Lighthouse Dunes at Shoop Park: What the Record Actually Shows

The ProposalIn 30 seconds

• It's a lease, not a sale. Racine Common Council File 0609-26 would authorize a long-term lease to the Leipold Johnson Golf Group — Craig Leipold and Helen Johnson-Leipold of Racine's SC Johnson family. The City of Racine keeps ownership of the land. No source in the entire public record — including opposition materials — describes a sale.
• $10M+ in private investment is planned for course reconstruction, shoreline stabilization, habitat restoration, and a clubhouse — at a park the city has not been able to fund.
• It stays a fully public 9-hole course — a reimagined 3,000-yard walking course, designed by architect Craig Haltom with consultation from Michael Keiser's team (Sand Valley, Bandon Dunes) and ecological guidance from Jensen Ecology.

The NeedShoop Park is failing today — by the city's own numbers

This is not a matter of opinion about "overgrown scenery." City reports presented to the Common Council in March 2026 document:

• FCI (Facility Condition Index — a 0-to-1 score comparing repair cost to replacement cost; higher is worse) of 0.37 for the clubhouse and 0.42 for the service garage, with roughly $1.8 million in "actual need" the city has deferred (DPW — Department of Public Works — Commissioner John Rooney's report, reviewed by engineering firm SmithGroup).
• A major bluff failure in January 2020: during the high-water storm event, sections of bluff collapsed and trees and soil were lost into Lake Michigan. The bluff edge remains unstable (Parks Director Matt Koepnick's report).
• $1.2–1.3 million estimated for shoreline protection, plus ~$150,000 in engineering and permitting — money the city has not committed.

Concern 1"What about the migratory birds?"

Start by conceding what's true — because it is. Wind Point projects roughly 1.5 miles further into Lake Michigan than the rest of the Racine County shoreline, funneling migrating birds and producing one of Wisconsin's most impressive site lists: 270+ documented species. Both eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology's bird-records database) and the WSO (Wisconsin Society for Ornithology — the state's birding organization) list Shoop Park itself as a recognized birding access point. Anyone who dismisses the bird concern loses the room — and deserves to.

What the plan actually does for birds: the proposal includes native habitat restoration, prairie plantings, dune restoration, and erosion control along more than half a mile of shoreline, with Jensen Ecology guiding the habitat work. The city's own project report notes that bird diversity here is driven by habitat variety — open water, beach, meadow, and woodland — and asserts that just over 60% of species recorded at Wind Point do not use tree/woodland habitat at all. (That 60% figure comes from the city's report; treat it as the city's analysis, not an independent ornithological finding.)

Where the birds actually are: the birding literature consistently points to the margins — the brush, small trees, the southwestern ravine, and the western/northern perimeter — not the manicured fairways. That is exactly where restoration and protection commitments should be concentrated and written down.

The honest status on Audubon

"We expect it to pass but we would like to see it pass in a way that preserves as much bird and wildlife habitat as possible…" — Mick Burke, President, Hoy Audubon Society (WGTD, "Shoop Proposal to be Discussed Soon by Racine City Council Panel," July 7, 2026)

In the same interview, Burke went further: he warned that the developers "are talking about a lot of clearcutting" to open lake views east of Lighthouse Drive, and that replacement plantings would take many years to mature into real habitat. Quote him whole or not at all — opponents know the original.

The right move: the project team should formally invite Hoy Audubon into habitat planning, answer the clearcutting concern with specifics, and say so publicly. That converts the single biggest objection into the project's strongest endorsement — and until it happens, supporters should say "Audubon's input is welcome and being sought," not "Audubon is on board."

Concern 2"They're going to cut down all the trees"

The City Forestry Division's inventory of the course (cited in the Parks Director's March 2026 project summary) shows what the canopy is actually made of:

• 40% of course trees (74 of 184) are silver maple, green ash, white ash, Norway maple, and honey locust.
• Norway maple is non-native and flagged by the Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources — the state environmental agency) as having invasive tendencies.
• The ash trees are highly vulnerable to EAB (Emerald Ash Borer — the invasive beetle that has killed tens of millions of ash trees across the Midwest) and survive only with ongoing chemical treatment.
• Silver maple is short-lived and prone to decay and storm damage — fast-growing fill stock, not durable long-term habitat.
• 55 of the 184 trees are under 10 inches in diameter — small trees providing limited canopy today.

Separately, tree and shrub removal along the bluff edge is tied to the shoreline stabilization work: bluff-edge vegetation must come out to repair a bluff that already failed in 2020, and root leverage and wind loading on the unstable edge contribute to further failure.

Concern 3"They'll charge $300 a round"

No. The project's stated commitment is initial resident rates of approximately $24 per round, with long-term pricing "comparable to other premium municipal golf courses in Wisconsin." For context, here are the actual published 2026 municipal rates:

Concern 4"The 1917 deed says it must stay a public park"

Opponents (including the Change.org petition, ~1,300 signatures) cite the 1917 deed from Dr. Clarendon and Ida Shoop, which requires the land to be held by the City of Racine forever for "Public Park purposes" and to keep the name Shoop Park.

