By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Saugatuck Township’s attorney will represent treasurer and planning commission member Jon Helmrich in a developer’s lawsuit filed against him and Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance president David Swan.
The board Oct. 18 agreed 4-0 to do so, saying that Helmrich, acting in his township capacities, fell under the township’s insurance coverage.
North Shores of Saugatuck — owner of more than 300 acres north of the Kalamazoo River channel to Lake Michigan — sued Helmrich, a former SDCA board member, and Swan June 25 for:
• Tortious interference with contract, business relationship or business expectancy;
• Civil conspiracy; and
• Exemplary damages (no sum given).
The Alliance — calling the action a SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) suit — filed for summary dismissal and to strike the order.
Allegan County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Antkoviak Sept. 9 stayed discovery, quashing all 56 subpoenas issued by North Shores to Alliance board members and supporters, but did not dismiss the suit. He instead asked plaintiff for more specifics.
North Shores amended its 55-page June claim, itemizing information about all 23 slips it has proposed for a 6.5-acre boat basin, and submitted its amended complaint Oct. 10.
The SDCA seeks summary dismissal of that claim too. It contends North Shores’ tortious interference charges are barred by the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine, which protects groups trying to influence government decision-making, and also by the three-year limitations period.
All actions that occurred before June 24, 2021 are protected, defendants’ lawyers argue.
Helmrich resigned from the SDCA board upon being elected township treasurer in 2018.
The Alliance further argues plaintiff has failed to allege facts sufficient to establish its claims, calling them “a jumble of hyperbole regarding efforts beginning years ago.”
Helmrich resigned from the SDCA board upon being elected township treasurer in 2018.
The Alliance further argues plaintiff has failed to allege facts sufficient to establish its claims, calling them “a jumble of hyperbole regarding efforts beginning years ago to develop the property.”
Antkoviak is scheduled to hear that motion Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in his court at 11:30 a.m.
So go the latest volleys in the now-17-year-old legal back-and-forth between landowner/developers and the Alliance, a local nonprofit whose leaders have vowed to preserve what they call the “Wild Heart of Saugatuck.”
North Shores’ now 106-page legal brief chronicles the parcel’s history since Frank and Gertrude Denison estates sold it in 2006 to Oklahoma City Aubrey McClendon, an Oklahoma City natural gas magnate whose Singapore Dunes LLC announced grand designs for it.
They included a 25-suite hotel and spa complex with a 90-foot-high central tower and three adjoining condominium buildings, a 66-slip marina for residents, nine-hole golf course, equestrian area and more.
The SDCA, formed under Swan’s leadership in 2007 to contest the development, has not relented.
McClendon, described by Forbes magazine as “America’s Most Reckless Billionaire,” drove his SUV 88 mph into a concrete retaining wall without braking March 2, 2016 and died instantly.
The crash came the morning after he was federally indicted for allegedly fixing bids on gas and oil prices in his home state.
McClendon’s estate soon scuttled its Singapore Dunes plans and in 2017 sold the land to Jeff Padnos, head of Holland-based recycling firm Padnos Inc. North Shores, of which he is principal, thereafter unfurled a “conservation plan” to:
• Preserve 208.3 acres largely protected by Michigan Critical Dunes restrictions;
• Build the already-permitted 18 homes along Lake Michigan and the outer channel plus construct some 50 more homes inland;
• Excavate its aforesaid basin on 95.67 acres on or near the site of the lost 1800s lumbering village of Singapore.
North Shore’s proposal won township preliminary planned unit development and site condominium approvals in 2017, then a 2018 OK from the Michigan Departmental of Environmental Quality for the basin work.
But the developer could not start digging without U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approval for hydrology involved with excavating 23,000 cubic yards of sand there. It never came.
North Shores’ proposal took a hit Feb. 9 this year when the now Michigan Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) department declined to renew the 5-year permit granted by its predecessor DEQ.
EGLE officials cited the adverse effect excavation would likely have on public and tribal uses of the river including recreation, fish and wildlife, and aesthetics among its reasons.
The federal Corps nixed North Shores’ approval ask three days later. The developer has appealed EGLE’s most recent edict to the state.
The firm’s suit this summer called Helmrich a co-conspirator with Swan in “a comprehensive and multi-faceted scheme of extortion that would destroy the market value and development potential” of its land.
This, its attorneys argued, would leave North Shores and possible future owners “no choice but to sell to the State of Michigan or conservancy groups at a fire-sale price.”
Nonsense, the SDCA replied. “We will not allow a baseless lawsuit,” board chair Bobbie Gaunt said, “to deter us from our mission to preserve and protect the Saugatuck dunes and Kalamazoo River mouth.
“Working to hold developers accountable to local, state and federal laws does not constitute tortious interference or civil conspiracy and we are hopeful the court will dismiss the suit.”
Stay tuned.
