Cheboygan County's Only Public Park Is A Yacht Harbor

County governments in Michigan provide many essential services mandated by the state that are part of our expectation of the role of government. I would hope most would agree that the Sherriff’s Department, County Jail, and the District and Circuit Courts are jobs we probably do not want to turn over to privately held run for profit enterprises. The County Equalization Department, County Treasurer, and Clerk’s Office have a multitude of tasks including but not limited to maintaining fair property tax valuations, collecting and disbursing taxes, and recording innumerable legal and property records. The private sector could not provide many of these services as efficiently, hence, the use of governments’ ability to tax and provide for the public good. I am sure the majority of visitors to the County Building who empty their pockets and successfully traverse the security doors to do business with these and other unnamed departments find the vast majority of Cheboygan County employees take pride in serving their fellow County residents. Most of the hourly or salaried employees are our neighbors, friends, or even relatives and they know in Cheboygan County our boats all rise or fall on the same tide.

On the subject of boats and the approach of the boating season, have you gotten your yacht out of storage? The Cheboygan County Commissioners seem to think the true measure of a man is the length of his boat and they plan to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to maintain the promise: “the Cheboygan County Marina will continue to provide state-of-the-art facilities, world-class service and family-friendly services to the boating public.”

Many Cheboygan County taxpayers can't afford a row boat

The Cheboygan County Marina? Do our County Commissioners really think a marina for yachts is an essential government service? Well, maybe it is. Let’s be fiscally smart and run the numbers. How many Cheboygan County taxpayers docked seasonally at this facility last year? Records supplied by County Administrator Jeff Lawson showed out of 45 seasonal slips rented last summer, 7 boats had owners in Cheboygan County. With about 25,000 county residents or 10,000 households in Cheboygan County, only seven parties used this County recreational facility. That is less than three local users per ten thousand residents. Does that sound like an essential service?

Wait; there are always the immeasurable tourism benefits according to Mr Lawson. Here are the numbers I see. An iconic northern Michigan family owned marina sits on the opposite side of the Cheboygan River providing sales and service jobs with a real payroll. That for profit marina also paid more than $53,000 in property taxes last year. The Duncan Bay Boat Club, competing for the same boaters and dollars, offers over 260 slips with both condominium ownership and transient or seasonal slips. Mr Lawson’s taxpayer subsidized slip rental rate undercuts a competitor who pays more than $90,000 in property taxes every year. The taxpayer owned Cheboygan County Marina we all subsidize paid zero property taxes.

Lawson’s yacht basin now requires $800,000 in capital infusion. The Cheboygan taxpayers, usually paying the highest gasoline prices in the state offers any yacht cruising by a bargain on refueling. Lawson’s business model almost breaks even every year by paying no property taxes, and never setting aside any money for needed repairs. A study done more than 8 years ago, paid for by us, identified $3.5 million dollars in needed and future capital costs. Now Lawson wants $400,000 in Cheboygan taxpayer money plus another $400,000 DNR grant to replace the fuel tanks. The County ignored or forgot that report and nothing ever fixes itself. That $800,000 will be the first of several million dollars paid by county taxpayers over the next decade. 

...and The Cheboygan County Taxpayers

My modest boats have always proven the adage that a boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into.  Captain Jeff Lawson wants to play Harbor Master with your money and pour tax dollars into the Cheboygan County Marina’s bottomless hole. Net jobs he created last year-3 seasonal. A $600,000 water line to Meijer would bring 250-300 year round full and part-time jobs. Cheboygan County says “not our job”. 

The Cheboygan County Commissioners all need to hear that paying for the Cheboygan County Marina is not our job. Their names, districts, and telephone numbers are to the right. 

Cheboygan Zoning Laws Created Behind Closed Doors

Once upon a time, back on October 21 of 2015, the Cheboygan County Planning Commission started a public discussion to amend Article 19, Planned Unit Development (PUD). PUDs have the potential to be a significant departure from property developed under traditional Euclidean Zoning. Euclidean Zoning translates to Cheboygan County Planning telling you “you can’t build that, sell that, rent that, or do that here”. A PUD can be an antithesis to the “No, you can’t” and permit flexibility in the regulation of land development; encourage innovation in land use and variety in design, layout, and type of structures constructed.  There is no specific requirement that a PUD be limited to a single residential, commercial, or industrial land use. I have attended many Cheboygan County Planning Meetings. There have been hushed references to a previous failed PUD in Cheboygan County and a clear reluctance to try anything again that may have failed once. In Cheboygan County, it seems easier to just say no and not risk another failure.

Back to 2015 when Community Planner Scott McNeil stated that reviewing the PUD ordinance was a Master Plan goal for 2015. A PUD would permit a mixture of uses that allowed across the various zoning districts. The amendment would provide for a pre-application conference that would be general discussion only with no decision made on the application. Mr. McNeil stated this amendment also provides criteria and procedure for preliminary plan approval and final plan approval by the Planning Commission and Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners. Mr. McNeil explained that the amendment provides for expiration and renewal of preliminary plan approvals and amendments of an approved final plan.

