Developer, Native American tribe reach agreement

Developer, Native American tribe reach agreement
By KRISTINA SMITH HORN • Watchdog/enterprise reporter • October 17, 2008

DANBURY TOWNSHIP — A township developer has reached an agreement with a Native American tribe that will allow him to build a marina at his housing subdivision.
Scott Prephan, developer of Harbor Bay Estates on Bayshore Road, agreed to give the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma an easement to part of his property that the tribe believes might contain ancient Native American remains, said Sherri Clemons, tribe spokeswoman.

Prephan, the tribe, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Ohio Historic Preservation Office and other agencies worked out the deal after more than three years of negotiating. The property came into question after ancient Native American remains and artifacts were found in the development neighboring it, Cove on the Bay housing subdivision.

“We wanted to protect the area that adjoins the Spatz property,” Clemons said. “(The agreement) is about as good as anything. I’m glad they got their marina in, and I hope they fulfill their part of the memorandum of agreement.”

If Native American remains are ever found on that parcel of land, the Wyandottes can take possession of them and rebury them, she said. But Larry Freedman, marketing director for the Marblehead Yacht and Beach Club at the marina, said an archeologist has conducted three surveys of the development area and has not found human bones.

He applied to the Army Corps and state agencies for a permit to build the marina, but the National Historic Preservation Act, a federal law that protects cultural resources, required the corps to deal with the possibility of remains and artifacts on the property and make sure anything found would be protected before allowing the project, an Army Corps spokesman told the News Herald last year.

Freedman said Harbor Bay also had to replace some wetlands before receiving approval to continue with the project. This came after Prephan removed nearly 3 acres of wetlands in 2003 without permission, a Corps spokesman told the News Herald in 2005.

Harbor Bay will remove the dike blocking the property and flood its marina -- a major step toward setting up the planned luxury floating docks -- this afternoon, Freedman said. With the marina comes a plan to build condominiums and a push for memberships to the yacht club, he said.

“Almost everything hinged on the marina,” he said. “Now that we’ve got that, we can get moving.”

E-mail Kristina Smith Horn at mkhorn@gannett.com.
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