Waterford Township has declined the City of Northfield’s offer for $47,000 to drop their lawsuit. Township attorney, Mike Couri, said, the money is nice and that was the original agreement but, he says, “between the two of them, in an offer to settle it, the Township is willing to give up the money part of it but the no annexation is really the bigger, long term issue for them”. Then we backed up… the District Court said the original annexation agreement is invalid, the Township has appealed it, so Northfield’s
response, “rather than take the chance that they might get reversed at the Appellate court, which would mean the annexation agreement is enforceable, Northfield is willing to pay the Township $47,000 basically to abandon the appeal and let the orderly annexation agreement die. That would allow Northfield to annex Township property in the future”. That process could possibly take away Waterford’s voice. Couri said, “if a particular property owner who abuts the City comes in and wants to petition, the City could take it by Ordinance, in which case the Township really wouldn’t have any way to stop it or any say. If the City wanted more land than just what was abutting whoever petitioned in, they’d have to do it typically by a contested case hearing, which is really another court case”. The Township contends that would tear their community apart and as the Township could get smaller, the burden of running the government increases on the few that remain. Couri added, “Looking down the road, the most important thing for them is that the provision that said no future annexations unless the Township consents”. Couri said the City doesn’t have to answer at all as settlement negotiations aren’t mandated but he does believe they will. The ball is now in Northfield’s court. The full response from Waterford Township: Letter-to-Robert-Scott-proposed-settlement-3-15-19
