Michigan Moto Mania's Willingness To Compromise

On Thursday, 9 Sep 2010, Robin Longenecker said on Michigan Moto Mania's facebook page:

"They, the neighbors, are not willing to compromise.  We have already had MeetingS and discussed conditions we are to follow(ie the second PC mtg).  They just don't want MMM at all.  We were willing to talk with them from the get go when they started calling the police the DEQ and everyone and their brother to shut us down (Back in early March).  We told the police we would like to meet with them to discuss borders and such.  Trust me that would have been the way we wanted things to go.  Too much on the line now."

Since I cannot post a rebuttal on the MMM facebook page (because those with dissenting opinions get banned), I will post my rebuttal here.  In contrast, I welcome dissenting opinions as long as those opining keep it polite and the pettiness and name calling to a minimum.  I will moderate for foul language and ad hominem attacks.

It is my opinion that since Robin can make statements like the above quote without any refutation from dissenting voices, she can tell it the way she wants her audience to read/hear it.  I don't believe that Doug had any inclination to discuss anything with the neighbors until a lawsuit was filed against him.  After the lawsuit was filed, he can portray himself as the victim of the mean neighbors that want to take away his dream.  That garners a lot of sympathy from his supporters and casts the real victims in a bad light. (And, to be fair to Doug, I think both Doug and the neighbors are the victims of small town politics and personal agendas in seats of local power.)  I don't think Doug ever wanted to discuss a compromise with the neighbors, and I don't think he really wants to now.  Here's why: 

Not a single neighbor can remember any attempt on the part of Doug Longenecker to contact them with regard to his intent to purchase the Gamble property on Mostetler Road, to seriously discuss his intention for the property prior to purchasing in that location.  Any one of the neighbors could have and would have told him back then before he wasted his money that none of us wanted to live within a mile of a motor sports business.  Who knows?  Maybe one of us could have helped him find a more appropriate location properly zoned.  Then this mess never would have happened.  I guess we'll never know.

After it was a done deal and the back door fix was in, it was a little late for discussion.  The neighbors only found out that there was a motor sports business going in when trees started coming down and at least one neighbor lost trees from his property in the denuding of the Gamble-Longenecker property.  While no one was particularly happy about the trees coming down on what we still thought was Mr. Gamble's property, we recognized that it was his right to cut down trees on his own property.  When Mr. Longenecker held his first event, a Winter Hare Scramble, that was when we found out there was a motor sports business going in on Mostetler Road and that Mr. Longenecker had purchased the land for that purpose.  During the Winter Hare Scramble, at least one neighbor's property was trespassed upon by racing motocross bikes.  When was Doug planning to talk to the neighbors about "borders and such?"  If Doug wanted to discuss "borders and such," why his unwillingness to have a proper survey to define the borders of the property he purchased?  Isn't the onus to have a survey on the seller and buyer of the land rather than the neighbors of said property in regular real estate transactions? 

By the time the neighbors found out there was anything to discuss, it seems that discussions had already taken place between Doug Longenecker, members of the Hayes Township Planning Commission and certain members of the Hayes Township Board of Trustees; and the neighbors were left out of the loop.  I personally believe it was an intentional oversight on the part of the Township.  Decisions had been made without discussing anything with the neighbors.  When did Doug intend to talk to the neighbors? 

It seems that talking to the neighbors became a desirable thing to do when the neighbors objected and started asking questions.  Back at the beginning of March, the neighbors started asking questions at Hayes Township and were informed by Jim Van Wormer, the Zoning Administrator, that things were not done properly and the Planning Commission was going to have Doug resubmit his paperwork and proper proceedure was going to be followed.  The first time the neighbors had an opportunity to weigh in with their opinions and concerns was at the 16 March 2010 Hayes Township Board of Trustees Meeting. They were understandably upset.  I attended that meeting, and while two of his local supporters, representing a local campground and the local 4X4 offroad facility had a few things to say, Doug was nowhere trying to have any kind of discussion with the neighbors.  But after  he and the Township had made the neighbors angry was probably not the right time to try to discuss things with them.  That probably would have been too little too late. 

The neighbors felt that the right thing to do was to cause all work to stop on the property while this thing was hashed out.  Neither Doug nor the Planning Commission were inclined to make that happen, and the neighbors were informed in a 10 page opinion paper by then Hayes Township attorney Dreyer that the township did not have the authority to cause the work on the property to stop while we were getting it all straightened out, and the only recourse the neighbors had was to take the matter to court, a move the township was betting the neighbors wouldn't make.  The township thought that the neighbors would gripe and complain while they pretended to listen to us and then the matter would be dropped, everyone would get past that little hiccup, Doug would contintue to build Michigan Moto Mania, the neighbors would eventually shut up and everyone would move on and do what they were going to do in the first place.  That was the sum total of the "discussions" with the neighbors.

So the neighbors filed a lawsuit to receive the redress that the township was unwilling to give them.  All we wanted was for the work on Michigan Moto Mania to stop while this was being hashed out through the process.

The neighbors naiively believed that by letting the so-called process work, we had a chance of seeing a wrong made right for everyone, including Doug.  All the "process" turned out to be was the Planning Commission going through the motions to come to the same foregone conclusion.  At what point in that process did Doug directly reach out to the neighbors to discuss anything?  Not one neighbor received a phone call, a knock on the door, or an invitation to sit down and discuss anything, even through his lawyer.  He could have put an ad in his favorite local newspaper asking for a sit down with the neighbors, but he didn't.

Doug's "redo" of the "process" showed his complicity in the sham that it was.  When did he ever ask for input or discussions with the neighbors?  The only allusion to discussions with the neighbors was Robin's complaints on Michigan Moto Mania's facebook page about the unwillingness of the neighbors to discuss anything.  As the wronged party, (hence the lawsuit), it was not the neighbors' place to reach out to Doug.  He seemed to prefer to have the township "mediate" any discussions with the neighbors for him.  He saw the township as his advocate with the neighbors.

What the Planning Commission effectively did was to tell the neighbors and Doug, "This is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to restrict you, Doug, and everyone just suck it up."  The Planning Commission was not interested in anything but "How can we force this to happen?"  They have no intention of ever enforcing any of the restrictions they put on the property, and Doug has already shown his willingness to thwart those restrictions.  That has been made clear by the words and actions of the various Hayes Township boards, certain individual board members, and Doug Longenecker himself.  No one wanted to talk until it was a fait accompli.

The police have never conveyed any messages from Doug that he wanted to sit down and talk.

For awhile, what Doug naiively believed was that the township was completely in his corner.  That was until things stopped going his way.  What Doug is finding out is they are in Hayes Township's corner and following the path of least litigation and what's in their own individual and collective best interests.    

As Robin says, there's too much on the line now.  As far as the neighbors are concerned, there is much more on the line than a motor sports park.