Sumpter Twp. planners again delay action on Abraham project

Another angry crowd gathered July 13 to hear the Sumpter Planning Commission’s decision on whether to recommend special exception use approval for William Abraham’s project on 67 acres at 23600 Carleton West Road.
But, they were disappointed, again, as the commission voted unanimously to postpone action to a future, unspecified, meeting because, “It looks like we have more work to do,” in the words of Commissioner Jim Clark.
The township’s planning consultant, Christopher Atkin of Carlisle Wortman, said the plans need to be fine-tuned to comply with township ordinances and state and county laws.
Atkin promised to fax information to Abraham on the details of the changes needed.
William Abraham of New Boston had applied for a special exception use permit for his Abraham Filming Company and Family Entertainment.
He told the township he wants to create a seasonal camping (50-100 sites) and family entertainment area. It will be on about 67 acres of mostly wooded land, zoned Agricultural. The proposed use will consist of camping, fishing, bicycling, theater, weddings, graduations, film festivals, drone flying, and paintball games.
Abraham indicated there will be no permanent structures located on the site and any equipment or shelters required for select events will be mobile and only on site for the duration of the specific event.
Planning consultant Atkin said by definition most of these types of uses qualify as “passive recreation” – an area of land dedicated to recreational activities that require a low level of development and preservation of natural areas, and often involves solitary or small group, unstructured activities.
The proposed area for camping and entertainment will be contained in about 27.5 acres. A wooded buffer of 150-300 feet will perimeter the area.
At the June 8 public hearing, about 25 residents were present at the two-hour, contentious session with many voicing their opposition. Nine letters of opposition were read into the record.
After this public hearing, the commission voted to table for more information on questions of wetlands, emergency vehicle access, and access to the site, since it has zero road frontage and is landlocked with two easements to Carleton West Road.
Abraham told the commission he is working on his daughter’s July 22 wedding at the site and he invited them to come out to get an idea of what he is doing.
Abraham told the Independent that he has a movie coming out that he made on his Sumpter property: “A Nightmare on Haunted Hill.” He said there is a trailer of it on YouTube. They got together with school kids to make the movie, he said.
Haunted Hills was put on by Abraham on the property in the past and that was what the neighbors’ referred to in their protests: noise, traffic, possible crime, and disruption to the rural community.
After Abraham left the commission meeting on July 13, members of the audience complained about how only 25 people were alerted by local distribution of a notice this this meeting that day and the day before.
Philip Rossman of Haggerty Road said 25 were alerted by mail but a lot more will be affected and people don’t know what’s happening that will affect the value of their properties.
Commission Chairman Jane Stalmack said the commission has to send out notices to a certain amount of nearby residents and if they went beyond that, they would also have to go farther for other requests in the future, which would make a burden on the township.
Trustee Matthew Oddy said Abraham paid almost $1,400 for this consideration, referring to the amount charged by the township for consideration by the planning commission.
“I hope you consider us, also,” said a man in the audience, “even though we didn’t pay you $1,400.”
“That’s chump change,” called out another man in the audience. “I’ll give him $1,400 to shut up.” The man said he bought his house for $300,000 and it’s going to be worth $100,000 with a campground next door.
Commissioner Jay Bardell said, “He said if he couldn’t put in a campground, he could put in homes.”
Trustee Oddy urged the riled audience members to come to the next commission meeting when the issue is on the agenda, but he couldn’t say exactly when that would be.
The disgruntled audience slowly and loudly left the meeting room.
In other business at the July 13 meeting, the commission:
• Set a public hearing for 7:05 p.m., Aug. 10, to consider recommending repealing of a township ordinance that regulates operation of a Medical Marijuana Provisionary Center within the township, since the ordinance no longer applies because of changes in state law. Trustee Oddy said this ordinance was designed for caregivers to open provisionary center and “the state didn’t do that.” He said the new law doesn’t allow caregivers to be a part of provisionary centers or the grows. Attorney Rob Young said the township still hasn’t decided whether to welcome marijuana businesses into Sumpter, as allowed by the new state law, but has until a Dec. 1 deadline to decide;
• Set another public hearing for the Aug. 10 meeting to consider recommending adoption of an amendment to the zoning ordinance regarding the use and operation of a Michigan Medical Marijuana Facility as permitted under state law. It has to do with the zoning; and
• Heard Chairwoman Stalmack discuss the information she passed out to commissioners that she wants them to consider adopting. It has to do with asking those wishing to address the commission to fill out a card and also limiting comments to three or five minutes. “Think about it and come back and discuss it,” Oddy said.