OBFUSCATION: The Request To Vacate High Street - Lowell Condo Project Part 2

The word of the day is Obfuscate: Definition of obfuscate

1a: to throw into shadow : DARKENb: to make obscureobfuscate the issue2: CONFUSEobfuscate the reader

 Intentionally or not, the Unity School investors and their attorney(s) are masters of obfuscation. By messing with timelines, or ignoring them, and jumbling up the order in which things happened they can put forth a good story that makes them look like victims. See my notes below.

One of the condo partners left me this comment along with a copy of what their attorney read to the Planning Commission on Monday June 10. 

Below that please see an email from Mr. Zandstra to City Manager Mike Burns - notice the email is copied to Todd Schaal - Zandstra's partner in the project. 

I have highlighted the portion in red that gets under my skin - the attorney attempted to discredit by obfuscation my earlier posting about the demand that the City vacate High Street - also reported on by Lowell's First Look. I have also highlighted in red the portion of Zandstra's February 26th email about vacating High Street - which is why LFL and I wrote what we wrote: The Unity School developers wanted us to vacate High Street. Once the five Council members heard that, we unanimously voted NO and things ground to a halt.

Technically the attorney was correct in that the PUD application has NOT specifically requested the vacation of High Street - however the main reason City Council put the brakes on the project is the demand in Zandstra's email. What is more, a PUD application that does not have the support of owners of any adjacent property - in this case the City of Lowell which owns the High Street access to the Flat River that lies between the two pieces of property owned by the partners.

The other part of the obfuscation here is that the City of Lowell did consider the possibility of moving the boundaries of High Street in order to move the condo project forward - but this was only done AFTER the Unity School Investors demanded that we vacate High Street. Slight difference - more obfuscation. 
"Jerry Zandstra has left a new comment on your post " Lowell City Council Blocking Condos? I think not.": 

Cliff - below is a letter read tonight at the Planning Commission. Anyone who would like to see the documentation can email me at jerry@jerryzandsta.com to see the proof. I hope we can work this out for the good of all involved, but misinformation is not helpful. As we have been for months, we are happy to meet with you or any member of the Council to work this out. I am at your disposal and hope you will consider carefully the facts. This is your blog and, of course, you are free to publish this or not. Either way, I am happy to work toward resolution. It is up to you and your fellow council members. 

__________________________ 
June 10, 2019 

Members of the Lowell Planning Commission, 

My name is Steve Bratschie and I am the attorney for Unity School Investors LLC who are doing the Riverview Flats condo project located at 219 High Street. Unity School Investors LLC has two members, Todd Schaal and Jerry Zandstra, both local residents. There are no other investors. 

My clients have applied for and made the required deposits for a PUD. They planned to be before your Commission tonight. Last week, my clients were informed that they would not be allowed to be on the agenda tonight. The primary reason, according to the letter, is as follows: “The city’s position is that the PUD does not meet the qualifying conditions for rezoning to PUD as not all affected property owners have signed on to the application.” 

The city is referring to 6’ of the existing school building that encroaches on High Street. The city is not willing to allow the condo project to go forward because of this 6’ which is a condition that has existed since the building was originally constructed in the 1930s. At the same time, the city and Lowell Light & Power have power lines that trespass on the 219 High Street property as the city has no easements for these power lines. 

My clients have sent a letter to the city’s attorneys offering an easement for the powerlines in exchange for the right to move forward on the project without tearing off a section of the historic and iconic Unity School building. No response has been received. My clients have created a contingency plan to remove the 6’ of encroachment and that will be part of the application we hope you will be allowed to review next month. The PUD application will be resubmitted in the next few days. 

Two other points need to be clarified: 

1. A local media outlet and at least one member of the City Council have claimed that my clients seek the vacation of High Street that leads to the boat ramp as part of the PUD application. This is not the case. The PUD application does not request road vacation. At the suggestion of Richard Wendt, Lowell City Attorney, City Manager, Mike Burns, originally drew up plans to vacate High Street and then take back an easement that would better align with the boat launch but then the city pulled back from this plan. At no point was there discussion to impair the boat launch as it is important to my clients and to the city. (Important note here - if you read my posting, I never suggested that the vacation of High Street had any thing to do with the PUD application. Please go take a look. What I wrote was in a timeline fashion and the request/demand from Unity School Investors to vacate High Street came well before any PUD application was submitted.)

2. In the letter from the city received last week, the property at 238 High Street is referenced. It is the property located just north of the Library. The city asked for my client’s plans for that property. That property is not contiguous to the Unity School property and is not part of the PUD application or site plan. It has a separate permanent parcel number, receives a separate tax bill, has a different address, and is separated by High Street. My clients also own other non-contiguous properties in Lowell that are also not part of the PUD application or site plan. 

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify these important matters. We look forward to being on the agenda for your consideration at your July meeting. 

Sincerely, 

Steve Bratschie, Attorney "

Here is the email from February. Again, I have highlighted in red:

From:Jerry Zandstra <jerry@jerryzandstra.com>
Sent:Tuesday, February 26, 2019 7:23 AM
To:Mike Burns <mburns@ci.lowell.mi.us>
Cc:Todd Schaal <Todd@estesgroup.com>
Subject:Other Considerations

Hey Mike,

We looking forward to hearing the decision of the City Council.  As part of a “global solution”, which is our desire and the desire of the City Council, we thought these items should be included in your discussion.  You, Todd and I have talked about them before, but they may as well be part of the overall package so that we don’t get stuck again.

1.  The 7’ land swap (obviously). We are hoping that this land swap can be accomplished this week.  If additional meetings are required, in the event the "7’ park land swap” is not approved by the City Council at the next regularly scheduled City Council meeting, we may terminate this agreement without penalty

2. The city agrees to initiate immediately the vacation of that section of High Street adjacent to the property

3. The city agrees to provide property for purposes of flood plain mitigation as may be required for the condominium project with respects to the new construction of condominiums and garages, at no cost to us

Is this agreeable to you?  Any other issues that should be included?  We know we have the PUD and site plan approval process to work through, but it seems with the items above, we will finally have taken some significant steps forward.

Kind Regards,

Dr. Jerry Zandstra"

The date on this email from Dr. Zandstra which contains the request/demand to vacate High Street was in February, when the Unity School Investors were trying to sell the City and Lowell Light & Power the southern  piece of property for $225,000 because it had power/internet/telecommunication lines running across it.

This is classic OBFUSCATION.