Upon approval and recommendation from the Planning Commission, Cook County commissioners granted an interim use permit (IUP) application for Christine Day and Alisa Logan to establish a home business (meditation center) on their property within an R1 zone district.
The decision was made at the board’s Tuesday, November 27 meeting.
The property is located about one and one half miles east of Grand Marais. Day and Logan own 3.27 acres, which is accessed from Highway 61 and has approximately 200 feet of Lake Superior shoreline. They have owned the land and buildings on it since 2013.
The permit will not exceed one year, but it can be submitted for a new application and renewed contingent upon reviews by Land Services and the planning commission.
Neighbors complained last summer that there was loud chanting, car horns going off, drones flying overhead, and general hubbub during six three-day weekends as those at the meditation center tried to contact Pleidians, aliens from another world Day encountered in 1994 that want to help the earth.
One neighbor, who was quoted at the planning commission meeting held two weeks ago, worried that the activity at the retreat center would hurt his property values, adding, “I’m not sure what the depreciation effect would be from living next to a galactic porthole…but that is a concern…the use of private enjoyment of my property is also a concern.”
Other nearby neighbors said noise from car alarms going off and chanting and wailing had bothered them and they too, worried about their property values. But one person who lived across the highway gave Day and Logan a strong vote of confidence. “Christine and Alisa have been exemplary neighbors and I am certain that anything they choose to do with their property will be done with care and tact.”
The couple said the property is used for three-day retreats in the spring and summer and activities would now start at approximately 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. Groups would run from 25-30 during the six retreat weekends.
Last summer as many as 50 people would come for the long weekends and chanting would begin as early as 5:45 a.m.
In addition to the interim use permit Day and Logan requested and received an after-the-fact Conditional Use Permit to continue their home business operation in the Single Family Residential (R-1) zone district. The conditional use permit cost $300 plus $300 more for an after-the-fact permit.
At the planning commission meeting both Logan and Day said they were going to survey their property lines and make sure where those lines ran. They also said they are looking into soundproofing and sound blocking to find ways to keep the sound inside the garage building.
Day said they were unaware how they had been affecting their neighbors and didn’t realize they needed a permit for their home business. They also said they wanted to honor the people around them.
At the end of the day, the issue wasn’t about aliens or galactic portholes, but it was about following the county’s land use ordinances.
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