Michigan Township’s Fight Over Cottage Costs Insurer, Taxpayers

The resistance by one community in Michigan’s rural Thumb to a couple’s plans to renovate the Lake Huron shoreline cottage has led to an $860,000 federal court damage award against the township.

The $100,000 limit on Worth Township’s liability insurance means taxpayers in the Sanilac County community will foot the bill for their officials’ delaying tactics in the zoning dispute. Township officials estimate it will cost an extra $200 per property owner.

A federal court jury in August ruled in favor of George and Margaret Paeth, who’ve been trying for 10 years to renovate the cottage they bought for $48,500 in 1998.

In recent weeks, five billboards have gone up that attack Township Clerk Marcella Bartniczak, who’s also the target of a recall campaign.

Bartniczak said she can take the heat but was upset by one billboard at her children’s bus stop.

“That one is just beyond the pale,” Bartniczak told the Detroit Free Press for a story Sunday. “I’m a woman who doesn’t kowtow to people. I do my job, and I do it well.”

In 2007, a Sanilac County Circuit Court judge reversed a zoning board decision involving a variance issue, clearing the way for the couple to resume work on their home.

The Paeths say within days, the township posted a stop-work order on their property, without the notice required by state law or giving them a chance to be heard.

The couple sued the township, saying that was retaliation and a violation of their due process rights. A federal jury in Detroit agreed, awarding them $600,000 on Aug. 13. The township also must pay $200,000 in attorneys’ fees and interest.

“They feel bad that ultimately the taxpayers have to pay for the ignorance and arrogance of the township officials,” said the couple’s lawyer, Daniel Dalton. But, he added, “the township has acted in such a malicious and arbitrary manner toward them that they should be compensated for their loss.”

The township has appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.