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AuSABLE—The builder of a housing development circulates a petition among the various property owners in his development, asking whether they would like him to request in Circuit Court that the local township allow their street to be a private street. All but one of the homeowners responds to the petition, and all the respondees say yes. Should the road be made private?
That was the issue facing the AuSable Township Board of Trustees in November, and the issue was not as cut-and-dried as it might seem. The Board decided by a 4-3 vote not to oppose privatizing the access street to the Boon Docks Subdivision, but the decision came only after a three-way tug-of-war between Board members, the AuSable Township Planning Commission, and the Iosco County Road Commission.
The AuSable Township Planning Commission had already voted-almost unanimously-to recommend fighting to keep the road in question public. And Board Supervisor Ronald Lamrock agreed with the recommendation, requesting a decision from the full Board. Lamrock had also objected to the developer's installation of wrought iron fencing, a stone wall, and electrically operated gates in the subdivision, and had asked the Iosco County Road Commission to certify the street as part of the public road system. But the Commission said the gate, fencing, and possibly the stone wall would have to be removed first.
One argument raised by anti-privatization forces was that the developer, Roland Burke, was collecting a fee from property owners to pay for street maintenance without proper authorization.
But Board members favoring privatization argued the property owners' case, gaining the 4-3 vote. Now the case will be decided in court.
