Trustees preserve Griffy Lake area

Griffy Lake is back in the news.\nBut this time professors and administrators are on the same team, working together to preserve the beauty of the Griffy area and make it beneficial to IU as an educational institution.\nPreviously many professors vigorously opposed using the land to develop a new, private golf course -- or developing it at all for that matter.\nSo Friday, the board of trustees passed a resolution, at its meeting in Bloomington, that would set aside 446 acres of land, that includes the Griffy parcel, as a teaching and research preserve. The area sits north of the campus and athletic complex, on Hinkle Road.\nProfessor Michael Hamburger and Terry Clapacs, vice president for administration, presented the trustees with a plan that Hamburger said would benefit everyone.\n"We feel this could have an enormous impact on the reputation and value of IU as a leader in research and the natural sciences, and also an enormous impact on the education of future generations of students on the IU-Bloomington campus," he said. \nHamburger also said the plan would help encourage cooperation between the city and IU.\nThe land is split into two sections. The first is 261 acres along Lake Monroe and the second is 185 acres in Griffy Woods.\nThe decision that led to these areas was based on three criteria, said Hamburger. He said the group wanted diversity in the land, meaning they wanted a broad range of ecological, topographic and geological conditions. Proximity to campus and access to neighboring public lands were also factors in their decision.\nThe plan passed with opposition only from trustee Pete Obremsky, who was concerned the project by-passed the Facilities Committee. He also said he thought the trustees should have the freedom to develop around the Griffy area in the future and that he didn't want to have to deal with the same "bruhaha" that the trustees and president dealt with last year when they tried to establish a golf course.\n"We should be able to remain unhindered to do whatever we want to do with the remainder of that property," he said.\nBut despite his concerns the proposal passed with full support from the rest of the trustees, several of whom toured the land the night before.\nTrustee Stephen Backer said it would be a mistake to do anything else with the property.\n"It's a gorgeous piece of property, and it would be a travesty to ever develop that property," Backer said.