Board OKs Pot Ordinance
75 Barker Road Fire Hall Value Jumps 27%
Fed-Up Treasurer Calls for Firing Manager & Planner
Residents Pack Meeting
Calling All Volunteers

Nov. 12, 2019 Township Board Meeting Report
By David Gordon

Downtown Pot Shops Permitted

The Board of Trustees last night adopted a Marijuana Ordinance that allows a limited number of pot shops downtown, micro-businesses in the rural district and larger grower/processor operations in areas zoned for industry.

The ordinance passed 6/1 and [updated] will go into effect December 21.

Last-minute changes needed to be made to the ordinance allowing pot shops downtown. Treasurer Lenore Zelenock said she was frustrated that Planner Paul Lippens (who was absent) hadn’t alerted the Board downtown pot shops had been omitted from the ordinance language.

Manager Steven Aynes was tasked with drafting an business application for pot entrepreneurs by the Nov. 26 meeting and was criticized for not having it ready for this meeting.

Are Downtown Property Values About to Skyrocket?

One immediate impact of the ballot proposal was a big bump in the value for the township’s old fire station at 75 Barker Road.

A buyer last week offered $275,000 but after the vote Nov. 5 allowing pot shops downtown, a second buyer offered $350,000 (a 27% increase and $75,000 above the asking price). Both buyers may be planning to open pot shops and now appear engaged in a bidding war.

The Board postponed a decision on the 75 Barker sale. Some Trustees said that, in light of this exciting increase in property values, it might be wise to reconsider plans to sell the majority of the VanCurler property (now known as North Village). The Board is negotiating to sell 18 of the 23 acres to developers for housing, leaving only five acres for a waterfront park.

Off with Their Heads! Treasurer Wants to Axe Manager & Planner

“It’s time to fire people,” said Zelenock near the end of the four-hour meeting. “Because come 2020, we’re going to get fired (by the voters). I am appalled that three years into this administration, (Manager Steven Aynes) still can’t get our agendas right,” she said.

Zelenock also said the Board should find a different planner. “The planner is making too many unforced errors and I’m tired of it,” she said after the meeting. She laid out the timeline and series of events leading to the omission in the marijuana ordinance of pot shops downtown, asking “how are we going to hold our paid professionals accountable?”

Residents Speak Up!

Nearly 50 pro and anti-pot “activists” packed the second floor and many spoke at the “First Call to the Public” which lasted more than 45 minutes. It was obvious the Nov. 5 ballot proposal vote changed few minds though it did show that pro-pot is the majority opinion.

Mary Devlin, a long-time resident and frequent speaker at Board meetings, announced this would be her last appearance. She said she was disappointed with the ballot proposal turnout, upset with the outcome and exhausted by her efforts. (We hope you feel better and return soon, Mary. You will be missed.)

Northfield Township Wants You!

Supervisor Chockley announced that there are multiple openings on various township boards and committees, as follows:

Land Preservation Committee – 3 openings
Downtown Development Authority – 3 openings
Planning Commission – 2 openings
Parks & Recreation Committee – 1 or more

Contact Chockley. Office: (734) 449-2880, ext. 15 * Cell: (734) 730-0795 * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Rest of the Story

Northfield Joins Select Group of Townships

As of October, four of ten Michigan municipal governments have opted out of allowing pot stores even though their residents voted to legalize recreational pot, according to Mlive.com. (Maybe that 40% should hold ballot proposals too.)

Because of the Nov. 5 ballot proposal supporting pot businesses, Northfield joined a select group opting in. Adopting an ordinance to regulate where and how many pot businesses operate in the township was undertaken with the knowledge that the majority of its citizens approve.

Prior to the vote, the Board was divided but still favored “opting in” 4/3. The minority of Chockley, Clerk Kathy Manley and Trustee Tawn Beliger joined with a citizen group, “Save Northfield”, that collected enough signatures to force a ballot proposal.

Before the final vote on the pot ordinance, Trustee Janet Chick moved to re-insert the omitted ordinance language allowing pot shops downtown. Her motions passed 4/3 with Chockley, Manley and Beliger opposed.

