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Jean Simonson letter

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Open letter or flyer by Jean Simonson, photocopied. The top portion of the letter is an aerial photo of Saugatuck. Life-long resident of Saugatuck, Jean is expressing his concern about publicly-held street ends and parks being conveyed to adjacent private land owners. He also suggests that the site of the old school property be used to build a parking lot and expanding the Oval Beach parking lot to the north and eliminate a "questionable private use" (the gay beach on the South Denison property).
Dear Saugatuck Area Dweller, Thank you for your concern in coming out to this meeting. I hope we can have some helpful input about the future of our nice village. As a native, born a half a block from here, I would like to think my ideas are relevant to the future of Saugatuck. Naturally I am concerned with the appearance of buildings. But more important to me is the need to keep what we have in real estate holdings--street ends--parks. Just because a bit of village property is sitting unused, but coveted by the adjoining landowner, is not a good enough reason to convey it from the public domain to private ownership. That land belongs to us and the generations to come. We could even expand village holdings to make the whole area more attractive to us and to our visitors. The future commercial health of our village shops and eating places depends on parking• Why not a village parking lot on the hill so the merchants and workers could park there and not tie-up the streets with their cars? Perhaps the village could buy the old school property from oval earnings. Expansion of the oval area to the north would be a worthy idea.The questionable private use to which this area is now put, is an embarrassment to the community. My apologies to the Historical Society if these ideas are not pertinent to this meeting. Sincerely, Jean Simonson

2021.18.62

Example of citizen concerns how the town is changing, specifically about over-development, lack of parking, and the gay/nude beach.

Development, resistance toDevelopment, land1960 Gay/LGBTQ+ culture

Winthers, Sally

2021.18

Lane, Kit, family

11 in

8-1/2 in

109 Kit Lane Research Files

Simonson, Earnest Jean 1916-1996Saugatuck Public School 1897-1950Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area/South Denison Property/Gay/Nude Beach;

"The Jean Simonson letter and photo dates to the middle 1960s. At that time, the village old timers were going crazy because of an explosion of condo building. And of course, the value of land was going up up and up. At that time, one of the first condo developments took place. It is located along the waterfront in the block between Butler and Griffith streets - next to my grandmothers [Sarah Sheridan] back yard. It had been a lumber yard owned by Herman Hirner. Jean was co-owner of the Koning Hardware and was a good friend of the Sheridan family. He and my uncle Joe were leaders of opposition to waterfront developments, Jean is the oldest son of Herman Simonson. Jean is referring to the old school site at the top of Allegan Hill before the present condos were built." Context by Jack Sheridan, March 2025

03/28/2025

03/28/2025