Township Zoning Administrator & Planning Consultant Tell Planning Commission: Current Zoning Ordinance Is Good
So Why Did They Change It?
“Your ordinance itself is pretty good as it is. It gives you a lot of latitude . . .”
Background: The illegal zoning ordinance amendment we will vote on Nov. 8 was the product of a sham process. Months after Timber Shores submitted its application the township board declared a moratorium on RV campground applications and directed the planning commission to revise the commercial resort portion of the ordinance.
In a planning commission meeting on Oct. 28, 2021 the township’s zoning administrator said this:
“Your ordinance itself is pretty good as it is. It gives you a lot of latitude as a planning commission to look at special uses and set conditions and standards and evaluate something like buffering and setbacks. You have quite a bit of latitude.”
Want to hear it for yourself? Click here to follow this link.
That’s the existing ordinance he’s talking about. It already gives the planning commission broad powers. So why did they need to amend it?
The planning commission also hired a planning consultant – to the tune of $13,000 - who told them this:
“Your ordinance actually, at least for the shoreline, under existing item A – where it says ordinary high water mark – that even specifies that the planning commission may increase this required setback where it deems necessary during a site plan review proceeding. So that’s already written out in your ordinance.”
“Your ordinance actually . . . even specifies that the planning commission may increase this required setback . . . So that’s already written out in your ordinance.”
Déjà vu all over again. The consultant is talking about the existing ordinance which already gives the planning commission broad abilities.
So why did the planning commission revise the ordinance to specify restrictive new setbacks on the shoreline, side lot lines and wetlands? Especially after their own staff and consultant had told them they already had the ability to set specific conditions under the existing ordinance.
One person who commented on our Facebook post about this said, “The actions of the people who ‘claim’ to represent our township are morally repulsive! Shame on them!”
We agree.
Unfortunately there would be several more months of planning commission deliberations over changes to the ordinance that their staff and consultant said already gave them the powers they added.
This sums up the entire debacle. Stall, delay, and otherwise slow-roll this process to stop Timber Shores.
Why would the township want to do this? Because former supervisor John Sanders and his wife, who is still a township trustee, are neighbors of Timber Shores. Along with their other NIMBY neighbors they would do and say anything – including spending more than $30,000 of taxpayer money on legal fees and the planning consultant – to postpone the project and hope that the developer would just walk away.
Not going to happen.
When you vote please keep in mind the conflicts of interest, your wasted tax dollars, and the planning commission stacked with Sanders cronies to do his bidding. And then, when he got his way, he resigned. Truly a dedicated public servant – not!
This whole thing has been a colossal fiasco. The ordinance is illegal and unnecessary.
Deliver a message to the township when you vote on Nov. 8.
Support Timber Shores. Vote NO on the amended commercial resort zoning ordinance.