“If they award the $2.3 million grant, we can go to closing right away,” he said.

The Land Trust has raised more than $1 million toward the purchase, and the county and Land Trust have also received a number of grants to help with the purchase.

Stolp said he has talked to Land Trust members and will be talking to other local stakeholders about the situation and how they can raise additional funds for the purchase.

The good thing, he said, is that “everyone is still talking about making this project happen. It’s a very popular project.”

And, he noted, legislators seem to realize the need to preserve natural areas near urban areas.

“This is where we have the most demand,” Stolp said. “This project is very much alive.”

Talk of cutting the grant award is especially frustrating, Stolp said, because the amount that’s cut won’t go back to taxpayers but instead will be appropriated by legislators for other conservation projects in the future.

“There’s no net Wisconsin taxpayer savings,” he said. “The money’s going to be spent.”

The Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve is an important area, Struck said, because it would protect an environmentally sensitive area with unique clay seepage bluffs that are only found in a few places along Lake Michigan and on Lake Superior.

The area has an interesting ecological community with unique vegetation and wildlife, he said.

“They might not be charismatic species but they’re unique,” Struck said.

The corridor supports species not often seen in the area, he said, and it’s an important area in the Lake Michigan flyway for migrating birds.

It’s also home to the short-eared owl, which is a species of concern, he said. 

It will likely be January before the Joint Finance Committee meets again and the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve grant application is considered again, Stolp said.

Even with the delay, he said, the Land Trust has time to continue work on the project before its offer to purchase expires in fall 2022.

“We don’t have forever, but we have sufficient time for these negotiations,” Stolp said. “We’re all working pretty urgently. We have government agencies who want to see the project progress quickly.”

Struck noted that officials from Waukesha State Bank have been “very cooperative. They want to see this project go forward. They’ve been very patient.”

Struck said that a master plan for the preserve has recently been completed calling for the preserve to be a passive recreational area with trails, a stairway to the beach, boardwalk and bridge over the ravine.

“It’ll be very similar to Lions Den,” he said.

Once the property is acquired, Struck said, the county will work to restore the land, ridding it of invasive species and returning the wetlands, prairies and native forests.

It will be a long-term effort, he noted, adding that the county has already started applying for grants to fund that work.