DULUTH — A Black-owned North Shore health shelter aimed at providing rest and healing for people of color is facing backlash from neighbors who worry traffic, trespass and noise will disrupt their “way of life.”
More than 30 neighbors who live on a rural property in Silver Creek Township, 35 miles northeast of Duluth, recently appealed in district court the Lake County Planning Commission’s decision to grant a permit to a nonprofit group that features a crudely drawn black stick figure likened to a hangman and a sign that reads “Oppose Clark Road Resort,” inaccurately conveying that they don’t pay taxes.
For Rebekah Ndosi, a Black wellness practitioner at Maji Ya Chai Land Sanctuary, these signs represent implicit racism.
“The only way we can read it is as a threat,” she said.
Lake County approved a conditional use permit for 40 acres of former farmland where Tanzanian-American Ndosi and her husband live and operate a vacation home. The property is on the Encampment River and includes open space, and they plan to build a wellness center and rustic lodging for the 24 guests allowed in the permit. They are also limiting the number of people allowed on the property to 45 for the 12 special events they host per year.
Sandy Ovens lives a few miles away on the same road as the Retreat, and she said the project would bring too much traffic to her rural setting.
“We don’t need people running around on the roads there,” she said, “and we can say we’ll supervise as much as we want. [but] People are people and they do what they want to do.”
Neighbor Ed Bjork said he has a sign in his yard that someone gave him, but doesn’t see it as racism. What he’s against has nothing to do with the racial predominance of the preserve, he said, but rather the “commercialization” of a primarily residential area.
Dave Henjam said at a planning committee meeting in April that the withdrawal would affect “my way of life.”
“It’s zoned rural residential and that’s why I live there,” he said.
All three are appellants, arguing the county’s permit decision was unjust and based on flawed grounds, but commission members said at the April meeting that Ndosi’s application was one of the most thorough they’d ever seen.
Lawyers for the groups that filed the appeal did not respond.
Despite the “strong” opposition from some residents, other neighbors and county residents have reached out in support, with many sending letters to the county, Ndosi said.
Neighborhood resident Sarah Preston said the opposition gives the impression the entire Lake County town of 1,200 people is unwelcoming, but in fact many people have collected signatures in support of the project.
“Unfortunately, many of the people who live in this community are native-born residents who have little to no experience with people of color,” Preston said. “That lack of information, understanding and knowledge has led to this sense of fear that seems exactly like racism.”
Ndosi, a health law professional for 20 years, had long wanted to build a retreat facility along the North Shore, and she and her husband put the idea into action during the pandemic and in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.
“People would ask, ‘Do you know anyone who has a hut?’ and the next question was, ‘Is it safe?'” she says, because a welcoming environment is so important in dealing with stress and trauma.
The retreat is an “intentional” way to access the state’s cherished mountain lodge culture, especially for people of color who struggle with the burden of racism, she said.
“It’s a wish come true for us to have a place that really unequivocally says, ‘Come here, rest here, we’re watching you and you don’t have to worry about whether we want you here or not,'” she said.
Yoga, meditation, bird watching, hydrotherapy and gardening are expected to be part of the experience, and Ndoshi has been working on plans with the developers of Wild Rice Retreat in Bayfield. Before applying for permits, Ndoshi met with nearby residents and revised the plans to ease their concerns, including eliminating camping to reduce the risk of wildfires.
Ben Stewart, pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Two Harbors, said opponents of the plan keep moving the goalposts.
Some of those complaining about potential noise say the range activities will disturb retreat participants, he said.
“I’ve seen Rebekah and the people of Maj Ya Chai to be very kind and good neighbors,” Stewart said. “At some point, you can’t help but wonder if the opposition is acting with bad intentions.”