The lease structure is the answer to this concern, not a violation of it: the city keeps ownership, the property remains a public park and public golf course, and the Shoop name stays on it. What the deed cannot survive is what's happening now — a public asset degrading because no public money exists to maintain it. (Whether the lease's specific terms satisfy the deed is a legal question for the City Attorney; supporters should welcome that review on the record.)

The StewardsWho are the Leipolds and Johnsons?

First, get the name right: it is the Leipold Johnson Golf Group — Craig Leipold (businessman and owner of the NHL — National Hockey League — Minnesota Wild) and his wife Helen Johnson-Leipold, fifth-generation SC Johnson family. "Leopold" is a common misspelling. The family's environmental record in Racine is not folklore — the two flagship examples are independently documented:

The 1975 CFC decision

On June 17, 1975, Sam Johnson announced that SC Johnson would voluntarily eliminate CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons — the aerosol propellants later proven to destroy the ozone layer) from all its aerosol products worldwide — three years before the U.S. federal ban (October 1978) and twelve years before the international Montreal Protocol (1987). It was inconvenient, unprofitable, and unforced. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency — the federal environmental regulator) later honored the decision in its Montreal Protocol 20th-anniversary retrospective, and it's memorialized in Sam Johnson's Washington Post obituary. The defensible phrasing: the first major company to voluntarily ban CFCs from its aerosols.

The Wingspread precedent

In 1959, H.F. Johnson Jr. donated Wingspread — the family's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed estate, directly adjacent to the Wind Point area — to The Johnson Foundation as a public-purpose conference center. Wingspread convenings helped seed institutions including NPR (National Public Radio) and the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts). The family has done "private land turned toward civic purpose" in this exact neighborhood before. That is the template for Lighthouse Dunes.

ScaleWhat this is not

• Not a resort. Nine holes today, nine holes after. A 3,000-yard walking course physically caps daily rounds — there are only so many tee times on nine holes. It is not an 18- or 36-hole "golf factory."
• Not a privatization. Public land, public access, city ownership, on a lease.
• Not the only possible future — and that matters. The realistic alternative isn't a lovingly funded nature park; it's continued documented decline of a property carrying ~$1.8M in deferred needs the city has declined to fund. The status quo is the risky option.

ProcessWhere this stands (and it's not a done deal)

• Jan 2025 — Common Council approves Option to Improve and Operate Agreement (feasibility window, not a lease)
• Oct 2025 — Public hearing on redesign; opposition petition launches (~1,300 signatures)
• Mar 2026 — Council presentation: condition, shoreline, and habitat reports; no vote taken
• Apr 2026 — Protests at Shoop Park; "keep it public" letters
• Jun 2026 — Wind Point Village Board approves lighthouse-parcel lease ($50,000/yr) after Plan Commission voted 5-2 against
• Jul 2026 — Lease (File 0609-26) referred by Common Council to committee — approval still pending

Sources

• Lighthouse Dunes project site — https://www.lighthousedunes.com/
• Shoop Park Project Summary for Elected Officials (Parks Dir. M. Koepnick, Mar 2026) — PDF on lighthousedunes.com
• Racine Common Council File 0609-26 — https://cityofracine.legistar.com/
• Racine County Eye: public hearing (Oct 1, 2025); council review (Mar 17, 2026); protest (Apr 20, 2026); lease referral (Jul 7, 2026) — https://racinecountyeye.com/
• Journal Times: option agreement approval (Jan 2025) — https://journaltimes.com/
• WGTD / WRJN radio coverage incl. Hoy Audubon comments — https://www.wgtd.org/ · https://wrjn.com/
• TMJ4: Wind Point residents' concerns — https://www.tmj4.com/
• eBird hotspot guide: Wind Point Lighthouse & Shoop Park — https://ebird.org/wi/news/january-hotspot-of-the-month-wind-point-lighthouse-and-shoop-park
• Wisconsin Society for Ornithology site guide: Wind Point — https://wsobirds.org/haunts/haunts-racine/1716-wind-point
• Hoy Audubon Society field trips — https://hoyaudubon.org/
• Johnson Park GC 2026 rates & Shoop Park GC rates — https://www.johnsonparkgc.com/
• SC Johnson, CFC decision (1975) — https://scjohnson.com/ · EPA archive (1978 ban) — https://www.epa.gov/
• Washington Post, Samuel Johnson obituary (2004) — https://www.washingtonpost.com/
• The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread — https://www.johnsonfdn.org/our-legacy
• Change.org petition (opposition) — https://www.change.org/p/help-us-stop-the-harmful-proposal-at-the-wind-point-lighthouse-and-shoop-park
• Greenlist settlement coverage — https://trellis.net/article/sc-johnson-settles-lawsuits-over-greenlist-logo/