Two property owners in the Hi Hill Subdivision wanting an exception to a resolution passed by the Orion Township Board of Trustees requiring all residents there to hook up to the public water system or pay a $8,100 fee will have to wait a bit longer for a decision.
The board voted to postpone a decision on amending Resolution #5 of the Hi Hill Water Improvement Special Assessment District until a township committee can report back to the board with more information. A public hearing on whether or not to amend the resolution to grant two property owners an exception was held on Dec. 1.
“The SAD roll requires every property owner to hook up or pay $8,100,” explained township attorney Kristin Kolb prior to the hearing. “The homeowners (in question) have vacant property, so they can’t connect. They want a waiver for the $8,100.”
Supervisor Jerry Dywasuk added that if they sell or split the vacant property, they would then have to pay the $8,100 fee.
“This resolution is more than two years old,” said Kolb. “Instead of an out right exception, I ask that the board approve a deferent. If it’s sold as vacant property, the $8,100 would be held as a lien on the property.”
Joe Geraci, a Morgan Hill resident and president of the Hi Hill Homeowner’s Association said it were in favor of the board’s amending the resolution.
“There was supposed to have been something to catch this put in the resolution,” said Geraci. “Is that not the case now? My interpretation is usually 100 percent different than your interpretation.”
Geraci said he thought waiving the fee was only right if the property was vacant.
“If that’s what it takes to be fair,” he said.
Hi-Lure Drive resident Roar Sand, one of the property owners requesting the exception, said he thought at the time a house was built on the vacant lot, the owner should decide to hook up or pay the fee.
“At the later date, you definitely have to pay that fee, there’s no choice,” responded Dywasuk.
Kolb said that if the property was sold the seller would be responsible for the $8,100.
“If I decide to move and I offer the lot next door…then the $8,100 has to be paid at that point, even if my successor, the buyer, decides to build a house on that lot,” asked Sand. “I don’t understand this provision.”
Sand added that the lien would diminish the value of his property by $8,100.
“You’d take (that amount) out of whatever I’d get,” he said.
Clerk Jill Bastian said the two property owners should ask for “the appropriate amount” when they sell.
“So they get something of value,” she said. “They should ask for $8,100 more.”
“If the seller doesn’t pay their property taxes for two years, and they put it up for sale, they’d have to pay those property taxes,” Kolb said as an example.
Sand said without a home on the property, it was obvious he couldn’t hook up to the water system.
“I don’t see where it matters who owns the property at that point in time (that a home is built),” he said. “We could put in a deed restriction that the house had to be hooked up at that time.
“It seems very simple to me, when there is a house, then there’s a choice to be made,” he said.
Kolb said the township had incurred the cost of installing the entire water system, so the fee eventually had to be paid.
“When we held the hearings for these resolutions, we had other people in the township totally opposed to what we were doing,” Bastian said. “What we’re trying to do here tonight is be as fair as possible.”
Treasurer James Marleau said the township could just “eat” the $16,200 and clear up the matter entirely.
“(For the two vacant properties) that we didn’t take into consideration…that was an honest mistake,” he said.
“It’s worth more now,” Bastian said. “This is the way it has to be done.”
“The commitment to hook up was for a health reason and not a monetary one,” said department of public works director Bill Ireland.
A township committee of trustees Michael Gingell, Richard Tomczak and Will Wilsher, with trustee Michael Fetzer as an alternate, will meet with the township attorney and present the board with options at the Dec. 15 meeting.