Capping ‘prolonged struggle’, Superior Township OKs $2.4M purchase of land targeted for mobile home park

Updated: Dec. 16, 2021, 8:00 a.m. | Published: Dec. 16, 2021, 8:00 a.m.

By Lucas Smolcic Larson | lsmolciclarson@mlive.com

WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI – While people will pack stadiums to cheer on their home team, the same isn’t always true for a meeting hall and board of local officials.

A rare exception was Tuesday night in Superior Township.

There, some 60 residents gathered, speaking with one voice to boost elected leaders’ proposal to sink $2.4 million to purchase the “Rock property,” roughly 300 acres once proposed as the site of a hotly-contested development, fought tooth and nail by the township east of Ann Arbor.

After listening to the chorus of support, Township Supervisor Ken Schwartz had one question for the audience — is there anyone here in opposition?

No one stirred. Anyone in support? Nearly everyone in the whole room raised their hands.

The following unanimous vote to approve the purchase agreement with Rock Superior, LLC, puts the township on track to preserve the land, woods and cropland, bordering Geddes and Vreeland roads for public recreation, pledged Schwartz.

For locals, it also represents a hard-fought victory, more than a decade in the making, over an out-of-town company.

Greg Vessels, one of the first Superior residents to speak at the Dec. 14 meeting, praised leaders for “having the courage to stand up to these developers and to “preserve this green space, which is so precious and so limited.”

Vessels gestured to what Schwartz has called a “prolonged struggle” with a division of Rock Companies, which pitched a 2,000-unit mobile home park with a private water and sewer plant for the land some 17 years ago.

Superior Township said that was an inappropriate use of the land, marshalling a team of lawyers and expert witnesses to challenge state regulators’ issuance of a draft discharge permit for the plant and even passing a millage to aid in the township’s legal defense, Schwartz said.

As the legal matters wound their way through the courts, Schwartz said township leaders pursued other ways to preserve the land, working with Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt program and Washtenaw County, but weren’t successful.

The supervisor, a major booster of the opportunity to buy the land before another development could be proposed, shared letters of support from Michigan lawmakers, county parks officials and conservationists.

As the night wore on, it was clear that support was shared by residents who showed up at township hall, many applauding after each speaker.

“It’s been said that the only way to have any control of our land is to own it,” said resident Carla Bisaro. The Rock proposal, “just didn’t fit,” Bisaro said.

“As wildlife defenders ourselves, we know that we need more protected corridors and wild spaces,” asserted Tanya Hilgendorf, CEO of the Human Society of Huron Valley, throwing her organization’s support behind the proposal.

The price tag on the deal, totaling $2,413,280 with a required $250,000 down payment and the option for the balance to be paid in monthly $10,000 installments, didn’t scare residents off.

“As much as it matters to our quality of life, I believe it also matters for our economic security in the future because if this land were to be developed it would cost us far more down the road,” said one of them, Jack Smiley.

Schwartz said the township intends to get a conservation easement for the land, preventing future development, but will have to pay off the balance of the land contract first. Officials could seek a mortgage, propose a voter-approved millage or pursue a bond financed out of the township general fund to cover the sum, he said.

While in the short-term it will most likely continue to be leased for farming, the board will have control over the property, he added, floating the idea of using the land as home for a summer camp for youth.

When the supervisor opened the floor to his fellow members of the Superior Board of Trustees some said they appreciated those plans but wanted more consideration of all residents’ needs going forward.

“I’m a people person over property,” said Township Clerk Lynette Findley, who added she fully supported the Rock purchase but wanted to advocate for residents of township apartment complexes north of Ypsilanti, home to some of the highest concentration of low-income renters in Washtenaw County.

“They come to these meetings, every meeting and beg us for things, and they walk away with nothing. That hurts them,” Findley said, to applause from the meeting hall.

The clerk still joined the rest of the board in a 7-0 vote to OK the purchase of the land, which will move forward to closing in the new year, according to Schwartz.

The supervisor was enthusiastic over the reception to the purchase. “We need to get Rock off our back, and get us out of between a rock and hard place,” he joked at one point, to laughter from the room.

To view a map of the parcels to be purchased by Superior Township, click here.

You can also view the story on MLIVE by clicking here.