A Well Written Piece of Propaganda

Kudos to Genine Hopkins for her latest piece of pro Moto Mania propaganda in this week's Moto Mania PR and Propaganda Rag.  Clearly calculated to produce maximum support from the local public for Doug Longenecker's latest Special Use Permit application.  Also clearly meant to de-emphasize the real intent of the special use and calculated to hit the newsstands in time to influence the Planning Commission in a cleverly orchestrated PR campaign.  Bra-vo!

This is the first slight of hand in the carnival of smoke and mirrors that will be the Planning Commission's Big Show of dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's.  We all know what the outcome will be, but this production is intended to address all of the neighbors' arguments to date, and diminish them while making the wronged neighbors appear to be petty and unyielding. 

If the Planning Commission ever had any intention of acting in good faith with the Mostetler Road and Deer lake neighbors, they would hold Mr. Longenecker to his new vision and cause him to keep a minimum number of horses on the premises at all times for his stated purposes. 

The only reason Mr. Longenecker has revisited his vision of Moto Mania was because his original vision absolutely does not conform to the Hayes Township Zoning Ordinance.  The new modifications don't either and his latest site plan and application are just a newly worded statement of the same old purposes with a few new pieces added so as to appear to comply. 

Ms. Hopkins quotes Mr. Longenecker: "We understand the concerns of the residents who have expressed animosity towards this endeavor and have taken their concerns under advisement."

Mr. Longenecker obviously does not understand our concerns because he has done little to reassure the "residents who have expressed animosity."  Mr. Longenecker's addition of camping and horseback riding and cross country skiing and sledding does nothing to diminish the fact that at its core, this business is all about the Moto.  The rest of it is what Mr. Longenecker thinks he has to do to make it pass muster legally.  The only manner of consultation that Mr. Longenecker has engaged in with his neighbors is to attempt with these current efforts to appear to have taken the neighbors into consideration.  He has not spoken to any of us about it.  These are all concerns we raised the last time around.  What part of  "we don't want to live near a motocross and ORV business" does Mr. Longenecker not understand? 

That this business is still all about the Moto is brought out by the fact that Mr. Longenecker is now calling his business "Michigan Moto Mania Campground and Resort."  It will still be more Moto Mania than campground and resort, and the Planning Commission knows it. 

Another demonstration of Mr. Longenecker's real purpose is shown on his current site plan.  There is not a pasture or watering hole reflected on the site plan to accommodate the horses.

Anyone can go up on the Internet to find general studies to support a point of view.  I'm sure I can find just as many to support mine.  Mr. Longenecker has produced nothing specific to the Gamble-Longenecker property.  He claimed in the narrative portion of his application, "Believe me; last year the place has been tested on all levels. from the police, the fire marshal, DNR, DEQ, health department , multiple times...," and yet he did not submit the documentation from any such testing with his application; just scientific looking articles from the Internet.

I would like to see a list of the "15-50" jobs that Mr. Longenecker is promising to bring to Harrison.
Exactly what are these jobs, and what to they entail?  Are they part time?  Full time?  What are the job descriptions and salaries?  I think Mr. Longenecker is peddling snake oil.  In the end the promise of jobs that may or may not materialize does not make this business comply with the Hayes Township Zoning Ordinance which governs in this case.

No doubt that some members of the Planning Commission are trying to get in on some of the "trickle down" business.  Mr. Criscuolo added a whole new building full of storage units onto his business this past summer.  I wonder if the fact that they are exactly the right size for storing ORVs is a coincidence?  According to the site plan, Mr. Longenecker plans to have two wells dug.  I wonder who he'll call to dig them?  Trickle down indeed.

The most telling indicator in the propaganda piece is the picture of the motocross racer.

This is Cindarella’s ugly step-sister trying to make her big fat foot fit into the glass slipper.  The Hayes Township Planning Commission is the step-mother looking on in approval as the step-sister tries to make it fit.  And the Hayes Township Zoning Ordinance is the glass slipper that doesn’t fit.  No amount of shoving and squeezing that big fat foot of a motocross park will make it fit into the A-R Zoning District no matter how the words are parsed.  It doesn’t fit and we, the people who have to live next to it don’t want it here.