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April 26, 2000Little progress in Bluffs lawsuitArcadia Bluffs Golf Course opened for limited play in SeptemberBy CARI NOGARecord-Eagle staff writer MANISTEE - A year after the state sued a Manistee County golf course developer over alleged environmental violations golfers are getting in their swings but the case has barely gotten off the ground. And it won't go any further for at least another month. Last April 26, Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, state Department of Environmental Quality Director Russell Harding and other state officials held a press conference at a state park on the Lake Michigan shore south of the Arcadia Bluffs Golf Course. They announced a lawsuit alleging that multiple illegal discharges of sediment into Lake Michigan occurred during construction of the 227-acre, bluff-top course in 1998. The discharges were the result of washouts on the course during severe storms in April, September and November 1998. The September storm occurred as work on the stormwater system was nearly completed. Possible penalties were pegged at $425,000. But since that press conference - the only one the attorney general's office held on the site of a case all last year - what little progress has occurred has taken place behind the scenes. There were a few initial court hearings in the early stages. Granholm also sought an injunction to stop earth-changing activities after another washout at the course last July. However, 19th Circuit Court Judge James Batzer instead suggested appointing an independent engineering consultant to review the $1 million stormwater management system. Both sides agreed in August to have a Grand Rapids firm do that work. Arcadia Bluffs opened for limited play in September. The last court action took place Dec. 13, when all parties agreed to postpone a scheduling conference pending completion of the report. The consultant, Jim Smalligan, said he hopes to have the report available for Batzer by the end of May. However, the report will not address the 13 alleged instances of sediment discharge into Lake Michigan in 1998, which were key factors precipitating the lawsuit. "Our role is really quite limited in looking at the existing stormwater system and how well it might function," Smalligan said. "No forensic engineering, no assigning of blame." Attorney General spokesman Chris DeWitt said responsibility for the discharges are a secondary concern. "As far as past actions, and potential damages and fines, that issue would be dealt with later," he said. "The more immediate concern is does the existing system work. We contend it doesn't." Mary Pitcher, the former Manistee County soil erosion enforcing agent, said it's appropriate to address responsibility for the discharges separately. "That's a legal matter," said Pitcher, who no longer works for the Manistee Conservation District but said she feels a responsibility to keep up with the Arcadia Bluffs case. "We need to know whether there's going to be problems in the future," Pitcher said. Arcadia Bluffs, which opened Monday for the 2000 season, says there won't be. "We feel everything we have in place has worked as we've wanted it to," said Tom Cleary, spokesman for RVP Development of Grand Rapids, which owns the course. Smalligan's report is not binding, and both sides will have a chance to offer arguments supporting or rebutting it. Smalligan said he has done site plan reviews for other courses, as well as other local projects including the Grand Traverse Mall. Usually his firm gets involved before construction instead of afterward. That has added time to the Arcadia Bluffs review, he said. Aerial mapping of the site needed for his report was completed after construction, whereas it is more typically done during construction. He then had to wait for RVP's engineer to supply "as built" drawings of the stormwater management system. That happened just last week. "Because all of this happened after construction it seems to all of us like it's taking a long time," Smalligan said. DeWitt said while the attorney general's office "hoped this matter would have been resolved more quickly," Batzer's schedule wouldn't have permitted a much faster timetable even without the report. Furthermore, although Batzer didn't order an expert be named, he "strongly suggested" it, and it seemed only prudent to go along. "We saw the handwriting and followed it," DeWitt said. Batzer said courtroom availability following receipt of the report will depend to some degree on the urgency demonstrated by both sides. "If this is a case the parties want to move quickly, in terms of a litigation track, we'll find a way to move it," he said. Like the court case, proposed legislation motivated by Arcadia Bluffs has been similarly stalled. State Rep. Dave Mead, R-Frankfort, and state Sen. George McManus, R-Traverse City, whose districts include Manistee County, both introduced legislation in June 1999 to strengthen the state law governing shoreline development. Despite the fact that Republicans control both chambers, both bills have been parked in committee since then. |
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