At the final vote, Chockley and Manley overcame their personal opinions, respected the ballot proposal results and voted in favor of the ordinance. Beliger did not.

Beliger spent more than 15 minutes making numerous motions in an attempt to block pot shops downtown and to prohibit all marijuana in the rural area. “Do I need to get down on my knees and beg the township Board?” she said. Chockley “seconded” all the motions which were all defeated on 4/3 votes.

The Board agreed to temporarily exclude four types of marijuana businesses - temporary events, temporary event organizer, excess growers & designated consumption establishments - until the final adoption of the ordinance.

Chockley tried to mandate that pot businesses donate to local charities. Her idea was rejected. She also wanted to dictate that medical and recreational businesses “co-locate” in the same building, but that idea was rebuffed.

Trustee Jacki Otto suggested hiring a part-time employee to handle pot applications but her idea was deemed premature. Trustee Wayne Dockett and Zelenock said the manager should handle it.

Off with Their Heads!

Treasurer Zelenock said her issue with both Manager Aynes and Planner Lippens is incompetence. She noted that Aynes put the pot ordinance at the very end of the agenda and that, unsurprisingly, several residents found the placement insulting, “a slap in the face”.

Board meetings typically run so late that the last items on the agenda are postponed. This meeting ended at 10:40 pm. Agendas are routinely re-arranged on the fly; many “action items” lack proper or supporting paperwork, and the result is lots of debate but little action, Zelenock said.

She blamed the four Trustees who hired Aynes for his “consistent lack of professionalism”. (His actions) “are not logical. Not acceptable. It’s time to fire people,” she said. “So Ms. Chick, Ms. Otto, Mr. Dockett and Ms. Beliger, I want you to hold your township manager accountable....you hired him....(and) you rehired him. “

After the meeting, Zelenock addressed her issues with the planner and the deleted passages in the pot ordinance. “Lippens is not getting the job done. There are too many mistakes and omissions,” she charged.

“We pay more than $90k to our planners and more than $120k for our manager....and we’re always having these issues. We need to....(search) for new people,” she said.

The Supervisor, Clerk and Treasurer have consistently voted against hiring a manager, saying the position is unnecessary and expensive. (Only 3% of Michigan townships have managers according to the Michigan Township Association.) However, the four Trustees have voted in a block to support the position.

Zelenock said she was frustrated that Aynes and Lippens had failed to draft any guidelines for pot business applications. “They’ve known about this for weeks and we’ve got nothing in the packet tonight.”

Residents Pack Meeting & Speak Up!

Barb Wutka asked that the Board prohibit pot businesses in Precinct 2 since voters there opposed pot while Precincts 1 & 3 favored it. (Later in the meeting, her suggestion was dismissed as unrealistic by a majority of the Board).

Sam Iaquinto, owner of Mac’s Marina and supporter of pot businesses, said he was disappointed in Beliger, claiming she badmouths local businesses; grandstands at Board meetings and flip-flops in her capacity as Board Rep to the Park & Recreation Committee. “Tawn Beliger is a disappointment to the voters and citizens of Northfield Township,” he charged.

Mary Czech, a business woman who owns several properties downtown, supported local pot shops saying “we need growth....please honor the will of the people you swore to represent.”

Her sentiments were echoed by residents Jon Gura, Dana Forrester, James Trunko, David Gordon, Wayne Davison, Craig Warburton, Adam Olney, Todd Hawkmeyer, Coyote Windsong, Jerry Griffin and Marissa Prizgint.

James Trunko, co-owner Lovely Monkey Tattoo, made the point that Northfield Township residents have “now voted twice” to allow marijuana. He urged the Board to act quickly.

Opponents who spoke of their disappointment and concerns were Monica Miller, Sharon Koenig, Margaret Riddell and Planning Commissioner Brad Cousino.

Here are two comments from the 2nd Call to the Public:

David Gordon (the author) asked the Board to be more mindful of the environment; conduct an energy audit of township-owned buildings; consider solar panels to lower our carbon footprint; investigate bringing high-speed internet downtown to attract small business owners and again suggested the Board include page numbers on the Agenda. “Your packet is typically hundreds of pages long. Having page numbers would be helpful to the public and the Board.”

Local resident Dan McLean made a couple of simple, smart suggestions.

