SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC COMMENTS (PDF FILES ATTACHED)
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
 (David E. Nash) Sustainable Cleveland: Must explain why Great Lakes restoration is
critical; outlines five reasons for the importance of restoration.
 Tina Stearns: Improvements in the quality of the Lakes are needed to support tourism.
 Peggy B. Johnson: Loss of agricultural lands development is a serious problem for the
Detroit area.
 (Carol Cook) Save the Dunes Conservation Fund: Need incentives for land use and
taxes for non-sustainable practices, need to adopt more efficient, resource-conserving
technologies, eliminate programs that fail to promote the necessary synergy between
private and public businesses.
 (John K. Barstow) New York State Tug Hill Commission: Greater emphasis should be
given to this section of the report.
 (Christine Ostern) Ashland Bayfield Douglas Iron Land & Water Conservation
Department: Proposed biomass burning plants in Great Lakes region are problematic.
 (Brian S. Murphy and Sadhu A. Johnston) City of Chicago: Incorporate sustainable
development and natural systems into urban planning.
 (F. Ned Dickman and Micheal J. Fischer) Great Lake's Boating Federation: Need
greater recognition of the social and economic contributions of boating and fishing;
address infrastructure needs of recreational boaters and marina operators; develop
brownfields into marinas.
 David D. Lonsdale: Early protection of lakes needed in addition to restoration; need to
address U.S. Army Corps' St. Lawrence Seaway Study.
 (Richard Hyde) City of Waukegan: more emphasis needed on corporations and
municipalities; identify and support existing watershed management plans;
recreational/educational component needed.
 Letter signed by 43 environmental groups (Also submitted separately by Tip of the
Mitt Watershed Council): Sustainable development can address social needs; need a list
of goals; misrepresentation of transportation drafting team's recommendations; first
recommendation needs deadlines and well-defined targets; troubling "blended mission of
ecological restoration and economic development;" brand Great Lakes ecosystem as
"fragile;" concerns with Transportation appendices.
 (Mary Gulezian) Council of Great Lakes Industries: Incorporate Sustainable
Development principles into all report areas.
 (David E. Jacobs) U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: Need to
reference HUD's Community Development Block Grant Program.
 (Karen A. Winters) Ohio Steel Group: Prioritize economic health and vitality.
 Jane L. Campbell (City of Cleveland): Discuss sustainability first in the overall report.
 Ohio Environmental Protection Agency: More specific/focused problem statement
needed; recommendations should focus on land use and development, transportation and
recreation/tourism; outreach/educational component needed.
 Ohio DNR Recommendations are more philosophical than action-oriented; there is
overlap with other issues; should consider the balanced growth approach included in
Ohio Lake Erie Commission plan; should include priority of waterborne transportation
issues; reword problem statement on page 45; consider use of taxes as a disincentive for
non-sustainable practices; include a statement recognizing the role of working lands;
recognize existing metrics for sustainability.
 Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: Agriculture needs to be further utilized as a
primary driver for supporting sustainability; while the negative environmental impacts of
the agricultural and forestry sectors get a lot of publicity, the many environmental,
economic, and social benefits derived from these sectors should also be recognized;
expanding sustainable agriculture is a key component of halting unsustainable
development; report should provide more attention to sustainable agriculture, forestry,
and fishing; draft should encourage use of ethanol as fuel; page 11 of the sustainable
development appendix confuses price support and subsidies; recommended actions for
sustainable agriculture in the report will result in negligible environmental benefits.
 Crop Life America: Balancing of environmental, social, and economic factors should
be incorporated into each of the areas discussed in the report.
 Great Lakes Commission: Review opportunities to discuss the relationship between
land use and development and GL watershed health.
 Council of Great Lakes Industries: Pursuing sustainable development by balancing
environmental, social, and economic factors should be incorporated into each of the issue
areas.
 Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency: GLRC strategic plan should ensure that
metropolitan planning agencies are key participants in a multi-state initiative.
