From the map below, you can see that there is a tremendous amount of protected property around Pearl Lake. All of the shaded areas in yellow (common areas) or green (state land) are protected from further development and no homes may be build in these areas.
Prior to 1989 the only property that had be developed (subdivided) was that in what is referred to as the Pearl Harbor subdivision which I understand to have been divided in the 1950’s. This area has a couple dozen older cottages and homes which were accessed off County Road 669 or Wagner Road to the north.
Two other homes or cottages were located on the lake. One on the Clawson property on the southeast side of the lake and one on the Wagner property (now the Pearl Lake Land Division). All other property around Pearl Lake was held in large private tracts of land. No public access existed nor were there any improved roads around the lake. In fact the only publicly maintained road was a small ½ mile stretch of Wagner Road.
All remaining roads around the lake were dirt two tracks. With the creation of the Pearl Lake Land Division 21 new home sites were created to the west of the old Pearl Harbor sub. Then in 1995 Pearl Lake Estates was developed and an additional 27 home sites were created on Pearl and Wiltz Lakes.
With the additional access needed, the Benzie County Road Commission was forced to widen and improve Pearl Lake Road up to the entrance to Pearl Lake Estates. Since Vin-Zac Inc was black topping the roads within the subdivision, they paid to blacktop the newly improved gravel county road. Over the years, Wagner Road has been gradually widened and is now plowed and maintained by the county road commission year round. To this day, no other improved roads have been or will be built in the future as these roads will not service any home sites.
Once you understand just how much land is preserved in and around Pearl Lake you can begin to appreciate just how special and unique Pearl Lake really is.
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