Summary 2022 Annual Meeting Vote on Stone Revetment

On Saturday August 6th, 2022 the Lot Owning Members of the CSA approved a motion to allow the cottage owners on the Lake Michigan bluff, the Smoliks, Burrows and Gosnells, to construct at their own expense a stone revetment to protect the CSA dune and their own cottages. The vote tally was 57 Yay, 1 Nay and 3 Abstain.

The motion ensures that a binding legal agreement between the cottage owners and the CSA must be executed before the work can continue. The legal agreement will contain protections for the Assembly’s best interests. Some of them, but not all, are listed below:

• All expenses, including for the legal agreement, the permitting, the construction, and the maintenance of the stone revetment will be paid by the cottage owners.
• There will be a CSA project manager with stop-work authority overseeing the work in case the project deviates from the planned scope and negatively impacts the CSA.
• The cottage owners will need approval by the Board of Trustees of the remediation plan which will include considerations for the roadway into the site, the laydown area for the materials, the construction access path, the beach and an escrow account to cover expenses that might be incurred.
• The project will have a reasonable timeline that matches their permit, starts within 2 years, and contains blackout times for when the work cannot be done.
• The agreement will be binding to the owners, heirs, and assigns so that all stipulations remain in place upon change of hands of the properties.

At the Annual Meeting a new construction access path was presented and accepted. Click here to read the approved motion, exhibits and additional information regarding the new construction access path.The new access path, show in green in the linked images was recommended by a CSA member who works as a senior coastal engineer. His experience includes the determination of coastal structure design criteria, the design of beach nourishments, and the analyses of tidal hydrodynamics and storm surge.

The new access path was recommended for the following reasons. Less of the area is disturbed and can more easily be remediated. It is more easily accessed from the roadway and the lay-down area. It is further away from the newly constructed stairs. It will allow for the reuse of the sand that is displaced for the remediation work. It avoids more of the natural vegetation in the area. It will not be as steep or high as the originally proposed path.

We thank the members for their participation in this process.

CSA Board of Trustees