Good Neighbors?

Just who are the neighbors who have complained so much about the Timber Shores application?  They’ve complained so much that the township board felt compelled to declare a six-month moratorium on the project.  Why?  The board said it’s “to protect the public health, safety and welfare”.  Right.

This is all based on unsupported allegations without any attempt to review the information provided by the Timber Shores project team.

A quick review of the Leelanau County property search lookup shows exactly who these neighbors are.  Of 29 property owners along Indian Beach and Cove Trail, two of the roads that border the Timber Shores parcels, only 31% claim to be full-time residents entitled to the primary residence exemption on their property taxes.

Interestingly, four of those property owners who claim the exemption list a mailing address outside the township.  If you consider those as potentially not actually primary residences, the proportion of property owners who really live here drops to 17%.

So these upstanding citizens whose “health, safety and welfare” is allegedly being threatened – where do they actually live?

The mailing addresses for those who acknowledge that their property here isn’t their primary residence show a far-flung lot.  The cities of residence they list include West Bloomfield, Gross Pointe Farms, Lake Forest and Barrington in Illinois, even Hawaii.

It’s been a common occurrence to see several of these neighbors calling in to complain during a township planning commission meeting over Zoom.  And where are they calling from?  You guessed it – from Birmingham, Saline, Dayton – you name it.  From Northport?  Only a few. 

It’s hard to attach any credibility to a complaint about how this park and campground is going to ruin your life when you’re literally phoning it in from the metro area or even out of state.

But guess who’s buying it?  The township board has swallowed it whole.

And why wouldn’t they?  Two board members – the supervisor and a trustee, a married couple – live across the road from the property.  Did they recuse themselves from voting on the moratorium?  Oh, no.

Apparently they see nothing wrong with telling another property owner “We live here and we have power now so you can’t do that”.

Even though the property is zoned commercial-resort and was zoned that way when they bought their property.

Even though the township board has no vote on the application.  That’s the planning commission’s job. 

Even though the planning commission – wisely and correctly – refused the board’s recommendation that they, too, pass the moratorium to give the board better legal cover.

So why does the board kowtow to these neighbors?  Why does the board disregard the property rights of the person who has controlled these parcels and paid taxes on them for 20 years?  Why did they wait until this owner had spent more than a year and tens of thousands of dollars to suddenly – without notice – try to tell him his application is rejected?  And what are these mysterious threats to the “public health, safety and welfare” the board claims it’s protecting us from?

The more you think about it the fishier it gets.  Township residents deserve some straight answers.