Cobblestone residents ask VBT board for help with open basements

At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees, ten residents of Cobblestone Ridge subdivision again got up to beseech the board, once again, to get rid of the unsightly, dangerous, open basements in their subdivision – which have been there for over a decade.
Phillip Hayes said a basement with four to five feet of water is there and geese have babies and follow their mothers and fall into the basements and die. Rabbits die in the basements. “Everything dies.”
He said kids are jumping the fences the township put up to protect them and, “Can you imagine a kid in the basement in four to five feet of water?”
“We are so sorry,” said VBT Supervisor Kevin McNamara.
Supervisor McNamara asked Ron Akers, Director of Planning and Economic Development, to explain the current situation.
Akers said a few weeks ago, the township asked Cobblestone developer to do a couple of things to make sure the basements were secure and they responded.
He said Building 1 on the left hand side of the entryway is ready to begin construction. They had a building permit issued in November that the township said had expired.
At a closed-door session after Monday’s work/study session, the board discussed the situation and decided to obtain a performance bond of $25,000 for Building 1. Once the township gets the bond, the builder will have two weeks to start building.
Supervisor McNamara said the 2011 and 2015 agreements were broken. They received a building permit in November and the township said it expired in six months. They say they have two more weeks, McNamara said, and there would be litigation over that if the township pushed.
“We could take out the basements, but then we’d get sued,” McNamara said.
He said the builder has to honor the 2015 agreement. The builder has to post a $25,000 performance bond and if he doesn’t follow through, “We will use his money to destroy the basements,” McNamara said.
McNamara said he wanted to send an excavator to destroy the basements, but there were arguments against that. He said Brad Byarski is no longer with the group.
Residents of the subdivision told McNamara not to believe that because there have been shifts and shifts of partners.
“There are new members on the [township] board and this company is on a very short leash,” said Trustee Kevin Martin. “He won’t be able to go on like this.”
“I was lied to for 11 years,” said resident Rebecca Gray. She had told the board she is ready to move after 11 years because, she is tired. “How he got away with that for ten years…”
“I want to apologize to the residents,” said Trustee Sherry Frazier, who took office in December. “How it dragged on for so long, I have no idea.” She said the board already authorized $111,000 to tear down the basements.
Larry Gray said he was the one who suggested his family move to Belleville. He said it is in nobody’s interests to keep the basements there. “Either build or tear out the basements,” Gray said.
Karen Ford said in the 2015 agreement, they said they were developers, but after the residents hired an attorney, they said they were land owners. If they are land owners there is some $300,000 or more in homeowner association fees they owe.
“You can’t be both,” Ford said. “A lie is another name for a broken promise.
“You’re making a deal with people like this,” Ford told the board.
McNamara said if the township took out the basements and didn’t allow them to build, they would be out of business, construction would stop, and the homeowners would be stuck with the final stages of the road construction.
“We told them to sell the property and they came back and asked us to let them build. We’ve given them two weeks,” McNamara said.
Another homeowner said the developer would start to build and then leave the site. One pile of plywood was outside for two years. She said Byarski probably is still the lead guy, according to the way they switch things around.
David McInally, who is VBT Fire Marshal, said he lives in the condos and understands what the township is trying to do. He urged the township to stay on the builder because he has a history of not following up on things.
Ethel Baylor asked who she can call to get an update on the progress with the builder and McNamara asked Akers exactly how long the builder had to comply since the two weeks was set.
Akers said, actually, the township still has to get the performance bond and when it does he will release the building permit. Builder Anthony Randazzo needs to adjust the wording in the performance bond agreement, Akers said.
Trustee Sherry Frazier said, “We should give him one week.”
“He has offered to sell, if he got an offer,” McNamara said of Randazzo. “We will get with him tomorrow. He has a week.”
“We gave him until June 30 and he replied at 5 p.m., June 30,” Trustee Frazier said, referring to Randazzo’s tactics.
Trustee Paul White asked the residents to have faith in the board. “We’re doing everything we can,” he said.