”It’s been tense (at these meetings this year) but it could be a little less tense with a better handling of the meetings,” he said, echoing a common criticism of Supervisor Chockley whose statutory duty is to run meetings and of Manager Aynes, who is tasked with helping her.

“Things always seem to be confused as to what ordinance version you’re working with - what page - what this - what that.,” he continued.

“In the business I’ve been in, we have documents projected on a screen. You have version control and document control so you know exactly what is happening; even editing on the fly with Word documents.

“They have editing features showing all the changes, with initials showing who made the changes; (it’s) very simple to do; it would make these meetings go about three times as fast,” he said.

One can only hope Chockley and Aynes were listening.

-30-

 

Meeting Documents:

 

11/12/2019 Board Meeting LiveTimeline  - About 250 moments of interest are linked to - unapologetically undisciplined editing.

 

Here is the LiveAgenda, greatly expanded. Click any of the links to watch the meeting beginning at the linked speaker's speaking. Toward the end the link lands about ten seconds early.

 

 

Here's a portable, clickable version of the LiveTimeline

11/12/2020  Northfield Township Board of Trustees meeting LiveTimeline

 

And here's the stuck-to-the-webpage version of the LiveTimeline 

 

Call to order

Invocation

Pledge of Allegiance

Roll Call

1st Call to the Public

Board Member Response

Motion to Accept the Consent Agenda

Recess

Meeting called back to order

Adopt the balance of the Agenda

Agenda Item 1: Chockley: Motion to approve payment of open bills

Agenda Item 7, Ordinance 1966

Chick: Motion to adopt Ordinance 19-67 to add chapter 23, Marijuana facilities to the code of ordinances

Otto: Motion to hire a temporary clerk to help handle the applications

Item # 3, no #9, no #2? Opt out - #9

#3 now? No, #2

Consider purchase offer for 75 Barker

Chockley: motion to approve rezoning from AG to Limited industrial for 6410 Whitmore Lake Road

Chick: Motion to approve Terra Firma's request to operate a landscape biz with outdoor storage of materials

Trustee Liason Reports

Announcements

2nd Call to the Public

Board Member Response

Beliger: Move to Adjourn

Motion passes. Meeting adjourned.

 

These are the raw elements of the 10/22 LiveAgenda. Clicking a link takes you directly to video of the meeting at the point where an agenda item, utterance, or comment transpired.

Youtube makes this possible. But what Youtube giveth, it can take away. I uploaded two versions of the underlying meeting video. Their quality differed by a factor of four, but the lower quality video is what Youtube displays as HD. I moved the LiveAgenda links below from the higher quality upload to the lower quality upload, because the lower quality upload displays as 720P. Makes perfect sense, no? OK Boomer!

 

Call to Order

Invocation

Pledge of Allegiance

First Call to the Public

Sam Iaquinto: Pro Pot Business Opportunities and revenue stream

Mary Devlin: anti-pot

Amy Scholl: "we’re not ready for pot"

David Gordon

Shannon Koenig: powerful pot industry will buy our politicians

Margaret Riddell: anti-pot

Carl Watkins “our quality of life will be terrible”

Stacy Sloan: ethics & accountability lacking

Board Member Response

Dockett

Otto

Manley

Zelenock

Chockley: "we’ll do better on that blahblahblah"

Beliger

Chick: “We can’t afford it. The park is a burden on the township.”

Consent Agenda

Sewer Liability issue raised by Beliger

Chick: Warner issue

Chockley: why the sewer backup issue was not an Agenda Item

Property Owner public statement re sewer backup

Chockley: motion re consent agenda

Dockett re address, Barker & Main, of Driftwood Marina being torn down

Zelenock: motion to end meeting at 930pm

Manley: vote on the agenda

Zelenock introduces Shink's presentation while Chockley busy

Shink announces hearing dates, november 6th coming up

Shink: citizen complaints re tree cutting

Shink: re citizen protest against herbicide spraying

Shink: offers help with county park grants for north village

Agenda Item #1:

Master Plan Adoption

Zelenock - On 9/24...

Chockley blows off concerns; I just think it's time to move on.

