Ask anyone in Independence Township about development and he or she will have an opinion.
Some feel development is a positive providing goods that outweigh the bad. Others feel the land is shrinking beneath their feet and something must be done to rein in development.
At a June 22 meeting at Clarkston High School, Citizens for Orderly Growth officially kicked-off a petition drive to force a special Independence Township Board election in November.
According to Neil Wallace, COG has until the July 29 petition deadline to force the election.
If the proposal passes, the township could issue a one time tax for a period of one year between 2006 and 2010. The purpose of the tax would be to raise money for a legal fund to deal with developers challenging the township’s master plan.
Wallace stressed that the fund would be primarily for litigation involving land use and should not be thought of as a general defense fund for the township.
COG’s proposal projects the tax to be $69 dollars for the average Independence Township household, creating a fund of around $750,000.
‘They (the township) will collect it only if they determine there’s a need. The fund will give any developer a pause before a development comes here and takes us into ligation over our master plan,? said Wallace. ‘I don’t want to hand over a carte blanch to the township to hit us with a tax whenever they want. This puts limits on it.?
Wallace said the money would be used for defense costs, attorney fees, expert witnesses and any other fees attributed to defense litigation. Any money not used for litigation by December 31, 2012 could then be used by the township to acquire land, an interest in land, open space preservation, or similar purposes.
A condition of the fund would require the township to defend litigation through a final decision at the Circuit Court level, not to be settled without prior voter referendum approval of any consent judgement.
Speaker Neil Wallace reiterated the group’s concern over development at the meeting.
‘We’re facing a development tsunami coming up I-75. All too often after a legal battle is lost with a developer, it’s because the community does not have the money,? said Wallace.
When asked by the audience about similar funds statewide, attorney Greg Need said no other fund like the one proposed by COG could be found, and the most comparable thing was open space preservation programs.
COG hopes that many of its 500 plus members will work on the Fourth of July weekend to collect signatures from registered Independence Township voters.
Wallace hoped to collect around 5,000?6,000 signatures from the approximately 32,000 Independence Township residents.
‘If you get the signatures, I’m confident it’ll get on the ballot. Then I pledge to run the best campaign this town’s ever seen,? said Wallace.
Independence Township Supervisor Dave Wagner said that as of now there is no election scheduled and holding one would cost around $20,000.
For more information on COG, look to www.cogmi.org