A developer must pay $5,000 for violating a watershed district permit while developing the former shoreline estate of the late Douglas Dayton.
The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District took the rare step of issuing a compliance order this fall to developer George Stickney after he had removed a wetland buffer and 54 box elder, buckthorn and willow trees, violating the permit for the project.
Stickney is subdividing the nearly 90-acre property north of Wayzata on Mooney Lake, which includes parts of Plymouth, Medina and Orono.
"That's what we worried about in the beginning ... [that] he'd clear cut everything," said resident Anne Healy Shapiro, who signed onto a suit that sought to stop the project. "I don't understand why anyone would do that if they love the lake."
Dayton — the executive credited with launching Target, a grandson of the Dayton's department store founder and uncle of Gov. Mark Dayton — owned the land for about 50 years, restoring fields and building trails in the dense forest. He died in 2013 and his widow, Wendy, received $5.3 million last year when she sold the property, one of Orono's biggest remaining parcels of open land.
Stickney, an agent with Coldwell Banker Burnet and principal with BPS Properties, got approval from the City Council for 11 homes and the watershed district last year for Mooney Lake Preserve. He could not be reached for comment last week.
So far, a road and tennis court have been built and the city has issued two of the 11 building permits. Only nine houses may end up being built since one owner bought two lots with plans to preserve them, senior city planner Mike Gaffron said. According to documents, some of the lots have sold for $500,000 to about $1.1 million. More than half the estate will remain in its natural state.
"It's one of the few large parcels left in the city," Gaffron said. "I think it's going to be a nice development."