Chockley: It really does open up some areas

Chockley: I guess I would like to call the question

Agenda Item 2:

Resolution 19-615

Otto: why now, why the limit to 4 acres? Lippins

Lippins answers

Burns: to make a park, deed restrictions

Dockett on boat slips, piers, fishing, people sleeping overnight

vote on amendment to strike in perpituity from language

Beliger offers 5 acre amendment

Chockley: "I'd hate to eliminate five houses over 1/4 acre of open space"

Zelenock: Manager, how many acres did we put in out rfps? I recall nine.

Lippins: That's not the recommendation you have from the committee

Zelenock: and none of this has been scored

Chockley: Does the board feel this is premature?

Call the vote on Beliger's motion to make it a minimum of five acres

vote on resolution 19-615

passed 5-2

Zelenock – Motion to bring County Parks in for possible help on financing or running the park. 6/1 Dockett “no”

Otto prefers committee

Chockley: I think it's early

Beliger I think we should wait on that idea

Zelenock: $157,836.68 paid in County Park Millage Y2018

Chockley Waffling re time limit

Chockley: res to opt out of the hard cap

Chockley: motion to skip number 3

Dockett: now you're being a jerk

Beliger: motion to approve health insurance

Docket & Mgr argue over packet, insurance figures vs percentages

Docket to Aynes: “Oh poor you!”

Zelenock to Aynes: Your info is incomplete

Agenda Item 5:

Long discussion over $17k increase &amp and Aynes’ report

Motion by Chockley to continue health insurance contributions same as past year

beliger: move to extend thomas duke contract for barker road sale

Beliger: move to extend meeting until 10pm Dockett: you broke all your promises.

Beliger, Why don't we just extend the meeting half an hour

Agenda Item 3:

Zelenock, so what if we go back and talk about building right now...

Dockett shouts out contention that county is available every day of the week and saves money.

Dockett: the county has not raised their prices in 13 years

Motion by Zelenock to have Aynes assemble information by January. Dockett recommends a subcommittee

Two board members volunteer for the subcommittee : beliger and zelenock

Agenda Item 6:

Beliger Motion to renew Thomas Duke Contract to sell 75 Barker

Agenda Item 6: Contract Extension for sale of 75 Barker

Chick suggests postponing all 75 Barker decisions until March

Vote to extend the current contract with Thomas Duke

motion to extend passes 4:3

Agenda Item 7:

Beliger: can we move to consider purchase offer of... Number 7

Zelenock: I would like to table Number 7

Dockett: I don't think we should sell this

Agenda item 8:

motion by beliger to close twp offices

Chockley: I don't know that we can get into your item

Agenda Item 9:

Otto: I would like to table this item, the Clerk's survey

Announcements

Zelenock: Is there any legal constraint on that Mr Burns?

Otto: so people can come here and start handing out political material at our board meetings? Burns nods yes

2nd call to the public

George Brown - spoke for six full minutes.

Margaret Riddell

Amy Scholl

David Gordon

Jim Nelson

Board Member Comments

Dockett: – we don’t need this project (park). Glad when pot is over.

Dockett: you people are putting up half a million dollars. that's what we've got invested.

Otto

Chick – takes offense with comments that big business can corrupt government. “Can’t imagine politicians being bought. Can’t imagine it.”

Manley

Beliger

Zelenock – we should be doing lots of surveys – these are big items that will define the township forever. Once you sell the land, it’s gone forever.

Chockley

Motion to Adjourn

Oct. 22, 2019 Board of Trustees meeting
By David Gordon

Highlights:

1 – MASTER PLAN

- A new Master Plan was approved by a slim 4/3 vote.  Historically, the plan receives a unanimous vote but this Board, led by Supervisor Marlene Chockley, is divided on nearly every issue.

Treasurer Lenore Zelenock and Trustees Wayne Dockett and Tawn Beliger had problems both with the substance and the process of the Plan rewrite which costs $35,000 and took nearly two years.

Supervisor Marlene Chockley pushed for the adoption because she said the new plan “opens up lots of land on Whitmore Lake Road for development”, one of her main priorities.

