Door County News: Stay Delays Egg Harbor Marina Work

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has put a stop to work on the Egg Harbor marina expansion project so it can reconsider complaints about project specifics from adjacent property owners.

Steve Schaefer submitted a letter Aug. 7 on behalf of Peninsula Shores Condominium Association arguing that the DNR had not properly considered the association’s riparian rites when it gave the Village of Egg Harbor the green light to commence work on the project to reconstruct and expand its public marina.

According to a response to that letter by DNR Secretary Matt Frank, the association believes the marina reconstruction would detrimentally affect the riparian rights of Peninsula Shores to such an extent as to constitute an unreasonable riparian use by the Village of Egg Harbor, for which a permit should not have been issued, and will also affect the public interests of safe navigation and natural scenic beauty.

Schaefer’s request for a stay alleges that “the department inequitably and improperly balanced the riparian rights of Peninsula Shores vs. the rights of the public” because the extension of the village’s riparian line into the riparian area of Peninsula Shores will primarily benefit eight boaters renting marina slips in that area as opposed to a larger benefit to the general public.

Frank agreed that the complaints warranted additional hearing and Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Boldt has been slated to preside over a contested case hearing Oct. 28 at the Door County Library in Sturgeon Bay.

Egg Harbor Administrator Josh Van Lieshout said he was not surprised by the action, and though the stay puts a kink in the village’s plans, it is not severely detrimental to the project.

“The stay prevents us from commencing construction on the portion of the project subject to the DNR permit,” he said. “But it does not prevent us from beginning work on the uplands portion or any area not subject to the permit.”

Van Lieshout said the complaint is not an objection to the overall project, but to specific aspects of it that affect adjacent property owners.

Egg Harbor Marina Contested Case Hearing

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 9 am

Friends Room of the Door County Library, Sturgeon Bay