VBT sets up new committee to work on Lake Ordinance — again

The Van Buren Township Planning and Economic Development Department is setting up a new committee to address the opposition to the proposed Lake Ordinance.
At its regular meeting on March 9, the VBT Planning Commission faced a roomful of more than 100 unhappy people who own property along Belleville Lake.
After more than an hour of discussion, the commission voted unanimously to follow the recommendation of Planning and Economic Development Director Ron Akers and Deputy Director Matthew Best to set aside the ordinance for now so objections can be studied and the ordinance amended.
Actually, Akers and Best had written the recommendation following two public meetings in February. The ordinance was due for a public hearing before the Planning Commission on Feb. 24, but a snowstorm caused the township hall to be closed so there was no public hearing.
At its next meeting on March 9, rather than set another public hearing, the planning commission decided to pull the ordinance off the table and have a committee alter it before bringing it back.
A list of 77 objections to the ordinance were included in the letter from Akers and Best to the planning commission.
Akers said at the two large meetings already held, people especially felt written clarification was needed to define the specific meaning of “lawful existing” as relating to what couldn’t be torn down on the lakeshore without notice.
“We want to get a small group of people together and listen to their concerns,” said Best, saying ten had volunteered and he’ll be asking another three.
After meeting with these people, the township would compile all those notes and comments and submit them to the lakeshore planning committee and let them draft changes. Then, he said, they could have larger meetings where people could see the proposed document and ask questions and make comments for the next draft.
“If the subcommittee is satisfied, we’ll bring it to the planning commission,” Best said. “The more public input we can get and the more we can tweak it, we’ll be able to get what residents want and what liability we have to satisfy for the FERC license.”
Commission Vice Chairman Don Boynton said, “It makes good sense to me – the intention of involving all the staff, residents, stakeholders… We can wait and take our time.”
“I would agree with the process,” added township Treasurer Sharry Budd who sits on the commission.
“Obviously, it needs more work,” agreed Commissioner Joan Franzoi.
Before making a motion to delay the ordinance, Commission Chairwoman Carol Thompson asked for comments from the audience and she received 17 statements from the floor.
Several asked specifically to be allowed to serve on the township’s new committee and at least three of them are attorneys.
Will Hawley, an attorney who lives in Mission Pointe, said there are a lot of concerns.
“Your website says this ordinance grandfathers in non-conforming structures, but that’s false,” Hawley said.
He said he was on the original lake committee. He said there are 250 homeowners and massive consequences for them with this ordinance.
“I guess 50 structures on the lake would never comply,” Hawley said. “The U of M field house would never comply.”
“Ron and Matt, I think you are doing the best you can, but when you say ‘grandfathered,’ it’s not,” Hawley said. “I’m maintaining your property,” he said referring to the township’s ownership of the lakeshore. “That’s a tax.”
“Letters need to go out,” he said. “Many people affected don’t even know… You’d have to comply with every DNR regulation.”
Hawley said if he is going to sell his home the buyer might ask if he followed all the rules on the lakeshore and he had, but, “I’d have to tell them the township can order you to tear it out at any time for no reason.”
Hawley stated, “No court has ever ordered you to do anything. The judge recommended in 1992.”
And, he said, he read the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license and it doesn’t say the township has to have an ordinance.
“The biggest defender of downed trees is Van Buren Township,” Hawley said, noting the trees in the water along the park never saw a chain saw.
He said there are people in the audience that have lived on this lake for 20 to 30 years and they can give historic information on the situation.
Applause punctuated the conclusion of his statement.
A man said he has lived on the lake for five years and he is “severely shocked” that the township wants to take his riparian rights away. He said the woman planner said a judge ruled it, but that’s not true. Again, she said it’s really a recommendation.
He said a neighbor told him he wasn’t going to any meeting because this happened 10 years ago and the township keeps trying to do something.
Officials had mentioned at a previous meeting that this is the fourth time a lake ordinance has been prepared, with the last three failing to be approved by the township board.
The man said a township tree fell onto his dock and crushed it out. He said he took out 10 trees that floated into that cove, cut them up and removed them. He said the trees are falling into the lake from the township’s islands in the lake.
More applause.
Aaron Sellers introduced himself as the owner of the infamous property at 13080 Lake Pointe Pass that caused the judge to make a recommendation. He said the residents are expected to adhere to the policies, but VBT was supposed to maintain the lake and eradicate the lily pads and it’s not doing that.
Laura Ridenour of Harmony Lane warned the commission that words have meaning and using “ordered” instead of “recommended” leads to a distrust.
She stressed that in the ordinance every single word needs to be properly used and its meaning legally known.
“The entire 24 pages concern me,” Ridenour said, adding the grandfather issue is only one problem.
She said she called the township and a woman told her 60% of all mail to residents on the lake is undeliverable. She found that difficult to believe, especially since there are tax bills mailed.
Best started to comment on the BYC meeting he attended and Ridenour commented, “Which women can’t join.”
He said they did not keep a log of attendees at that meeting since the BYC doesn’t do that, but they wrote comments and will call those that commented.
