Rock River Township Board votes to repeal zoning ordinance
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CHATHAM -- At Tuesday night's meeting of the Rock River Township Board, the board voted to repeal the township's zoning ordinance. The township planning commission had voted back in September to recommend that the board put the issue of the zoning ordinance up to a vote of the people, but according to township officials, they do not have the authority to put items on the ballot. Instead, the board left it up to the township citizens to create a referendum to keep their zoning ordinance.
The meeting, which was the result of a drawn-out battle in the township over its zoning ordinance, began uncharacteristically civil, but soon devolved into shouting, crosstalk and general hostility.
"If we want there to be a vote of the people, then we have to get a referendum," said Township Secretary Heather Marsh. "There has to be a legislative act. There has to be an act by the board, and then there can be a referendum and it could be put on the ballot. We do not have the authority to just put something on the ballot without a legislative act."
"These sound like legal questions," yelled out one person from the audience.
"Yes, and we have legal answers," replied Marsh. "…The legislative act is us repealing zoning. Then there's a referendum that gets put on the ballot. In the meantime, in the two years before it goes on the next election, zoning remains as is, if we get the referendum.
"If not, then it goes after eight days (from notice being published in the paper), and we don't have the intent toward ... referendum proceedings, then zoning ends."
There was a clear physical divide in the room between those who supported zoning and those who opposed it; in a crowd numbering a few dozen, comments in support of zoning in the township came exclusively from the right side of the room. After the board voted to repeal the ordinance, close to 10 people on that side got up and left the Township Hall.
Back in August, a group of Rock River Township residents, including Township Trustee Aho, circulated a petition calling for the repealing of the township's zoning ordinance. At a September public hearing held by the township planning commission, which went on for nearly five hours, residents expressed both support of the zoning ordinance and support for repealing it.
Some of those same opinions were expressed at Tuesday's meeting, though the majority of the concerns expressed then appeared to be with the township's zoning administrator, rather than with zoning itself.
Township residents and board members spoke about long wait times for permits, "biased application of zoning" and confusion over whether a permit had been accepted or denied. Other residents spoke in favor of keeping the ordinance, with one bringing forward a petition calling to retain zoning with 140 signatures on it.
Tuesday's vote was 3-1, with Township Trustee Victor Aho, Township Secretary Marsh and Township Treasurer Jenny LeJeune all voting in favor of repealing the zoning ordinance, and Township Supervisor Gerry Melchori voting against. Township Trustee Jim Rondeau recused himself from voting on advice from the township's attorney, as his company, Wilderness Canyon LLC, is currently suing the township over a zoning dispute related to a parking lot the company built near the Eben Ice Caves.
However, Rondeau did not recuse himself from the discussion preceding the vote, speaking about a neighbor of his who had signed the pro-zoning petition who had then told Rondeau that he hadn't understood what he was signing.
"We can petition back and forth all day long, and we can wait, kick it to the next month, but this won't stop," said Aho. "…We will fight back and forth. And I think, ultimately, we should just let it go and see what the public ultimately wants to do."
The issue of the township's short-term rental ordinance, which had also been a part of the September planning commission public hearing, was not voted on Tuesday night, as Marsh could not recall whether a notice about the vote had been placed in the paper.
Rock River Township is also divided on use of the township's lawyer. At the beginning of Tuesday's meeting, the board failed to vote in favor of paying a recent attorney bill, as it would have put the township over budget. Instead, the township will be holding a special meeting to amend the budget in order to pay the bills.
Additionally, two weeks ago Aho called a special meeting of the township board to discuss the removal of planning commission members Tammy Shega and Olivia Kingery from their respective positions for "malfeasance." Specifically, Shega and Kingery were charged with "unauthorized legal contact and expenditure" by communicating with the township's attorney without board approval, among other charges.
Board member Jim Rondeau has also expressed repeated frustration at a statement made by Rowan Bunce, a board of review alternate in Rock River Township and circulator of the pro-zoning petition, in a Sept. interview with the Mining Journal about Rondeau's company, Wilderness Canyon LLC, and its lawsuit against the township.
In that interview, Bunce stated that "The litigation and heavy reliance on our township attorney has created ... approximately $11,000 in attorney costs in the last two years." The full interview can be read in Sept. 3's Mining Journal: "Rock River Township to potentially repeal zoning ordinance."
"It's obviously an issue on who's racking up the (attorney) bills," said Rondeau at Tuesday's meeting. "I mean, it went to the local media that it was me. I don't need to remind everybody of that. So it's a little bit of a stinger for me."
Near the end of Tuesday's meeting, Township Supervisor Gerry Melchori read off a list of how much each township board member had cost the township in attorney bills since the attorney was first retained in 2022, as well as what those costs were for.
According to Melchori, the township has spent $49,387.50 since October 2022, accounting for 181 hours billed by the township's lawyer, though Melchori could not find 14 of the invoices. Of those 181 hours, Melchori said that 51.3% had to do with "ice caves issues," referring to the Wilderness Canyon LLC litigation. That would be over $25,300 that the township has spent on the lawsuit since 2022.
Melchori went on to say that the township supervisor had accounted for 66.7% of the attorney costs, the clerk accounted for 10.7%, treasurer 0.1%, township trustees 7% (Aho and Rondeau are both trustees on the board), zoning administrator was 13.2%, planning commission (including Shega and Kingery) was 0.2%, and the ZBA accounted for 0.05% of the total cost.
Shega and Kingery are set to appear before the board in a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Oct. 27.
The meeting also covered issues such as raising the price of ski hill passes (up from the current price of $5 for a day pass), choosing a bid for snow plowing, accusing two township appointees of violating zoning ordinances and removing dead trees from the cemetery.
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.