Lonie Glieberman, president of Black Bear, Inc. better known as Mount Bohemia, said that while his company requests rezoning of an 80-acre parcel in Keweenaw County’s Grant Township, there are no plans for development on the property. (Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette)

Editor’s Note: Today begins a four-part series that looks at the rezoning question in Keweenaw County of property leased to Black Bear, Inc. and owned by The Nature Conservancy.

EAGLE RIVER — The Keweenaw County Planning Commission was unable to take action during Tuesday’s Public Hearing, because one of its members, AJ Kern was not present. Commission Chairman John Parsons said that although Kern was absent, the meeting would proceed with the review and taking public comment.

The hearing was to review a rezoning request by Black Bear Inc, for rezoning approximately 80 acres of leased land along Sand Point Road, Lac La Belle, in Grant Township. The request, submitted on sept. 27, 2024, was to rezone two parcels from Single Family Residential (RRB) to Resort Services (RS2). The hearing was also to decide whether the PC would recommend the request to the County Board of Commissioners.

The property is a parcel within Keweenaw Heartlands, which is owned by The Nature Conservancy, and is a part of 1,100-acres under a 99-year lease to Black Bear, more commonly known as Mount Bohemia Ski Resort.

“The County Board of Commissioners” Parsons said, “are the ones that make this final decision. We make a recommendation to them, but they are the ones who ultimately decide yes or no on the rezoning.”

However, without a quorum, the PC could not conduct discussions or reach a determination.

Black Bear, Inc. President Lonie Glieberman explained during the hearing that the company is requesting rezoning of 80 acres of the 1,100 acres it has under lease. Currently, 1,020 acres are zoned as RS2, while 80 acres are resort residential.

“We just want contiguous zoning,” he said. “There are no plans for developing this area,” adding that that does not mean there will not be development in that area at some future time. It means, he said, there are currently no plans for development there.

Glieberman said that in response to public fears of Black Bear “overdeveloping” the area, out of the 1,100 acres of the property, development has occurred on five acres of it in the company’s 25 years.

Trina Anderson, with American Forest Management, is also a private consultant for Black Bear. She spoke at the hearing, saying that since Black Bear was organized, she worked with the PC and the public to strategize on how residents wanted the county to look, which included Mt. Bohemia.

She reiterated Glieberman’s statement that there are no plans for developing the property in question.

“This is, simply, a straight-forward, no hidden agenda for us to align the zoning with the remaining portion of the hill.”

Anderson said The Nature Conservancy inherited the 99-year lease from AFM when she sold the Heartlands to the conservancy. The Black Bear lease was transferred to TNC with the sale of the 32,000-acre Heartlands property.

“They cannot sever it, they can’t terminate it, they can’t modify it,” she said. “It is what it is, and there is still 75 years remaining on the lease.”

She went on to say that as the leaseholder to the property in question, Glieberman has all the rights and responsibilities as does the landowner. Because the landowner, in this case, TNC, has the legal right to request zoning changes to the property, so do those who lease land from a landowner.

“TNC simply holds the title of the land,” she said. “In exchange, he pays a confidential fee to the Nature Conservancy.”

Under the lease agreement, she went on, Glieberman has the rights and responsibilities as any private property owner.

In a Sept. 20, 204 letter to the Keweenaw County zoning administrator, Richard Tuzinski, with TNC, stated:

“Under the ground lease, Black Bear, as the tenant, is responsible to ensure that its use of the Parcel – to the extent the use is permitted by the Ground Lease – complies with applicable law. To this end, under the Ground Lease, Black Bear may pursue changes to the Parcel’s zoning designation so that Black Bear’s permitted use of the Parcel complies with applicable zoning laws.”

The letter goes on to say that that under the lease terms, TNC, as the landowner, is obligated to reasonably cooperate with such zoning changes when requested by Black Bear to do so.