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August 27, 2002Developer sues over 500-home park- Developer says Green Lake Township is trying to block mobile home parkBy PATRICK SULLIVANRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - A mobile home park developer has sued Green Lake Township over what she says is the township's apparent efforts to block a proposed 500-unit mobile home park near East Duck Lake Road. "There's a tremendous amount of prejudice against mobile home communities by municipal authorities," said Enrico Schaefer, attorney for developer Michele Holland. "People have a view of mobile home parks as being these dirty, low-end communities. That's not the way Michele Holland builds mobile home parks." Schaefer said township officials have stalled Holland's request for a special use permit while looking for a way to stop the project. Holland applied for the permit in February to build a 221-acre mobile home park at the corner of County Road 633 and East Duck Lake Road on land that is zoned forest-agricultural. Holland received a letter in March saying she needed to submit a site plan review. When she submitted that plan in June, the township board passed a six-month moratorium on mobile home parks, according to the suit. Schaefer said township officials looked for a way to stop Holland's efforts while officials told Holland and Schaefer that they were merely attempting to amend township zoning so that it would comply with state law. What prompted Holland to file the suit, Schaefer said, was a transcript of a township meeting in which Holland's development was discussed. Mobile homes "have to be permitted use in one area or another," an unnamed township official said, according to a transcript included in the suit. "Why this has come about is because Michele Holland over at Glacier Pond decided she wants 500 mobile homes over there. Obviously that's not going to happen, because - it's not a good place for it." The transcript also quoted the official saying the area would not be a good location for a mobile home park because it is filled with ponds and wetlands. Township supervisor Paul Biondo said he had not been served with the suit so he could not comment. Holland was sued in March 2001 over a proposed 197-unit mobile home development on 40 acres on County Road 633 in Grant Township. In that case, a neighboring landowner sued after the township's zoning board of appeals overruled a planning commission decision to block the project. Holland prevailed in that suit and that project is currently under construction. Kevin DeGroat, a regulatory specialist with the state Bureau of Construction Codes in Lansing, the agency that enforces policies surrounding mobile homes, said townships are barred from discriminating against manufactured home communities under the Michigan Mobile Home Commission Act. Chris Bzdok, attorney for the neighboring landowner in the Grant Township case, said townships have more discretion over proposed mobile home developments if they can show there is not a need for them because there already is a mobile home park nearby. "She's putting one in Grant Township, she doesn't need to put one in Green Lake," Bzdok said. |
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