Best said he has 14 on his list, which included stakeholders (which he clarified was BYC), property owners, and businesses.
A woman noted that the FERC license with the township went into effect in 1987 and it’s a 40-year license in its last 10 years. She asked if the ordinance isn’t in effect will FERC not renew it?
She asked what the real reason was behind the ordinance. She said if it’s because the township thinks, “Your stuff looks like crap and we want to do something about it,” she could understand that, if she didn’t like it, but at least it would be true.
“It comes across that way,” said.
A FERC representative came in a year ago and then the representative retired.
“Did they ask to see the ordinance?” she asked and Thompson said she didn’t know. The township didn’t get fined.
“Who knows where it came from?” Ridenour asked and Thompson replied it came from the township supervisor and board.
“So we can defeat them in the next election,” a man called out.
A man said the residents were looking for the commission to drop the ordinance completely. He asked how much the township paid McKenna for the 24 pages and Thompson said that isn’t separated from the other planning services McKenna provides.
The man said McKenna came to the last meeting and acted like they were part of the township board. Their name is on every page of the ordinance, he said.
More applause.
Jeff Hodges, a real estate broker since 1985 who lives in Bayshore, said he sold more real estate on the lake counting the condos. He said the township is the worst offender on downed trees. He said he took pictures at Van Buren Park and more than 10 trees were falling down into the lake in just one area.
“You tell people to control erosion on their lake front and you don’t,” he said to the commission. “You’re going to destroy the character of the lake.”
He asked if anyone had received one benefit from the hydroelectric dam and if the federal government is sticking its nose in personal business, they should get rid of it.
Another man volunteered to be on committee stating, “People want their stuff on the lake protected.”
More applause.
A man who lives on Potter Drive in the city of Belleville asked for Belleville to be on the committee. “I don’t think we have a voice,” he said.
More applause.
Tim Gregory of Lakeview Court said FERC seems to be the driving force and, “Can we make them go away and still have a dam and a lake?”
He said Ford Lake is no longer making power and this dam in VBT is just making enough to maintain itself.
Treasurer Sharry Budd said the dam is putting power on the grid and pays $40,000 to $50,000 to VBT, which is used to patrol the lake.
Thompson said Ford Lake is an impoundment, like Belleville Lake, and it is governed by FERC.
“When are we going to hear what are we trying to accomplish?” asked Kathlene Walch, an attorney who lives on Harmony Lane. “Trying to get FERC off our back? Clean up the nasty stuff on the lake? It’s 24 pages.”
Doug Peters, an attorney from North Shore Drive, told about what it was like when the dam was condemned and the lake disappeared. There were barbed wire fences and trees and you could not build there because it was all flood plain.
He said the township did not have the money to repair the dam and it took $10 million, although it has been referred to as the $5 million dam.
“We decided to approach FERC,” he said. Detroit Edison did not want the dam back.
“We made a deal with FERC,” he said, adding that the township was expected to get $150,000 a year, but it ended up $45,000-$50,000. It was supposed to go to the people who paid the special assessment.
He said 4, 5, 6 people on the lake were dying and the township didn’t have the money for policing, so they used the money for VBT and Wayne County to police the lake. They were parasailing and it was dangerous, he said.
Peters said he’s from New Hampshire and he doesn’t like to be told what to do. It’s the “Live Free or Die” state, he said.
They want an ordinance so they all have the same rules, he said. Every time they sue a neighbor they sue the township and start shoveling money in lawyers’ pockets.
“The problem is MDEQ, now a toothless tiger because almost all enforcers are laid off. But, it could come back,” he said.
“I want to keep the dam so we can keep the lake and have some money directed to police,” he said. “I have three properties on North Shore Drive and every one is out of compliance.
“The township needs to be arbiter on the lake, so people don’t shovel money into lawyers’ pockets,” he said.
“But the ordinance presented to the public should be DOA – dead on arrival,” he said. “It’s a good-faith effort, I hope, but not a quality job.”
He counseled, “Whoever is most concerned should be on the committee. Do not try to keep anyone away. Take the noisiest, most obnoxious … person and make them the chairman.”
Rod Moody of Potter Drive said the City of Belleville owns the property next door to him and since he moved in there have been logs laying in there. He said nobody contacts Belleville to clean up their mess, but they notify the residents to let them know.
More applause.
The commission then voted to pass the motion to put aside the ordinance for more work.
In other business at the two hour meeting on March 9, the commission:
• Held a public hearing on a proposed amendment to the Medical Marijuana Ordinance, specifying that medical marihuana cultivation facilities should be in the M-2 General Industrial zoning district. A vote on the amendment will be considered at a future commission meeting;
• Approved final temporary land use for Phantom of Michigan to sell fireworks at the Lakewood Shopping Plaza from June 15 to July 5; and
• Approved the preliminary site plan for Belleville Development, Inc., for construction of Town Place Suites Hotel, a 121-room motel at the northeast corner of Quirk Road and the I-94 North Service Drive.