2 – PARKS

- A proposal to set aside “forever” only five acres at the 23-acre North Village “park” passed 5-2, with Zelenock and Dockett voting “no”. Zelenock questioned why only five acres are being set aside instead of the nine acres recommended in an expensive Board-approved analysis. No answer was given. Dockett simply is against the Board acting as developers.

Two developers are hoping to erect condos, houses and mixed-use structures on the only vacant land left on Whitmore Lake. The four acres will have some green space and a band shell, among other possible amenities. A lakefront beach is being considered.

Chockley expressed concern about creating a defined area for parkland. “I’d hate to have to eliminate five houses to save a quarter-acre of open space,” she said.

In response to why so little land was being set aside for park, Trustee Janet Chick said “the township can’t afford to maintain all that area.....it is a burden on the community.”

However, the Board has refused to ask residents if they would support a dedicated millage to keep the whole site as a park.

3- SEWER TAX HIKE

- Clerk Kathy Manley had hoped to mail a survey with the December sewer bills about the proposed $5M sewer basin but the idea was tabled for several reasons; mainly because it was the last agenda item and nobody wanted to begin the discussion after 10 o’clock. (Especially since the Board voted to end the meeting at 9:30pm....and blew right past it’s own deadline....again...as usual.)

The Board last month voted 5/2 (Zelenock & Dockett opposed) to spend $200,000 on an engineering study for the proposed $5M retention basin at the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). Township engineers TetraTech has been selling the idea of a basin as a necessity since 1988. All previous Boards have rejected the spending.

Manley hoped to do some outreach with the survey and determine how popular the $5M basin is with sewer customers who will see their fees skyrocket. In addition to the basin, some Trustees also want to spend $3M on sewer line expansion. Together, these two projects will raise sewer rates about 40% for the next 20 years.

Chockley, Chick and Trustee Jacki Otto now say that sewer expansion is their #1 Priority . None of them said anything about that when campaigning in 2016.

4 – MARIJUANA

– About five members of the public spoke at the beginning of the meeting supporting a ban on all pot stores, grow operations or processing in the township.

Ms. Mary Devlin, Ms. Amy Scholl, Ms. Shannon Koenig, Ms. Margaret Ridell and former Police Chief Karl Watkins spoke against allowing pot into the township even though 63% of township residents approved recreational pot in the 2016 election.

Mac’s Marina owner Sam Iaquinto spoke in favor of the new businesses and said most downtown proprietors support it too. “Dispensaries will bring badly needed foot traffic downtown and add $280,000 a year in taxes to our general fund,” he said.

5 – ROAD COMMISSION

– County Commissioner Sue Shink said that as a result of controversies this year, a re-organization of the Washtenaw County Road Commission is being considered.

There are four ideas being explored:

  •  Expansion of Road Commission (RC) from 3 to 5 members.
  •  Transfer of RC duties to the County Board of Commissioners.
  •  Change RC members from appointed to elected.
  • Retain current system.

The shake-up is the result of a massive public outcry against two RC projects – the cutting of historic landmark trees along N. Territorial and Mast Roads (400+ trees were felled) and the proposal to spray herbicide along all county roads (which never happened after the push-back.)

-30-

Read that again. Quickly. Read it aloud. Feel the footfall of syllables. Breathe. Bite each consonant. Speak surely, confidently. You know what it means. They know what it means. Everybody knows what it means.

Squish-puff is what happens when revenue-neutral has no empirical, quantified basis. It was a planner's ploy, a tasty morsel of insider jargon, to convey an illusion of financial planning, to focus attention where he wanted it focused, away from the possibility of a real downtown park. The limits or your language are the limits of your thinking. Control language to control thought.

Revenue neutral now has a seat of honor, the foundation of the Lake Park dream evisceration. Chockley invoked it again at this meetup.

Up next? A map showing just how little park space will be provided by the latest Board retrenchment, a proposal to reserve as Public park property a  band of public land only 400 feet deep, measured from the lake's edge.

 

As a public service, here are the packet Documents broken out and separated into separate pdfs: 

 

  • 6:15PM Northfield Township Board of Trustees Regular Meeting LiveAgenda    - Coming Soon 
  • 7:00PM Northfield Township Board of Trustees Regular Meeting LiveAgenda    - Coming Soon