Lakefront property owners sue ‘rogue’ town board in northeast Minnesota

DULUTH – A northeast Minnesota town board is being accused of going “rogue” with its lakefront governance decisions in one of two lawsuits.

Eight property owners on lakes including Sturgeon and Sand in Pine County, about 50 miles southwest of Duluth, are suing Windemere Township and its board and planning commission. The board in March approved an increase to shorefront subdivision lot sizes, a move made to protect lake water quality, its leaders said.

The changes have riled residents in this township of about 1,600 people, who worry about township overreach and lost property value and development opportunities. A lawsuit filed in federal court accuses the board of spot zoning, and says new rules were created “to stifle progress.”

What started as a “simple project” to meet minimum state requirements led to “a sharp detour off course, secretly and in the last minute using the pretext of ‘saving the lakes,’” the lawsuit says.

It accuses a “newly controlled” planning commission of a conspiracy to secretly target certain landowners, and of threatening those who complained during a public hearing with building permit revocations.

The township disagrees with claims made in both lawsuits, its attorney, Jason Kuboushek, said.

“The township believes that the evidence is going to show that they had a rational basis for making the zoning changes in its ordinance, and they believe those changes are for the better of the lakes and the environment,” he said.

The ordinance revisions were in response to a settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The DNR in 2021 asked the township to update its shoreland ordinance and to require more from a major Sand Lake resort expansion than just a building permit. But the permit was granted and the ordinance stayed the same, so the DNR sued the resort and the township. Revisions had been in the works for months, but the lot size requirement was added shortly before the vote.

The planning commission has said it’s trying to curb development to protect the township’s extensive network of lakes.

Some lakes, including Sturgeon Lake, have had problems with sewage runoff for decades, planning commission Chair Paul Horgen has said, with noncompliant or nonexistent private water systems to blame.

“We want to wake up constituents to a need for a [municipal] sewer system,” he said earlier this month.

The federal lawsuit says that the DNR and other state data show no problems with water quality in the township’s lakes. The DNR’s new searchable database of graded lakes gives Sturgeon Lake a B and Sand Lake a C+. Grades are based on average quality of water, fish and/or plant life and the above-average condition of its shoreline and surrounding environment. Lakes were graded in 2023.

The ordinance decision has caused construction delays and increased costs, financial uncertainty, and worries about retaliation and harassment, the lawsuit says.