The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Developer drops suit against board
Grand Sakwa claimed township incorrectly billed company
By Jameel Naqvi, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: August 18, 2005
Grand Sakwa has dropped its exclusionary zoning suit against Webster Township. Its decision was not contingent upon any settlement with the township.
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It's not yet known whether Grand Sakwa will return to the Township Board with its request to rezone a 281-acre farm at Zeeb and Daly roads to allow for the construction of a manufactured home park.
The lawsuit claimed that the township had incorrectly billed the company $29,000 in consulting fees and, as a result, unfairly denied the company's rezoning request after Grand Sakwa refused to pay the allegedly improper fees.
The developer's litigation sought damages in excess of $10 million and the right to build a manufactured home park.
The township argued that while some of the fees were mistakenly assessed, the developer never paid required consulting fees.
During the court dispute, township residents, including Webster Neighbors for Responsible Growth, which was formed to oppose the developer's efforts to build a manufactured home park, accused the developer of using the lawsuit to bully Webster Township into allowing Grand Sakwa to instead build an upscale subdivision.
"One can always speculate … that they probably just do economic analysis that says that (Grand Sakwa can) invest so much in legal costs," Township Supervisor Dean Fisher said.
"I think we were all aware that they do not build mobile home parks," Webster Neighbors member Ella Dunajski said. "We knew it was more than likely it wasn't going to be a mobile home park."
These accusations gained credence when the company offered to build expensive stick-built homes instead of manufactured homes during settlement talks with the township.
Grand Sakwa is still suing Northfield Township for $30 million in a suit filed after voters there rejected the company's rezoning request. The company's planned development in Northfield, like its existing developments in Novi and West Bloomfield, was for stick-built homes in the $300,000-and-up range.
Regardless of Grand Sakwa's intent, the Webster Township Board and residents opposed the proposed subdivision because the residential density in the developer's plans was not permitted by the master plan and out of a desire to preserve the rural character of Webster Township.
For its part, the developer argued that the land in dispute cannot sustain a profitable farming venture.
Two calls seeking comment from Grand Sakwa's attorney, Robert Jacobs, were not returned.
Jameel Naqvi is an intern at the newspaper. He can be reached at 475-1371 or jamaster@umich.edu.
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