Subdivision residents left with a huge mess because of a developer that apparently didn’t play by the rules and local governments that didn’t keep a close eye on things will have to decide if they wish to pay a special assessment to solve their problems.
‘What everyone has inherited is the mess of (Elk View Estates developer) Scott Constable. He did it all wrong,? said Oxford Township Attorney Gary Rentrop. ‘So what we need to do is unscramble the mess and put it to where it should have been.?
To that end, the township board held a special meeting last week and voted 4-2 to pay 15 percent towards a Special Assessment District (SAD) that would fix the severe drainage problems in Elk View Estates, located on Baldwin Rd., and have the necessary work done to make the subdivision’s two streets, Elk View and Bull Run roads, acceptable to Oakland County as public roads.
‘That’s three times basically what we would give anybody else in this township,? said township Trustee Pat Fitchena. ‘I think that was a fair offer.?
Normally, the township contributes a standard 5 percent to SADs.
Based on an estimate from Giffels-Webster Engineers, it will cost $161,100 to fix the problems in Elk View. The township’s contribution would equal about $24,165, leaving Elk View residents to pay the remaining $136,935 plus interest over 20 years should at least 50 percent of the property owners petition for a SAD.
With the township’s contribution, property owners could expect to pay an estimated $462 more each year. A total of 24 lots would be part of the SAD.
Many residents weren’t pleased about the possibility of paying additional taxes.
‘I’m not putting up another dime, I can guarantee it,? said Elk View resident Loren Allen. ‘I’ve been fighting this battle right with the township the whole time as an individual homeowner. I’ve lost at least $50,000 in the value of my home. That’s minimum. Plus, I’ve put up $52,000 in attorney fees out of my pocket. Right there’s a $102,000 from one guy.?
‘There’s more township fault here,? said Nektarios Roukounakis, who lives in Clarkston, but owns a lot in Elk View. ‘I think the amount that the township needs to pay should exceed the minimum that we’re talking about.?
‘All of the sudden you just want to level all this money on top of us, that’s just not right,? said an unidentified Elk View property owner who spoke at the meeting. ‘This wasn’t a problem that we created when we moved in there. Everything was approved.?
Some township officials were of the opinion the government should pay more that 15 percent. ‘I don’t think this is a normal SAD,? said Supervisor Bill Dunn. ‘I think a minimum of $50,000 (should be contributed by the township).
Dunn made a motion to that effect, only to have it die for lack of support.
Trustee Charlie Kniffen wanted the township to pay the entire $161,100. He cited the fact that residents of the Brab Dewey subdivision by Stony Lake didn’t have to pay a dime to fix their drainage problems. Everything was paid for with township and county dollars. ‘It’s the same thing,? Kniffen said.
Some township officials felt paying more than 15 percent wouldn’t be fair to the taxpayers. ‘This money that is being approved tonight comes out of every taxpayer’s dollars in this township,? Fitchena said. ‘We have to be fiscally responsible. We have to think of everybody.?
The township has already spent a bundle of tax dollars trying to solve Elk View’s ills.
Since November 2001, the township has ponied up an estimated $200,000 or more in legal fees trying to force Constable to fix the drainage problems and get the subdivision roads accepted as public roads.
Just when it appeared that was finally going to happen after negotiating through a facilitator, Constable refused to sign a consent judgement, declared bankruptcy in 2005 and moved out of state.
‘You have a very bad developer and the township has spent a lot of money trying to get him to do this fix, then he went bankrupt,? said Clerk Clara Sanderson. ‘So, we really were thinking about you and we were looking out for you. We were trying to resolve this through the developer and it didn’t work.?
Errors made by the building department also factored into the township’s decision to take legal action on behalf of the residents.
With Constable out of the picture, both residents and township officials wish to finally get all the problems resolved once and for all.
‘It’s important that we all work together to try to get out of this situation,? said Supervisor Bill Dunn.
‘If we don’t do anything, it’s just going to cost us homeowners more in taxes, more in this, more in that,? said Oxford resident Laura Bousson, who owns a lot in Elk View.
Who’s to blame
Township officials say Constable manipulated the system and broke the rules to get what he needed to make Elk View Estates a reality. Dunn said Constable ‘circumvented? the township.
‘This was not done the right way,? the supervisor said. ‘This was not done under the watchful eye of the township. This went through the county.?
Constable went through the county and got his land divided and redivided into numerous lots without a review by the township.
‘He did not go to the township for these (land) splits,? Dunn said. ‘A lot of this stuff happened behind our back.?
Because the county had approved the land divisions, Mike Darling, who was the township’s building official/zoning administrator at the time, ‘signed off without an independent review.?
But Rentrop said the county was wrong to do it this way and the land divisions, of which too many were issued, should have been reviewed by the township per the state’s Land Division Act.
