Crooked Township Supervisor & board

What is the name of your state?MI We have been fighting a legal battle with a township municipality for nearly 5 years now. The problem is that there IS an existing ordinance disallowing activity behind our home, however, the Township Supervisor & board have selectively decided not to enforce it, and look the other way. This has caused quite a problem between the residents who are stuck dealing with this activity, and the resident who has been holding this activity. The community is mainly Agricultural, which is the zone this activity is occurring in. After 3 years of this, we hired an Attorney, who now claims this municipality is the worst he's ever witnessed. Nearly $20,000 later and almost 2 years, a Civil court judge issued an injunction order, prohibiting the activity. This has not stopped it completely, and the township, although attended the trial, adjoined with us, has now decided they will not enforce the injunction. The township consists of around 4000 people, and the good-ol-boy club runs wild here. I have targeted the Supervisor & board members with the webpage, which hurt them in the primary, however the Supervisor is still on the ballot in November. We have now heard rumors that the activity may resume, possibly with the blessing of the township (special land use), even though the injunction states this activity does not belong in an agricultural area. The township has no noise or nuisance ordinance, as the Supervisor of 12 years raises Alpaca's. They want no part of their neighbors turning them in under an nuisence ordinance. We are at loss as to what to do next. We had our home appraised to sell, only to be informed that we must disclose this activity behind us, which will drop the value significantly...nearly $80,000 less we are told. We have considered filing a nuisance suit against the resident, but having Township support (rather lack of enforcement against), we don't have much to go on. A judge will ask for proof of decreased home value, and our apprasier could only give their "opinion", as until the house sells, it's unknown. If the house sells low, it could be argued that the market is bad, and the apprasial was too high to begin with. All this time, we have had our mail-box destroyed 6 times or so, our snowmobile trailer shot full of holes with a shot-gun and my wife had shots directed towards here while walking in our yard, which also peppered the house, all because we believe an ordinance should be enforced. The webpage is http://www.chinatownshipliving.com if you want to read in more detail. We have run ad's in the local paper, handed out flyers, went door-to-door, but the good-ol-boy club is prevalent in this area. Now we hope to oust this Supervisor and can only hope that the next administration is better. There is always the chance this Supervisor gets back in, then we are at a loss. Any ideas here?

My only comment..... it seems from your post that you have done everything reasonable allowed by law. So, I have to wonder what you are expecting from this LEGAL advice forum.... other than a spot to try to advertise your problem and promote your website.

So, what EXACTLY are you hoping to receive from this website other than to go out and shoot the *******???

I agree, we have tried nearly everything, and it's still going on. What good is promoting a website to anybody that doesn't live in our township, or vote for our administration? That is not my intention, it was mearly a way to better inform of the facts. I'm hoping there is somebody here that has experienced something like this, or knows of somebody that had a similar experience fighting "city hall". When an attorney is selected, not all of them have experienced everything, so perhaps our attorney is missing something that somebody here knows a bit about. I don't think shooting back at them is the advice that I was expecting from a legal forum, although I understand the intentions. I know these neighbors just applied for a "special land use" permit, paid the money & the crooked Township may just grant it, ordinance be damned! Is this the best advice I can hope to get?

insider said:

I agree, we have tried nearly everything, and it's still going on. What good is promoting a website to anybody that doesn't live in our township, or vote for our administration? That is not my intention, it was mearly a way to better inform of the facts. I'm hoping there is somebody here that has experienced something like this, or knows of somebody that had a similar experience fighting "city hall". When an attorney is selected, not all of them have experienced everything, so perhaps our attorney is missing something that somebody here knows a bit about. I don't think shooting back at them is the advice that I was expecting from a legal forum, although I understand the intentions. I know these neighbors just applied for a "special land use" permit, paid the money & the crooked Township may just grant it, ordinance be damned! Is this the best advice I can hope to get?

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**A: you need to hire an experienced land use attorney and fight back.

We believed that we did just that, but the system of laws are such that a township can do pretty much whatever they want. The judge believes the township municipality is on the up&up and is doing what's in the best interest of the community, even though this is the furthest thing from the truth in this case. Because of this township, we are stuck continually throwing money at this, defending our rights to keep from basically having our privacy & home enjoyment rights confescated. Say what you want, but we've learned quite a bit in almost 5 years. The system allows for continued violation of laws & rights and forces the victims to spend money to defend themselves, which is just the opposite of how the system should be. Thanks for listening anyway...

insider said:

We believed that we did just that, but the system of laws are such that a township can do pretty much whatever they want. The judge believes the township municipality is on the up&up and is doing what's in the best interest of the community, even though this is the furthest thing from the truth in this case. Because of this township, we are stuck continually throwing money at this, defending our rights to keep from basically having our privacy & home enjoyment rights confescated. Say what you want, but we've learned quite a bit in almost 5 years. The system allows for continued violation of laws & rights and forces the victims to spend money to defend themselves, which is just the opposite of how the system should be. Thanks for listening anyway...

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**A: ok.............