 Michigan Dune Alliance: Submitted its 2005 Eastern Lake Michigan Coastal
Conservation Plan which it feels is especially relevant to Habitat/Species, Sustainable
Development, Indicators and Information, and Aquatic Invasive species teams.
 Jane L. Campbell, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio: Our city has prepared a Lakefront plan
that seeks to maximize mixed-use development and public space; the City supports
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Sustainable Cleveland's comment that sustainability should be discussed first in the Plan,
not last.
 Great Lakes Sea Grant Network: The network provided a series of general
recommendations and a set of comments based on a series of workshops held during the
2003-2004 Great Lakes Restoration Workshop Series; in addition the network provided
more specific comments on each of the 8 issue areas contained in the Draft report.
 (Julie Magee) USEPA Region 5: The National Clean Diesel Campaign and Midwest
Clean Diesel Initiative is working to reduce emissions from diesel engines. In her
comments, Ms. Magee spells out how the collaboration could support the initiative.
 Bruce Lindgren: Section 8 of the report should be cut and repositioned; sustainability is
and should be a fore-thought for all issues and actions affecting the future of the Great
Lakes; sustainable development should be an overriding consideration for the entire Plan;
need to include measures of progress as in the other sections; need to identify funding for
sustainable development; the distinction between development and growth is
inadequately addressed; there is a lack of clarity regarding what ecosystem services are
and assumptions about them as economic services; this section does not adequately
emphasize alternatives to "Basin Business as Usual."
 Water Environment Federation: The WEF strongly believes that sustainable
development relates to all issues areas and supports the recommendation to adopt and
maintain programs that promote sustainability.
 City of Chicago Department of the Environment: We believe nature and urban life can
co-exist; we must demand a balance of development and rethink what constitutes and
contributes to a strong economy.
 Ohio Environmental Council: Plan is vague about what sustainable development is;
plan lacks deadlines and well-defined targets for creating incentives and other important
activities.
 Izaak Walton League of America: Need to address the social needs of various
watersheds in the basin; need to have all interested parties review the transportation
appendixes.
 (Joseph Koncelik) Ohio EPA: The Ohio EPA provided specific comments on goals and
recommendations in this section of the report.
 Pollution Probe: Submission has been made on behalf of a number of participants
involved in the GL Futures Roundtable; submission includes the group's mission and
vision statement as well as a series of goals, for possible inclusion as a supplement to the
Plan.
 Douglas County Land Conservation Committee: We urge the committee to consider
addressing the limitation of proposed biomass-burning plants in the Great Lakes region.
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 David Lonsdale: Mr. Lonsdale included a comprehensive discussion that includes
suggestions for addressing invasive species; increasing research, and improving the
sustainable development section of the report.
 Jane Schmitt: We need to document what we have; conserve what we have; preserve our
resources; and restore our lost resources.
 Jim Sweeney: I have seen no progress on limiting the development in NW Indiana.
 Sharon Duerkop: I think we are beyond the point of a resource basis to sustain the
current population; should consider a carbon tax; too often the ACE and DNR issue
permits without adequate consideration of the consequences.
 Great Lakes Boating Federation: This team may have most impact on recreational
boaters; the draft report does not reflect a completion of the task at hand; need to better
incorporate how the economic resources of boating and fishing can be used to help
tourism and improve the quality of life; recreational boating infrastructure is not
receiving the federal attention warranted for dredging and maintenance; should consider
marinas when reclaiming brownfields; the report must make an explicit call for coastal
lands to be designated for water-dependent uses only.
 Housing and Urban Development: On page 46, the last paragraph of section 1 contains
a discussion of tools to encourage sustainability practices; we recommend you include
the following sentence: "HUD's Community Development Block Grant Program, which
funds a broad array of locally determined activities, can be used to support sustainable
development, pursuant to a local jurisdiction's Consolidated Plan."
 Great Lakes Water Institute: The important theme of sustainability in water use is
missing from the report; education should be a key factor in any sustainability program.
 Macomb County Environmental Prosecutor (and Others): The Plan lacks sufficient
specificity, especially when discussing the 3-year demonstration program; needs to be
more emphasis on local governments.
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