Because everything was done at the county level, no site plan for Elk View Estates ever went before the township planning commission for review or approval.
But Roukounakis said there was plenty of fault on the township end.
‘Does the township not know what’s going on within their township?? he said. ‘If I owned 100 acres and somebody all of the sudden decided that they wanted to sneak into the back 10 acres and do something, build something, I think I would know.?
‘A lot of (the subdivision’s) problems were apparent and visible from the get-go,? Roukounakis noted. ‘There was a lot of people (building inspectors) that walked through there and gave green tags to stuff that was very obvious.?
Dunn noted regular inspections were done by the township and problems were noted.
Jeff McGee, vice president of the Waterford-based Watson Group Financial Corp., the residential mortgage lender that was given ownership of five vacant lots in Elk View after Constable declared bankruptcy, also believes the township shares a good portion of the blame.
‘These people were issued Certificates of Occupancy (by the township) on roads that do not exist,? he said. ‘Regardless of whether the township issued the (land) splits or the splits were circumvented through county, fact remains C of O’s were issued.?
Trustee Sue Bellairs said not all the blame can be laid at the township’s feet.
‘There probably might be a little bit of township responsibility and there’s homeowner responsibility, too,? she said. ‘It runs both ways.?
Roads? What roads?
The township shares some blame in all this because Darling issued building permits without verifying whether the subdivision’s two roads had been approved by the county, which they had not.
Right now, Elk View residents are living on roads that legally don’t exist because they were never dedicated as either private or public.
‘You all own property on an unapproved road,? said Rentrop, noting this is a violation of the township zoning ordinance.
Constable had planned for Bull Run and Elk View roads to become public roads, but he failed to get approval from the Road Commission for Oakland County.
Without approved roads, residents technically can’t sell or refinance their homes because mortgage companies won’t loan money for properties that are not in compliance with township zoning.
Technically, no building permits can be issued in the subdivision for the same reason.
However, home sales and refinances have occurred in Elk View because the township chose not to record a notice with the county Register of Deeds that these properties are located on unapproved roads and in violation of township zoning.
‘We didn’t want to put any hardship on the residents,? Dunn explained.
Given mortgage and title companies generally call the township to check if a property is in compliance with local zoning, Rentrop said, ‘I’m surprised that in prior sales they have not discovered there’s a zoning violation.?
Sooner or later the issue is likely to surface, the attorney noted.
‘So, you’re saying all our property is worthless then for resale?? asked an Elk View property owner.
Rentrop said yes.
Both of Elk View’s roads are in fact still private property owned by the Watson Group as part of the land it received from Constable’s bankruptcy.
Fortunately, McGee said the Watson Group does not wish to deny residents? use of the roads and is willing to help pay for whatever’s necessary to make them acceptable as public roads.
‘I’m willing to do whatever you all want to do,? he said. ‘It is not my intent, or my company’s intent, to try to play Shanghai games with the road. It happens to be a technicality.?
A river runs through it
When Constable got approval from the county for the land splits to create Elk View Estates, he ‘lied? about there being no wetlands on his property, according to Rentrop.
In fact, there’s a natural drainage course that runs though the subdivision into wetlands to the south. ‘It was basically a river bed,? Rentrop told this reporter.
Rentrop said Constable dumped materials into the course to fill it in, plug it up and create four lots. But since you can’t stop nature, now the water flows on the surface, instead of in a drainage course, and significantly impacts two lots, one of which is owned by Allen.
‘You literally could kayak in it,? Rentrop told this reporter.
Dunn noted that Constable did not put in the ditching and retention ponds that were indicated on his plans.
Soggy basements
Sump-pumps run non-stop in Elk View basements because it appears the houses were built into the water table. This constant stream of water is discharged from the homes through hoses leading to road drainage ditches.
In order for the county to accept Elk View’s roads as public property this practice must stop, according to Jim Sharpe, of Giffels-Webster Engineers.
Sharpe said homeowners must be willing to cooperate and disconnect all sump-pumps currently discharging into the road ditching. He suggested the hoses could be moved to the rear of the properties.
Tax relief?
To help offset the cost of the SAD, should Elk View residents chose to petition for one, it was suggested they go to the township’s Board of Review, which meets for one week every March, and seek tax relief.
The three-member Board of Review is the ‘ultimate authority? over whether or not a property’s taxes get reduced by lowering its taxable value, according to Dunn.
Rentrop said the township could provide the board with a memo detailing all that has transpired in Elk View to help support the residents? case for tax relief.
‘I would make the argument that if you tax my property as if it had a good road, an approved road, and in fact it’s costing me $500 a year to make it a good road, then my taxes should be $500 less,? he said.
Rentrop noted that while the township can provide input to the Board of Review, ‘they ultimately make the decision.?