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March 2, 2004ACME TWP.: Judge allows challenge of meetingsGroup: Subcommittee met privately, didn't post noticeByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - A judge will hear arguments that Acme Township violated public disclosure laws through a subcommittee that worked on the township's controversial town center plans. Concerned Citizens of Acme Township will be allowed to amend its lawsuit against the township board and The Village at Grand Traverse LLC, to include allegations that township officials violated the state Open Meetings Act during their review of the town center plans. The group sued in November following the township's conceptual approval of The Village at Grand Traverse, a development planned for 182 acres on the south side of M-72 near Lautner Road. The citizens group is challenging the use of a planning commission subcommittee that met with project developers over three-plus years to discuss the project. The subcommittee met privately and didn't post notice of the meetings, the citizens group alleged. Their attorney, Christopher Bzdok, argued the sub-group made several recommendations on the township center plans eventually incorporated into the conceptual plans that were ultimately approved by the township board last fall. "Making recommendations is a governmental function," Bzdok said at a hearing Monday afternoon. He argued the subcommittee's function required it to meet the provisions of the state Open Meetings Act, which includes posting its meetings and recording official minutes. "There's a credibility gap -there's a problem there," Bzdok said. Township attorney James Christopherson urged Circuit Judge Thomas G. Power to reject expanding the litigation. He said there's no record of the township formally appointing the subcommittee, and that it had no decision-making authority for the township. "That committee wasn't delegated the authority to do anything," Christopherson said. But Power said the Concerned Citizens group should be allowed to further investigate the subcommittee's role in the town center plans. "There were apparently quite a number of meetings of this subcommittee," the judge said. "It seems to me this is a claim the (group) can make." The nearly 1 million square-foot project will include a mix of big-box stores, a hotel, smaller shops and residential development, although critics say it is inconsistent with the "town center" vision in the township's master plan. There was also a discovery hearing Monday on a separate lawsuit filed against the township by the Johnson Family Limited Partnership of Holland. In October, the township board rejected that developer's plans to build a Wal-Mart at a nearby property along Mount Hope Road - a month before it approved The Village at Grand Traverse project. That case also is pending.
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