 | Home News Business Columns Classifieds Health Northern Living Obituaries Opinion Sports Weather Site Map Search our Archives Advertisers | | 
August 17, 2003A story of stumps, crops and zoningFirst of a three-part seriesBy Record-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Bill Clous says he's a farmer who wants to raise crops on 360 acres of damp, rolling fields in East Bay Township. But Clous also is one of the region's biggest residential developers, and a recent township zoning overhaul could allow him to build 2,000 homes and an industrial park on land where authorities allege he willfully damaged wetlands and violated numerous environmental laws. The collection of family farms Clous assembled over the past 20 years north of Hammond Road and between Townline and Three Mile roads will stay in farming, he said. "My honest intention is to farm it for at least 10 years," Clous recently told the Record-Eagle. "(But) nothing's etched in stone." This year, Clous' plowed ground holds a few acres of winter wheat, and a neighbor is growing corn on 18 to 20 acres leased from Clous along Townline Road. Clous the farmer is gaining tax shelters and taking advantage of legal exemptions designed to protect and promote farming. "I absolutely love to farm," said Clous, who's also president of Eastwood Custom Homes. Clous' critics say his property represents both an environmental disaster and a massive loophole in land-use regulation. They point to Clous' alleged violations of state and local wetlands and soil erosion laws and say the state's "right to farm" act is being turned on its head to clear the way for profitable land development. "Exemptions, benefits and other incentives designed to encourage the continuation of agriculture should not be used to promote new development - and that's exactly what's happening here," said Hans Voss, executive director of the Michigan Land Use Institute and a member of a land-use advisory task force appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Clous' representatives are equally resolute that his work on the land is both legal and appropriate. They also believe his troubles with the Department of Environmental Quality and county over the East Bay property will be favorably resolved. "My client is continuing to use the land under the historical nature of this property," said Matthew Vermetten, Clous' attorney. A farming history There's no dispute that Clous' land is rooted in agriculture. Longtime neighbors say the properties were wet farms within the Mitchell Creek watershed, but several areas were suitable for crops. Other parts were woodlands, and the land was dotted with swamps and small springs where cattle would wallow in mud. For the first 25 years of township zoning, it was zoned agricultural, like much of the township. When township planners adopted a new master plan in the summer of 1999, Clous' property - more than half of it acquired a year earlier - was within an area that that was designated as a "growth area" in the northwest corner of East Bay Township. Because of its proximity to Traverse City and developed areas of Garfield Township, the township wanted to focus down-the-road residential growth in that area, which is served by public water and sewer lines. Clous said he pushed the township beginning in 1996 to change the master plan to high-density residential. Township officials said Clous never mentioned a desire to keep the land zoned for agricultural use while the new master plan was being developed, or when the new zoning ordinance was adopted earlier this year. They do recall Clous questioning the township's desire to keep the allowable residential housing density at five to eight homes per acre. He wanted allowable density to be 10-12 units per acre. "We never received any request in that area to keep the zoning as agricultural," East Bay planner Bruce Orttenburger said. "The long-range plan that Mr. Clous wanted was multifamily (zoning)." Township assessment records indicate the tract is worth upwards of $2.5 million. Clous says he neither supported nor opposed rezoning for his land, which changed to high-density residential and manufactured housing community - allowing up to eight housing units per acre - and industrial zoning. All he says he wanted were assurances that the land could continue being farmed - permitted because existing land uses are "grandfathered" under new zoning districts, according to state law. "I don't have any stroke with the township," he said. "My concern was that I didn't lose my right to farm it." But critics say the zoning changes that were years in the making compromise Clous' agricultural claims. "If this was identified in (the late '90s) for residential development, it's beyond me how Clous can claim this is for agricultural use," Voss said. 'Land developer' seeks McManus' help For more than a year, Clous has been clear-cutting timber on the property. The work last year drew the attention of the county drain commissioner's office and the state DEQ, which alleged he failed to obtain permits and damaged streams and wetlands. Both agencies issued stop-work orders on the site last year. He ignored those orders, however, while his attorneys cited exemptions under Michigan's Agriculture Protection Act, better known as the "right to farm" law. Clous' supporters, including state Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, who's among the Legislature's strongest farming advocates, say land being farmed is worth protecting regardless of its underlying zoning. "Farming is completely different than developing, and what I see out there is farming," McManus said. "I'm not going to make assumptions about what he's going to do in the future ... my opinion is he's farming, and that he wants to continue to farm." McManus also defended her contact with the DEQ over Clous' legal problems, saying he didn't receive any special treatment from her office and that she didn't attempt to dissuade state regulators from taking enforcement steps if they find violations. "My role is to find out information and disperse it," she said. "That's what I did here." Clous, however, told the Record-Eagle he went to McManus because he was having "difficulty" with the DEQ and "I knew she chairs a committee" that funds the agency. "I said, 'Michelle, help me out here,'" Clous said. Clous gave $1,000 to McManus' 2002 Senate bid, secretary of state records show, the maximum a single contributor can give. He listed his occupation as "land developer." McManus said Clous was one of around 1,000 campaign contributors and she was unaware of his payment and the occupation he listed. "How many other thousand-dollar bills did I get?" McManus said. Earlier this year, Clous also asked East Bay Township's board of review for an agriculture property exemption for much of the property, after he submitted a farming plan that included corn and wheat fields on his land. That qualified it for the state's "homestead" property tax rate instead of the higher rate that's applied to second homes, businesses or other non-homestead properties. The 18-mill difference should save Clous about $7,500 on his township property tax bills this year. Some say it's wrong to allow landowners to use programs designed to keep farmland in production for property like Clous' that is ripe for development. "Those incentives should not be tools that can be turned around in order to hold land and benefit from state subsidies and other advantages, to then allow an easy conversion to residential land and other development," Voss said. Farmers divided Clous applied for membership in the local chapter of the Michigan Farm Bureau about two weeks ago, and the membership will vote on his application Aug. 25, local bureau officials said. The Farm Bureau is a support and lobbying organization representing state farmers and is a strong advocate of Michigan's "right to farm" laws. But the Farm Bureau has yet to come to Clous' defense. "At this time we're kind of taking a neutral position," said local president Greg Dreves. "Right now I don't know what to believe about what's going on out there ... we need to get things sorted out." Farm Bureau staffer Karen Alma said the local membership is divided on the Clous issue - some believing Clous should be supported by the organization while others doubt his claims about long-range farming. "We have people on our board who are at one extreme on this, and people who are at the other extreme," she said. Dreves said the organization is concerned about situations where farming exemptions are used for development properties which could undermine the public's support for pro-agriculture laws. "That's a concern," he said. "This is something that could affect a lot of other farmers down the road." Clous' representatives say much of the opposition to his work on the East Bay Township land is coming from those who know him as a home builder, not a longtime, part-time farmer who also has working farms in Blair, Mayfield and Paradise townships south of Traverse City. "I can't help what people are going to perceive," Vermetten, the attorney, said. "I know that my client says that (farming) is what he's going to do." On Monday: Bill Clous' wetlands problems with an Elk Rapids housing development. | |
| Return to www.record-eagle.com home page Send questions and comments to: Copyright © The Traverse City Record-Eagle. All rights re-served. | ||||