A group of Clayton County residents has lost another legal round in their battle against the Clayton County Board of Supervisors. The Court of Appeals has sided with the county supervisors. At issue is the supervisors’ decision to establish special tax incentives in an area they hoped to develop around McGregor. The supervisors envision a golf course, hotel and water park resort in that area, and they dubbed it the River Bluff Project. The “Vision Iowa” board initially gave the project a state grant, but withdrew it after reviewing the track record of the developers the county had hired. The county then lined up a new developer and forged ahead with the project, which will involve some taxpayer-financing. A group of local residents filed a lawsuit, charging that the Board of Supervisors had acted illegally and abused its discretion. The Appeals Court says it can find no “missteps” in the county’s actions and rejected the complaints from Harlan Dettman, Gregory Koether, Ronald Kleinow and Timothy Mason.
