« Nothing in particular | Main | MUP Part IV: The Final Term »
Macatawa Legends is on its way
January 24, 2005
An article in today’s Holland Sentinel contains some wonderful words about the new Macatawa Legends development.
I don’t know if the author knew he was going to sound the way he did when he wrote it, but here are a couple of my favorite lines:
“Sprawling golf, housing development spans four townships.” Yeah, it certainly is sprawling… upwards of 950 acres with 800 homes and a golf course.
“Although the development is the biggest in the area in many years, it has proceeded with a minimum of controversy. That has largely been credited to the relationships the developers have built with local governments.” Hmm, can someone say ill-advised, blind-to-reality township leaders?
“Heidi Parsons, director of community sales and marketing for the project, said the opening of the Legends will fuel the local economy. ‘I believe it will push this whole area,’ she said, ‘It’s very exciting.’” Huh? How does the construction of homes and a private golf club stimulate the economy, besides providing construction jobs?
Where are these people going to work? Are they all retired? Holland is losing its middle class jobs right now, where do these people get their money? Are they moving out of other homes closer to Holland’s center? What will happen to those homes? Why isn’t anyone concerned about the drive time it will take to get to downtown? Do they expect retail to come to them now? This project is largely in undeveloped land to begin with…
And my FAVORITE line of the article, which was in the caption of a picture of the model of the development:
“Macatawa Legends in Holland Township will feature an 18-hole championship golf course and 800 to 1,000 homes which will replace blueberry and nusery fields spanning 800-acres.” Agriculture isn’t nature, I know that, but, do we need to destroy the viable and (very) economically profitable farmland so that some people can live on a golf course?
Posted by paul at January 24, 2005 11:35 AM
Post a comment
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.meermacatawa.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/47
Comments
Brandon said on January 25, 2005 11:29 PMYeah, one of the top ag. areas in the state, too.
Paul, I'm curious why so little neighbor uproar? The township residents around here have typically gone pretty berzerk when such large-scale projects are proposed (see "Northfield Neighbors" e.g.). Are they just numb to mass-development North of Holland now and have given up?
Paul said on January 26, 2005 12:17 AMYes, and I think it points to how well "respected" Cal Prins is. He gets stuff done... and no one seems to want to stop him.