McGonegal hails signing of PA307 into law
The law would stop the kind of conduct Chris Ward tried to slip through

BRIGHTON – Mike McGonegal, candidate for the State House in the 66th District, congratulated the Governor for signing Senate Bill 971 into law Wednesday that
amends the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act that makes selling any public parkland a more public process.

Public Act 307 was given immediate effect, and it prohibits the selling of any public parkland, wilderness area or natural areas unless certain requirements are met. It would require the Department of Natural Resources to notify the 17-member Citizens Committee for Michigan State Parks and give public notice before recommending the transfer of any such land and require legislative approval if the property is more than 100 acres or more. The law would bar the quick one his opponent in the race, Chris Ward, tried to pull two years ago when he snuck an amendment into a bill that would have given a developer title to 286 acres of property in the Island State Recreation Area in Green Oak Township in exchange for 37 acres of less desirable property in Hamburg Township.

“I believe strongly in citizen’s input and oversight,” McGonegal said. “The people who set aide unspoiled parkland when there was plenty of empty land available we now see as visionary as undeveloped land is gobbled up so quickly, and to see public land literarily given away like this by a public official is wrong.”

The Ward amendment was added after the bill left committee, and no knowledge of it was known until it came to the floor for a vote. Luckily for the people of Southeast and mid-Michigan, it was caught by land conservation groups and opposed by neighbors and supporters of Island Lake recreation area, and Ward was forced to back off his amendment and the Senate stripped it out of the bill.