I can relate all of this to you because I was there. Don’t believe me? Bob Lyon, Tony Matelski, Jim O’Donnell, and John Moore attended and heard the same words. Planning & Zoning Clerk Debbie Tomlinson later transcribed the meeting and noted who was there. At the next Planning Commission meeting, the Board approved this as the official record of a public meeting. I refreshed my memory from those official minutes. That is the way local government bodies are supposed to conduct business. It is not efficient, but the public has a ringside seat and ability to comment. Every member of the public who is interested in the process used to create or amend the zoning laws that affect our land use can participate.

That was in 2015 and things have changed. The expression that observing lawmakers is like watching sausage being made is really not apropos because ground meat does not tell us what to do. The six Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners in attendance on Tuesday, Chris Brown, Rich Sangster, Cal Gouine, Michael Neuman, John Wallace, and Robert Bollinger, none representing the best interest of the public on this issue, lawyered up and took their sausage making behind closed doors into a “closed session”. It is a moot point whether legal opinions provided by the County’s legal counsel outside of filed or pending litigation truly enjoy attorney-client privilege. I have little patience arguing with a professional who succeeds by cloaking the truth. A lawyer by definition is a one sided argument and the opposite of open government.

Here is the truth. Those Cheboygan County Commissioners are attempting with a lawyer, Administrator Jeff Lawson, and until proven otherwise the involvement of Development Director Steve Schnell to work behind closed doors to usurp the power of an appointed Planning Commission that makes zoning amendments in public view. There was a covert attempt earlier in the year to remove two independent thinkers from the Planning Commission to create a Planning Commission more compliant to Community Development Department. Commissioner Matelski stopped that. This most recent covert operation is another attempt that will not bode well for the County.

PUDs are one of the best tools available to accommodate a growth opportunity when it makes an appearance. These past headlines are proof of that; “The Emmet County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday voted 6-1 to approve Meijer's request for a preliminary PUD,  The Emmet County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved an amendment to the county's Planned Unit Development agreement with R.G. Properties to allow a third sit-down restaurant such as Bob Evans to locate next to Applebee's on U.S. 131 just south of Petoskey”.

The Cheboygan County Community Development Department, an oxymoron, wants to remove “County Board of Commissioners” from the PUD process and from the headlines. We will continue to read, “Griswold Mountain Properties has chosen to withdraw their conditional rezoning application” and of the ongoing litigation with Heritage Cove. The Cheboygan Meijer project remains high and dry with a signage variance denied and zoning approvals lapsed. 

Cheboygan Commissioners Schedule SECRET Meeting

Everyone who is interested in the future growth or even the survival of Cheboygan County must attend the April 11, 2017 Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners Finance/Business Meeting. 

Who do the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners represent? 

It will not be Cheboygan County residents if these three individuals, County Administrator Jeff Lawson, Community Development Director Steve Schnell, and Legal Counsel Bryan Graham; none of who reside in Cheboygan County;  have their way. 

Item 15 on the agenda is a "closed session", behind closed doors private meeting, not open to the people who will be governed by the "Language-Draft Proposal" Planned Unit Development Zoning Ordinance (PUD). The staff and legal counsel ignore our rights and think proposed laws governing our land use should be discussed, influenced, and decided upon in closed doors sessions. 

In simple terms, a PUD could facilitate a major mixed retail development (Meijer), a unique innovative healthcare development (Heritage Cove), or a huge mixed residential/retail/ accommodation development (Bay Harbor). It would empower Cheboygan County to think beyond the narrow confines of failed Ordinance #200 and its 139 amendments. 

Michigan Law offers two paths for a PUD. This link to an MSUE article explains the process. 

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/planned_unit_development_provides_flexibility_in_local_zoning

The first process allows the elected officials, our County Commissioners, to have final oversight and approval of a PUD. That does not mean they will rewrite or ignore the laws. It simply means they should, as our elected representatives, have the opportunity to represent their constituents when major or controversial developments are proposed.

The second, allegedly simple and more streamlined process, means the Community Development staff and Planning Commission base an administrative decision solely on standards spelled out in detail in the zoning ordinance. That means decisions based on the failed standards in Ordinance #200. 

The Heritage Cove application was approved at the administrative and Planning Commission level and is still embroiled in lawsuits after more than two years. It was a victim of an archaic use of definitions and administrative delays caused by staff attempting to work with failed zoning standards. The Meijer project should have been a PUD but the Community Development Department was again unprepared. The chosen Meijer site required rezoning contrary to the year old Master Plan and approval by the County Commissioners. It is still delayed by infrastructure needs unforeseen and ignored by the Community Development Department. 

Please attend this meeting on April 11th and protest the planned "closed session" where our property rights will be decided. I encourage each of you to stand at the podium and remind the Commissioners that we do not live in a totalitarian society ruled upon by a board making decisions in secrecy. 

Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners

MISSION STATEMENT

Cheboygan County officials and staff will strive to provide public services in an

open and courteous manner and will responsibly manage county resources.

Finance/Business Meeting

April 11, 2017

9:30 a.m.

Agenda

15. CLOSED SESSION – Pursuant to MCL 15.268(h) Planned Unit Development Zoning Ordinance

Language - Draft Proposal